Clearing locked character names

[Greycat]

3 hours 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.

 

Not necessarily. I know I've found myself on hiatus and gone "Hey, I haven't checked on that game for a while, wonder if they've patched that annoying thing / that event is over (see: D3 randomly throwing storms/boulders/etc everywhere at a season start)" and logged in where it's been a year or more. 

 

Given Homecoming (and the other servers) had the whole "Will they be allowed to stay? How many will stay? Which will have THE DRAMA?!" on startup, someone could very well have decided to wait it out before becoming attached again.

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

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

xXxclownyxXx was taken then?  Hate it when that happens.

 

 

[GraspingVileTerror]

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/21400-name-assistance-brigade-the-nabbers/

 

Remember:  If someone else already has the name, then chances are it wasn't good enough for you anyway!  You deserve something special and unique, after all.

[PeregrineFalcon]

I don't often agree with Snarky, but when I do it's because he's right.

 

If someone hasn't logged in for 2 years then their names, regardless of character level, should be freed up. Actually the best solution would be for names to no longer be exclusive, but that would probably require more work on the part of the devs.

 

And again I'd like to ask people to stop using our servicemen to justify their desire to name camp. When I was deployed the last thing that I was concerned about was the name of a character in a video game, and I can guarantee you that that's the least of someone's worries if they're being deployed to somewhere where they will not have internet access.

[Glacier Peak]

Forgive me if this is inaccurate, but didn't the legacy devs have a name policy related to inactivity? I could've sworn that existed, but I may be misremembering!

[fitzsimmons]

tldr; I just want Herpes back.

 

Additional context that probably isn't needed.  I had a 50 dark/fire brute named Herpes. I didn't like the combo so I rerolled him as a dark armor/rad brute.  When I went to do the name swap by renaming, Herpes wasn't an allowed name.

 

tldr; I just want Herpes back.

[GraspingVileTerror]

 . . . 

 

Do I even touch that one?

[Greycat]

8 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Forgive me if this is inaccurate, but didn't the legacy devs have a name policy related to inactivity? I could've sworn that existed, but I may be misremembering!

 

Not ... really.

 

They had a script they ran, twice. The impact of running the script to "free up" names was ... not particularly earth shattering.

 

Quote

 

The character name policy is a tactic for recycling used player names from inactive accounts so that other players may use them. The policy only applies to accounts that are currently deactivated, not characters on active accounts that aren't logged in frequently. Additionally, accounts that are still being paid for, but simply have not been used for 90 days, are not affected.

Long before City of Heroes Freedom launched, the development team decided that running the scripts wasn't freeing up an appreciable number of character names, and has not run the script since the second wave.

Policy Details

The policy change affects all accounts that have been inactive for over 90 days. This only applied to accounts that were deactivated in some way, such as payment expiration or account suspensions.

Any character on such an account less than a certain level has its name set to "unreserved" status, which allows any new character on the server to be created with that name. In the event this happens, the original character under the name will be prompted to choose a new name upon login. In order to return a character's name to "reserved" status, the user must log the character in question into the game. As such, it is possible that a player can be actively using an account with characters whose names are still set to "unreserved" status.

When "unreserved" status is assigned to a name, the following changes are applied to the affected character:

• A new character name needs to be chosen (if existing name has been taken)
• The character's description and battle cry is cleared
• All mail received is deleted
• The character is removed from their Super Group, if any
• The character's Friends list is cleared, and the character is removed from others' Friends lists
• Mail other characters have received from an affected character reverts to having been sent from "Unknown"

Current Policy

On August 29, 2007, this policy was brought back. The re-enactment of this policy came in time for the Character Transfer and Character Rename features. This is a manual process run infrequently during a server maintenance period. Paragon Studios and NCsoft does not guarantee that the process will be announced before it takes effect, only that notice will be given if the policy is going to change.

For this version of the policy, only characters that are level 5 and under are eligible for unreserved status.

Previous Policy

This section contains information that no longer applies to the current version of City of Heroes Freedom. It is provided for historical purposes.

On October 27, 2005, the character name policy was changed in order to allow names used by inactive accounts to be used by new characters created on active accounts.

During this enactment, eligible characters were level 34 and under.

On May 4, 2006, the character name policy was changed again to lift the previous enactment, which once again meant all new characters needed a unique name upon creation. Any characters already affected will retain "unreserved" status until said character is logged in though.

 

 

So, yeah. With *many more* accounts than we have here, it just didn't do that much.

 

(Also I should point to the points that were a bit more severe, not knowing if this would necessarily have to be tied to name issues - losing mail, losing spots in a SG, friends lists being gone, othe rpeoples mail from you being listed as "unknown," etc.  If that *can't* be avoided, IMHO that's reason enough not to do it - given I'd rather not lose mail and have characters kicked from SGs from at least one player who died. Death does make it rather difficult to log in....)

Edited August 23, 2021 by Greycat

[Luminara]

11 minutes ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

 . . . 

 

Do I even touch that one?

 

Wear protection if you do.

[TraumaTrain]

4 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

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. 

 

Modern, Hell. I was in the Navy in the late 80s and I had a computer. I bought a brand new Apple IIc in 1989 just to play Wizardry 5. AND I LIKED IT.

 

You young kids in the modern military with your cell phones and tablets and laptops and Internet connections on ship... Quit sittin' on my names!

 

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by TraumaTrain

[Techwright]

4 hours ago, ZemX said:

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.

I don't even know if one would have to go all the way to level 49 in a potential name purge.  A lot of people experiment a build and quit a character before level 20, which is a heap of a lot easier to reach than in early OG days.   The dev team could probably free a lot of names just by targeting 2 years absent, level 20 or under.  That way, if someone did have leaver's remorse and returned, their hard-earned 49's loss wouldn't be an immediate breaking point for them.

