Any news on phase 2 of naming policy?

[SaintD]

12 minutes ago, Mjolnerd said:

At this point, anyone who loses "their" names has had, what, three years' worth of warnings that this policy was going to be implemented at some unknown future date? Plus about six months of more specific, direct, in-game notices that it was coming more imminently.

 

And if you log in once, just once, for literally any amount of time, the absolutely COLOSSAL timer is reset. If you really couldn't or wouldn't simply log in a toon long enough to go to the menu and log back out.....you're not using that name.

Honestly, level 50's shouldn't be immune to this.

Edited February 20, 2023 by SaintD

[Excraft]

11 hours ago, SaintD said:

Who cares? What's your actual problem here? That you won't get the very specific bunch of names you want and presume them to be locked forever on some old account? All basically abandoned names will be freed up, and if the ones you want aren't in it.....tough. Get over it. You've been making characters just fine up until now without them.

 

LOL!  Absolutely hilarious how far off the mark you are here.  Like, not even remotely close.  My "actual problem" is that this effort to code this nonsense was a colossal waste of time.  Seems like quite a lot of folks here are getting their hopes up that the name they're hoping for is going to get freed up and they're only going to be disappointed.  Chances are very unlikely they will get the one they're looking for, and there's more than likely going to be even more complaining once this goes live when by chance someone else grabs a name first.  It's great to say "2 million names!" will get freed up.  How many of those names are gibberish?  If they aren't words people would be looking for, they can free up 200 million names and it won't make a difference.  You're being dazzled by numbers without knowing all of the information.

 

In all my years playing this game, I think maybe once there was a name that I tried was taken, and at that point I used this little known thing called a Thesaurus to come up with something else.  If by chance a name I tried here, I'd do the same.  I certainly wouldn't come crying on the forums about how my life is over because I couldn't name my character SuperCoolMcShooterGuy and demand that the owner of it release it to me because I THINK they may be inactive. 

[Excraft]

2 hours ago, SaintD said:

Honestly, level 50's shouldn't be immune to this.

 

I'd agree so long as any character you have that isn't actively being played at the moment can have the name swiped from you.  You aren't using it, right?

[Ironblade]

34 minutes ago, Excraft said:

My "actual problem" is that this effort to code this nonsense was a colossal waste of time.

No.  Your OPINION is that it was a waste of time.  However, the people actually allocating the time and effort clearly do not agree.  I would also point out that they are in a position to know how much effect it will have, while you are not.

[Mjolnerd]

49 minutes ago, Excraft said:

 

I'd agree so long as any character you have that isn't actively being played at the moment can have the name swiped from you.  You aren't using it, right?

Hyperbole is fun, isn't it?

[Captain Fabulous]

2 hours ago, Excraft said:

 

I'd agree so long as any character you have that isn't actively being played at the moment can have the name swiped from you.  You aren't using it, right?

And that's exactly what will happen. The policy applies to everyone. If someone takes a name that was released and they don't play the character the name gets released again.

[Seed22]

I know for an objective fact no one here will ever get a single one of my 50s names. Ever.

 

Why? Same reason you all won't swipe eachother's names. You'd have to have access to their account, pick out a particular name, wait...however many days(plus 50s are immune so lol not happening), THEN plan on your RL calendar the day to steal their name. If any of you do that, seek professional help.

 

All of that's to say, I'm not sure if this is the same thread from back in the day when this was introduced, but if it is, don't worry about the naming policy! Your names will all be fine, and I doubt anyone will do the above to take it.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Seed22

[ZemX]

24 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

I know for an objective fact no one here will ever get a single one of my 50s names. Ever.

 

Level 50 names are never released by inactivity.

 

37 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

Why? Same reason you all won't swipe eachother's names. You'd have to have access to their account, pick out a particular name, wait...however many days(plus 50s are immune so lol not happening), THEN plan on your RL calendar the day to steal their name. If any of you do that, seek professional help.

