Excraft

I understand that the # is just a place holder. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I'm not sure all symbols are usable in names, but the idea does have merit. I think it's a lot more difficult than some might think to implement this idea though. As far as whether HC can do it, I've no doubt they can. They've got a great group of very smart, very talented people working on the code. From posts I've seen them make over the years in threads around this topic, it's pretty clear at least to me that they know what they're doing. I've no doubt they could re-code the entire engine to get it to work the way Cryptic did with their next generation engine they used for CO and STO. It looked to me like it's less about what they can do versus what made sense to do with the limited time they have. Re-enabling the old name release policy was the low-hanging fruit version of a fix. I don't have any doubt that if they really wanted to fix the name issue once and for all through code, they could do it. Again, they're very smart people and they know what they're doing. It's just a matter of time and effort. I'm not sure most people would be too happy if the HC people spent the next year or two re-coding the entire game just to fix names and didn't release any new content at all.

@Captain Fabulous, your idea is a good one and I'd support it. I'm not sure the code here will allow the # sign to be used in names that way. I'm thinking it's probably a whole lot more coding than most would think. Still a good idea though!

If it's so minor a thing and so minor it's not an issue, why even bring it up in the first place?

There's nothing stopping anyone from creating or using an "actual" name here either. You can also use words and/or phrases from other languages and nationalities to pick from here. I assure you, the game is in no danger whatsoever of running out of word combinations to create names with. Every single day I log on here, I'm seeing new names that are unique, clever, funny and creative. This is so far beyond trivial an issue that it's not even worth noting to be honest. If you liked the costume that much, take a screenshot.

And how many individual players is that in relation to the overall number of individual players.

That's a really large stretch given the extremely tiny number of players in CO, which is still probably more players than are here. Regardless, it proves that the code change to make names non-unique works and anyone can have a name they want. I've seen it in STO myself, but again, that's people making clones of Kirk and Picard. It's rare to the point of being non-existent. I can't remember the last time I've even seen that, and that game has way more players than HC does.

I'd wager you'd very, very rarely ever see this, if ever at all.

Correct. I don't think we need people with titles to organize or run events. The titles don't mean anything, the actions do. Nor do I think people need blue titles to help the community. @ZacKing included a small fraction of examples earlier in the thread. There are a whole lot more player run events going on every single day. I see them every day on Torchbearer, Excel and Everlasting. I too enjoy participating in the weekly SNS over on Torchbearer. I've managed a few Kronos Titans for it myself. There's daily Hami raids on Excel in the evenings. MSRs are regular events too on Excel. I've seen players specifically running patron arcs daily just to help others unlock the patron pools. There's one player who specifically offers zone tours to help new players unlock the LRT and get access to every zone. To my knowledge, none of these things being run by other players are to promote specific SGs. None of the players out there who have been organizing and running these events day after day, week after week, year after year have ever had a blue title. Having a blue title has never been nor will it ever be a requirement to be a helpful, friendly member of the community to organize events that others can join in on. It just takes a desire to do it, which granted most people don't have. Those that do however, the absolute majority of them aren't CRs and never will be CRs and never have a special title which ultimately is meaningless in relation to the ability to organize events. If you enjoy helping others and organizing events, by all means please continue to do so. I don't see how having a blue title is a requirement for you. From what I gather, your video tutorials and such were all done prior to there ever being any kind of CR position, so if you didn't need a title before to be helpful and organize events, it doesn't matter that you don't have one now. @Kalikamata is a great example of this. It takes a lot of coordination, effort, time and communication to organize and manage several leagues running the SNS concurrently each week. That's all being done without a blue title. As for the base crawl idea, I don't see how having a blue title had anything to do with it. That's something you all could manage without the title and from what I understand, there's more categories to come for it outside of the tech bases. Are those not happening now because you don't have the title? If the base crawls will continue, it just proves the point that titles aren't needed for it. I also want to add, and I can't believe I'm going to say it, but I agree with the HC thought of not having too many events too often that have big prizes like gold titles and merits and such. To clarify, I was not suggesting there was a lack of interest in building in general. I was more thinking of reasons why there may be a lack of interest in participating in a base contest. Sure, I totally agree there are a lot of bases out there now, primarily because of the removal of the prestige system. Absolutely there are players making "homes" for their characters. There are also many more players like myself who are making one room storage hubs across multiple characters and accounts. I probably have a dozen or more storage bases across various accounts myself, so while that seems like a big number of bases, it doesn't mean they're all "contest ready" or built for contests. I'd wager most are just for personal storage and quick transport hubs, but I have no problem deferring to your knowledge of what's out there as you'll have a much better idea than I do. I can only go by what I've seen. I do enjoy the work all the builders put into their bases and thank you to all of you out there who use your free time to do things for others. I appreciate your efforts and hope you'll continue to keep doing what you're doing.

