While I do agree that it breaks the immersion that you would find in other MMOs, I would argue that a gaming experience in Eve Online with one account is very different than the experience playing World of Warcraft or Guild Wars 2 with 1 account. The very nature of the game makes having alts exponentially beneficial.
Think of the current player count. Now think of trying to accomplish some or the larger scale things as an organization without alts. I guess it does sound kind of spoiled, but it turns boring or unfunny aspects of the game into what I would consider a chore.
Example: How would you like to be the cyno guy for your corporation / alliance? This fight youâve been anticipating for weeks has finally come to a head and your only job is to fly your ship into position and light a cyno. You quickly get killed and youâre left with no way back into the battle.
I just donât see that going very well, do you? I totally agree that in a lot of activities it feels like if you donât have all the alts that someone has, youâre behind. I am a huge advocate for multiboxing because to me itâs another kind of challenge. It can easily turn an MMO into a fast-paced RTS basically where youâre having to maintain a higher level of thought. I will always prefer the guy that only flies Logi and does so with 1 account over the guy trying to multibox 4 Logi, but I still like that i can push myself to try and perform more than 1 role to the best of my ability.
Eve Online at its core is not a particularly fun game that grabs you in and keeps you coming. What I mean is that I personally donât see whatâs fun about running the same anomaly for the 500th time, or running World Collide for the 200th. What makes this game fun is the player interactions, and having alts just allows me to cut down on some of the boring â â â â â â â â that Iâd have to shoehorn some poor soul into doing for me.
Edit: Sorry for the typos. On my phone and too lazy to fix!
Sa;lvos your example of fleets is wrong which Scipio and myself tried to put you right on, there are however some examples where Alphas would be used.
I happen to have multi-boxed in certain engagements, one where I baited in three assault frigates and two ceptors with a Maller and then went for it with Dracvlad in a Vaga with an XL ASB, at the end of the fight, I was trying to get the Maller onto one of their Assault Frigates, and I was a fraction of a second too late on the ASB and I lost the Vaga. But the Maller finished the Assault Frigate off. The ceptors ran at that point. In ISK terms I lost that fight though I enjoyed it.
Simply put I know that it will add one or even two Alphaâs to a gank fleet, big deal, that small gangs will have perhaps someone to ping too, or some additional DPS against plex able older players already running multiple Omegaâs, leveling the playing field, again big deal, because an Alpha is no way as strong as an Omega.
But in major nullsec fights most people are in doctrine ships which are not so much used effectively by Alphas and they have multiple Omega accounts anyway. However dual boxing in fleets is rather difficult and reduces efficiency, in terms of calling for reps late or running a logistics when you are also blapping stuff. I have done thisâŚ
Where my idea makes a difference is the intelligence side of the game, and as I ran a solo account from 2009 to 2011 I understand exactly the issues you have with one account.
I am pretty much set up to always use a scout, which is why you do not see any lost DSTâs or BRâs on my killboard and I have used them a lot.
Also in hisec I always had a webber who acted as a scout.
So my suggestion is for intelligence and to stop casual players from having such a huge increase in their risk levels.
Anyway, it is a moot point as CCP are not going to do thisâŚ
YES alts are great for supporting your main in a whole lot of ways from resource gathering,pve,industry,hauling even pvp having a second account run by a competent player can most times be better than having a second incompetent player around so yes youâll see small groups of 10 ppl with 30-40 combined accounts being better than 30-40 players especially at industry level tasks in PvP not so much
And of course Alphaâs were not very good for indy as they were first introduced, but I did not see the impact of the 20m SP from ex-Omegaâs and have not even bothered to check it.
HS is no more or less âcasualâ than any other sector. How âcasualâ a player is depends on them, not the sector.
In terms of intelligence, all sectors (except WH) have exactly the same intelligence mechanics. Ie: Immediate Local Intel and universal map data. HS and Player NS are identical in so far as intelligence.
You have three options:
-Fly an alt. In your suggestion it would be a free Alpha alongside Omega, whereas now you have to sub the alt. In both cases you are multiboxing anyways.
-Fly with other people.
-Fly solo with one toon and make do being careful, using map data, golden rule etc.
Alpha Indy, both as Industrialist and flying Indy ships, are severly restricted in terms of efficiency/profit margins, even with 20mil SP (due to skill level caps).
An Alpha Indy is workeable, but overall you will really struggle vs Omegas on the markets.
It takes a little practice, possibly UI adjustment/monitors if you want, and most importantly two ships that âsynchâ well together for PvP purposes.
It does require dexterity, and is challenging as âmultitaskingâ, but ofc that is implicit in running two accounts at once.
Multiboxing Logi is harder than pressing F1 per account.
Ive run a DED running alt simultaneously with a Exploration alt for years, on one monitor, without split screening (just alt-tabbing). I dont miss a beat on either. While the explo alt is probing, I lock/fire targets on the DED alt. While the DED alt is probing, I solve Relic sites on the exlpo alt.
Multiboxing takes practice and planning, but is very doable.
For me, it also helped with the tedium in transit etc. Rather than watching a movie or browsing net while one alt is doing x, I ran the other alt doing y.
If I had the alt accessible atm, there is no way Scipio would beat me in Cruiser PvP in his challenge, where I brawl/web him with one ship, while the other simply orbits at long range and shoots the hell out of him.
All I need to do is lock target, set orbit and open fire on the long range alt. Meanwhile I can focus entirely on manually piloting/handling the brawler/webber.
Even if I lose the CC ship, he will never make it to destroy the long range one.
Or I can brawl him with both.
Or kite in two directions with long range.
There is no way he can exceed in his one cruiser the dps/ehp I have in two, nor how I can operate them in terms of range control against his one.
So leave it as is, and avoid the question. So how do you know what is in the next system, when you jump through when you do not have a second account, and you are in the classic hisec corp of one player?
PS Bumpers do not show up on the mapâŚ, only if they kill stuffâŚ