 

This would apply to sub-50 characters, but also... nobody has to do this.  If your name is common words or somehow obvious/popular for a superhero then it probably gets tried weekly or monthly just at random by people creating new characters.  They don't have to know the person who has the name or anything about them.   The more obvious a name is, the less time it is likely to last past the expiration date.

[MHertz]

19 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

The problem is the belief that when they free up names that you're going to be able to get all the names you weren't able to before. The reality is you'll be lucky if you get ANY of them. …
So 1.) it needs to be done for the health of the game…

I agree with your whole post.

 

I am not trying to claim the name purge should not be done; I am just cautioning people, as you are, to mitigate their expectations. Someone somewhere will get upset at losing a name; and hardly anybody here will perceive that the solution worked and freed up the name they wanted.

Edited February 20, 2023 by MHertz

[MHertz]

17 hours ago, Mjolnerd said:

Anyone who gets blindsided by this will have ignored several good-faith attempts to communicate it to them. I find it difficult to be especially sympathetic.

Yes. That’s the warning I’m trying to deliver.

 

When the name purge goes through, some people will definitely lose their names. Only a small number of people will actually get names that were being hoarded. We are likely to see more examples of “I lost my name, this game sucks!” than “guess what, I just got the name I have been wanting for years!” And more than either of them we’ll see “The name I want still isn’t free!”

 

Again, I’m not saying this is a good reason not to do the name purge. It ought to be done. We just can’t expect the solution to look like sunshine and roses and tons of perfect names and nobody ever complaining. Very likely more people would want that name than could actually have it, so the balance will tip in favor of “the name purge didn’t work! I still can’t get that name.”

 

Lots of people name their characters after their power sets. Let’s see, it’s a broadsword/dark armor Scrapper, I’ll call him Darkblade. Or Nightblade. Darn, that’s taken too. How about Shadowsword? Darksword? Shadowstab? Occlusion Scalpel? Doompoke? Darn. All taken. Well, I guess I’ll go with xXDark B1ad3Xx.

 

That may be an exaggeration, but it probably will continue to happen more than “darn, I lost a name.”

Edited February 20, 2023 by MHertz

[Captain Fabulous]

13 minutes ago, MHertz said:

 

Lots of people name their characters after their power sets. Let’s see, it’s a broadsword/dark armor Scrapper, I’ll call him Darkblade. Or Nightblade. Darn, that’s taken too. How about Shadowsword? Darksword? Shadowstab? Occlusion Scalpel? Doompoke? Darn. All taken. Well, I guess I’ll go with xXDark B1ad3Xx.

 

That may be an exaggeration, but it probably will continue to happen more than “darn, I lost a name.”

It is not in any way an exaggeration, sadly.

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

 

Level 50 names are never released by inactivity.

 

 

This would apply to sub-50 characters, but also... nobody has to do this.  If your name is common words or somehow obvious/popular for a superhero then it probably gets tried weekly or monthly just at random by people creating new characters.  They don't have to know the person who has the name or anything about them.   The more obvious a name is, the less time it is likely to last past the expiration date.

And it's not like anyone is going to know they're taking a released name. Names come up as either available or not. You don't lose a name until someone else tries to use it.

[GM Crumpet]

I have a few names I want but are taken and am quite happy to wait to get them. Or not get them at all, it's been a long time since I had them on live and I'm not so caught up in stuff the games ruined for me if someone else swoops in.

 

It's  hard  to know how much to say being a GM with obvious ability to look at stuff players can't without getting into trouble  🙂. I will say that there is a huge number of names that would potentially be released. I think Number Six said a number that was mind boggling, but are they names people would actually take? Good solid names are most likely to be level 50 characters which would never be picked. A lot of the inactive names are pretty random and aren't likely to be chosen by another player. You might be lucky and find the perfect name that has been languishing on page 9 of someones alt list for three years at level 1. I wouldn't rely on it though. Nothing will happen on day one anyway. The timer will start then and it's quite a long timer. The low hanging fruit will release within a few weeks but the higher the level the longer the timer, so you might have to wait up to a year.

