Question about modifying max number of character slots

[Archaaz]

Greetings everyone. I am considering limiting the number of character slots on my active shard, and I am curious as to what will happen. If I were to set it to one slot, would players simply no longer be able to access existing characters other than the first one created, or would it delete characters after that? If the former, could I change my mind later and set it back to 5 and have them be able to access those characters again?

On a less technical note, has anyone done this, and, if so, what was the outcome. I can see a few pros and cons of doing so.

The pros include helping the economy and encouraging player interaction by preventing players from being fully self-sustaining (i.e. having a main character(s) supported by a crafter(s)). It would likewise force players to focus on and develop one character. Allowing only one character would likewise work well with a two faction system I am working on, by not allowing players to have characters in each.

The cons include the fact that I am not sure how feasible this would be with a low population shard, and also that players (myself included) enjoy creating alts, for various reasons. This is not taking into account the difficulty in policing multiple accounts and such (and I feel that something like this would encourage this even further), which begs the question of whether or not it is even worth attempting. This likewise bucks the trend in UO freeshards of making things easier and more open (no skill/stat caps, easy level up, one house per character, etc), for a more difficult, restrictive approach, in a game that is already a bit of a niche.

Another thing I had considered is allowing two slots. This would be more to allow a sense of progression. One slot would be open when the players creates the account, and the other could be unlocked later using a special in-game currency, and after a required amount of time has passed. Earning this special in-game currency would likewise be tied to a player-managed town system which will (if I can pull it off) require the cooperation of several players working together to establish a town. This would not interfere with the faction system as joining a faction will require owning a house.

Worth mentioning is that there is a max skill cap of 800 (so characters cannot be masters of all skills), made still more restrictive by a class system. House limit is set to one (and will probably remain so). Also, I am using RunUO.

Thanks in advance for any help and input.

 

[Lagatha]

All chars made before the change over the max will be gone. I know cuz I did it.

 

[Archaaz]

All chars made before the change over the max will be gone. I know cuz I did it.

Thank you very much! I will definitely need to give this some thought.

 

[Lagatha]

Thank you very much! I will definitely need to give this some thought.

Maybe let them have and alt account after they complete (quest, skills, or what ever you like) I did this on mine they get 2nd account after they gm all skills.

 

[Archaaz]

Maybe let them have and alt account after they complete (quest, skills, or what ever you like) I did this on mine they get 2nd account after they gm all skills.

Thanks for the recommendation. I am actually trying to keep things a bit more restricted to encourage focusing on one character, one town, one house, etc. I think I might allow an extra character slot, maybe two, as a reward, (if I do not go with the one character slot thing), though I think an extra account is a bit much for what I am going for with this shard. Having said, that I will definitely give this some thought.

I am starting to think that there should be a way to acquire at least one additional character slot, due to the limited player base the shard is likely to attract. Perhaps the second slot could be relatively easy to acquire, after a few months of play and a not inconsiderable cost in gold. The third could be tied to the player town system, time played and a cost in alternate currency. Something to strive for over the long haul, perhaps.

Out of curiosity, how do you police users using shared IPs or multiple IPs? I am using IPLimiter, though I am not sure how effective it is. Activity on the shard has petered out since I released it a couple of years ago, largely due to bugs and inexperience on my part. I have fixed most of this and am working toward a beta release in the hopefully nearish future, and would greatly appreciate an advice on curbing the use of multiple account and other methods of cheating.

 

[Lagatha]

Thanks for the recommendation. I am actually trying to keep things a bit more restricted to encourage focusing on one character, one town, one house, etc. I think I might allow an extra character slot, maybe two, as a reward, (if I do not go with the one character slot thing), though I think an extra account is a bit much for what I am going for with this shard. Having said, that I will definitely give this some thought.

I am starting to think that there should be a way to acquire at least one additional character slot, due to the limited player base the shard is likely to attract. Perhaps the second slot could be relatively easy to acquire, after a few months of play and a not inconsiderable cost in gold. The third could be tied to the player town system, time played and a cost in alternate currency. Something to strive for over the long haul, perhaps.

