Goblinworks Executive Founder
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@Ludy Yes, but I'm fairly certain that is in regards to the NPC settlements that will also act as player starting areas for different alignments (I don't know if you're limited to a certain starting area by alignment or if you get to choose and they are just more focused on certain alignments).
To some of the points you brought up as potential issues.
1) Wildshape baiting to attack - I would imagine there would be some sort of way to distinguish between a player and an NPC. However, even in the case that there isn't the Devs did not that if you are about to kill a player where you would get marked as a criminal (thus allowing bounties) you would get some sort of notification of the repercussions you would soon be facing. So I'm kind of imagining that combat will be similar to Pathfinder where you take a player down to 0 HP they are then unconcious (at which point the message would display) then you have the option to leave them or coup de grace.
2) Mistaken identity - Well this should play into the whole bounty/assassination aspect. They should have skills/abilities that have game mechanics attached that actually help them track down the specific person. (At least IIRC in SWG Bounty Hunter was it's whole own class, no reason there can't be a skill tree for bounty hunting) I also see this as a benefit to that side of gameplay though as the people who are really interested in tracking other players this should make it more engaging and meaningful.
3)Meta stuff is going to happen either way, I don't think it necessarily applies as a con directly to these ideas but I could be overlooking something.
Goblin Squad Member
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The entire premise behind my company is to be able to toggle our company name off. The only time anyone would see our company name, is when we are signing a contract or collecting on a contract. Even then, I was planning on only about 20% of my officers actually serving in that function.
I like the idea of not showing character names, it is already possible in The Secret World. It would be very immersive to actually interact with someone to learn their name.
Very cool ideas here, hope some of them find their way into the game.
Bluddwulf, perhaps it will be a part of the disguise skill set? The better your skill (and accumulated merit badges) the better you can pull off not having you name and company affiliation show up; though I think it should also be tied with the reputation system. The better your rep (or the worse) the more likely you are to be famous or infamous, meaning your description has likely made the rounds of taverns and inns. If your skill is high enough, it negates the reputation system for a time, allowing you to be "incognito" for a time. I am also in favor of keeping new and low level PC's names and affiliations hidden unless they somehow manage to get very high rep, or very low rep, as they simply aren't well know at all. This gives purpose for learning the disguise skill, as well as keeps things as immersive as possible. I can also see where a good stealth skill plus backstabbing could keep a PC hidden from other players, so no names (maybe even no visible PC) are shown. The skills likely in the rogue skill branch should have some meaning after all, and keeping who you really are should be one of those. I doubt your PC will want to head into an inn to case the place for potential targets and hear "Hey! Bluddwolf is here, everyone watch out!". Rather everyone just sees "a male human enters the inn" (just using the sex and race as examples - this will change depending upon those descriptors, and any disguise skill levels - you could, with enough skill, disguise yourself as another gender or as another race of similar height/weight. Likewise, any shape-shifting spells would come in handy if a bandit happens to be someone who is a spellcaster.
If this proves troublesome for the Devs, then hide all names but allow players to right click on something, like the message "you were just killed!" to see who or what did it (as many combat situations often are chaotic), and it could include info such as if the PC who killed you can have a bounty placed upon him/her (and as you know I am not a fan of infinite bounties as a rule, but I also see it as impractical as I don't see anyone who isn't griefing as being able to do this in a 100% player created economy).
Generally speaking, for myself, being able to see everyone's name and guild/kingdom/company affiliation is a real immersive experience beaker. How the hell would I know who you are if I have either not met you, or your reputation level hasn't made you famous or infamous enough to have your physical description and name widely known? Just my humble opinion, but I think it favors anyone playing a PC that doesn't want to be known all the time, and spellcasters who have spells like Alter Self or Polymorph.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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Yeah I think this has the potential to allow for a lot more meaningful player interaction around banditry/assassinations and bounty hunting in addition to general immersion and general RP around introductions and the like.
