Spiral Knights - Name Changes!

Name Changes!

43 replies [Last post]

Sat, 02/11/2012 - 00:04

Baodur

I was thinking, (New to this...) What if Knights could change their character names? I don't mean the account ID but the actual names that show above their knights.

Sort of like the new Bazaar Merchant that can change your Personal Color. But instead changes your Nickname/Username.

Issues I have found:

1. Friends and Guild members may get confused if a friend or maybe the Guild Master gets a name change. The way to fix this one is simple, Have the game automatically send through the mail a message, telling all Guild Members and Friends your new name. (Fixed)

2. What if you wanted the name Baodur? Well, since another player already has it, it should not be allowed. Unless the player that had the name changed it. Like me, if I were to change my name to something else anyone who wanted my name could have it, now that I don't use it. The only problem with this in the end is that if someone didn't pay attention to their mail then someone could impersonate another player, also popular ones. Like Chris, if he changed his name and someone changed there name to Chris then only Chris's friends would know, but not all players. Making it very easy to impersonate popular players who desire a name change. (assuming Chris would want to change his name, but that is just an example.), (EDIT: This impersonation Issue has been resolved via saving names to a tab on inspect, see below.)

All that aside, I think it would be a very neat idea to have the ability, (even for 50k crowns) to change your name to something else.

Serenity, Rugdumph (Old joke lol.)

Sat, 02/11/2012 - 08:27

Ztype

Why not have guild name

Why not have guild name changes as well (of course for example guild changed their name, someone else would turn their name into guild, that is an issue). Also, why not have an auto delete for players who have not played for 6+ months (more name availability)?

Sat, 02/11/2012 - 23:41

Severage

@OP:

I think Baodur hit the nail on the head with what the main problem would be; impersonation. Without that little hiccup, I wouldn't see anything else wrong with this idea.

The only solution that I could think of for that would be to make ALL previously used names impossible to use again; but that'd drastically reduce name availability, which wouldn't be such a good thing.

@Ztype: Many games choose not to delete their players after 6+ months...especially if they have ever made a purchase. Reason being, people like me, who take several-month-long breaks from a specific game, will come back to it later. It can be very difficult to gauge how long people will be away from a game.

Now, if it deleted players who have been offline for 6+ Months, have less than 24 Hrs of game-play time, and have never made a purchase, then that would be reasonable.

~Sev

Sun, 02/12/2012 - 02:35

Ztype

I agree with you

Fri, 02/17/2012 - 22:22

Baodur

o_o

I see some problems in all of it, which discourages the idea, but I can't think of anyway to fix the impersonation issue without it mailing to EVERY player. But then it would do this for all players, which means every time you log-on you would have a huge amount of spam.

If only there was some solution...

Well, thanks for your support anyway. Being that this thread has gotten such little attention I wouldn't expect things to continue from here, especially because the three of us have no perfect solution.

Also, Sev's idea of fixing it makes (Like he said) a large drop in name possibility. As long as popular players don't change there name, it would be fine, but that rules them out entirely which is unfair. News would probably get around rather fast, but still could impersonate successfully to newer players.

Maybe we can get some other ideas and fresh minds in here.

EDIT: I thought of an idea to fix this impersonation thing better. What if when you inspect other players you can see all of their previous names?
This would make it easy to find out if this person is/was [Insert popular player IGN] or if he is just impersonating him. Totally would work!

Sat, 02/18/2012 - 05:59

Exrun

One solution...

How about a username database for players?

For example, on Day1, John changed his name to Jack. Day 2, Buck changed his name to John. And on Day 3, John changed his name to Lols.

So when you look up the database, you would see:

Looked up for 'John'

N/A ----->John ----> Jack ----- Day 1
Buck ---->John ----> N/A ----- Day 2
N/A ----->John ----> LolS ----- Day 3

Assuming no one changed their username,

Looked up for 'Jack'

John ----> Jack ----->Day 1

Just my suggestion.

Or maybe we can bid for them Lol.

Sat, 02/18/2012 - 06:44

Orangeo

Incomes the blue man named

Incomes the blue man named Orangeo. Obviously I'd want to change my username, but I'd really just find this confusing and unessecary. It's not going to blow the world up or anything, but I don't think anyone absolutely needs to change their username.

Sat, 02/18/2012 - 08:06

Clueless-Inferno

This would be horrible.

