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Unique names versus Name@global

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Adelante
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Unique names versus Name@global

I'm one for Unique names. Once it's taken, no one else can. That is one reason I really dislike Champions Online. I see people with my name@their global...Makes me feel less special. I do understand of course they wanted the name too and they probably do not care about being unique.

Favor the name system in CoH and WoW.

Dislike the name system in CO.

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Problem with that is is

Problem with that is is someone sees your name on the forum then likes it enough to steal it, yer hit because you can't use your name. I would prefer if they did something like in TSW first name nick name in the middle and last name. makes things a little easier.

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Gideon Cross wrote:
Gideon Cross wrote:

Problem with that is is someone seed your name on the forum then likes it enough to steal it, yer hit because you can't use your name. I would prefer if they did something like in TSW first name nick name in the middle and last name. makes things a little easier.

You mean a full name on every character? Imagine those Italian or Latino names. Loved the way CoH had naming,

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In TSW you would right the

In TSW you would write the full name then the nick would be the name your character was known by. like a global

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Nah - I never liked the way

Nah - I never liked the way CoH handled it - much prefer CO's way. That's why I'm thankful City of Titans is going the @global route. At least then everyone gets the name they want. This is especially important considering there will only be one server.

chase
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I'm much for CO's method. It

I'm much for CO's method. It didn't take long for me to adapt to it in chat and once I did, the freedom that I got with the naming system was so much better. I like to have meaning behind character names- a specific name that has multiple meanings in the story I'm trying to tell. going to a thesaurus or a foreign language version of the name loses much of that meaning.

In champions, many of the characters I'd made over countless GURPS sessions could be brought to life that I couldn't do as well in CoH because the names were so quickly taken.
- Shepherd (a veteran hero coming back from retirement, choosing to use his last name rather than the persona that he's trying to distance himself from. The impressions that are conveyed by the name also contrast against his actual personality.
- Freelance (a reporter who stared acting as an "embedded reporter" with heroes on patrol, initially given his name as a joke, then because, like the "free lances" of mideval time, his loyalties seemed to be toward his payroll, not his comrades)
- Tabby ( don't call her tabby. don't say that its so fitting, given her fur coloration and domestic-housecat-catgirl look (and never EVER use the term "catgirl") look... just don't/ her name's Tabitha. Ms. Tabitha M Chase, if you really get on her bad side. Never "Tabby." She hates "Tabby" .... which is, of course, why everyone MUST call her that.
- Artificer- a name I was surprised to have such a tough time acquiring in CoH- he's my inventor/gadgeteer, experimenter-geek.

In CoH, the lack of appropriate name killed many a good character reference. I'd rather keep them out of the game and in my own private world than compromise them. I still managed to have fun getting many enjoyable names over time, so it wasn't a deal-breaker, but there are far too many heroes that I would have liked to share online that still remain only in my notebooks and binders....

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I didn't mind the CoH method

I didn't mind the CoH method mostly because I had the global I wanted and I managed to be creative enough with my other characters that it worked. Worst case, we could move to another server where the name wasn't taken. If anything, let's just make sure that we have a decent and fair system for releasing names that are unused. But if at all possible, the span of time needs to be longish (three to four months or longer) since I am only able to activate my account every few months (busy dad and all).

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The "champions online" one

The "champions online" one was rather simple. all this is IIRC (its been years)
1) although I was playing early in the game, before the numbers dwindled, the risk of seeing 2 identical names in a zone chat at the same time never came up. There may have been some confusion if you thought the "joe" you're chatting with now was the "joe" you saw the night before but didn't think to "friend" but that never came up for me either.
2) if you hid the global in chat, mousing over the name got you the global, so there was a quick way to distinguish between the two in chat,

Now, if you had 2 or 3 "Joes" in the same private chat channel, it could get messy. I wished we could add our own aliases to the people we encountered. I could name them "j" "joe the brute" "joe talksalot" and "doesn't deserve the name joe" and then use those aliases to distinguish them. To be honest, it happened rarely enough that it probably wasn't worth the development time....

1) this system has the advantage of automatically being cross-shard (Server) friendly. If you had multiple servers but wanted to offer (for example) multiserver queue-based PvP, this system would allow better support for it.

The "unique name per server" system works well for fantasy-based MMO's, where you can mangle a few letters in a name, sound fantasy-themed, and call it a name. if its taken, change a few characters and do it again. When dealing with the limited vocabulary of real words that would serve as functional callsigns, like hero monikers would, the options diminish. It isn't impossible to find a good name, but it can be disappointing not to have the most fitting name.

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I HATED the Champions name

I HATED the Champions name system, and much preferred CoH's. It fostered imagination and some real wit. The "@global" thing was ugly and cumbersome. If someone else thought of your name then you kept going till you had a variation on the concept.

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Interdictor wrote:
Interdictor wrote:

Nah - I never liked the way CoH handled it - much prefer CO's way. That's why I'm thankful City of Titans is going the @global route. At least then everyone gets the name they want. This is especially important considering there will only be one server.

I so, so hope this decision hasn't been finalized yet.

Doctor October

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I doubt that every single alt

I doubt that every single alt made by every single player must have a unique name is going to work, considering that CoT is going to have a single server.

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Doctor October wrote:
Doctor October wrote:

Interdictor wrote:
Nah - I never liked the way CoH handled it - much prefer CO's way. That's why I'm thankful City of Titans is going the @global route. At least then everyone gets the name they want. This is especially important considering there will only be one server.

I so, so hope this decision hasn't been finalized yet.

I so, so hope it has. CoH naming system sucked. Coming into an established game as a new player and trying to get a decent name was aggravating to say the least(personal experience with other games). The @global is way better. I played CO for a while and never once did I run into anyone with the same name as me, nor did I ever confuse 2 people of the same name. @global is nice too for friends list, I don't have to try to remember which friend is who when they have 20 alts, "@joeschmoe is online" is much better, especially since there will only be 1 server.

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ravonos wrote:
ravonos wrote:

I so, so hope it has. CoH naming system sucked.

It wasnt THAT bad, but I can see most of the new players being Very Happy that the Name they chose for their newly created toon IS AVAILABLE! :O ;)

What I didnt like in Champions Online was that the Chat area would ALWAYS show my Global right after the character name... and silly me.. i had to make my global a paragraph long! :/
Wheres the "HIDE Global in Chat" option!?!?

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Izzy wrote:
Izzy wrote:

ravonos wrote:
I so, so hope it has. CoH naming system sucked.
It wasnt THAT bad, but I can see most of the new players being Very Happy that the Name they chose for their newly created toon IS AVAILABLE! :O ;)
What I didnt like in Champions Online was that the Chat area would ALWAYS show my Global right after the character name... and silly me.. i had to make my global a paragraph long! :/
Wheres the "HIDE Global in Chat" option!?!?

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I think that the @Global will

I think that the @Global will be a much better way of handling the naming problem of people grabbing names when they go live. If I can't get White Samurai for my main, I'd be a very unhappy camper.... LOL

It just means that, whilst I may not be unique, I can at least get the name I want.

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I don't care for the @global

I don't care for the @global name so hopefully theres a way to hide the @global name in chat and on our toon

chase
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Izzy wrote:
Izzy wrote:

ravonos wrote:
I so, so hope it has. CoH naming system sucked.
It wasnt THAT bad, but I can see most of the new players being Very Happy that the Name they chose for their newly created toon IS AVAILABLE! :O ;)
What I didnt like in Champions Online was that the Chat area would ALWAYS show my Global right after the character name... and silly me.. i had to make my global a paragraph long! :/
Wheres the "HIDE Global in Chat" option!?!?

