That your starting character, the character tied to your email, not be subject to name deletion rules.

[speczero]

What the title says. I just realized that my first character and the one that my email name is tied to is only level 4. I know I could level it, but have never really felt like it. I do want to keep the name, though. So could the character that has the email tied to it be treated as a level 50 character for name deleting purposes?

Edited November 3 by speczero

[lemming]

Technically, I don't think so since the reason the name release doesn't take account activity into consideration would be tied into that.   Bump your char up to level six, and then you have at least a year.

[Luminara]

2 hours ago, speczero said:

What the title says. I just realized that my first character and the one that my email name is tied to is only level 4.

 

There is no direct connection between that character's name and your global name, other than it being a character on your account.  I didn't have Luminara as a character name for 5.5 years.

 

If you want to keep that name, rename the character in question and use the name on a higher level character.

[biostem]

It is a fairly trivial matter to get a character to 50 - if your namesake character is that important to you, get them to 50 and any concern will fade away...

[Greycat]

5 hours ago, speczero said:

What the title says. I just realized that my first character and the one that my email name is tied to is only level 4. I know I could level it, but have never really felt like it. I do want to keep the name, though. So could the character that has the email tied to it be treated as a level 50 character for name deleting purposes?

 

You are two levels away from a one year rename timer. Spend under five minutes to get two levels.

[starro]

the ship has sailed, time to follow that direction.

[OEM61]

You never really felt like playing the character with the name that you feel is so very important?

If you can not be bothered to care enough to play the character then why should anyone else be bothered to do more work to make sure that the name is saved?
Level 6.  That is all you need to only have to log that toon in once per year to save the name.  That's not much time, and I am just talking about regular leveling through missions.


But if the name is so important to you, how does it not get onto one of your favorite toons?

[Ghost]

1 DFB run with 2XP gets you to lvl6

Thats a commitment of 10 minutes for your most favorite toon in the whole world that you never play.

Edited November 4 by Ghost

[InvaderStych]

On 11/3/2024 at 8:29 AM, speczero said:

I just realized that my first character and the one that my email name is tied to is only level 4.

 

"First Character" is not really a practical marker. I deleted and restarted at least 4 or 5 characters when I found Homecoming in 2020. I'm willing to guess that I'm not the only player who has done this. Also willing to guess that I'm not the only player who's global name is not shared by any characters. Sure, that's a thing that some people do, but it's not likely to be universal.

 

Your best course of action is either leveling the toon or moving the name to a retired 50.

[tidge]

On 11/4/2024 at 9:15 AM, Ghost said:

1 DFB run with 2XP gets you to lvl6

Thats a commitment of 10 minutes for your most favorite toon in the whole world that you never play.

 

I had two (older) level 1 characters with names I was pretty much just sitting on, and after the name release policy I got two names I had wanted for specific concepts that I hadn't yet played. On a whim, I wanted to minimize any stress over potentially "losing" those names; I took each of these four through either blue or red play, with no XP boosts. Three of the four used only minimal P2W/START purchases (1-hour booster buffs, a travel, 3 prestige attacks). I played the tutorial and then did the starter arcs (Hasby, Kalinda and whatever came next). The longest it took me to get a character to level 6 was something like 50 minutes... that was a redside Stalker... but 50 minutes was about what it took for the others that didn't have Day Job/Patrol XP,

 

A fifth (new, level 1) character for a concept I am somewhat excited to try went through blue-side to level 7 in about 30 minutes, despite spending time to get the Isolator badge in Outbreak. That character did have 2XP, and I was also careful to pace myself and grab Patrol XP from the exploration badges (Atlas Park, Ouroborous, Echo Galaxy City) to maximize XP returns as needed. I only complete Hasby's arc, started the next one but got to level 7 by street sweeping in Echo Galaxy City.

 

TL;DR: go ahead and play that character a little.

[TheMoncrief]

If it were easy enough to implement, I wouldn't object to this change. But I don't see a sufficiently compelling reason for the devs to put in substantial effort implementing it. There is already a solution available - rename one of the 50's on your account to the name, or just level your account namesake.

[OEM61]

On 11/6/2024 at 6:01 AM, InvaderStych said:

 

Also willing to guess that I'm not the only player who's global name is not shared by any characters. Sure, that's a thing that some people do, but it's not likely to be universal.

What they said.

If I knew that my global was supposed to be some cool character name then I would have used a cool character name.  Or at least a name that I thought was a cool character name.

But it isn't, so I used an alphanumeric sequence that means something to me but that are not initials or birth dates or anything like that.  I could use it as a character name, I suppose, but it's not anything that I would be crazy about.

And there is the rub.
I can only have one global name, but I have 8 characters right now and can create up to 1,000.

Someone could come along after that fact, make a global name that is the same as the name of an existing toon, mine or someone else's, and then what?  They are supposed to take that character name from me (or someone else) and award it to the other player on a permanent and irrevocable basis because they used it for their global?  They could drop off the face of the Earth in a week and be sitting on that level 1 toon with a name that I used to have and never lose it because it's their global?
Because if the player is supposed to have the name that matches their global forever then they are supposed to have it.
The idea sets the rule that a player should always have access to their global name as a character name.

So again, no.  This is not an idea that should be considered.

The OP, and everyone else particularly concerned about a character name that they have, should invest the time into playing that character to level 6 and then to level 50 in order to safeguard that name for themselves.

