I dislike alts and don't bother with them, but the extent of their popularity does make the game's shortcomings quite clear. A crafting system that limits combat potential is always going to be minmaxed, like it or not. Same with all 'soft' skills, like Outdoorsman. Or skills that really shouldn't be separate skills at all, like Doctor. God knows how you fix it. The idea of profession based bonuses, however, seems to be a step in the right direction.
Game vs Sim.
Or how much of a proportion do you want?
For crafting to be not in competition with combat power would be sort of munchkiny.
How do you maintain Tank training/edge while also being more than a basic crafter, realistically?
Doctor/First Aid? One stabilizes and patches up, the other does more deeply involved surgery type things.
It makes sense to be 2 different skills.
Perhaps a synergy bonus is in order because they overlap.
As for alts, they help experiment with different builds/etc. Also, while interacting with other players is optimal, the pre-existing player blocs can be a little alienating.
Alt-assisted metagaming isn't just about being an uber-munchkin, it can be a very somber technical thing, like using the game to imagine a post-apocalyptic logistics network.
I like thinking of the
Cryptic Alliances from
Gamma World- if there were a Restorationist cell operating in the Fallout world, it would not announce itself but first insinuate itself into the existing factions, acquire knowledge and technology, set up a network, etc.
I find it amusing to simulate this cell with my alts.
