My alt and me- a simple begginer's guide on alt use
I- Introduction
Starting with alts is always complicated, lots of tweaking, working macros and mainly getting used to the use of the alt.
To start it’s convenient to point out that an alt is mainly used for 3 things: careplanning, healing and storage, some other uses can be found but an alt is merely a support tool of your main character, I often see new players treating alts as mains and losing awful amounts of time in developing them…alts should be developed as collateral of your main character’s leveling (you can always go the other way, but it’s your time)
In this guide you'll find basics, i'll make brief reference to action building, but I won't go into the specifics of them as those are usually trade secrets of each player, so in this I recommend you build from your own experience.
It’s always convenient to start an alt once you have a few basic skills on high lvls or at least once all game mechanics have been understood, remember you'll be handling two characters and that means paying attention to both at some extent.
The current guide is intended for single alt use, but same principles can be applied for more than one alt account.
With that in mind let's get to business
II- First steps
a) Client setup
First you’ll need to make a copy of your entire ryzom folder and create a shortcut for the client’s exe file: this is mainly for 2 reasons, i) because user interface gets scrambled when the same client is used for 2 accounts, ii) for performance issues is best to have 2 clients so you can allocate them on different cores of your system.
b) Core setup:
Ryzom was created before the dual core technology was industry standard, which means it runs best in one core of the system. In current windows environments is possible to assign individual cores to certain programs, to do it you have 3 ways: i) manually select cores from the system manager ii) using an application such as Process Lasso or similar which would link the program automatically, iii) creating a .cmd file. Personally suggest doing it manually each time you start ryzom on both
accounts, since creating .cmd files can be troublesome, and process lasso does use system resources.
c) graphics and sound configuration:
entirely up to taste and computer capabilities , but for performance issues, it’s best to leave the alt on minimal graphics settings and keeping far clip at max or close to max
as for sound it’s best to turn it off not only for performance issues but also because it gets confusing if you have it also on on the main character
III- Setting up the Alt
Cardinal Rule: Keep it simple: remember what is it you want your alt for, it’s not intended to be the best character on atys, at best your sidekick or in most cases your meatbag decoy for kinchers, so in terms of actions they should fit what you do with your main.
a) Window Setup:
This is entirely up to your taste and also your computer capabilities, you can use both in full windowed mode or use the alt as an smaller window and reduce the User interface to a minimum. Personally I use both at full window as it seems to run better graphically.
if using the alt on a reduced window I suggest leaving one of the UI choices (f1-f4 keys) specially set for the alt as the alt window will take some space from your main
b) Basic controls
Directional controls should be the same you use for your main (WASD, SZXC, directional keys, etc) same goes for basic targeting, camera controls, character window, etc.
c) Action bar
Remember the cardinal rule? Well action bar (or bars) should be simple, and hopefuly not more than 2, the basic idea is that no matter what you do you never have to switch bars or if you do its only one swift motion.
I personally recommend 1 bar containing:
- 1-2 cp actions,
- 1 prospect action,
- 2 hp heals (1 single, 1 double),
- sap heal,
- stamina heal,
- 1 ele action,
- 1 general melee action (increase damage+ accuracy),
- sap, hp and focus self heals
- speed, invulnerability , mpa and enchant,
- you can also add 1 bomb heal and 1 double sap-hp heal ,some macros of your choosing but we’ll go over that on chapters 5 & 6.
As said above the aim is to get the basics of support in one bar, in my experience the above is all you'll need for almost anything pertaining the alt duties. This bar should have movable and immovable actions, for example: heals should be movable as there will be times when your alt will be healing stamina instead of sap thus moving from the bottom part of the bar to the upper part, same for cp, as sometimes you'll need full source life+ stability heal, and others just stability, also the same between ele and melee action. as for immovable actions speed, auras and self heals should remain untouched. The basic idea of this is that your alt has a few macro commands that you can remember easily at first and become reflex later.
IV- Alt+tab
This is perhaps the cornerstone of using an alt and perhaps the most complex thing to get naturally , alt+tab is what will enable you to switch between toons fast, however its use requires practice till it becomes reflex.
