Stupid Question

[marius666]

Haven't played Homecoming in a while due to work, but will I lose the names of all my characters if I go away a long time? 

[Lunchmoney]

You might.

It depends on the character's level and whether someone tried to use a name you have.

[Lunchmoney]

part way down the OP.

 

"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."

 

[Lines]

Worth noting that the policy mentioned above is not currently enacted as a mechanism in the game. As it stands, a name you claim will be yours until you choose to delete, rename or move that character.

 

Should it become one, the policy may be still subject to change.

[Snarky]

easy enough, level to 21 doing dfb, tfs in a day, lock in name for a year, park alt.  some have even faster ways to 21. i like low level tfs and merits

[marius666]

On 12/2/2020 at 7:19 AM, Lines said:

Worth noting that the policy mentioned above is not currently enacted as a mechanism in the game. As it stands, a name you claim will be yours until you choose to delete, rename or move that character.

 

Should it become one, the policy may be still subject to change.

Thanks for the awesome reply. Any idea when this may potentially go live?

[CrudeVileTerror]

Sorry.  Unless the Devs are secretly telling certain people, I think it's likely that no one has the answer to that particular question, @marius666.

Heck!   The Devs themselves may not even have an answer on that one.  I'm not sure how highly it rates on their to-do list.

[Greycat]

Closest we have is this comment in another thread:

 

[Player2]

Yeah, basically not until they're certain that it won't have any unintended consequences.

[Rishidian]

Another shot at a Stupid Question (the 1st one wasn't stupid, BTW)

 

Why do all the unfortunate defeated mobs look like someone cut their rubber bands when they die?  They drop in the most unnatural ways, with body parts spinning in circles, eventually stopping in positions that look like every joint has been disassembled.

 

[Lunchmoney]

1 hour ago, Rishidian said:

Why do all the unfortunate defeated mobs look like someone cut their rubber bands when they die?  They drop in the most unnatural ways, with body parts spinning in circles, eventually stopping in positions that look like every joint has been disassembled.

 

Crack.

[wjrasmussen]

On 12/2/2020 at 1:00 AM, marius666 said:

Haven't played Homecoming in a while due to work, but will I lose the names of all my characters if I go away a long time? 

This was not a stupid question.

[Greycat]

2 hours ago, Rishidian said:

Another shot at a Stupid Question (the 1st one wasn't stupid, BTW)

 

Why do all the unfortunate defeated mobs look like someone cut their rubber bands when they die?  They drop in the most unnatural ways, with body parts spinning in circles, eventually stopping in positions that look like every joint has been disassembled.

 

Because they used to just stick out of wherever they were. Remember planking? They'd do that with walls. Train tracks. One toe holding them completely horizontal off a ledge. Which, honestly, was quite impressive.

 

So this was an... upgrade.

[Rishidian]

If you have ever beat up on the Ghouls in Praetoria, you would be familiar with their Death Dance.  It's not uncommon for them to go down as a result of some attack with knockback (0 hit points, 0 endurance) - watch them get up for a couple seconds, then go into their pain-filled Death Dance.  And they don't look like they came apart at the seams. 

 

I mean, it's a cool concept that they have this green healing aura that goes off when they are defeated (thus the knockback so they don't heal their buddies), can't we get all the baddies on the Blue side to die normally?

 

I already know the answer here - They got a toe stuck in a Crack on a horizontal ledge.

 

[Greycat]

7 hours ago, Rishidian said:

I already know the answer here - They got a toe stuck in a Crack on a horizontal ledge.

*chuckles* I wasn't criticizing you. It's just that they went from one extreme (stiff) to the other (boneless ragdolling.) I wouldn't argue with a middle ground, it's just likely more work than we think.

[Rathulfr]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

*chuckles* I wasn't criticizing you. It's just that they went from one extreme (stiff) to the other (boneless ragdolling.) I wouldn't argue with a middle ground, it's just likely more work than we think.

 

I think that's the winning argument.  The game engine is ancient -- like 20th century ancient: it dates back 1999, I believe -- so there are limits on what it can do.  Originally, the engine had a set of static defeat animations, but as others pointed out above, these were sometimes ridiculous, too. 

 

So Cryptic/Paragon tweaked the engine a bit to allow for "ragdoll physics", where the models will indeed just collapse at the joints.  It is definitely more realistic than the original static animations; however, it also has some unintended -- and often hilarious or disturbing -- side effects.