The key thing is if players don't automatically have other players names there needs to be a system in place to allow them to somehow identify players that are griefing to be able to report them. This is why I think some sort of player assigned name that links to the actual character id while not directly providing the character name would still cover those instances.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm interested to see how the game progresses with a general lack of name plates. In another open pvp game, you had a private list of everyone who had killed you on your character sheet, an inspectable (public) list of the guilds you had belonged to over your career, and in guild chat a message would flash 'so-and-so was just killed whats-his-face' (unless you turned the notification off)so you knew who was killing your dudes ... so nameplates are not the only way to know who your enemy is.
They ruin stealth too.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I been thinking, for disguises to work properly. There should be no outright method of visibly identifying the player, or character. The when killed gets the opportunity to put down a bounty of persons head. A window should appear, where the player can enter the character's name. The bounty placement is only successful if the player has identified the attacker. Also only gets 3 chances to identify the character that kill his character. Now if the player believes the act was a form of griefing then there is another option the player can choose in the identification window. When this option is selected, the server saves behind the scene information (attacks, actions, etc) of the last 5 minutes for the character. A notification gets sent to GW investigation department to look into the matter. They would have needed tools to see frequency of griefing incidents made by the dead player, the frequency of the attacker being flagged for griefing, and other stats. This information then can be used to see if griefing is taking place and by whom. It is not always the attacker that is the griefer.
Trying to build in mechanics to counter griefers in game is pointless. This is the job of the GW investigation team, that look at the action logs (including chats streams) of the last 5 minutes per griefing event incident.
As for the bounty system to work properly, one has to identify the attacker first. Now if another was using the disguise of another for the job, then the poor mislabelled criminal need to prove that it is mistaken identity by providing witnesses etc. No to counter abuse of the mis-identity, the bounty system should only accept the character name if the character is presently online at the time of the attack.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Speaking of the Bounty System, the way it is described it would negate any disguise or stealth.
According to the Bounty System, when someone comes within a certain area with a bounty on his / her head, anyone eligible to collect that bounty will get an alert of that person's presence.
Since a person can not just place a bounty on the person that kills them, they can place it on all members of that person's company as well, doesn't that effectively protect an entire community from the stealthy movements of an entire company?
I know they have said the Bounty System will be tested and tweaked if needed. But some of the issues with it, as described now, already present a lot of unintended consequences.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The bounty placement is only successful if the player has identified the attacker. Also only gets 3 chances to identify the character that kill his character.
Ugh! Please, no.
Bandits already have massive advantages. They will tailor their characters to fight and take caravans. They will be able to use Hideouts to pick targets they're confident they can defeat. They won't really lose much if they fail to take the caravan.
The Bounty System is meant to level the playing field for non-PvP-focused characters. You don't need to utterly gimp it to make it "safe" for bandits.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Since a person can not just place a bounty on the person that kills them, they can place it on all members of that person's company as well...
I don't believe that's accurate.
You can only place a Bounty on the player that killed you, and characters that aided that character in killing you. I don't believe you'll be able to place the Bounty on a character that wasn't present - or even logged in.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Since a person can not just place a bounty on the person that kills them, they can place it on all members of that person's company as well...I don't believe that's accurate.
You can only place a Bounty on the player that killed you, and characters that aided that character in killing you. I don't believe you'll be able to place the Bounty on a character that wasn't present - or even logged in.
I believe Nihimon is correct as that is my reading of the way the system works. If your buddies don't take part in the killing of the victim, they won't be flagged as killers and thus won't be eligible for a bounty. Only those flagged as a killer will be able to do so. It is my further understanding that if you are attacked, and you kill your attacker, no bounty can be placed as you didn't initiate combat, but I could be wrong about that part. Maybe Nihimon can correct me if I got that wrong.
If I didn't get it wrong, any bandit that holds up a caravan and is attacked by a guard (another PC) and kills the guard, the guard can't turn around and bounty the bandit, since the guard (even though it was he/she who was killed) that started the fight. If every killing that occurs in game allows for a bounty, the game will devolve into nothing but a game of revenge. As I have read Ryan's blog and posts, it appears to me that to get a bounty placed upon you you need to initiate the combat and kill the victim, all while not at war with that PC's guild/nation.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I really like the premise here for Anonymity. Vancent your ideas are great! One tweak I think would be valuable to the renown system you proposed is factors in earning renown. If a lone druid, or say a small company, is far in the wilderness(2+ hexes from any major settlement) and are performing otherwise renown earning deeds, but never take quests or turn in bounties for reward within a settlement, shouldn't their renown stay neutral?
