It used to be even less.
I think it has to do with server space. Longer names also means more possible names, and thus, more toons.
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I know... but that still doesn't answer the question.|
Originally Posted by Derangedpolygot
It used to be even less.
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Ashes to ashes,
Pheonyx
The Cape Radio
"It's good to have friends. Wish I did." - Troy Hickman
Yeah, it used to be limited to 15 characters. Jack had it increased to 20 for the launch of City of Villains so that people could name their characters 'Evil So and so'.
Not that it would work if you had a character with a name that was 15 characters long. But that's how Jack rolls.
Maybe we can get them to look into increasing it again, after GR launches...
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Because 20+ characters would be ostentatious.
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Originally Posted by Pheonyx
I know... but that still doesn't answer the question.
Ashes to ashes, Pheonyx |
Had to choose some place to stop. However, if you have a full 20 character name, it gets squished pretty bad on team window. ESPECIALLY now that super side kicking moves all but one of the team members over a character or two worth of space on the team window.
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
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This is pretty much what I was thinking but I can't find any developer comments on it.|
Originally Posted by _Pine_
Had to choose some place to stop. However, if you have a full 20 character name, it gets squished pretty bad on team window. ESPECIALLY now that super side kicking moves all but one of the team members over a character or two worth of space on the team window.
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One of the things I've been banging-on about in some recent posts is how the developers have to account for everybody that plays the game. Not everybody is going to have a 1920*1200 display resolution. Not everybody is going to be able to read 10point fonts. Not everybody is going to use a space-efficient font.
At some physical point there is a limitation over how many characters can be included in a name that can be reasonably displayed with the default fonts and user-interface configuration. 20 characters is actually a little bit longer than 800*600 resolution screens can reasonably handle on default configurations.
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Um, the other part of my response did to the best of my knowledge. Frankly, only the devs could tell you why.|
Originally Posted by Pheonyx
I know... but that still doesn't answer the question.
Ashes to ashes, Pheonyx |
No need to be snarky.
The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister.
--The Question, JLU
Quote:
The 20 character limit for names really has little to do with database/server limitations. Come on people this is not 1960 here. Server disk space is so cheap and abundant these days that this game could probably allow every character to have names that were 100 characters long each and still only fill up a fraction of a terabyte. |
Originally Posted by Pheonyx
Why are character names limited to only 20 characters? Was this an arbitrary decision? Why 20 instead of say 25? Is this a database limit issue (yes, I know that the parameter is set to 20, but would it have actually broken the database if the parameter was set higher)?
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No the reason they currently limit our names to 20 characters has more to do with what _Pine_ and je_saist were talking about. It's more a formatting/GUI thing to make sure the way people's names are displayed is reasonable and tidy. Ultimately yes it was an arbitrary decision, but like many things in software development it was a compromise between satisfying the needs of the majority of players versus making sure the GUI screens were formatted correctly.
I'm not against people having the personal freedom to have huge names, but honestly in teaming situations I find it a PITA to deal with having to invite or chat to people with long names. That's actually part of the reason why most of my characters have relatively short names to begin with. YMMV.
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But ostentatious is only 12 |
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Because 20+ characters would be ostentatious.
|
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I used to be so pissed off that I couldn't use "The Crimson Temptation" since that was for the character's concept and backstory. It was a continuation on one of my first characters when I rerolled him to make him a Warshade. I got so sick of the name I went with, "Cerise Impulse", that I rerolled him again but as a villain.
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Did you try naming it just "Crimson Temptation" and use the game's title feature to add the "The" in front of it?
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Originally Posted by Psychoti
I used to be so pissed off that I couldn't use "The Crimson Temptation" since that was for the character's concept and backstory. It was a continuation on one of my first characters when I rerolled him to make him a Warshade. I got so sick of the name I went with, "Cerise Impulse", that I rerolled him again but as a villain.
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I may be wrong, but I think that when you try and type in a "The" at the first of your name it auto erases because of the (useless) option to choose a "the".
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Database is only one part of equation. You also have internal data structures and wire protocol that, perhaps, are hardcoded to use 20 characters as maximum name size. In order to change name size, devs would have to change underlying code as well.