Its been ages since I was playing CO, and this qestion came up a lot. It was a setting within chat (I don't thinkj they called the chat handle 'global" so don't look for that keyword.) It hid the global handle unless you mouseovered the name. It was definately a change for chat management, but i found the "comic sans" font in chat to be a far more annoying element, and changing THAT was what I was trying to do when I stumbled across the flag for hiding globals.

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I'll put in my vote in for a

I'll put in my vote in for a CO styled @global naming system with the option to "hide it unless you mouseover the name" thing that chase mentioned. That should give everyone the chance to have whatever name they want while at the same time keeping the extra "@global" part from cluttering up the screen.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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From what I have read in

From what I have read in previous threads, the @global is as close to set in stone as anything is at this point, so might as well get used to it.

For all the arguments that a unique name inspired creativity, it also inspired ASCI vomit across peoples names. I'd much rather see "Captain Bob@player" than "xXCap7ain B0bXx" floating over peoples heads. For the most part, you probably won't see anyone with the same name, I've been playing GW2 for a year now and have yet to see anyone with my name.True if I named myself something like "Shadow Warrior" I might have, but then I deserve it too. If I did ever encounter someone with the same name, why get angry? Chances are the other person is someone I would get along with if we both came up with the same name.

Now, I was against the idea of changing CoH to the @global system, because I thought time and resources could be better spent on other things. However, this convention has become the way things are done now for many reasons, and one should expect it in any MMO coming out. Saying you prefer unique names is a lot like saying you prefer rotary telephones; you are entitled to your opinion, but don't expect to get it when shopping for something new.

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Just to point out that Guild

Just to point out that Guild Wars 2 has a unique name system, just like City of Heroes, which is why you won't see someone with the same name as you... well, that is if i remember correctly

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I remember when I was testing

I remember when I was testing to decide which version of Khaos to use in CoX but I wanted to keep his name the same I had so many variations of GK, so that I could decide which one was the best match for what I had in mind. I prefer the @global name v the unique name. I know it means there might be a thousand Black Shadow and White Knight but it is better than Black xxxShadowxxx13 and Milky Knight running around.

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Gangrel wrote:
Gangrel wrote:

Just to point out that Guild Wars 2 has a unique name system, just like City of Heroes, which is why you won't see someone with the same name as you... well, that is if i remember correctly

That is incorrect, it does use a global name, it is just hidden until mouse-over or selecting another player.

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I believe they are going with

I believe they are going with name@global way for many reason and reason why it would work.

1. There is 1 big server and only 1. Meaning if names were hard to come by in CoH then how bad do you think if the entire population plus new people will have to find name just after 1 month after release.

2. Allows people to get the name that they want. There was some ideas past around for special promotion to reserve a name so that no one can use. And an idea where if your the first of that name then you will get a symbol of somesort on the character info screen show that.

3. Names on character heads will only be name and no global. Chat can be @global or name@global. Mouse over and select a character in the world can show global for quick referencing who that person is.

Neverwinter has the same system as CO but @global is never seen except friends list with options to show @global in chat and head. As long and @global in minimal then i would prefer name@global. I used to argue for unique name but MMO have moved one because of the reduction of server numbers as the main reason

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AlienMafia wrote:
AlienMafia wrote:

I believe they are going with name@global way for many reason and reason why it would work.

I'm growing to seriously dislike the assumptions that your choices if your name is taken, it's down to two choices:

A) Making every name everywhere look like an e-mail address with the .com hacked off the end or B) misspelling the name and adding random x's at the end.

I'd always believed the 'official comicbook handbooks' had the perfect answer. Starting with the second character with the name, they'd add a Roman numeral. It didn't result in people calling him "Robin III" in the comicbooks. His series wouldn't be "Robin III." Yet the common answer to this suggestion was "I don't want to be called Robin XVI in chat!"

Yet people ignore them easily enough with the @ system. I don't expect people will be adding @username when they talk in chat (generally speaking). I don't see why the number affix would be different.

If the problem with this is people see the name and assume you're not the first character to use the name in the game.. but.. you're.. not. The fact the first character who uses it used it 3 seconds and never logs in again doesn't rewrite history. Well, actual history as opposed to game history.

It would be nice if they'd 1) make it optional. So if you're not the first player to choose "Shadow" for a name (even though it's highly original and the odds of someone else coming up with it have to be at least one in a... one), you can still tack on your global name and people can go with that. Without having me stuck with @ username if I don't want to be.

2) An official LEGACY number. Under the assumption we don't get to use parenthesis in our names (or using brackets if we do), if you try to pick Shadow, the game would calmly explain "There are currently sixty seven players with this name who aren't using the global suffix. If you choose not to use the global suffix system you'll be known as Shadow (XXXVII); would you like to proceed?" Giving you the option to add the global name or spend a few seconds thinking up an alternate name to try. (Or as it's known in some places, "forcing you to spend six hours digging through a million page thesaurus.")

I'm sorry if that was snarky. It wasn't meant to be.

Then just have the affix number slightly grayed out to make it clear it's an official suffix only. Basically, it would be nice to have a couple options in the hopefully rare cases of non-unique name ideas.

Any one favor that option?

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syntaxerror37 wrote:
syntaxerror37 wrote:

Gangrel wrote:
Just to point out that Guild Wars 2 has a unique name system, just like City of Heroes, which is why you won't see someone with the same name as you... well, that is if i remember correctly

That is incorrect, it does use a global name, it is just hidden until mouse-over or selecting another player.

That is also incorrect. They do use a global name system, combined with a unique character name system. They make the global unique by adding 4 digits at the end. That way someone can use the same global, just with a different set of digits. It's kinda stupid to do it that way I think but whatever. You still need a unique character name. I came into that game late and it was very difficult to find names for characters that I was satisfied with. The global system is used for friends and guilds, that way you don't have to join with every character, just once with your global and all your characters are in.

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Since its going to just be a

Since its going to just be a mega Server. I'm preferring global. If it was several servers then I would have like unique names. But, unique name plus global is cool too.

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AmbiDreamer wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:

AlienMafia wrote:
I believe they are going with name@global way for many reason and reason why it would work.

I'm growing to seriously dislike the assumptions that your choices if your name is taken, it's down to two choices:
A) Making every name everywhere look like an e-mail address with the .com hacked off the end or B) misspelling the name and adding random x's at the end.

That's not the nway it usually works. The idea is generally to show the name and just the name. if you mouseover, you can get the full name@global so you can tell the differnece, so unless there IS a duplicate-name person out there, you rarely ever have to face the issue.

Quote:

I'd always believed the 'official comicbook handbooks' had the perfect answer. Starting with the second character with the name, they'd add a Roman numeral. It didn't result in people calling him "Robin III" in the comicbooks. His series wouldn't be "Robin III." Yet the common answer to this suggestion was "I don't want to be called Robin XVI in chat!"
Yet people ignore them easily enough with the @ system. I don't expect people will be adding @username when they talk in chat (generally speaking). I don't see why the number affix would be different.

This is a possibility. The first person in a room that calls himself 'shadow" gets that name for that time. The next "shadow" that enters triggers a subscript (2) and the first then gets (1) for the duration of the chat. This is fine for basic chat services, but the global helps for persistent identity handling (I was shadow(1) last night but was late online tonight so i'm shadow (4).

could you just append it onto my name so I'm always 'shadow 4' ? sure, but its largely unnecessary. 99% of the time you're online, you'll never encounter a name doppleganger. I'll be the only "shadow" that my teammates or friends encounter that night. I'll be the only one that most of my supergroup ever encounters. They could call me "shadow" without the name limit without any issue normally.

