Your Characters

[Oob]

As a relative newcomer to Cantr and the forums I expect what I'd like to know about players and their characters has been discussed before, but I will ask anyway!

Okay so here goes..

1. How many characters do you currently have?

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?

As far as my characters go, I have 4, one died soon after I started playing (was killed) and was replaced to maintain my preference for 4 characters. For me having more characters means I would have less time for each one. My character age spread is all middle aged, I've not been playing long enough to have old or very old characters.
After having been playing for a while now I would still replace a character that dies with a newspawn to maintain my total of 4 characters.

Something that has occurred to me, will I likely end up with all very old characters, or statistically do very few very old characters survive that long?

[Doug R.]

1. How many characters do you currently have?

11

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?

4

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?

Yes

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?

Half of mine are over 60. My youngest is 25. The rest are middle-aged.

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?

I'm not replacing any of my characters. When they die, that's it for me.

[masterekat]

1. How many characters do you currently have?
5

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?
When classes are in session, 5 is the most I can handle. During summer, 7-10 are the most I will have, depending on how active the towns they live in are. I find that if I have more characters than that, things just get really chaotic and I give up on Cantr altogether for awhile.

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?
Yes.

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?
All of my characters at this point are 20 or 21.

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?
Usually when my characters die it is because I slowly lose interest in what is going on with them. So most of the time when one dies, they all die. Then a few months will pass and I'll create new ones.

[Marian]

1. How many characters do you currently have?

Three...well technically four, but the last wasn't intended to ever take up much of my attention, and right now I'll be amazed if they even survive to the end of the road they're on.

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?

Three, for me. Well, I suppose anywhere between three and five, but I'm playing it safe this time. I had eleven or twelve with my first account and NEVER AGAIN.

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?

Definitely. It means a lot less attention given to your life too.

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?

I made all mine the same day, later on down the road if/when one dies I'll replace them and have more of an age spread.

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?

Well in this situation I intend to replace them, obviously it may be different for people with a lot more chars though. (Doug's post makes me sad. )

I lost my past accounts pretty much exactly like masterekat, but if I can just restrain myself from clicking that stupid smiley face whenever I get bored or get an interesting idea until I get overwhelmed I know it won't happen this time. (There's also been situations where avoiding one char led me to avoiding them all because I would feel guilty whenever I logged in, but again, less of an issue with just three I hope, and identifying all the little issues that led me to dropping accounts in the past is half the battle in making sure I keep this one. )

[masterekat]

Yup! My goal now is to finally have characters who make it past their thirties. I've not had any who lived that long in my five years of Cantring. I'm such a bad player.

[nateflory]

1. How many characters do you currently have?

14 because I'm an addict!

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?

I'd say around 4-5. Most of my other ones are either in empty areas (Spice island anyone?!) or just humble workers who help out the town and have minimal interaction.

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?

Definitely. If the rare instance happens where more than three of my characters "light up" with interesting events going on, it's almost stressful feeling compelled to interact with each one properly.

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?

I recently unsubbed and re-started, so they are all young-ish, but the oldests are turning thirty, and my old sadly dead characters would be hitting 60-70 soon if they were still alive.

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?

I tend to simply let the characters die out until I am down to around 7 living characters again, then slowly make a few random newspawns if I feel inspired with a personality to try out. So after a time, my characters get all spread out age-wise I'll imagine.

Something that has occurred to me, will I likely end up with all very old characters, or statistically do very few very old characters survive that long?

As I said above, I think you'll have a few that really spark your interest and they'll live forever, (barring violence) and the others will come and go, giving you a nice spread in ages, or at least that's what I hope for my own Cantring.

[SekoETC]

1. 12

2. It's hard to say... Some of my characters are less interesting than others but I wouldn't say there were too many of them, because which ones are currently interesting tends to vary.

3. Of course having more characters means less time per character, but as mentioned above, my current focus tends to shift depending on the situations. Furthermore, the active characters give me a reason to log in and check the less interesting characters as well, and maybe something gives me a reason to play them as well.

4. 6 of my characters are very old, one eighties, one seventies, two sixties, one fifties and one early forties.

5. I have no urgent need to replace characters if one dies. Usually I create new ones if I'm bored and get an interesting idea. Only once I've created more than one character in a day, but the two ended up being very different from each other.

