Altoholics Annonymous

So I was checking through my characters last night, and I was shocked -- SHOCKED -- to realized that I had not logged in my level 28 dark melee/dark armor scrapper Mina Evangeline in 47 days. How could that be? I only just created that character! I mean, it wasn't as recent as last week, but... 47 days?

Mina was my new brute started this year that I was going to get to 50 to see what Dark Armor was like. Oh, sure, I got distracted by a few other projects since then -- I mean, there was this new scrapper... and then this other new scrapper... and then I wanted an awesome night widow.. and then I wanted to revamp my em/shield scrapper...

Okay, well I guess that could have taken 47 days....

Hello, my name is Organica, and I'm an altoholic. I'm actually not your prototypical altoholic, because I can occasionally focus and push a character to level 50. And I do play my 50's! (Some of them anyway.) I have something over 15 level 50 characters. But I have many more projects than I have time for. On Virtue, my home server, I have every possible slot filled on one account, and all but 1 slot filled on my 2nd account. That's, what, 71 characters? I was actually considering buying that last slot, and then I just hit my 48th month vet badge and was awarded an extra slot. Score!

I have a lot of characters on other servers too, but so far I haven't needed extra slots on other servers. And I still have a few level 1 characters on Virtue that I may delete if I get a better idea. Tinfoil Hat, Bid Creep, Minos the Hammer, and AE Baby might never see level 2.

So -- Mina Evangeline. This is actually a 2nd version of a character I created when GR came out. That character is named Eva Tepes. Both characters are young girl vampires loosely based on two anime characters -- Evangeline McDowell of Negima!, and Mina Tepes of Dance in the Vampire Bund (two fun manga). I liked Eva a lot, but I didn't like soloing in Praetoria so much when all of my friends were in Paragon, so Eva got stuck at level 10. Eva was also a scrapper -- dark melee since she's a vampire. When I decided to tackle the character idea again, I made a brute -- Mina Evangeline. I only have 1 level 50 brute, and 1 at 40, I need a really good one! Mina was my new project character for the new year!

Alas, I was distracted by another idea. Last year I became obsessed with a series of characters whose back story is that they've all escaped from an AE PL mission. They are all "buffbot" girls, they all look exactly alike and have various buff powers: Rad Girl One (def), Kin Girl Two (def), Fire Girl Three (corr), Dark Girl Four (def), Empathy Girl Five (def), Bubble Girl Six (def), Sonic Girl Seven (def), Ice Girl Eight (def), Pain Girl Nine (corr), and Poison Girl Ten (mm). Just what an altoholic needs, ten new characters at one go, huh? I actually have played Bubble Girl to 50, Dark Girl to 46, Sonic Girl to 45 and Ice Girl to 44. (The others have largely been ignored so far -- most of them are around level 20.)

Aha! But why can't one of them have learned a new job? Why can't one of them have learned to be a fighter, a scrapper? So I created Scrapper Girl One and took her to 35.

And then I was distracted by the lure of big AoE damage, and created Trinkets, a fire melee/shield defense scrapper. I played her to 28.

And then I decided I wanted a kick-*** night widow, and turned to Miss Shinobu, a level 27 night widow that I'd created last Fall. I actually focused long enough to get her to level 50 and kit her out with a very expensive build, and even played her for several weeks after that. She's currently one of my favorite level 50s.

But it's hard to remain focused. My current project has been to completely rework my electric melee/shield defense scrapper Sparks Fly and give her an even more expensive build. I'm nearly done with that, and Sparks has become as much fun to play as Miss Shinobu. Most nights I've been playing one or the other.

In the meantime, I've kind of avoided all of the new trials and am way behind on badging with Mouse Police (my only real badger), I've failed to get any character a tier 4 alpha slot (Nina Ballerina and Miss Shinobu are closest), and I have all kinds of other alts that I'd like to get to 50 at some point.

