New feature proposal: Connecting Mains and Alts

Kendor · 09-26-2007, 10:26 AM

One thing I am missing in EQ2, which would make me (and probably a lot of other people too) life (or the game even) a lot easier is, having an always visible connection between different Characters. This should of course be by choice only. It should be so that when I log on my Alt, people always can see which is my Main automatically, and people who have my Main in their friends list, should also see that I am online with my alt now, and so on.Maybe an example explains it better: "John" is my Main, "Jack" is my alt. "Mike" could be a Character on the same account, played be someone else (brother or so).I want to make it clear to all, without much explaining, that "Jack" and "John" are the same person. "Mike" should always be hidden, since its someone else playing actually. So I could have an option to choose "John" as Main, somewhere in the settings for "Jack" (this of course must be limited to my existing characters). People who have "John" in their friends list would get a message "Friend: John (Jack) has logged on" when i log on with "Jack". They won't need to have "John" and "Jack" both in their friends list, and still be able so see when I am actually playing."Mike" whould jsut leave the opion to connect to a main empty, so it would just behave as another main. Maybe "Mike" has an alt too, named "Mikey" who would then choose "Mike" as main, so people having "Mike" in their friends list would see him logging on too.The default (Leaving the "connected main" field empty) would just behave as it is now, so people who dont like this feature could simple ignore it.Advantages of this are obvious: No more filling up friends list with all 7 (or 12 even sometimes) Alts of a friend, saving the notes line in guild page for more important things (since this is very often used only to refer to the main for faster identification), immediate recognition of somemeone playing on an Alt, with whom i have played before (on Main or another Alt), and many more which the poeple who read this will discover SMILEY

P.S. I hope this is the right forum for this post, if not, some Administrator will probably move it to the correct one anyway.

Smeag · 09-26-2007, 10:33 AM

Waldemar wrote: "Mike" could be a Character on the same account, played be someone else (brother or so). Be careful and read the EULA SMILEY

Kalem · 09-26-2007, 11:01 AM

I think it's a great idea Waldemar.

Aurumn · 09-26-2007, 11:20 AM

The option to link alts to mains would be interesting to have. I would emphasize that it should be an option, not auto-enabled. For myself, I always have at least one alt that is not guilded so I can frankly go about my business anonymously if I choose. Some days I feel a little antisocial and just want to run around nuking stuff until I feel better.

Embret · 09-26-2007, 11:52 AM

Apparently some feature similar to this already exists. I often raid with another guild. The people in this guild don't know all my alts, no one in the guild does, not even the other guild leader. When I am playing an alt or my daughter is playing one of her toons the other guild will send a tell requesting my presence at the raid. Even my daughter has asked how they knew who she was, especially the last time as she had just created the new character....our own guild didn't even know that toon existed yet.

On a side note: Does anyone know how this is done? I would guess it won't work for all the people that think they won't get spammed if they are anonymous.

rumblepants · 09-26-2007, 11:54 AM

Embret wrote:

Apparently some feature similar to this already exists. I often raid with another guild. The people in this guild don't know all my alts, no one in the guild does, not even the other guild leader. When I am playing an alt or my daughter is playing one of her toons the other guild will send a tell requesting my presence at the raid. Even my daughter has asked how they knew who she was, especially the last time as she had just created the new character....our own guild didn't even know that toon existed yet.
On a side note: Does anyone know how this is done? I would guess it won't work for all the people that think they won't get spammed if they are anonymous.

I would imagine they looked you up via eq2players which can display all of your alts. I don't recall if there is an option to hide your alts though since I rarely ever use it.

interstellarmatter · 09-26-2007, 11:55 AM

Embret wrote:

Apparently some feature similar to this already exists. I often raid with another guild. The people in this guild don't know all my alts, no one in the guild does, not even the other guild leader. When I am playing an alt or my daughter is playing one of her toons the other guild will send a tell requesting my presence at the raid. Even my daughter has asked how they knew who she was, especially the last time as she had just created the new character....our own guild didn't even know that toon existed yet.
On a side note: Does anyone know how this is done? I would guess it won't work for all the people that think they won't get spammed if they are anonymous.