I worked with 3 "davids" for a very long time. Natural language context dealt with the situation transparently. nobody had to change his name or perpetually go around as "david 2". Sometimes you need to distinguish them from one another when context of conversation isn't clear, but its done naturally, organically, and only when necessary. Why shouldn't naming systems in games be any different?

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I prefer @global naming, but

I prefer @global naming, but I would also like the option of suppressing the @global segment in chat, for the sake of brevity and clarity.

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There are going to be lots of

There are going to be lots of strong opinions about... well, everything, really, because we all loved CoH so much and I think it's fair to say its absence, for the majority of the people rooting for CoT, has not really been filled by any other MMO. And the name of the toon is the seed for its whole costume, identity, origin, etc., so it's a point to be passionate about.

Best compromise it sounds like is the ability to suppress the "@global" in chat window and maybe have a "mouse over" thing. I hope that's possible to execute.

I will miss the creative challenge, the "Yes!" of thinking of a concept and name, finding the first idea taken and then coming up with an even better one (only sometimes, I grant you), the feeling special/unique with an alt, but I understand the reality of getting CoT not just developed, but through its infancy once it hopefully launches on track.

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Doctor October wrote:
Doctor October wrote:

Interdictor wrote:
Nah - I never liked the way CoH handled it - much prefer CO's way. That's why I'm thankful City of Titans is going the @global route. At least then everyone gets the name they want. This is especially important considering there will only be one server.

I so, so hope this decision hasn't been finalized yet.

Only a dev can say for sure if it's truly capital-F "Finalized", but the @global name scheme is the one that the devs have said they are going with in the past. Now - that's not to say they won't be able to let us hide the @globals but leave them easily accessible (even I would prefer that).

Once you consider the "alting endgame", the single server, the sharding/instancing zones, and the simple passage of time it's probably the best way to go.

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First post but I am quite

First post but I am quite opinionated on this topic so please excuse my high horse.

I always wonder why people demand flexible character creation and then demand unique names. If I want to be something like "Mighty Man" (assuming no IP infringement) then why should I miss out because someone who played for a week and never came back still has dibs? I am sorry but it just seems selfish to me. Remember we hope to gather not just refugees from CoX but also, DCUO, CO and newcomers. All of which may have names they feel strongly about having.

The unique name race is extremely "un-fun". When DCUO went live I found myself racing to grab as many names as I could rather than enjoying the experience. Each name I missed out on was a source of annoyance. The same happened with GW2 which uses both a global account AND unique names (which seems at least partially redundant). With a single server, a unique name race will be even more important. If you get stuck in a login queue then "it sucks to be you" isn't player friendly. At least with CO I know that if I want a name, I can have it (assuming no IP infringement). In CO the global handle can be hidden and I don't find that it confuses players as to who is who at all.

With respect to "forced" creativity from "unique names" I find that you do not encourage creativity at all. What you get is "X Mighty Man X" and other painful variants. When people REALLY want a name, they won't give it up easily so why frustrate them?

CoT is going to need players. Let's give them as many choices as we can so that CoT can thrive.

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syntaxerror37 wrote:
syntaxerror37 wrote:

Gangrel wrote:
Just to point out that Guild Wars 2 has a unique name system, just like City of Heroes, which is why you won't see someone with the same name as you... well, that is if i remember correctly

That is incorrect, it does use a global name, it is just hidden until mouse-over or selecting another player.

There *is* a global name system in there... but you *cannot* make a character with the same name that someone already has on that server.

I just tried this to double check it.

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Quote:
Quote:

The idea is generally to show the name and just the name. if you mouse over, you can get the full name @ global so you can tell the difference, so unless there IS a duplicate-name person out there, you rarely ever have to face the issue.

Quote:

Could you just append it onto my name so I'm always 'shadow 4' ? Sure, but its largely unnecessary. 99% of the time you're online, you'll never encounter a name doppelganger. I'll be the only "shadow" that my teammates or friends encounter that night. I'll be the only one that most of my supergroup ever encounters. They could call me "shadow" without the name limit without any issue normally

Both of those have the same issue for me which comes up when I want to send an offline message to Shadow. Unless he’s on my friends list, the system is going to need a unique name to figure out which gamemails or private messages go to him. If he’s offline, I don’t want to just message any random Shadow that happens to be online. They aren’t just interchangeable shadows (I’m presuming they’re not). I want to make sure it goes to the right one.

And if the global doesn’t pop up unless I don’t mouse over his name, how am I supposed to know which Shadow to talk to if it happens I never moused over his name? It seems like it’d be as valid to just have the number affixed- maybe autohidden during normal chat like the global name is?

I’d also like to be clear on my suggestion; permanent names. I don’t see much value in being Dreamer (VI) one day and Dreamer (VIII) the next.

I do think there is an important distinction between Shadow 4 and Shadow (4); having the numeric handled by the system would potentially allow the game to make it obvious that it isn’t a part of the name but a system identifier. For handling such things as offline messages.

Still, thank you for responding and the feedback. :)

J

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AmbiDreamer wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:

Both of those have the same issue for me which comes up when I want to send an offline message to Shadow. Unless he’s on my friends list, the system is going to need a unique name to figure out which gamemails or private messages go to him. If he’s offline, I don’t want to just message any random Shadow that happens to be online. They aren’t just interchangeable shadows (I’m presuming they’re not). I want to make sure it goes to the right one.

Send the mail to their @ global name rather than their character name. No confusion and, as an additional advantage, they'll see it no matter which character they log in on.

Quote:

And if the global doesn’t pop up unless I don’t mouse over his name, how am I supposed to know which Shadow to talk to if it happens I never moused over his name? It seems like it’d be as valid to just have the number affixed- maybe autohidden during normal chat like the global name is?

Choose not to hide their @ global name so you can see it all the time, rather than only when mousing over their name. It may not be aesthetically pleasing to see a name in the Batman@ Marvel format, but it is disingenuous to choose to hide someone's unique identifier and then complain that you don't know what it is.

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I very much support both the

I very much support both the @Global name conventions (so I have what I WANT not what is LEFT) and the capacity to turn off the visibility so most of my chatbox isn't taken up with my name!

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I've commented on this

I've commented on this elsewhere but just wanted to add my voice here, too. I strongly prefer a system where character names are unique to the account, not the server. Yes, you could end up on a league where everyone is named Awesome Guy, but I prefer that to a system where you have to figure out how to spell Awesome Guy with numbers and special characters. To me, it's very frustrating when a cool name idea you have was claimed by someone 6 years ago, and they don't even play that toon.

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Darth Fez wrote:
Darth Fez wrote:

Choose not to hide their @ global name so you can see it all the time, rather than only when mousing over their name. It may not be aesthetically pleasing to see a name in the Batman@ Marvel format, but it is disingenuous to choose to hide someone's unique identifier and then complain that you don't know what it is.

I appreciate the feedback but I'm not sure I get your point, but it really reads like, "If you don't choose to show global names all the time, you deserve to live in ignorance."

Why not just do away with unique character names altogether then if we're going to treat them as an obstacle to communicating with people? Since your argument is based solely on "You have to be able to see their global names" to contact them, why even have unique character names in the game?

The 'added advantage' of "they'll see it from any character" only applies if you assume the email to their character doesn't go to their global account. Why wouldn't it simply go into an inbox accessible from any character?

Finally, how does the game handle tells? I just send it to the global name, you say? Which goes back to my original question. Why even have character names if the system is unable to reliably handle anything other than tells to global names? Just put it in your bio, man!

It also doesn't address my original suggestion: to simply have an affix of (VI) or the appropriate numeral to a character to keep them distinct enough to send a tell to reliably, instead of having the aforementioned chopped off e-mail address.

