"Shares reputation and last name..."

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Canterbury, Jun 6, 2014.

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  1. Jivalax Azon

    Jivalax Azon Avatar

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    An interesting thread thus far. I have always used a last name when games support it. But I would hate to have that forced on everyone. 1) If a last name is forced, many people will go with Tinker Lastname, Fighter Lastname, Miner Lastname or whatever. This looks terrible to see Tinker, Fighter or Miner running around. 2) Many people simply didn't have last names. Historically speaking. (There is a reason last names became things like Thomson or Thorsdottir.)

    But, there are other issue this brings up as well. As an example, if a husband and wife want to play together as a couple, they take the same last name (as they reasonably should be allowed to do). But they are not players on the same account, they will appear together in game and obviously won't share reputation. Now let's say each has alts. These characters all have the same last name and appear as kindred too. I know there are parts of the world where family wreaths are common, but I think most RPers will find this a bit odd. And it starts getting really sticky. What stops the griefer from making his character (any of them) Squigy Isaiah and going around polluting a good name? Obviously this can be stopped by simply not allowing a different account to have the same last name. Simple. But I assure you I wouldn't want to be the one to tell Mrs. Isaiah why she can't take her husband's name.

    I think perhaps this is a situation that the Dev team looked at and came up with a few ideas and put it out. Upon further scrutiny from the community a variety of issues have expanded the complexity exponentially. It obviously need to be looked at in more depth than originally thought. The points brought up in this thread show that. So again, we see advancement coming from the community to make the final product even better. Great job.
     
  2. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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    I propose the same system SWTOR uses.
    • All of my character slots are part of the same legacy, even when I haven't unlocked my legacy last name or perks yet.
    • When I unlock my shared last name as a perk, I can choose to display it or not
    • Reputation is a game mechanic and is shared, even if I haven't unlocked my legacy last name yet
     
  3. Karrolanth

    Karrolanth Avatar

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    How would that work with the same name on two accounts, as in Jiv's husband and wife example? Is the 'legacy' name a separate thing from the character's last name?

    If a last name has to be unique now - and I don't believe that was the case at the start, just that the entire name (first + last) needed to be - then it might cause more than a few problems with people struggling to find a name that isn't already taken. And being even more irritated that they had to come up with something unique and they can't even display it for all to see...

    With the marriage scenario, the only thing that comes to mind off the top of my head is double-barrelled last names. So Mr Smith may be married to Mrs Johnson-Smith, or something like that. Even in the real world some women don't take their husband's name when they marry, but I think it should be an option in-game if people want it.

    This situation might also make things difficult if there are any roleplayers who might like to RP a marriage - many games give the option (usually at a cost) to change a character's name. In this case it might not be possible to do so, because of the way they want to tie up your reputation with your name.

    See, they should have just stuck to their guns with the original idea of one character per account... ;)
     
  4. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    I love the shared last name and reputation model.

    However, I do think it might be interesting to have the ability in-game to MASK your last name. So long as there's an ability to unmask it.
     
  5. Isaiah

    Isaiah Avatar

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    Well there will be no marriage situations at all, because the people with the same last names are on the same account. Unless we can log in twice using two different characters on the same account then we will never see husband and wife logged in at the same time.
     
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  6. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    "Generations of Ultima Players Need There Family Name"
    [​IMG]
    What about our extended family? Shouldn't there be a way this could be done?
    Such things are so important because in many posts on many threads, we have heard of families playing Ultima together for generations.
    There must be found a way, or we do loose something that can more bind us to the game as well as it's longevity...
    ~Time Lord~:rolleyes:
     
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  7. Floors

    Floors Avatar

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    Yeah married people that play together are going to need 2 separate accounts.

    This is was just an attempt to address the numerous posts about it being unfair we could only have one character.

    And it was a really good move.

    I don't know how last names will or should work, and I bet the team doesn't either.
     
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  8. Karrolanth

    Karrolanth Avatar

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    You misunderstand me... I'm talking about individual players with separate accounts sharing a last name, and I presume Jiv was as well.

    If last names now have to be unique then you're right, there will be no marriage situations - but because the devs have made it impossible to share a name, not because characters share an account.
     
  9. Floors

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    There's not much we're going to be able to do about this. You're going to see "Rainzz" type names instead of "Karrolanth" or so-called proper RPG names. I don't like it as a RP'er but it's the nature of the internet and MMOs. It's why tabletop has never completely died out from computer games like they predicted lol.

