[MUD-Dev] Star Wars Galaxies: 1 character per server

[Marc Fielding]

[ Matt Mihaly ]

>>>> A simple solution would be to only allow one character per
>>>> server to perform offline construction at a time. New requests
>>>> for offline construction would supercede previous ones.

>>> That's not really a solution insofar as it drastically increases
>>> the number of accounts who will be faucets. Many people will not
>>> spend the points to make their primary character a significant
>>> faucet in an SCS model.

>> I'm sorry. I'm not getting your point. Could you please
>> elaborate?

> Sure. If I can play multiple characters on a server, limiting me
> to one off-line tradeskill character means I will have one
> off-line tradeskill character. If you limited me to one character
> per server, I will not be making my character an off-line
> tradeskill character, because I'll be putting my points into other
> skills (since, like most people, I'm not that interested in
> playing on multiple servers).

I see where you're going. Perhaps my original statement wasn't
clear.

Bubba plays an MCS-enabled SWG. He has three characters in his
account on the same server: a butcher, a baker, and a lightsaber
maker. ;) He logs the butcher in and spends a few hours preparing
Baby-(Dew)back Ribs. Tiring of the process, he decides to play his
baker. He switches out of his butcher character while indicating
that it is to continue its task of rib preparation offline.

After a few hours researching a recipe for Corellian Crepes, he
decides to switch to his lightsaber maker while the baker makes a
few fresh batches. Logging out of the newly offline-tasked baker
induces the game to check if any of Bubba's other characters on the
same server are currently engaged in offline tasks. The toiling
butcher is identified and relieved of its workload. The baker then
begins production.

At some point Bubba decides to log off for the night, but needs a
shipment of lightsabers built by morning. As before, the lightsaber
maker then becomes the active offline task, deactivating the baker.

This approach won't increase the number of faucets, as only one
faucet will be active at a time per account, per server.

Will people in the SCS model make faucets (pure tradespeople)? I
don't see why they wouldn't. SOE is attempting to make SWG skills
valuable in their own right.

>> Well, it's a technical violation of the contract, but with such
>> non-approved usage seemingly widespread, why not legitimize it?
>> The customer has indicated a preference for the practice. SOE
>> stands to gain "free" word-of-mouth advertising from it. Time to
>> "embrace and extend."  ;)

> People generally exhibit a preference for anything free. That
> doesn't mean it's desirable to give it to them, from the
> provider's point of view. It's certainly not desirable for
> Universal Studios to encourage people to download their movies for
> free, instead of buying them on DVD, for instance.

>> At most, average usage will be moderately elevated, not maxxed
>> out.

> Oh, sure, I didn't mean to say it would be maxxed out in practice
> all the time, but moderately elevated still = higher cost to the
> developer.


If such usage did result in higher costs, the developer has the
option of increasing the monthly fee. There's a good deal of
precedent for MMOG customer acceptance of price increases.

Or you could just charge a small fee for each additional character
per server.

-Marc
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