YES, they might alt to another character. Maybe I'd rather deal with that than the aforementioned global names.

Edit: I'd also like to point out I wasn't suggesting enable autohide for global names; I was pointing out one of the problems with chase's suggestion that autohide is the common default feature. That option is, however, one already requested multiple times in this thread.

It's not 'disingenuous' to suggest I want a way to send a tell to a character without needing to use their global name.

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InOnePiece wrote:
InOnePiece wrote:

I've commented on this elsewhere but just wanted to add my voice here, too. I strongly prefer a system where character names are unique to the account, not the server. Yes, you could end up on a league where everyone is named Awesome Guy, but I prefer that to a system where you have to figure out how to spell Awesome Guy with numbers and special characters. To me, it's very frustrating when a cool name idea you have was claimed by someone 6 years ago, and they don't even play that toon.

Why don't you like adding a numeral to the name? Why can't the people around you simply be expected to address you without the name? Also, no one should ever, ever try to use a special character to spell their character's name without a real in story reason.

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I'm another one in favour of

I'm another one in favour of @global names I'm afraid. As much as I had fun coming up with unique names in CoH after the game had been running for years, it was also incredibly frustrating.

For example; in the run up to CoH go live I had a bunch of characters I wanted to make, one of those characters was a robot called MASH. I logged on within an hour or so of the game going live and created my MASH character about 3 hours later and lo and behold I couldn't get the name; I ended up calling him MASH AIR (Artificially Intelligent Robot) and the name grated on me for years.

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AmbiDreamer wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:

Edit: I'd also like to point out I wasn't suggesting enable autohide for global names; I was pointing out one of the problems with chase's suggestion that autohide is the common default feature. That option is, however, one already requested multiple times in this thread.

I didn't see that this is the angle you were coming from. Whichever proves to be the default, I'll assume that it will not be difficult to make the switch to one's personal preference. Then each individual can determine which is easiest for them to keep track of others and use that.

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I don't have a major problem

I don't have a major problem with @global, except for one thing that needs to be thought of; stalkers. I didn't get a whole lot of them on CoH, but there were a few. I simply reported them and then switched characters to get away. What happens when all of my characters are able to be linked back to the same global account?

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For the unique name argument,

For the unique name argument, what if the game still checked your name against the database and returned a count of how many other "YourName"s there were? That way, you could still aim for the Unique (until someone else tries that name), but after you've tried new names for 30 minutes and find them all taken, you can still HAVE the best one you've thought of.

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I have to say... I really,

I have to say... I really, truly despise systems that allow global names (or force them) to be shown or accessible to just anyone looking at a screen. I am usually a very private person, mostly due to having been stalked through games by one or two obsessive types. I know I'm in the minority, but if I want to hide and just play solo on an alt, this system doesn't allow that at all. I like GW2's system because it is at least 'hard' enough to find that I didn't have to worry about it.

If the global name is hidden unless you mouseover or pull it from a right-click menu, then I can get around that and still be comfortable and unworried. If it's always showing then... hoboy... that's gonna be an issue.

Never had an issue with unique names that I couldn't get around and be very happy with.. in fact, I found that late in CoX's life I was forced to go in directions I hadn't intended for names. Those names were the ones I was usually most happy with.

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Is City of Titans really

Is City of Titans really going the @global route? Confirmed? Sad...

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I'd hate to see people with

I'd hate to see people with the same names in the same zones. How confusing will it be if they're grouped or even in same SG. Hate CO's @global so much. No privacy also.

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AmbiDreamer]Why don't you
AmbiDreamer wrote:

Why don't you like adding a numeral to the name? Why can't the people around you simply be expected to address you without the name?

Why don't I *like* adding a numeral to a name? Probably because I believe...

AmbiDreamer wrote:

no one should ever, ever try to use a special character to spell their character's name without a real in story reason.

I don't think you should have to be Awesome Guy 2 unless you have a real in story reason.

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KaosKitteh wrote:
KaosKitteh wrote:

I have to say... I really, truly despise systems that allow global names (or force them) to be shown or accessible to just anyone looking at a screen. I am usually a very private person, mostly due to having been stalked through games by one or two obsessive types. I know I'm in the minority, but if I want to hide and just play solo on an alt, this system doesn't allow that at all. I like GW2's system because it is at least 'hard' enough to find that I didn't have to worry about it.
If the global name is hidden unless you mouseover or pull it from a right-click menu, then I can get around that and still be comfortable and unworried. If it's always showing then... hoboy... that's gonna be an issue.
Never had an issue with unique names that I couldn't get around and be very happy with.. in fact, I found that late in CoX's life I was forced to go in directions I hadn't intended for names. Those names were the ones I was usually most happy with.

I like the idea of having to mouse over to see the global name. I think that would help to some degree - though I like having global names v the unique names.

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City of Heroes did not

City of Heroes did not prevent people from seeing your global.

The answer to stalkers is not in-game anonymity of characters disassociated from a global handle, but a robust system to report stalkers and severe penalties for stalking.

If there are real life people who stalk you and they are able to find out who you are in the game, then that's a problem on the user's end for associating their real world name with a global handle, or for trusting the wrong people to keep the knowledge of that connection secret.

But, however they learn who you are, if they engage in harassing behavior, then by that behavior they shall be banned.

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The reason why the "out of

The reason why the "out of game stalking" happened, was because they used CoH Faces.... so whilst the Out of Game harrasment happened on a 3rd party site, it was one that was set up for the direct benefit of showing off your characters.

I believe that they were actually "located" by their character name initially.... and so the abuse went to the owner of said account.

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One of my gaming buddies and

One of my gaming buddies and I had a fun time in CoH, creating nearly identical characters with nearly identical names and then creating a leveling pact and playing our duo together. When CoH closed, we took the concept to CO, and ran with Identical names. We were still unique-ish, with a 'gold' one and a 'silver' one and people rarely had trouble telling us apart, just by Behavior, but if someone called out to us by name, they'd get two answers.

In this instance, I found having multiple characters with the same name to be Fun. I can see how it might not be fun, under other conditions.

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Am I overly paranoid? Yep, I

Am I overly paranoid? Yep, I acknowledge that without reserve. Just voicing my own concerns along with others.

And no, CoX didn't prevent people from being able to find out your global, especially at the end. I think my main issue was that when the behavior was reported, mounds of screenshots of whispers and such were sent in... that nothing was done. I'd understand if it were simply a matter of a little griefing or whatnot... that sort of behavior can be easily ignored, and certainly doesn't require GM intervention.

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InOnePiece wrote:
InOnePiece wrote:

I don't think you should have to be Awesome Guy 2 unless you have a real in story reason.

Here's the in-game story reason. You're not the first one to use the name, you're the second one.

Please let me note, too: it would be Awesome Guy (II). Or (2).As I said, I'd hoped the system format the numerical designation at the end would be enough for people to realize "You don't address the hero as Hero II. Just like you wouldn't address them as Hero @ User name under the global system."

It doesn't seem to be catching on. No biggie. I don't expect all of my ideas to be popular.

But as for "using special characters," seriously? We're talking about using the same system the comic's handbooks use- a Roman numeral system. There is a massive difference between that and the "ASCI vomit across peoples names" syntaxerror37 mentioned earlier in the thread.

Let me Illustrate.

Numerical: Awesome Guy. Awesome Guy (II). Awesome Guy (XVI)
Random stew: Awesome Guy. Avves0me Guy. AwsumxGuyxxxx.

Anyway, why do we need a rule to make the character name unique to the account, as you suggested? IF we go with a global name, why can’t I use the same name for more than one of my characters?