 

I think that doing anything with the base game engine is probably out of the question at this point, more than 20 years later.  It's one thing to improve textures that lay on top of the models, but it's a completely different thing to alter the fundamentals of the models themselves.  I don't think that's in the cards in the near future.

 

[Clave Dark 5]

There are no stupid questions... just stupid character names.  😃

[Rishidian]

On 12/11/2020 at 9:17 PM, Greycat said:

*chuckles* I wasn't criticizing you. It's just that they went from one extreme (stiff) to the other (boneless ragdolling.) I wouldn't argue with a middle ground, it's just likely more work than we think.

Greycat - we're good, and I greatly enjoy reading your posts - so keep it up.

------

 

Next stupid question - We have the most powerful beings in the City - yet:

--I am getting pushed around by careless civilians who don't have the common courtesy to be talking on their cell phone while not paying attention.

--I cannot kick or move a simple cardboard box

--I cannot run through the bushes

 

[VV]

On 12/2/2020 at 4:25 AM, Lunchmoney said:

In fact, one of you has made a total of 277 characters!

I think we all know who this is.

On 12/10/2020 at 5:13 PM, marius666 said:

Any idea when this may potentially go live?

I'm gonna say sometime near never. HC has been out over a year, there have been many updates, and this still sits, even though it was announced six months ago. While it would be a nice QoL upgrade for some people, I think it is really low enough priority that the likelihood approaches nil that they will ever bother with it. On the other hand, if you are really concerned about it, just make sure you have notifications on the patch notes subforums, so you get a ping every time a new patch comes out, and you can check on it. I suppose if there was a huge uproar about names on the forums/discord, they might push this, but otherwise, no reason to take time away from other efforts.

On 12/11/2020 at 2:01 PM, Rishidian said:

Why do all the unfortunate defeated mobs look like someone cut their rubber bands when they die?

Personally, I enjoy it. It amuses my morbid sense of humor. Writhe in pain, evildoers MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Ahem. And, remember, we are "defeating" or "arresting" them, not "killing" them, so this could be seen as their attempts to get back up or escape. You know, when you knock someone out, they often do flop around for a few seconds before fully succumbing.

[Rathulfr]

59 minutes ago, Rishidian said:

Next stupid question - We have the most powerful beings in the City - yet:

--I am getting pushed around by careless civilians who don't have the common courtesy to be talking on their cell phone while not paying attention.

--I cannot kick or move a simple cardboard box

--I cannot run through the bushes

 

Aha!  My old nemesis, "odd leaf on a random branch"!  I will defeat you some day.  Some day...

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Rathulfr

[BZRKR]

1 hour ago, Rishidian said:

Next stupid question - We have the most powerful beings in the City - yet:

--I am getting pushed around by careless civilians who don't have the common courtesy to be talking on their cell phone while not paying attention.

You've stumbled upon the actual for really-real biggest secret of City of Heroes: We are actually the equivalent of kids running around the city, imagining ourselves as Heroes and Villains fighting our rivals and enemies. The Citizens are the actual grownups who are completely immune and in some cases oblivious to our high-stakes exploits and intricate web of activities. Thus, they can walk right through our street battles and barely notice, and when they do, they just wave and answer our questions as best they can. 

[siolfir]

4 minutes ago, BZRKR said:

The Citizens are the actual grownups who are completely immune and in some cases oblivious to our high-stakes exploits and intricate web of activities. Thus, they can walk right through our street battles and barely notice, and when they do, they just wave and answer our questions as best they can. 

Unless they're in mayhem missions, although I don't remember when that change happened - they used to be immune there, too.

[BZRKR]

1 hour ago, siolfir said:

Unless they're in mayhem missions, although I don't remember when that change happened - they used to be immune there, too.

Wellll.....

In mayhem missions, they play along with us because the Citizens love us and want us to have the best possible time as we play "Heroes and Villains".

[CrudeVileTerror]

Who, @VV?

My guess is @Player2.

[Player2]

@CrudeVileTerror

It's more like 455.

 

To be fair, that 277 number had to have been someone else, because I did not have that many when that number was given to us.

 

Also, I would trade away half of that 455 for the couple dozen I want where I want them (TB).

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Player2