Clearing locked character names

[Snarky]

There have been a great number of folks who have wandered through Homecoming servers.  Many creat dozens, even hundreds of characters.  Glad to have all of you.  
 

For those who stopped in but have mot logged in for two tears or so….   Do we really need to save their character names for them?  Really?  Because…..

[Techwright]

It may be possible, but you know how these things are.  You'd first need approvals signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters.

 

Then there would need to be some advanced public notification first, say a 50 year posting at the planning office on Alpha Centauri.  If they've not checked the postings by then, it's their own fault.

 

Honestly though, I feel your pain.  I've lost a great deal of time trying seemingly  every permutation of a desired name, only to see the red X repeatedly.  I realize folks have a lot of alts, but I have to believe we don't have a population high enough to equal the number of rejections I'm seeing.  It's like speculative website squatters have been name hording.

 

 

[Doc_Scorpion]

Oh, here we go again...

[Luminara]

5 minutes ago, Techwright said:

It may be possible, but you know how these things are.  You'd first need approvals signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters.

 

Then there would need to be some advanced public notification first, say a 50 year posting at the planning office on Alpha Centauri.  If they've not checked the postings by then, it's their own fault.

 

Now here's a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is.

[SuperPlyx]

All the good names are taken...is actually a happy annoyance. 

 

That said I do have 2 or 3 I need to release I am not gonna use 'em.

[Dazl]

I would agree if your level 1-19. If you are level 20 or better, then you should have a lock on the name.

[stealthnight]

"A blaster by any other name would still kill as many VEATs." – William Shakespeare

[Snarky]

“Wherefore art thou my moniker?” - Will I Am 5I-I/\K35I*3/\R3

Edited August 23, 2021 by Snarky

[Techwright]

Shakespeare in the Park, eh?

 

"The name that men choose lives after them; The good name is oft interred with their bones."

 

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your unused names."

 

"Frailty, thy name is up for grabs."

[RCU7115]

The GMs have it posted somewhere stating they will never release a lvl 50 toon  name but all toons 1-49 is possible. I think it in the help/questions section. It might be in terms & agreement. I forget.

Edited August 23, 2021 by RCU7115

[Xenosone]

Xxxdarkity darkxxX not good enough for you? The more x's means its more hardcore.

 

Also abandoning a profile/game is a common occurrence. Might be time to give squatters the boot. If only dating apps did that.

[drgantz]

I've seen this posted in other games.  One person mentioned that someone could be away in the military.

[ZacKing]

Re-engineering the code to allow for names to be based on character/global combo is a really worthy undertaking IMO.  It's how Cryptic did it in their later games and this isn't an issue there.  But you know, we need those stupid travel power changes!  that's a priority!!  

 

19 minutes ago, drgantz said:

I've seen this posted in other games.  One person mentioned that someone could be away in the military.

 

some consideration does need to be given here for that.  if an account hasn't logged in in a couple of years though, chances are pretty good they're gone for good and level 49 and below names should be released.

[Apparition]

IMO, if a person hasn’t logged in for two years or more (military or otherwise, level 50 or otherwise), then he or she is never coming back.

 

There were a ton of people who made a lot of characters between April 2019 and September 2019, left Homecoming, and are simply never coming back.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Apparition

[Yomo Kimyata]

Someone offered to buy my character name the other day.  My response was “Thanks for the validation, but I can’t imagine there’s anything you have that I need.”

[arcane]

Ok what taken name upset us this time?

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Apparition said:

IMO, if a person hasn’t logged in for two years or more (military or otherwise, level 50 or otherwise), then he or she is never coming back.

I took more than 2 years away on live. This is not something you can ever assume. The devs can draw a line and deal with the repercussions, but at no point can they draw a line AND entirely avoid pissing off some players.

[ZacKing]

12 minutes ago, arcane said:

I took more than 2 years away on live. This is not something you can ever assume. The devs can draw a line and deal with the repercussions, but at no point can they draw a line AND entirely avoid pissing off some players.

 

Biting the bullet and re-engineering the base code to allow for character name to be done by character name/global combo would avoid pissing anyone off.  Before people start bitching, yeah I know it's a huge, huge job to do that.  I'm just saying its an investment worth making if this game is going to last IMO and HC want to show what they can really do with the code.

[Snarky]

38 minutes ago, arcane said:

Ok what taken name upset us this time?

Actually i have 95% of the names i want/need.  But i see SG mates struggle with names.  Or league leaders trying to invite someone and struggle.  Because clowny is spelled c10wny but it takes three minutes to figure this out

[Glacier Peak]

Logged in to their account or logged in to a character on their account? 

 

I don't know... if I find that a name isn't available, I just jump to another server until it is. If the one name I want isn't available across all servers, I figure I am not coming up with a unique enough name.

[ZacKing]

1 minute ago, Glacier Peak said:

Logged in to their account or logged in to a character on their account? 

 

 

Just my 2 inf but it should go by whether an account has been logged in.  If an account is still active a person has the ability to contact a name owner to discuss whether or not they want to release it.  If an account hasn't been logged into at all in years, it's probably safe to say they aren't coming back.

[Mopery]

What if they're away in the military for the next 20 years until they retire and then they want to play the game again on their hypnoflavotronic quantum fantabulator?

Edited August 23, 2021 by Mopery

[ZemX]

Two years and all you have to do is log in once to any server to restart the clock?

 

Seems pretty reasonable to me for a game nobody has to pay for.

[Glacier Peak]

35 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

Just my 2 inf but it should go by whether an account has been logged in.  If an account is still active a person has the ability to contact a name owner to discuss whether or not they want to release it.  If an account hasn't been logged into at all in years, it's probably safe to say they aren't coming back.

QFT

[Glacier Peak]

26 minutes ago, Mopery said:

What if they're away in the military for the next 20 years until they retire and then they want to play the game again on their hypnoflavotronic quantum fantabulator?

People in all modern militaries have will have access computers, it's not like being in the military means a person lives in a barracks with no access to the outside world - I'd even wager to say the majority of lower enlisted in the U.S. military own either a game console or a computer.