Homecoming Server Update (May 20th): What's Next?

[Greyhawke]

I would LOVE if there was a countdown timer next to names that are expiring. That would help me manage this, and be VERY helpful to the casual player.

 

Another suggested feature: Add a server player count to the character screen.

[srmalloy]

I think the naming policy is horrible. It is incredibly short. I wouldn't mind 6 months or a year. For me, I don't play one game exclusively all year. I play a game for a few months, then put it aside for a few months and play something else. On the old game, I had 128 characters, because I like trying different things. I don't play one character constantly, I don't power level, it took me 4 years to get my first 50. Now, I'm being forced to play one character exclusively to 50 or lose my name because I'm not going to be logging on and mucking about with dozens of characters that I would otherwise have, especially when I'm not playing. To me, this basically says "we don't support alititis", which is, frankly, what makes this game so great.

 

You're not being forced to grind a character to 50 to keep it, just log in and right back out periodically; the higher the character, the less often you need to do it.

 

However, since the namechecker is obviously going to have to check character level and last login for potential duplicates, I would like to propose an addition: If someone does a name check that matches an existing character who is within a week of having their name go up for grabs, send an email to the global handle notifying them that the character name has been queried and is potentially at risk to be taken by another. Since all they need to do to protect it is to log in and out on the character, I don't think that this puts an onerous burden on a player even if they pick a popular name, leave the character at level 1, and don't log in on them.

[Zekna]

The name policy is to prevent people from taking names out of malic. All they have to do is make a character, name it and then leave it. I know people like that and that is what they are preventing from happening. If you want to make a unique character then make a unique name for it. My main villain is Zekna....simple and yet you don't hardly see it anywhere. The only other place I had seen a name like was in EverQuest and only because it was very similar to the deities names in that game. My main hero is Black Mana Guardian and his back story explains why it is named as that. If you can find something or someone named like that in another game please tell me. This game is all about how creative can you be with your name, costume, background. If you make a commonly known character then expect the name to be taken, hence why I never have issues with character names on any game :)

[Greyhawke]

For others interested in #3 below, there is a name swap thread for Everlasting in that servers Forum section here https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,1625.0.html

 

 

 

Having a naming policy is fine, I just don't particularly like this one. It's fine for those of us who are active, but for those like my wife who play very sporadically it is more of a burden and becomes more like a job. I want her to play with me, but if she loses the name of a character that is dear to her, she will quit playing. That's not a threat, it's just sad a reality for many more casual players.

 

That said, I see the need for something. Name camping is a problem for new players who can't find a name they want. Here are my suggestions:

 

(1) I would prefer the "permanent" names be lowered to level 40. I would also prefer the 1-5 names be doubled to 60 days, and 6-20 increased to 120 days. I would like a permanent name lock on a name that matches your global, though I realize that would be difficult to stop everyone from making multiple accounts. Maybe limit it to globals created prior to May 20?

 

(2) It would be great for names to not be unique. I know it might take some coding, but doesn't all of the improvements we are getting? It's just a matter of priority. The names are already not unique per shard. Could the code be fooled to think each global name is it's own shard for purposes of character name?

 

(3) Is there a name request thread? A name trade thread? Something like that. If not, someone please start one for each server/shard. Those were always the best on Virtue. You will find that many people are willing to give up a name to a good home. (And PM me a link, I want to participate!).

[GM ArachnosPhobia]

My one gripe with the naming policy is that there should be some exception for people in the military (or similar rapid deployment) who may be deployed without game access for long periods of time.  I don't think it's fair to the real heroes.

 

Interesting point. For anyone with specific, individual long-term commitments like these, open a ticket or send us a message - we can probably make the account immune for a set duration (provided: at least one character's name will expire in that duration and the duration is not ridiculously long). Realistically I don't think this will be an issue. Even if you do a 365, you can probably log in at least once when you get some R&R and fire up your computer. Or tell a friend back home to log in once or something.

 

But yeah, not opposed to it so let us know if it comes up.

[GM ArachnosPhobia]

In regards to the costume contest...

 

Are we expected to use the same costume for each tier of the event or are we allowed to switch it up? Need to know if I have to build more than one to compete. Thanks! (And I don't have any issues with the Naming Policy lol)

 

Same costume - this isn't a pageant XD

[GM ArachnosPhobia]

In my household, my son has his own account and we team together.  Is this considered multiboxing?

 

No, there are no worries here. Play together freely.

 

So to be clear on the multiboxing, its okay for my family and i to all be on at once at any time on multiple systems from our home,  but running multiple log ons from same PC is bad unless it is during low population times, correct?

