Delight and Disappointment

[Midnight Blue Mage]

18 hours ago, Leogunner said:

You can make up a random name and then rename for free at any time. Just some advice from someone who is horrible at naming characters. Inspiration may come as I'm thinking of their past history or how their powers work. 

Yes, I have done this a few times myself and I think it's an awesome strategy.

If you want to test a power set/build to see if it's right for you, create that character with any old name and costume and grind it out for a while. If you end up deciding that you really dig the powers/playstyle and want to take that character all the way, you can retroactively come up with a concept and then modify your name/costume/bio (especially since you now have the experience of knowing what it's like to play as this character) to fit!

[roleki]

I think the lack of available names is a good thing, it's a sign there are a ton of us logging in and doing all the stuff.

 

Unfortunately (or, fortunately?) since all the straightforward names/concepts are taken, I have to resort to naming gimmicks, like adding formal titles (Mister, Captain, Doctor and so forth) or steering the character in question in the vein of a 1950s-era comic book "teen sidekick" which is how my Plant/Natural guy got named 'Lawn Boy.'

 

Another way to go is make the character unusually large/small and make the name a play off of THAT, or choose a color theme and go that route a la the Brown Hornet.

 

Sometimes I might throw an adjective in there, or make the character season/era-based, or, occasionally I'll use a single word that can be both a noun and a verb (not a gerund!).  Like, my Rad/Rad defender is just called Draw, and that is still one of my favorite names for some reason.

 

I sometimes choose names based just on how it would read when inserted in NPC dialog.  I don't know why, but at the time I rolled it I thought having an NPC yell something like "Stop Something Else!" or whatever was funny, so I hung that on my TW/Bio.  

 

It does kind of bum me out when I think I have hit on a great name only to find out not only is THAT taken but someone has snapped up all the logical variants of it, but that just gives me a reason to come up with something that will bum someone ELSE out later on down the road.

[Apparition]

28 minutes ago, roleki said:

I think the lack of available names is a good thing, it's a sign there are a ton of us logging in and doing all the stuff.

 

That's not really the case though.  I know of several people that signed up in April and May and snagged a couple of hundred character names, each.  Some no longer even play.

 

IMO, allowing everyone to make 1,000 characters per server at the launch of Homecoming was a mistake, but c'est la vie.

[Cutter]

I picked up a few awesome (to me) names on Everlasting in the last couple weeks, which I'm surprised hadn't been taken:

• Lagrange (Grav/Traps controller)
• Ceramic (Bio/Stone tanker)
• Spinsect (Bio/Claws tanker)

Just a matter of being lucky, especially with the one-word-real-word names! And trying all the servers - more than once I've found a name I like on a different server, so I build and play there, and every now and then check to see if it's available on Everlasting so I can transfer. No luck so far, but I keep hoping!

 

[VileTerror]

Ah yes!  The classic "some random hero" as a character name, roleki.  Always a hoot to see the NPCs make fools of themselves.

"It's some random hero!  I heard they defeated Hamidon!"

[Sovera]

On 2/12/2020 at 7:31 PM, ToonHawk said:

Hello,

 

This is my first post since joining the forum last night. I can't tell you how excited I was when a friend of mine let me know that there was a community-run server for City of Heroes, a game I absolutely loved and played a ton of in my younger years. I completed the download last night and jumped right into character creation. That is when Disappointment punched me in the face.

 

Completed an Ice Blaster only to find that every derivation of icy, cold, frigid, arctic name you can think of is already taken. I am literally on naming attempt 30 or 40 now... Wish me luck trying to successfully achieve my own homecoming.

 

~Chad

Add titles. Add honorifics.

 

For example GW2 was one of those games where I could add honorifics to my character's name when I made multiples of it.

 

So Sovera became Girl Genius Sovera (engineer, people kept mistaking her for a boy because Asura :D), Holoeidetic Sovera (mesmer), Chamaleonware Sovera, etc etc

 

 

[Sakai]

On 2/12/2020 at 5:41 PM, TungstenShark said:

LOL That would be me. 😎 It is a remake of one of my original toons from Live (formerly a Rad/Rad Defender, now a Rad/Sonic Defender). Don't think I'd ever sell the name, but it was so random to see someone post about the name I felt I owed you a response.

 

For the record, names get me too. I will not create a toon until I get a good name to go with the concept. The struggle is real.

I'm just as amazed that you saw my request. 

 

Had to try. 😀

[MTeague]

Just make sure you get the spelling right on the names.  Hate to be in this situation: 

https://xkcd.com/1012/

Edited February 15, 2020 by MTeague

[myyth]

I just made a cold corruptor the other day too. 

 

I was disappointed that Chill Bill was taken 😞

 

but delighted I got the name Thrills and Chills instead 🙂

Edited February 15, 2020 by myyth

[Call Me Awesome]

7 hours ago, VileTerror said:

Ah yes!  The classic "some random hero" as a character name, roleki.  Always a hoot to see the NPCs make fools of themselves.

