idea for name displays in-game

[Aduin]

I\'m sorry Fiere, I think i missed your point before. I wasn\'t even thinking of any way of keeping track of charecter name in game. My hope(this is why I said earlier that it would require a ton of charecter customization,) was that people would know eachother by word of mouth alone, and then remeber people by their faces(a little too complex and idealistic i now realise.) The problem with an introduction function is that you wouldn\'t be able to give out a false name or something to someone, and thus go undercover. Unless, the introdction command let you type in what name you told the other person. So for them, they\'ll always see you as your alias, or fake name, which could become a complicated charade for the rogue to keep up in game =).

[Aruneko]

I don\'t think that you should be able to give any other name using a command, but you can by saying your name is something else.  After all, you can refuse to give out your identity.

The commands should go something like this:

Inquisitor types: /request ID

Inquisitor targets someone.

On Someone\'s screen a message appearas and notifies them that their ID is being requested.

If Someone agrees, he types: /request accepted
Otherwise, Someone types: /request denied

Or something like that.

The best thing for all this I think, is that you cannot reverse the command, and that you cannot use other names.  Perhaps you should be able to reverse it if the other person agrees to it using another command, though.

[Aduin]

Originally posted by Aruneko

This could easily allow thieves to go undercover, as they could refuse to let people know their real name, and just tell them their alias.

Somehow I doubt any undercover rogue will get very far with the system you\'re proposing. It\'s like \"no, I won\'t tell you my real name, but you can call me such-and-such.\" Anyone that denies giving out their real name clearly has a reason to hide it. Plus then, if you just give someone your alias, not your real name, they will have no way of identifying you in the future. You won\'t have any name above your head for them.

[Tarek]

Originally posted by Aduin

Somehow I doubt any undercover rogue will get very far with the system you\'re proposing. It\'s like \"no, I won\'t tell you my real name, but you can call me such-and-such.\" Anyone that denies giving out their real name clearly has a reason to hide it. Plus then, if you just give someone your alias, not your real name, they will have no way of identifying you in the future. You won\'t have any name above your head for them.

That is THE whole point! So people that you don\'t want to know you, don\'t. Ok.. Suppose that you are a rogue/thief and you just stole from someone. Would you like that person to see your name flashing above your head? Personally, I wouldn\'t want my name flashing above my head. Then they can get friends after you. I would rather have it go this way:

Thief: *Notices a group of adventurers talking outside of the local bank. He scans over them for awhile and notices that one of the adventurers has a fat sack of gold on him. He stealthfully creeps over to the one that has the fat sack of gold. He quickly and quietly snatches the gold off the fellow adventurer. Begins to walk away at a fast pace*

Adventurer: *He abruptly stops chatting and noticed a slight tug at his belt. He glances down and notices that his sack of gold is gone.* \"Hey! I have been swindled!\"
*He frantically looks around and notices a figure walking away at a fast pace. He notices that the fellow is wearing a brownish colored cape that has a hood on it, and that he is also wearing leather pants.* \"That is the guy that got my stash! Get him!\"

Thief: *Runs away and hides for a moment, only to take off the clothes he was wearing over his other set of clothing. Tosses the old clothes into a nearby bush. Walks back into view for the adventurer to see him.*

Adventurer: *Runs up to the fellow and begins talking to him.* \"Excuse me sir, but did you see a fellow running through here with a brown colored cape with leather leggings on?\"

Thief: \"Yes. He ran that way!\" *Points north toward the mountains*

Adventurer: \"Thanks! Come on boys, let\'s go get us a thief!\" *As he shouts to his buddies behind him*

You see, if he would of had the name above his head, they would have known that it was the same guy. Thus concludes my long ass post. (Sorry it was so long )

[Wormtail_]

Good idea, Aelya!

Having no names shown is very advantageous. Like others said, nobody will be able to start following you, and that it is more realistic. Also, people following you can pose a problem, as I know too well in Runescape, since I\'ve heard people complain about newbies following them and begging for \'free stuff.\' If they don\'t know your name, you can get rid of them easily, like Tarek said(kind of).

I only agree with hiding race and sex if the character is hiding himself completely, as that would be more realistic and that people who don\'t want to be seen not seen. Otherwise, the race and sex should appear.

About the request identity problem, I think that all you have to do is something like right-clicking(or however it\'s done) on the character and click \'request identity.\' The person either accepts or declines, and things will be kept short and simple. However, I\'m not sure if that should also give away your own information...

[BaretteDeBeurre]

i think that nothing should be written above(or under) the characters. You should be able to request a name, like said above, and the requested character can accept or refuse. If he refuses, the other character shouldn\'t be able to request it anymore, but the requested player should be able, if he wants, to give a name later. If we give a name, the player will see the given name above the requested character each time he\'ll see him, even if it\'s a false name. If the name given is a false, the player should be able, if ha wants, to give his reel identity later.