 

I still think this is a better idea than others though. Some games will periodically wipe inactive accounts older than X years and you go away and come back after 2 years and find all your high level stuff is gone. At least here we don't wipe, and even with the name release system in place the chances are you'll still have your name when you return. Just don't expect your level 1 Captain USA to still be available though 🙂

 

[MHertz]

24 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

It is not in any way an exaggeration, sadly.

That’s how I came up with the name for Stickbonker. I thought, what’s the inevitable and stupid conclusion of looking for the most obvious not-yet-taken “named after power set” name for a Staff mêlée fighter? And to RP him, I thought, what kind of person would choose that name?

 

I rarely have trouble finding names, because I don’t name for powers very often.

• Mr Crunch (invulnerable/EM Tanker)
• Akoya (FF Defender)
• Moongold (fire/empathy Controller)
• Zephyr Lily (katana/SR Scrapper)
• Caxino (archery/devices Blaster)
• Overkilt (Scottish mace Brute)
• Carmen Astra (dark/dark Defender)

I could stop playing tomorrow and I doubt more than one or two of my names would be claimed.

[Captain Fabulous]

20 minutes ago, MHertz said:

That’s how I came up with the name for Stickbonker. I thought, what’s the inevitable and stupid conclusion of looking for the most obvious not-yet-taken “named after power set” name for a Staff mêlée fighter? And to RP him, I thought, what kind of person would choose that name?

 

I rarely have trouble finding names, because I don’t name for powers very often.

• Mr Crunch (invulnerable/EM Tanker)
• Akoya (FF Defender)
• Moongold (fire/empathy Controller)
• Zephyr Lily (katana/SR Scrapper)
• Caxino (archery/devices Blaster)
• Overkilt (Scottish mace Brute)
• Carmen Astra (dark/dark Defender)

I could stop playing tomorrow and I doubt more than one or two of my names would be claimed.

I haven't had too much trouble getting names I want, tho there are a few that sting not being able to get that I had back on live. I do also rely heavily on the swapping of i and l to get certain names. I'm pretty sure I started on Homecoming day 1 (or close to it) so I'm certain to have a lot of names that would go quickly if they were ever released. Which they won't be. 😂

Edited February 20, 2023 by Captain Fabulous

[ZemX]

51 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:

Nothing will happen on day one anyway. The timer will start then and it's quite a long timer. The low hanging fruit will release within a few weeks but the higher the level the longer the timer, so you might have to wait up to a year.

 

Am I the only one surprised by this?  Maybe I missed some conversation since then but the Page 4 patch notes gave me the impression that Phase 1 warnings would become actual name releases on day one of Phase 2.

 

Timer is really being reset for Phase 2?

[GM Crumpet]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

 

Am I the only one surprised by this?  Maybe I missed some conversation since then but the Page 4 patch notes gave me the impression that Phase 1 warnings would become actual name releases on day one of Phase 2.

 

Timer is really being reset for Phase 2?

The way it is intended to work is depending on the level of the alt the timer increases. So level 1-X is maybe a week, X-Y a month etc. And nothing is wiped. The names stay on the alt until someone asks for it. You won't log in on day 2 and find all your level 1 alts named generic<number>. 

[Mjolnerd]

2 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

The way it is intended to work is depending on the level of the alt the timer increases. So level 1-X is maybe a week, X-Y a month etc. And nothing is wiped. The names stay on the alt until someone asks for it. You won't log in on day 2 and find all your level 1 alts named generic<number>. 

 

I think everyone gets that, the confusion is coming from your statement "Nothing will happen on day one anyway. The timer will start then and it's quite a long timer."

 

A hypothetical situation:

 

- I have the name "Doctor Ducklips" on the Freem server. The character is level 25, placing him in the "one year" name release bracket. Right now, today, Doctor Ducklips has not been logged on in 18 months. The character select screen currently, this minute, already displays a little yellow warning icon next to his name.

- I do not at any point login with Doctor Ducklips.

