The surname system of FFXIV - not one of my favorite games in general - has one major advantage. The game looks to both first and last name as a whole in deciding who you are. So an almost unlimited number of people can have the same first name as long as last names differ. Rather like the real world. Yes that has disadvantages but it sure reduces the incentive to have Aragon, Aragonx, A'ragon, Araggon, Arragon, etc. and that isn't a small plus.
Yeah, I just don't want Beefcake the ****** giving Beefcake the Mighty a bad reputation.
I think it's important to have the first names be unique. When people are bitching about someone, rarely are they bitching about Beefcake the ******, they are just bitching about Beefcake.
Kilsin said:We will definitely have surnames, we have them now and currently you are forced to create one with any new character in the dev build but that will most likely change as it isn;t a big concern for us at the moment while we devote our time and energy to other more important areas of development :)
For those interested, I have a few but my favorite character name is "Kilsin Thedreamcrusher" haha, I will bug the devs to make that title for me when we get to implementing titles :D
Cool! Don't lose that surname Kilsin. Just a question, if we create a name/surname within the Dev guild will we get to keep it? I have one in mind for nostalgia's sake. But if we don't get to keep it (not attached to our account) then I will choose something else until game launch.
CanadinaXegony said:Kilsin said:We will definitely have surnames, we have them now and currently you are forced to create one with any new character in the dev build but that will most likely change as it isn;t a big concern for us at the moment while we devote our time and energy to other more important areas of development :)
For those interested, I have a few but my favorite character name is "Kilsin Thedreamcrusher" haha, I will bug the devs to make that title for me when we get to implementing titles :D
Cool! Don't lose that surname Kilsin. Just a question, if we create a name/surname within the Dev guild will we get to keep it? I have one in mind for nostalgia's sake. But if we don't get to keep it (not attached to our account) then I will choose something else until game launch.
The Founders guild won't be a guild in that sense, it will most likely just flag you for access to an NPC or Area as a small reward for being early pledgers but it will just use your normal characters name and will probably be account bound so all of your alts are flagged too but don't hold me to that, we still have to decide what we want to do, I just know that it is not a proper guild.
Zaedria said:Do we know if we will be able to add our surnames once we've reached a certain level, like when we dinged 20 in original EQ? Just curious if that will still be "a thing" :P
The current thinking is that you choose a first and last name at character create. There are many names out there that many people feel very attached to. I don't really want it to be a mad race to get your name in first, thus denying somone else the abiliity to have a character with the same first name.
The logic follows what has happened in the real world. When communities were small and people spread out without fast transportation, a single name worked. But as people came together, as populations grew, the need for a first and last name became apparent. In the USA anyway, most people have a first, middle, and last name.
That said, rewarding players for reaching certain levels is absolutely cool. Instead of a last name at, say, level 20, we will likely be using a system of various titles your character can earn and that would show in your nameplate along with your first and last name.
Shucklighter said:How do tells work with such a system?
/tell nils.shucklighter Yo.
Like that?
And this means there can be many different characters named Nils on each server, provided they all have different last names?
If there is only one person on the shard and online, a simple /tell *firstname*. If there is more than one person you'll likely have to /tell *firstname* *lastname*. But I think we can do some helpful UI work as well -- for example, you put in the first name and a box pops up showing you the, say, 3 people online with the same name and allows you to easily select the one you want.
An alias system will also exist where you can assign a nickname to someone (perhaps only those on your friends list, but not positive yet). So you could do /tell *nickname* if you happen to have a friend who shares their first name with others.
I'm sure other things can be done to reduce any hassle as well.
As for sending a message to a person on a different shard, we want to accomodate this as well, but you'll likely have to be specific. There's also our desire to be able to send messages to offline people (a mail system of sorts).
Aradune said:If there is only one person on the shard and online, a simple /tell *firstname*. If there is more than one person you'll likely have to /tell *firstname* *lastname*. But I think we can do some helpful UI work as well -- for example, you put in the first name and a box pops up showing you the, say, 3 people online with the same name and allows you to easily select the one you want.
An alias system will also exist where you can assign a nickname to someone (perhaps only those on your friends list, but not positive yet). So you could do /tell *nickname* if you happen to have a friend who shares their first name with others.
I'm sure other things can be done to reduce any hassle as well.
As for sending a message to a person on a different shard, we want to accomodate this as well, but you'll likely have to be specific. There's also our desire to be able to send messages to offline people (a mail system of sorts).
This sounds awesome! Thanks for the info Brad! :D
Aradune said:Zaedria said:Do we know if we will be able to add our surnames once we've reached a certain level, like when we dinged 20 in original EQ? Just curious if that will still be "a thing" :P
The current thinking is that you choose a first and last name at character create. There are many names out there that many people feel very attached to. I don't really want it to be a mad race to get your name in first, thus denying somone else the abiliity to have a character with the same first name.