This would be horrible. Imagine trying to keep track of someone IRL if they got their name changed every other week or month? And more than one person too. Besides, the Developers are already against name-changing unless it is offensive.

Sat, 02/18/2012 - 08:31

Severage

@Purgion:

How about a limit? Something like you can only change your name every couple of months.

If people could constantly change their names I'd be so confused...lol

~Sev

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 18:34

Baodur

@Sev & Purgion

Well, if you look at other online games you can only change your name once every 30 days, or you have to be some sort of subscribed player. So Purgion, you're argument is invalid. If it just tracked names and had a limit to name changes per month, it would be fine, and no one would change there name weekly even if there wasn't a limit, I had said it should cost 50k crowns like color changes. No one can afford wasting 50k crowns per week unless they are just wasting their money for no reason.

If someone really wants to spend 50k crowns just to change their name every week or month, they have to have nothing better to do with their money, you could by UV's with that.

Sev's idea of limiting the name changes still makes sense as well, because otherwise people would waste a lot of money. The purpose of this is mainly to add a crown sink so that CE prices don't increase so fast now that there are elevator passes, Promos are coming out constantly to help cancel this.

Hopefully this will solve all of your problems.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 18:36

#10

Baodur

@Exrun

Thanks for the help and support! That is another good solution, either way you do it, it should work.

Tue, 02/21/2012 - 03:21

#11

Neinhart

+1 (plus replies)

@Baodur & Ztype

Now that I've been playing for several months now I began to regret my IGN and Guild name and this second chance would answer my prayers. I always wanted a roundtable knight username, best cross my fingers.

@Orangeo

"I don't think anyone absolutely needs to change their username."

of course you don't, that why its optional and often rather expensive

@Purgion

That's why its usually expensive, so you can't spam name change since you'll need to recover from you last purchase. Sure people could simply bypass this by using cash to buy CE and convert to CR (whichever preferred) but that's their money. I don't see your problem, There's a fistful (not even) of video game/online services that offer username changes and naturally there's bound to be confusion but in the end that mailing method seems the most plausible solution and things will always return to normal

Tue, 02/21/2012 - 20:35

#12

Hexzyle

RuneScape hit the nail upon

RuneScape hit the nail upon the head. I made a few alterations:

Limit to changing your name once per 3 months. You can only change your name to something that isn't already taken. A knights name gets deleted if he does not fufill ALL of the following criteria:

1. Has not played in the last 12 months
2. Has not aquired tier 2 (or 3, negotiable)
3. Does not have any CE (or has not purchased anything with real cash. negotiable. Runescape only allows paid players to change their name)

Above my head for 12 months after I change my name:

_____Xenetime_____ [previously HexZyle] _<.Cobalt Squires>_

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 00:46

#13

Severage

@Hex:

Elaborate on what you mean by "If he does not fulfill ALL of the following criteria:".

I understand you to mean that if he purchased CE, and acquired Tier 2, but has not played in the last 12 months, the Knight would be deleted? I don't think OOO would like that idea.

The [Previous Name Under Current Name] idea is neat.

~Sev

Tue, 02/28/2012 - 15:09

#14

Baodur

^_^ Happy face.

@Purepwn: Well thank you for the support~ I am glad someone agrees.

@Hexzyle: Runescape did do a pretty good job of it, but the idea of kicking them off after 12 months isn't good for OOO's business. They may make change names but those rules may make an issue. Once per three months is alright, but I like the idea of having to spend money on it, we need crown sinks as CE prices are going crazy with all of the elevator passes. Crowns are having hyper inflation, so 50k crowns is just perfect, it isn't like that is much, it is just a small crown sink. It is like a small cheap accessory, and you just have to think of it like that.

Tue, 02/28/2012 - 20:16

#15

Dukeplatypus

This already exists. You can

This already exists. You can appeal to the GMs and when presented with sufficient reason, they will change your name accordingly.

Tue, 02/28/2012 - 23:05

#16

Baodur

@Dukeplatypus

That is only if your name is offensive, "sufficient reason," My name is not offensive. Unless I asked people to report me for an offensive name, I would never get change my name.

your argument is invalid.

Wed, 02/29/2012 - 05:36

#17

Hexzyle

No, guys, your knight doesn't

No, guys, your knight doesn't get deleted. When you log in again into runescape after your name has been taken by someone else, you are presented with a screen to rechoose your name. You still continue to log in with your original username, but your character has a different name.

