Names and server merges... 2 suggestions to the devs to ease the frustration

[Solkarr]

<div></div><div></div><div>Hello Devs... I know server merges sometimes have to happen, and I know it puts you guys in a horrible possition for determining how to handle characters with identical names...</div><div> </div><div>My whole family playes this game, and just in my household we are losing 3 character names, and at least one person is going to lose their name because it matches mine, but mine was made first... its very frustrating for people who are active in the game and attached to their characters.</div><div> </div><div>I know you are already deleting placeholder characters below level 5, offline for 60days or more, with under 1 gold... that is a great start.</div><div> </div><div>I wish something else would be considered though...</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>compare not just which character was created first, but which has more hours played, and also which has been on most recently... if any character has been offline more than 30 (or maybe 60) days, they should get the "X" on their name, rather than the character that is active.  Example... my wife plays every day, and has since the game went live... however she remakes her characters often, due to limited character slots to try every class/race.  She finally was happy with a few and got them leveled up... level 30 and level 46... using the same names every time.  But both names will get X'd due to someone on the server merging with us... *IF* that person plays currently, then so be it, my wife will grudgingly make new names, BUT if those other character have not logged into the game in 3 to 12 months, and never log in again, it REALLY would suck.  <span><font color="#ff0000">A defunct character should NEVER be given priority in a name over an active character</font></span>.</div><div> </div><div>Another scenario... someone plays all the time and someone plays once a month... but both are active in their own way... the person who plays all the time will have a LOT more hours in game (although some people might argue that being in trader mode racks up the hours without playing, I point out that name recognition for buying things is just as big a deal as name recognition for crafting or for adventuring, you know who to go to for good deals, so it still counts).  So if both characters have recent log-in dates, using total play activity would be a much better gauge I believe, although this criteria does not have nearly as strong an arguement as the first one I mentioned. </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Please, please consider these things before the merges begin!  (also applies to defunct guild names, as I know at there is a guild name conflict for the merge onto Kithikor server... and the older guild is defunct <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />... so you know where this is going...</div><div> </div><div>Solkarr</div><div> </div><p>Message Edited by Solkarr on <span class="date_text">01-31-2006</span><span class="time_text">07:23 PM</span></p>

[LanatirInno]

<div>And why do you put this post into the Testing feedback?</div>

[Solkarr]

<div></div><p>well, testing feedback gets the most attention from the devs for one, plus they actually test, or at least consider things on test server before moving them to live servers, so the ideas should go to test...  plus there are not too many places to post that are appropriate... there are no server merge forumns, lol =)</p>

[Spakka]

Solkarr - I agree with what you say - perhaps try posting under the original Producer post - lots of replies to the announcement there;http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=testdev&message.id=7376<div></div>

[Pucswift]

<span><blockquote><hr>LanatirXXL wrote:<div>And why do you put this post into the Testing feedback?</div><hr></blockquote>lol exactly and from what I understand if your server is not the one being merged example..steamfont merged to oasis...  if you were on oasis they way i understood it was that you had name priority but i could be wrong</span><div></div>

[Wozicasamoll]

<div>Hello,</div><div> </div><div> I mentioned something about names and who should keep them but Oshy defines it a bit better than i was even able to in a calmed down state.</div><div> </div><div>Hierarchy for Names</div><div>  -Account Activity</div><div>               -Meaning the most active person gets to keep the name.</div><div>     -Level</div><div>               -Meaning mains, usually the highest toon on an account, get priority over someones alt</div><div>               -Alts</div><div>        -Let those with same names discuss the option...</div><div>               -If they agree who keeps it then let the other use /rename command</div><div>               -If they don't agree... refer back to the first two items in hierarchy</div><div> </div><div>Please Consider.</div><div> </div><div>- - - - - - - -</div><div> </div><div>This was taken from the official thread for the merge news. And this user posted this and I have thought of the same criteria as his describes.</div><div> </div><div>Please consider this suggestion.</div>

[thorvang]

here's my solution:both characters get a x'es behind their names. the one who's able to use the /rename command first wins <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Hella_Nervous]

<div><span><blockquote><hr>thorvang wrote:here's my solution:both characters get a x'es behind their names. the one who's able to use the /rename command first wins <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><hr></blockquote>That's not fair either, some people have jobs and cant sit at computer waiting for servers to come back up to keep their name......Personally there is a lvl 7/3 (mine is 57/23) with the same name as mine mergeing into my server so what i did was found a name i would be happy with that wasnt taken on either server and made a charcater with that name on both servers heh heh. this way if I loose my origional name i can rename her to my second choice heh heh. I had to delete two of my lvl 20's to do it, but was worth the sacrifice to assure that my main will keep a name that i will be happy with.</span></div>