Final Fantasy XIV and it's discouragement of alts should really be looked at.

[Mapleine]

Hello, I'm a person who likes to have at least one alt in whatever MMO I play. I've been trying that here, as well, but every week I'm sidelined by the game systems.

In most MMOs, classes are done per character but here the Final Fantasy XI system where you are encouraged to accumulate classes on one character is used. This was a very neat system, the problem is it mixes like water and oil with the raid lockout and point systems adapted from World of Warcraft and other modern MMOs.

People need to gear up their main job as a priority and with the restrictions in place alts are simply left behind. Right now, raid tiers are only four bosses with one difficulty level and you can't run it a second time on an alt so basically once you're done you're done

Our free company members log in once a week right now and during a slow week it's difficult to even adjust if a key archetype cannot be there as only a few people have gotten lucky enough with drops to be able to bring something else

[Mapleine]

It would be truly great if:

1.) Jobs had their own pool for the point systems, where I could earn 450 per week, per job, and the purchases were restricted to their own items.

2.) Raid lockouts were done by job and after the first run each week the greed button was disabled to allow you only items on your active job and to prevent abuse.

Right now the ONLY way around any of this is to upgrade the account, make a second character and from there it's a massive trudge through getting back up to snuff with the games extensive story and attunement and unlocks and having to level several jobs just to be whole again. This game is really based around a core character with job swapping but it just cannot mesh all that well with the modern MMO systems without specific adjustments.

Thanks for reading.

[Xayoc]

It would be truly great if:
Right now the ONLY way around any of this is to upgrade the account, make a second character and from there it's a massive trudge through getting back up to snuff with the games extensive story and attunement and unlocks and having to level several jobs just to be whole again. This game is really based around a core character with job swapping but it just cannot mesh all that well with the modern MMO systems without specific adjustments.

This all took me 3 days to do, would have been less even if I wasn't working. Took another 2 days to finish off primals and get geared enough for a turn 5 clear. If you really want to do multiple coil clears, just level a true alt, and not just an off-class.

[Xandim]

Actually you DO get 'encouraged' to have an alt. The higher turns for coil (and even CT if you are a big fan of that) are 'locked', so if you wanna lv up another class you could use an alt. Some people do that...... Besides, no one is forcing you to NOT make an alt. Go for it if you really like it.

[Gesser]

Ahem.

Two sets of lockouts. Two sets of caps. More retainer ventures. More maps.

It doesn't discourage alts, it merely bolsters your main in an appropriate fashion.

[Sylkis]

OP is talking about discouragement of alt jobs and not alt characters.

Anyway, this was a popular topic a few months ago and there are several threads on it. No official response was given, so they just died out.

[tymora]

I don't like "alts" at all so I love this system.
The more alts you have the more fleeting your presence becomes - i.e. No one will remember who you are, even in your own LS.

[darkstarpoet1]

I don't like "alts" at all so I love this system.
The more alts you have the more fleeting your presence becomes - i.e. No one will remember who you are, even in your own LS.

once again they are not talking about alt characters. they are talking about running alternate jobs on your main character. the armory system allows you to level everything, but the stupid weekly lockouts require you to only gear one.

OP is talking about discouragement of alt jobs and not alt characters.

Anyway, this was a popular topic a few months ago and there are several threads on it. No official response was given, so they just died out.

glad to see someone else realized what they meant.

[SchalaZeal]

Anyway, this was a popular topic a few months ago and there are several threads on it. No official response was given, so they just died out.

Because while playing alt chars, for lore, looks, race, multiple-people-in-a-household or just for kicks is doable and done by many, playing enough to gear two jobs by running Coil twice is done by very very few. And while a small portion of all players would repeat Coil 5 times every week just to not be bored (on 5 different jobs), it's a tiny tiny minority, not worth dev time to even consider.

[Gramul]

Better option:
Give us more stuff to do other than raids. MMO'S can be so much more than that.