Otherwise you just appear as a number.

As I recall, when you try to message a guest player on Spiral Knights once they have logged off and opted not to choose to save their character, you are presented with an offline error message which contains a string of letters and numbers that represent the knight's code, rather than their name. Something like "Xpns-1908537k"

Wed, 02/29/2012 - 05:48

#18

Hexzyle

@Severage

I meant:
IF lastlogin > 12 months ago AND tierclearance = 1 AND CEcount = 0 THEN selectedname.knightname.change = knightcodeID currentknight.knightname.change = selectedname ELSE /tell currentknight The selected name is already in use

Don't know if you'll understand that or not, but pseudocode was the only way I could explain it.

So therefore if you have played in the last 12 months OR you have unlocked tier 2, OR you have any CE, then your name is safe. As I mentioned in my first post, these parametres are debatable.

Mon, 03/05/2012 - 22:46

#19

Baodur

@Hexzyle

I understand what you mean now, lol.
The whole idea sounds about right. At least you won't have hundreds of names taken from people who quit the first week.

Honestly I don't know why this hasn't already been done before, The ability to change a characters name is in almost every game. Hopefully if we get their attention on it they will add it in. It may seem like a pointless thing to worry about, but I think it would be great to have in the game. Like I said before CE prices increase buy hundreds daily because less people are buying with USD then people are buying with Crowns. Crown sinks are essential for a controlled CE price, so 25k-50k crowns for a name change is perfect. Even for poor people this is an "okay" price because it isn't an emergency to change your name. (Yes I would consider myself poor. :P) Unless of course it is offensive, however, if your name is offensive you will have to change it.

Thanks for your support and help with the ideas!

Mon, 03/05/2012 - 23:17

#20

Hexzyle

@Baodur

50k sounds like a good price, just like personal colours.
Oh, and Nick did mention something about a name purge: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/45729

Mon, 03/05/2012 - 23:55

#21

Baodur

@Hexzyle

At least that means they may have some attention on it. Any news about them dealing with names in general is good news for this thread. :P
For such a simple function it sure can make a lot of trouble. :P
Clearing all the old names could mean they are going to add name changes and don't want to have so many taken names without them ever being played.

Let's hope.

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 05:06

#22

Asukalan

scam/borrow/steal someones

scam/borrow/steal someones belongings today, and get new name for tommorow!

That could be new slogan

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 16:13

#23

Baodur

@Asukalanforum

Uh, I am not exactly sure what you mean.
If you mean stealing someones name that has only 00:00:02:30 of total game play and hasn't logged in twelve months, I wouldn't call that stealing/borrowing/scamming.

That isn't a very good slogan, as only the second half is relevant.
If you mean 50k crowns as stealing/scamming/borrowing, it isn't because we need crown sinks.

Next time you post, please either add an idea or give support, just stay on topic. :P

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 16:20

#24

Blue-Phaze

@Baodur Asukalan is just

@Baodur
Asukalan is just saying it would be too easy to scam someone and change your name to flee from reports.

Ontopic:
I think changing names is unnescessary, there may be people who'd like it, but only a few would actually use it. The devs should focus on something useful for the whole playerbase, not just a really tiny fraction of it.

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 16:48

#25

Severage

@Blue-Phaze:

" there may be people who'd like it, but only a few would actually use it. The devs should focus on something useful for the whole playerbase, not just a really tiny fraction of it."

To be fair, I only know a couple people who used Personal Color Changes.

~Sev

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 17:00

#26

Blue-Phaze

@Severage

Nice counter arguement. But still, I'd say the same thing about Personal Color change.
Perhaps a cheaper price could help that number increase, I'm sure some people would like to try new colors on, but they don't, as a consequence of it being expensive.
Trying new names, though, is completely different; the way I see it, low prices wouldn't make it popular.

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 18:04

#27

Baodur

@Blue-Phaze

Still, Asukalanforum doesn't get it, if you have the same ID then the reports would be able to track players. Unless it took the person a long time to figure out he was scammed before he reported him. Then it is the guy that got scammed's fault for not reporting him sooner. You won't be able to change your name unless you buy one from the merchant at the Bazaar, meaning he would have to quickly run over there and buy one and change his name before you can report him, unless he moved havens, you can see his new name.