On your online profile, your alts are shown by default. You have to turn it off or everyone knows your alts.

Zard · 09-26-2007, 12:16 PM

City of Heroes/Villains has a feature called a "global chat handle." You can add a friend's global chat handle -- which is different from a character name -- to your friend's list to be notified whenever any of their characters on that same account log in. The friend's list also shows you the character name and global chat handle so you can see who's alt is who's. As a privacy safeguard, your friend has to tell you their global chat handle, you cannot determine it by yourself, plus when you add it to your friend's list a confirmation message is sent to them asking them to allow you to add it. A very cool system, especially if you're an alt-holic like me!

I am not sure if this works across servers but it might since the handle is uniquely global.

dhvyse000 · 09-26-2007, 12:22 PM

Why do we need this? I don't know....

jarlaxle8 · 09-26-2007, 12:32 PM

I think your idea is pretty good. It's easy to manage friends or guild alts, and at the same time you can still have an 'unknown' alt. Would be a nice feature.

LaurnaRose Fauldorn · 09-26-2007, 12:49 PM

I personally do not like the idea much. One of the things I love about EQII (especially with the open broker system where all characters can sell at the same time) is the independance each of my characters has.

Now, what I would like to see would be the option to transfer friends lists and macros from one character to another as well as a notepad such as they have in SWG (would love to morph that with the notepad in ThorUI where you could have several different documents and access them from all your characters - ie a list of which crafters needed which materials sent to them while you're out harvesting).

The feature you are talking about was (in a basic form) used in Guild Wars, and I hated it. There are some "friends" you make along the way that you really have no desire to see again ... ever. To me, it would be far more useful to be allowed to transfer your friends lists from one character to another than it would be to allow other players view all of your alternate characters. But thats just IMO.

UlteriorModem · 09-26-2007, 01:33 PM

I guess it would be a nice 'feature', but seriously it can be easly covered by telling your friends who your alts are (shrug).

Finora · 09-26-2007, 01:40 PM

Isn't this something kind of like they were talking about in the launchpad revamp? I seem to recall them saying you'd be able to tell if your friend was on no matter what game/character they were playing.

But really, in game it's pretty easy to let your guild (use the nice little area under your name for typing 'soandso's alt&#39 SMILEY or by telling your friends hey! this is me. If you aren't my friend =) or in my guild I don't really care if you ever know which alts are me lol.

Saroc_Luclin · 09-26-2007, 02:08 PM

Finora@Everfrost wrote:

Isn't this something kind of like they were talking about in the launchpad revamp? I seem to recall them saying you'd be able to tell if your friend was on no matter what game/character they were playing.
But really, in game it's pretty easy to let your guild (use the nice little area under your name for typing 'soandso's alt'" /> or by telling your friends hey! this is me. If you aren't my friend =) or in my guild I don't really care if you ever know which alts are me lol.

Yeah, from what we were told about the new Station Launcher IM features, is it can connect Alts and Mains together (and make it so you can't tell what alt exactly is being played too). It's outside game though so not really what the OP was looking for.

