Many alts or focus one/two?

[Icarus]

Heya folks! So this post is because of curiosity and wanting to get a bit of a consensus on amount of alts abd the like. Allow me to explain:

So currently I have about 8 alts I think? (One of which still in chargen). Now i love all my characters quite dearly... which can make it hard for me to let go. Now I end up basically chopping and changing between them depending on how I feel and what's going on. So a lot of them flicker between inactive and active. But my problem is I kinda feel like none of them really achieve much. I see lots of players who have very old chars they've been playing for ages and have cool stories for them and stuff they've done with others. Little legacies.

I feel like I'm missing out a bit by the constant switching. I'd like to iterate again I adore all my alts. I have had a lot of fun with all of them and they all have quirks and personal touches which i really like.

I was wanting to know whether people generally play like me in swapping around a lot or whether you thibk its better to focus on a single character. And instwad of swapping when bored going and doing stuff on the char to bring more excitement like meeting new people or persuing new crafts. I'm wondering if it might be time to bite the bullet and cut down my character count to a select 1 to 3 that I know I will enjoy playing a long time and that I can keep active.

I found activity as a gl was a problem but I feel that may have been down a lot to wanting to play other chars at the time and now with my much shorter playtime window it dies seem I may not be able to handle the constant switcharoo of alts.

As I said I'd really like to hear how other people play and what they find they prefer as it would be really cool to see the different opinions on this matter and might help me work out what I'd be good doing.

Thanks in advance folks. And if you have cool stories about your characters I'd love to gear those too! Never hurts to get ideas for when I'm unsure what to go and do

Lots of love,
-Icarus

[Zeita]

I've certainly never really been able to maintain more than two characters at the best of times, with one being my usual limit (with an occasional foray). My general tendency is to have a main and that side alt, and when the side alt start to take my interest more to move on from the main by killing them off. I've never been personally inclined to shelve characters- once their story is played out or begins to feel like it is stalling or 'going through the motions', I cut the cord.

However, to take things off on a slight tangent, I've often experienced characters not getting 'deep and rewarding' RP due to a lack of time, although for me it is due to a general lack of time (boo work, boo timezone) rather than alt-switcherooing (yes, totes a word).

If you're (general you, not specific to Icky) not able to put in a certain number of hours and consistently so, on a character, it is likely to lead to your feeling that you're on the outskirts or tangential to the main thread of the game. You're less able to establish meaningful connections with other PCs or to influence matters. I certainly experienced that as Margaux, much to my frustration, a frustration which had a lot of bearing on my decision to set her aside- if I couldn't play enough for it to be rewarding or deep, there was little point, in my mind, to putting in a token effort that left me still hungry for more and frustrated with my inability. It was doubly telling for a character designed to be involved and meddling with the political levers of TI's world.

All of that said, I don't really have a good answer for you Icky! At the end of the day, it comes down to doing what is right for you, taking the path that you'll find the most rewarding personally.

Mami- (Formerly Margaux, can be found on TI as Carys.)

[Voxumo]

To kind of mimic what Zeita said, it all really does come down to time. I once played 6 different alts, typically with 4 at one time. Though as my schedule started getting busier and busier I limited myself in the number of alts.

Though the most important things with alts is to always remember which alt knows what. When you have alot of alts, it can lead to information getting muggled together, which can lead to accidental alt crossover. Never fun.

[Temi]

I tend to have several alts (3-4) that I try to keep minimally active ( an hour a week). Then I will devote more time to the ones that feel hooked into things. Or none of them and just focus on staff stuff. I do think that it backfires on me at times. I don't spend a lot of time on the ones that aren't involved in things, but the 1 hour a week isn't necessarily enough to get them involved in anything inspiring.

[Azi]

I have four, but generally can't do more than two active at a time without risking overcommitting myself and letting other people down. Even two is difficult when you have a knight or a crafter and my knight is a crafter because I evidently hate myself.

[Rothgar]

I mean, it's really left up to you. I wouldn't recommend a dern thing because I don't have the patience or the attention span to play more then two characters at a time - even that is taxing to me.

Generally, I just put a bunch of love into a single character and let them play out until whatever happens, happens. It's worked out well for me, but - in the defense of people who have a few alts to fall back on - the death of a character like that is bretty hard to take. When you concentrate on a single character, I find that I usually get emotionally involved with what they're doing, and it makes RP a bit more taxing on the feels.

[Pixie]

I usually have 4-5 alts I try to keep minimally active. My "main" I keep much more active than the others.