We have different task. I'm sure some of you have heard Kato, Surreal, and Ballade while they were on our Video/Live Streams.
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Suggestion for name change procedure:
First I assume all chars on both servers get name change card.
Case 0: No name conflict.
Suggestion: Character retains name.
Case 1: Same character name exists in single account
Suggestion: Highest exp char retains name while lower exp char is appended with unique identifier (user will need to rename one of the characters in any case)
Case 2: Same character name exists in separate accounts
Suggestion: Calculate a weight, W, that takes into account character activity, exp, honor and achievements, W = (last active date - creation date) * (honor pts) * exp * (achievement pts).
Character with largest W retains name and the other char is appended with unique identifier
Note: This weight factor is just a suggestion and could be improved if there is more data, eg actual hrs active, but I'm not sure what is tracked by the game. That is left for the GMs.
Comment: Case 0 is obvious. At the very least, the suggestion in Case 1 should be implemented since it is obviously the same person reserving their name on the other server. Of course case 2 is the most difficult one but something simple like what is suggested above at least makes an attempt to reward players for their efforts.
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I suggest something similar for guild names.
First I assume all guild masters on both servers get guild name change card.
Case 0: No name conflict.
Suggestion: Guild retains name.
Case 1: If GM of both guilds is from the same user account
Suggestion: Highest guild score retains name
Case 2:
Suggestion: Similar to name change case 2 using weight factor that takes into account creation date and guild score.
Sorry for the detail... Hope this helps GMs find a somewhat more satisfactory solution.
Way to keep name:
1.During the merger, characters who want dibs on their names should contact hd and reserve it. Gms would then find a way to preserve the name for them whether the maybe delay maintainance and change the names for those individuals or something. Since they have access to our accounts anyways.
2. Est makes like a name cube or whatever(only for this merger ) and everyone gets them from event girl prior to merge. Everyone saves their names at the moment into the cube and they Immediately obtain numerical names till they use their name cube after the merge. (this way seems very unlikely though unless they CAN do it.)
This is a few things I thought up. Enjoi.
If anyone has seen the crucible then you would understand why this name and Giuld name issue is vexing everyone. Although i believe this IS JUST A GAME and it's not worth all this fuss people are making about names, I don't think it's in my place to say that the character names are that serious compared to everything going on in the world. No I will not tell you guys to about the names. No not at all but it really isn't that serious.
But I will say that they should definatly do something about the Giuld thingy tho. That's what should be stressed. Unless it not going to go as people thing it will go.
So realistically, how many duplicate names are there going to be....Lets say 95% of the people have a unique name and the remaining 5% share a name with someone else. Why not just give rename cards to those few individuals and just let them worry about it.