If they can not be bothered to do that then the name isn't that important to them.  Name-hoarding because it matches your global is still name-hoarding if all you do is log the character in once per month, or year, just to keep the name and then go about spending the rest of your time playing other toons.

Edited November 12 by OEM61

[Snarky]

On 11/3/2024 at 8:29 AM, speczero said:

What the title says. I just realized that my first character and the one that my email name is tied to is only level 4. I know I could level it, but have never really felt like it. I do want to keep the name, though. So could the character that has the email tied to it be treated as a level 50 character for name deleting purposes?

so.  you got a few choices here.  move the name.  play the character.  or log in the character once in a while.  or....... you can get everyone else to change the world to suit you.....

[TheMoncrief]

On 11/12/2024 at 5:18 AM, Snarky said:

so.  you got a few choices here.  move the name.  play the character.  or log in the character once in a while.  or....... you can get everyone else to change the world to suit you.....

 

Considering that the problem was just recently *CREATED* by the world changing to be unsuited to the OP, I don't think asking to have the world change reverted in one particular case is particularly unreasonable. Not that I think the solution is really needed, but the relentless mockery and abuse of the idea seems bizarre. If the name release policy had been in place for years, yes, asking for special exceptions for your account namesake would be too much. But for a policy that was literally just put in place in the last patch? Yeah, this is the time when feedback about the name release potentially being flawed should be expected and considered on its own merits, rather than roundly mocked out of hand for asking to change something that has been working since forever.

 

Still likely not worth the dev resources it would take to change things, but not deserving of the level of mockery and derision it's been receiving. And if it turns out it's super simple to change, probably not a bad idea. Not that anything in a code base like CoH is super simple.

[BrandX]

On 11/3/2024 at 9:29 AM, speczero said:

What the title says. I just realized that my first character and the one that my email name is tied to is only level 4. I know I could level it, but have never really felt like it. I do want to keep the name, though. So could the character that has the email tied to it be treated as a level 50 character for name deleting purposes?

 

Is there a reason you don't just get it to level 5 (or was it 6) and then it's just a yearly log in.

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, TheMoncrief said:

If the name release policy had been in place for years, yes, asking for special exceptions for your account namesake would be too much.

The policy has been in place.  For YEARS.  
 

If you move into a house, and there are signs posted that the city does not allow street parking on Thursday. (With a addendum, not currently enforced). Then two years later the city notifies you it will now enforce the policy.  You were notified.  You just do not like the fact because your wheelless 1980 cadillac has been sitting outside your house on the street.  
 

it has been the policy for 3? Or 4? Years. Just not enforced.  But we all knew the day was coming.  Now it is Thursday.  Move the heap in front if your house. Here us an idea.  Put wheels on the F-ing thing and naybe wash it once in a while. 

Edited November 22 by Snarky

[Greycat]

7 hours ago, TheMoncrief said:

Considering that the problem was just recently *CREATED* by the world changing to be unsuited to the OP, I don't think asking to have the world change reverted in one particular case is particularly unreasonable. Not that I think the solution is really needed, but the relentless mockery and abuse of the idea seems bizarre. If the name release policy had been in place for years, yes, asking for special exceptions for your account namesake would be too much. But for a policy that was literally just put in place in the last patch? Yeah, this is the time when feedback about the name release potentially being flawed should be expected and considered on its own merits, rather than roundly mocked out of hand for asking to change something that has been working since forever.

 

Still likely not worth the dev resources it would take to change things, but not deserving of the level of mockery and derision it's been receiving. And if it turns out it's super simple to change, probably not a bad idea. Not that anything in a code base like CoH is super simple.

 

The policy was not put in place in the last patch. It has been *activated,* but the name release *policy,* including the warning system for characters who would be affected, has been in place for years.

 

On top of it, we were given a solid month's warning before the system was made active.

 

This is not (a) a problem or (b) "recently created."

 

As far as any mockery? The original poster says the character is level 4. To make the character safe for *A YEAR AT A TIME,* he has to put in literal minutes of effort (*Gasp!* How horrible!) to get up to *level 6,* and yet they state IN THEIR OWN POST that they don't want to do it.

 

On 11/3/2024 at 10:29 AM, speczero said:

What the title says. I just realized that my first character and the one that my email name is tied to is only level 4. I know I could level it, but have never really felt like it. I do want to keep the name, though. So could the character that has the email tied to it be treated as a level 50 character for name deleting purposes?

 

The only problem to be solved here is their own laziness, and yes, that is an *entirely appropriate* word given their own post. "Change the world so I don't have to do maybe five minutes of "effort" to solve my own problem" doesn't deserve the slightest bit of consideration.

 

Basically, they brought any mockery on themselves.

[Luminara]

14 hours ago, TheMoncrief said:

the relentless mockery and abuse of the idea seems bizarre

 

OP asked for an exception to the name release policy so he/she can retain a name on a character which he/she doesn't want to play, won't log into long enough for someone else to spoon-feed him/her two levels, and isn't even interested enough in the name to transfer it to another of his/her character so he/she doesn't have to worry about losing the name.

 

In other words, exactly the type of behavior the name release policy was enacted to deal with.

 

[megaericzero]

15 hours ago, TheMoncrief said:

this is the time when feedback about the name release potentially being flawed should be expected and considered on its own merits,

No problem. Let's run the tape forward a little in the context of this suggestion.

 

It's free to make accounts, so people can just make infinite alt accounts, each locking in its "namesake." The name-release policy is now effectively null.