Alts

[presm]

i didnt come here to make set blame or say someone was breaching TOS or anything like that guys. I simply wanted a discussion on alts, Cam only got pointed out as the perpetrator because of his first post i took as arrogant and a flame attempt because he was the one the started my thoughts on the subject.


The points i made about alts are that

They bring an unfair advantage to what is a competative enviroment.

The use of an alt can be abused ( example i make 10 alts i scatter them in the galaxy, I then gain a 10x greater chance of finding a particular commander who may not be on intel, 10x better chance of scouting resources for a main account) Because think about it you cant suddenly forget the knowledge you gained with your alt, saying your not gonna use that knowledge and doing it are 2 different things. This may or may not be against TOS, but does it make it right ?

alts are more fun than a main because you dont worry so much about your losses because you have your main account to play and build up.

Alts used in alliances or stealth alts used to gather information that player shouldnt have, not a breach of the TOS by any regard but is it right? I get an alt in an alliance, I then begin using said alt to hit people in an alliances resources with another char, with the information ive gathered.

Big brother syndrome.... If you attack my alt Ill get my main and wipe all your hard work out, because i cant play fair i cant engage in a combat with someone around my own power rating and take a bloody nose from time to time. Or said alt has bounty because its been hitting lower lvl players.

I realise the last point has something to do with tinymen type ships which cost alot for low fleet power. I have an idea for such thingswhich ill post elsewhere.

Overall Im just pointing out Alts are an unfair advantage. and become an even more unfair advantage with higher ranked players at the helm.

constructive arguments either way would be nice. or why alts are fiar in a competative enviroment

[Tzarkoth]

People shouldn't use ALTS, period.

Unless your ALT exists for the sole purpose of providing you access to a Training Alliance so you can help people out in their Alliance chat, then you are probably breaching ToS.

If you use an ALT to attack people, whoever they are, they are weakened, and become less of a threat to your main, and potentially they never become a threat to your main because they quit after experienced and skilled players destroy them time and again. Thus in a fashion, any PvP action by an ALT indirectly helps your main. Extrapolate that line of reasoning out to its furthermost extremes and you will agree that ANY and ALL PvP action by an ALT is DIRECTLY helping your main.

Therefore ALTS should be banned, but they probably can't be, and probably will not be. So it boils down to the quality of the player. Any PvP by an ALT is a breach of the ToS, knowingly and deliberately breaching the ToS is cheating. Using ALTS for PvP is cheating, those who do so are cheats.

So, I'll have to agree with Presm. Alts are bad, enough said. All fair and reasonable people will agree.

[jessiedog]

alts CAN BE bad.

for all u know, i could be someone's alt. or someone you trust could be my alt. the point is that its the same thing as a separate player.

the enemy of my enemy is my friend... if two alliances that are not allied with me start up a war with each other, that PVP helps me in the long run. its the same as what you just described. now if alts TARGET enemies of the main account, i consider that a semi-breach. only semi, because if they were 2 separate players, they could be friends and such like that. basically it all comes down to one thing - either have 1 acct/IP adress, or let alts be.

[Mobius13]

Ip addresses can be changed easily... or i can go over a friend's house and make an account...

[jessiedog]

but still, i personally cant change my IP, so it would limit THE MAJORITY of ppl

[Mobius13]

if they blocked alts nothing would stop me from googling up a program and doing it jess



(not that i would)

[Tzarkoth]

1 login per IP or only 1 IP per login will not work. I routinely travel, I have used various IP's in the past ... Friends come over or I visit friends ... There was about 10 of us that played from work at one stage, we all had the same IP, or more or less the same IP depending on your level of IT knowledge, and I rarely use the same computer twice to play. :-)

We need to address the problem of why people would play ALT's.

Historically I played an ALT to scout and to fly around when I had run out of turns on my Main.

Amagnon and I soon decided that using ALT's in any way shape or form was cheating, so we stopped. It does give you an edge, but since we were so far ahead of the pack we didn't care. I could still annihilate anyone on the WARS server if I used an ALT ... But what would be the point in that, I cheated to win, and the other person prolly quits ... No point in being the undisputed master of an empty server.

So anyway, I digress.

Why do people use ALT's? Primarily because they run out of turns on their Main. Increase the number of turns available for Mains, and you will reduce peoples ability to maintain effective ALTs ... Increase turns ... That's all .. Proportionally people will need to spend more time burning turns on their Mains to stay competitive, and have less or ZERO time to play ALTs.

What effect would this have?

The new people have more turns to do missions and to catch up to established players.

The older players have some turns left over after research to actually play the game again.

You can ask people to stop cheating, you can try an implement convoluted security measures which would have to become increasingly convoluted over time, or you can just make it unprofitable to play an ALT altogether.

[jessiedog]

your reasoning is, actually... very well thought

i agree, people use alts when they are bored and out of turns on their real account. im not sure if more turns are the solution, but something along the lines of more time spent on a main...

[Jan`go Vhett]

Yeah this is a good idea. All the people I know with alts the main reason is to bored with main from lack of turns.

[AFB]

Well, I use alts mainly to be in different alliances at the same time to help out, or stuff... but Id welcome more turns

[Mobius13]

Who wouldnt...

This could also increase PVP (among mains of course)

[Cameron07]

heh... sorry to burst ur guys bubble.. but i highly doubt emi is just going to give us more turns for free

[jessiedog]

more turns isn't the way to go... its just more time spent on the main so less time spent on the alt...

heres an idea, research takes X amount of minutes, while research is being done, no more tabs or windows can be open on space odyssey. basically since lots of top 60 people spend the majority of turns researching, make research take time to complete.

[Chrys]

hmmm.....
Just boosting to 2turns a min would do the trick actually. It might promote more of a chance to hunt players, do research, do encrypts, allowing more of, well...a chance for more things to happen. Doing so might just keep some players in the server.

Emi has to consider this..
maintain status quo = losing long-term players (potential donaters)
or
doing a small change = possibly keeping new players and allowing more pvp for seniors (which in the long run only serves to keep them within range of new players through weakening each other) as well as having a higher chance of pple donating to sustain the fighting.

cheers 

[SorisDark]

i hate alts personally, but alts will never go away. banning alts wouldn't work at all. the only thing to do is suck it up, and alt that person's ass right back!