Where I'm going to go next is anyone's guess. I could go back to Mina, or Trinkets, or Scrapper Girl. But I have so many other alts that I want to play! I have two blasters in the 40's, my fire/kin from 2004 is all the way to 39 now, my mm is 45, I have several mid-level tanks that I'd like to level some day, and I have plans to level at least one stalker, one corruptor, and one dominator to 50 since I've never done that. But I'll probably create a brand new character and get them to 25 or 35 before doing something else.

Anyway, I need a few stories from other altoholics so that I can feel like I'm not alone. What's your latest characters, or what have you been working on lately?

Latest?

And only 45 days? I have a few over 100. Just haven't gotten back around to them yet. (Or in one or two cases, the group they're with hasn't gotten back to running that group.) And be glad you only have 71 characters.

So, groups:
- Shield tanks. Stuck at 49 1/2... just to get the rest of the group together for that last mission or two.

- Lucky Murphy. Know that "They fight crime!" website? Yeah. Played with that, we came up with characters. Mine's a werewolf with a robotic buddy (or several, soon.) Who happens to have lasers.

... among others.

Recent 50 - CTI Dreamer, my Ill/Sonic. I don't recommend the combo to anyone. But it's done, finally, mostly as part of my "one of each Control powerset to 50." Plant's a lot more fun (and controller-y.)

Long term alt spurs -
My first 50, back when, was an Elec/Elec blaster. Since then, pretty much any Electric set that comes out gets something created. Or even non-electric, if I feel like it. So far, I have her (with two copies elsewhere, one as part of a group, one in the 30s,), a Peacebringer (to continue the story, also 50,) a Dark/Therm Corruptor (40, and I really should concentrate on her,) a Merc/Storm at 45, (there's electricity!) MM, an Elec/Elec Dom (heroside,) an electric tank, an elec/nin stalker... she's branched out a fair bit.

See my Guides and Tutorials

well....i don't have nearly as many lvl 50's as you do but...lessee...

when GR came out, i started with a stone/will brute named Wil Stone...

Oh..no..wait. I started with a kin/elec stalker named Kin Raiken...got him up to like lvl 10 before switching out to Wil Stone, who solo'd much of the Praet content. (btw, this was with the intent to team once a week with a regular group. Managed to catch him up to the rest of the team, got out of Praet Earth and gained a few more levels. At the same time i was tinkering with another toon by the name of Gunslinger Raiken. A DP/Elec blaster. I got so hooked on him that i switched him out with Wil Stone for that particular group night. Managed to keep him around on that team till he dinged lvl 50.

Did some Incarnate work with Gunslinger, managed to get him up to a second tier Spiritual. Got a bit meh'd with the repeated TF's and such, started a few new toons, one or 2 of which might have made it as far as level 12 before returning back to Wil Stone, who went from his late 30's at the time to level 44 now. Then i've taken a few weeks off.

And that's just been since GR hit.

Some of my projects before and after GR.

Kinetic Pistols: Kin/DP def
Infinite Bullets: AR/NRG blaster
Raiken the Summoner: Demon/Thermal MM
Teek Freak: Grav/NRG dommy
KinKitsune: KM/Nin stalker
Kinetic Raiken: KM/Elec scrapper
Devon Trace: SD/KM tanker
Shey Fioras: PB
Jack Blackheart: Widower
Rocky Martin: Earth/Earth dommy
Tel'a Jhin Va: Plant/Thorn dommy
Rick Raven: Thugs/TA mm
MekMaster: Bots/FF mm
Renzoukuu: Ninjas/Dark mm
Capt. Stormbringer: Mercs/Storm mm
Kaotic Storm: Plant/Storm controller
Swordmaster Po: DB/Regen scrapper
Ninja T: MA/Regen scrapper

...and quite a few more than i flip-flop back and forth between.

None of these listed are lvl 50 and run the gambit between level 8 and mid 40's. I've even been known to switch between 2, 3, and even 4 toons in the timespan of a few hours based on a whim (thankfully it's usually around friends that know me and have learned to put up with me...lol).

Sometimes i can focus on a single toon, but rarely for more than a couple of weeks at best. I swap moods for melee, range, control, SMASH!, pinata punching, support, like a woman changes outfits.



