Character Selection Screen - Sequence of characters

Gorblimey · 08-09-2010 04:47 PM

Hey there. I've been wondering since I started playing CoH six months ago about the "logic" behind the sequence of characters that appear on the selection screen, after one chooses their server. If someone who actually knows what's up with this, and isn't speculating, could let me know the deal, that'd be great.

I bring this up because I would really like to be able to have control over which order my characters are listed. I know I can "drag" them into a different sequence, but those changes don't stick.

I have noticed that when I make a new character, the sequence will move around just a bit, seemingly randomly, so I've tried to play with this without much luck. Also tried jumping around servers (since someone suggested that) and that didn't help.

Any thoughts?

Texas Justice · 08-09-2010 05:30 PM

If you put a check mark in the box Remember Account Name on the login screen you can move your characters around and it will stick.

It writes the character order to a file in your game directory and then reads that file when you login IF you have that checked. The reason that the Remember Account Name has to be checked is because the file playerslots.txt is stored in a directory named the same as your Account Name. For example, if my Account Name were TechGuru there would be a directory inside my CoH directory called TechGuru and it would contain a file called playerslots.txt that lists the characters and what slot number that name should be in.

Normally, the characters are listed in the order they are created but that can change if you delete a character or two and then create a new character in that slot.

Since they put in the capability to move the character order around I haven't had my characters change places on the screen. I had seen it previously and I assumed it was just a database lookup problem getting them mixed up.

Why they didn't write that feature so that it doesn't require you to check that box and instead just look for the directory by that Account Name when you log in is beyond me. It's possible that they tried to do that but couldn't get it to work right. I really don't know. I just know how it does work so I leave it at that.

If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.

Black Pebble is my new hero.

Kheldarn · 08-09-2010 05:32 PM

The characters are listed in the order you created them. In order for you to rearrange them, and have the changes stick, you must first click the option Remeber Account Name on the Log In Screen.

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Heartbreaker · 08-09-2010 05:47 PM

As long as you're on the same computer, they should be in the order you created them, unless youve switched the order, then it should keep the new order. If you want a more permanent fix that requires a little fiddling, check your City of Heroes directory, you'll see a folder with your account name on it. In that folder should be a file called "playerslots.txt" Open that up and it should look something like the following:

"PlayerName" "Server" "Character" "#"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Character" "3"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Character" "0"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Character" "2"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Character" "4"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Character" "1"

...and so on, for each character you have, by server. Whatever # is shown is the order the characters will appear in, keeping in mind that it starts with 0, not 1. You can even skip numbers to leave a blank space, if you want to separate your heroes and villains, for example:

"PlayerName" "Server" "Hero01" "0"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Hero02" "1"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Hero03" "2"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Villain01" "9"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Villain02" "10"
"PlayerName" "Server" "Villain03" "11"

Would put all of your heroes at the top of the list, and villains at the bottom, with 6 empty spaces between them. Or you could make the villains #12 and up, to be on page 2, and Praetorians #24+ for page 3.

Once you edit them into the order you want, save the file and make it Read-Only, that way the order wont change unless you manually edit it again- which you'll want to if you make any new characters.

If you use multiple computers, you may want to copy your Playerslots.txt file to those other computers so theyll keep the same order. Just in case, I usually make a backup of the original file before I start messing around with it.