BrandX

Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex

I don't get the hate for minimal FX for elemental shield types. The reason it may not be visible as an armor is that sometimes it's that the character is made of the element. A blue ice dude doesn't have to be wrapped in a second ice sheet specifically. It's actually less silly than that a set like Willpower could tank alongside Invulnerability.

Originally Posted by GetBackJack

I foresaw this response, and I should've headed it off in the original post.

Make sense? In a game in which people fly and summon demons, etc.?

And Minimal FX for those could actually be minimal. Maybe it could be barely perceptible, but it doesn't have to completely shroud my toon in special effects.

Originally Posted by Fusion_7

I think I only have two toons that have numbers "with" their names but not integrated within their names. For Gemlin I probably would have gone the "e" route. "e" can sound like an "i". So if Gremlin is taken, I would have tried Gremlen with an "e" first. It still sounds that same when you say it. If that was taken, then maybe I would try a play on the word Gremlin. If female, Gremliana or Gremliotta for example. For Males, Gremlock or Gremland or something that sounds masculine.

The thinking here is when and if you change out a letter, make sure if read it will still sound like what you intended it to sound like. Case in point, Phoenix sounds like Fhenix. Domenitra sounds like Dominitra. I would never mix numbers with letters as in your example Grem1in using the "1" to substitute an "l". I see this all the time and this kind of tells me that maybe the OP just gave-up on trying to come-up with a name. Yeah, it may take a bit of thinking sometimes, but if and when you can come up with a good name, it's yours and no one else has it or can take it away. And "that" is what makes the individuality of this game work so well.

Originally Posted by Fusion_7

Not if people know that the most common names most likely would be taken. Most intelligent people who play MMO's will probably assume that the spelling of Fhenix is a take on Phoenix. Of course I would have used Phoenix if it was available. I think you missed my point on what I was trying to say in my post. I would go back and re-read again what I said and soak it in better.

Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane

I can't respond to several different ongoing conversations at once and effectively communicate in all of them.

I'm not sold on name purges.

Chase says it best:



Also, name purges as the devs do them usually do nothing for the person who camps a name with an active account. Even if you purge characters who haven't been played in X number of days, people will still log them for 30 seconds just to beat the system.

And the fact of the matter is, I'm on both sides of that issue:
I'm sitting on a few names too, for when I have the time to devote to launching them/making a build push. I sit on them because I don't want to lose the name, but at the same time, I'd have no qualms about sharing them with someone if I can still use them too.


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Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane

This would just result in a wave of people re-subbing a week before the scrub just to secure their name before vanishing again at the end of the month.

Even if they don't use the name any more and even if they had never intended to come back before hearing about the purge, they will return just to keep the name.
That's human nature.

You can see how much people fuss over being asked to just to possibly share a name in this thread. Losing a name even though they never use it? Yeah, they'll pony up $15, some just out of spite. Then they'll come to the forum and complain about it.



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Originally Posted by BlackArachnia

Yet you have failed to provide a good reason for it to happen. Cross server teaming can be handled with a simple title under the name signifying the server they could be from. That is an easy issue.

Sever mergers, or heaven forbid single server games, are another issue all together. Yes, at that point they have to add the number or a @hereismyglobal, but then, as is mentioned every time someone drags this dead horse out; what happens when you are merged to a server with fewer slots than you have toons. We all know what happens there.

How about Super Group names. I, for one, would not relish being joined with another super group that shared my groups name.

Yet those are tangents.

Multiple names are very distracting, require loads of work so that when you see two different Johnny Butanes in chat, but can't see either of them, you can tell the globals of each so you report the right one, and break immersion for most people. Now, I will admit that there is a point that someone gone for 3 years or more may not be coming back. But they might as well. I took a year off between a couple of issues a couple of times, due to content being lackluster or the game simply not doing it for me. I know I would be ticked to come back and find my name was gone.

Originally Posted by Fusion_7

I'm going to start this off with a piece I wrote awhile back in City Life - CoH & CoV Discussions Titled "Good Character Names Are Running Out Huh?" by Samuel_Tow

I think one of the funnest parts of the game is in naming your Toons. As you can see, based on my signature below, I have a few toons with very different names. For example, my level 50 Controller Dark Braven, I originally wanted to call her Dark Raven,..and we all know that name is pretty much taken. So, I had to pull up Dictionary.com, spell certain words by removing the "R" in Raven and see what I could come up with. After further thought, I then said to myself, my toon will be Brave and have a Dark side to her. So, I just combined Brave with Raven and got Dark Braven. For my other toon Zambrosia, I orginally wanted to name her Ambrosia, which is greek for food of the gods. Nope, already taken. So, using my Braven technique, I just dropped the "A" and added a "Z" and got Zambrosia. Ta-Da!

I also use a lot of greek goddess names for reference in naming my toons. The easy part is all my toons are women and I always take careful consideration in wanting to give them the best name and to make it easy for anyone who has to type my name in to send me a tell. Fusion 7 was my first toon and I used a number with the name as the name Fusion was already taken. In my toons description, I said it would take all 7 nuclei to combine to form a powerful explosion for her wondrous Nova. So, I was able to tie the name to the toons personality and attributes.