^ This. I understand it's an enormous investment of time on a volunteer group to take on and not suggesting that's what they should do. Just agreeing this is the way to solve the naming problem permanently where everyone can have a name they want. You'll see global handles ONLY IF you enable that in your chat settings. Otherwise, you won't see the global and you can still click on the character names in chat to invite to teams or send tells. In the 14 years I've been playing STO, I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen two different people with the same name, and that's people making clones of Picard or Kirk.

I have a question here that I'm reluctant to ask because I'm sure some will take it the wrong way and ascribe some underlying negativity and insult to it that isn't there and isn't at all intended. I don't at all mean this to be insulting or disparaging of anyone or anything, so please don't take it as such. From reading the thread here, it sounds like it was a real chore to find people to participate in base contests. Could that be that it's just such a small minority of players interested in and involved with the base building community and there isn't much interest in bases and base building among the larger population of players? Even with rewards like merits and gold titles, it sounds like it was still a huge chore to find people to participate. Again, I don't mean that as an insult in any way, so please don't take it as such. Maybe the players on servers like Indom and Reunion just aren't all that interested in base building? Just like you'll find more RPers on Everlasting than you do on Torchbearer. Everlasting is where the players interested in RP tend to congregate. Also, building a base is a lot more work than pulling together a league to run some TFs or iTrials together. It's not an insignificant time requirement for the builder. From everything I've seen with bases, videos I've watched, posts I've read and people I've talked to, it can be quite a heavy investment of time and effort in building above the plot. Maybe that's something most people just aren't interested in? Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy paying a visit to check out some of these amazing creations. Beyond that, I don't use bases for anything other than storage, crafting and the occasional quick teleport. Most people I run with are the same. I understand that I'm not the target audience for the base contests. Something people may want to consider is that since prestige isn't a thing anymore, SGs and bases don't have the same meaning they had on live to many people. SG leaders who wanted to build to the nines and wanted to do raiding needed large, active SGs with lots of active members to earn enough prestige to build and afford to pay for upkeep. That level of memberships is no longer required here. I'm not saying whether that's a good or bad thing, just that it could be a reason for a lack of interest. Bases are like PvP in that they look to be a very small, niche community among the overall player base. There's nothing wrong with that, just saying that it's a small enough group of players to explain why there's an apparent lack of interest. As to the topic at hand, I agree with those who've said that we don't need CRs. Thanks for the time and effort you spent while in the position though. Please do continue being helpful and supportive. I've enjoyed paying a visit to the bases in the tech showcase.

I like my characters to both feel and be effective. Some ATs/builds are more than others, but overall I try to shoot for both.

I think the lag would be helped if people didn't go nuts and fire off every AoE they have, Incarnates, Lores etc. all at once. Barring that, use the /noparticles command. It does help.

What if the person just doesn't want to reply or is blocking emails from anyone not on their friends list? Lack of response doesn't necessarily mean the account is inactive, although it could be.

That's how it should be done if that account is still active. No one should be forced to give up a name if they're still actively logging in and playing. If they're active, they're reachable in game and can be negotiated with to release a desired name. If they don't want to release it, they shouldn't have to. I don't think we need an automated system of emails for any of that. Just use the slash command, get the global of the person who has a name you're looking for and PM/email them in game. With that said, this name release thing should be run on inactive accounts only that haven't logged into the game in literal years. If you haven't logged in for more than 3 years, you've abandoned the account and the names on it are up for grabs. Alternatively, changing the way names works to make it the combo of charactername@global like Cryptic did in their Version 2.0 engine would solve any name issues and everyone could have any character name they want with no worries about whether its taken or not.

Never heard of memphis_bill, but you @Greycat I've heard of/seen here on the forums. You must be super famous then! 🤣

I'd say you're right.

No, I've never heard of whoever that is either. And yes, that doesn't make him "famous" to me personally at all, sorry. I'm curious, how do you know exactly how much or how little time I spent on the game forums when the game was in retail? The answer is you don't know. You've no idea. And yes, I have asked a couple of people I know who I roll with from back in the day and they've never heard any of these names either. I'm sorry, we've never heard of anyone in your little clique of internet buddies. They may be "famous" to you, that doesn't make them "famous" to everyone. And we all were back then and are still now part of the City of Heroes community. The community encompasses everyone, not just you and your clique. Like I said, I'm sorry I never heard of your little circle of internet pals. That doesn't make them "famous" to me. You'll note I never said that doesn't mean others don't know who they are because it's more than clear some people do. Those people whomever they are were important to you and some others, but not to everyone. Your post seemed to make the assumption everyone knows who these people were and they are "famous". All I said was I never heard of them and maybe that means they aren't as "famous" as you thought. Feel free to disagree.