If we absolutely are going to use non unique names @ global, there might be times I want to use the same 'character' as multiple toons. Am I missing a reason against this?

Darth Fez wrote:

I didn't see that this is the angle you were coming from. Whichever proves to be the default, I'll assume that it will not be difficult to make the switch to one's personal preference. Then each individual can determine which is easiest for them to keep track of others and use that.

So you throw around judgments like "disingenuous to choose to hide someone's unique identifier and then complain that you don't know what it is," (insulting and judgmental) then come back with "Hey, it's no big deal if you have to manually choose to show someone's unique identifier in preferences!"

That's disingenuous. "It's your fault if you disable the option, but I don't care if you actually disabled it or it was the system default."

I'd personally rather have unique names, but I get the impression the winds aren't blowing that way.

But let's not sit here blaming people for hiding global extensions and then insist it's not a big deal if the system hides them by default. Especially in light of the fact that I'm not arguing in favor of making the global name the unique identifier.

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I do not like unique

I do not like unique character names. When I create a character, I want to have complete control. We don't have to redesign our costume or powers if it happens to duplicate another character, why should we have to redo our name? Preventing me from using a name simply because someone else is using it is not fun.

Names aren't unique in the real world or in comics. We have the technology to support duplicate names in the game, so we should.

And from a practical standpoint, unique names are not player-friendly. New players would be at disadvantage to find a unique name. If old character names are phased out, then past players are discouraged from returning.

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AmbiDreamer wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:

..(snip)
Let me Illustrate.
Numerical: Awesome Guy. Awesome Guy (II). Awesome Guy (XVI)
Random stew: Awesome Guy. Avves0me Guy. AwsumxGuyxxxx.
Anyway, why do we need a rule to make the character name unique to the account, as you suggested? IF we go with a global name, why can’t I use the same name for more than one of my characters?
If we absolutely are going to use non unique names @ global, there might be times I want to use the same 'character' as multiple toons. Am I missing a reason against this?

That's true- never tried to do it in other games, but it would seem that "name@global" would mean that one global would only get one shot at that name. Good observation.

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chase wrote:
chase wrote:

AmbiDreamer wrote:
Anyway, why do we need a rule to make the character name unique to the account, as you suggested? IF we go with a global name, why can’t I use the same name for more than one of my characters?
If we absolutely are going to use non unique names @ global, there might be times I want to use the same 'character' as multiple toons. Am I missing a reason against this?

That's true- never tried to do it in other games, but it would seem that "name@global" would mean that one global would only get one shot at that name. Good observation.

It's not an arbitrary "rule" that says you can't have more than one character of a given name per account under the @Global system. It's a simple matter of every character requiring a unique name in the game regardless of which naming system is used.

The reason you can't have two characters named AwesomeGuy@ABC123 is because at that point they are not uniquely named whereas AwesomeGuy@ABC123 and AwesomeGuy@XYZ987 are unique names. Not sure how you get around this reality unless you owned both ABC123 and XYZ987. And of course nothing's stopping you from having AwesomeGuy1@ABC123 and AwesomeGuy2@ABC123 if you really wanted.

Considering how much trouble the @Global scheme solves throughout the playerbase in general I think it's probably worth the downside of not being able to have multiple toons on the same account all named exactly the same. You obviously couldn't do this under the non-@Global system either.

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:

chase wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:
Anyway, why do we need a rule to make the character name unique to the account, as you suggested? IF we go with a global name, why can’t I use the same name for more than one of my characters?
If we absolutely are going to use non unique names @ global, there might be times I want to use the same 'character' as multiple toons. Am I missing a reason against this?

That's true- never tried to do it in other games, but it would seem that "name@global" would mean that one global would only get one shot at that name. Good observation.

It's not an arbitrary "rule" that says you can't have more than one character of a given name per account under the @Global system. It's a simple matter of every character requiring a unique name in the game regardless of which naming system is used.
The reason you can't have two characters named AwesomeGuy@ABC123 is because at that point they are not uniquely named whereas AwesomeGuy@ABC123 and AwesomeGuy@XYZ987 are unique names. Not sure how you get around this reality unless you owned both ABC123 and XYZ987. And of course nothing's stopping you from having AwesomeGuy1@ABC123 and AwesomeGuy2@ABC123 if you really wanted.
Considering how much trouble the @Global scheme solves throughout the playerbase in general I think it's probably worth the downside of not being able to have multiple toons on the same account all named exactly the same. You obviously couldn't do this under the non-@Global system either.

Another way to look at this would be "you're always communicating with the "global" , but the "character name" is the alias used in chat. That "alias" could then be reused as often as you'd like on the same global, as it just serves as a stand-in for the global user, which will be unique. You'd be /friend-ing the global, not the characer, through the current character name, for example. Once you do this, there's no significant need to ahve the name@global be unique. The database will usually have a hidden numeric character ID number for all the other system-specific id'ing. It would then be possible to have two or more Awesomeguy@ABC123 accounts without issue.

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chase wrote:
chase wrote:

The database will usually have a hidden numeric character ID number for all the other system-specific id'ing. It would then be possible to have two or more Awesomeguy@ABC123 accounts without issue.

Something we agree on! :)

Lothic, the system should be able to handle an invisible ID to tell two of my characters with the same name apart, right? To me, there really isn't an upside for @Username no unique names OTHER than this.

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[quote=Pleonast
Pleonast wrote:

Names aren't unique in the real world or in comics.

in the real world. I have met 6 people with my first name. 1 of which actually has the same last name as me. So yea names aren't unique in the real world. I'm going to vote for globals.

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Oddly enough I have a last

Oddly enough I have a last name that I've never seen another person having that wasn't a blood relative.

A google search finds at least a dozen people with my RL name.

My online handle? Pretty much me and the Adventure Quest guy.

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chase wrote:
chase wrote:

Another way to look at this would be "you're always communicating with the "global" , but the "character name" is the alias used in chat. That "alias" could then be reused as often as you'd like on the same global, as it just serves as a stand-in for the global user, which will be unique. You'd be /friend-ing the global, not the characer, through the current character name, for example. Once you do this, there's no significant need to ahve the name@global be unique. The database will usually have a hidden numeric character ID number for all the other system-specific id'ing. It would then be possible to have two or more Awesomeguy@ABC123 accounts without issue.

AmbiDreamer wrote:

Something we agree on! :)
Lothic, the system should be able to handle an invisible ID to tell two of my characters with the same name apart, right? To me, there really isn't an upside for @Username no unique names OTHER than this.

Obviously a database could handle a third "hidden/invisible" ID to be able to tell two different Awesomeguy@ABC123 characters apart. This hidden ID would end up being the "unique" element in the equation to make it work.

So how would the game handle this in practical terms? Let's say you have two Awesomeguy characters on your account. On the log in screen would you have two entries? Would they have to be listed something like Awesomeguy(1) and Awesomeguy(2) the way file names would have to be differentiated in a directory list to tell them apart? And if so why force the game to have to mantain a third hidden ID for them if you're already having to accept uniquely listed character names on that GUI?

You do understand that if a game like this could have easily had a unique "hidden" character ID like you're suggesting then CoH could have allowed for duplicate character names years ago even without the @Global system. Why do you think they decided not to implement it that way? Perhaps it would have been far too much trouble than it was worth.