For another one of my toons, I wanted a "cat" theme with her so I ended up calling her "Cattalina". Originally wanted to spell it as Catalina like the island off of California but it was taken so I just added another "t" to make it Cattalina. You know it sounds like Catalina, it has a "cat" reference to it and is still pronounced the same way. See how that works? My last toon I rolled, Fhenix, I wanted to call Phoenix, the bird that rises from the ashes,..you can see the fun in this I hope. Picking a name to fit your toons personality. Anyways, after several, and I mean about a good hours worth of time, after several attempts I finally came up with Fhenix for my Fire/Kin Controller. Easy to spell, and when you look at it, you know it will sound like "Phoenix". Problem solved. Recently when I was building a new toon for Praetoria, I built a Domintor. I wanted to call her Dominitra but that name was taken. So, I changed the “i” to an “e” and got Domentra. Still sounds the same but I just had to compromise since the original name was already taken.

I think it should be the players right to claim the name for as long as they want it since they were creative enough to come up with it. I also think you can get by without having to add periods or Xx by the name to change it up. Just follow how I did it above and you should have no problem finding good names for your toons.

Good character names are not running out, just peoples imaginations. As you can see from my post, with a little thought you too can make a name for yourself.

Originally Posted by Feycat

What part of that was unclear to you? The majority of the people in that room, and the majority of the people in this thread, do not seem to want the system to insist on pushing at us, and find the current system perfectly equitable.

I do agree with Eva that accounts that were never linked to a global should have ALL their names released if possible, as well as trial accounts, and I even think that accounts that have been inactive for 3 years or more should have everything up to say 25 released. But I think the system you're proposing is clunky and annoying, and there have been many perfectly good refutations of it in this thread.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

I think this is where a lot of the schism is. For you, these are the exception. For me, they're the norm and "descriptive" names are the exception. The only real super hero name I have is Captain Indivisible, and I designed him as a bit of super hero parody, a kid who gained super powers from playing a lot of video games who picked the name because it was the first thing that came to his mind, and basically grew up with it.

My names beyond that? Grimwall. Morten. Iprit. Ezikiel Bane. Crash McGuier. Kyle Young. Slime Girl. Pandala. And, of course, Samuel Tow. You can see the pattern here.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

My names would probably not apply (I used an X-Com ripoff of T'lerth and a Warrior #1 sound effect of Shaffakoom), but as of Going Rogue, I've actually snagged at least a couple of names that should apply. One was Brutticus, which I brought in from another game, and the other was honest-to-god Leningrad.

Oh, and I also managed to snag Duriel, which surprised the hell out of me.

Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade

In general, I think will power is the perfect secondary for all ATs. I really hate click powers for defense. I want to kill things. I don't want to protect myself.

My ideal secondary would have 4 toggles, 3 auto powers, and 1 offensive aura and 1 offensive click. No tier-9 godmode. Thematically? I'd like a phase/teleport defense set. You know the one from anime where the bad guy (good guys never get this power) goes. Fwoosh! and vanishes, then reappears behind a good guy and creams him. I want THAT. it screams stalker. And no 2 second teleport activation time. 0.000000 not even 1 server tick activation. Instant. poof. Preferably no animation. Just gone. Exactly like the version from anime. they dn't gesture and vanish, they're just gone.

My ideal primary would have AS and 1 other slow hard-hitting attacks. All the rest would be faster than claws with no rooted time. pure buzzsaw, fast moving, in and out to go with the teleport defense. Just be all over the field. Instead of placate, have a followup clone that lets you cream someone and placate them all at once.

Originally Posted by Judas_Ace

You're right, those are crappy names. I'm sorry that your creativity is so lacking that that's the best you can come up with. In the meantime, I have no problem getting normal, english, superhero sounding names whenever I want.

Originally Posted by warden_de_dios

Lets talk about you and your actions in your made up scenerio. You go change your name to Johnny Hot Pants. You're still one starred by the people who say you spouting racist junk in broadcast.

If you misbehave in broadcast people can click on your name and report you by global, they can star you (which is tied to your global) or they can ignore you which might be by global.

This game has a system that lets us keep track of those who are jerks and those who are not. Players don't have to remember that johnny hot pants who was once jonny butune is a racist jerk, the game will keep a note of that for us.

Originally Posted by Judas_Ace

I play on Virtue, Freedom and Champion. I don't have problems getting names.

People just need to use some intelligence and creativity (i.e. stop trying to be "Captain Shadow", "Midnight Hawk" or "Spawn of Darkness") and they'll find that there are plenty of good names.

Originally Posted by Leo_G

What do you think is the perfect set for stalkers (multi-fold question)? I ask because, as far as I can tell, there were no sets (barring 1) specifically made and balanced for the AT. Every set Stalkers get is a hand-me-down from another AT. But what if that were going to change?

-Primary or Secondary, which sets do you feel is most aesthetically fitting for stalker and why?

-Primary or Secondary, which sets are just great performers? For teams, solo, PvP, or just in your opinion?

-If the devs were planning to make a powerset specifically for the Stalker AT with its style in-mind (and proliferate it later), what do you think would/should be in it? How would it play? What might/should it look like?

Keep in mind, the set should and would be proliferated to the other melees and shouldn't require too much alteration to work. That said, it doesn't have to play perfectly on the other ATs, just Stalker.