09-26-2007, 10:26 AM	#1
Kendor Server: Splitpaw Guild: Truewatch Rank: Truewatcher Loremaster Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 2	One thing I am missing in EQ2, which would make me (and probably a lot of other people too) life (or the game even) a lot easier is, having an always visible connection between different Characters. This should of course be by choice only. It should be so that when I log on my Alt, people always can see which is my Main automatically, and people who have my Main in their friends list, should also see that I am online with my alt now, and so on.Maybe an example explains it better: "John" is my Main, "Jack" is my alt. "Mike" could be a Character on the same account, played be someone else (brother or so).I want to make it clear to all, without much explaining, that "Jack" and "John" are the same person. "Mike" should always be hidden, since its someone else playing actually. So I could have an option to choose "John" as Main, somewhere in the settings for "Jack" (this of course must be limited to my existing characters). People who have "John" in their friends list would get a message "Friend: John (Jack) has logged on" when i log on with "Jack". They won't need to have "John" and "Jack" both in their friends list, and still be able so see when I am actually playing."Mike" whould jsut leave the opion to connect to a main empty, so it would just behave as another main. Maybe "Mike" has an alt too, named "Mikey" who would then choose "Mike" as main, so people having "Mike" in their friends list would see him logging on too.The default (Leaving the "connected main" field empty) would just behave as it is now, so people who dont like this feature could simple ignore it.Advantages of this are obvious: No more filling up friends list with all 7 (or 12 even sometimes) Alts of a friend, saving the notes line in guild page for more important things (since this is very often used only to refer to the main for faster identification), immediate recognition of somemeone playing on an Alt, with whom i have played before (on Main or another Alt), and many more which the poeple who read this will discover P.S. I hope this is the right forum for this post, if not, some Administrator will probably move it to the correct one anyway.

09-26-2007, 11:54 AM	#6
rumblepants General Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 353	Embret wrote: Apparently some feature similar to this already exists. I often raid with another guild. The people in this guild don't know all my alts, no one in the guild does, not even the other guild leader. When I am playing an alt or my daughter is playing one of her toons the other guild will send a tell requesting my presence at the raid. Even my daughter has asked how they knew who she was, especially the last time as she had just created the new character....our own guild didn't even know that toon existed yet. On a side note: Does anyone know how this is done? I would guess it won't work for all the people that think they won't get spammed if they are anonymous. I would imagine they looked you up via eq2players which can display all of your alts. I don't recall if there is an option to hide your alts though since I rarely ever use it.

09-26-2007, 11:55 AM	#7
interstellarmatter Loremaster Join Date: May 2005 Location: A small place Posts: 1,362	Embret wrote: Apparently some feature similar to this already exists. I often raid with another guild. The people in this guild don't know all my alts, no one in the guild does, not even the other guild leader. When I am playing an alt or my daughter is playing one of her toons the other guild will send a tell requesting my presence at the raid. Even my daughter has asked how they knew who she was, especially the last time as she had just created the new character....our own guild didn't even know that toon existed yet. On a side note: Does anyone know how this is done? I would guess it won't work for all the people that think they won't get spammed if they are anonymous. On your online profile, your alts are shown by default. You have to turn it off or everyone knows your alts. __________________

09-26-2007, 12:16 PM	#8
Zard General Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Longmont, CO (USA) Posts: 573	City of Heroes/Villains has a feature called a "global chat handle." You can add a friend's global chat handle -- which is different from a character name -- to your friend's list to be notified whenever any of their characters on that same account log in. The friend's list also shows you the character name and global chat handle so you can see who's alt is who's. As a privacy safeguard, your friend has to tell you their global chat handle, you cannot determine it by yourself, plus when you add it to your friend's list a confirmation message is sent to them asking them to allow you to add it. A very cool system, especially if you're an alt-holic like me! I am not sure if this works across servers but it might since the handle is uniquely global. __________________

09-26-2007, 12:32 PM	#10
jarlaxle8 General Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 512	I think your idea is pretty good. It's easy to manage friends or guild alts, and at the same time you can still have an 'unknown' alt. Would be a nice feature. __________________

09-26-2007, 10:33 AM	#2
Smeag General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 1	Waldemar wrote: "Mike" could be a Character on the same account, played be someone else (brother or so). Be careful and read the EULA

09-26-2007, 11:01 AM	#3
Kalem Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 122	I think it's a great idea Waldemar. __________________ Guild - Enigma Valhammer (70 Bruiser) Ragnorel (Shadowknight) Coldstone (Monk) Originally from Mistmoore now on Bazaar

09-26-2007, 11:20 AM	#4
Aurumn Server: Unrest Guild: Executioners Rank: Teen of chaos (2 weeks + 6,857 astatus) Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: USA Posts: 1,328	The option to link alts to mains would be interesting to have. I would emphasize that it should be an option, not auto-enabled. For myself, I always have at least one alt that is not guilded so I can frankly go about my business anonymously if I choose. Some days I feel a little antisocial and just want to run around nuking stuff until I feel better.

