ZemX

I level either solo or in pick-up mission teams/radios mostly. I use SOs from level 2 up until about the early 30s. Then I start slotting in set IOs according to my final build plan in Mid's because it's around this point you start having enough extra enhancement slots to start putting in full or nearly full sets in your main powers. I don't much bother with common IOs except in powers I know aren't going to host anything else (e.g. a single common endrdx IO in Focused Accuracy, a coulple common recharge IOs in Hasten, etc.) Yes, common IOs don't need to be upgraded, but also upgrading SOs is easy (there's a button to do it right on the enhancement screen) and doesn't cost the kind of Inf you probably care about anymore. Exception to this is ATOs. If they are worth it, I make sure to slot the proc IO in the set early as possible and then fill in the rest of the set as I get room in the powers. Other one-slot-wonder IOs go in early as I can as well. Things like Kismet:+toHit, Panacea:+hp/+end, Per Shifter:+end, etc. Some of these can be slotted as early as level 7. Others at around 17-18 or a little later.

This thread is a dinosaur era already, I think.

Yes, even in that context. I DID see what you were doing there. You are attempting to equate the giving away of a name to the giving away of an entire character and all digital content. The latter being obviously absurd and unacceptable, the former must also be absurd. The problem here IS false equivalence. These two things are NOT the same. In more ways than one they are not the same. Digital content on a character may represent hundreds or thousands of hours of gameplay effort. Moreover, it is not unique. No matter what you say, that digital content may be acquired by anyone and any one character's possession of it does not in any way affect for/against any other player's ability to obtain the exact same stuff. That simply is not true for character names. It would be absurd to give an entire character away to someone else just because it isn't being used. It would not be equally absurd to give away a name that isn't being used. These are two completely different things. I doubt this. I am no lawyer, but what the GDPR and privacy laws protect is personal data which can identify a real person. Your character name in CoH does not identify you. I suppose if you tried using your real name and it was a sufficiently unique name that it could be used to identify you in real life, there'd be an issue. But then the devs would probably just ban the use of that name because they specifically don't allow info that identifies real people precisely because of the complications it creates with privacy laws like this.

In fact, nobody is acting like that. We have page after of page of people "reminding" essentially nobody that thesauruses exist. Thanks?

I'm not incorrect. You're missing my point or I'm not aiming it very well. So lemme try to explain it better. YOU are the one who said the "HC peeps" know what's involved in fixing the problem. That's when I said these very same people are the ones who presented the name release policy in the first place, updated its terms later, spawned a whole feedback thread about it, and then actually activated the warning phase only recently. What does this tell us? Why would they be moving forward with a name release policy and asking us to discuss it (a discussion they had to know would be exactly THIS heated) if they thought this more comprehensive solution, which would make name release utterly irrelevant, was feasible/easy/imminent? That is all I am saying. Your idea that they can pull a Champions here with the name database has shown absolutely zero signs of life from the devs. COULD they be secretly working on it and just not saying anything to avoid raising hopes? Well sure. They could be doing anything. But there's no sign of it. This name release policy is what they've talked about and actually done visible things about. Yes, your math is certainly wrong. Yes, the odds are certainly "around" 1 in 3. Feel free to ask a math teacher if you don't believe me. Claiming that because the size of the inactive pool is 700k that the odds a name I want within it is 1 in 700k is... NOT how probability works. If you don't understand this, fine. Not everybody gets probability. But probability involves first establishing the sample space. In this case, the sample space is the entire name database. If you are denied a name (again, assuming it is not banned) then that name is somewhere in this name database. If that database is 2 million or more names, then the pool of 700k inactive names represents a third or a fourth of that. Something in that neighborhood. And unless you'd like to explain why you think there's an uneven distribution of desirable names within each of these pools, the odds it is in the one third sized pool are, shockingly, one in three. Not one in seven hundred thousand. And yeah, I see you slipped in "and get it before someone else" but we've no way to estimate that. It is, even then however not in the same universe of probability as 1 in 700k as you suggested. I just rebutted this "gibberish" idea a page or so ago. For your benefit... one last time: Why would they be gibberish? When you type in a name you think is cool and are told it is taken then it is either banned, being actively used, or sitting unused in the pool of names that would be freed by this policy. Why would it be more likely that name is on an active character than an inactive one? In fact, if it's a simple one or two word name you're looking for, odds are higher it was scooped up earlier in HC's lifetime than later. Many of these inactive names have been inactive since the early days of HC. The odds they are simple, desirable names is probably greater than the average name created today. But even if they were only of the same quality as active names today, the odds would be as I've stated. One in three or four. Somewhere in there.