    Even a well-respected, historical player town has a "internet-y" and "guild-y" name: PAXLair.

    These kind of things are pet peeve to me but there's nothing you can do. The last name thing is a bad idea, making it required, but there seems to be sort of confusion that's entered in from recent changes and Richard Garriots original vision.

    For example :

    Garriot's original vision "You are the player. Virtue choices therefore are reality"
    Recent Changes: "We're going to open up Elves as playable race. Multiple character allowed".

    I think we definitely need to see a clarification on all these "character" related issues. People are going to want to play characters, and single name ones, and ones with dumb names, and they're going to want to name their towns whatever they want too.

    Please consider at least trying to make a character name that has a Ultima feel lol.

    (At this point someone will bring up the NPCs in Ultima IV, I know it... ssssshhhhhh) :)

    http://www.fantasynamegen.com <--- free and halfway decent
     
  10. Karrolanth

    Karrolanth Avatar

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    I still don't see that it was 'unfair', just 'unusual'. I liked the idea, personally. :)




    I'm not sure they really thought it through, to be honest!
     
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  11. Atticus Gryphonheart

    Atticus Gryphonheart Legend of the Hearth

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    When it was posted that we have a Last name, I thought was along the lines as in the Books like Dune where we fall under a House name i.e. House Atredies, House Harkonen. It would then be easy to have your character slots fall under the House name (and thus all reputation) while giving some flexibility. I wanted to have my main with a particular last name, but an Alt I like to play would have a different name (both based on personal D&D characters). I think this would be a nice alternative.
     
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  12. Floors

    Floors Avatar

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    Cool, but we shouldn't force on all the players of the game that they adhere to any one philosophy of how a last name should be.

    I'm sure there are players that don't want to belong to any houses, guilds, or have any last family names.
     
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  13. Beli

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    I am not sure if this has been answered or not, If you have a last name does that mean that your first name can be used by anybody? For example well there be lots of ppl with my first name but they got a different last names
     
  14. Floors

    Floors Avatar

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    There's a lot of issues. We need clarification on this.
     
  15. smack

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    Perhaps if you want to share Last Names, just mark them Kindred. That way married couples and families can share the last name. But the reputation would still be tied to the account. I still don't know why they tightly coupled reputation and last names like that because internally it's all account data, not "last name" data, which is just another attribute of your account.
     
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  16. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    It's about accountability, and I hope the devs never go back on linking last names together. I can't tell you how many times I've been attacked in games by "other characters". Or how many times I've seen someone's "alt" do the most horrible things in-game, then jump onto their "main" and act like they would never do such a thing.

    Having multiple characters is not a right, it's a privilege. That's why last names are linked to all characters on the same account.

    Now I know this is where someone will counter by saying "but all people can get a second account and you can't link that!" Well, all people can do a lot of things but that doesn't mean you should just let them where it's preventable.
     
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  17. smack

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    Oh, I agree with you. I'm just suggesting tying it to last names doesn't make sense because of familial issues. They could have tied reputation to some other attribute. Or perhaps allow anyone to see your other character names when they double click your profile in-game. By tying it to last names, they're publicly convicting an entire family for the actions of one individual within it, especially if last names are required to be displayed for any accounts with multiple active characters. Sure, let's put scarlet letters on the entire family. Or, perhaps don't allow families to share last names which also doesn't make sense.
     
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  18. Karrolanth

    Karrolanth Avatar

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    That is true. The best way I can think of right now is how Neverwinter does it, which is <character name>@<account name>. So all of my characters are <name>@karrolanth, which anybody can see just by examining that character. I can't hide who I am unless I create a completely separate account, and names (or name combinations) only have to be unique to the account, not to the game.

    (Which does mean there's a chance of meeting someone with your exact name but that's life, even though it is annoying as hell! There's another woman in my town who shares my name and has accounts at the same vet, dentist, hair salon etc. and whose kids went to the same school as mine (in the same grade too). I'm forever having to clarify that I'm "not that one!". :) )
     
  19. Atticus Gryphonheart

    Atticus Gryphonheart Legend of the Hearth

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    I am offering an alternate for the reward promised. A person doesnt have to take it or show it, and for the player have different last names if they want, yet this still provides a way to be able to keep reputation assigned to an account.

    In regards to the reward, it is something else that can be showed off that you were an early supporter because, if you choose, you can show "House <insert name>".
     
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  20. Floors

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    I'm all for accountability but I don't think forcing it into the character name or the house option is the right way.

    I prefer what Karrolanth proposed.
     
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