Suggestions

[rorax]

Hello.

Here is an idea, probably been offered in the past , but could not find it.

Would it be possible to make a "naming" module/function in ALFA? so players could "name" other PCs?

So when a player meets a PC he does not know, that PC appears to him as :

"Male half orc" , or "female gold elf"

And then the player can right click him and choose "Name PC" and then name the PC as he wishes? (likely by his name after introduction, but not always)

And maybe even enhance it? so for example even if your PC do know someone else by name, but that someone is wearing some kind of a equipment that cover his face , so he would appear again as "male half orc" and the naming function in this case would not be available? (since the target pc is hooded)

[furtivefigure]

Hello.

Here is an idea, probably been offered in the past , but could not find it.

Would it be possible to make a "naming" module/function in ALFA? so players could "name" other PCs?

So when a player meets a PC he does not know, that PC appears to him as :

"Male half orc" , or "female gold elf"

And then the player can right click him and choose "Name PC" and then name the PC as he wishes? (likely by his name after introduction, but not always)

And maybe even enhance it? so for example even if your PC do know someone else by name, but that someone is wearing some kind of a equipment that cover his face , so he would appear again as "male half orc" and the naming function in this case would not be available? (since the target pc is hooded)

That would be fantastic, if it were doable.

[johnlewismcleod]

That would be fantastic, if it were doable.

+1

[rorax]

Not doable?

[AcadiusLost]

Currently, not do-able. Renaming PCs currently breaks many systems internally with regard to the core game mechanics. Reworking our core scripts to allow it would be a huge job, and might break other things, so it's not something I'd want to take on lightly.

You can rename familiars, summons, animal companions, and items though.

There is also a lot of in-character information conveyed by the float-over name on a PC; since we're very limited in how the PCs look (and the interface isn't really conducive to "zooming in" for a close look at a PC's face/head/hair anyway), you might end up with things like players not recognizing their PC's own close friends (undisguised) because their Name has changed. Also remember that when a Name is changed, it's changed for everyone; not just the player client that called for the change. So, the Sun Elf that you've renamed to "Sun Elf" is similarly generically named to everyone else (including the DMs).

Generally speaking, it's better just to take a moment to consider before deciding how your PC will react to a new/unknown PC. It's easy enough to ignore the overhead name until/unless you are introduced. But even if you're not; seeing the same unknown PC, you might recognize them ("Wasn't that the Sun Elf we saw sneaking out the back of the tavern before the fire?") etc.

[rorax]

Currently, not do-able. Renaming PCs currently breaks many systems internally with regard to the core game mechanics. Reworking our core scripts to allow it would be a huge job, and might break other things, so it's not something I'd want to take on lightly.

You can rename familiars, summons, animal companions, and items though.

There is also a lot of in-character information conveyed by the float-over name on a PC; since we're very limited in how the PCs look (and the interface isn't really conducive to "zooming in" for a close look at a PC's face/head/hair anyway), you might end up with things like players not recognizing their PC's own close friends (undisguised) because their Name has changed. Also remember that when a Name is changed, it's changed for everyone; not just the player client that called for the change. So, the Sun Elf that you've renamed to "Sun Elf" is similarly generically named to everyone else (including the DMs).

Generally speaking, it's better just to take a moment to consider before deciding how your PC will react to a new/unknown PC. It's easy enough to ignore the overhead name until/unless you are introduced. But even if you're not; seeing the same unknown PC, you might recognize them ("Wasn't that the Sun Elf we saw sneaking out the back of the tavern before the fire?") etc.

Oh

Thanks for the answer AC.

Basically i was thinking that every PC will have small "database" of the people he named, so "male gold elf" can be one name for one PC and another name for another(Depends what character X told to Y and what he told Z). The real name of the PC would never change but other PCs would just be able to give tags or names to PCs as they wish, but the REAL names will never be visible and could not be changed.

[Brother Humphrey]

I remember one creepy PW in nwn1 that had a policy that you named your character a short descriptive phrase such as "scarred, dark, smelly gnome in golden pantaloons" and such, and only told another player/character your toon's name if asked directly or were told about him/her by another character, IC-ly. Lyonara, I think it was, but I may be wrong. Made things easier, visually/IC-ly, but was kinda wierd in execution, imho.

[oldgrayrogue]

Sorry, but without the names I wouldn't be able to remember anyone but my PC's best friend's names. Unfortunately my toon has a better memory than I do =)

[Ithildur]

AL, I'm assuming you're refering to ALFA's custom scripts/haks etc not playing nicely if the name is changed, because the vanilla game doesn't seem to have a problem... I recall on another server, when the DMFI tools first came out, I took advantage of the feature to change my PC's name to a generic 'medium sized humanoid' temporarily due to IC reasons. It didn't seem to cause any problems, but the server did not have as much custom scripting etc as ALFA.

[AcadiusLost]

Yes, the problem stems from how we handle our persistency functions, in that we inherited a few important limitations from the original NWNx4 SQL function library's implementation of Get/SetPersistentString(). All of the more recently developed systems use a more robust method to identify PCs internally, but the retrofit to get the pwdata table (which is a catchall for any persistency data that doesn't "fit" into any of the other tables, including data that is not tied to specific PCs) to be independent of PC Name would be very difficult to accomplish without losing important Live data.

[rorax]

Just wondering...not talking about technical side of the matter...

In general, people around like this idea?

[SirCobalt]

Just wondering...not talking about technical side of the matter...

In general, people around like this idea?

Personally this is what i'm actually used to. The game i've played for the last 3 or so years (though it is a text game, keep in mind) has a system like this implemented where a player gives a few descriptive words about there character and that is what everyone will see them as (e.g. -- short stocky russian man) until a player used the @remember command to give them a name (which could be anything they wanted). Even then, if the player changed there appearence a lot, then the system would change there short desctiption as well, because it would be hard to recognize them as you would have remembered them.

[Ithildur]

I like the idea as a possible option that can be used if appropriate; I don't think people in ALFA would abuse it which is what the other server was afraid of and had rules against doing such without special permission from DMs.

I also know there are a ton of other things that I'm sure are higher priorities at this point for our tech guys, so I'm not holding my breath.

Besides, a lot of the spawn monsters on TSM seem to have this feature working for them already, so it's only fair. j/k, but it is a curious thing to see '<blank> attacks <PC name> ', making me wonder it this was an intentional design to discourage metagaming, if there's a script that ID's creatures based on a skill check, etc

[NickD]

if there's a script that ID's creatures based on a skill check, etc

If you right click on the mob, you can select identify from the menu. I don't remember this working even for my bard character though.

[AcadiusLost]

The Identify option was intended to reference the various "Knowledge" subskills (Knowledge: Dungeoneering for Oozes/slimes, Knowledge: Nature for animals, etc), but those have been indefinitely delayed due to problems with custom skill handling by NWN2.