More Freedom for Naming

[Gat-720]

So I just played City of Heroes for the first time in my life and I had a great time. I did has some minor issues like the lack of music when just roaming around and NPC's being a little quirky (trying to walk through walls or walking around furniture) but if there's one thing I really wanted to change is how naming your characters work.

 

I was recreating a character I made in Champions Online but when I typed the name in CoH it told me the name is already used and I was so disappointed and tried to compromise. I finally did it but I just wish I didn't have to go through that hassle.

[biostem]

You can use a single period, hyphen, or apostrophe to mix things up a bit.  I also like to use rhymezone.com and thesaurus.com if I am having a difficult time coming up with a name.  You can also replace a capital i with a lower case L or an o with a zero.  I tend to follow the "necessity is the mother of invention" type of approach when it comes to character naming...

[Rudra]

In Champions Online, your global chat handle is part of your character name, so as long as you don't try to have the same name on 2 or more of your own characters, you will never run into a name taken situation. (However, you can run into situations where everyone on your 5-person team has the same name, though I've only seen up to triplicated names there.) In City of Heroes, your global chat handle is not part of your character name. This makes it much simpler to send each other messages, but it also means only 1 character per server can have a specific name version.

[Player2]

I'm playing with naming stuff all the time, and often leaving my leftovers in the server specific Name Release threads when I'm done.

What name were you trying to get?  Maybe I can help, because it's never too late to use the rename feature.

[Gat-720]

On 2/29/2024 at 1:54 PM, Player2 said:

I'm playing with naming stuff all the time, and often leaving my leftovers in the server specific Name Release threads when I'm done.

What name were you trying to get?  Maybe I can help, because it's never too late to use the rename feature.

 

I was trying the name Crimson Knight, I've also tried Red Knight but that didn't work either.

[Gat-720]

On 2/28/2024 at 7:17 PM, biostem said:

You can use a single period, hyphen, or apostrophe to mix things up a bit.  I also like to use rhymezone.com and thesaurus.com if I am having a difficult time coming up with a name.  You can also replace a capital i with a lower case L or an o with a zero.  I tend to follow the "necessity is the mother of invention" type of approach when it comes to character naming...

 

I didn't think of that. Maybe I'll give it a try.

[Gat-720]

On 2/28/2024 at 7:25 PM, Rudra said:

In Champions Online, your global chat handle is part of your character name, so as long as you don't try to have the same name on 2 or more of your own characters, you will never run into a name taken situation. (However, you can run into situations where everyone on your 5-person team has the same name, though I've only seen up to triplicated names there.) In City of Heroes, your global chat handle is not part of your character name. This makes it much simpler to send each other messages, but it also means only 1 character per server can have a specific name version.

 

That's actually interesting, that might explain why other games does that.

[Captain Fabulous]

Unfortunately due to name hoarders the chances are slim you'll get anything close to what you want unless you're being very creative.

[Gat-720]

2 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Unfortunately due to name hoarders the chances are slim you'll get anything close to what you want unless you're being very creative.

 

Yeah, might be wishful thinking but I'm hoping one day something can be done about that. 

[Captain Fabulous]

5 minutes ago, Gat-720 said:

 

Yeah, might be wishful thinking but I'm hoping one day something can be done about that. 

We've been begging for a solution since 2004. Unlikely anything meaningful is going to be done about it.

[Random Robot]

Non-unique names was the best thing Champions did, having it here would be a dream come true.

[biostem]

I'm just imaging some up-and-coming mutant in the marvel Universe, whose mutation is actually to have 1 eye in the middle of their head, being pissed that "Cyclops" is already taken...

[Glacier Peak]

Another color of red and Knight?

 

 

Try these

Edited March 1 by Glacier Peak

[Rudra]

2 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Another color of red and Knight?

 

 

Try these

As of this posting's time, at least on Everlasting, Maroon Knight, Rouge Knight, and Vermillion Knight are confirmed available.

[Random Robot]

22 minutes ago, biostem said:

I'm just imaging some up-and-coming mutant in the marvel Universe, whose mutation is actually to have 1 eye in the middle of their head, being pissed that "Cyclops" is already taken...