Ultimately I understand your desire to have multiple characters named the same name. I realize that there were a few people out there who used to like to roleplay the idea that one "single" character could actually act as multiple ATs (that you could change by relogging into another cloned character). Unfortnately I suspect the effort it would take for the game to allow for one account to have multiple identically named characters is far too much to justify, especially considering that this kind of thing could probably be abused for griefing in a PvP setting.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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Personally, what I would want

Personally, what I would want is:

  • Unique @global names, with no hokey numbers added on; I'd like to be @Wyvern, not @Wyvern1982. And if that's not available, I'll fall back to something else rather than add tacky numbers.
  • Character names that are, at most, unique per account. The ability to have multiple characters with the same name might be neat, but it's not vital; I had at the end of CoH at least four different variations of my main using different archetypes or power combos, but it wasn't that hard to give each of them a unique name.
  • The ability to, when creating a character (or renaming one if that option exists), get information on how popular that name is. I'd like to be able to see things like "The name 'FlashBang' is in use by 217 characters, of which 12 are currently logged on", or "The name 'Linsanity' is in use by 17 characters, of which the most recent login was 52 days ago". And then, if I think the name is perfect and don't mind that there are others out there, I can use it... and if I want something a bit more unique, I can keep trying.

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Von Krieger wrote:
Von Krieger wrote:

Oddly enough I have a last name that I've never seen another person having that wasn't a blood relative.
A google search finds at least a dozen people with my RL name.

Pretty much the same here, VK. As a general rule, if someone has the same last name as I do, they're family.

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ravonos wrote:
ravonos wrote:

Doctor October wrote:
Interdictor wrote:
Nah - I never liked the way CoH handled it - much prefer CO's way. That's why I'm thankful City of Titans is going the @global route. At least then everyone gets the name they want. This is especially important considering there will only be one server.

I so, so hope this decision hasn't been finalized yet.

I so, so hope it has. CoH naming system sucked. Coming into an established game as a new player and trying to get a decent name was aggravating to say the least(personal experience with other games). The @global is way better. I played CO for a while and never once did I run into anyone with the same name as me, nor did I ever confuse 2 people of the same name. @global is nice too for friends list, I don't have to try to remember which friend is who when they have 20 alts, "@joeschmoe is online" is much better, especially since there will only be 1 server.

For all these reasons, I much prefer CO's system over CoH's. Remember something people: We want the game to THRIVE. That means bringing new people to the table. The initial 10k or so we have at launch cannot sustain us. If the next wave can't get names they want they may fold...no good for long-term play. We have to at least try and consider people other than ourselves here.

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KaosKitteh wrote:
KaosKitteh wrote:

Am I overly paranoid? Yep, I acknowledge that without reserve. Just voicing my own concerns along with others.
And no, CoX didn't prevent people from being able to find out your global, especially at the end. I think my main issue was that when the behavior was reported, mounds of screenshots of whispers and such were sent in... that nothing was done. I'd understand if it were simply a matter of a little griefing or whatnot... that sort of behavior can be easily ignored, and certainly doesn't require GM intervention.

No, you're not paranoid. As much as I am one of those people who believes that we need to fall down a couple of times to learn certain things, a bully is a bully and Stalking is an extreme case of bullying. You're well within your right to worry about something that has actually happened to you or someone you know. That's not paranoia...it's called being prudently aware.

Also, this sort of behavior in-game goes beyond griefing...it's still Stalking and the fact that nothing was done might sadly be attributed to CoX's closing at the end. However as Zombie said, that's a user-end issue that needs to be addressed. If a person is doing this, report them. Tell your friends and have THEM report them. One ticket might not get attention...ten will.

The game is supposed to be fun. Anyone who goes out of their way to hinder another player's fun needs to be banned...permanently. Some people never learn what they're not allowed to do until they're punished.

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for those who prefer the CoX

for those who prefer the CoX naming method...

don't you feel totally unique with your character named Razorback, sitting in the bar next to Razorbacks, and R4ZORback, and RAZ0RBACK, and Razor_Back, Razor Back, Razor-Back, Dark Razorback, Dread Razorback, True Razorback, First Razorback, Razorfront, Razerback, Razorbak, and your old school buddy J03Y ...yep, yep, very unique. Be glad you got there first man! and laid claim to that 'ish!

/sarcasm

Honestly I did sometimes enjoy the challenge of coming up with a character name in spite of the myriads of 'taken' names out there... but at the end of the day, there are entire character concepts I shelved because they only really worked with a certain name. The @global method is soooo much better, as long as you can make the @global tagging as transparent as possible in tells/group/global chats.

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DeepThought wrote:
DeepThought wrote:

Honestly I did sometimes enjoy the challenge of coming up with a character name in spite of the myriads of 'taken' names out there... but at the end of the day, there are entire character concepts I shelved because they only really worked with a certain name.

And this is why I want to be able to see if a name is in use, and to what extent it's in use. (There's a big difference between "name that a thousand other people are using" and "name that one guy stuck on an alt he doesn't play anymore".) That way, knowing the name has been "taken" already can serve to spark creativity... but doesn't prevent you from creating the character you wanted.

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I find names like L0rd V8R to

I find names like L0rd V8R to be distracting to my RP experience. Give people the ability to pick the name they want even when it's taken.

Also I'd like to add that sometimes its fun to create multiple versions of the same character. I remember a PvP Team I was on where we all used the same name and costume (different powers) to keep the enemies from knowing who to gank.

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This precise issue is why I

This precise issue is why I wound up with the name Redlynne instead of "Redline" or even "Red Line" like I'd wanted, since all of the other non-l33t speak variations on the name were already taken by Issue 2.

"Good" Character Names are an exhaustible resource, and as CoH proved, it's perfectly possible for people to act as "name squatters" even years after they've stopped playing the game and moved on. Plus, I've been playing Star Trek Online this year for the last 6-7 months now and I've gotten quite used to the name@global convention. I figure that using name@global with a setting to turn off the "@global" portion of names in chat makes for the optimal compromise available.


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Lothic]Would they have to be
Lothic wrote:

Would they have to be listed something like Awesomeguy(1) and Awesomeguy(2) the way file names would have to be differentiated in a directory list to tell them apart?

It could but why would they need to? Why wouldn't both simply say Awesome Guy? If I need to tell them apart, making them not identical or comparing their level/ AT/ location should usually be enough to go on. If not, if the creation date's showing it would be.

After all, they're not directory or file names; the game itself would be going off the unique hidden (or visible) ID. The names are just what's displayed to us in this case.

Why don't I think City of Heroes decided implement it that way? It's possible they didn't think of it. They also had no need for one in relation to my request; each character name was unique to the server.

I'm curious; what are you basing the claim they didn't have a third hidden ID on? Was it confirmed anywhere there were no invisible ID tags on characters? I keep thinking there was some indication there was but I'm not quite sure offhand why I think that.

Lothic wrote:

... abused for griefing in a PvP setting.

That relies on people remembering your name and having an expectation that you'll play a certain way. Which again, wouldn't matter in City of Heroes as the game already used unique names for everyone, not just your characters. In this game, we're allowing non unique names so basing your expectations of your opponent on what a character with the same name did last time is already risky.

If your argument is "Why didn't City of Heroes allow for one name for multiple characters on the same account?" I suspect it was overruled by the idea of each character having a unique name. If we’re not doing unique names here, the standards are different.

Before I comment more, I'd like to hear how you think this could be abused in player vrs. player. City of Heroes hid the individual powers in PVP anyway. That kind of suggests to me you were supposed to go into the fight to some degree lacking specifics on your opponent. But without hearing more, I don’t feel as if I know enough to properly answer that.

Just to reintegrate, my personal opinion is that the parenthesis Roman numeral system would be a much preferable alternative to incorporating global names as a workaround to get 'non unique names.' So far no one's agreed with the idea (I'm not sure if everyone quite gets it, either). And several have disagreed with me on that point.

