Time to enforce the name holding expiration rules

[Kazuuk]

Given that we are now over a year and a half into the launch of Homecoming, I think it would probably be time to enforce the name holding rules.  As with any mmo, there is a certain amount of churn, and there is no exception here.  Given there are certainly a large number of inactive players from the the launch of HC that have reserved names but have not leveled those toons, I think it's perhaps time to enforce your name holding rules and release discarded character names back into the wild.

[Player2]

Just be aware that doing so is no guarantee that what you want will be freed up.

[UltraAlt]

I'm against name enforcement rules.

I would make sure that they wouldn't affect me anyway, but it seems that some just want someone else's name.

 

I "lost" some of my names the same as other people did.

Rename and move along, citizen; nothing to see here.

[Kazuuk]

36 minutes ago, Player2 said:

Just be aware that doing so is no guarantee that what you want will be freed up.

Honestly, I really don't have any names I must have.  I just don't think names sitting on level 1 toons made at launch by accounts never coming back should be locked away forever.  

[Player2]

Just now, Kazuuk said:

Honestly, I really don't have any names I must have.  I just don't think names sitting on level 1 toons made at launch by accounts never coming back should be locked away forever.  

Should?  ...or shouldn't?  Because I can agree with the latter.

[Kazuuk]

Just now, Player2 said:

Should?  ...or shouldn't?  Because I can agree with the latter.

I don't think they should be locked away forever, so I suppose that could also be shortened to names shouldn't be locked away forever.

[Player2]

Ah, I misread that.

 

I don't think they should be either.

[Outrider_01]

6 hours ago, Kazuuk said:

Given that we are now over a year and a half into the launch of Homecoming, I think it would probably be time to enforce the name holding rules.  As with any mmo, there is a certain amount of churn, and there is no exception here.  Given there are certainly a large number of inactive players from the the launch of HC that have reserved names but have not leveled those toons, I think it's perhaps time to enforce your name holding rules and release discarded character names back into the wild.

Time to get over it nd grab a Thesaurus.  Have fun.

[Kazuuk]

I don't even have any names that I'm looking for, just thinking that the further we get into this, the more it makes sense to release names, especially those sitting on level 1 toons from accounts that will never be logged into again.  Lol, I had no idea that some folks would be so insecure and combative about it.  I'm having a blast man, nothing to get over!  Maybe look for a late night internet fight elsewhere?

[Outrider_01]

20 minutes ago, Kazuuk said:

I don't even have any names that I'm looking for, just thinking that the further we get into this, the more it makes sense to release names, especially those sitting on level 1 toons from accounts that will never be logged into again.  Lol, I had no idea that some folks would be so insecure and combative about it.  I'm having a blast man, nothing to get over!  Maybe look for a late night internet fight elsewhere?

Sitting on 200 toons of random levels which I really need to start investing in, no problem finding a name I liked.  Even if it took effort, some are recycle powersets by accident with a new character name

 

Its the constant "squat" on names and the assumption they are not being used; the constant debate, the whining from some people who demand, and the ad nauseum that a good imagination and a wider source of information can find.  You don't have to be DarkDark Darkkity DarkMcBadass.  Want the name Shadow + Reaper but it is taken?  Ashen Reaper, done.  Thesaurus solved the problem.

 

Gonna call it, because its been awhile.  5 days tops, someone is going to start a KB thread "fix" .  Another constant annoying suggestion, christ they don't even have to group with people who throw KB like rice at a wedding but its a problem every time they group.

[Player2]

"Ashen Reaper" sucks.  Done?  Not even close.  More like giving up on the concept and trying to find something else to spark my interest because something about the game frustrated me.

 

Guess what:  not everyone agrees with you on how easy is to just pick a different name and be done with it.  If it works for you, great.  But your solution isn't right for everyone.  Nor would I expect any given solution for any other problem to sit perfectly fine with anyone else.  People have a right to be dissatisfied with things.  Deal with it.

 

It's also a fair assumption that some people do sign up, create a bunch of characters, play for a little bit, get bored, and then move on... leaving a bunch of under-developed characters that may never be played again.  And if they have been sitting around for a good long time, it's also fair to give people a second shot at those names.  The proposed Homecoming name purge won't delete anyone's characters, nor does it guarantee any specific name will be lost just because it hasn't been logged in within the requisite time frame.