- On Monthtember 1st of this year, the name release policy goes live.

 

I understand that I would not lose the "Doctor Ducklips" name automatically, it would only happen when and if someone else were to attempt to use it.

 

Based on my (and, I believe, others') understanding of the policy, "Doctor Ducklips" would be flagged as available for others to claim on Monthtember 1st of this year -- the day the policy is implemented -- because on that day it will have already been more than a year since my character with that name last logged in.  But the statement, "nothing will happen on day one anyway. The timer will start then..." seems to be saying that, when the policy goes live, that's when the "real" timer will start, and at that point I'll have another full human Earth year (in addition to the previous 18 months of inactivity) to log the character in before the name is flagged as available to others on Monthtember 1st of next year.

 

Have I misunderstood?

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Mjolnerd

[PsiBug]

  

I thought, as GM-Crumpet (may have) implied above, that the timers would all be reset when the name release policy went from warning mode to "live". However that does not seem to be what the GMs in this previous thread were stating. I re-read the GM posts in the first two pages, and they seem to suggest that players will be able to  access red flagged names on the day the policy goes live.  It is a looong thread though so maybe there is a clarification deeper in that thread or a related thread.

 

Either way seems acceptable in my opinion. The warning period has been pretty lengthy.

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by PsiBug

[Excraft]

On 2/19/2023 at 11:25 PM, Ironblade said:

No.  Your OPINION is that it was a waste of time.  However, the people actually allocating the time and effort clearly do not agree.  I would also point out that they are in a position to know how much effect it will have, while you are not.

 

Correct.  That's my opinion.  I never said it was fact.  Good try though. 🙂   And yes, they have more information but for some reason won't really share too much of it.  😉 

 

On 2/20/2023 at 1:03 AM, Captain Fabulous said:

And that's exactly what will happen. The policy applies to everyone. If someone takes a name that was released and they don't play the character the name gets released again.

 

You missed the point.  The argument for all of this is "use it or lose it".  Ok, well if you aren't logged in and playing your characters, then their names should be immediately available to be swiped as soon as you log off.  You aren't using them, so they should be fair game.  No need for timers.  But it's ok, I understand that it's fine to swipe a name, so long as it's the other person who loses out. 

 

Again, this should have been based on account, not character, inactivity.  Someone who's got a lot of alts but still actively playing can be messaged to negotiate for the release of a name.  If they account is inactive for years, go for it and release all the names on the account.  Better yet, take the time to code this properly so names are a combination of account-character, like Cryptic did.  It's my understanding the folks here already understand what the hurdles are with that.  Surely they are smart enough and capable enough to do that.  Fix that and this drama about name swiping nonsense becomes a non-issue. 

[Mjolnerd]

Oh, I see we're doing that instead of having a discussion.

 

Very persuasive. Surely it will win folks over to your side and convince them to take your opinions seriously.

[UltraAlt]

4 hours ago, PsiBug said:

 

 

I think it is important at this point to go back to this:

• Level 1-5 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 30 days.
• Level 6-49 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.

• As it has been some time since the policy was first announced, in order to ensure that players have sufficient time to act on protecting names they actively intend to use, the system will go live in Page 4 in Warning Mode Only.

 

• This inactivity flag will be displayed in the character list to identify which characters have names that would be at risk, but while the system is in warning mode, no characters will be renamed, and no names can be lost.

[NOTE: It is documented that some characters are being flagged with the warning incorrectly. The statement above does not indicate that incorrectly flagged characters will not be at risk. It only indicates that the system is in "warning mode" and no active renaming is going on.]

 

 

• At a later date to be announced, the system will be fully activated. After that point, players will be able to create new characters using any of the inactive names, which results in the inactive character being renamed.

{NOTE: The above statement implies that, if the system was live, "inaccurately flagged" characters would be considered to be "inactive" when they were "inaccurately flagged" by the system, and could be renamed.]

 

 

*** My Stance on the Renaming Policy ***

 

I understand the want by some for the renaming policy.