J

PS

Redlynne wrote:

This precise issue is why I wound up with the name Redlynne instead of "Redline" or even "Red Line" like I'd wanted, since all of the other non-l33t speak variations on the name were already taken by Issue 2.a

Redlynne isn't what I think of when I think 'elite speak.' Red1ne would be what I'd think of, or a variant. Possibly a more annoying variant.

I was able to get "Fire Hero" several years into the game's life and on more than one server. That seems about as generic as "Red Line." At least you took the spelling and improved it.

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AmbiDreamer wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:

I'm curious; what are you basing the claim they didn't have a third hidden ID on? Was it confirmed anywhere there were no invisible ID tags on characters? I keep thinking there was some indication there was but I'm not quite sure offhand why I think that.
Lothic wrote:
... abused for griefing in a PvP setting.

That relies on people remembering your name and having an expectation that you'll play a certain way. Which again, wouldn't matter in City of Heroes as the game already used unique names for everyone, not just your characters. In this game, we're allowing non unique names so basing your expectations of your opponent on what a character with the same name did last time is already risky.
Before I comment more, I'd like to hear how you think this could be abused in player vrs. player.

CoH could very well have already had some type of "hidden character ID" that was never obvious to the players which could have been used as some form of unique differentiation between characters. I suppose the real question might then be if it did have something like that then why didn't they use it to let us reuse/repeat GUI character names after some people had been talking about wanting that for years?

Ultimately I think if a MMO really wanted to it could come up with some kind of scheme to allow repeated names even on the same account. But as I alluded to before I suspect that it would either take too much effort to implement or there is some indirect advantage to the game NOT allowing that to happen which may not be completely obvious to us as players.

As to the possible PvP abuses things like having an identically named hero and villain quickly switched to provide a surprise gank or to momentarily confuse people as to which AT you are to gain an advantage come to mind. Obviously the effectiveness of such tactics may be questionable, but the Devs are always mindful of preventing shenanigans along these lines.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

This precise issue is why I wound up with the name Redlynne instead of "Redline" or even "Red Line" like I'd wanted, since all of the other non-l33t speak variations on the name were already taken by Issue 2.
"Good" Character Names are an exhaustible resource, and as CoH proved, it's perfectly possible for people to act as "name squatters" even years after they've stopped playing the game and moved on. Plus, I've been playing Star Trek Online this year for the last 6-7 months now and I've gotten quite used to the name@global convention. I figure that using name@global with a setting to turn off the "@global" portion of names in chat makes for the optimal compromise available.

For what it's worth even though "Redlynne" wasn't your perferred idea its still pretty cool. I also had a few character names that I had to get "creative" with like that which ultimately worked out pretty well.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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In my opinion, a MMO with a

In my opinion, a MMO with a single world server, having unique naming would stifle creativity and wouldn't allow a player to realize their heroic vision. However, having the character@globlal visible in chat is ugly and bad design. A simple solution would be to make the global name hover-able, so that if a name pops up you can hover the pointer over it and see the global name, (Or not, if that person has set it to private), or while in chat, be able to select a line of text and left click (or key command) to bring up a window were you can, see their global name (if not set to private), add the person as a friend, invite to team or super group, message privately, go to their phase, report for TOS violation and /or ignore.

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I'm definitely of a similar

I'm definitely of a similar mind, Tigs.

to me, you could easily just have the global be hidden by default (in Champs there is an option to turn off Globals in chat windows and the like)... so if players WANT to see the global names attached to character names they can turn it on (like turning off a language filter)...

I'm against allowing global handles to be made private, as i think it opens a door to griefing and consequence-free actions (Now, which tiger was it, who spoiled your fun?!)
Global should be universally "accessible" but not preeminently "visible", but I do think there should be ways to "go invisible" or incognito, globally, when we just want to be antisocial in game for a little while.

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GhostHack wrote:
GhostHack wrote:

but I do think there should be ways to "go invisible" or incognito, globally, when we just want to be antisocial in game for a little while.

(* cough *)

Secret Identity ...

(* cough *)


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Unique names are important.

Unique names are important. They add to the prestige of being a hero or villain, of being -that- hero or -that- villain. That being said with only one server unique names are just not viable. Pretty soon even XxxUltimateDoomLordxxX would be taken, and everyone wants to get -their- name. After all that's what it is, the name for your avatar, your idea. And that's what emersing yourself in a super hero universe really is. A very broad canvas for you to paint your picture on of your world. Letting go of the unique name element of CoX is certainly one of the toughest ideas I've had to accept, but I know it's necessary. That being said maybe there is a way to keep some of that unique quality. What if some names still stood out from the crowd? What if some names still evoked the response 'wow it's really -that- guy/girl'. I can think of a few ways in which this is possible; symbols on our ID cards, a unique title prefix/suffix or maybe even a unique symbol for our costume or cape design perhaps? All those are certainly viable but I believe the most adequate is much simpler; name colour, more specifically, amber (or orange if you prefer) coloured names. If the first player to get a given name had their name highleted in another colour that would be unique. Orange is also synonymous with elite. In many games elite gear is categorised as orange. And we all remember the term 'red text' or 'red name' from the old CoX forum days. Well, the ingame equivelant could be 'orange name' or more mellifluous 'amber name'. If the devs wanted they could even broaden the idea and use more colours for subsequent nameholders or hero/villain coordinated colours. I think it would be a very simple way to employ the means of having that unique element in a game about supers. And if con confusion was an issue, conveniently having a feature in options for both the veiwer and owners where they could simply select 'yes/no/out of combat only' options would solve this.

Whatever happens I really hope that the @global element is hidden at first glance and that to see it requires a right click on the character (much like in CoX with it's 'Get Global Name' option) and, if possible, a feature to disable @globalname in chat.

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Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

GhostHack wrote:
but I do think there should be ways to "go invisible" or incognito, globally, when we just want to be antisocial in game for a little while.
(* cough *)
Secret Identity ...
(* cough *)

Hah, I meant from a more mechanical perspective. To me, "secret identities" are, as in comics, a way of interacting with the gameworld (NPCs) without announcing yourself and your abilities.

Superman doesn't dress like Clark Kent to avoid having to talk to the justice league while he punches out Darksied minions on his own..... He does it so he can interact with normal people, and have a semblance of a normal life....

I can only imagine that, in game, Secret IDs will be a means of entering zones you're not welcome in, without being attacked (a disguise for gameplay reasons, PVP, etc)..... Not a mechanical way to hide from other players, socially.

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Kind of surprised a first

Kind of surprised a first pick at a global wasn't one of those add-on prizes.
Myself, I liked the way CoH did the globals - although, I was frustrated plenty of times because the cool name I had on one server was unavailable on other servers. Made server transfers a little problematic.

The whole "character name@global name" ..if that's what was suggested or done on CO - I wouldn't like that at all. Too much to type.

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Emancipist wrote:
Emancipist wrote:

Kind of surprised a first pick at a global wasn't one of those add-on prizes.
Myself, I liked the way CoH did the globals - although, I was frustrated plenty of times because the cool name I had on one server was unavailable on other servers. Made server transfers a little problematic.
The whole "character name@global name" ..if that's what was suggested or done on CO - I wouldn't like that at all. Too much to type.

I believe that $25 and above tiers on kickstarter (pledge level, not addons) give you the "book your global" opportunity

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Ariad.... that sense of "Oh,

Ariad.... that sense of "Oh, it's THAT hero!" still exists, even in Champions.... The real thing, is that when you don't have a unique name... your name can't define you. You have to BE active, BE important in your guild, in your community of gamers... for anyone to take notice.
if anything, it strips away the illusion of being noteworthy that unique naming provides.

