Multiple Characters

[Aewarin Jameson]

It has been announced on the FAQ what a "Founder" means:

“The Elite” are a secretive group of intrepid pilots. Throughout human space, there are a great many people that have been helped by “The Elite” over the years, and because of this “The Elite” are treated well, wherever they go. Whether it be discounts on buying special items or repairs, and the small number of founding members even greater benefits. Other benefits include a greater likelihood of being offered rare missions or opportunities. Membership is offered to pilots who have proven their ability by reaching “Elite” rating within the Pilot’s Federation, but the founding members are not put through such an indignity. All “The Elite” are entitled to display a special silver “Elite” emblem, and the founders a golden one with the word ‘Founder’ beneath it.

My questions are -

- Can you work on more than 1 character, like a main character and an alt ?
- Will this "founder" status be account bound or player bound ?
- When you add people to your friend list will you use the in-game name or account name ?

My preferences to the above would be:

- Yes, as many characters as you like per account (or a limit of say 8 characters)
- The founder status is applied to 1 character, not the entire account
- You add people based upon your in-game name; not account name

The reason why I would like these is so that my main character will be classed as a Founder, enjoy the perks and so on, but I would like to create another character to do things the long way round. (It's more of a personal achievement thing)

An alt character I may also wish to use for the times when I want to logon and play anonymously but with other people - I don't necessarily always want to play with the same group. Adding people based upon your in-game name ensures anonymity between characters. (Which is also why I would prefer the perk to be applied to 1 character)

Are there any opinions on this FD, and what do the rest of you think ?

 

[Kipper]

I agree with you on this.

Something like 8 character slots would be definitely enough, there's no need for people to be able to have infinite ones as that could just lead to people setting up griefing characters.

Your "founder" status should be restricted to one character chosen at creation time, but if there is an "iron man" mode and your character can truly 'die', then you should be able to use it again on a new one. I too would like to be a founder (don't think I have the ££ tho) whilst at the same time, I would like to be able to run through the same way as everyone else as well.

With unique names in the game comes the possibility of fame/infamy, too. So yes, people should add friends/meet people based on their character and not their account. I might want to hunt and kill my friends anonymously from time to time to bring some change and risk into it. They might want to do the same to me

 

[nOmArch]

Membership is offered to pilots who have proven their ability by reaching “Elite” rating within the Pilot’s Federation, but the founding members are not put through such an indignity

Hmmmm. I hope that means backers join 'The Elite' but won't actually be granted Elite status.

 

[Jokester]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it means you don't automatically get Elite status as well.

 

[Capt. Hook]

I think for multiplayer server senarios, 1-3 characters is probably sufficient to reduce griefing tactics. As an alternative maybe more characters are allowed but perhaps all characters belonging to the same account as it were are somehow identifiable as belonging to same.

For single player games, I think a user friendly and convenient game save mechanism is probably more helpful than multiple characters although I don't see an issue with multiple number of characters.

 

[Ende]

This reminds of Halo 3 where all the employees of Bungie had flaming skullheads on thier ingame Masterchief lol

It was VERY rare to come across one of them in the matches tho.

'The Elite' would surely only really be a big thing if the game took on an MMO format right? :S

A single player game or multiplayer where u can only invite people u know into your game wouldnt really have much kudos having a different title as Founder right? :S

In an MMO everyone wants to showoff a bit and its cool to have a rare title or be associated with the game itself and in an MMO u can advertise this nicely

 

[synchromesh]

Why dont they make the founder members Thargoids !!
That would be fun

 

[Capt. Hook]

Just read an interview with David Braben who is quoted as saying as he sees the game being run on the lines of Call of Duty vs. MMORG like Eve:

"It’s not [like EVE online]. One of the things I’ve done today is to put a load more stuff on the FAQ explaining how it’s different and how, in some ways, it’s an MMO, because we expect a massive number of players to play it. But in most ways that people will judge it, Elite: Dangerous is not an MMO.

You can save, you can load, you can reload your position. All of these things are not MMO-style things. You can choose who you are playing with, so you can create groups. I think the closer parallel would be the way Call of Duty plays. If you look at the way the later Call of Duty’s are played online there is a lot of persistence, in terms of prestige, unlocked weapons and so on."

Full article can be read here: http://beefjack.com/features/david-braben-elite-dangerous-interview/

 

[nOmArch]

That's a bloody brilliant interview and allays many of my fears for the Kickstarter, thanks for posting it Mr. Hook

 

[Kipper]

It does sound good... so its persistent but every time you enter a solar system or whatever, it throws you into an instanced version of it I guess whereby you can encounter other players who are also there. It makes perfect sense as long as the instances are handled right (however that is) and that they can be big enough that busy systems feel busy, and smart enough so that if I want to chase someone particular (without them knowing), there's a way I can get into their instance - this is gonna be important if you're playing pirate.

Now I don't know how saving/loading fits into this. It seems to me that if 'killed', you would just be taken back to the nearest safe space station and have your insurance money deducted. There's no need to be able to go back to a few saves ago, that will just be weird. "Hey, weren't you competent when I saw you last? Why are you mostly harmless now?"

The unresolved question for me at this point though is will the entire universe all act as one when it comes to exploration and trading. Obviously if there are 50,000 players all on at the same time (lets hope!) they won't all be visible to me in space even if we all went to Sol at the same time, there'd just be many instances to balance the load - but what I hope is that when we all dock at Earth, we're all shown to each other as being 'at Sol' and that everything we cumulatively buy and sell affects the market prices. If you want to be able to have a meta game where groups can influence the market, then the group needs to be big enough.

What I do see as interesting though is that when you get out to the frontier systems, there's only ever likely to be single instances of them up the further from 'colonised' space as you go and the fewer players there are. So encountering people that far out would be like... "whoah, what are YOU doing hmm?"

I really like the idea that a group might head out with a couple of fighters, a mining ship, a big freighter and maybe even a fuel ship so they can all jump vast distances, mine some valuable rare minerals from a pristine (but distant) world and then return safely - having accomplished something that no single one of them could have done alone.

 

[Cmdr Sharky]

I agree. Multiple characters are an important feature IMO. I want to be able to send a character off exploring the galaxy and still be able to do a bit of bounty hunting or help out a friend with an escort run.

 

[Capt. Hook]

Maybe I'm missing the gist of David's thoughts on multiplayer but I'm getting the feeling what he has in mind is kind of a multiverse of Elite. In this multiverse, players can log onto the server that suits them so in reality we would see something like this on a log in page:

1. Single Player - log in only to search for new updates/material, access forums etc
2. Default Elite Universe where all players who have bought the game can access at any time online
3. Host your own Elite universe online and other players can join on your invitation only.


If all this is correct I wonder if one character can move seemlessly from each universe of Elite if you get my meaning or whether new characters would be required for each? I can see issues and benefits for both sides tbh.

 

[SuperG]

I think more in this line
1 single player
2 public coop
3 coop with friends
4 host new game with cutom rulez
A coop
B friends only
C public 24 max
5 dedicated public persistent server for large groups in 1000

 

[lefty1117]

yep need multiple save slots PLS!!!

 

[maddog0606]

I agree with you on this.

Something like 8 character slots would be definitely enough

Please for the love of God and my sanity do not do this to me. I am an Alt-Aholic. I am addicted to alts. If you do this to me I will be cursed!!!!!!!! Mama!!!!

 

[Kazacy]

Necro???

 

[Ian Phillips]

Killed it (again).

This time it stays dead!