Part_Troll's Name Thread.

Hello World.

I've rejoined CoX, for Issue 21.

With >100 characters sitting at 300+ days idle, the first thing I did was roll a new character on one of the 'new' European servers.

"Skylar Beretta" on Union. She's a Dual Pistols/Devices Blaster, and a Praetorian at the moment, and she's ok. (If Maintenance hadn't hit Every Single Weeknight, I'd actually have gotten to play her ...).

So why post a thread about a fairly ordinary name? Weeeeeelll, I saw someone elses extensive thread about their new name 'Llydia', and I know that many people have a great deal of difficulty thinking up names, or are disappointed when their name of choice is 'taken'.

Names can have 20 letters/numbers/special characters, even if you don't include CaSe ChAnGeS, the number of possible combinations is staggeringly huge.

26 letters 10 digits 4 special characters, thats 40 unique identifiers per character slot.

20^40. Twenty to the power 40.

It's a number so large, it is beyond reasonable expression. It is more than the number of stars in our galaxy (which is a mighty four hundred billion, or 400,000,000,000)

I think it's something like 1,099,511,627,776,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations (not including case-changes, which bumps it up enormously)

So when someone says 'oh, my favourite name Super Scrapper has been taken, wahh', I look at the possibilities, and their single choice, and shake my head in amazement.

Lets look at Super Scrapper.

14 letters. That gives us six more letters, or 6^40 choices to -modify- that name to something unique. thats over four thousand million different variants of "Super Scrapper"

Lets see, we could go with Colours.

Blue Super Scrapper
Brown Super Scrapper
Super Scrapper Black
Super Scrapper White
Super White Scrapper
Super Lime Scrapper

Or use the old CB Radio Alphabet

Super Scrapper Tango
Super Scrapper Romeo
Super Scrapper Abel
Delta Super Scrapper
Super Golf Scrapper
Super Scrapper XRay

How about Fast Food variants?

Super Scrapper KFC
Super Scrapper McD
Super Scrapper Wendy
Super Scrapper Macca
Super Scrapper TacoB

Or Devices?

Super Scrapper iPod
Super Scrapper iPad
Super Scrapper Phone
Super Scrapper Berry
Super Scrapper Cell
Super Scrapper Droid
Super Scrapper Nexus
Super Scrapper Palm
Super Scrapper Rolex
Super Scrapper Timex

The list is -literally- endless. And that's just for the 'one name you have to have'.

Pick something you like, and add a modifier to it, then it's easy to get a unique and interesting and -pertinent- name that fits the bill.

Enjoy. Make a game of it. Don't fret. And don't think that someone lucky enough to get Sundiver is somehow 'better' than your modified choice of Sundiver Prime, or Sundiver Omega, or Sundiver Aphex Prime ...

Wow, Freedom really is bringing out the old-timers. I'm pretty sure I saw a post by LadySadako sometime in the last month and Mr. Samoa is hanging around again. It's going to be Old Home Week pretty soon.

ObNameAdvice

Thesaurus.com is your friend. Even if your first choice is taken, there's a good chance that you can find something just as colorful by picking a word or phrase with a similar meaning as your preferred phrase.

I have to go with SlickRiptide on this: I'd rather use the Thesaurus than skew my original name idea. If my name were John Adams, and I happened to know another "John Adams," I would change my name. I would not turn my name into "J0hN AdAmS," or "Real John Adams."

A character's name is an identity. I'd rather have a completely unique identity, rather than a skewed version of another character's.

Even if my first choice of "identity" is taken by an inactive trial account...

_

I really don't like the naming conventions that you mentioned in your post. Just because you can use up to 20 characters in your name doesn't mean that should use 20 characters for your name. Same with the special characters and numbers, just because they're there, doesn't mean you should use them.

You don't see the numerous other Green Lanterns calling themselves "G4EEn 1antern?" and "Blue-Green Lantern" just because there's already a Green Lantern around.

People who post things like "There are infinite possibilities for names!" and the whole "There are plenty of names if you don't mind them not being very good" shtick are in denial, and I shake my head in amazement at them. It's fine for you to be content with "Super Scrapper Romeo" but Juliet will be committing suicide for other reasons, namely your awful name.

Yes, the possibilities are physically endless, but at some point you're going to run into names that are too long to fit into SG Roster without cutting part of the name cut off, or names that are so long that their font needs to be minimized to fit onto the Team Display. And adding special characters besides a "." after Ms, Mrs, Mr, Dr, and Jr, is pathetic. You mine as well just throw in the towel and request a GM turn your name into "Generic 001234564654" because that's all you are, Generic, because your not the original of the name you tried to get before adding the "." to it.

But I am glad it works for you

Edit: Welcome back to the game, I hope you enjoy Issue 21! It seems like it'll be a pretty awesome update to the game!