I guess what I'm trying to get at is a hermit type character(Mages, Druids and Rangers leap to mind) could potentially achieve great power, and no one in the civilized "world" be aware of it.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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According to the Bounty System, when someone comes within a certain area with a bounty on his / her head, anyone eligible to collect that bounty will get an alert of that person's presence.
To address this point, since Nihimon addressed the others, I think this still makes sense to a certain extent. It doesn't necessarily point out to you directly who the bounty is on but it should give you an idea that you are looking in the right place for the bounty and it should be based on your bounty hunting skills to maybe determine the range that you get the message. So basically this takes the approach that your bounty hunter is gathering information about the target through NPCs and common folk to help track them down.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I really like the premise here for Anonymity. Vancent your ideas are great! One tweak I think would be valuable to the renown system you proposed is factors in earning renown. If a lone druid, or say a small company, is far in the wilderness(2+ hexes from any major settlement) and are performing otherwise renown earning deeds, but never take quests or turn in bounties for reward within a settlement, shouldn't their renown stay neutral?
I guess what I'm trying to get at is a hermit type character(Mages, Druids and Rangers leap to mind) could potentially achieve great power, and no one in the civilized "world" be aware of it.
Thanks Wylde. Your idea here ties into the renown localization that Kit had previously suggested, and I fully support. Wherein your renown is mainly built up in the specific hex you earn it in and has less effect on further hexes, kind of like a bell curve I imagine. So the further you are away from a population center the less likely they'll have heard of you.
Your idea is a specific twist on this concept though, if a dragon's felled in the forest and no one's around to see it, does it grant you renown? An interesting idea, but I would say that it would still increase your renown in that hex, and to a lesser degree in nearby hexs. Player characters aren't the only ones capable of gossip after all, there are a lot of intelligent creatures out there.Besides, in an MMO the chance of absolutely no one else being in the same hex as you, no matter how distant, is pretty slim.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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Your idea is a specific twist on this concept though, if a dragon's felled in the forest and no one's around to see it, does it grant you renown? An interesting idea, but I would say that it would still increase your renown in that hex, and to a lesser degree in nearby hexs. Player characters aren't the only ones capable of gossip after all, there are a lot of intelligent creatures out there.
Besides, in an MMO the chance of absolutely no one else being in the same hex as you, no matter how distant, is pretty slim.
Keep in mind also there are all these *behind the scenes* common folk that have been discussed by devs several times. There is no reason that they wouldn't be the source of spreading renown. I do agree though it should be limited the further away you get from the actual hex.
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Goblin Squad Member
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a population center the less likely they'll have heard of you.
Your idea is a specific twist on this concept though, if a dragon's felled in the forest and no one's around to see it, does it grant you renown? An interesting idea, but I would say that it would still increase your renown in that hex, and to a lesser degree in nearby hexs. Player characters aren't the only ones capable of gossip after all, there are a lot of intelligent creatures out there.
Besides, in an MMO the chance of absolutely no one else being in the same hex as you, no matter how distant, is pretty slim.
Indeed.
Many Druid/Ranger types can chat with shrubbery remember.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Ludy Yes, but I'm fairly certain that is in regards to the NPC settlements that will also act as player starting areas for different alignments (I don't know if you're limited to a certain starting area by alignment or if you get to choose and they are just more focused on certain alignments).
To some of the points you brought up as potential issues.
1) Wildshape baiting to attack - I would imagine there would be some sort of way to distinguish between a player and an NPC. However, even in the case that there isn't the Devs did not that if you are about to kill a player where you would get marked as a criminal (thus allowing bounties) you would get some sort of notification of the repercussions you would soon be facing. So I'm kind of imagining that combat will be similar to Pathfinder where you take a player down to 0 HP they are then unconcious (at which point the message would display) then you have the option to leave them or coup de grace.