 

Correct, and even during low population times you're still limited to 3 accounts per person.

[Nightchill]

I can understand the inactive name change and can relate to it being a pain. Since the update notes mentioned the upcoming change I wanted to make sure the names I had for planned characters were safe and went to log them in only to find that the name Poison, my plant/thorn Dominator on Excelsior had already been taken and renamed to namechange003. So any reason why the name was already taken from me even though the changes arent active yet and it hadnt been over 30 days since she was logged in last anyway? I would hope you guys werent already taking names away.

[Frakk]

were you transferring servers?

 

[Mjolnerd]

Personally, I like the name-release policy as-is.

 

And that's from someone with quite a few names camped at the moment because I think I might possibly want to use them maybe in the future perhaps. Give me a little time, but if they go bad sitting in the fridge, I'm happy to have them thrown out.

[Healix]

To me, it's fine as it stands. Nothing is going to please everyone.

[Nightchill]

were you transferring servers?

 

No the character was made 24 days ago on that server, so some kind of explanation on why it was taken would be nice or having it returned.

[Dr. Gemini]

You're not being forced to grind a character to 50 to keep it, just log in and right back out periodically; the higher the character, the less often you need to do it.

 

No, but I am being forced to level one character at a time to 50 because maintaining the number of alts I usually play is untenable. For me I normally play one character one weekend, next weekend I'm jonesing to play a different powerset (for example, before this announcement I was wanting to start a mastermind this weekend), next weekend I'll play something else. That's how I ended up having 128 characters and I cycled through them for the months out of the year I'd actively play. I'm completely in favor of taking measures for dealing with people just grabbing names while the grabbing is good, but, these rules go further than that and I can't see my playstyle being viable. Given the amount of AE powerleveling going on earlier in the server, I'd put cash money down that I have more time on my level 20 than many 50's have on them. But, its their sandbox, so I'm in the process of deleting all but a handful of alts I've created so far because, thanks to the kindness of those who got the game working again, I have options. I can alt solo on my own personal server and play the handful I can maintain here when I feel like teaming until I get a 50 I can replace with a new alt. That's what makes both this place and the game itself far better than when it was a business is having options.

[Marshal Valor]

My SG is already considering leaving and going to one of the other servers. We will if this goes through for sure. As an aside, another option would be to set it so you can use asci characters like other games, thus also letting people get the names that they want. This plan is just awful. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to sit there and stare at a screen for a while, while I login my characters "because I have to". I'd rather spend that time playing. Your naming policy as it stands will CRUSH casual gamers, and casual gamers make up the most of the gamer population out there. Remember, it's been how many years since CoH shut down. People are older now with families, and that means less CoH time them, and more playing the "login game" for them. I could see how it would turn people off.

[Frakk]

Seems to me that if all the people who are so mad at the naming policy decide they will leave, we are going to get a TON of names to become available at the expense of losing very few players.

 

Seems like a win to me.

[Chuckers]

Since it's a free game, how about $1 per character you want name locked? The money can go to server upgrades and such.

 

(That is providing the devs can program such a feature.)

[Nericus]

You're not being forced to grind a character to 50 to keep it, just log in and right back out periodically; the higher the character, the less often you need to do it.

 

No, but I am being forced to level one character at a time to 50 because maintaining the number of alts I usually play is untenable. For me I normally play one character one weekend, next weekend I'm jonesing to play a different powerset (for example, before this announcement I was wanting to start a mastermind this weekend), next weekend I'll play something else. That's how I ended up having 128 characters and I cycled through them for the months out of the year I'd actively play. I'm completely in favor of taking measures for dealing with people just grabbing names while the grabbing is good, but, these rules go further than that and I can't see my playstyle being viable. Given the amount of AE powerleveling going on earlier in the server, I'd put cash money down that I have more time on my level 20 than many 50's have on them. But, its their sandbox, so I'm in the process of deleting all but a handful of alts I've created so far because, thanks to the kindness of those who got the game working again, I have options. I can alt solo on my own personal server and play the handful I can maintain here when I feel like teaming until I get a 50 I can replace with a new alt. That's what makes both this place and the game itself far better than when it was a business is having options.

 

With about 90 minutes of grinding death from below yo u should get to level 21 and thus your name is set for a year. Use an xp booster to hasten the process

 

Then use email to send money and salvage toyourself for your main alt to claim

[Marshal Valor]

Seems to me that if all the people who are so mad at the naming policy decide they will leave, we are going to get a TON of names to become available at the expense of losing very few players.

 

Seems like a win to me.

 

That's right, all the names you could ever want, and less, and less, and less people playing. Have fun with that.

