Playername reservation

Stardouser · 2012-04-20, 12:09 PM

Perhaps a bit early, but that simply means this topic can be discussed before anything goes wrong.

Are playernames going to be unique to all of Planetside, unique to each server, unique to each empire/server, perhaps even not unique at all(ie, more than one player of the same name can exist)?

And if there is unique naming, will there be an early reservation process? Will character names of closed beta get wiped to allow for an even playing ground when open beta begins?

ItsTheSheppy · 2012-04-20, 12:17 PM

I've only heard some vague mutterings about PS1 vets being able to reserve their names, but I don't know much more than that.

MgFalcon · 2012-04-20, 12:21 PM

Higby said during an AGN Broadcast that the bonus of being a Veteran would be name reservation. There has been no official word as of yet.

Geist · 2012-04-20, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by MgFalcon

Higby said during an AGN Broadcast that the bonus of being a Veteran would be name reservation. There has been no official word as of yet.

Any chance you know which broadcast that was?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**RadarX** · 2012-04-20, 12:34 PM

We are still looking into this but will absolutely announce any initiative regarding name reservation. It has certainly come up a few times.

MrBloodworth · 2012-04-20, 12:47 PM

Will our account just transfer? ( and all the names, of course )

That would be lovely.

ringring · 2012-04-20, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

Will our account just transfer? ( and all the names, of course )

That would be lovely.

It might be complicated.

We don't know whether new ps2 accounts will have multiple characters and we think it will be only one character per server.

basti · 2012-04-20, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by RadarX

We are still looking into this but will absolutely announce any initiative regarding name reservation. It has certainly come up a few times.

Simple way: pull your PS database, flag all those character names only useable for the correct account, keep this for a month or two after release. Plenty of time to take your name again, and after a while, all names are free again.

Geist · 2012-04-20, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by ringring

It might be complicated.

We don't know whether new ps2 accounts will have multiple characters and we think it will be only one character per server.

And don't forget that there were a lot of cool names that were reserved the first day or month Planetside was out that have never played since. It would be nice if we were given a clean slate for those with the will to grab their preferred Nicknames(aka Geist is already taken on Planetside 1

)

Stardouser · 2012-04-20, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by RadarX

We are still looking into this but will absolutely announce any initiative regarding name reservation. It has certainly come up a few times.

Are you able to say whether character names are unique to all of PS2 (ie, only one "Stardouser" across ALL servers) or unique to each individual server, like most MMOs?

I'm kind of guessing they are unique to the whole game regardless of server, based on the expectations people are shooting around for veteran reservations.

Kurtz · 2012-04-20, 01:26 PM

that would be awesome if they allowed the vets to keep theirs.

I haven't been able to get Kurtz in a game since 2003.

Hmr85 · 2012-04-20, 01:33 PM

Name reservations would be great. Hold them for a month before releasing them imo.

Ale · 2012-04-20, 01:34 PM

In PS1 names were server specific.

Which brings me to my point: What if you never actually had the username that everyone knows you by? Speaking for the people with -K, -M and -J suffixes, and the people who used capital "I" in place of lowercase "L"s because the name they had was taken by a non-active account post merge?

EVILPIG · 2012-04-20, 01:35 PM

The GDC demo showed a character selection screen. That could change. I would be for a universal ID, where your name would be the same now matter what empire you played. Multiple characters are not necessary since you will be working on progress towards all roles on your avatar. However, they could have a character per empire, if they decide to allow multiple empires per account per server.

As for name reservations, it's a lot more complicated than just taking the data from PS1 and giving you those names. PS1 went through server merges and the Werner characters would be reserved for the European service, not the North American server. Then you have the issue of how many servers there will be. Will it be one server for NA? NA West and NA East? Or multiple Western and Eastern NA servers? Same for the Euro service.

Machine · 2012-04-20, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by RadarX

We are still looking into this but will absolutely announce any initiative regarding name reservation. It has certainly come up a few times.

Cheers!