2) Mistaken identity - Well this should play into the whole bounty/assassination aspect. They should have skills/abilities that have game mechanics attached that actually help them track down the specific person. (At least IIRC in SWG Bounty Hunter was it's whole own class, no reason there can't be a skill tree for bounty hunting) I also see this as a benefit to that side of gameplay though as the people who are really interested in tracking other players this should make it more engaging and meaningful.
3)Meta stuff is going to happen either way, I don't think it necessarily applies as a con directly to these ideas but I could be overlooking something.
1) I hope that it isn't easy to tell the difference. Why should I be able to blend into a crowd as a thief but not have an escape as a druid to avoid detection? If as you say, the attack the wildshape druid and are given a last chance to stop their actions you open up for other griefing. Like someone going around and beating 10 noob players to 0 and not killing them. Then keeping them in that state.
2) From what others posted that when you get within a certain range you are notified a person with a bounty you hold is near. I think it would eliminate much of the problems. They are bounty hunters, they should invest in the skills needed for their profession. If the notification is like you are with 100yards and that is the extent it ever does I think it would be good.
3) I was thinking the whole using mistaken identity to bate a member of a non-griefer group. Getting killed and running to forums to scream they are really a griefer group with the combat logs to prove it. Things like that will happen anyway but when folks have additional tools to hide there identity it's worse.
Remember I am strongly in favor of this but just think that we all should help try to figure out how to abuse a system like this and solutions. This way if the devs ever did look at it they see something that the community really looked at and not...I like this do it please.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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@Ludy Completely agree about bringing up cons and trying to find solutions, that was the whole point of my responses to your points :)
Good point on number 1. I suppose it doesn't specifically make sense to differentiate a druid in wild shape and an actual animal but I do think it is important from the anti-griefing standpoint that you get some sort of notification before killing them (as has been mentioned by the devs). As for someone utilizing that system to grief other players I would assume there is something built in to fight against that, maybe the notification system mentioned by the devs was as simple as if you attack a player then you get the notification then? That part isn't clear at this point.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm thinking I would go with the idea that being shapeshifted is the Druid's responsibility and nobody should get flagged for attacking him whan he looks exactly like a panther. If they initiate (doesn't count missiles in the air) an attack once he returns to trueform then the standard rules apply. Also if the attacker was trueseeing when they attacked it would be as if the Druid had been in trueform.
I'd rather my shapeshifted form be indistinguishable from a 'real' animal and risk the slings and arrows of outrageous fotune...
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'd rather my shapeshifted form be indistinguishable from a 'real' animal and risk the slings and arrows of outrageous fotune...Amen! I've always thought it would be great if it were possible for a PC to pose as an NPC.
But would you still lootable? How about the flags in this case?
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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But would you still lootable? How about the flags in this case?I'd rather my shapeshifted form be indistinguishable from a 'real' animal and risk the slings and arrows of outrageous fotune...Amen! I've always thought it would be great if it were possible for a PC to pose as an NPC.
I would imagine if it didn't notify you once you attacked the person that they were a player and you could potentially get flagged or the player stayed disguised as an NPC then flagging would not apply. Looting is a good question though...
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Goblin Squad Member
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Also if the attacker was trueseeing when they attacked it would be as if the Druid had been in trueform.
I would not count on true-seeing being the way we are used to or even existing at all.
Its already been made clear that invis/hiding will be an everyone sees you or nobody at all sees you affair.
It seems likely that either true seeing simply will be completely unavailable or alternatively that true seeing changes the visibility/appearance of the target for everyone, not just the caster.
More to the point, if anyone at all sees through your disguise, everyone does.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Its already been made clear that invis/hiding will be an everyone sees you or nobody at all sees you affair.
It seems likely that either true seeing simply will be completely unavailable or alternatively that true seeing changes the visibility/appearance of the target for everyone, not just the caster.
More to the point, if anyone at all sees through your disguise, everyone does.
Awww...that's lame.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Awww...that's lame.
Much of what I have read on stealth holds that adjective also, but that's a different story.