Oh good grief. Yes, I used the word "idea" when I should have said "policy". I was certainly not literally claiming the idea of releasing inactive names was invented by our devs. It's been done before on plenty of MMOs. I mean the POLICY was stated by Jimmy shortly after the HC servers opened. That is, the specific way they intended to implement the timers here on HC. Whether they are reusing some scripts they found in the code base or spinning their own is irrelevant. It is their policy and they are the ones who recently advanced it to phase 1. Not sure why they've be doing that if they planned to make said policy irrelevant. Also irrelevant is the comparison to Live, which was subscription based, and which did not allow people unlimited free accounts with 1000 characters each per server. The numbers we've been tossing around are not made up. We don't have to guess how many names will be freed up by the policy. They've already given us a ballpark figure for that at least once in the past and that number was roughly a third of the entire name database.

I agree that would be bollocks... if I had actually said it. What I am saying is I doubt there's anyone who believes there is a 100% chance the name they want is in there. Your math is... a little off there. If a name I want is rejected it is either on a banned list or it's taken. If it's taken it is either on an inactive character or an active one. As noted previously, the inactive name list was around one third of the TOTAL name database back in that feedback thread. What is it now? Who knows. But it's probably not wildly different than 1 in 3. Maybe 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 even. None of those numbers is a "false hope". Citation? It was the devs who made this policy and the devs who moved it to phase 1 rather recently. Doesn't really sound like they're planning to make it obsolete unless they're just keeping it a secret to surprise us. What was that about false hopes again though?

If you page back through this and previous threads you will find people complaining about HAVING to do this. So "prevent" is too strong a word, I agree. But discourage? Maybe. But then again, it's also not the main reason. This was invented way back when the devs could see HUGE portions of the name database just sitting there unused.

We can do both. We can be creative and we can free up maybe an entire third of the name database that isn't being used. Doing both is better than doing just one or the other.

This is complete nonsense. You're either trolling or you have no idea what the word "unique" means. Either way not wasting more time on you.

That you can only imagine people arguing for this for selfish reasons is more revealing than you think. Recycling desirable names nobody is using is just common sense good policy. It was the devs who came up with this idea in the first place, remember. Not some person desperately desiring a lost name from Live. You said "false hope". What is false exactly about hoping for something that has a chance of happening? It would only be a false hope if one believed it was guaranteed to happen. But then you also JUST said this in the very post where you claim I am making shit up... Again, how could your imaginary people believe that it wasn't "working right" unless they believed they were guaranteed to get the name they wanted? If they knew there was only a chance then they might express disappointment but they'd also recognize they simply weren't lucky and move on. Face it, you're manufacturing strawmen who will be disappointed by this policy not releasing their one true love of a name simply in order to argue against it... as if that is a better situation. They STILL don't have the name they want AND they have not even a chance of getting it. Genius! You should be in politics. "I promise you nothing! That way you will not be disappointed when you don't get it! Vote for me!"

I hate to break it to you but not only isn't this logic, it is a logical fallacy known as a "false equivalence". Names are unique per server in this game. The inspirations and influence on my characters is not. In fact, I don't think ANYTHING else about my account actually affects anyone else but me... except for the names I have reserved on my characters. So, hypothetically yes, the devs could institute a policy that takes unused stuff and gives it to random other active players. They just don't have any reason to. If, however, you want to lobby for an inspiration release policy, knock yourself out. I will be the first to admit that some of the insps in my tray ARE a bit old. I am a terrible hoarder. If I eat them, I won't have them! On the other hand, I bet @Luminara has better stuffs than I do. Go steal it! You're not the first to suggest that, but like everybody else who has, you don't offer any reason to believe it's true. There is reason to believe the opposite actually. Many of these names were nabbed in the early days of Homecoming back in 2019 and then abandoned. Why does anyone think this group of inactive names is filled with gibberish when simple one and two word descriptive names were there for the taking on a fresh server? If anything, the names people are making today are FAR more inventive than the ones people could simply scoop up by the dozens back in the day. They have to be.