[Aruneko]

Originally posted by Wormtail_
I only agree with hiding race and sex if the character is hiding himself completely, as that would be more realistic and that people who don\'t want to be seen not seen. Otherwise, the race and sex should appear.

Maybe a player can set an option that will enable him to see the race and gender of others.  Race and gender shouldn\'t be able to be a secret, its way too obvious to be hidden.  (unless someone is sitting under a blanket.)

About giving fake names to display above your head, I think that is giving way too much power to the players.

[Fiere]

I agree with you Aruneko, giving people the ability to use aliases creates a dangerous precedent. NO matter how many safeguards you put up people will abuse the system.  I think the simple idea of not knowing names until some sort of introduction by commands or right clicking or whatever is best.

Meanwhile for logging purposes players should have an anonymous name that the devs can connect to the player. Lets say Soandso abuses some game aspect and it causes an unfair problems for Whatchamacallit, but Soandso has not yet introduced herself to him so he cannot report her. Unless it was recorded in Whatchamacallit\'s logs as something like Avatar658. When Whatchamacallit reports the problem the devs have a record of Avatar658 being Soandso. All players would have an autmatic anonymous name for this recording purpose so players with issues dont have a total lack of recourse.

Jeez I hope that made sense hehe.

[Aduin]

Of course theres something that distinguishes your charecter from others. It\'s called your account name Fiere. =P Getting back to the other points though. I think my idea was misunderstood. My whole point, Wormtail, was that nothing should appear above your head for that exact reason. The idea I was countering in that post was the simple yes no abilities of the proposed introduction system. If you were to try to join a guild undercover, you obviously wouldn\'t want them to know your real name. The only way they wouldn\'t know your real name, would be if you declined the introduction feature. No one will trust anyone that declines to give out their real name. Ok. That\'s clarified.

Next, I still think that it\'s pointless to have someones race/sex shown above their head. If you can\'t tell what someone is, it means that either a) they don\'t want you to know, and they\'re covering themself up, or b) the devs did a poor job on charecter graphics. After seeing what they\'ve done so far though, I bet that the charecters are going to be detailed enough, so that you won\'t need their name/gender displayed.

I don\'t see how allowing people to tell different people different names would be a problem though. Anyone you trust(your guild members, friends, etc.) you would give your real name to. People that you don\'t trust, you could give a fake name. Maybe this could be a skill or something to prevent abuse. Maybe you have to give out your real name, but there\'s a skill, like lying or something, that allows you to give a fake name to someone. There could also be a skill to detect people that are lying, or truth spells. I dunno, I think cross-guild espianage, would be virtually impossible without fake names of some sort.

[Fiere]

But if my name is not displayed how do others know what it is Aduin? My point is that the anonymous status should not allow people to get away with abuse and there should be a some system to prevent that.

[Aduin]

Agreed Fiere. Perhaps some blend of ideas would be most useful here. Ok,
a) there will be an introduction command, where if you introduce yourself to someone else, your name will appear above your head for them.
b) there should be a lie command, where a randomly generated name will appear above your head. This should be risky, and charisma, and some kind of deception skill could play a part in furthering your odds. c) There should also be sense lie abilities. So you can catch someones bluff, and then know that they\'re a spy, or someone that isn\'t to be trusted.
d) The problem then is, you always appear to them as that false name, and that would never change. There needs to be some way that you can forget names. Honestly, will you remember everyones name you meet? Probably not, and you most likely wouldn\'t be able to pick them out of a crowd either if it was several months after you met for the first and only time. Then again, if only people you\'ve met have names displayed, and you run into someone, you could be like \"oh yah! remember the time we slayed that giant thing?\" \"yah!\" \"lets go have a pint at the pub and reminisce old times!\" Clearly there could be some cool RP value there. I concede that having someone be able to give out any name, would be very easily, and very widly exploited. Where\'s the balance? *shrugs* Ya got me, I\'m just brainstorming.

[Fiere]

A blend of ideas is often proven most useful

[Princess Aelya]

how about this...

gender/race doesnt appear above the characters head but if you \'observe\' that character, a brief description would pop up somewhere to describe that character. perhaps in the chat box. Also whoever is beinf \'observed\' should recieve a message like \"you are being looked over\" or something.

[Aduin]

Good call Aelya. That could be a very nifty function. I love these boards, some really good ideas pop up from them. Keep it up everyone! =)

[BaretteDeBeurre]

yeah but do PS designers read them? Do the ideas launched in these forums serve to anything, or are they only words of hope launched by waiting PS future players?

I like the ideas of the observing system. If you are able to tell a fake name, you should be able to reveal your true name later. People should \"forget\" someone\'s name if he hasn\'t meet him for a long time, but should be able to remember it if he observes him. I think that the problem of the description typed by the player is that make it or a name above the head is more or less the same, as everybody will have a personnal description. I think the \"observing mode\" should give something like a zoom on face, which should gives some personnal details as eye color, and stuff. This way, that\'s the player who recognize or not the observed character. Of course, it asks for a very large panel of face customization at character creating.