Alts with unusual puposes

[BurnTheWitch]

So I logged in for a moment this morning while waiting for a flight at the airport on my FF toon (figured I’d make a little while I had nothing else to do) when low and behold, the first message that came over any channel was. . 

 

Ada in 2 minutes!

 

Well, that’s all I needed to hear. I logged out and logged back in with one of my “ada” toons, slapped ada, and then logged back on my farmer. "Ada toons" are alts that I got to 50 but decided along the way that they were never going to see much more action (I didn’t like them enough for some reason or another to get them maxed out etc.). I’m not sure if this is uncommon, but I certainly see many of the same people crunching ada on the regular.

 

So here is the question.

 

Do you have any alts that you think serve an odd purpose? Not a farmer or a private SG alt, those are rather normal, but an alt that is used for a specific purpose and that is their only/main purpose.

 

 

[Ghost]

I’m curious.

If you know that you’re not really interested in playing them for more than about 12src to beat Ada, why not just delete them?

 

 

[Maelwys]

3 minutes ago, BurnTheWitch said:

Do you have any alts that you think serve an odd purpose? Not a farmer or a private SG alt, those are rather normal, but an alt that is used for a specific purpose and that is their only/main purpose.

 

Back on Live I kept a specific defender for whenever anyone was demanding a "Healer".
They were an Archery/FF; and they didn't have the medicine pool... but they did have Recall Friend; Power Boost and Vengeance.

I also kept a Mastermind whose only job was to hang around by the Train station and perform cliche /petsay + emote skits. Think Anarchic Androids with Boomboxes.

[Ravenplume]

The only ones I have that come to mind are Express Pony and Ponygirl Express.  I made them for transferring large amounts of stuff between servers instead of mailing things one at a time

[tidge]

I might have a character or two that I log into only when Global conversation takes a peculiar direction.

[Ukase]

I have 4 accounts. @ukase, @ukase2 @ukase3 and @ukase? 

Each account has a character that holds a mission with AM and Siege, or Multi-dimensional and Shrouded (or AM and Shrouded, and Multi-Dimensional and Siege) 
Each account has a character next to Schweinzer for the Invader accolade. 
I've got a couple of characters that have maps filled with Paragon Protectors. 
I've got one character with the mission filled with Croatoan Ghosts. 
I've got one character that stands on an Island in Ouroboros that does nothing but market. 
I've also got several characters in Echo: DA for Adamastor, but none of them see regular action, unless I happen to see the courtesy message in LFG letting me know when he's able to be summoned. 
I used to have one character standing by in one SG base in case an alt that wasn't in that SG needed some loot, but since the evenings were encroaching on the 1100 "No dual boxing" threshold, I just made the characters switch sgs to the base that has the salvage they needed to craft. 
I have two tanks on two different accounts that stand next to moonfire to grind through the first two missions for my alts. 
I have two fire blasters that sit in Cap and Port Oakes, respectively to quickly dispatch with Spiders and Family for those defeat badges. 
I have a couple of characters next to the Detective for the Safeguard maps in Steel for those badges. 
I have 6 characters parked in the Abyss for Hami raids. These are either fire/natty or ice/natty. Each has Radial Support Hybrid and Radial Rebirth (t-4 in both) and Longbow t-4 core, because that seemed to be what the league leader (Goddess Laucianne) wanted. 

The whole idea was to set things up so I don't have to wait on anyone. (aside from the Hami characters) Even in Cosmic Council, back in the heyday, we'd do accolade runs once a week, but because there'd be newer or less-experienced players, the process would take about 40 minutes longer than if I just did it myself. And while I enjoy teaming with some players, some players are just weird different than what I'd expect.  I'm okay with roleplay, but when you're roleplaying an idiot, or some other character that just repeats the same thing over and over again, it's not fun for me. So, it's just faster, and often times easier to do these things myself. Certainly less annoying. 

 

[The Trouble]

I have a proc-monster Ice/Sonic Blaster that accidentally became a Hamidon raid exclusive character.  Tons of damage and a shocking amount of Holds made the build a perfect fit.

[Ukase]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

I’m curious.

If you know that you’re not really interested in playing them for more than about 12src to beat Ada, why not just delete them?

 

 

Just so you know - deleting characters is time consuming. And...sometimes, selling the enhancements can be problematic, as they have very little value. So, you're left with storing them somewhere - but why - they have little utility, they'd just take up space. So, that leaves converting. When I craft/convert, I tend to do this with IOs that have levels. Attuned IOs, which are most of the lower valued IOs on a build, they sometimes burn more converters trying to get something decent or useful than they're worth. 

I have about 30 IOs that are boosted to +5 for a character I opted to get rid of. And the character was ancient; hadn't been played in about 800 days. For some reason, I had 2 Crushing Impacts +5, for frankenslotting, and a number of Glad Javelin +5'd. Now, they sit in my base, waiting to be used. Maybe some day. It takes a long time for some the less popular IOs to sell. So, that is my reason for tending to not delete characters I've little interest in actively playing. (to be fair, the characters in the abyss, I'd play anywhere - the rest, not so much.) 

[lemming]

2 hours ago, Ghost said:

I’m curious.

If you know that you’re not really interested in playing them for more than about 12src to beat Ada, why not just delete them?

I used to have ~200 chars and I did whittle them down to less than a 100.  I still have some that fit certain concepts, or I just like the name and setup more.   I probably only play a dozen regularly.

