Naming Characters

[nihilii]

I wanted to reply to this thread but all the good answers were taken. Drat.

[MTeague]

In the case of the OP, I kinda get the frustration, because I was told, and Google confirms, that "Canadian Shield" is also the name for a large geologic formation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield

 

So, I can appreciate it would be cool to have a name with that kind of duality going on. 

 

But....yea.  First Come, First Serve.  Sucks if you didn't find out about Homecoming until semi-recently but.... it is what it is.  No matter how much you want it, it ain't a gonna happen.  So you need to find something else you can accept, OR, go with a different character theme entirely.

 

[RCU7115]

1 hour ago, The Philotic Knight said:

 

Let's see... Canadian Shield:

 

1.  Alternate Words - Pull out the Thesaurus:

• Canadian Bulwark
• Canadian Aegis
• Canadian Defender
• Canadian Buckler
• Canadian Guard
• Canadian Escutcheon
• Canadian Ward
• Canadian Rampart
• Canuck Shield
• Canuck Bulwark
• Canuck Aegis
• Canuck Defender
• Canuck Buckler
• Canuck Guard
• Canuck Escutcheon
• Canuck Ward
• Canuck Rampart

2. Alternative Language - Pull out Google Translate

• Spanish:
  • Baluarte Canadiense
  • Aegis Canadiense
  • Defensor Canadiense
  • Escudo Canadiense
  • Guardia Canadiense
  • Escudo Canadiense
  • Barrio Canadiense
  • Muralla Canadiense
  • Escudo Canuck
  • Guardia Canuck
  • Escudo Canuck
  • Muralla Canuck
• French (Probably more appropriate):
  • Rempart Canadien
  • Égide Canadienne
  • Défenseur Canadien
  • Buckler Canadien
  • Garde Canadienne
  • Écusson Canadien
  • Quartier Canadien
  • Bouclier Canuck
  • Rempart de Canuck
  • Rosace Canuck

etc. etc.... infinite possiblities here!

 

3. Get Creative - Be Open to New Interpretations

• Maple Avenger
• The Red Shield of Canada
• Avenger of the Northlands
• Newfoundman
• Auroran Warrior
• The Great Torontan
• Shield of the Inuits

Really, REALLY, the only limits are:

A) Your imagination, and

B) Your acceptance of the fact that you can't have that EXACT SPECIFIC name that you want.

 

 

That's Awesome !!!

[Leogunner]

On 3/5/2020 at 6:56 PM, Ultimo said:

I don't know if it's been suggested before, or if it's even possible, but I'm finding it VERY difficult to name my characters.  In some cases, it's a matter of wanting to use a name I'd used back in the old days, such as my tanker (and main) the Canadian Shield.  That name is simply not available on any server.  In other cases, it's just a matter of trying to find a name that fits the concept of the character.  For example, I'm trying to find a name for my Batman-themed character, and simply cannot find a name that isn't unavailable.  I've tried Crusadar, Nightshade, Night-Shade, Night Shade, on and on and on.  I remember this being an issue for the original game under NCSoft, and they never did anything about it except occasional name purges.

 

However, name purges might not be ideal in this case, because being free to play here, there's no telling when players might come back after lengthy absence.  So, my suggestion is to do something like what Champions Online did.  We all have chat handles.  Mine is @Ultimo1.  The way Champions did it was to append that handle to the end of the character's name.  So, the Canadian Shield would actually be Canadian Shield@Ultimo1 (though, you wouldn't see the @Ultimo1 part).  This would allow multiple players to use the same name.

 

Either way, I think this is an issue that needs to be looked into. 

 

Thanks.

Looking at my roster of characters, it's actually comparatively small.  But I bet there are players out there with dozens upon dozens of characters....that being said, despite my shallow pool of characters, I haven't had trouble naming any of them and have rarely come across a character that was just incredibly difficult to name...and I'm horrible at thinking up cool names.

 

Stating my perspective clearer, I bet you also have a large roster of characters likely taking up names that someone else would want.  It's a 2 way street.

 

Canadian Shield is taken?  Well obviously.  That's not a very creative name.  Just like a lot of [1st world country] + Shield is likely taken.  Why not try something more creative like Major Maple, Captain Mountie, Toronto/Quebec/Yukon Shield?  It takes literally 0 effort to come up with something MORE catchy and creative than Canadian Shield (Yukon Shield is available on Indomitable).

 

For your Batman-theme, try mixing in a color, an animal or even 2 animals.  I was actually intrigued how smooth the name Foxbat sounded from Champion Online's villain roster that I used that naming scheme to make some cool names.  It works better when keeping the 2 names less than 2 syllables.  Crowbat (Crow-Bat, Crowbat...all available for your crafty bludgeoning caped crusader needs) or some alliteration (Crimson-Crow, Sage Scorpion).

