Having multiple characters

[Ade 16]

Okay, I seriously have to address this problem I'm having. I finally got around to creating a forum account because of this problem. Here it is:

So I really like this game and I like to play it with my friends. I have different groups of friends, like internet friends and real life friends. And because of DayZ character restrictions, I can only have one character and it's making me choose between my different friends that I want to play with. That's just not cool. I really need to have at least a second account, maybe even a third one. I'm really frustrated that I can't easily switch between different groups of friends and have many unique adventures all around Chernarus simultaneously (well I mean not simultaneously but I think you get the point).

Does anyone agree with me or does anyone else have a similar problem to mine? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

Edit: And don't even tell me that I should buy more copies of Combined Operations.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Ade

[Synergy (DayZ) 3]

I have a fully kitted out character (NVG's, DMR, Ghille, M4 SD etc,) but I want to use another one to play with newbies in my clan that have just started DayZ, or are on the coast.

So yes.

+1

Edited July 28, 2012 by Synergy

[Remscar 5]

I completely agree with this.

Perhaps DayZ keeps track of which character is which from the Player Profile you set inside of ARMA II, AND your CD-KEY.

This way i can have as many characters as i have player profiles, each with their own name, and i can switch between them when i please.

Nobody else can use my characters, even if they have my characters name, because it is also linked to my CD-KEY.

This sounds possible to me since I'm pretty sure HIVE already stores player names.

[tempestfeir 17]

I would look forward to this myself cause I'm in the exact same boat. as the OP.

[Julia_Shafer 18]

agree but for diff reasons. Sometimes I like to troll around on the coast with no equipment.

[Mayuyu 411]

This worked with two steam accounts (aka two different Arma II: Combined Operations copies) as the game goes by CD Keys rather than a profile name or profile, so if you can legally obtain another CD key, that's the only way.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Mayuyu

[Lukaz (DayZ) 4]

I would love this too, but prepare to see a huge uprising of bandits running around cherno killing noobs and not giving a F#$k

[dencobster 0]

We just started today after I logged out my brother was going to play it, he changed profiles (cuz theres always that hope lol) but he proceeded to get me killed start a new one now he has a FN FAL and some other good stuff and I don't want to risk playing and getting him killed. It'd be really nice, but I'm not raising hope. How would it work?

[necroslord 73]

Earlier today I saw a topic also about allowing more characters per account. At that time I felt like this wasn't a game that would benefit from such a feature based on the reasons he gave (Allowing multiple users to share an account). But this topic seems to present a reason I consider actually good. Having alts to play with different people seems useful. I didn't think about that before.

EDIT Fixed typos. Damn, I guess I edited all my posts for typos today, somethings wrong Lol

Edited July 29, 2012 by necroslord

[GeekPlaya 17]

I am one for this! I really would like this feature. I don't want YouTube videos to be the only time I'm able to play the game :P

[Yatagan 62]

I somewhat agree as well. I either play with a friend or alone. A character for each of those would be awesome. However part of me feels like this is going against what Dayz is supposed to be. But I'll ignore that part if this were to be added. :P

[Grodenn 53]

You are far from the only one with that problem but at the same time I think that having multiply characters would some what kill the feel this game have. You have to consider how this character system would be used, storing gear on alt's, creating new char to gather hard earned supplies (like medical stuff from hospitals), run with medical supplies to your main who have a broken bone (or any other condition), be able to roam around in a city killing people without risking your main (killing for lulz without ANY penalty at all) well I think you get the picture. This would be exploited to death prolly in ways I can't even think of atm.

Bottom line is that it will take out the feel of the perma death and the fear that poses which would completely change this game into your normal shooter. The fear of death is a very important part for making this game unique.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Grodenn

[Ade 16]

You are far from the only one with that problem but at the same time I think that having multiply characters would some what kill the feel this game have. You have to consider how this character system would be used, storing gear on alt's, creating new char to gather hard earned supplies (like medical stuff from hospitals), run with medical supplies to your main who have a broken bone (or any other condition), be able to roam around in a city killing people without risking your main (killing for lulz without ANY penalty at all) well I think you get the picture. This would be exploited to death prolly in ways I can't even think of atm.

Bottom line is that it will take out the feel of the perma death and the fear that poses which would completely change this game into your normal shooter. The fear of death is a very important part for making this game unique.

You have a good point but the first problem (having your alts collect supplies for you) could probably be easily fixed. The solution I'm thinking about is that you couldn't see stuff dropped by your alts. Like Remscar said earlier, your profiles could probably be linked to your CD-key. And since all your profiles are linked together by the CD-key you have used, it would keep track of your different profiles.