I like the idea Being. I do think if someone attacks you they get a popup that they will be flagged. If they continue all flag rules apply. This way nameplates still off and people are made aware that they might be being baited. If they kill the wildshaped character after made aware they get the flag but also any loot just like they normally would.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Also if the attacker was trueseeing when they attacked it would be as if the Druid had been in trueform.
I would not count on true-seeing being the way we are used to or even existing at all.
Its already been made clear that invis/hiding will be an everyone sees you or nobody at all sees you affair.
It seems likely that either true seeing simply will be completely unavailable or alternatively that true seeing changes the visibility/appearance of the target for everyone, not just the caster.
More to the point, if anyone at all sees through your disguise, everyone does.
Every power deserves a counter. True seeing may be the counter to stealth as well as shapeshift.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Every power deserves a counter. True seeing may be the counter to stealth as well as shapeshift.Also if the attacker was trueseeing when they attacked it would be as if the Druid had been in trueform.
I would not count on true-seeing being the way we are used to or even existing at all.
Its already been made clear that invis/hiding will be an everyone sees you or nobody at all sees you affair.
It seems likely that either true seeing simply will be completely unavailable or alternatively that true seeing changes the visibility/appearance of the target for everyone, not just the caster.
More to the point, if anyone at all sees through your disguise, everyone does.
Well PnP true-seeing counters a lot of things ... but only for the character with true seeing.
From SRD:
You confer on the subject the ability to see all things as they actually are. The subject sees through normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects, sees invisible creatures or objects normally, sees through illusions, and sees the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things. Further, the subject can focus its vision to see into the Ethereal Plane (but not into extradimensional spaces). The range of true seeing conferred is 120 feet.
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Goblin Squad Member
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wish there they would go like the whole nine yard or whatever the expression are. Like using factors like sound/noise, footprints will show even if your invisible etc.
I like especially the idea of footprints, as it would add flavour to the tracking skill! Not sure that it is viable to implement though...
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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Well PnP true-seeing counters a lot of things ... but only for the character with true seeing.From SRD:
You confer on the subject the ability to see all things as they actually are. The subject sees through normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects, sees invisible creatures or objects normally, sees through illusions, and sees the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things. Further, the subject can focus its vision to see into the Ethereal Plane (but not into extradimensional spaces). The range of true seeing conferred is 120 feet.
No reason they couldn't change True Seeing to be a group cast spell instead of single person cast, then you could get past the possible immersion breaking aspect of someone getting knocked out of stealth if someone with true seeing saw them.
Back to the main point though, no other concerns about possible issues with turning or name plates and allowing disguise. There have been some good points so far just want to make sure we try and capture all the pitfalls and try and address them.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Well, my impression from our discussion on this a year ago was that GW, after considering the ides, did not think the complications were worth the reward (final blue post on the topic).
But agreed, odd to see a discussion with lots of support and no objections.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Mark's response was that no visible namebox gives rise to griefing problems.
It seems to me the opposite should be more the case. If the griefer cannot readily identify me he is less likely to focus on me, simply because I'm not obvious until he gets close. If his namebox is revealed to me when he attacks me without provocation I can recognize him from a distance and have a chance at getting away, whereas if everyone's namebox is cluttering up my view I'm not as likely to notice him in all the confusion of names, like just another wisp in a cloud of alphabetic smoke over the milling players.
But if I ony see the names of those I had had willing interaction with, and the names of those who have attacked me, then I can more readily distinguish between friend and foe, especially if the names of those who have attacked me are in a different color font.
If my attacker doesn't get my name box unless we are introduced or I attack him, then I have greater anonimity toward a hostile.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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Well, my impression from our discussion on this a year ago was that GW, after considering the ides, did not think the complications were worth the reward (final blue post on the topic).
But agreed, odd to see a discussion with lots of support and no objections.
I'm hoping that was more of a "This probably isn't possible because of greifing" as opposed to "We aren't going to do this because of greifing"
In either case, I think we've addressed a lot of the greifing concerns, or at least I hope we have.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Well, my impression from our discussion on this a year ago was that GW, after considering the ides, did not think the complications were worth the reward (final blue post on the topic).
But agreed, odd to see a discussion with lots of support and no objections.