I'm sure you're correct. I still don't know who that is. Never heard of any one of them either. I don't mean this to be insulting at all, but I'm not sure these folks are as "famous" as you all think they are.

Never heard of either one of them and I played on live for years.

Oh I understand that bit just fine. I do find it interesting and entertaining that those vehemently lambasting others over their supposed lack of creativity can't focus their own vast pools of creativity on finding another name they like. I don't think a day has gone by since this whole discussion about purging names began that I haven't come across another player with a name that I personally thought was cool and clever. There's still plenty of great names to be had. The few with boundless creativity need to to use that creativity themselves and find something else.

Someone from the costume police brigade reported you. These are the rules and there's no changing them, so best to work within them and enjoy.

It's mildly entertaining that several of the people in this thread complaining about "their name" being taken are the same people who vehemently lambast others for "not being original" enough with character creation. What happened to being "creative" and coming up with a different name? I guess these kinds of things only work one way.

Thank you for this honesty.

Honestly, I think you're reading way too much into what I'm posting. I'm sorry that you feel like that was a personal insult as it wasn't, but there's not much I can do there to convince you otherwise. It certainly wasn't meant as one. I don't know where that's coming from and I could be wrong here, but it seems like your ascribing something to me and my posts that isn't there. I never said you personally were lying or called you a liar. I'd love for you to direct quote me where I used the words "lying" or "you're a liar" here. As I said, I think it's better to let people know up front what's involved and how much time is required to build something complicated and extensive. That's not a personal insult or attack on you, nor is it me saying you're lying. I don't know that we've ever had any sort of communication before, at least to my recollection. I've seen your posts and watched your video tutorials and base tours, but as far as I know we have never interacted before. I'm not sure how you would know anything about me personally. You're free to make whatever incorrect assumptions you like though. I certainly can't stop you. I very well could be. Isn't it better to let people have all the information up front to let them be the judge for themselves? That's all I was suggesting. I'm glad. It certainly seems like that's for the best. I wish you a good day.

Well no, it's actually proving my point perfectly. I don't see anyone at all jumping all over you for saying anything remotely critical about the editor tool. Others who have offered essentially the exact same criticisms of the editor and/or shared a different opinion on its "ease of use" are told that we're "being negative" and "discouraging others" and the like. There is zero of that focused on you for saying the exact same thing. Why aren't you or anyone else leveling the same animus toward yourself as you are me and anyone else who doesn't find editing a breeze? Aren't you "being negative" and "discouraging others" by saying the editor has issues? If you're unable to objectively see that, I can't help you. Correct. Your perspective and subjective opinion on what is or isn't "easy" is no more or no less valid than mine that the editor is cumbersome and tedious to use. I'll reiterate yet again, I understand it's ancient code that is doing things well beyond what it was originally intended for. I get it. You have to work within the parameters of what it's designed to do. I just don't find those parameters enjoyable or fun, nor are they intuitive. That's no fault of anyone here at HC and it's not a personal attack or criticism of their work. They're doing the best they can do with what they have and there's nothing wrong with that. I'd also like to add, I know a few people whom I would classify as expert builders that have built some amazing bases who all say the editor isn't easy to use. So no, not every very experienced base builder agrees on how "easy" the tool is. I'm not sure why you're hyper focused on the idea that my opinions and criticisms of the editing tool are discouraging people from even trying. I've made it a point to say that's not the case nor is it my intent a number of times. I do think its important for people to know the true level of effort and time that will be required for a complex build. I think it's a mistake to be making posts and videos about how "easy it is" to do without letting people know that it took potentially hundreds of hours, if not more to build a base. Not being upfront about that is not a good thing either, especially if someone dives in thinking it's a simple 1-2-3 five minute thing to build an above the plot cityscape with all the trimmings. Some of the bases I've visited are upwards of 12,000 objects and higher. Even if you very conservatively estimate it takes 30 seconds to manipulate each object, you're still looking at a full time job level of hours. For me personally, I already have a full time job and a family, so I don't have the time nor desire to devote to building a complex base. Others do and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. More power to them. I don't disagree with you at all on this and have said so repeatedly.