For the record: I blame my friend for this. Before i met him, i'd created a single toon and played him exclusively. That all changed after we crossed paths. Damn him!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe ::looks at RaikenX's signature:: Something funny.

I have 36 slots on Defiant filled, then I have about 35 slots on Union filled and then I have 14 slots on Vigilance.
Zukunft was good but too few people playing regularly.

Thats roughly 85 characters, almost all of them caped. I think only 8 below 20 but all above 10 except one Mecca Lours. I probably have a character from most places.

Thats just one account out of four that I have bought during my time (2 have been dropped forever but the other one still going has possibly 16 characters on it. I don't do farms, I don't do PL or exploit the exploitable to get levels I just play.

When we server merge I might port them about so that I can play my Canadian characters with Canadians and my American characters (incl American Indian) with Americans and so on. One of my Night Widows is a Australian Aborigine so I'll put her where they are. Costly I think so but I do like to meet people from all over.

I never let a character go unplayed for more than 40 days normally, which is something I guess and have the interface set up so that like for like powers are always in the same place (its a pbaoe, tray 3 slot 3 and so on).

If I see a new obvious concept, I'll create a new character. If not then I am not going to make anymore. I must work 70+ hours a week so time is never really there.

Edit:At work right now doing a design for a company in Detroit, its going to be a 24 hour shift.

Psssh... Altaholic? Try being a respec junkie. Far more expensive, time consuming and mind numbingly weird.

I'M AN ALTAHOLIC!! I'M ADDICTED TO ALTAHOL!!!!

I've got a wide level range of characters in 18 slots in my home server (5 level 50s), and just a couple weeks ago I came up with 4 new characters I want to roll when I get new slots. Making it even harder to pick a character to focus on, especially now with Incarnate content (thankfully I don't even play 2 of my 50s anymore).

Step 1: Admitting you are a altaholic . Yes I am a Altaholic.
Step 2: Admitting you have a problem . Yep i do only so many hours per day to
play all my Alts after work.
Step 3: Ignore Step 2 and make more Alts.
Step 4: Squeeeeee in delight we are getting more servers to make more Alts on.
Step 5: goto Step 1 , Repeat as often as you can when you find a empty slot for a new Alt.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I'm not nearly as bad... for instance, I only really play on Virtue, and even then I still have nine unfilled (locked) slots. Of the characters I have, 11 are level 50. Then I have one at 36, and a handful around level 20. My altitis keeps me so frequently deleting and creating characters in those non-50 slots that it's almost sad, really. I have absolutely no idea how many characters I've made. I can go weeks at a time doing this without playing my 50s once. Once the EU servers merge with us, I'll probably roll characters on Union too, which will only make it worse.

Whatever, I have fun. :P

Wild Streak - Lv. 50(+3) Beast Mastery/Sonic Resonance Mastermind, Amnesty - Lv. 50 Staff Fighting/Dark Armor Stalker

I only have two 50s after something like three years playing, something always comes along and I either get bored with a current toon or a new one I've made grabs me more.

When GR came out, I thoughtlessly made like 8 toons, only three of which have gotten past 30, A couple have finally left Pratetoria, but the rest still languish there as I prefer teaming and it's hard to find teams during my normal hours of play (early morning). The three are an Ill/Rad troller, a Mace/Elec tank (first tank I ever cared for) and an MA/SR scrapper who's nothing but fun.

And then I started enjoying playing my namesake stalker again after all this time, finally getting him up to 43rd and well on his way to being IOed-out...

And then I went back to a DP/Mentalwhateverthatpowersetiscalled blaster who was at 18th level, got her out of Praetoria and found a great team and zipped her along to something like 26th...

And then I went back to a Fire/Traps corr from a long time back and ran him a few tips...

...and that poor tank I liked hasn't been touched in months.

I just can't help all the toon-jumping-around.

Level 12 Peacebringer: 1200+ days offline.

Highest PB I've played was at level 30, and that's only because I was playing one on test before i3 launched and he got level bumped that high.