I love the Euro servers. So far I've gotten names like Stray Dog, Varmint and Ironsmith.

I remember that avatar and name

"Super Scapper?" Really? Heh.

Lame.

Semantics and Nit-picks! :P

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Originally Posted by Part_Troll Names can have 20 letters/numbers/special characters, even if you don't include CaSe ChAnGeS, the number of possible combinations is staggeringly huge.

Case changes don't matter. "Roderick", "RoDeRiCk", "roderick" and "RODERICK" are all the same name.

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26 letters 10 digits 4 special characters, thats 40 unique identifiers per character slot. 20^40. Twenty to the power 40.

Actually, it's 40^20.

The first character must be alphanumeric. That reduces it to 36 x 40^19

If the first four characters are "The ", they get moved to the title field. This reduces it to (36 x 40^19) - (40^16).

Trailing spaces and consecutive spaces are not permitted. This is a far more complex formula.

Furthermore, this only determines the number of 20 character names. The base number, before eliminating invalid names, is 40^3 + 40^4 + 40^5 + ... + 40^19 + 40^20, or 1.1545 x 10^32.

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It's a number so large, it is beyond reasonable expression. It is more than the number of stars in our galaxy (which is a mighty four hundred billion, or 400,000,000,000) I think it's something like 1,099,511,627,776,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations (not including case-changes, which bumps it up enormously)

20^40 actually has 16 more zeroes than what your answer. However, the correct amount that I gave above has 4 zeroes less - it's actually 0.01% of your number. And that's before eliminating a huge number of names that cannot be entered due to the limitations listed above. Then you need to eliminate all the names blocked by the filter.

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So when someone says 'oh, my favourite name Super Scrapper has been taken, wahh', I look at the possibilities, and their single choice, and shake my head in amazement.

Yes, there are literally billions of trillions of trillions of possible alternates. Hovever, many of them are "sdfujighfc". Are you honestly suggesting that? If not, then remove 90% or more of the possibilities from your list.

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Lets look at Super Scrapper. 14 letters. That gives us six more letters, or 6^40 choices to -modify- that name to something unique. thats over four thousand million different variants of "Super Scrapper"

Since you can add those characters at the beginning, end, in the middle, or any or all of the above, it's a lot more than that. How's "xX Super Scrapper Xx"?

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Lets see, we could go with Colours. Blue Super Scrapper Brown Super Scrapper Super Scrapper Black Super Scrapper White Super White Scrapper Super Lime Scrapper

Awkward, but useable. I've never liked multiple adjectives in a name.

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Or use the old CB Radio Alphabet Super Scrapper Tango Super Scrapper Romeo Super Scrapper Abel Delta Super Scrapper Super Golf Scrapper Super Scrapper XRay

These are better, especially if part of a team. Super Golf Scrapper needs to wait for i21 to be released, and needs to beg David and Jay for new weapon models for Mace.

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How about Fast Food variants? Super Scrapper KFC Super Scrapper McD Super Scrapper Wendy Super Scrapper Macca Super Scrapper TacoB

You mean:

Generic 000 001 946
Generic 000 001 947
Generic 000 001 948
Generic 000 001 949
Generic 000 001 950

All those brand names are Trademarked, and thus off-limits. And who wants to be a corporate sponsored superhero anyways? Finally, what the heck is a Macca?

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Or Devices? Super Scrapper iPod Super Scrapper iPad Super Scrapper Phone Super Scrapper Berry Super Scrapper Cell Super Scrapper Droid Super Scrapper Nexus Super Scrapper Palm Super Scrapper Rolex Super Scrapper Timex

Several of those are Generic bait too. And none of them are very inspiring names either.

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The list is -literally- endless. And that's just for the 'one name you have to have'.

I thought that the first thing you did was to calculate the number of possible names. Even though your number was wrong, it still proved that there are a finite number of names. That means that the list most definitely has both a beginning and end.

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Pick something you like, and add a modifier to it, then it's easy to get a unique and interesting and -pertinent- name that fits the bill.

So... how is Super Blue McDonald's Scrapper Whiskey Tango Foxtrot a relevant name to any powerset, or most concepts?

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Enjoy. Make a game of it. Don't fret. And don't think that someone lucky enough to get Sundiver is somehow 'better' than your modified choice of Sundiver Prime, or Sundiver Omega, or Sundiver Aphex Prime ...

Frankly, I found most of your suggestions pretty bad. Granted, you were starting with a pretty horrible name. But that just means it should have been easy to improve on it. The thesaurus route is still, in my opinion, best. Sticking with an alliterative theme, and going a few synonyms deep, you get Brave Brawler, Fantastic Fighter, Wonderful Warrior, Sovereign Soldier. Throw in some antonyms and you get Powerful Pacifist, Devious Duelist, Vicious Vanguard. And I could come up with a powerset or concept for any of those far easier than I could for a Super Cellphone Scrapper.