Two in One

 It seems that CCP is introducing second character training on one account. At least, we have found it on the test server’s recent update with Odyssey.

My first reaction was, “No!” However, that was just a knee jerk reaction. I was a bit surprised that I have developed it but upon reflection that surprise faded. Each expansion brings changes. CCP is working from the bottom up with updating and restricting the game. We keep losing and getting or just finding things changed. When you log in daily and have your comforts and your things it is not pleasant to have them taken away. Hence the low level of burning anger in many of the feedback threads.

Yet, as I thought about the topic a bit I decided that it wasn’t as bad and it was reasonably balanced.

The way it seems that it will work is that a PLEX can be used to activate 30 days of training on a second character on an account. I believe this to follow CCP's general plan to expand PLEX use while trying to keep PLEX use from creating golden bullets. They are a business and they want to make money. We want a game. The two need to meet somewhere in the middle. My end conclusion is that the second account training is 'not bad'.

Money vs ISK :

If you pay with cash you pay less than the cost of PLEX. If you want to subscribe a second account instead of using PLEX you will pay less real world money for the second account. I am not debating paying for subscritions vs paying with PLEX. I'm pointing out comparative values. This is not a debate about which is better or makes more sense. That argument always boils down into a matter of personal opinon. This is just to point out that people who pay for their accounts (most of mine are subbed by the year) are not ‘screwed’.

Utility Alts:

Eve is a game of alts. Not all alts are neutral falcon neutral logistics. Many people have hauling alts, jump freighter alts, industry alts, cyno alts, market alts and the list goes on and on. Often they are trained on one account and transferred to a main or permanent alt account and the training account closed.  Now for a character that needs a short training time for a specialization it can be a savings by not having to pay the transfer fee/PLEX to transfer them back to the account that they will sit on.

The possible advantages seem clear to me due to my recently shelving the plans of some accounts to train up a series of market alts for TCS. If I had this option when I started training my alts, I’d not have to transfer them to the accounts that will be their permanent home as I do now. It is not a Jesus feature. It is also not a ‘but we have suffered and now things are easier,’ feature as well. It will be a convince feature and a useful one that would be best buffed by not having to completely close and reopen and relogin to the client every time you want to switch between characters.