 

Start there and with an announcement that in 6 months it will be 2 years or more and level 30 or under, working up to the level 49.   That way no one can complain reasonably that they lacked notice and that they're hard earned character didn't have a fair chance.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Techwright

[TraumaTrain]

A buddy of mine played a couple years ago and I know for fact he won't be back. He only has one character name locked down, though, but I could probably ask him real nice to log in and free that name up. 

 

So if anyone on Indom needs the name Mister Fister, you just let me know. 

[Biff Pow]

3 hours ago, Techwright said:

That way, if someone did have leaver's remorse and returned, their hard-earned 49's loss wouldn't be an immediate breaking point for them.

 

I mean, the level 49 character would still be there, just with a generic name (if someone took it.) They just have to think up a new name, which I don't see as a huge deal. Renaming is free and easy.

[Yomo Kimyata]

16 minutes ago, Supertanker said:

 

I mean, the level 49 character would still be there, just with a generic name (if someone took it.) They just have to think up a new name, which I don't see as a huge deal. Renaming is free and easy.

But isn’t this whole thread about how thinking up a new name that isn’t taken is haaaaaard?

[TheZag]

10 minutes ago, Supertanker said:

 

I mean, the level 49 character would still be there, just with a generic name (if someone took it.) They just have to think up a new name, which I don't see as a huge deal. Renaming is free and easy.

 

Exactly.  Alot of these replies make it sound like freeing up the name is also deleting the character.  Back on live it just unlocked the unused character name.  You still had it until someone else used it.  Logging back in would put the character name back in locked status.  If someone used it then you would be prompted to rename the character.

 

And if they implemented character names available to each global,  you would be suprised how never you would run into someone with the same name unless they are doing it on purpose.

[Techwright]

6 minutes ago, TheZag said:

 

Exactly.  Alot of these replies make it sound like freeing up the name is also deleting the character. 

 

It's not deleting in function, no, but a lot of folks create the whole mythos of the character around the name.   Removing the name in such a case is akin to gutting the character.  Remember, the game was designed to work with role playing.   "Batman" forges a full mythos.  Having to rename him "Batmanuel" significantly changes him (and probably not for the better).

 

 

[PeregrineFalcon]

36 minutes ago, Techwright said:

It's not deleting in function, no, but a lot of folks create the whole mythos of the character around the name.   Removing the name in such a case is akin to gutting the character.  Remember, the game was designed to work with role playing.   "Batman" forges a full mythos.  Having to rename him "Batmanuel" significantly changes him (and probably not for the better).

Agreed. But they haven't even logged in in over 2 years then they clearly didn't care much about Batmanuel and his incredible mythos.

[merrypessimist]

11 hours ago, Snarky said:

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

 

Maybe you should hang out with fewer illiterates?

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Agreed. But they haven't even logged in in over 2 years then they clearly didn't care much about Batmanuel and his incredible mythos.

Maybe.  Maybe not.  After almost eight years, I remembered the powersets, costumes, and origin & backstories of all my major characters.  I even made sure to re-create my old forum handle.

[Snarky]

4 hours ago, merrypessimist said:

 

Maybe you should hang out with fewer illiterates?

In discord “invite Clowny”

one minute later “i cant find clowny”

”it has a zero in it i think”

one minute later “ have clowny send me a tell”

after another minute and resolution “oh i see it has a one and a zero in the name.  Okay”

net result 3 minutes lost for 20+ people.  Thats one hour of gaming gone

[Techwright]

6 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Agreed. But they haven't even logged in in over 2 years then they clearly didn't care much about Batmanuel and his incredible mythos.

Which takes us back to the military angle of things.   I'm a civilian, and while I've had a lot of military friends, I don't necessarily know how long they can be away and unable to access a game.  Those that are military:  are there assignments that would take officers or enlisted away from a game for more than 2 years at a time, and if so, how long?

 

My question is part of the reason I mentioned a soft start, targeting the first 20 ranks (maybe 25) as perhaps a better way to begin.  With announcements foreshadowing higher rank purges in the future.  

[A Cat]

19 hours ago, drgantz said:

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

I have it on good authority that you can often have internet and can have a laptop nowadays. That being said I have never seen a "brb. Destroying the enemy". 

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

In discord “invite Clowny”

one minute later “i cant find clowny”

”it has a zero in it i think”

one minute later “ have clowny send me a tell”

after another minute and resolution “oh i see it has a one and a zero in the name.  Okay”

net result 3 minutes lost for 20+ people.  Thats one hour of gaming gone

 

Have "clowny" send a global tell, right-click to invite.

Edited August 24, 2021 by tidge

[Snarky]

23 minutes ago, Techwright said:

Which takes us back to the military angle of things.   I'm a civilian, and while I've had a lot of military friends, I don't necessarily know how long they can be away and unable to access a game.  Those that are military:  are there assignments that would take officers or enlisted away from a game for more than 2 years at a time, and if so, how long?

 

My question is part of the reason I mentioned a soft start, targeting the first 20 ranks (maybe 25) as perhaps a better way to begin.  With announcements foreshadowing higher rank purges in the future.  

being a prisoner of war.  Military get 30 days paid vacation a year.It is not available "any old time you want it" being subject to the needs of the command.  But 30 days a year to do whatever.  including logging into the game.  That is if your assignments have you under non computer access situations the other 11 months.  (non stop nuclear submarine parking lot drills?)

[Marshal_General]

16 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

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. 

I didn't when I was deployed to Panama for 3 months.