 

Come on, I'm horrible at coming up with names...I even used a name generator for my sith blaster because I couldn't think of a good one myself (Darth Wrax is a nice name too).  

Edited March 7, 2020 by Leogunner

[EmmySky]

1 hour ago, Leogunner said:

Looking at my roster of characters, it's actually comparatively small.  But I bet there are players out there with dozens upon dozens of characters....that being said, despite my shallow pool of characters, I haven't had trouble naming any of them and have rarely come across a character that was just incredibly difficult to name...and I'm horrible at thinking up cool names.

 

Stating my perspective clearer, I bet you also have a large roster of characters likely taking up names that someone else would want.  It's a 2 way street.

 

Canadian Shield is taken?  Well obviously.  That's not a very creative name.  Just like a lot of [1st world country] + Shield is likely taken.  Why not try something more creative like Major Maple, Captain Mountie, Toronto/Quebec/Yukon Shield?  It takes literally 0 effort to come up with something MORE catchy and creative than Canadian Shield (Yukon Shield is available on Indomitable).

 

For your Batman-theme, try mixing in a color, an animal or even 2 animals.  I was actually intrigued how smooth the name Foxbat sounded from Champion Online's villain roster that I used that naming scheme to make some cool names.  It works better when keeping the 2 names less than 2 syllables.  Crowbat (Crow-Bat, Crowbat...all available for your crafty bludgeoning caped crusader needs) or some alliteration (Crimson-Crow, Sage Scorpion).

 

Come on, I'm horrible at coming up with names...I even used a name generator for my sith blaster because I couldn't think of a good one myself (Darth Wrax is a nice name too).  

I see you Leo!!

[Leogunner]

3 minutes ago, EmmySky said:

I see you Leo!!

I've been sniped 😫

[kelika2]

FF14 had a semi unique answer to names. a first and last name.

 

In this case, why not slap your Global Handle on everything you type/in your info  Not on your characters head, not in a group/league.

 

Sure there might be the big battle of the Goku's now and again but damnit I know more than a handful of names are still being held by level 1s who dont even play the game/shard/HCservers anymore

[MTeague]

2 hours ago, kelika2 said:

FF14 had a semi unique answer to names. a first and last name.

 

In this case, why not slap your Global Handle on everything you type/in your info  Not on your characters head, not in a group/league.

 

Sure there might be the big battle of the Goku's now and again but damnit I know more than a handful of names are still being held by level 1s who dont even play the game/shard/HCservers anymore

How do you know they're level 1's?  How do you know they don't play anymore as opposed to say, are taking a 1 month break because of real life time concerns?

[Megajoule]

FWIW, the reason that "Canadian Shield" is probably taken everywhere is that it's a pun on a significant geological feature.

A thesaurus variation probably will not satisfy the OP, because it's that pun that they're after.

[Haijinx]

Give everyone 1000 slots per server. 

Let people have multiple accounts.

,,

,,

..

..

Wonder why names get snatched up. 

[kelika2]

9 hours ago, MTeague said:

How do you know they're level 1's?  How do you know they don't play anymore as opposed to say, are taking a 1 month break because of real life time concerns?

How do you know they are not?

For all you know they are fire farmed in 2 hours to 50 alts, never left atlas, no enhancements, probably not even fully trained up

[srmalloy]

8 hours ago, Haijinx said:

Give everyone 1000 slots per server. 

Let people have multiple accounts.

,,

,,

..

..

Wonder why names get snatched up. 

Bring a game that had a fanatically devoted playerbase back to life.

Have the people who found it early grab names that they couldn't get on live because they were already taken.

Be amazed that people returning to the game are still attached enough to their characters back on live that they angst over not being able to get the same names they had on live because someone else got them first.

[VileTerror]

NEW SOLUTION!

 

Add thirty additional Shards!

 

(This is NOT a serious suggestion.  If only because some people will make unplayed Alts to camp names on all the servers anyway, never mind the division of the playerbase population.)

[RCU7115]

Early bird gets the worm and all the water, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, frozen vegetables, lysol spray, canned goods and soap.

[Haijinx]

2 hours ago, VileTerror said:

NEW SOLUTION!

 

Add thirty additional Shards!

 

(This is NOT a serious suggestion.  If only because some people will make unplayed Alts to camp names on all the servers anyway, never mind the division of the playerbase population.)

Pretty much.  

 

Really it was the 1000 characters per shard thing that cinched it.

 

If it were say 10, at least alt account management headaches would have been a limiter. 

