That's an option I'm sure more than a few have considered doing. It really just depends on priorities and what someone wants to accomplish while playing the game.

Yep I've seen a number who want to hit the Soul pack reward in the store to have 3 extra OPCs to work around their town or business.

Certainly having the labor has some benefit, especially since it's labor you can completely dictate as opposed to having to play the NPC needs & desires game.

The OPCs not really progressing unless you yourself put time into them though and the fact they'd already be working NPCs anyway (if you're not importing them from abroad of course) does make it not quite as lucrative as it might appear on face value but it has merits for some.

Some would rather have more control of the town over more skill progress within the town. I can see scenarios where both may be beneficial. If you're focused on production of consumer goods you'd want skill. If you're just hauling raw resources around and doing low level processing control and efficiency would be the name of the game.

I was going to do two OPC alts that are just my personal guard. Following me wherever I go and defending me from baddies.

I personally had 3 accounts and a total of 9 characters in EvE Online. Granted 6 of them only did contracts or helped my main character travel around, but still, Others in my corp had 6 or more accounts! it will most definitely happen in CoE.

With skill mastery being so slow in this game you'll definitely see players sparking into multiple characters to attain a degree of self sufficiency. It is exciting that all sparked characters will remain online and can be scripted to actively participate in gathering, crafting or as Jeebs suggested, guarding the main character whilst they go about their business. I can see people with high fame, titles or story potential essentially hiring their own alts to guard them.

It's definitely a possibility, but depending on how long it takes to accrue skill experience it may have significant drawbacks. I'd assume, for example, that there would be skillsets involved in bureaucratic work that streamline everything an official does throughout the work day. To optimise your alts' performance, you'd need to invest at least some time in levelling those skills, which could take a fair bit more time than one would like. Same thing with crafters - each one you make is going to need some investment to be viable, perhaps more than you're willing to put in if you're working hard at skilling your main soul.

Same goes for bodyguards/soldiering alts. In theory, you could have a lot of accounts and hire your own personal army if you had the money to support it - but lacking the means to actually level the skills of your lackeys, you're not going to get a lot out of them in a scenario where you're facing skilled attackers.

The main downside to any of these alt schemes is that you'll need to invest some significant playing time into each in order to progress their skills, unless you're content with basic teen-age klutz newbie characters to be your gofers.

Another other downside, and maybe you all realize this, is that you'll need both a spark and a soul for each alt. That ups the cost for alts a bit more than if it were just one or the other.

The basic player quandary is that those who have the most time to invest in playing multiple characters generally have the least money with which to make it possible.

So IMHO it's probably best to wait and see whether or not settlements that need mayors have some built-in NPC gofers. These could be more convenient than using your own alts to do the job.

solved your time issue for you.

Naren Jack of all Trade skill allows you a speed ramp on all skills not at mastery level. yes you would need to spend some time with them but it would not be that hard to throw a hr or 2 a day into getting the skill up then go back to your main.

your other option of cause is weard and being in a settlement with another master smith as you get his skill as long as your near him. actualy this option would work very well in weard towns.

still i would not want to be runing a huge number of alts unless i did not work and had all the time in the world to throw at COE...

very very temping to take a few months off work come release....

I hadn't thought of running 3 or 4. But had thought of running my main and a laborer of sorts. If I could set up scripts and have one character help maintain my farm (planting, harvesting, etc.) whilst I go about mayorly things, that could be helpful. I know I could just get an NPC to help (and I will hire a couple of them, too), but having another character I can jump into to make sure my OPC scripts are running properly kind of makes sense to me.

Posted By Poldano at 04:11 AM - Fri May 25 2018

The main downside to any of these alt schemes is that you'll need to invest some significant playing time into each in order to progress their skills, unless you're content with basic teen-age klutz newbie characters to be your gofers.

This is effectively what discourages me from entertaining an alt, at least for any concept I want to pursue seriously. Time is finite, so spending it on an alt comes at the expense of your primary.

I don't think it will be too difficult to play 2 or even 3 characters and achieve their skill potentials. There will be considerable periods of downtime with each character, time enough to switch characters and make progress elsewhere.

There will be;

Periods of rest

Bulk processing of raw materials

Waiting for raw materials from contractors or seasonal availability

All of these things and others will create periods of downtime on a character during which your attention can be given elsewhere, though this switch will doubtless reduce the potential of your main somewhat.

Some people will not necessarily care about maximum potential, instead using their alt characters for menial gathering tasks, as bodyguards or as scouts or spies for instance, non of which will require 100% attention to achieve a degree of proficiency in. I imagine some people, living in remote homesteads or on islands or whatever will resort to PC alts to attain a degree of self sufficiency. It wouldn't be my first choice of play style but to each their own.

Should probably add that having alts makes procreation a much easier task. No matter how rocky the marriage gets you always keep your stuff.

We are so used to not needing other players in MMOs that most people appear to be scared of the idea of having to play with other players.

Posted By protagonist at 2:37 PM - Tue May 29 2018

Just hear me out here, but couldn't this be construed as P2W in some sense. I know I've had alts in other mmo but usually just for storage.

If somebody has enough cash to splash to always have 3 or 4 alts doing donkey work then isn't that an advantage.

I like the idea of having NPC gophers to mitigate this.

I agree, I would prefer to have a gopher to deal with trivial tasks in the town while my primary can focus on more important matters. I also feel this is not an advantage but an economic opportunity. :)

Was planning on using 2 computers and using 2 accounts and 6 souls my main will run the town and probably maintain the farm my second account with be military while the rest of the souls will probably use other skills less important maybe one runs a tavern another who knows what skill and 2 souls for children that takes over in my death of old age I hope.