09-26-2007, 11:52 AM	#5
Embret Loremaster Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 294	Apparently some feature similar to this already exists. I often raid with another guild. The people in this guild don't know all my alts, no one in the guild does, not even the other guild leader. When I am playing an alt or my daughter is playing one of her toons the other guild will send a tell requesting my presence at the raid. Even my daughter has asked how they knew who she was, especially the last time as she had just created the new character....our own guild didn't even know that toon existed yet. On a side note: Does anyone know how this is done? I would guess it won't work for all the people that think they won't get spammed if they are anonymous.

09-26-2007, 12:22 PM	#9
dhvyse000 Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 113	Why do we need this? I don't know....

09-26-2007, 12:49 PM	#11
LaurnaRose Fauldorn Loremaster Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 759	I personally do not like the idea much. One of the things I love about EQII (especially with the open broker system where all characters can sell at the same time) is the independance each of my characters has. Now, what I would like to see would be the option to transfer friends lists and macros from one character to another as well as a notepad such as they have in SWG (would love to morph that with the notepad in ThorUI where you could have several different documents and access them from all your characters - ie a list of which crafters needed which materials sent to them while you're out harvesting). The feature you are talking about was (in a basic form) used in Guild Wars, and I hated it. There are some "friends" you make along the way that you really have no desire to see again ... ever. To me, it would be far more useful to be allowed to transfer your friends lists from one character to another than it would be to allow other players view all of your alternate characters. But thats just IMO. __________________ Ahria ~ Templar/Provisioner (90) ~~~ Anobabylon ~ Warden (90) /Alchemist Anobelle ~ Coercer/Jeweler ~~~ Beah ~ Warlock/Sage Dharknehz ~ Assasin (90) /Weaponsmith ~~~ Jeffica ~ Bruiser/Tailor Laurn ~ Defiler (90) /Carpenter (90) ~~~ Psahng ~ Troubador/Woodworker Vacri ~ ShadowKnight (90) /Armorer ~~~ Xhexania ~ Necromancer/Unskilled FAYDARK --> BEFALLEN --> OASIS

09-26-2007, 01:33 PM	#12
UlteriorModem Lord Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 682	I guess it would be a nice 'feature', but seriously it can be easly covered by telling your friends who your alts are (shrug).

09-26-2007, 01:40 PM	#13
Finora Tester Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,423	Isn't this something kind of like they were talking about in the launchpad revamp? I seem to recall them saying you'd be able to tell if your friend was on no matter what game/character they were playing. But really, in game it's pretty easy to let your guild (use the nice little area under your name for typing 'soandso's alt&#39 or by telling your friends hey! this is me. If you aren't my friend =) or in my guild I don't really care if you ever know which alts are me lol. __________________ Lady Finora Mystic of Prism Everfrost(Grobb) Finora of Valiant Knights Test Server

09-26-2007, 02:08 PM	#14
Saroc_Luclin Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 534	Finora@Everfrost wrote: Isn't this something kind of like they were talking about in the launchpad revamp? I seem to recall them saying you'd be able to tell if your friend was on no matter what game/character they were playing. But really, in game it's pretty easy to let your guild (use the nice little area under your name for typing 'soandso's alt'" /> or by telling your friends hey! this is me. If you aren't my friend =) or in my guild I don't really care if you ever know which alts are me lol. Yeah, from what we were told about the new Station Launcher IM features, is it can connect Alts and Mains together (and make it so you can't tell what alt exactly is being played too). It's outside game though so not really what the OP was looking for.