"It's some random hero!  I heard they defeated Hamidon!"

A SG mate of mine on Live had fun with that with a couple characters, Local Man and Area Man.  "Local Man, the most famous hero of all"

[srmalloy]

On 2/13/2020 at 5:27 PM, Beul said:

This means little ice cube though. It should be ijsblok.

Aren't ice cubes little ice blocks, though? Remembering pictures and videos from when people cut ice from lakes in winter, storing them to deliver to homes for their (literal) iceboxes, the blocks they'd cut were fairly large, nothing that you'd be able to drop in a glass to chill your drink.

[srmalloy]

19 hours ago, VileTerror said:

"It's some random hero!  I heard they defeated Hamidon!"

Harkening back to the 'Florida Man' meme...

 

There are lots of names that would work to exploit NPC reactions -- 'That Jerk Hero', etc.

[Dazl]

The thesaurus can be your best friend when coming up with a name.

[Troo]

2 hours ago, Crimsonpyre said:

The thesaurus can be your best friend when coming up with a name.

Or simply just adding another "word".

[VileTerror]

So, like, for https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/1205-drop-a-name-pick-up-a-name/page/6/?tab=comments#comment-163102:

Rook word
Spike word
Razor word
Magician word
Dirge word
Mercury word
Masquerade word
Bane word
Kestrel word
Minstrel word
Bard word
Silverbolt word
Ninja word
Cyberpunk word
Sabercat word
Tempest word
Brutus word
Gizmo word
Avalanche word
Roadkill word
Archmage word
Wizard word
Fireball word
Hammerhead word
Jet word
Ronin word
Shadow word
Raven word
Crow word
Nightingale word
Changeling word

 

Or do you mean to say adding the whole "another word" to each one?  'cause I think that'll exceed the character limit on most of those.

[Troo]

EXACTLY!!!!!

 

note: 'Masquerade word word' is available on most servers and fits.

Edited February 15, 2020 by Troo

[VileTerror]

"Most"

 

 . . . which server is it /not/ available on?

[EmmySky]

Probably Indom...we have some weird names wandering around 😀

 

 

Nvmnd that most of them are mine 😝

[Charistoph]

My handle on Homecoming is the same as pre-Snap, Bludd Quartz.  I came up with this name when I was making what I thought would be the perfect blend of desires.  Stone Armor for its all around defense and Energy Melee for its speed of attack (which later got muted).  I couldn't think of what to do so I gave him the white stone skin, and went light red for the accents to represent the Energy Melee colors before power customization took affect.  White stone with pink highlights reminded me of quartz, so that was in.  Another description was blood for the colored accents, but might not make it, so was reminded of Jason Bludd of Justice League, so I took Bludd as a "misspelling".  ID gave him the name of Gabriel Bludd, tying everything together.  I later made a Dual Blades/Willpower character named Bluddy Will, Bludd Quartz's brother who was named William.

I had a villain named Napthun who was a Dark Melee/Fire Armor Brute which was a misspelling of naphtha.

 

Then there was the Praetorian Plant/Fire Dominator who was Thermal Bloom.  I gleaned the term from one of David Weber's series in which the plasma weapons were as dangerous from the heat differential as from the energy being propelled.

Since I've come back, I've restored one or two from live since then and created a few more.  One of the new "other languages" I've used is Garra Verde who is a Savage/Rad Brute.  The name is spanish, so you can look up what it means.

[coggy]

On 2/13/2020 at 12:06 PM, TheOtherTed said:

My solution to the naming problem is to dip into other languages for words (or, if I'm lucky, actual names) with meanings relevant to my character.  It can take some digging, but I can usually find something that I like the sound of.  In the end, I'm the one who has to "live" with the name - whether someone gets it or not is secondary (although it is fun when I get a random /tell from someone who does).

 

Sometimes, I'll come up with a general idea for a name and dig around to see if there are similar types of terms in other languages.  For example, I wanted a cool name for a secret spy character, so I looked up whether other languages had equivalents of "Jane Doe" (i.e., a tag for an unidentified body).  That led to two character names I've used a lot - "Jeanne Truc" and "Lee Three" - which in turn helped me fine tune the character concepts.  Again, not so concerned if other people don't make the connection - I like how they sound, and I like the concepts they convey in my head.

 

Anyway, here are two of my favorite sites for name inspirations:

 

https://www.wiktionary.org/

 

https://www.momjunction.com/baby-names/all/

I went through  a phase of naming my alts after  gods from other  cultures  eh kalvelis for a fire/ rad troller  after a lithuanian  god of the  sun

[KelvinKole]

It was probably my fault. I've been holding on to the name Lionel Richie since the server came on. I know that's the one you wanted; there's no one cooler.

[siolfir]

Just now, KelvinKole said:

It was probably my fault. I've been holding on to the name Lionel Richie since the server came on. I know that's the one you wanted; there's no one cooler.

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

[KelvinKole]

18 minutes ago, siolfir said:

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

It might be. Can you party, karmu, Fiesta, forever? All night long.