First the alt+tab routine is better to start it slowly, first press alt and then tab, there’s no need to punch both at the same time. Second start by doing light stuff, cping is the best for that as the source health bars take some time to move thus giving you time to perfect your alt+tab movement.
If using for grinding you can switch once your main has engaged and has its auto attack on.
Also a good placement of your macros can make the switching easier, as most get confused at first using the alt
V- Macros
Alt without macros is possible, but macroing is what makes alt use so widespread, this chapter will show 4 basic commands for macros that should cover all basics.
a) Follow macro: essential to alts is a follow macro, the layout for this is comprised of: a- target macro: macro/actions/target an entity/[your main’s name]; b- macro/chat/say to anybody/say/[/follow]
This macro is very effective but there are a few observations to it:
- The follow macro will stop working as soon as you move your character, the macro is also affected by targeting any other entity or manually targeting your main once its in use.
- If you use heals the macro will keep working as long as you don’t do any of the actions mentioned before.
- Only strike the macro once, the second time will disable the follow command
- Cping also turns off the follow command, as it requires you to target the source
- This macro can also be used as a fast way to target your main
- The macro will work in a 75mt radius if you haven’t targeted your main before, will work on a longer range if you have previously targeted your main.
b) Heal macro: this macro should accommodate to your playstyle, however it’s always better to use it for a 2 action setup for single heals (hp/hp, hp/sap or hp/stamina)
For alt use it’s always recommended you prefer single heals to double heals, as your alt is primarily a safeguard for your main, which means that it’s better to have fast low credit consuming heals than high demanding double heals that could drain your alt’s hp/sap fast.
c) CP macro: this action is rather simple to build and mainly consist of an action set to target your main, then an action to target your target (target current tartget’s target) and finally a run shortcut linked to your careplan action.
d) Attack macro: comprises of 4 parts: a- macro/action/target an entity [main’s name]; b- macro/action/target current target’s target; c- run shortcut linked to attack/ele action; d- repeat c
This action is made to activate the auto attack in melee or fire 2 ele at the target
VI- Macros and Mnemonics
Like said before alt use should be simple, thus having few basic macros well placed is the best way around, the usual strategy is place them as macros in the action bar, however it can be confusing at first.
For WASD players i'd suggest using the following setup using the directional keys:
Down= Careplan
Up = Follow Macro
Right = Attack Macro
Left= Heal Macro
Basic idea is to have all the basics at reach in one hand and far from the alt+tab, this while keeping a layout that makes easy to remember which key is which.
Always try to set your macros to a specific key in a way that can be easy to remember and access to, so after a while they become a reflex.
VII- Enchants
Enchants are intrinsically to the gameplay, not completely necessary for an alt but may come in handy for quick heals. A few tips are:
Always keep a single low cost heal as enchant on your alt amps
Your alt enchants should be placed on the same key/macro as in your main to avoid problems
Always charge up your alt amps, either by spell or crystals
Never ask a high lvl to work enchants for you, your enchants should be attuned to your stats/lvl and the same goes between you and your alt
Try out different combinations till you find one that suits you
VIII- Subbed alts vs f2p alts
Subbed alts will always be preferable, however f2p alts are pretty much all you need for support role, however the best efficiency of an alt starts at level 125. personally i’ve mastered many skills only using an f2p alt
IX- Alt training
All alts require some minimal training, as said before the idea is that your alt levels up as a side product of your own training.
The suggested levels for an alt to become useful are as follow:
- Heals: lvl 50
- Careplanning: lvl 10 (to get the basic careplan actions)
- Melee: any lvl will work as long as you know how to evade aggro, however it’s good to have good levels to get more HP
- Elemental: completely optional
Another side of alt training it’s alt trekking, as a minimum an alt should have the tps for the training, mat collecting places you use, and also respawn points.
X- Alts and costs
Alts do require dappers, and more than you'd think, before getting an alt make sure you have a way to make dappers. Some of the basic alt costs are TPs, picks, amps, armors, jewels, weapons. Bear in mind also the potential costs of mounts. (for subbed alts also packers, apartments and GH’s)
In my experience an alt won’t require more armor than a max dodge Light armor with HP boost for everything, and a set of jewels with rot, electricity protections. in amps the usual 83% excel zun amps work great however the optimal would be a set of amps with max heal speed and power(if f2p is easier to get over 90% amps)
I- Introduction
Starting with alts is always complicated, lots of tweaking, working macros and mainly getting used to the use of the alt.
