Alts

There will be a "comfortable" number of character slots available for alts.

• Progression pathways in Ashes of Creation are per-character.
• Gear will be able to be transferred between characters.
  • Transfer of resources and materials to alts will only be possible via player housing storage, which is localized to a particular house.
• Cosmetics can be reassigned to characters within an account, with a potential cooldown period.
• Alts within a single account may have different professions.

There will be a comfortable level of character slots available to players because we are a subscription model game. – Steven Sharif

Account

Players are permitted to own multiple accounts, but are subject to rules relating to multi-boxing.

Character slots

There will be character limits during the Alpha and Beta testing phases. These are probably going to be more relaxed than for live launch.

• Allow testing of different builds as needed.
• Provide equipment needed to test various scenarios.

There will be a "comfortable" number of character slots on launch.

Guild membership and alts

A character may only be a member of a single guild.

• Alts on the same account can join different guilds.
  • Intrigue, espionage and intelligence gathering is a legitimate aspect of the game.
• A guild may only have a single guild leader.
  • Transfer of guild leadership is possible, but mechanics on transferring leadership if a guild leader has abandoned the guild have not been finalized.
• Guild masters can issue payouts to guild members.

Player housing and alts

Player housing	Type.	Availability.	Starting count.	Ownership limit.
Apartments	Instanced.	Village stage and higher.	50.	One per character per server.
Freeholds	Open world.	Village stage and higher.	Ample.	One per account.
Static housing	In-node.	Village stage and higher.	8.	One per character per server.

Q: Freeholds specifically are locked one per account?

A: Correct. – Steven Sharif

Q: If I put an alt on a different server I could have like in node housing or like at least an instanced house?

A: Correct, yes. – Steven Sharif

Node citizenship and alts

Alpha-1 node citizenship registration.

Player housing grants the ability to claim citizenship of a Village (stage 3) node or higher.

• Citizenship tickets may also grant citizenship to certain node stages. This mechanic will be decided based on testing.
• A player can only claim citizenship to one node at a time.

You can declare citizenship to only one node and when you declare that citizenship. Let's say for example, one guild perhaps wanting to kind of take all their members and have them all declare the same citizenship to a location. The longer a node exists the higher the prize it is to take and some systems with regards to crafting progression and/or rewards and bonuses or the reliquary that we haven't really touched on a lot, those systems are going to be so enticing that from an incentive standpoint it will compel other groups to either potentially break alliances or siege the city in order to take the goods that are potentially in it. So, from an incentive standpoint we have that at play. Additionally, we don't have a cap per-se that we've announced yet on the citizenship aspect of being in a node, but we do have soft caps. It becomes costlier the higher number of citizens each time one new person wants to join to be part of a node. So, there is sort of a soft cap on how many citizens one node can have and it might be that not all in the guild can participate in that area. So, there's kind of a natural divide: A pseudo faction, so to speak between who is a part of that node and who is not. – Steven Sharif

• Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.

Your account is bound to one declared citizenship per server, which means that if you have two alts and your main character on one server you may only be a citizen of one node between those three... If you have an alt on a different server, it could be a citizen of a node as well. – Steven Sharif

• Citizenship is lost if the node is destroyed. A player can then become citizen of another node.
• Node citizenship is not tied to membership of a guild. Guilds don't "own" nodes.
• Players can interact with the node board to get a list of citizens of the node. Clicking on a citizen will reveal information about their guild, society, religion, and property ownership.
• A player does not need to declare citizenship of any node. These players won't need to pay taxes but will miss out on benefits of citizenship.

Artisan classes and alts

Within each of the three parent artisan paths (Gathering, Processing and Crafting) there are different professions. A character may only ever master one of these parent paths and up to two (2) professions within this mastered artisan class (subject to testing).

When it comes to complete mastery, we're really identifying around two or three right now, but that's something that gets play tested- something gets iterated upon. – Steven Sharif

• A character will be able to achieve up to tier 3 or tier 4 proficiency in professions that are not mastered.

Players will have the opportunity to dabble in all of the professions at a very beginners level and then you know that gives them an understanding of what that profession feels like and then allows them to pinpoint the direction that they want to go in to master particular professions. – Steven Sharif

• Based on testing, it may be decided to limit profession mastery certificates to a capped value.

Becoming a master Crafter or a master Processor or a master Gatherer should be a significant time investment and resource investment; and because of that it should also be something that when you achieve that status it's like people on the server know who you are. – Steven Sharif

• Masteries aren’t just about making an item. They grant many things, including titles, access to items, bargains, and quests.
• Previously it was stated that with considerable effort a player can master all professions within a mastered parent artisan class. This was later changed to a player being able to master some but not all professions within a mastered parent artisan class. This was changed to being able to master up to two or three professions within a mastered parent artisan class (subject to testing). The current stance is being able to master up to two professions.

Artisan progression within the artisan tree occurs based on experience (repetition of tasks) within a branch and also via achievement of certain benchmarks within each branch.

• Choosing a specific path in the skill tree allows the player an opportunity to specialize in a certain area. This encourages player inter-dependency, enhancing the artisan experience.

When we reference not being masters of all that doesn't mean you're not a master within your own one of the three artisan types, which is you know crafter or gatherer, processor. You will be a master of one of those, you will not be master of the other two. – Steven Sharif

Banking and alts

Nodes advance to the first stage quickly. This enables NPC services such as vending or banking items.

• Banking between characters will likely be restricted to Furniture and completed items.
• A warehouse ability may enable a player to transfer non-material goods between alternate characters. This excludes resources, materials or anything that relies on the caravan system.

Account management and alts

Ashes of Creation web site design preview (WIP).

Cosmetics can be reassigned to other characters (alts) within an account but can only be active on one character at a time.

• There will likely be a cooldown for reassigning cosmetics between characters.

• The account management page is used to assign or reassign crowdfunding skins and items that are only applicable to one character at a time.

Mailing items to alts

• Raw gatherables and materials are not able to be mailed by players.
  • Purchases of anything other than materials and gatherables from integrated auction houses will be mailed to the purchaser.
• Social messages sent via mail will be received instantly.
• It hasn't been decided whether crafted items such as gear will be able to be sent via mail.

From an item standpoint obviously we can't allow mailing to include any type of resource material or raw gatherable because those are central to the gameplay and transiting through the caravan system and economic regions. But it may be possible to send completed crafted items like you know gear, equipment, stuff like that. But it's something we're still discussing. – Steven Sharif

Families

Families are a means to relate up to nine characters.

• Family sizes are normally limited to eight characters.
  • Marriage increases family size by one to allow player housing permissions to be shared.
  • This size increase only applies if the family's head is married.
• A character may only belong to one family at a time.
• Leaving one family and joining another family will have a cooldown period in the order of days.

There are costs associated with family creation and maintenance.

• Some costs are shared among the family members and other costs are specific to the family head.

See also

• Accounts
• Character
• Economy
• Gear