Least alt-friendly MMO ever?

sixstoriesunder_ESO · August 2018

Is it just me, or is everyone discouraged from making alts in this game? I feel like an *extremely* simple solution would be to get all characters to share mount training and trait research, including the cooldowns. Is there some reason this hasn't been done?

starkerealm · August 2018

Not even remotely close.

You want to look at what an alt unfriendly ESO would look like?

Everything would be character bound, and couldn't be moved between characters. You wanted something on a character, you need to grind for it on that character.

Champion points would be per character. (how many v16s did you have?)

No account wide collectibles. (You want that neat bauble on a character? You need to earn, or buy, it on that character.) (Or, you know, sorry you got that Radiant Apex mount on the wrong character, but tough luck.)

Mounts are would be per character. (Hey, who remembers having to spend 42k on each character if you wanted the extra 10 points in a mount?)

Unable to bank gold, AP, vouchers, or Tel Var (better spend 'em.)

Yeah, no, ESO is extremely alt friendly. I've seen far worse.

Cadbury · August 2018

I would argue, based on personal experience, that Neverwinter and Defiance are the least Alt-friendly MMOs...

This has been discussed before. Players have wanted their mount research, crafting research, Mage's Guild progress, and Fighter's Guild progress all account unlocked.

pauli133 · August 2018

It hasn't been done because the catchup mechanics (riding scrolls, research scrolls, xp scrolls, etc) are part of ZOS' business model. They aren't in the habit of throwing away revenue streams.

starkerealm · August 2018

Moving motifs, recipes, and furnishing designs to account wide would be nice. Not, you know, necessary, but it would be a nice thing.

sixstoriesunder_ESO · August 2018

Ok, some good points for sure. I guess I'm just mad that I'd have wait *half a year* if I want a fully trained mount on a new character. And forget trying to learn any crafts if I want to main a Warden healer instead of a Templar.

SilverWF · August 2018

Mount training scrolls and Research time scrolls, selling in the Crown Store

starkerealm · August 2018

That would suggest you actually need a maxed out mount before you can start playing a character.

Also, most of us have a crafter, who may or may not be our main. Not sure why you think Wardens can't learn crafting skills, I mean, I think I've got one or two Warden crafters. Unless you're just complaining about research times, in which case, let me introduce you to a fun concept. Your characters don't need to share research knowledge immediately. You can pass research pieces back and forth so that you're quickly researching multiple traits at one time. Later, when you're looking at weeks of research for a trait, you can craft items on one character for the other to research and vice versa. The only things you don't want to do this with are jewelry and nirnhoned. But, otherwise, you can actually speed the process up considerably, and reduce your inventory load, by passing the research around.

Enslaved · August 2018

We need more QoL things.
We need some sort of a system where we can swap gear w/o being forced to log on all these alts who carry gear.
We need skill presets as well. I know there are addons that do that but not for console users.
We need to be able to pay for more mount trainings at once, with a certain limit, be it 5-7 days.
We need our 5000 crown bankers to have access to guild stores, and our 5000 crown merchants to sell lockpicks/repair kits or even better repair stuff. For 70 euros for 2 of these it is not much to ask.

zaria · August 2018

Back then I played WOW BoP items was character bound. This included stuff you bought for currency, think keys.

sixstoriesunder_ESO · August 2018

I understand that one can have a crafting character. It just seems so much less streamlined than certain other MMOs. Though forgive me for not wanting to spend my monthly stipend of crowns on trait reasearch or mount training when the cool items are getting more and more expensive for no reason. $400 for a house next year? Would not surprise me even a little.

Tandor · August 2018

It all depends on what you want alts for.

If you're looking for a fast-track approach to leveling another character for "endgame" then the most alt-friendly game would allow you to click a button on the character creation screen and "hey presto" you're there - rather like the first Guild Wars game where fully developed PvP characters could be created instantly, but of course that game wasn't a MMORPG in any traditional sense.