Also, Blue-Phaze, I have played several online games before.. some of them I never made a name suggestion, they already had it. On one particular game 10 USD was equal to 10k "Cash" which you could use to buy from a cash shop, Name changes costed 8,200 Cash. It isn't supposed to be cheap, but still in the game I had friends who had changed their names several times.

And it isn't meant for all players, like Sev said, not everyone wants to change their color. It's a personal choice and preference. Even if personal colors were cheaper it is still not something most people will do, if it were 2k crowns or even cheaper some people would really not care to change colors. Same with name changes, if they were extremely cheap/free then some people still wouldn't use them. (Like yourself)

@Asukalanforum If you want a real simple way to stop scam-nameswitching then here you go. After purchasing a name change give it time to be confirmed. Like if someone were in the process of /complain then they would the name would still be "Processing". Or make it where every knight has an ID code that can be seen on inspect, that way you /complain [Scammers_ID_Code] and boom, done. Also by contacting support if you say the players previous name on the scam, Devs would have a simple technique. They would look in a "Name Change Purchase History" and see who all has changed their name to this and who has changed their name from this. So even if the scammer changed his name and someone else changed their name to the scammer's previous name, The Devs could see that [Scammer's previous name(You reported)] Now is [New scammer name] and randomplayer changed their name to [Scammer's previous name] it would be obvious this happened in the last 24-48 hours, and that the person changing from the name is the actual scammer, not the player changing to the name.

Any more issues you see with this let me know! Ty Asukalan for bringing that up, it made me think about it and come up with that solution.

~Derp (Hehe just trolling Sev so ignore that)

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 06:19

#28

Hexzyle

I do remember in runescape

I do remember in runescape your old name could not be taken for 2 weeks after your name change or something like that. So this way either name could be used to identify the same player.

Tue, 03/13/2012 - 22:19

#29

Baodur

Bump~

I leave for two days and no one posts but Hexzyle with a half a paragraph. D;

Thu, 11/22/2012 - 08:28

#30

Erky

Tired of my name!

Please Please PLEASE implement this Sega, I am so tired of my name. I want to change it!

Thu, 11/22/2012 - 10:19

#31

Hexzyle

That necro makes this the

That necro makes this the fourth name change thread in the top 3 pages of suggestions -.-

Thu, 11/22/2012 - 16:10

#32

Marlwoof

Good, it means there's plenty

Good, it means there's plenty of demand for this feature.

Thu, 11/22/2012 - 19:44

#33

Moonlight-Flower

Maybe if it's made into a

Maybe if it's made into a store purchase, it'll be less abused. Or something like 1000 CE from the depot

Fri, 11/23/2012 - 04:49

#34

Marlwoof

I made the suggestion that

I made the suggestion that Knights could only change their name once in a six month period of time, for a fair amount of energy or money. That's more than enough of a fair barrier and safeguard to get the job done, and prevent abuse.

Fri, 11/23/2012 - 16:14

#35

Blandaxt

i like it

i like the idea, althouh i dont have anyproblems with my name. but i do know some people who would like a name change. :)

Thu, 10/17/2013 - 17:17

#36

Skyguarder

50,000 threads / nodes later, dude...

Name changes are available now. Have fun.

Thu, 10/17/2013 - 17:34

#37

Klipik-Forum

Yeah, and they ignored all the problems anyone mentioned here.

Fri, 10/18/2013 - 05:02

#38

Sangerine

While we're resurrection this thread...

We do need an event for name changes in the Event Hub (if there is, I missed it: one of my guild mates changed name earlier.)

Thu, 04/27/2017 - 21:12

#39

Skylerson

Name changes for 2017 PLEASE!

Ok, seriously. I do not want a new knight. I want my same knight, but just name change PLEASE!!!

Thu, 04/27/2017 - 22:37

#40

Crazee-Pi-Forum

Remember, don't shoot food.

You realize that name changes were added to the game years ago, right?

Fri, 04/28/2017 - 09:37

#41

Zeusaa

Looked at the wiki

http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Name_Change_Pass

Yeah, however, they're super expensive.

Sat, 05/06/2017 - 10:37

#42

Lordcalvinheins

/cry

^ makes Lordcalvinheins cry pitifully

Tue, 05/23/2017 - 18:42

#43

Flash-Flire

Wow.

That was quite a necro.

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Name Changes!