[FrankieLeonie]

1) 6
2) 4
3) On my first go at Cantr I had 10 and got overwhelmed. Then my favorite character died and the game lost interest to me for awhile.
4) Just created a new one today, my oldest is 41
5) I have not had any deaths and was going to try to only have 4 toons, but have not created a new one before today in more then a year

[SumBum]

1. 9

2. For me 7-9. It gives me variety but doesn't overwhelm me. A few of those are quiet workers, a couple who often have a lot going on, and some who experience ups and downs of activity. It's nice to have enough chars that at least one of them has something going on.

3. Yes, but I also find when I have too many chars their personalities aren't different enough to keep me interested.

4. Oldest are in their 40s plus have some in 30s and 20s. It's my third attempt at Cantr.

5. It depends.

[Snickie]

1. How many characters do you currently have?
Nine. I know my signature says I have seven. So what? I'm too busy playing Cantr to fix it.

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?
That depends on how you define "optimum". If optimum meant you spent equal time amongst each and every character, that number would be either 0 or 1, MAYBE two. But I like roleplaying different personalities. Therefore, my number is around four or five. Enough to have different roles in their own societies, but not overwhelming.

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?
Absolutely, although this is also affected by their locations and level of activity in those locations. I have at least three characters who are in the middle of nowhere and get almost no interaction whatsoever, and have been this way since spawning. Others receive moderate amounts of activity. And still yet others receive so much activity it takes an hour or so for me to read it all. I usually spend the most time with these characters.

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?
25, 25, 25, 24, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20.

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?
Some characters just aren't replaceable. But I most likely will after losing maybe my second character (not after my first because I'll be too shocked and emotionally compromised to be able to handle a new character).

Something that has occurred to [Oob], will I likely end up with all very old characters, or statistically do very few very old characters survive that long?
I think a lot of why characters don't live long enough to make it to their very old age is that players get bored or busy or something to do with RL. I haven't seen any wars or anything (other than the New Xanthe and Dory massacres) where any characters are slaughtered since I've been playing; most I've seen die from starvation (from sleeping) or heart attack. I know of characters who have legitimately starved, though, as in, travelling and not making it to a place with food, and such as that.
So maintain interest and time enough for Cantr and avoid Yugo-massacres, and maybe you will.

[muidoido]

1. How many characters do you currently have?
11

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?
4

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?
yes

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?
the oldest is in his 30's

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?
replace

[mikki]

1. How many characters do you currently have?

15

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?

5-6 only cause I have plenty of time for them.. atleast until spring semester starts.

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?

Yes it does.. But I tend to do a little for each, course there are the busy and not so busy ones.

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?

My chars are... 70,67,61,61,61,46,45,44,36,36,27,26,23,20,20

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?

It depends on my mood but for the most part, I tend to replace a char that dies with a newspawn.

[mojomuppet]

15

I can play all 15 if they aren't all trying to rule the world and you give some of them limits, no mate, some are travelers so I don't have to actually play them that much, some have huge goals to work on so they are rarely seen.

Not if I don't make them all up to something ridiculous at once. I can keep them all fairly active.

Oldest 38 youngest 21

I replace that day. I usually know its coming and have planned for it.

[Mitch79]

I have 8 currently, 2 will be dying though leaving me with 6. I've had 15 in the past. When I first started the game, I played all 15 and was on constantly, Now I find 15 too much and find it difficult to devote enough time to each to actually play them decently. I have 3 I devote more time to than any others, my oldest. Of the six I'm keeping, their ages are 105, 102, 85, 27, 22 and 21. Lately I've realized I've begun to lose interst in new ones. The younger ones I have I would not have near the problem losing than I would one of the older ones, and I have difficulty sometimes playing the younger ones which leads me to believe that once my older ones are gone, I'd likely lose interest and leave at least for a while.

[15454]

1. How many characters do you currently have?

4

2. Roughly how many characters do you consider to be the optimum number?

Whatever you could handle, maybe like 7 or 8

3. Does having more characters mean less RP attention is given to each one?

Yes definately

4. What is your 'character age spread' between young, middle aged, old and very old etc?

My youngest is 105 and my oldest is 130

5. Do you replace a character that dies with a newspawn or wait until you are left with a few characters then create several within a short time?

When they die they are gone for good for now. I don't I think I will ever make another, it is hard to give a new character that push compared to one you've been playing for years.