It seems to be coming from your imagination actually, unless you'd like to quote someone actually SAYING these things you claim we believe. Frankly, a whole lot of the arguments against the name release policy in this and other threads are rebuttals to arguments nobody is seriously making. It goes like this, somebody tries to make a character, they try to come up with names and get 1, 2, 3 maybe more of them bounced as already taken. So they come here and maybe gripe a little. Are they saying it is literally impossible to come up with a name? No. Are they saying they didn't get the name of their choice? Sure. Is releasing a few hundred thousand names going to 100% fix that? Of course not. There are no guarantees. Well... except one. Doing nothing isn't going to help either. Releasing 700k or however many names it ends up being, will do just that. Release 700k names. How many are desirable? Certainly not all of them. Look around you some day though. How many names attached to characters running around you are ones you'd consider "desirable". The proportion of such names in the inactive population is probably quite similar. To say otherwise is to suggest that the active population of this game is somehow more creative than the people who aren't playing anymore... and that'd just be hubris talking. Though that wouldn't be anything new in THIS thread, I guess. Anyway, against this, are the people claiming what great harm will be caused by instituting a name policy that allows you an entire year to refresh any name you claim to care about (plus however much more time elapses before someone happens to type that name into the character creator, btw). And it is these same people who are simultaneously reminding us how easy it is to create new names if we can't get our first choice. So why can't they do the same in the unlikely event they lose a name on some inactive character they haven't played for over a year? If it's acceptable to tell someone else they can't have it... why isn't it acceptable to you. It's acceptable to me, should I let any of MY characters lapse. Seems quite fair actually.

Why do you think so? Here is some actual educated guessing... The post where this was mentioned is from July 2022, so obviously more names have been used (but also more names abandoned) since then. But if we look at that snapshot in time, it's mentioned: There are over two million names in the database. Roughly 700K are in the 1-5 level range and inactive. "Significantly less" are in the 6-49 range and inactive. These are fuzzy numbers obviously, but even so it's possible to estimate that at that time around 1/3 of names in the database would probably have been freed up by the policy. That means the rough odds are probably around 1 in 3 that any name you were denied back then is on an inactive character just based on this. Obviously, that's assuming no special relationship between desirable names and player inactivity. And it doesn't mean a whole string of names you tried can't all be on active characters either. This is statistics, not certainty. Fast forward to the present, these numbers might have changed a little, but I doubt by much. Like I said, people have both come and gone since then. It's not likely the needle has moved very significantly. It could be 1 in 3 still or 1 in 4. It's not going to be 1 in 100. The inactives are a not-insignificant percentage of the total names in the database.

Okay okay, serious face then! I voted "Nerf procs" and I am deadly deadly serious about it. *glares menacingly* "... and Regen while we're at it!!"

This isn't quite authentic PuG chaos without a Stormie pushing enemies away from the tank or three controllers AoE gluing mobs to the floor in three separate corners of this room. But other than that yeah... it looks like a Thursday.

This is change we can believe in!

Deleted: You know what? Forget it. Apparently it's getting kind of unreasonable on both sides of this argument. I don't think it's a huge deal if they do activate this policy, but the world will spin on they don't as well.

Thanks for clearing that up but now I'm puzzled why anyone is worried about the name release policy. Because as we all know, you don't just lose the name when the timer runs out. Someone else THEN has to pick the same name. And as you've just proved with Math!(tm) the odds of that happening are literally one in billions! So nothing to worry about! Carry on everyone! Nothing to see here!

I wondered about that because I was seeing a few places people saying build for regen to tank Hammi but I was sure I'd heard there were crippling -heal AND -regen debuffs. Click self heals are usually unresistable, so they're still effective. That's why I wondered if having a second heal like Aid Self was worth it even for a Tanker that has a self heal in the primary. Or something like a secondary with a siphon heal like Dark or Rad Melee.

Assuming all that involves is picking a yellow and hitting it and being the person everyone targets through to bash yellow... I can handle that. I am willing to take a stab at taunting Hammi while people are doing Mitos. I am just not sure how that will go. My build isn't geared specifically to Hammi tanking. I'd at least need to move some things around to get more regen, remove the procs from Rad Therapy so the heal has max recharge and heal enhancement. Only thing I don't get is seeing people say Rad is good for Hammi tanking but its heal is pretty anemic if it doesn't have ten enemies within a 30ft radius to hit. It might heal maybe 1/6 of the hit point bar with no enemies in range to boost it. Do people augment that with Medicine pool or something? It looks like other sources of regen/healing like Destiny Rebirth or heal procs like Panacea are NOT unresistable. Won't they be killed by Hammi's -heal debuff? I've also read that Hammi's untyped damage bypasses the absorb shield which would seem to make it a lot less useful than Invuln's Dull Pain +HP.

Actually alternatives are great. Just some of us think that applies also to people who lose names due to inactivity on lower level characters. All of these resources you linked will help them come up with the same sorts of alternative names they claim everyone else should be perfectly satisfied with. So thanks and keep it up!

Honestly, I figured that part of the post had to be a joke or I'd have replied.

Yeah... is now a good time to mention I haven't been on a Hammi Raid since Live? 🤪 And I've never Tanked one. I planned to bring Misty (Rad/Ice) with maybe a quick respec beforehand to pick up Laser Beam Eyes. I'll have Rings and Taser. Beyond that, I have no idea what I'm doin. I have no stash of EoEs either.

I believe you. ... Screaming first would only slow me down.