Accessing bios from name in chat windows

[Yomo Kimyata]

I appreciate that I can click on someone's name in a chat tab and be able to do various things like send them a message or get their global name or friend them or ignore them.

 

However, when I see an absolutely ridiculous name, I would really like to have the opportunity to click on their name and (fingers crossed) be able to read the bio they wrote for that characters name.  Otherwise, I am stuck messaging them and trying to meet so that I can read it myself.  And frankly that's too much work.

[Oklahoman]

I'd love to be able to pull up their character window no matter what zone they are in. Not so much to read their bio, but to see what archetype they are and sometimes even what powers they have. It's not uncommon for people to join an iTrial I am forming, and as I'm structuring the teams I really need to know that info, but have to wait until they get in zone. Or, I guess search their character name, but that's too much work. 🙂 

[Yomo Kimyata]

from @Ukase
 

“When I made this character, the only reason to make it was to milk a silly joke that I stole from a member of Cosmic Council that I heard a few years ago. About the Tuatha having some secret affiliation with yogurt. Why else would they be called Tuatha De Dannon? Again, not my silly thought. Too bad. Would love to claim it. “

it seems possible that yours was the name that sparked me to make this post.

[Xaddy]

1 minute ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

it seems possible that yours was the name that sparked me to make this post.

I thought it was my alt, Wafer Thin Mint. 

Thanks for your gift of inf! I bought a crafting table with it and implemented a number of your tips and am a billionaire now!

[Ukase]

3 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

it seems possible that yours was the name that sparked me to make this post.

I'm afraid you might be disappointed. 
The origin of Ukase has been changed many times since the character concept was first created in issue 3. 
The name stems from the Marvel comic series "Secret Wars". Doctor Doom had a code name, or password he used to "awaken" Ultron 5. That was "Ukase Rex". 
On retail, the character stuck with the full name of Ukase Rex. But, as you can imagine, with all the different players also using Rex in their names, I didn't want folks getting confused, so I dropped the Rex sometime around issue 17, maybe? I can't recall. 

I think the retail version of the origin story was something along the lines of some interstellar romance abandoning the child with a bartender in Talos Island. I actually have it saved on a hard drive, along with the old Sentinel file - but I've yet to hook the old HDD to this new rig to see it. Maybe one day, I'll take a look.

As for the Bane that I made...his name is Yogurt Justice. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

3 hours ago, Ukase said:

As for the Bane that I made...his name is Yogurt Justice. 

yup, that was the one

 

edit:  and see how much work that was?  
 

Edited May 21 by Yomo Kimyata

[Krimson]

10 hours ago, Oklahoman said:

I'd love to be able to pull up their character window no matter what zone they are in. Not so much to read their bio, but to see what archetype they are and sometimes even what powers they have. It's not uncommon for people to join an iTrial I am forming, and as I'm structuring the teams I really need to know that info, but have to wait until they get in zone. Or, I guess search their character name, but that's too much work. 🙂 

Partial strings work in Search. I just type the first two letters of a toon name. 

[Ukase]

16 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

yup, that was the one

 

edit:  and see how much work that was?  
 

So, I think you've just re-created an option to bring into the pixel world what we used to do as kids, called "Tag". 
You see an interesting name, you quickly use /sea  (or /search, or Find Member, and if they're of a different alignment, you're really going to have to hustle to change your alignment. Or, if you know the zone they're in, you can type /search +abyss (or whatever zone you think they're in)

The game will let you know if you click on their name in the results if they're close by, and well...then it's just a matter of moving around to see if you're getting closer or farther. It's not perfect, because it's against the rules to let them know you're trying to find them. They could zone out. But, generally speaking, you can find them if you're quick and determined. 

And yes, lol, point taken. A lot of work. 

[Shin Magmus]

On 5/22/2024 at 2:32 AM, Krimson said:

Partial strings work in Search. I just type the first two letters of a toon name. 

     Search rules.  It does everything but tell you their powersets, and any smart old-school player puts their powersets in their Search Comment.  This 5 seconds of effort spent, means that, forever until you decide to change it again, whenever anyone uses Search they will see "Poison/Fire, speeds up content" next to my Defender, as an example.

 

     Search used to be how you had to form teams; LFG chat and LFG queues have made it an order of magnitude easier.  But if you want most of that info, Search is still your friend. 

[Oklahoman]

Search is OK, but it could be much better.

 

For what OP is talking about, I can search by name for a player who is in another zone and see what level they are, what archetype, what origin (which doesn't matter), where they are, and whatever comments they put in which most usually is nothing at all. I can't read their bio until they get in zone. I can't tell if they have a certain power I'm looking for, or if they have lore and destiny unlocked, or if they have a certain badge, or if they are level shifted, etc. Not that it's super easy to get some of that info even once they are in zone, but at least you can quickly join the queue and see if you get an error (thinking specifically of MAG trials). If they are in the same zone as you, then when you right click on the search results you get the option for "Info" which is what I would love to see be universal to all search results.

 

Search also limits what zones you can see based on your alignment, and if you do something wacky like search for everyone in The Abyss on Excelsior at 5pm Central on a weekend you get some mix of everyone in Abyss 1 and Abyss 2, limited down to about 50 people. Plus the coding may help you see if they are already on a team... but also maybe not, but chaos is fun.

 

Back to OPs suggestion, some kind of slash command (/showcharacter "Superhero Dude") that pops up with the character window would be great. Better if search could show every zone regardless of alignment, everyone in that zone (and numbered spawned zones), and give you the "Info" option no matter where they are.