What's your cure for Altitus?

I love making new alts, I love playing different AT's.

Now I'm not complaining about having too much choice for classes or powers, I just find that sometimes I'm quick to move onto the next alt before I get much further than about 30. I'll roll a new alt, get that to about 30ish and then rinse and repeat. About 50% of the time I will eventually come back to them but by the time I do I find that I'm not so committed to them anymore and usually give up after a few more lvls.

The only thing I have found that stops meconstantly rolling new characters is having a list of objectives that a character has to achieve, with rewards for hitting them. This keeps me more invested in them, here are some of my ideas.

I rolled a very basic looking staff/regen stalker that was little more than a basic skeleton fighting with a piece of drain pipe. Each time he completed one of the freedom phalanx tfs he was awarded a new costume piece, new staff options were alled after completing other tfs- broomstick for Katie Hannon, trident for the Sutter tf.

I have a sj/shield scrapper that was a 5 man fighting force and each new costume slot was a completely different character with their own look/personality/backstory (which made it feel like I was playing 5 different toons). As I hit 10,20,30,40 a new character joined the team.

My latest toon (ice/ice domi) is a pair of twins (again a different costume slot for easy of them), at the moment I just have one of them who has come to paragon city looking for the other. I'll unlock the other twin around lvl 14 when I get the ouro portal and then I plan on taking them through all the hero arcs (I haven't though of a reason why yet). At lvl30 I'll allow them to use my mini snowbeast pet.

I know this is basically role playing but I never actually pretend to be the character, I rarely even write the bios (just have them in my head), this is just something I have in the back of my mind to make me keep playing them and stop rolling another zillionth alt.

I was wondering if anyone else had unsual concepts with rewards offered for hitting targets that they used to keep them playing alts? Rather than "Lord Recluse killed my dog, now I am going to train to lvl 50 so I can kick his butt."

Ps. For those of you that just read this and think, "Just stop rolling new toons", I envy you for thinking it's that easy.

my usual alt cure comes in one of two forms:

1: finding goals for each character as i make them. some of which are X number of costume slots to fulfill the theme, unlocking a particular weapon, costume piece, badge, or playinc a certain arc, or reaching the level to unlock the "signature power" to finish it's them [often i try to make this an epic pool so i atleast get to mid-forties before i am satisfied with the character].

2: running out of empty character slots.

XD and i have a LOT of slots with a LOT of costumes.





often times, if i feel like rolling a new character... i let myself... but before i enter the game and give a name i go through a series of checklists:

a: do i have the powerset combination on another character
a1: if yes, then i will re-evaluate if my new theme can simply be a costume/bio change for the older character. end new character and update old character.
a2: if no, then do i actually like all of the powers/play style of said new sets from other times i'd played the sets.? are the fx intriguing enough that i will enjoy seeing them often, especially the first tier powers? if yes, make a new character. if no, scrap, but probably save costume.

b: if i dont have the powers combo, and feel like i would enjoy the fx and powers effects, then -- do i REALLY enjoy the idea/theme or is it just "i have to make a vampire cuz i just saw a vampire movie" type of idea?

c: if the powers are new enough or enjoyable enough, and i wont tire of the theme and it's going to last more than ten levels, then can i make a costume that works with my theme enough, that is different from all my other costumes?

d: if the costume is also fresh enough, and all else works, can i find a good name that i am satisfied with?

if all these work out then i'm gonna make a new character, but i TRY MY HARDEST to see if i can fold all new ideas into older characters i've made because... well... i do have quite a few already. and folding in these newer ideas does breathe life into a character that say... i've gotten a little stale on in his mid-thirties, and gives him a good push for ten more levels.

Altitus is not a disease, it is the target.

*points to signature*

Follow to guides. Get one to 50.

-M_B : 307 alts and counting. (27 or so at 50, several in the 40s atm.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

If I ever find a cure for my altitis, I'll let you know.

Only thing that seems to even slightly help for me is having a good backstory; it seems to help the character 'flow' a bit better. Even that's no real proof against the ever-tempting lure of the shiny, shiny character creator, though...

cure?

buy more server slots.

Not really a cure, but what alleviates my altitus is if a powerset combo feels really fun. I soloed my DB/elec brute to 50 relatively quickly because I had an absolute blast when I played her. Same with my Nightwidow.

Delete everything. Start over.

Haven't done that since issue 3, but it worked.