I'm hoping that was more of a "This probably isn't possible because of greifing" as opposed to "We aren't going to do this because of greifing"
In either case, I think we've addressed a lot of the greifing concerns, or at least I hope we have.
That has remained my hope too.
If this proves troublesome for the Devs, then hide all names but allow players to right click on something, like the message "you were just killed!" to see who or what did it (as many combat situations often are chaotic), and it could include info such as if the PC who killed you can have a bounty placed upon him/her (and as you know I am not a fan of infinite bounties as a rule, but I also see it as impractical as I don't see anyone who isn't griefing as being able to do this in a 100% player created economy).
Generally speaking, for myself, being able to see everyone's name and guild/kingdom/company affiliation is a real immersive experience beaker. How the hell would I know who you are if I have either not met you, or your reputation level hasn't made you famous or infamous enough to have your physical description and name widely known? Just my humble opinion, but I think it favors anyone playing a PC that doesn't want to be known all the time, and spellcasters who have spells like Alter Self or Polymorph.
You know, it would be a huge change to actually have to pay attention to what a character is wearing and what they are doing in order to determine their class rather then just clicking on or mousing over them to see their role and level of power.
Although I wouldn't mind seeing this, given what Mark has said, I doubt it would be implemented. PFO is already going to have so many things that aren't seem in MMOs of today that adding more would just be like more icing on a cake :D
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Goblin Squad Member
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You know, it would be a huge change to actually have to pay attention to what a character is wearing and what they are doing in order to determine their class (...)
This is very likely to happen, except you will determine my "slotted archetype" rather than my trained skills.
ie. if I make a jack-of-all trades, I will equip armor and weapons when I slot fighter abilities, but spellbook and wand if I slot wizard abilities. If I am wearing plate mail and a wand, I either am not paying attention when changing gear/slots, or I have slotted some combination of caster and warrior actions.
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Goblin Squad Member
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You see a guy walk into town. He's wearing really shinny full plate, a greatsword, backpack, quiver, longbow, mace, and a shield is strapped to the backpack. What class or slotted archetype is he :)
Someone with high enough strength could easily carry this amount. A Ranger, Fighter, Paladin, or even a Cleric could use everything listed if played right. But in the end nope it's a bard with glamored armor and props getting ready to set up a show. The only weapon he would use is the daggers he has hidden and the longbow that he spent some time leveling up for a decent ranged option.
This is why I love some of the ideas in this thread. It makes the game more interactive and appearances will be deceiving. Sure we can make assumption that the guy in robes and staff is going to cast a spell, but that doesn't mean it's true.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I -just- posted this elsewhere, but Wanted Posters should auto-flag the portrayed individuals for 5x Int hours on inspection. You look at the poster, you remember for a few days that face and what they were accused of.
There's another MMO in development -right now- doing just this, called Salem. No one has floaty names, you have to learn to identify people by what they wear and how they act and trust that when someone says their name is Fuddywuffer Binglebang, that it's -really- their name.
Every character should have a Knoweldge: Local skill that gets tagged every time they 'inspect' another character, PC or NPC, and the fame/reputation of that character gets tagged on them.
Right click random stranger: inspect
Inspection Window Says:
You don't know anything about this person. Add a note?
(que little yes/no selection and note window)
Right click random stranger: inspect
Inspection Window Says:
Grimdark Darkgrim (DISGUISED) Raven Bloodwolf
WANTED -
4000gp in Empyreal City
200gp in Bender's End
50000gp in Concordat
Murder (10/6/2014)
Murder (10/6/2014)
Murder (10/6/2014)
Murder (10/8/2014)
Theft (10/4/2014)
Other Crimes
Add a note?
I love some of the ideas i have seen here, realy i do. but to make the game a total no names displayed what so ever is a big turn off to me.
I could care less if I can see your name, if we are role playing, I do not know your name until you say it. and then I have to take your word at it. That's good role play. To hide names for that reason is pointless, personally I would prefer my name displayed and soon as someone comes up to rp with me and the say "Hi, Darsch!" and I have never met them before, nor has any of my friends, I know then that they are poor rp companions and to avoid rp with them.