The logic follows what has happened in the real world. When communities were small and people spread out without fast transportation, a single name worked. But as people came together, as populations grew, the need for a first and last name became apparent. In the USA anyway, most people have a first, middle, and last name.
That said, rewarding players for reaching certain levels is absolutely cool. Instead of a last name at, say, level 20, we will likely be using a system of various titles your character can earn and that would show in your nameplate along with your first and last name.
I like the idea of choosing both at character creation. Still liked the *ding 20!* and being able to have the surname finally too. But sounds like VR has been doing some thinking on this..I will be happy either way. :)
If there is only one person on the shard and online, a simple /tell *firstname*. If there is more than one person you'll likely have to /tell *firstname* *lastname*. But I think we can do some helpful UI work as well -- for example, you put in the first name and a box pops up showing you the, say, 3 people online with the same name and allows you to easily select the one you want.
An alias system will also exist where you can assign a nickname to someone (perhaps only those on your friends list, but not positive yet). So you could do /tell *nickname* if you happen to have a friend who shares their first name with others.
I'm sure other things can be done to reduce any hassle as well.
As for sending a message to a person on a different shard, we want to accomodate this as well, but you'll likely have to be specific. There's also our desire to be able to send messages to offline people (a mail system of sorts).
Sounds great. I appreciated the cross server tells. I met a friend that played EQ back in the day but he was on a different server. It was always nice to chat even though we couldn't group up.
Aradune said:An alias system will also exist where you can assign a nickname to someone (perhaps only those on your friends list, but not positive yet). So you could do /tell *nickname* if you happen to have a friend who shares their first name with others.
Would Nicknames be account bound or just character bound... I'd love to have them account bound for friends so no matter what character my friend might be on I can easily find/talk to them. Or just having a way to do this in gereral would be awesome! - Thanks for the information!
Aradune said:Zaedria said:Do we know if we will be able to add our surnames once we've reached a certain level, like when we dinged 20 in original EQ? Just curious if that will still be "a thing" :P
The current thinking is that you choose a first and last name at character create. There are many names out there that many people feel very attached to. I don't really want it to be a mad race to get your name in first, thus denying somone else the abiliity to have a character with the same first name.
The logic follows what has happened in the real world. When communities were small and people spread out without fast transportation, a single name worked. But as people came together, as populations grew, the need for a first and last name became apparent. In the USA anyway, most people have a first, middle, and last name.
That said, rewarding players for reaching certain levels is absolutely cool. Instead of a last name at, say, level 20, we will likely be using a system of various titles your character can earn and that would show in your nameplate along with your first and last name.
Under this scenerio, will we be forced to select a surname at character creation?
I wouldnt be in favor of that. I want to live in the game for a while before selecting that last name. There may be game features/npcs that inspire a surname. Id prefer the freedom of selecting a surname at a later date.
Selecting your surname in EQ was a milestone event for me.
Homercles...finally hit level 20, and I became, of course, Homercles Simpson....but only for a short time. About a week after selecting my surname, a GM removed it because it was in violation of naming rules. I was more than a little upset at this turn of events. The GM was being kind and understanding, but wouldn't/couldn't restore my name. He kept asking what name I would like instead. Being pissed off as I was, I told him PO.
He granted me the Po surname. And I became Homercles Po.
At the time, Po was the only surname of 2 letters in EQ.....and, as far as I know, it still is.
Vaultarn said: I like the idea of displaying a surname at level 20. Whether it is chosen at creation or at level 20 doesn't bother me. Linking it into the progeny system makes sense. Perhaps for those that have retired a character through the progeny system the surname will show right from level one? Just a small visible perk.
Out of curiosity, why do you think it should be displayed at level 20, even if it is chosen at creation? Or is that just nostalgia speaking? lol
Bazgrim said:Vaultarn said: I like the idea of displaying a surname at level 20. Whether it is chosen at creation or at level 20 doesn't bother me. Linking it into the progeny system makes sense. Perhaps for those that have retired a character through the progeny system the surname will show right from level one? Just a small visible perk.Out of curiosity, why do you think it should be displayed at level 20, even if it is chosen at creation? Or is that just nostalgia speaking? lol
The level 20 stated was only due to someone else using that number. Could be a different level. As for choosing it at creation, if it's going to be unique you would then be able to save it to your character thereby reserving it until you hit the level it can be displayed at.
Could be especially important if the surname is tied into the progeny system.
Edit: To answer your question why at level 20 rather than say at level 1 from creation. Just because to me it helps with a sense of achievement. It's another feather in my hat.
I do not want to be forced to choose a surname upon character creation for much of the same reasons already listed. I did not choose surnames for some of my characters ever. Sometimes, their surname did not come to me until I learned that character better; I played by feel and did not map out character traits before creation. Being stuck with a surname that does not fit who I am while playing that character or the world around him would be very disappointing.