To start it’s convenient to point out that an alt is mainly used for 3 things: careplanning, healing and storage, some other uses can be found but an alt is merely a support tool of your main character, I often see new players treating alts as mains and losing awful amounts of time in developing them…alts should be developed as collateral of your main character’s leveling (you can always go the other way, but it’s your time)
In this guide you'll find basics, i'll make brief reference to action building, but I won't go into the specifics of them as those are usually trade secrets of each player, so in this I recommend you build from your own experience.
It’s always convenient to start an alt once you have a few basic skills on high lvls or at least once all game mechanics have been understood, remember you'll be handling two characters and that means paying attention to both at some extent.
The current guide is intended for single alt use, but same principles can be applied for more than one alt account.
With that in mind let's get to business
II- First steps
a) Client setup
First you’ll need to make a copy of your entire ryzom folder and create a shortcut for the client’s exe file: this is mainly for 2 reasons, i) because user interface gets scrambled when the same client is used for 2 accounts, ii) for performance issues is best to have 2 clients so you can allocate them on different cores of your system.
b) Core setup:
Ryzom was created before the dual core technology was industry standard, which means it runs best in one core of the system. In current windows environments is possible to assign individual cores to certain programs, to do it you have 3 ways: i) manually select cores from the system manager ii) using an application such as Process Lasso or similar which would link the program automatically, iii) creating a .cmd file. Personally suggest doing it manually each time you start ryzom on both
accounts, since creating .cmd files can be troublesome, and process lasso does use system resources.
c) graphics and sound configuration:
entirely up to taste and computer capabilities , but for performance issues, it’s best to leave the alt on minimal graphics settings and keeping far clip at max or close to max
as for sound it’s best to turn it off not only for performance issues but also because it gets confusing if you have it also on on the main character
III- Setting up the Alt
Cardinal Rule: Keep it simple: remember what is it you want your alt for, it’s not intended to be the best character on atys, at best your sidekick or in most cases your meatbag decoy for kinchers, so in terms of actions they should fit what you do with your main.
a) Window Setup:
This is entirely up to your taste and also your computer capabilities, you can use both in full windowed mode or use the alt as an smaller window and reduce the User interface to a minimum. Personally I use both at full window as it seems to run better graphically.
if using the alt on a reduced window I suggest leaving one of the UI choices (f1-f4 keys) specially set for the alt as the alt window will take some space from your main
b) Basic controls
Directional controls should be the same you use for your main (WASD, SZXC, directional keys, etc) same goes for basic targeting, camera controls, character window, etc.
c) Action bar
Remember the cardinal rule? Well action bar (or bars) should be simple, and hopefuly not more than 2, the basic idea is that no matter what you do you never have to switch bars or if you do its only one swift motion.
I personally recommend 1 bar containing:
- 1-2 cp actions,
- 1 prospect action,
- 2 hp heals (1 single, 1 double),
- sap heal,
- stamina heal,
- 1 ele action,
- 1 general melee action (increase damage+ accuracy),
- sap, hp and focus self heals
- speed, invulnerability , mpa and enchant,
- you can also add 1 bomb heal and 1 double sap-hp heal ,some macros of your choosing but we’ll go over that on chapters 5 & 6.
As said above the aim is to get the basics of support in one bar, in my experience the above is all you'll need for almost anything pertaining the alt duties. This bar should have movable and immovable actions, for example: heals should be movable as there will be times when your alt will be healing stamina instead of sap thus moving from the bottom part of the bar to the upper part, same for cp, as sometimes you'll need full source life+ stability heal, and others just stability, also the same between ele and melee action. as for immovable actions speed, auras and self heals should remain untouched. The basic idea of this is that your alt has a few macro commands that you can remember easily at first and become reflex later.
IV- Alt+tab
This is perhaps the cornerstone of using an alt and perhaps the most complex thing to get naturally , alt+tab is what will enable you to switch between toons fast, however its use requires practice till it becomes reflex.
First the alt+tab routine is better to start it slowly, first press alt and then tab, there’s no need to punch both at the same time. Second start by doing light stuff, cping is the best for that as the source health bars take some time to move thus giving you time to perfect your alt+tab movement.