I do have a few more that maybe retired in the future.   Some power sets and combos just aren't that interesting to me.

 

Some of the ones I don't play much have certain missions on them to use, a few mules for transferring stuff, and then I do have a couple characters that are parked in the hive, or other places.

[Scarlet Shocker]

Invincible Woman is always ready for Adamastor

 

 

[Lunar Ronin]

I have two Stalker alts on two separate accounts that are solely used to get my low damage characters (like Controllers), through their patron story arcs and stat-boosting accolades more quickly.

[biostem]

3 hours ago, Ghost said:

If you know that you’re not really interested in playing them for more than about 12src to beat Ada, why not just delete them?

With 1000 slots per server, and unless you're actually at that limit, why delete any character, much less suggest that others should do so?

Edited 3 hours ago by biostem

[Hedgefund]

I've got a LOT of characters that serve a specific purpose.  My 3rd account was created mostly for this type of "administrative" function, which includes farmers (now retired) and characters that hold specific missions, such as

 

1) Family 

2) Wolf Spiders 

3) Anti-Matter

4) Siege

5) Multidimensional and Shrouded (same character)

6) Spectral Pirates

7) Fir Bolg 

8 Croatoa Ghosts

9) Tuatha de Danaan 

10) Cabal 

11) Red Caps 

12-15) 4 MMs (traps or cold) that exist to defeat end of tf/sf AV/Heros when I 2-3 box

16) Kronos Titan spawner (no I'm not any part of the Titan-thon on Excel).

 

Most of these characters have names that specify their purpose so I don't have to hunt them down, for example having "spectral pirates" in the name.

Edited 2 hours ago by Hedgefund

[Techwright]

Well, besides my level 50 AH/banker/crafter, the only other special purpose ones I have are two kinds of place-holder alts:

 

1. reserves the name for a character or characters whose name/concept came to me suddenly, but whom I do not currently have time to flesh out.  Essentially placeholders for the next guys I intend to build properly and take to 50.

 

2. Placeholders which specifically reserve the name of one of my key characters, but on a different server.  That way, if there's an event (admittedly rare these days) that I want to jump servers to participate in, I can just rename the alt temporarily, transfer the main character to the other server, and reverse everything when I'm done.  There's only a few of these, and only for those characters whose names are mainstream enough that I feel the name might be taken by others otherwise.     Obviously, a name like "Illinois Johnson" would likely not need a placeholder, while something like "Superbman" might.

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

With 1000 slots per server, and unless you're actually at that limit, why delete any character, much less suggest that others should do so?

FFS I asked a question.

I did not suggest that anyone had too, or that it was bad not too.  🙄

 

When I find that I’m no longer having fun with a certain toon, I delete them.  I always assumed everyone else did the same.

Finding out they don’t amazed me, which is why I asked.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Ghost

[Psyonico]

My namesake, a mind/ff controller is relegated to market tasks these days.   He's probably the only character that i have that i don't forsee myself playing again,  but I can't delete him because he's my namesake and a recreation of my first character ever. 

[biostem]

51 minutes ago, Ghost said:

When I find that I’m no longer having fun with a certain toon, I delete them.  I always assumed everyone else did the same.

Finding out they don’t amazed me, which is why I asked.

But you haven't answered the question - why delete them.  Why destroy something you've devoted time into?  You're cutting off your nose to spite your face...

[Ghost]

42 minutes ago, biostem said:

But you haven't answered the question - why delete them.  Why destroy something you've devoted time into?  You're cutting off your nose to spite your face...

How is it cutting off my nose to spite my face?

An example of that would be quitting the game because of an argument here in the forums.  Not deleting a toon I know I’m not gonna play again.  That’s more like throwing away an old pair of socks.

 

I liken it to old power cords.

Some people keep them in a drawer or box “just in case”. 
Other people (like me) throw them away, knowing I will never have a use for them again.

 

For the record, I have roughly 50 toons.  About half are lvl50.

The last time I deleted a toon was around 3-4 weeks ago.  A lvl50 blaster that I had not logged onto in almost 300 days.

Edited 32 minutes ago by Ghost

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, Ghost said:

How is it cutting off my nose to spite my face?

Because you are destroying something you've devoted time into.  Not only that, but it actually takes even more time to go ahead and delete them, than had you just let them be...

[Ghost]

21 minutes ago, biostem said:

Because you are destroying something you've devoted time into.  Not only that, but it actually takes even more time to go ahead and delete them, than had you just let them be...

But that still doesn’t match the saying.

Taken from CoPilot:

The phrase "cutting my nose to spite my face" refers to a self-destructive action taken out of spite or anger, where one harms themselves more than the intended target.

 

I’m not deleting them out of anger, or to “teach someone else a lesson”

 

Anyways,  it does take longer to delete than ignore.  But why stockpile something you never intend to use?

I can break down a toon and list everything on the market in about 30 minutes.  I check back in a week.  Collect the influence and then delete the toon.

Yes I put time into it, but again, what does that matter if I get no enjoyments out of playing it?

 

Its odd to me that someone looks at a toon and says “It’s no fun, and I’m never playing it again”.  Then follows up with “but it’s miiine, and I’m just gonna keep it over here in the corner where no one can see it”

It’s odd.  
I’m not degrading or shaming anyone for doing it. I’m just surprised that people do that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 3 minutes ago by Ghost