Posts: 818
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I don't have an idea.
Just curious if in knowledge bank of Purge-pedia there were any games that had been more successful in removing the need and/or clamping down on nefarious alt usage in MMOs.
What is the solution if any? Naval Action seems to be experiencing the early onset of this alt disease. I have been following your actions and responses, it seems as if only everyone treated alts like Purge does it might not be an issue.
Posts: 19,066
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Here's how you get rid of alts:
a. Make everything in the game require player attention and skill.
Lots of alts happen because there is something boring to do that is very easy to do on a second account with minimal or no oversight and little or no risk. (In defense of games like Naval Action, it's only the low population that makes alt hauling worth the risk. If the server pop was 2000+ I think it would be pretty risky to try hauling on an alt.)
b. Completely eliminate cross-faction interaction except for murder (so, no looting either).
Lots of alts are for sneaking items across boundaries. Hard for my team to get, easy for some other team, so I make an alt on that team, get the things and walk them over and trade them or drop them or just have my main kill my alt for the loot.
c. Don't artificially limit what one character can do time-wise (resource gathering is not capped).
My main has 1000 labor hours or can only have 5 oak forests or whatever so I make an alt and now I can have twice as much.
d. Don't create "skill trees" that makes someone choose between combat and non-combat specialties.
Another good reason to have an alt is that crafting and gathering skills take up skill slots that would otherwise go to combat. So you have your combat main and your crafting/gathering alt, each having their own skill focus.
Of course, you can also restrict alts by charging a monthly fee. That doesn't stop everyone but it stops a lot of casual alts.
Really it's just a question of "why do I have an alt" and then "how can we design that out of the game".
People don't make alts in Counterstrike (unless it's for trolling) because there's absolutely no point to doing so.
Alts exist because game design makes them desirable.