If using for grinding you can switch once your main has engaged and has its auto attack on.
Also a good placement of your macros can make the switching easier, as most get confused at first using the alt
V- Macros
Alt without macros is possible, but macroing is what makes alt use so widespread, this chapter will show 4 basic commands for macros that should cover all basics.
a) Follow macro: essential to alts is a follow macro, the layout for this is comprised of: a- target macro: macro/actions/target an entity/[your main’s name]; b- macro/chat/say to anybody/say/[/follow]
This macro is very effective but there are a few observations to it:
- The follow macro will stop working as soon as you move your character, the macro is also affected by targeting any other entity or manually targeting your main once its in use.
- If you use heals the macro will keep working as long as you don’t do any of the actions mentioned before.
- Only strike the macro once, the second time will disable the follow command
- Cping also turns off the follow command, as it requires you to target the source
- This macro can also be used as a fast way to target your main
- The macro will work in a 75mt radius if you haven’t targeted your main before, will work on a longer range if you have previously targeted your main.
b) Heal macro: this macro should accommodate to your playstyle, however it’s always better to use it for a 2 action setup for single heals (hp/hp, hp/sap or hp/stamina)
For alt use it’s always recommended you prefer single heals to double heals, as your alt is primarily a safeguard for your main, which means that it’s better to have fast low credit consuming heals than high demanding double heals that could drain your alt’s hp/sap fast.
c) CP macro: this action is rather simple to build and mainly consist of an action set to target your main, then an action to target your target (target current tartget’s target) and finally a run shortcut linked to your careplan action.
d) Attack macro: comprises of 4 parts: a- macro/action/target an entity [main’s name]; b- macro/action/target current target’s target; c- run shortcut linked to attack/ele action; d- repeat c
This action is made to activate the auto attack in melee or fire 2 ele at the target
VI- Macros and Mnemonics
Like said before alt use should be simple, thus having few basic macros well placed is the best way around, the usual strategy is place them as macros in the action bar, however it can be confusing at first.
For WASD players i'd suggest using the following setup using the directional keys:
Down= Careplan
Up = Follow Macro
Right = Attack Macro
Left= Heal Macro
Basic idea is to have all the basics at reach in one hand and far from the alt+tab, this while keeping a layout that makes easy to remember which key is which.
Always try to set your macros to a specific key in a way that can be easy to remember and access to, so after a while they become a reflex.
VII- Enchants
Enchants are intrinsically to the gameplay, not completely necessary for an alt but may come in handy for quick heals. A few tips are:
Always keep a single low cost heal as enchant on your alt amps
Your alt enchants should be placed on the same key/macro as in your main to avoid problems
Always charge up your alt amps, either by spell or crystals
Never ask a high lvl to work enchants for you, your enchants should be attuned to your stats/lvl and the same goes between you and your alt
Try out different combinations till you find one that suits you
VIII- Subbed alts vs f2p alts
Subbed alts will always be preferable, however f2p alts are pretty much all you need for support role, however the best efficiency of an alt starts at level 125. personally i’ve mastered many skills only using an f2p alt
IX- Alt training
All alts require some minimal training, as said before the idea is that your alt levels up as a side product of your own training.
The suggested levels for an alt to become useful are as follow:
- Heals: lvl 50
- Careplanning: lvl 10 (to get the basic careplan actions)
- Melee: any lvl will work as long as you know how to evade aggro, however it’s good to have good levels to get more HP
- Elemental: completely optional
Another side of alt training it’s alt trekking, as a minimum an alt should have the tps for the training, mat collecting places you use, and also respawn points.
X- Alts and costs
Alts do require dappers, and more than you'd think, before getting an alt make sure you have a way to make dappers. Some of the basic alt costs are TPs, picks, amps, armors, jewels, weapons. Bear in mind also the potential costs of mounts. (for subbed alts also packers, apartments and GH’s)
In my experience an alt won’t require more armor than a max dodge Light armor with HP boost for everything, and a set of jewels with rot, electricity protections. in amps the usual 83% excel zun amps work great however the optimal would be a set of amps with max heal speed and power(if f2p is easier to get over 90% amps)