 

Character names will be flagged as locked in and that flag will be removed after a certain amount of time based on character level.  IF someone attempts to claim a name after the flag has been removed, then the name is lost (and I suspect a rename with an added digit will occur automatically, perhaps surprising some people if they do come back to play again eventually).  However, if the flag is disabled and no one attempts to claim the name...  it will still be there if/when that player returns... which could also be surprising if they expected to have lost it.

 

It isn't that it's assumed that people are squatting on all the good names, but yeah, some people move on and have no intention of coming back.  It's not about squatting as much as it is about not caring about what one takes out of the hands of others with one's departure.  As I pointed out in my first response to this post, there may be some disappointment for some when names they want aren't magically freed up if / when the proposed purge process takes place, simply because people may not just be squatting on names but have actually played to some extent (earning them anywhere from 90 to 365 day extension on their possession of character names) or played all the way to 50, exempting them from a name purge.  And as the original poster even said, there's no particular name that he's even looking to acquire.  But enough people do complain about names being unavailable that at least implementing the purge process could then be pointed to when people complain, stating that although a name they want is still unavailable that means there is a reason for it.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Player2

[nihilii]

Ashen Reaper sounds pretty cool to me!

[Giovanni Valia]

The homecoming GMs have mentioned another name purge sometime Soon™️. That "Soon" being similar to the delay of the /enterbasefrompasscode nerf most likely.

I don't really have any names I'm really gunning for, but like OP said it seems a shame to have unused names locked away on lvl 1s.

It's controversial, but I think some system should be in place to free up names, given a certain amount of inactivity. 

[Purrfekshawn]

The easy solution would be this:

Toon Level:

1-20: if not played 30 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

21-49: if not played 60 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

50: if not played 90 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

[JKPhage]

Personally, I am *highly* opposed to the "per toon basis" that they initially proposed. I have quite a few characters that I really enjoy the concept for that I haven't had a chance to play yet, but snagged the perfect name, look and power combo to make them a project. Likewise, sometimes I start working on a character, get inspired to try something else and swap over to a new character or play one of the ones I'm already sitting on and waiting to play. Having to go through the list and log in and out of every character is T E D I O U S to the extreme, especially if I have to do it twice a month for anything under level 20.

 

On the other hand, I think the best way to go about it would be to work off of account activity. If you've signed in and logged-in at least one character in the requisite amount of time, your characters and names are safe, locked and reserved. If someone hasn't even logged in for say two months? Anything not level 50 is up for grabs. That sounds more than fair to me. Any 50's that you poured a lot of time into are 100% safe if you decide to come back, but it also means that any of these people who might have come back at launch and then just disappeared in the interim aren't keeping names on lockdown.

 

Either way, I don't see anywhere near as much of a problem with HC as I did with Live. Yeah, some of the more simple names are gone, but man, if you ever saw how long I had to sit at the character screen after coming up with the perfect costume, power combo, power customization and name only to have to come up with a different name that was both suiting and pleasing to me... I lost *hours* of gameplay to that. I've yet to encounter that problem on HC.

 

Quote

The easy solution would be this:

Toon Level:

1-20: if not played 30 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

21-49: if not played 60 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

50: if not played 90 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

 

This is absolutely right out for me. It's even more harsh than the initially proposed idea where any toons not logged in during such and such time period would have their names *unlocked* and if someone else made a toon using it, the existing unlocked one would be generic'd. You're calling for the whole roster to be generic'd if someone doesn't log in, AND including 50's. That's way too harsh, way too extreme and a great way to piss somebody off. Ya know, someone might end up in the hospital and be unable to log-in or play for a while, and I'd hate to have that happen to me only to come back and find out that every single one of my characters (including my favorite 50's) were just generic now. Given, I could probably get back most of the names, but it's also a pain in the neck to have to do that if nobody else has tried to make that character. I think the per-account basis is a much better way to go about it, where any characters on an account that hasn't logged in for a set amount of time have their names unlocked for use and if someone uses them, generic'd, but 50's stay at least. Automatically generic-ing toons though, and especially doing it to 50's is way too extreme. Frankly it strikes me as... kind of elitist. We're all adults now and sometimes we have life get in the way. If I can't log in for three months due to work or illness or other extenuating circumstances then I lose every single one of my character names? Nah. That's not okay.

