List of online players/characters?

I've hunted all over my game settings and interface, looking for a way to list all online characters (or at least those in my current zone), and I'm coming up empty.

Not that I actually have a personal use for this feature. I'm just assuming it must exist judging by some of the scenarios in which I receive blind team invites or whispers:

• I log into the game, my character is inside a building, and there are no other characters present. Nobody can see me, yet I'll get a blind invite within 10 seconds of logging in.

• Standing in front of an ICON employee working on my costume. I would assume that if another player actually spotted me there, they would know that I can't see the invite popup or my chat window while I have the costume creator interface up, and that I'm probably not going to back completely out of the costume creator (and lose my changes) just to see what that little beep was about.

• Flying at high speed through a zone and, as a result, being hard to click on, or even read my name as I go by, and getting invite popups.

So I have to assume people are seeing my character on some list and they're inviting me from there. Where the heck is this list?

Are you a member of a SG? Other members can see if you are online.

or

They are using /search command or the one via the team window.

or

They are server/global friends. I believe you are sent a message if your "friend" is online. Note that server friends don't require you to OK the friend status so it's possible many players who you may have teamed in the past simply have you tagged as a friend.

Also, a lot of folks are used to /who in other games, and in CoH /who brings up the Search Window, so even newbies will find it.

Also, /WhoAll will list everyone in your current zone who is not hidden in the chat box.

If being found annoys you... Try: /hide or /hideall
Those will keep you off the radar from everyone except Gawd and the GMs.

//tangent//

A good way to find out about someone who talks in /help or wherever to request teams or whatever, but doesn't give any information about what they're playing:

/who <name>

Pops the search window open with their name filled out and does an automatic search on them. This tells you their level and archetype, and what zone they're in. (I wish they'd drop the origin marker and put an alignment marker in there instead. Being able to see incarnate +'s would be awesome too.)

If they don't show up on your search, they either A) belong to the opposite faction, or B) are a gray alignment currently in an opposite faction zone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Heh. I opened the search window while I was in Skyway City. It showed just me and one other person.

Hit the search button again. It's been doing that to me as well.

I just tried it again while standing inside the University in Steel Canyon, with 5-6 other characters standing right in front of me, and the initial window said "No heroes found!". I clicked the "Search" button again, and it gave me a very long list.

When using the /search command the window appears showing those in the current zone with you. Those NOT shown are those from a different faction and those that are hidden. With the search window open and clicking the "search" button in the window results in a compiled search of all characters from your faction. The window only shows a maximum of 50 names. Repeating the search button will load the next batch of names until all non-hidden are shown. The pull down windows in the search are self explanatory.

I have encountered an issue when using the search command where no one is listed and a refresh was needed. Similar to your university experiment. It is possible those around you were hidden. Were their names present upon a refresh of the search window?