Name Release Policy - Feedback and Suggestions

[Stan The Man]

Whether you love it or hate it, this is the current name release policy by the PTB:

 

Name Release Policy

With 1000 character slots per shard, we expected you to make a lot of characters, but we’ve been blown away by quite how many… To date, you’ve made a total of 399,501 characters across 64,519 accounts. In fact, one of you has made a total of 277 characters!

 

Now, some of you have voiced concerns that many names are simply being sat on by level 1 characters that’ll never be played again. This is a fair concern, so we are implementing a system that will allow names of unused characters to be released back into circulation for use by new characters.

 

Characters will be flagged as ‘inactive’ when the following time thresholds are met:

Level 1-5 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 30 days

Level 6-20 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 90 days

Level 21-49 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 365 days

Level 50 characters will never be flagged as inactive

 

When a character is flagged as inactive they are not immediately renamed. Instead, their name is simply no longer locked. This allows another player to create a character with that name, at which point the original character will be renamed.

 

You can remove the inactive flag on a character at any time simply by logging them in.

 

We will not be activating this policy for at least a two weeks (possibly longer), so if there are any names you don’t want to lose, please ensure you keep the above guidelines in mind!

 

This is a first pass on this policy, and we may modify it at a later date, however we will give at least 30 days notice for any changes related to releasing names.

 

The problem is that right now, we have the ability to freely make 1000 characters per shard and have infinite times to rename a character.  And when you rename a character, the server flags that character as active.  So an easy way to bypass this policy is to simply rename once to something else then back to the name you want instead of logging into each character individually.  You're very unlikely to lose your name during the rename process as it takes only mere seconds to add a number or letter by the name.  Then rename it by deleting the new additional number or letter by the name.  Easy.  And character is now flagged as being logged in since 0 days.

 

Really when I saw the Announcement Thread, which should have been about the Memorial Day Event (for which I am VERY excited for) but instead, it devolved into the age old argument about whether or not to simply let us keep our names or to tie them to our global names.

 

I have a very simple solution and one not so simple solution.  (Well, simple for the players, not for the coding involved.)

 

1. Flag the account and not the individual characters as inactive

This should help those who think the policy is incredibly tedious on casual players or biased against those with altitis.  I believe this was how the policy was originally done in the original game.

 

2. Create a New Server Shard with Global-tied Names

On only one server everyone gets to create the name they want or focus more on the game and less on name hoarding.  So everyone gets to keep their special names on the current servers and if some people don't get the name they want or are particularly tied to their names, they can go to the new server and get whatever name they want!  Admittedly, you could just retroactively make one of the current servers into the Global-tied Name Server, but I think it would be more fair to just make a new shard so that no one potentially loses their names.  I'm just not certain the affordability of expanding into a new shard so soon after launch.  But if what we're told about global names is true, it may take a while before the PTB can even get something like that working.  And in the meanwhile they can figure out if a new server is worth it.

 

---

 

What do you all think?

 

Also, don't forget, the policy doesn't go into effect for two weeks so they may tweek it to prevent the bypass.  (I actually hope they do.)

 

 

[Frakk]

I think the current name policy is more than generous.  If people can't be bothered enough to log in/name change a character once every 3 months the name SHOULD be released and made available to people who will use it.

[holymittens]

A server with global-tied names would likely require a code change, which might be quite extensive. I personally think the naming policy is fine as suggested, but it is not a big issue to me either way.

[Mjolnerd]

The policy as announced is fine. I camp names all the time, and even I'm happy with it.

 

I can sit on a name for a couple days, even a few weeks, while I figure out what to do with it... but not forever. That's fair to me, and to others who might also want it. If I absolutely must keep a name but can't actually be bothered to play the character, it takes two minutes of my time to log in, then immediately log back out. (And no, a thousand character slots don't mean that's 2000 minutes of my time. It means two minutes today, two minutes tomorrow, four minutes the next day if I do two characters....)

 

It takes less than an hour of play to lock down a name for three months. If I didn't use my cell phone number for three months, they'd give it away to someone else. I don't know why I'd expect a character name in an MMO to be treated as more valuable than that.

 

It takes a single evening of play to lock down a name for an entire year. A year!

 

If anything, this policy is too generous to name-squatters like me.

[Stan The Man]

I appreciate everyone's opinions but I feel the points of my post were lost.

 

1. You do not have to even sign into your characters to keep their name.  You can rename them once, then instantly rename back to the desired name for the system to flag them as having been logged in. 

