More prefix options for characters or allow more punctuation

[biostem]

Currently, we only have the option for "The" as a prefix for our characters.  Now, I know we can add stuff into a character's name, but due to the limitation on the use of punctuation, you cannot, for instance, have "Dr. D'Monic" or something similar.  I would love to see some common titles, like "Mr.", "Mrs./Ms.", etc, added as options - or at least allow us to use like 3 punctuation marks/symbols in our character names, (so I could have "Captain So-and-so" as a name.  Is it a technical limitation, or is there some exploit I'm overlooking?  Thanks for reading!

Edited December 4, 2021 by biostem

[Lazarillo]

The potential limitation I see is that you can't have "The" at the start of your name at all because it gets automatically moved to a title.  Given that one's mutually exclusive, some people might not want to be stuck moving the "Mr." or "Dr." in their names to the title preface.  Although I suppose in those cases, they could spell out the word fully?  Although that might mess up some pun names like a Robotics master mind named "Dr. One".

[ninja surprise]

I really really wish I could use two punctuations (non-alphanumerics) in a name.

[Greycat]

Lazarillo pretty much hit the problem I see with this. Though if we could get rid of the "exclusivity," so you CAN put "the" as the start of your name (Yes, someone could be The The whatever if they wanted,) I'd be for it. (Though, doesn't it show up in small print above the name, visually?)

[SuggestorK]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

 (Though, doesn't it show up in small print above the name, visually?)

 

It does, if u activate showing the Playernames in Options, not evryone does or want this though 😉 .

 

More Title variants would be actually a good thing. If Punctuation can be used in Name i doubt, remember Names get saved as or at least in files and Windows still have the old MS-Dos Problem with files using Punctuations, Filename.extension still defines what type of file it is and which program should it be opened with.

 

Not Tech savy enough to say if Mac or Linux would have same Problems.

[Greycat]

1 hour ago, SuggestorK said:

More Title variants would be actually a good thing. If Punctuation can be used in Name i doubt, remember Names get saved as or at least in files and Windows still have the old MS-Dos Problem with files using Punctuations, Filename.extension still defines what type of file it is and which program should it be opened with.

 

 

While Windows does use the (final) extension to determine what to open it with, you can name a file hey.look.at.me.I.have.lots.of.dots.txt and it's perfectly capable of knowing it's a text file and opening it in notepad (or whatever you have set to open text files in.)  And if they're *in* files, it doesn't care.

 

Linux and Mac open them (as I'm recalling, I don't use it extensively) through WINE, or some derivative, so the same rules apply in that environment. But, yeah, extra punctuation isn't an issue.

 

As far as files used by COH... the only things we really generate are costume and power customization files (and others if you create binds and save them, or AE things.) It automatically takes care of the extension and handles them all in game (we don't really have anything else looking at a .costume file, for instance.) So that should be a nonissue.

[Akisan]

The limitations on special characters in names is likely due to internal handling with the database.  Depending on how the code handles communication for saving/retrieving player data vs. character names, allowing special characters could open a massive can of worms - exploits, security holes, comprimized/lost data, the whole nine yards.  I think XKCD puts it rather well:

 

 

Special character handling aside, more prefixes and punctuation options would be great to have, so long as it doesn't interfere with having those titles in the name itself.

[srmalloy]

55 minutes ago, Akisan said:

The limitations on special characters in names is likely due to internal handling with the database.  Depending on how the code handles communication for saving/retrieving player data vs. character names, allowing special characters could open a massive can of worms...

Which may have contributed a tiny bit to the way "City of Hero" died in the Korean market, since the game doesn't allow you to use Unicode characters in character names, unlike chat, which supports Unicode. So while Korean players would have been able to chat in Korean, they would have had to use ASCII for the character names.