If the game has 1 – 2 character slots it will piss off a lot of people. There is no reason for not allowing more character slots other than to make this a cash grab for VR by selling additional slots; I’ve never been big on playing lots of alts but on occasion I want to try out different classes to get a better feel for the game.
My preference is a minimum of 6 character slots with a max of 12 so if I wanted to try out and play all the classes I can do that, but 6 slots will give me enough classes per account anyway (If I decide to bot…) since most of the support pledges offer 2 digital copies of the game I could still try out all the classes with 2 accounts.
Rint
bigdogchris said:I would of originally thought there would be 8 slots, but if they are selling extra slots as a bonus, it's not much of a bonus if you start with 8 or 10.
Brad made a lengthy post (and multiple replies) on his hesitation for microtransactions. IF he adds microtransactions, it will be for small things that give no advantage AND will not discourage the subscription standard.
Personally, I'm not for or against subscription or microtransactions. Both have their place. I am more concerned on how they are implemented. Brad's response is on the traditional side. I feel there is no need to worry about F2P issues.
Edit: Grammer
I'm like a lot of people ere i Only REALLY need one character slot, but i could probably use an alt only for Bank space/Trader so those items aren't clogging up my mains account. But if i was stuck with one it wouldn't bother me in the slightest honestly i can see there being plenty to do in pantheon just like there was in EQ when it first came out.
My focus being trade skills, I simply couldn't play a game where I cannot use all trade skills .
Also if there is trade skill interdependence this shouts for enough slots to not stay stranded for lack of crafting material .
In EQ I had a character for every fundamental trade skill especially those which were reserved only for a given race or class combination - smithing, tailoring, fletching, jewelcrafting, tinkering, foraging , alchemy .
Same in VG and EQ2 even if I played only 1 year each .
6 - 8 seems a good standard to me .
CanadinaXegony said:Crossing my fingers for eight...alts ftw ..crafter, harvester, explorer here. And I have to see the lore story for each starting city. :D Should keep me busy for a long long time. :)
Here! Here! I feel this way as well... with a game like this my characters have stories and a "life" of sorts. I still have many vivid EQ memories, both good and bad, humerous and terrible, and they happened with many different classes and races because that is the best way for ME to fully appreciate the world the dev's create for us. Ideally, I would want to be able to have a slot for each class at a minimum, but I am also comfortable with that being the max slots allowed. With 12-14 classes at launch plus expansions I don't really see that happening, but it'd be nice.
I think 8-10 would be good at launch. Definitely not less than 7 per account, the reason I say not less than 7 character slots per account is that there are going to be 14 classes at launch or added shortly after. (I'm talking about you Bard/Necromancer)
You should be able to have 1 of each class if you have 2 accounts, forcing players who want to play all 14 classes to buy and maintain 3 accounts monthly would be pretty lame.
This is coming from a person that would probably never have more then 1 account personally.
I also think it's nice to have a few more slots then you really need, as a family man I've been known to let the kids make a character on my accounts so they can play the cool game that dad's into at the moment.
VR you should consider this a form On-boarding, I'm training and getting a whole new generation addicted to your game probably.
I do however think character slots should not be as high as 14, my reasoning here is that I think the average player with 1 account should have to think carefully and pick and choose the classes they want to play, you will have more invested in your character if you have to sacrifice the ability to play some other class in the game.
Tal
Let's think about possible revenue sources other than the basics (subscriptions and sale of the game if VR chooses to adopt either or both as part of its economic model - this has either not been decided or not been announced).
While the community disagrees on many things, we have a fairly strong consensus that we don't want an in-game store. Not even for cosmetics and mounts - some of us don't want those sold for various reasons and some fear the slippery slope and some just hate the idea of a store. VR has said they do not intend to have an in-game store.
That leaves selling game-related services on a website. Call it an out-of-game store if you will.
It can sell in-game items such as cosmetics and mounts. This will make many of us unhappy and I don't think they will do it unless they feel they need to economically. I won't say "last resort" but certainly not where they want to go.
So most likely they will shoot for selling ancillary services that do not actually give characters something to use in the game. What such services have game companies sold traditionally? Change of name. Change of race. Change of gender. Server transfers. Bank or other storage. Premium races. Premium classes. Extra character slots. See, I did wind up relating all of this to the topic of the thread!
If VR is interested in this type of revenue, either initially or as a future option, they will not want to give too many character slots. My guess is they will be interested.
Expansions often come with extra character slots, especially if they include new races or classes. Especially if they have multiple versions, the more expensive packages need something extra to bundle in. So VR may want to limit initial character slots to give something to package with paid expansions.
Personally I like a lot of slots - I like to play with many races and classes. Ideally on one server so the various characters can support eachother as crafters, but failing that if they give X slots per server I can run X times the number of servers characters without having to delete any to try new combinations. But my preferences run counter to VR's interests I fear and its more important for Pantheon to be self-sustaining than for me to get everything I consider ideal.
SWG had only one per server, at least for a while. It made it so that one character could never be self-sufficient and certain choices of crafting classes was much more valuable. Committing a lot of build points architect would not have been as painful if you could also have a full bounty hunter on the same account on the same server. I doubt VR will even consider just one character per server but it would change a lot of game balance and decision making if you could only have a second character after you had achieved progeny.
A single character makes more sense in a build point game rather than a class based game.
unless you are SELLING character slots to make money, there better be 14 per account / per server.
If you are making a game for us to call HOME. I want to be able to have One of EVERY SINGLE CLASS if I chose to have it.
I will NOT be participating in the Progeny system. I will not be retiring a character for a buff or boost etc on an Alt.
I won't be making 12 + necro and bard on day one. but if you are designing a game that I will play for 5-15 years like EQ1. I want one of EVERY class on my account and I don't want to have to switch servers if I don't WANT to switch servers.
There is literally NO reason to not have that option. I will pay for character slots if you force me to, but I would rather give you money for other things. Like Cloth Map, T shirts, etc.
Hell, you need to start selling Pantheon T shirts NOW. Make 5-6 different designs and sell them for $25-$30 each. You'd likely sell a crapload.
Bonechip said:For me, it is going to depend on how many tradeskills are allowed per character. I will have enough alts... to have all the tradeskills.
(Yes, I am a tradeskill junkie)
The most recent stance on tradeskills is 1 per character, they talked about it in a newsletter or interview, cant rembember wich, but all characther can have all the 5 gathering skills at the same time.