...in a game where anyone can be a "Wild Card", only the first, or the noteworthiest hero becomes "The Wild Card"

(granted, it's sort of sad to have to "work" to be noteworthy in the game.... But it does mean that IF you're noteworthy, it's not just because you're the guy(girl) who lucked out and got the cool name other people wanted.)

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Gangrel wrote:
Gangrel wrote:

Emancipist wrote:
Kind of surprised a first pick at a global wasn't one of those add-on prizes.
Myself, I liked the way CoH did the globals - although, I was frustrated plenty of times because the cool name I had on one server was unavailable on other servers. Made server transfers a little problematic.
The whole "character name@global name" ..if that's what was suggested or done on CO - I wouldn't like that at all. Too much to type.

I believe that $25 and above tiers on kickstarter (pledge level, not addons) give you the "book your global" opportunity

yep.... pretty much the reason I pledged. Nobody better lay a smack, on my GhostHack ;P

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Lothic wrote:
Lothic wrote:

I'll put in my vote in for a CO styled @global naming system with the option to "hide it unless you mouseover the name" thing that chase mentioned. That should give everyone the chance to have whatever name they want while at the same time keeping the extra "@global" part from cluttering up the screen.

Agreed. The various options for unique and non-unique were discussed a lot in CO testing and they were all very interesting and they all (including server-unique character names) have good points and bad ones. Given that CoT will be using a single-server model, the minuses of server-unique character names get cranked up in importance.

I would like the global hidden unless moused over, by default, with options for folks who would like to see it all the time to enable that.

GhostHack wrote:

Global should be universally "accessible" but not preeminently "visible", but I do think there should be ways to "go invisible" or incognito, globally, when we just want to be antisocial in game for a little while.

They could certainly have, as CoH did, a way to hide you from your global friends lists, and a way to hide from searches and whatnot, but if you are doing something (speaking in chat, or some other interactive activity where the global would normally be available) I think that would need to remain. In my case, when I was feeling antisocial, avoiding such activities was part of the deal, so that would probably work out.

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I can't really imagine a

I can't really imagine a scenario where you could be confused on an opponent's archetype, especially if the archetype (or COT equivalent) is showing over their names. And with non-unique names already in place, it seems as likely a player would try to take advantage of that.

I'm not sure the existence of a hidden ID number would automatically correlate to City of Heroes allowing the reuse of a name on the same account. In their case, they would have had to update their in-game mail system. I still had old mails which only showed up on the character it was sent to when the game closed.

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Diablo II, or more

Diablo II, or more specifically Battlenet I think, had a naming system where after three months of a character not being logged on, the name would be up for grabs. If you were gone for two years, but no one ever took your name, you could log back on to the character and reset the timer. If someone took the name, your character was deleted.

Now, I don't think deleting the character's was the best course of action, but resetting the name to something generic would be a way to do this. This would make names unique while preventing name squatters from abandoning characters with the simple, sought-after names.

VIP members could be protected from this; if you're not playing a game, but still subscribing, you're still supporting the game.

I know some people don't like unique names. I prefer them since my two main original characters have names that would only ever be taken by someone else just to get at me, but I do like making version of them without their last names. It's not having a short name, and it's even nicer when that name is unique to my character.

Does anyone else think this sort of naming system is a good idea, or are unique names just something that's too unfeasible with a single super server?

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in a multi-server game, it

in a multi-server game, it would be great.... in this game... I still gotta say nay. :-/

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Ezuka
Ezuka wrote:

Does anyone else think this sort of naming system is a good idea, or are unique names just something that's too unfeasible with a single super server?

It's not that it would be absolutely impossible to figure out a way to have unique names in a single-server environment. It's more that using the @Global system is such a straightforward solution to the name issue in general that it virtually avoids (among other things) the need for name purges in the first place.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

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Use Marvel Heroes as analogy.

Use Marvel Heroes as analogy. Is that game doing well, are you playing it? Look how many Jean Greys and Storms are in that game. No one is unique. This is similar to name@global.

Names in World of Warcraft and City of Heroes, so special and unique. Leads people to be more creative.

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I'm sorry - that analogy

I'm sorry - that analogy fails hard. You cannot create your own character in Marvel Heroes - you can only select from the characters they offer you - and of THOSE only the ones you buy/unlock. It is in no way "similar" to a global name system - it is the exact opposite - you are forced into a character/name rather than being free to name and create your own.

Marvel Heroes = No Choice Whatsoever
CoH = Restricted choice
CoT/CO = unrestricted choice

Using an @global is one of the few things that Champions did right in my opinion, and thankfully the devs seem to be going with it in this game as well.

And Marvel Heroes gets poor reviews because it has a whole other host of problems - like being a poorly-made repetitive money-grubbing Diablo clone for instance.

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We could go on forever saying

We could go on forever saying who is right or wrong, but fact is, it's a matter of opinion.
I personally believe that unique names are good and inspire creativity, yes it may be stressful making a character at first and some people will go in the opposite direction and make characters called something like "0mg ub3r l33t", but to me it feels a bit better knowing that if I worked to make a good name for my character and parade through the city, nobody else has that name. That feeling of being unique is something I don't think you can feel in CO, it could make you feel like just another hero or villain who everyone else has already thought of at some point.

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honestly, my bigger fear, now

honestly, my bigger fear, now... is that the name(s) I want will be blocked by MWM...

I mean, i think we can all guess what Marvel and DC owned names won't be available to us for character names..... but we really have no idea what names will be snatched up by the development team for heroes and villain NPCs in the game!
:(

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1) Globals are in. The

1) Globals are in. The subject broiled for several months, so unless you've got something *really* novel as an argument, it has already been made and considered. This wasn't a decision made casually or unilaterally, there were plenty of voices on both sides of the debate, and it wasn't a short one.

2) Being able to hide the @global portion on your own screen is a part of UI design. Since we aspire to having good UI design that leaves you as many choices as we can while *also* having sane defaults... well, I would say give us a chance to do it well, first, and then tell us if we screw it up. It is the sort of thing that should show up *long* before we start "locking down" UI stuff to the point that changes would be problematic.

3) The only safe assumption is that it will not be possible to completely "hide" your global, simply for reasons of reporting and abuse -- folks have to have *some* way of identifying at least the account, if not necessarily the specific character, involved in an issue. Also, the system has to be able to keep track of such things internally anyway, so the data will exist somewhere within the client (no matter what else, this part is basically unavoidable for technical reasons).

4) Anyone wanting my personal opinions (or experiences in both situations with 'duplication') is welcome to ask -- privately.


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AmbiDreamer wrote:
AmbiDreamer wrote:

Anyway, why do we need a rule to make the character name unique to the account, as you suggested? IF we go with a global name, why can’t I use the same name for more than one of my characters?
If we absolutely are going to use non unique names @ global, there might be times I want to use the same 'character' as multiple toons. Am I missing a reason against this?

Strictly speaking? There is no reason it *couldn't* permit that... but you would then be expected to specify who you were logging in as by some method other than the character name. Since most people find names they can specify to be much "friendlier" than an arbitrary set of numbers that are only meaningful to the system internals, the usual assumption is that expecting a unique character name for character@global is preferable to the alternatives.

That said, if someone has a specific alternative to suggest that would support multiple characters of the same name *and not be annoying to the majority of the population trying to interact with those characters* (this bar raises it somewhat over just 'you being annoyed', unfortunately), there is nothing currently written in stone that requires that the character part of character@global be unique. Though it may well be one of the earlier things that does get locked down, for various reasons, so if you've got a good alternative *now* is the time to bring it up.


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