Alts in the E.P.O.C.H. and Background characters

Hey there!

First I want to apologise for lack of activity. My new job has unlimited time so often I'm at 8pm at home and have to spend some time with Family. But hey! It's Weekend baby!

I have one question and one idea: both not so huge to put them in separate topics I think. We know that SWTOR will be HUGE. despite likes & dislikes most of us plan to play more than one character. And here comes my question:

What do to with ALT CHARACTERS? I know that few of us plan to play more than one member of the Agency. Personally, I want both: Leta & Raza to be here. Leta as main and core Agent, and my Sith warrior more like someone just getting inside (I want to RP it when the game will be out and try to join him then).

But does those characters count in "20 Agents" List? In other words it's 20 characters or 20 players? So can one player occupy 3 spots in the guild or he is just counted as one and marked as his main character profession?

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And Now for Something Completely Different

Background characters: non-EPOCH characters that could be used as NPC in EPOCH missions or in contacts with Agency customers. For example I will probably play all 4 Empire classes. Since my Imperial Agent and Sith Warrior will be more or less connected with EPOCH, I'll use Bounty Hunter and Sith Inquisitor as "Backgrounders".

"Bounty Hunter" - Black market shady merchant that provides all kind of illegal equipment, and specialises himself with crafting energy weapons. He will work for himself, but he can give some information to other players seeking for RP mercenaries about EPOCH. Or He can construct some special weaponry for specific Agency mission.

"Sith Inquisitor" - little mad alien possessed with idea of Sith Alchemy. She may need Agency services to gain access to more rare organic material (like Jedi or Tarentaks . She would be interesting client and still she could point EPOCH to some other Sith characters.

So then we can create really diverse gallery of characters (also on Republic site) that can rise the number of our customers and potential agents/contacts/freelancers. The idea is not to double the Freelancer status, but to give rich criminal and shady background. I've tested this method with WoW and role-playing Alterac Syndicate organization. It was a Hit! You have opportunity to spread the word about your guild in-game and you always have some NPC for testing initiates RP skills.

What do you think?

Hey-hey Witya

I'll answer those questions to the best of my ability; I'm sure that PJK, Caryington & Sureshot will correct me if I put a foot wrong because we've given more thought to "Mains" than we have "Alts".

Witya wrote:

What do to with ALT CHARACTERS? I know that few of us plan to play more than one member of the Agency. Personally, I want both: Leta & Raza to be here. Leta as main and core Agent, and my Sith warrior more like someone just getting inside (I want to RP it when the game will be out and try to join him then).

We're not completely sure what will be happening with alt characters yet, except that we know almost everybody has one. Chances are that mains will be involved in the Buddy System, which means Alts might well be used for when people fancy some solo-gaming, or a character devoted to a single options such as PvP or Crafting. Personally I know that I love running around with people, actually playing as my character but every now and again I like to kick back and do some solo'ing. That's most likely when I'll use my Bounty Hunter, Gideon. Thing is, an alt is also a good 'back up', for example I plan on concentrating on playing the Sith Inquisitor class and doing most of my flashpoints / big group quests with her - but there may come a time when she's just not needed (like if the group already has an SI), so then I'd whip my BH out and use his set of skills instead.

Witya wrote:

But does those characters count in "20 Agents" List? In other words it's 20 characters or 20 players? So can one player occupy 3 spots in the guild or he is just counted as one and marked as his main character profession?

Nope. The 20 required cover Mains only. So Leta = 1 of 20, for example. Alts aren't covered in this quota and there is no limit on how many alts you can have in the guild at this present time (well, common sense might be a limit ).

Witya wrote:

Background characters: non-EPOCH characters that could be used as NPC in EPOCH missions or in contacts with Agency customers. For example I will probably play all 4 Empire classes. Since my Imperial Agent and Sith Warrior will be more or less connected with EPOCH, I'll use Bounty Hunter and Sith Inquisitor as "Backgrounders".

These are to be encouraged! We already have quite a few "out-of-game" npcs for EPOCH (those which exist here at the forums only, such as F0R-G3, Malindrll Mdybo, the entire staff at The Hyperion) but having some in-game ones (that's what your suggesting right?) would be an excellent idea and I'd be well up for this! I'd love it if there was an option to make 'non-heroic' characters who just went about their daily jobs that we could use for npcs during RP events etc; but I doubt we'll be able to do this so we'll have to work within the confines of the game.
There would be no problem, for example, making a Zabrak Imperial Agent and placing him on Hutta then saying (for RP Purposes) that he's actually a Stim-vendor; and use him as part of said RP event. Of course, making characters 'on yhe fly' like this would mean they would have to be created each time, for each event - and that means they will probably not go above level 4 or 5 and be restricted to the starter zones - but yeah! sounds good.

As RP director I'll be leaving at least 1/2 of my "character slots" free to make "npcs"

Nothing to add to LW's answer.

I'm gonna focus on Caryington as my main and will use my alt as an npc agent.

Yeah I think L-Dubz has pretty much summed it up. As long as we can fill the quota of 20 (maybe even 30 depending on how much interest we get from active members) and we have enough mains to cover things like raids then we should be ok.