And the second problem (having people killing others without fear), isn't that already happening? Chernarus is full of bandits. I would be happier if I'd have a badly equipped alt after me instead of a fully geared main. It takes time for the alts to gather supplies anyway, the best they could find in the beginning is a revolver and they'd have to risk it by going to either Cherno or Elektro. That's an easy to way to get yourself killed in the beginning. If he'd play it safe and get an Enfield from a barn or something, I wouldn't be concerned. If he killed me, he'd have loads of zombies after him.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Ade

[obi_lipnik 18]

How about playing on private hive servers? You (obviously) get a new character for that server exclusively... And lemme tell you, most of those servers are 24/7 deathmatch, so yeah, it's a bad idea.

[Azrail (DayZ) 211]

I can only have one character and it's making me choose between my different friends that I want to play with.

It's not DayZ's fault that your friends have different levels of experience.

We have successfully introduced newbies to the game, and we did the hardstyle crash course at the NW airfield.

DayZ seperates characters by the Arma2 OA key used to install the game.

So yea if you want to have multiple chars, yep go buy the game again.

you only need operation arrowhead, and you can just go and grab a key at a key store, worked for a friend.

It's not like you need to sell your car and house for it.

On steam sale i payed 18€ for two additional copies. Too bad, you're late.

If you cba, make your choice: play with your friends or save your precious gear.

I would risk my L85 if i had to choose, my friends are more important then the virtual items i have.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Azrail

[Ade 16]

It's not DayZ's fault that your friends have different levels of experience.

It's not the experience level I'm talking about, it's just that all my friends don't know each other. I feel awkward if I bring friends I only know by the internet to play with my real life friends.

[Morotstomten 34]

except that people would abuse this by having characters logged in multiple hotspots, hopping between them to find players to kill or clans would have 1 or more fully equipped characters logged near their base that they switch to if it came to their attention it was being looted by someone

[SStriker 0]

Personally I think it's both a good and bad idea at the same time, while I would like to have it in the game, it's for bad reasons, I'd like not to risk my gear and just run around on the coast and meet people and help newbies sort of thing, but like others have said it removes the part of the game that feels like perma-death, and clans could essentially be in two places at once. The topic has a pretty balanced pro and con list, it comes down to would it benefit the game more than it will be able to be abused to worsen it.

['Friendly * Nazar' 4]

I think the makers of this game, just need to change this: 'If you make a new profile, you will keep all of you're stuff on your profile called Tim (random name), and you want to create a new profile and you call him Tim2 (woot!), then you need to start all over again on Tim2, but Tim will still have his loot.

(Sorry for bad English!)

[enforcer1975 1111]

Yay, use your noob account to gather items, store them in your tent and get them with the better guy to keep him safe....no, bad idea. Could be abused and was in another ArmA gaming community.

[Graafaap 1]

Yes to this :)

[Huntersaurus 2]

How can you use two different steam accounts? as Dayzcommander and Six Launcher automatically use whatever CD key is available? How would one switch between CD keys for the launchers?

[Tundra (DayZ) 1]

It would be way too easy to abuse. Although I also play with different groups, I am totally against this for fair play reasons. Game is already full of hackers and exploiters as it is.

[insolentfool 17]

I have 2 copies of arma 2, on 2 steam accounts, on 2 computers. It has become invaluble to my crew as the "whipping boy" who hauls shit 10 k's autorunning on foot, picks us up from the coast in vehicles, carries the food, drink and ammo for us. I can leave him in an overwatch position while we are all off scavenging.

It only cost me $15 during the steam sales, already earned its keep. Of course it helps when you have a good enough second pc/laptop though, as i tried to swap copies of arma 2 on the one machine and hit resistance.

It adds another level of challenge controlling 2 people at the same time. Current challenge is trying to fly a chopper with the main and then gun with the second dude.

[deathwizard77@gmail.com 28]

This would be a great feature but has big problems.

Issues

1 - Clans/People using extra characters for nothing but storage that is impossible to raid. (Making death matter so much less)

2 - People bring multiple accounts to airfield. You kill them in 1 spot they log in another and use another char to kill you save all of the gear

3 - As people have already posted people will then not play safe not play as the game was desired and just bandit cherno/shore even more with these when they are bored. This will cause even more of a uprise in banditry and issues for newer players

Other issues also but those are the bigger ones. The only way I see multiple characters working in a game like Dayz without hurting the game is if you have multiple server sets. So for instance 3 groups of servers A/B/C. If you log on A servers you get A char B/C respectively. This way A characters can never be on same servers as B or C etc. This will keep them completely separated and let you play with different groups as you are saying. Now even this will not stop all problems like people just camping cherno/elektro but will stop the bigger exploit ones. This will also add issues like splitting the community etc./ Caring about your character less because you have multiple gear etc.

Now even if they did want to put in a change like this with it's negatives you also have to see how major of a server side change that is. Now the hive has to be split, People need to pick server types. It gets really complicated and I highly doubt it will be done in the mod version of the game.