idea for name displays in-game

[lynx_lupo]

I think it can be done.

And Grono you don\'t have to check the whole playerlist anytime anyone sees somebody.

1) encryption? Players of course don\'t have db access, so they can\'t make a pattern. And the data needn\'t be the index of a player... seems nigh perfect to me(only check/get key at connect). And if u add a changing key and a big key...:]
2)
When you talk to someone it\'s simple. The packages he sents surely has his ID, which the client can compare to his known list(using the decryption key) and/or add him to it, if he greeted you correctly - so only the people you really met would be on the list. If he\'s not greeting you and not in your list, he remains Anonymous. At the end of the session the changes to the list would get applied and rencrypted(locally).
So the first package would do the whole stuff. And after you know someone, hm, a boolean could be stored locally to avoid more checks, but that brings back 1)

If there will be bubbles(I think so in CB iirc) or labels and such, the search can be limited like the shout command\'s range or even more.

:S hm  hm hm :S

[Dinner]

Unless I\'m just completely blind and skipped over a message, I\'ve got what I think is a pretty good idea.

While you do give your character a name at creation, that doesn\'t necessarily have to make that name an absolution.  I can walk down the street and see a random guy, and remember his face, and know him as Bob.  Maybe his name is Bob, maybe it isn\'t; to me he is Bob.

The game application I\'m getting at is that there should be some option to where you can \'mark\' another player... perhaps click on her and enter a name by which to know her (if you meet this character and she gives you a name to know her by, it would be a good place to enter it).  This name would only appear on the screen of the character who made the mark.  It should remain above the marked character\'s head while she is in range (by range I mean a proximity at which a person could typically be recognized by their facial features; also, the name would disappear when that character went into stealth or wore certain clothes that would hide her identity).

An identification system such as this would hinder no players, as it would only appear on the screen of the person that desired it.  Also, it would require no additional graphical programming for faces and the such.

Also, I\'m not saying that the idea of a one-line description when you examine a character shouldn\'t be used-- I like that concept .  These could coincide very well (an in-game window that could be toggled on and off, listing the \'names\' of all the people you have marked, and also saving their description the last time you saw them).

Invariably there are plenty of aspects that I have left out entirely.  I\'ll try to respond to any comments as soon as I can!

[Axsyrus]

Nice thread, and it doesn\'t matter that it\'s old, there are some good ideas in this(I don\'t know why people are against bumping old threads so much, it\'s better then making a new one IMHO)

I was thinking, why not let the client identify other clients by an ID number rather then a name.

For example, there is a player whose ID # is 1234, this player meets another player and he asks him for his name, he can now do the command /givename Bob, and the other client writes this info to a locally stored file as the following: 1234 Bob. When the other guy sees this player now, a name tag appears to show his name(if the player ID isn\'t in the file it just shows the race or whatever)  This way you can\'t really haxxor the file(or somebody has to make a file with all id numbers and names and put that for download, wich sounds pretty impossible to me, and if somebody else gives you their file it\'s like they tell you other players\' names, so not that bad..).

I don\'t know if anyone else has suggested this already, I don\'t even know if it even makes sense(I really need to sleep now ), but if it makes sense AND nobody else suggested it, please tell me if this is a good idea or not(an why).

[Dinner]

It sounds like a good idea (and makes sense =P) to me.. but then again I need sleep too...

[Kixie]

why did you people revive such an old post. im sure this is almost a done deal for cb anyways *stabs post in the head*

[lynx_lupo]

Yes it is done for CB. If things haven\'t changed in the month, all names will be public.

[Yann]

Originally posted by whemyfield
why did you people revive such an old post. im sure this is almost a done deal for cb anyways *stabs post in the head*

hummm... \"because it is worth bumping an old but interesting thread instead of posting in a new thread which sucks ?\"

[Natrina]

Very good idea! On the other day when I met a black Menki I said:\"Well, if I didnt knew your name already I would\'ve asked you...\" it\'s indeed better to ask the person his/her name..

[Ald'Amun Dungeonrunner]

Also it could be set that if they had a major change to their appearance their name would disappear, such as putting on a full mask or something along those lines...dunno it could get pretty complicated...

[druke]

how about this

everytime you log on you generate a log-in authentictiy, that wasy for security purposes you could \"/catchauth\" and get his number to report to a gm.

name display would wark like MSN where you have an option to change your displayed name, or perhaps even hide it, even if you cant hide it, you can use names like \"tall man\", or \"shadey figure\"

[Deddarus]

ok.. i skipped thru this so forgive me if this has been said already

i like the idea BUT consider this scenario

Player A sees player B breaking a rule and feels obligated to report it... Staff member asks who the perp was.... whats player A gonna say \'a male kran?\'

this is a nice idea but anonymity will open up a door for scammers/rule breakers

[Axsyrus]

My idea covers that, you just report the player ID number instead of the name.

[Serphet]

right, as does mine

Edit:hmm must have been a diff thread....

[siven]

I hope nobody flames a poor little newbie because he deceided to bump an old thread, but I have been thinking about this idea for the past year or so (I\'m interested in MMOG theory) and how to implement it.

I came across a book titled \"Emergence\" and it stated that (in RL) humans only have the ability to remember & recognize around 50 or so. This is because facial recognition recoquires a vast amount of brain power to compute (it should, otherwise it would be easily replicable in AI). So:

1. Give each character a linked list of pointers with a maximum of 50 (depends on the intelligence of the character). Whenever a character \"looks\" at a new person, a call is made to the server which goes through the list. If a match is found, the name of the character is sent to the client, and the matched entry is bumped to the top of the list. If no match is found, then the player would have to ask the person for the name and then \"memorize\" it. This would be appended to the top of the list, and the 50th pointer would be culled.

By doing so, only the 50 \"most recent\" people would be remembered, so if you lose contact with a friend for a long time, you would eventually forget how to recognize them (which is how it works in RL). There are plenty of derivatives from this idea, but I\'m tired now, so I\'ll post them up if there is enough demand.

[Karyuu]

Pardon me if this has already been brought up, but how would the chat function if we had no names? Would names show up in the chat but we\'d have no idea who is who? That defeats the point of the realism you\'re suggesting here. Would it just show up as \"Person A shouts: _____\"? That\'s no good either.

If I missed something, I sincerely apologize.