[VileTerror]

ew.  10?  No.  Ew!

I'd need 13 accounts just to get to where I am now in that case, and another 20 to reach my intended goal.

[Haijinx]

38 minutes ago, RCU7115 said:

Early bird gets the worm and all the water, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, frozen vegetables, lysol spray, canned goods and soap.

And now we have to fight the corona zombies over a few cans of artichoke hearts.

[Leogunner]

14 hours ago, Megajoule said:

FWIW, the reason that "Canadian Shield" is probably taken everywhere is that it's a pun on a significant geological feature.

A thesaurus variation probably will not satisfy the OP, because it's that pun that they're after.

Hmm, didn't know about that.  

 

Just checking though, if you wanted to make more a pun about it (maybe having a stone shield or stone melee frosted with some ice or something), Canadian's Shield is available.  Of you can mix the two names (Canadian Shield also going by the name Laurentian Plateau or Bouclier canadien) so Laurentian Shield or Canadian Plateau or something like that. 

[RCU7115]

1 hour ago, Haijinx said:

Pretty much.  

 

Really it was the 1000 characters per shard thing that cinched it.

 

If it were say 10, at least alt account management headaches would have been a limiter. 

On live I believe we were limited to 48 toons per server.

[VileTerror]

Live started as 8 Slots per Shard.  City of Villains expanded that to 12.  They then started selling additional Slots, up to a maximum of 48 per Shard around 2009'ish (when I stopped playing).  I've heard someone claim that they eventually upped it to "unlimited" purchasable Slots per Shard, but I never saw that personally.  If that were the case, I'd suspect that "unlimited" was actually the 1000 we see now, where everything once purchased with real money has now either been unlocked entirely or put behind in-game Inf sinks.

[Haijinx]

8 would have been fairly normal for a MMO at the time.  

 

Some are pretty extreme though.  Isn't Eve online 3?  Originally 1.

[Ultimo]

I appreciate some of the suggestions, but in my case there's not really anything I can do to alter the names of some of my characters.  The reason is they're characters that I created decades ago, when I was making my own comics.  Ultimo, for example, wouldn't be ULTIMO if he wasn't using the name he's had for 45 years.  In the case of the Canadian Shield, his name is a play on words, a reference to the rocky lands in northern Ontario, called the Canadian shield.  Changing his name would eradicate that play on words.  I could cite other examples.

 

My goal here isn't just to get my own names to use.  I'm considering everyone else, too.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had to resort to absurd spellings, wierd symbols and other such nonsense because we can't get a name we're attached to for whatever reason.  I think it would be nice if we could resolve this dilemma, because I'm sure it affects a lot of us.

 

In any case, I've made my suggestion.  I think it would work, if there's a way program it.  I'm not a programmer, so I don't know what's possible here, but it SEEMS doable, based on what little I know.

 

I understand the objections, but I've seen this system work in other games, Champions Online, Star Trek Online, Elder Scrolls Online and others.  I've never seen any impersonation, because it is always possible to call up the @handle for any given character.  However, if this isn't a viable solution, perhaps we can come up with an alternative suggestion.

[biostem]

8 minutes ago, Ultimo said:

I appreciate some of the suggestions, but in my case there's not really anything I can do to alter the names of some of my characters.  The reason is they're characters that I created decades ago, when I was making my own comics.  Ultimo, for example, wouldn't be ULTIMO if he wasn't using the name he's had for 45 years.

And unless you could defend that character as being created before Marvel's, you probably couldn't use 'Ultimo' for publishing purposes, either...

[WanderingAries]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2020 at 6:19 PM, srmalloy said:

After discovering that CoH supported Unicode, I did this with many of my characters. One, recreated from live, a Fire/Rad controller, I named Yaderniy Ogon (Ядерный Огонь -- 'Nuclear Fire'), the other, new on Homecoming, a Rad/Dark tanker, Yadernaya Ten' (Ядерная Тень -- 'Nuclear Shadow'), sisters born to a woman exposed in the Chernobyl disaster.

 

It's a little more tedious to get decent names with a foreign language because sometimes the words don't translate to something that flows well, looks too much like badly-mangled English, or -- particularly with Russian -- translates into a pair of fifteen-character-long words that are unpronounceable, or look like 'KAOPECTATE' ('kah-oh-res-tah-tay' pronounced as Cyrillic), so you have to fiddle a bit more and sometimes switch languages to get a name that looks and sounds good, but you rarely have name-collision problems.

Yeah, that's why I also put things like "Russian for..." in the Bio's.

[WanderingAries]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2020 at 5:58 PM, Outrider_01 said:

Masked Manitoba Mapleleaf Marauder

(M&M)² or M⁴?