If on the other hand you're looking to have multiple characters all of whom are equal individuals who you're going to play fully throughout the game, then the most alt-friendly game will make everything character-specific so that each character is developed by actually doing everything in the game for itself rather than alts being gifted achievements and champion points etc because another character has already done those things.

Lots of people play ESO from either perspective, and I think that ZOS have made a good job of balancing the different approaches so that some things like champion points and collections are account-wide, and other things like achievements are character-specific. I hope the balance isn't changed, but if it is then as ESO is a MMORPG I'd much prefer things to move more towards character-specific requirements - champion points not being allocated until a character reaches level 50 would be a good starting point.

dodgehopper_ESO · August 2018

This is definitely not the most alt-unfriendly game. The biggest problem is the login/logout which is a problem on any game where you have a lot of alts.

I would play just one character though if we could keep earning skill points and learn all skills.

oddavi · August 2018

This Exactly

Danikat · August 2018

The least alt-friendly MMO I've ever played was Ultima Online back in the late 90's. Literally nothing was shared - the bank was per character and you couldn't even mail stuff to yourself. That was good for me at the time because I shared an account with my brother and sister and I didn't want them taking my stuff. It also seemed totally normal because I'd only played single-player games before and they almost never share things between characters (remember this was before achievements were a common thing).

ESO is a lot better than that. Maybe not as alt-friendly as some, but then I think there's a fine line between alt-friendly and making it almost pointless to have alts because you can't repeat anything.

I think the only thing I wish was shared which isn't currently is titles. I like to use titles which sound appropriate for the character, regardless of where they come from. But I often end up unlocking them on the 'wrong' character and can't/don't want to do it all again on another one just to get the title again. So I usually end up not using them.

Elsonso · August 2018

This game is pretty alt-friendly, to me. I have a small army of them.

You have to stop and consider what "alt-friendly" means. I consider it to me "character-friendly", where you seem to consider it to be "player-friendly".

One of my suggestions was to not let CPs be allocated until Level 50. I have played both ways, and I can say that the game is much easier when my new Level 3 has 750 CP. Too easy.

At this point, I also hope that they are not planning any major moves from character to account. I don't see that happening, to be honest. While ESO is still being actively developed, you can tell by recent hirings and job postings that ESO probably is not going to be the flagship of the studio much longer. With that change, development money follows. They won't have the budget to do things like that.

Aeslief · August 2018

This game is great for alts. In my last game, all dungeon and raid gear was BoP, no sharing with alts. Reputation that you needed for equipment was per-toon and took months to grind. Weapon upgrades were per-toon and also took months to grind. Pets and mounts that you earned from gameplay were per-toon, only cash mounts were account-wide - and that was a change made after years of per-toon cash mounts. Polymorphs, collectables, all per-toon.

To me ESO is extremely alt-friendly. The only part that isn’t great is getting your riding training maxed. That hardly makes ESO the least alt-friendly game ever. A game that lets you spend every champion point you’ve ever earned on a toon the minute they are born, and kit them out with full raid gear from your bank the minute they turn 50? Access every mount and costume style you’ve ever owned or learned? Sounds pretty friendly to me. Yes, starting over from 0 riding training does suck, but it’s more than offset by the many advantages that alts get. This is from someone who in one year has raised 10 toons to max. After three years in my last game I had four.

So by all means, campaign for account-wide riding training if you wish. I’ll be as happy as anyone to see it implemented before I start another toon. But understand that many will disagree with or even dismiss the hyperbole that ESO is the least alt-friendly game ever.

Valabrog · August 2018

I suggest you try WoW, do understand what is alt unfriendly mmorpg

ESO is one of the friendliest around..and they keep improving it over the years..I remember days when you had to buy horse for every character and there were no CPs - only 16 veteran ranks to grind on every character. Now its 1 week at best to go from 1 to 50, than taking golden items from your other char and going right into HM trial with your gathered 750 cps..