I also have a 29 BS/Shield I started and absolutely loved everything about, but then I went on vacation for a week. Came back, and the magic was gone. Stripped him of his uniques and threw them to the character I took from 46-50 yesterday: my Huntsman, who is, for the time being, my new main.

Countless other alts have been discarded on their way to 50. Many were promising at first, but just lost their flavor. I keep most of them once they get to about 30, but rarely play them again. Oddly enough, my most played toon is my very first villain, an SS/EA brute from the launch of CoV. I soloed him 99% of the time from 1-43, without getting bored somehow.

Last Sunday I had a character hit 50 who was created the first day the game was released.

I will point out that I wrote this just for folks like us...

See my Guides and Tutorials

Pfft, I'm looking at a reserved slot I saved with over 1000 days offline.

I've had much worse than that but since moved them to Victory after that server started to die and swapped my most played to Freedom.

I have two servers full of toons.

Altolholic for life.

Weird. I had the same reaction just today. And last week. And the week before. "This is my new character I only just made, how is it that I've not logged in for X number of days."

Darned projects.

On a related note, I hate that I can't redeem my most recent extra character slot. I'm already at 36 characters on my main server. I wish we could have 60 characters per server. That'd do for a while.

Lewis

After the comment about 1200 days, I got curious to see what the high number of days offline I could find on a toon I had. Oldest I can see on my main account is a lvl 2 controller on Pinnacle with 2563 days since I last logged onto him, I guess I should likely delete him huh.

Last night in the Market channel, Chaos commented that "a trained monkey" could farm as well as the farmer he was watching.

I made the comment that "I wonder if 'Trained Monkey' is available as a name?" Chaos said it wasn't likely on Virtue... but after due consideration the idea that a character with the full name of "A Trained Monkey" would get some hilarious comments from random npcs was too much to resist.... IE "Look! It's A Trained Monkey!" "A Trained Monkey saved my grandfather!" "I heard A Trained Monkey took on the Council!"

So now I've used my last open slot on Virtue. ^_^

I've found that the limitation on spending A-merits has contributed to my altaholism. Since you can't buy more than one item with alignment merits in any 20-hour period, it's a good idea to have several characters accumulating A-merits so that you spread the merits around and can impulse-buy entire sets in one evening (by buying one IO with each character). This has induced me to have a regular rotation of characters knocking out tip missions...and then, while I'm on one, I get distracted by a badge I'm close to acquiring, or I get invited to a team, or I get all excited about leveling the character, and next thing you know I've spent the evening on a character I hadn't intended to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkGob (thankfully I don't even play 2 of my 50s anymore).

One thing that I've found prevents me from playing some of my 50s is when their builds get very out-of-date. I still have some I need to respec into Inherent Fitness, and some old badly-thought-out builds, but it's so much work rebuilding them from scratch that I wind up putting it off indefinitely.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5 I just can't help all the toon-jumping-around.

A great strength of this game is how different the playing experience can be with different ATs, powersets, and even costumes. I often feel like changing to a different character just for the change...but more typically, I will log onto one to check the market and wind up getting excited about the character and, once again, playing him/her the rest of the night.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Organica but after due consideration the idea that a character with the full name of "A Trained Monkey" would get some hilarious comments from random npcs was too much to resist.... IE "Look! It's A Trained Monkey!" "A Trained Monkey saved my grandfather!" "I heard A Trained Monkey took on the Council!" So now I've used my last open slot on Virtue. ^_^

That's great.

Being on just Defiant and Union at present, I absolutely cannot wait for the server list merge. Even though I have unplayed alts such as Will Feral (a Ron Burgundyesque scrapper with claws) and an archery/devs blaster thats still only L39 despite being made whenever archery became live, I have a ton of ideas for new alts that will expand onto various US servers.

I predict an explosion of new alts after servers come up tomorrow, if all things go well. ^_^

Another altoholic here I have 17 50s on Defiant all but one slot used, 1 50 on Union and another 7 slots used.

I find that I roll a new alt play it for a few weeks then think of another I want to build. Some time later I start playing a earlier alt.

But I can control my habit


no really I can