[Obsidius]

That's right, all the names you could ever want, and less, and less, and less people playing. Have fun with that.

 

Fewer. You mean fewer. ;)

 

 

That's also quite the slippery slope you've made :)  Try out the other servers, more power to you and your SG.

[Frakk]

just looking at this thread the vast majority do not find the new rules to be a burden.  It's only the people who don't value the character enough to log it in once every 3 months who seem to be bothered.

 

[Arkterusss]

You're not being forced to grind a character to 50 to keep it, just log in and right back out periodically; the higher the character, the less often you need to do it.

 

No, but I am being forced to level one character at a time to 50 because maintaining the number of alts I usually play is untenable. For me I normally play one character one weekend, next weekend I'm jonesing to play a different powerset (for example, before this announcement I was wanting to start a mastermind this weekend), next weekend I'll play something else. That's how I ended up having 128 characters and I cycled through them for the months out of the year I'd actively play. I'm completely in favor of taking measures for dealing with people just grabbing names while the grabbing is good, but, these rules go further than that and I can't see my playstyle being viable. Given the amount of AE powerleveling going on earlier in the server, I'd put cash money down that I have more time on my level 20 than many 50's have on them. But, its their sandbox, so I'm in the process of deleting all but a handful of alts I've created so far because, thanks to the kindness of those who got the game working again, I have options. I can alt solo on my own personal server and play the handful I can maintain here when I feel like teaming until I get a 50 I can replace with a new alt. That's what makes both this place and the game itself far better than when it was a business is having options.

 

>Cares enough about characters that having to rename a character they deigned not to play for more than a month is inexcusable

>Doesn’t care enough to log them in for 3 seconds every so often.

 

Interesting. 

Anyways, no one’s forcing you to do anything.  You don’t have to grind a single person to 50 if you don’t want to.  I have about 10 characters right now and none of them have been logged out for more than 3 days, with two or three of them in my bucket of “I couldn’t care less if I have to rename them later due to inactivity”. Your problem would be seriously solved if they didn’t let people even have CLOSE to a 100 slots.  20 max should be sufficient on each shard.  You’d see this name problem clear up really quick as people would have to make decisions regarding who they actually care about instead of wantonly making characters than whining when someone does something about not playing them for half a year. 

 

I seriously doubt your experience with your 8 billion alts that are all below level 20 is going to change much if you have rename them from “John the Generic Scrapper” to “Bill the Generic Scrapper”

[Lines]

I'm a big fan of the naming policy. It'll be nice to know some good names aren't gathering cobwebs on some forgotten account.

[Burnt Toast]

Well you may want to do your research. From your posts I see you like to RP and have morality issues with some things.... not sure which of these other servers you think will suit the needs of your group and meet your standards. Just an FYI this IS going to go into effect - it wasn't a suggestion or something they asked for a community vote on... it is a new rule/standard of the Homecoming server.

Sorry you are so bent out of shape about a name of a character that you can't be bothered to spend 1 minute a month logging into that you feel you need to leave. Then again if you were actually playing the characters that you are so worried about losing the names on... it really wouldn't be an issue. FYI using hyperbole to "reinforce" your statement is a bit much. This policy will not create any type of exodus that you think it will. Good luck on another server.

 

 

My SG is already considering leaving and going to one of the other servers. We will if this goes through for sure. As an aside, another option would be to set it so you can use asci characters like other games, thus also letting people get the names that they want. This plan is just awful. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to sit there and stare at a screen for a while, while I login my characters "because I have to". I'd rather spend that time playing. Your naming policy as it stands will CRUSH casual gamers, and casual gamers make up the most of the gamer population out there. Remember, it's been how many years since CoH shut down. People are older now with families, and that means less CoH time them, and more playing the "login game" for them. I could see how it would turn people off.

[Nericus]

Well I just spun some alts through death from below with exp boosters running, about 90minutes per alt, they are L21 and now could sit for a year if needed.

 

Any info or salvage from them is emailed to my global for my main.

 

So about 90 minutes of playing to save an alt for a year if desired then back to the main alt with extra info or salvage to claim via email.

 

Not seeing a huge problem, except for the monotony of running DFB ad nauseum :)

[Blastit]

Your naming policy as it stands will CRUSH casual gamers, and casual gamers make up the most of the gamer population out there.

 

The time limits we're talking about are a month, three months and twelve months. If you aren't playing your level five character enough that you even log in on them in an entire month, it's fair to say you're not making enough use of the name to guarantee it staying with you.

 

If we were talking about days and weeks you'd have a point, but this is quite generous. We could as well argue that casual players benefit from this policy because now they can get names that people who make hundreds of characters they don't play would otherwise block for them.