Out of curiosity, how do you police users using shared IPs or multiple IPs? I am using IPLimiter, though I am not sure how effective it is. Activity on the shard has petered out since I released it a couple of years ago, largely due to bugs and inexperience on my part. I have fixed most of this and am working toward a beta release in the hopefully nearish future, and would greatly appreciate an advice on curbing the use of multiple account and other methods of cheating.

I just ck in the admin "View all: Shared" i keep track of who I let have the extra Ip account. but my shard is small so i would know if anyone had other accounts. also only I can make 2nd or 3rd accounts.

 

[Archaaz]

I just ck in the admin "View all: Shared" i keep track of who I let have the extra Ip account. but my shard is small so i would know if anyone had other accounts. also only I can make 2nd or 3rd accounts.

Thanks again! I suspect that my shard will likewise have a small population, and so will be easier to track.

 

[Dan]

The problem you are going to find with limiting accounts, players, ect, are really going to show with your over-seas players if you attract any. Some countries seem to all be on ever changing IPs, non-static. With a VPN / changing IP it is very difficult to limit accounts. The best bet would be some sort of account management / sign up system through a website or to set AutoAccountCreation to false. This will however greatly limit your visibility.

Also as a side note / fyi for anyone else reading this: You can only set your Character slots to 1, 5, 6, or 7. Any other number will cause the client to crash.

 

[Archaaz]

The problem you are going to find with limiting accounts, players, ect, are really going to show with your over-seas players if you attract any. Some countries seem to all be on ever changing IPs, non-static. With a VPN / changing IP it is very difficult to limit accounts. The best bet would be some sort of account management / sign up system through a website or to set AutoAccountCreation to false. This will however greatly limit your visibility.

Also as a side note / fyi for anyone else reading this: You can only set your Character slots to 1, 5, 6, or 7. Any other number will cause the client to crash.

Thanks for the info. This is something I had wondered as well. I have spent the last decade moving around, mostly overseas, and am still not situated in one location. I do have a few overseas players, who only have one account, and who have not experienced any issues to date.

I am intrigued by the account management/signup system, though wonder how much work and oversight might be required. I likewise wonder how difficult a signup system might be to implement. Are there perhaps any existing scripts/systems that accomplish this? I should probably note here that I am probably, ultimately not web/tech/coding/etc. savvy enough to actually run my own shard. I have learned a lot doing it, but there is a lot of foundational stuff that is lacking.

My end goal is to have everything be as automated as possible, with as little oversight by admin and GMs as possible; including no player run events, no overreaching quest lines etc. I am considering not having GM's, but rather going with counselors with reduced powers, who really only intervene if there is a major issue, and cannot create gold, items, etc., or change major things. In essence, I want to establish a mostly automated open world, largely determined by the actions of the players, that requires the minimum effort so maintain (though I will add the occasional update here and there).

I am less concerned with visibility, as I suspect the approach I have taken with the shard is more a niche within a niche within a niche, and will likely never have a wide appeal. That said, I would like to attract enough players to make some of the systems and effort worthwhile (maybe 50-100). Being required to approve every account request is not ideal, but something I might entertain, especially if I could receive an email each time someone registers an account.

I had actually read about the client character limit, but thanks for the reminder. I have played on a shard that required gold to unlock characters slots (Voxpire's, I think), presumably done by changing the name of the slot itself so that it shows as such on the login screen. If I were to limit characters to two or three slots rather than one slot only, this is the approach I had hoped to take. I have not looked into this in depth and am not sure exactly what is possible in this regard (i.e. if different slots could be made to show up differently, or not show at all). On the other hand, having the client crash when going over the limit, while not pretty or polished, is not the end of the world, since it does not crash the server. Seems like one of those things a player tries once, (hopefully) (re)reads the rules, and does not try again.