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Originally Posted by Lothic
The 20 character limit for names really has little to do with database/server limitations. Come on people this is not 1960 here. Server disk space is so cheap and abundant these days that this game could probably allow every character to have names that were 100 characters long each and still only fill up a fraction of a terabyte.
No the reason they currently limit our names to 20 characters has more to do with what _Pine_ and je_saist were talking about. It's more a formatting/GUI thing to make sure the way people's names are displayed is reasonable and tidy. Ultimately yes it was an arbitrary decision, but like many things in software development it was a compromise between satisfying the needs of the majority of players versus making sure the GUI screens were formatted correctly. I'm not against people having the personal freedom to have huge names, but honestly in teaming situations I find it a PITA to deal with having to invite or chat to people with long names. That's actually part of the reason why most of my characters have relatively short names to begin with. YMMV. |
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Changing this software might be a non-trivial task today. But there's nothing purely software related alone that would have prevented the Devs from giving us 100 character long names from the very beginning. |
Originally Posted by NordBlast
Database is only one part of equation. You also have internal data structures and wire protocol that, perhaps, are hardcoded to use 20 characters as maximum name size. In order to change name size, devs would have to change underlying code as well.
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As I mentioned the choice to limit our names had to be considered in the greater context of GUI formatting and practically from a metagaming point of view. Software, databases and/or network bandwidth didn't drive the choice all by themselves - many subjective design factors got considered in this case as well. I can assure you, as a software engineer with nearly 20 years of professional experience, that the current name size limit of 20 was an arbitrary value derived as a compromise between all the various issues involved.
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Because a name stops being catchy, interesting, or at all cool after the 8th syllable.
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How is "the" as a title a useless option? It's proven very nice and useful in the past, especially since NPCs don't use your titles when talking to you. Think Batman, for example. He is frequently called "The Bat" when talked about, but simply Bat when talked to. It impies a uniqueness.
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Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
I may be wrong, but I think that when you try and type in a "The" at the first of your name it auto erases because of the (useless) option to choose a "the".
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I imagine that another factor in the 15/20 character limit was that before the devs added the ability to right click on a name in the chat window there was a lot more typing involved in sending team invites, etc.
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That's ironically a more realistic game design reason than trying to assume there's some kind of hardwired software/hardware limitation preventing them from storing big names in their databases. |
Originally Posted by Xzero45
Because a name stops being catchy, interesting, or at all cool after the 8th syllable.
|
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Actually, "Evil " and "Dark " and "Anti-" all take up five spaces. 15 + 5 = 20. |
Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Yeah, it used to be limited to 15 characters. Jack had it increased to 20 for the launch of City of Villains so that people could name their characters 'Evil So and so'.
Not that it would work if you had a character with a name that was 15 characters long. But that's how Jack rolls. Maybe we can get them to look into increasing it again, after GR launches... |
I wouldn't mind some more spaces, though. Been using a name scheme that leaves me with a small amount of room to spare.
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Quote:
The original name for my Fire/Rad was Dozey the Radioactive TeddyBear bUt that just wouldn't fit |
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Because 20+ characters would be ostentatious.
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So I settled upon Doze Toxic Teddybear. We make do with 20.
Enjoy your day please.
Why would you need a character with a name longer than 20 characters? It becomes too much at that point.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Because 20+ characters would be ostentatious.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by jacktar
But ostentatious is only 12
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Quote:
The other part to your message did not exist when I quoted you... the time stamp shows you edited your post one minute after I posted my reply.|
Originally Posted by Derangedpolygot
Um, the other part of my response did to the best of my knowledge. Frankly, only the devs could tell you why.
No need to be snarky. |
Don't try to make me a bad guy when you edited your post after I quoted your post fully.
Ashes to ashes,
Pheonyx
The Cape Radio
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This is something that I have been curious about but haven't been able to find a real answer.
Why are character names limited to only 20 characters? Was this an arbitrary decision? Why 20 instead of say 25? Is this a database limit issue (yes, I know that the parameter is set to 20, but would it have actually broken the database if the parameter was set higher)?
I have no real problem with it being 20 characters, just was wondering the reasoning behind it.
Ashes to ashes,
Pheonyx
The Cape Radio
"It's good to have friends. Wish I did." - Troy Hickman