But I will make my point again, why is a level 50 that hasn't been played for a year immune to being renamed?!

 

It seems to be that it is only legacy reasons from the original game.

My guess is - that at this point in Homecoming - most level 50's were power-leveled to 50. Level 50 isn't being earned by playing the game and leveling up. Level 50 status is being given to characters because they were inside of the door of a farming mission while the player is most likely afk or multiboxing while playing a 50 on another account to level up the "doorsitter".

There is no reason that a character power-leveled to 50 and left sitting for a year should be protected from renaming when a sub-50 character that put in more game time actually playing the game should be renamed after being left sitting for a year.

 

I can agree with the level 1-5 monthly log in.

I could even agree with a sub level 20 log in every 6 months.

But I think if there is going to be a 365 day log in required for a level 21-49, then all level 50's should have to log in every 365 days as well.

 

I'm and alt-jumper and I already go through my characters and make sure that they have logged in far less time than the current "standards" for the warning.

Sure, I don't always "play" them when I log-in, but I'm taking time to protect what I think is important.

I do not believe that someone that has a power-leveled 50 that hasn't played that character for a year feels that that character's name is important. In fact, by not logging that character in for that long, it is proving that they don't feel that the character is important enough to them to log them in simply to keep the name.

Remember, it isn't deleting the character when they are "flagged inactive". It isn't even automatically removing the character name from the character when they are "flagged inactive" . It is only "flagging" the character as "inactive"; and, at that point, their name will only be genericize if another player on that server tries to name their character by that "inactive" character's name.

 

Additionally, making level 50's immune to renaming not only condones but promotes level 50 as the way to play CoH and, thus, promotes power-leveling to 50 to avoid "the hassle" of the actual game (eg non-end-game content).

 

Being a 50 doesn't mean that it used to mean.
When/if the enforcement of the policy goes live because it is so important to "free-up names", then all characters should have to be logged in at least once a year to protect that character's name. Otherwise, my input is never activate the "renaming policy".

 

[Erratic1]

3 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

My guess is - that at this point in Homecoming - most level 50's were power-leveled to 50.

 

How would you come to that conclusion?

 

It is certainly doable, and I do know people who exclusively play that way. On the other hand, I can say that each of my eighteen 50s was levelled through playing the game*. I can say that as I play my characters up, I see some number of other characters who I keep bumping into along the way who are obviously not taking the insta-route to 50. Though since that is how I play, that is what I am going to encounter.

 

Is there a good way to determine how long it took someone to reach 50 on a character short of having caught them within a short period of them having been created and noticing they went creation to you observing them as being level 50 and it only having been a day or two?

[Mjolnerd]

11 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

Additionally, making level 50's immune to renaming not only condones but promotes level 50 as the way to play CoH and, thus, promotes power-leveling to 50 to avoid "the hassle" of the actual game (eg non-end-game content).

 

Being a 50 doesn't mean that it used to mean.
When/if the enforcement of the policy goes live because it is so important to "free-up names", then all characters should have to be logged in at least once a year to protect that character's name. Otherwise, my input is never activate the "renaming policy".

 

 

I don't disagree; in my opinion level 50s shouldn't have their names "locked in" forever and should be subject to the same rules as others. I don't feel all that strongly about it, certainly not enough that I'm going to be upset one way or the other, but yeah... if it's inactive, it's inactive.

 

I'm not sure how that translates to "or else don't release names at all," though.

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Mjolnerd

[Erratic1]

4 minutes ago, Mjolnerd said:

 

I don't disagree; in my opinion level 50s shouldn't have their names "locked in" forever and should be subject to the same rules as others. I don't feel all that strongly about it, certainly not enough that I'm going to be upset one way or the other, but yeah... if it's inactive, it's inactive.

 

I'm not sure how that translates to "or else don't release names at all," though.

 

 

I disagree, at least partially.

 

A 50 on an actively played account should be inviolable as goes their name. 

A 50 on an account which has been dormant for long enough (at least a year, maybe two) should be open to loss.