Edited December 9, 2020 by JKPhage

[Player2]

1 hour ago, nihilii said:

Ashen Reaper sounds pretty cool to me!

If my mind is set on Shadow Reaper, "Ashen" is a lame alternative and I would simply give up on the idea.

[Greycat]

40 minutes ago, Purrfekshawn said:

The easy solution would be this:

Toon Level:

1-20: if not played 30 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

21-49: if not played 60 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

50: if not played 90 days or more name will be genericized (TOON_NAME_%randomnumber%)

The prefix for the "no" i would put on this is decidedly not family friendly. Or quiet.

 

It also wouldn't help the "problem" to just automatically generic characters per level - no guarantee names would be freed up that people who bring this topic up normally want.

 

Also, this game encourages alts. That means some characters get played more than others. Yes, even 50s. So that's another very loud "*#@$% NO!" to this. 90 days can fly by depending on what's going on. Per-alt (versus account) ideas like this can go die in a fire.

[Purrfekshawn]

Generally naming system in this game is very bad and obsolete (identify a character solely through its name). Champignons Online is a generally very bad game, but it has more advanced naming system. Characters are being name here not just "name", but "name@account" instead.

 

l wonder if Homecoming Team could port this here. It would require a lot of effort though.

[Coyotedancer]

3 hours ago, nihilii said:

Ashen Reaper sounds pretty cool to me!

He sounds like what happens when an angsty, fifteen year-old goth boy pretending to be an edge-lord suddenly ends up with accidental superpowers.... Which could be all kinds of fun to play if done with a light enough touch. 🤣 

[BadMinotaur]

5 hours ago, JKPhage said:

On the other hand, I think the best way to go about it would be to work off of account activity. If you've signed in and logged-in at least one character in the requisite amount of time, your characters and names are safe, locked and reserved. If someone hasn't even logged in for say two months? Anything not level 50 is up for grabs. That sounds more than fair to me. Any 50's that you poured a lot of time into are 100% safe if you decide to come back, but it also means that any of these people who might have come back at launch and then just disappeared in the interim aren't keeping names on lockdown.

I think this is a very reasonable solution. I usually focus on one character at a time, so this would let me not worry about losing the name of one of my low-level alts because I decided to focus on someone else for a spell.

[Ghost]

I also think names to be released - but I would go about it differently.

90 days would be the time limit for me - and not just log in, but actually level a minimum of one level per 90 days.

If not, remove the name at day 91

 

Allow some of the new players a chance to have a name, that's been wasting away for no reason.

 

[EmperorSteele]

19 minutes ago, Ghost said:

I also think names to be released - but I would go about it differently.

90 days would be the time limit for me - and not just log in, but actually level a minimum of one level per 90 days.

If not, remove the name at day 91

 

Allow some of the new players a chance to have a name, that's been wasting away for no reason.

 

Whatever names you people are trying to get, and can't, only proves how unoriginal you all are!

 

*goes back to playing his claws/regen named Wolverp33n*

 

 

[Ghost]

7 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

Whatever names you people are trying to get, and can't, only proves how unoriginal you all are!

 

*goes back to playing his claws/regen named Wolverp33n*

 

 

 

I almost included it in my post - but changed my mind

I have all the names I wanted, but thats because I come up with character/powerset or costume concepts first.  Coming up with a name is easy (for me) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Ghost

[Solarverse]

I have all the names you want and they are all level 1. I log them in once a week just to be a jerk.

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

90 days would be the time limit for me - and not just log in, but actually level a minimum of one level per 90 days.

To quote Greycat:  "The prefix for the "no" i would put on this is decidedly not family friendly. Or quiet."

Requiring me to level to keep my name is bovine exhaust of the highest order.  Probably three-quarters of my toons are currently level-locked for one reason or another.  At least one I'm considering will be permanently level locked.