 

"BUT HE HAS TWO EYES! THIS IS BS!"

[megaericzero]

Posting this classic based on relevance.

 

Edited March 2 by megaericzero
typo

[Kaigai Sticky]

Ah thought this thread was about slightly increasing how many letters can go in the name bar, I had 2 names that were great but each one was one letter off from the "This name is not suitable blah blah blah" I also really want where you can do something like this: Tommy "Silverfoot" Jones. I seen some Family named like this, and had some concepts. So that would be nice.

[golstat2003]

1 minute ago, Kaigai Sticky said:

Ah thought this thread was about slightly increasing how many letters can go in the name bar, I had 2 names that were great but each one was one letter off from the "This name is not suitable blah blah blah" I also really want where you can do something like this: Tommy "Silverfoot" Jones. I seen some Family named like this, and had some concepts. So that would be nice.

 

Adding maybe 5 more characters to how long a name can be would be nice indeed.

[Captain Fabulous]

On 3/1/2024 at 11:15 PM, Clave Dark 5 said:

Uh, wat

 

To what end, for what reason?

I'm not a sociologist so I can't explain the pathology behind it, but there are people in this game that have made hundreds, if not thousands of characters for no other purpose than to lock up popular names, simply because they can. They derive some sort of perverse pleasure from knowing they have something other people want that no one else can have. There is one here in the forums who openly boasts about not only doing this, but also powerleveling them all to 50 so they are immune to the name release policy, should it ever be implemented.

I wish I was making this up, and that people like this didn't exist, but here we are.

[Clave Dark 5]

1 hour ago, Captain Fabulous said:

I'm not a sociologist so I can't explain the pathology behind it, but there are people in this game that have made hundreds, if not thousands of characters for no other purpose than to lock up popular names, simply because they can. They derive some sort of perverse pleasure from knowing they have something other people want that no one else can have. There is one here in the forums who openly boasts about not only doing this, but also powerleveling them all to 50 so they are immune to the name release policy, should it ever be implemented.

I wish I was making this up, and that people like this didn't exist, but here we are.

Not to sound too flip about this, but citation needed.  And that one saying they're doing so doesn't hold too much water, it's easier to troll the forums than spend the time doing that.  Heck, why not report such a person too?  I'm just not convinced, sorry.

[biostem]

On 3/1/2024 at 11:58 PM, golstat2003 said:

Adding maybe 5 more characters to how long a name can be would be nice indeed.

I would rather we be able to have a 2nd or 3rd special character.

[Major_Decoy]

On 3/1/2024 at 8:57 PM, Kaigai Sticky said:

Ah thought this thread was about slightly increasing how many letters can go in the name bar, I had 2 names that were great but each one was one letter off from the "This name is not suitable blah blah blah" I also really want where you can do something like this: Tommy "Silverfoot" Jones. I seen some Family named like this, and had some concepts. So that would be nice.

Yeah, I was trying to create Tina The Bodysculptress myself.

[Captain Fabulous]

2 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Not to sound too flip about this, but citation needed.  And that one saying they're doing so doesn't hold too much water, it's easier to troll the forums than spend the time doing that.  Heck, why not report such a person too?  I'm just not convinced, sorry.

Not being a dev nor a mod I don't have hard data I can give you. Maybe @GM Crumpet can? I know we've been told since live that's it's always been an issue, one that's been magnified here due to the near limitless numbers of characters one can freely create. There are a number of threads here that discuss it. Since it's not a violation of the TOS I'm not sure what reporting them would do.

I guess the person I referenced could be lying, but it's easy enough to use /getglobalname to see who owns a particular character name, and he's come up a number of times when I've checked to see who has a name I tried to use.

[biostem]

Yeah... maybe we need a hard 3-6 month limit on unplayed characters' names being freed up, regardless of level...

[Major_Decoy]

On 3/1/2024 at 3:24 PM, Captain Fabulous said:

Unfortunately due to name hoarders the chances are slim you'll get anything close to what you want unless you're being very creative.

Honestly, I can think of one, maybe two occasions where a name I wanted wasn't available on the first try.