Alts without premium

[✠ Sigmar ✠]

For roleplaying purposes, I was planning to have a "dwarven knight" as my main, specializing in ore and stone gathering and processing, as well as a mage alt who would take care of fibre gathering and skinning (reptiles, around Thetford); both are registered on the same user account, and I only play on one PC.

Now, I became aware of passage 11.2 of the ToS:

"11.2 Multiple registrations, as well as setting up and operating multiple User Accounts at our Services are allowed. However, if the User is playing the Game with multiple Characters at the same time, all of the following rules must be followed: i) the Characters may not interact or cooperate with each other if they are located outside of a city, hideout, personal island, or guild island, ii) the Characters may not engage in combat together, iii) the Characters may not act as scouts for each other, iv) the Characters must have active Premium status."

My question refers to the last phrase ("the Characters must have active Premium status") as well as the meaning of the expression "playing the Game with multiple Characters at the same time". This point has been discussed in user forums several times already. Some participants say that "at the same time" means that they cannot be online simultaneously, virtually meet each other e.g. on a guild island. Others claim that logging in as an alt from the same device is prevented by the game with an error message as soon as the initial 3-days-premium time runs out, no matter if the main is still logged in or not.

What I want to do is playing my characters in an alternating fashion, logging in as main, play, logging out, then logging in as alt, play, logging out etc., while both exchange silver and goods for mutual help in processing via the guild bank - even after the premium time I bought has run out and both main and alt have become "standard characters".

Is that technically possible and in compliance with the ToS?

(I would prefer answers based on actual experience and testing. I have no use for speculation or personal opinions about how it should be.)

[t3kk3]

I think you should be fine, ive been playing with several chars on the same account on the na server and had no issues. And i never had premium on all of them (at the same time).

Why would they allow to make several chars on one account if it was against their tos?

If you play multiple accounts thats another can of worms tho.

[✠ Sigmar ✠]

Originally posted by t3kk3:

I think you should be fine, ive been playing with several chars on the same account on the na server and had no issues. And i never had premium on all of them (at the same time).

Why would they allow to make several chars on one account if it was against their tos?

If you play multiple accounts thats another can of worms tho.

Thank you for your substantiated response. If you have done it, I assume it is permitted then, and the aforementioned error message only appears if you try to log in with the alt (without Premium) while the main is still logged in as well.

As to your question why "they" should allow the creation of alts under the "worst case assumption" I was worried about: Well, "they" do have a vested interest in having players pay constant subscription fees for premium status, do they not?

[WeaponsGradeHumanity]

What you intend to do is perfectly fine. "At the same time" means concurrently and the rule is essentially intended to police botting and multiboxing. Playing two characters who asynchronously share resources is fine. Playing two characters simultaneously for the sake of material advantage over regular solo players is not fine.

[✠ Sigmar ✠]

Originally posted by WeaponsGradeHumanity:

What you intend to do is perfectly fine. "At the same time" means concurrently and the rule is essentially intended to police botting and multiboxing. Playing two characters who asynchronously share resources is fine. Playing two characters simultaneously for the sake of material advantage over regular solo players is not fine.

I guess that makes sense.

Have you ever seen the error message depicted here?

https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Attachment/24440-hh-png/?thumbnail=1

I found that image on an Albion forum thread titled "Alt account must need premium?" (sic).

[WeaponsGradeHumanity]

I haven't seen that message myself but as you can see it specifically regards simultaneously logging in to two characters from the same device. This matches the section of the ToS you quoted earlier.

[✠ Sigmar ✠]

Originally posted by WeaponsGradeHumanity:

I haven't seen that message myself but as you can see it specifically regards simultaneously logging in to two characters from the same device. This matches the section of the ToS you quoted earlier.

The word "simultaneously" is not included in the text. It just says: "(...) when logging in multiple characters from the same device, all of these characters must have Premium status active". In my case, I would log in as several characters from the same device (my PC) on the same day, just not at the same second.

Talking about the reverse conclusion: I could not find an explanation why having Premium status on all of your toons would allow you to log in multiple characters at once at all. Who does that, practically speaking? Does a PC premium whale have multiple windows open on his screen (or use several monitors) and control several characters at the same time ("multiboxing" - as you put it - on his island farms)? That part does not seem to make sense - unless you assume that the ToS section actually prohibits mutual support between alts of any kind, unless you pay for the privilege. Can you explain that?