Mureel · August 2018

No way. This is easiest ever to make Alts.

Make an alt in archeage. Lmk how that goes.

huschdeguddzje · August 2018

Nah, only thing I would want is a companion app a la destiny so we can switch items without going trough half an of loading screens

JKorr · August 2018

Might have been true in the beginning of the game. Especially feeding your horse(s). Yes, you needed more than one, because the stats worked differently; speed and inventory and stamina, so basically you needed at least three horses. Now its so alt unfriendly I have 15 characters on this account.

Not every alt has to have all 9 traits. Not every alt has to be a maxed crafter.

ShakespeareGeek · August 2018

I started out with OG EverQuest.

This isn't even close to being the least alt-friendly game.

Facefister · August 2018

ESO is pretty much the most alt-friendly MMO I've ever played. Being able to use equipment on other characters is one of the biggest freedoms you have in this game.

Ratzkifal · August 2018

The thing is, nothing is stopping you (except your creativity and abilitiy to plan ahead) from being done with ALL mount trainings and research you will ever need to do in "half a year" on ALL of your characters. That is, if you reach the alt cap and keep doing your training and such everywhere everyday.

Watchdog · August 2018

@OP - Try Age of Conan. You will love and praise ESO after that experience.

greenmachine · August 2018

When I played WoW, if you wanted to level and gear up an alt you had to get your alt to max level instead of just leveling it to 50 and then adopting your account-wide CPs. Then you had to run that alt through the gear grind because the really good gear was only dropped in dungeons and raids and was BoP to that character.

On ESO I can Dolmen grind a brand new alt, wearing training gear crafted by my dedicated crafter, in under 16 hours of /played time, and I'm sure a lot of players can go 1-50 much faster than that. At that point the alt inherits max level CPs and can use gear I had banked on other toons. Some public dungeons and part of the main quest for some extra skillies and my new alt is, for the most part, on the same level as my main.

On the other hand I do think the inventory mini-game is artificially and purposefully put in place to sell storage space and that will keep us from ever being able to mail items to ourselves, which is a hindrance but avoidable. Riding training, yeah, sucks, get rapids from Cyro Skill tree and your fine though. Crafting research does take forever but if you use a dedicated crafter (I use my main, no shortage of skill points) then you only have to go through that grind once and you know who can craft all your items.

TL;DR: In my experience, ESO is extremely alt-friendly. Sharing bound gear between alts and sharing CPs are a huge boon to altoholics like myself. Some of the grind is purposefully included to ensure the player base is not left with nothing to do.

Juju_beans · August 2018

I find ESO to be one of the more alt friendly games.
Once an alt hits 50 you get all the CP that your main acquired.
Outfits, costumes, mounts, pets, gold and other items are account bound, not character bound.
Gear can be shared among all your characters.

I don't bother with trait research on my alts. Horse training is horse training. At level 10 go to cyro, get rapids and then it's not so bad. If horse speed bothers you so much use your crowns/gems to buy horse training scrolls.

JKorr · August 2018

:looks at full roster of characters, dks, sorcerors, warden, Templar, and nightblade that all have crafting: Not sure why you can't make a warden healer crafter. I admit my two maxed everything crafters are a dk and a nb, but the Templar, 2 wardens, two sorcerers and additional dks have crafting maxed but the skill level set to let me farm the mats I want. The "extra" skill points are there, just not assigned.

Being able to craft gear and use it account wide, the fact you train riding skill on the *character* and not the mount kind of makes it really friendly, imo. Not to mention you don't have to carbon copy a build; none of my dks, nbs, or sorcerers are leveled or skilled exactly the same.

JD2013 · August 2018

Nope.

But I do really like being able to play any job on one character in FF XIV. But you still have to level the job. But things are shared including story and quest progression.

mikemacon · August 2018

Nope.

ESO is very alt-friendly.

Linaleah · August 2018

ESO is alt friendly or more so than it used to be back in veteran rank days. it just loves its time gating in general.