 

2. As an alternative to flagging individual toons for the name change, we flag the accounts.

 

3. A new server using the @global is suppose to be a compromise to the two parties.  It wouldn't affect everyone above who is happy with the Name Release Policy at all.

 

I'm glad to see people are enthusiastic to defend the game's current policies but bare in mind the PTB have stated that these are still subject to change and are not set in stone.  It is very likely they will change and while criticism is appreciated, lets keep it constructive.

[Obsidius]

[Frakk]

1- I'm not sure why someone would change their name in an effort to keep it, but either way there is still some effort put into saving the name in compliance with the current naming policy.

 

2- Flagging the account doesn't solve the issue of name camping it makes it easier to tie up 1000 names just by logging in to play your main.

 

3-Now you want them to open a whole new server and incur the additional costs just so people can camp names easier? 

 

The current policy is fine as is, and doesn't require them to spend any more of their valuable time/resources coding a whole new system.

[Mjolnerd]

I appreciate everyone's opinions but I feel the points of my post were lost.

No, I got it. See the literal first sentence of my previous post. The rest was just me expanding on that point.

 

1. You do not have to even sign into your characters to keep their name.  You can rename them once, then instantly rename back to the desired name for the system to flag them as having been logged in. 

And? See my previous "two minutes" comment, then multiply my support for the policy as-is by... what's it take to do what you're describing, fifteen seconds? Let's multiply it by eight then. The math works out nicely.

 

2. As an alternative to flagging individual toons for the name change, we flag the accounts.

Nope. Nope nope nope. This defeats the purpose altogether. It would be fine in a ten-characters-per-server situation, but a thousand? And the ability to create more accounts for free? This would allow someone (let's say me) to sit on an effectively infinite number of names, and lock all of them down, preventing anyone else from having access, all for two minutes total once a month. Tying it to the slot/character forces people to, at the very least, only do it with the names they actually care about enough to spend a little time and effort to maintain. It prevents hoarding.

 

3. A new server using the @global is suppose to be a compromise to the two parties.  It wouldn't affect everyone above who is happy with the Name Release Policy at all.

Every new server launched dilutes the player base a little. For a while, we needed that -- we had too many players for the server(s) at the time to handle. Now that we've got that evened out, adding too many servers creates the opposite problem. Especially since time, lack of active development, and the presence of other, non-Homecoming servers will eventually thin out the total number of players anyway.

 

A new server is not the answer to every problem. You don't like the naming policy? New server! You don't like Enhancement Diversification? New server! You don't want to play with AE farmers? New server! You only want to play with AE farmers? New server! At some point people just need to accept that they aren't going to get a special server tailored to their personal likes and dislikes unless they set one up themselves.

[Stan The Man]

A new server is not the answer to every problem. You don't like the naming policy? New server! You don't like Enhancement Diversification? New server! You don't want to play with AE farmers? New server! You only want to play with AE farmers? New server! At some point people just need to accept that they aren't going to get a special server tailored to their personal likes and dislikes unless they set one up themselves.

 

This is actually very nicely said.

[nDervish]

A server with global-tied names would likely require a code change, which might be quite extensive.

 

Being a programmer myself, and reading between the lines in comments I've seen from SCORE and others who have looked at the City code, I'm pretty confident that "quite extensive" is an understatement here.  Additionally, making the code support both "unique character" and "character@global" variations would just add further complexity to the code itself and to the process of testing it, so running some shards one way and some shards the other way is unlikely to be a viable option.

 

Given these things, I can't imagine that SCORE would be interested in undertaking the work involved unless they intended to impose "character@global" naming on everyone.

[Burnt Toast]

1. It's basically cutting off 5 seconds compared to logging in... at least they are doing something with the character.

 

2. Flagging an account does not stop people from making level one characters en masse - so then all they have to do to keep their names is login once a month to any character.

 

3. No new server. Why should Homecoming have to create and code for a new server and incur the costs and resources for such a vocal minority?

 

4. It is NOT very likely that the naming policy will change and your assumption that it will is without merit.

 

You asked for feedback on the naming policy - just because you do not like the feedback does not mean your points were lost - it could simply mean no one thought your points were needed.

 

 

I appreciate everyone's opinions but I feel the points of my post were lost.

 

1. You do not have to even sign into your characters to keep their name.  You can rename them once, then instantly rename back to the desired name for the system to flag them as having been logged in. 

