Currently, if you try to log in more than 2 characters, you will get the message "Only 2 logins are allowed per IP" on the test card. Since there were already inquiries, we would like to anticipate the patch note and inform you in advance about the next patch coming change:
The number of accounts that can be online at the same time in the game will be limited to 2. There will be a possibility to increase this number in individual cases and after examination, for example, if several people use the same IP. The shard rules will be changed accordingly. The circumvention of this restriction by using different IPs is then seen as a rule violation.
According to the current shard rules, you can be online with any number of characters at the same time, but only three characters can be productive at the same time. This limitation was already a measure against the hitherto usual procedure, with its own "small army" of like 5 - 6 Chars in the field and so could battle even the more difficult Champions alone. Now that we have observed this over a longer period, we consider a further reduction to generally 2 characters compatible and appropriate.
Characters 3+ are often idle and give other players the impression that most people are afk on VM - which, at least for a while, is true. Or they perform fully automated actions, which in most cases only serves to further accumulate things that they already have in abundance. Have I ever mentioned that the assets of the players on the Liveshard meanwhile have already increased to around 4 billion gold?
The argument that you can do nothing on VM if you cannot use multiple chars at the same time and that it's impossible to find a group is well known. In our opinion, the increasing multiaccounting has the problem that many players can not find groups rather exacerbated. One who does his thing alone, has no reason to participate in collaborative ventures. Sure, this also takes place from time to time, but to such a small extent that in the end just the impression remains that you cannot find a group for the content - and therefore MUST play "on your own".
By no means do we want to condemn all players only to be able to play together with others. Solo content is important and should be sufficiently available in the future. Ideally, every player should be able to engage in something that he enjoys at any time of the day. But we can not fulfill the ideal of every player in this respect as they are as different as the players themselves. So our goal can only be to find a balance - the intersection that is acceptable to as many players as possible. VM is not an offline game. Life on VM benefits, among other things, from player interaction and community action.
The basic restriction to 2 accounts per IP, no matter what job they do or not, has practical reasons. If we just change the rules that you can only attack the same opponent with the same two chars, be in the same dungeon, or something similar, we have to keep watching all characters and see whether they are productive or not, just like before, whether they come from the same IP or not, which costs a lot of time. There are also discussions over and over again about the exact interpretation of the 3-productive-chars-rule, which unnecessarily costs us time (and nerves) each time, which we would much rather put into new content.
We are aware that the number of displayed "Chars Online" may be lower due to the limitation. However, it is not in our interest to present artificially inflated player numbers to the public and when new people come online they realise that and then leave disappointedly. Rather fewer characters, but a higher proportion is active in the game.
Sometimes less is more.