The cure used to be running out of slots (my main account has over 200 toons on it).

Now, until new powersets or proliferation, I've basically done all the toons I want to do, so I very rarely create alts other than for the prestige bonus if I start a SG on one of the new servers (like the old EU ones or exalted).

I put my current projects on my paragonwiki page (linked in my sig), and do my best to limit my play time to those few, with the goal of getting everyone on the list at least 1 level a week, and then playing the one on top some more, because when they get to 50, they come off and I get to put another alt on the list. It works remarkably well - I just got a 50 in the last week, so the update today got to bring up a character I had in waiting.

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

I don't really have altitis really...I play a toon up to 20/30s..if I am not in love with it... I delete it and start a new one.

I have a total of 8 toons atm and 4 are 50 and completely incarnated. I used tio have altitis but the incarnate system cured me....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

Why would you want to be cured?

My immune system

My cure... well partial cure... was to make sure that the characters I stuck with have some thing "special" or unique that's theirs. My Forcefield/Energy Defender is special in that she's my first character I stuck with. That and she can hit 45% defense buff on everyone else. Neat little trick that.

Got a Ninja Blade Stalker, just because that sound Assassin's Blade makes is funny. A Dual Blade Scrapper because the combos were fun. An Electric/Electric Blaster who was a beast in melee. And, of course, my Trick Archer because dousing enemies in oil and setting them on fire just never gets old.

I've never been able to play a Tanker higher than 30. But I got a new one that has potential, not really because he's anything special build wise. A standard Shield/MA Tanker. But because he wears rocket boots. That he uses to kick people with. It's a silly little hook that does nothing mechanically, it just looks funny when he does it.

And before you say that's a lot of characters, I have to stop you. Those are just my 50s. I have a ton of stranded or deleted characters, but it's a scattershot approach. Try a lot, find those that have something "special", and get those to 50. And, of course, do the Incarnate thing. Got two Incarnates, the forcefielder and the trick archer, both +3. Not playing so much Incarnate content has been my price for making alts. I can live with that price.

There are two characters I wish I could stick with to 50 that I haven't been able to, though. A Warshade and a Storm Summoner Defender. I like both powersets, but I just haven't been able to make a character that clicks with them. Maybe when Water Blast arrives, I can revive the Storm Summoner for a fifth attempt.

I tend to need to believe this character is really The One, that will be able to do it all, do it well, and look good while doing so. If it fits, I'll get into it up until I'm 50 IOed and incarnated out for a while - I don't feel I *need* that mechanical character progression, but given the choice between playing a completed alt or playing an alt that can still improve, if both characters are equally as fun to play I might as well add the extra treat of progression.

running out of slots.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

I rarely get above around level 30. The game just isn't as good past that.

So I don't see any reason to try and get past level 30. It doesn't get you into heaven or anything.

Having every character I enjoy playing obtain all the +HP accolades, purples and Tier 3-4 Incarnate goodies is cure enough.

I have seven level 50 characters, only one of which I never play anymore. That character was the product of an "uber-idea." In other words, I created the character with the end-product in mind rather than the story. As a result, I rushed through the game, taking whatever large team opportunity I could get, in an effort to attain that "finished idea." And once I was there, I had barely a week where I enjoyed playing the character before I found him boring. I keep that character as a reminder of what not to do.

If I am going to create a character, I want it to be something in which I am invested. So while I will fiddle around with costumes, and enjoy watching animations in the power customizations window, I always double check with myself before I impulsively create a character, to see if I have a specific journey in mind, or if I just have an itch to see a final product.

The "cure," as far as I'm concerned, is to keep going back to old characters you've neglected when you decide to swap over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

...cure? That would be like trying to cure hunger, or the need for sleep, or the desire to make new characters. No, wait. Something's gone wrong in this analogy.

But yeah, I agree with Samuel_Tow. For me, at least, I quite often lose interest in one character and gain interest in another - but not necessarily a character I don't have yet. If I make a character, lose interest, and come back later, great! If I never regain interest, that's fine too. I have never been able to predict which characters I would enjoy most and which I would lose interest in; it doesn't really seem to correlate to their in-game performance, nor how much I enjoy or develop the concept, nor the quality of their costume, nor anything else that I can evaluate by any method other than playing the character for a while.
Yes, this means a significant fraction of my characters stall out indefinitely. Some do so long before 50, some long after. But who cares? I'm always playing a character that I enjoy.