 

2. As an alternative to flagging individual toons for the name change, we flag the accounts.

 

3. A new server using the @global is suppose to be a compromise to the two parties.  It wouldn't affect everyone above who is happy with the Name Release Policy at all.

 

I'm glad to see people are enthusiastic to defend the game's current policies but bare in mind the PTB have stated that these are still subject to change and are not set in stone.  It is very likely they will change and while criticism is appreciated, lets keep it constructive.

[Stan The Man]

It is NOT very likely that the naming policy will change and your assumption that it will is without merit.

 

This is a first pass on this policy, and we may modify it at a later date, however we will give at least 30 days notice for any changes related to releasing names.

 

I'm not saying it's a definite possibility.  I am just reminding the community that it could change.  I'm sorry you might have thought my points weren't needed.

 

I know it's a very sensitive subject but I wouldn't dare belittle someone's opinion even if it's different.  Not that you are doing that.  I just wanted to make sure the topic discussed was relevant to the points I made.  I could see why someone might've considered my post a little snarky.  I'll do better in the future.  So, thanks for your response!

 

 

 

 

[SwitchFade]

I think the current name policy is more than generous.  If people can't be bothered enough to log in/name change a character once every 3 months the name SHOULD be released and made available to people who will use it.

 

Agreed.

[Burnt Toast]

"Very likely" and "may" are completely different. I may win the lottery one day, but that doesn't mean it is very likely.. it just means I have a .00001% chance. The devs are not going to say "This is the policy and it will always be this way..." because then one day when something new arises and they need to make a change - everyone will dig up their quote and say "You said it would always be this way...."

 

 

It is NOT very likely that the naming policy will change and your assumption that it will is without merit.

 

This is a first pass on this policy, and we may modify it at a later date, however we will give at least 30 days notice for any changes related to releasing names.

 

I'm not saying it's a definite possibility.  I am just reminding the community that it could change.  I'm sorry you might have thought my points weren't needed.

 

I know it's a very sensitive subject but I wouldn't dare belittle someone's opinion even if it's different.  Not that you are doing that.  I just wanted to make sure the topic discussed was relevant to the points I made.  I could see why someone might've considered my post a little snarky.  I'll do better in the future.  So, thanks for your response!

[Nostromo21]

There is a much simpler solution to all this silliness - just make all character names non-exclusive. Problem solved. Your welcome! 😉 

[Rudra]

That is what CO does. Names are not exclusive. The down side? You can't just message Iron Turtle Monk, you have to message Iron Turtle Monk@Rapscallion. Other down side? The devs would have to remake the message system and the name system.

 

The only time I logged on my characters just to retain their names? I spent an hour and a half of my hour play time doing so. And yes, I checked the time shortly after I started and when I finally finished, so that is not hyperbole. (I ended up not playing the day the update went live since all my game time and more was spent logging in flagged characters.) So finding out I can just do 2 quick name changes for each character? Is a massive relief.

[lemming]

Note: This is an old thread.

 

Also, just renaming characters does not reset the timer.

 

And, for the more recent discussion, check the Beta Feedback thread

[Nostromo21]

On 9/4/2022 at 3:08 PM, Rudra said:

That is what CO does. Names are not exclusive. The down side? You can't just message Iron Turtle Monk, you have to message Iron Turtle Monk@Rapscallion. Other down side? The devs would have to remake the message system and the name system.

 

The only time I logged on my characters just to retain their names? I spent an hour and a half of my hour play time doing so. And yes, I checked the time shortly after I started and when I finally finished, so that is not hyperbole. (I ended up not playing the day the update went live since all my game time and more was spent logging in flagged characters.) So finding out I can just do 2 quick name changes for each character? Is a massive relief.

 

Yeah you just PM & refer to other players with their @global handle like email now (which you could see quite easily if you click on them and inspect them say, or in a group finder list).

If you had 6 "JoeBloggs" in a party, I guess the global handle would display after the character name, or if too long, just suffix a temporary -1, -2, etc. I still think it's far preferable to the current method, across all mmos in fact.

 

I get really pee'd of when I have to be online at launch day/hour/minute, just to secure my preferred character names, instead of just being able to roleplay the names I want to (and my names are not copies of known superheroes or other characters, rather obscure in fact). And then someone with less lag beats you to it, or you have to deal with server lag, crashes, etc, bleh.

[The_Warpact]