If names are not displayable to a client, how am I supposed to send a PM to the person to let them know I am guarding their husk? How am i supposed to identify that crafter I spoke to once that gave me an awesome deal and had to log out before I could get his name and vice verse?
how am I supposed to distinguish john doe in the forest running by chasing someone when I cast an aoe spell? how do I avoid accidentally attacking the wrong person?
No names creates just as many problems as it solves.
Now I do see disguises as a wonderful way for those that need to keep their names hidden as a good way to do that, incognito was a wonderful spell in UO that changed your name to something random, changed your shape, sex, and appearance.
I vote for a /anon option.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I love some of the ideas i have seen here, realy i do. but to make the game a total no names displayed what so ever is a big turn off to me.
I could care less if I can see your name, if we are role playing, I do not know your name until you say it. and then I have to take your word at it. That's good role play. To hide names for that reason is pointless, personally I would prefer my name displayed and soon as someone comes up to rp with me and the say "Hi, Darsch!" and I have never met them before, nor has any of my friends, I know then that they are poor rp companions and to avoid rp with them.
If names are not displayable to a client, how am I supposed to send a PM to the person to let them know I am guarding their husk? How am i supposed to identify that crafter I spoke to once that gave me an awesome deal and had to log out before I could get his name and vice verse?
how am I supposed to distinguish john doe in the forest running by chasing someone when I cast an aoe spell? how do I avoid accidentally attacking the wrong person?
No names creates just as many problems as it solves.
Now I do see disguises as a wonderful way for those that need to keep their names hidden as a good way to do that, incognito was a wonderful spell in UO that changed your name to something random, changed your shape, sex, and appearance.
I vote for a /anon option.
Idealy there should be a feature that would allow you to share your name while in conversation with someone, ans from then the system would allow you to toggle on/off to see if you know that person or not. So if you deal with that merchant, while dealing you could send a request to share names, if the other player accept then both of you will have a way to reach each other afterward, if he refuse, there might be a good reason why you got such a deal...
As for distinguishing John Doe from the guy your chasing in a dark forest, guess what it's just fine, you shouldn't fire AOE spells if your not sure theres no bystander, unless you don't care for them to get caught in the blast. Unless you have an ability that allow to mark a target, it shouldn't be easy to find it when they hide.
Also I agree with other posters about having high renown (good or bad) makes you famous/infamous enough so other are able to reconize you on sight. So if you want to stay anonymous, better keep a low profile and/or do your stuff so nobody know you've done it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Idealy there should be a feature that would allow you to share your name while in conversation with someone, ans from then the system would allow you to toggle on/off to see if you know that person or not. So if you deal with that merchant, while dealing you could send a request to share names, if the other player accept then both of you will have a way to reach each other afterward, if he refuse, there might be a good reason why you got such a deal...
This is exactly what I was going to suggest. A simple command that allow you to share identities would work just fine to me.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This is exactly what I was going to suggest. A simple command that allow you to share identities would work just fine to me.
Especially if this could be a OOC action done on the side line as the conversation goes. Still let the opportunity to ask the other his name, but provide a way to identify someone, if both agree, for those who don't need to RP.
A similar request could be done automatically, with no agreement required, if you got killed for no reason by someone else, the name of the character shouldn't be provided, but an id for report could be used. And this ID could be use into the bounty system. So even if you don't know the name of your agressor, you stil can provide a description and the people that are allowed to hunt the target could see a mark hoovering on top of the target, or recieve a "perception" message telling them that the bounty is in the area... Or someone looking at "wanted" and that know the target, will see a glow around that specific bounty poster. Now if is a friend he can just tell is buddy to stay low profile for a while, or if he is a bounty hunter will have an easier time finding a target he already knows.
I don't know if such implementation is possible, but this, I think, would allow a better immersion.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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Yeah that was my thinking is not that names were always 100% turned off for everyone, but that you could either get the persons name or even assign them a name you give them (a mask over their real name) so that they can be identified and you know who it is. Of course, with the second aspect of disguise they could always try and disguise themselves and hide their name again. However, generally speaking this allows you to still have names for people you have met and know, or even people you haven't met but that you have assigned names to.