The Energon Pub

[Psychout]

Venomous & Evoloution are both imaginative and orignal names but think - why do you need to put the 'Prime' on the end of your HMW characters? Ego? Childhood insecurity? The desire to force yourself on your faction as a 'leader'?

I honestly dont get it. I think its unimaginative and that it defeats the point of it being a title. Go out and earn it and then you can say 'I earned this title' instead of 'I gave it to myself because I could.'

EDIT:

I'd say block any and all "new" major canon names but allow existing players to bring over 1 per team if they used it in HMW1.

Blocked isnt the right word, 'correctly represented' would work better.

You're all still thinking of this in terms of HMW1. Remember, we'll still have to earn the allspark keys to get more than 1 team member, so names will be lost all over the place.

HMW will be transitioning from a small game with no backstory, no plot and no overall objective into an actual war MMO with a story and planetary regions to explore and fight over, and the 'big names' will be used to advance that story. Whats the point of a mission blurb saying 'Optimus Prime needs you to go here...' when the games Optimus Prime is a L1 recruit who couldn't find his own ass with a sat nav?

There are hundreds of names already in canon, and OS plans to hold back just a handful of the bigger ones for the long-term so the names actually mean something.

[Venomous Prime]

Has nothing to do with egos or my poopy childhood. Its all part of my "universe" or whatever you want to call it. He has an undying hatred of the Autobots and Optimus Prime in particular. After being reformatted he chose the name Prime to spite Optimus.

Me having an ego is one of the funniest **** things I have ever heard

[Evolution Prime]

Mine isn't due to my ego, since I don't have a huge one anyways. It is not as my desire to force myself as a leader to my fellow faction mates, although some may condtend my involvement in the AWC that I may.

It was all due to the backstory to the character, like original sin. I am sure it is a similar story with other "Primes" as well. I change my character name, I will also likely change my forum name, since I have always linked the two together. It really is my personal character in the game. Some have chosen to have their namesake on their team, others have not.

This guy takes it a little too far, though. While I am picking up what you are laying down about earning the title, some like GP and I have had some sort of back story to it. I agree that using it extensively will water down the title. I am sure there is some way to come to a comprimise about it.

Also, are you going to outright ban the canon names in team time. Like I have Optimus Magnum, which I think is a cool name, or Galvatron Prime. I know you can limit it through keywords like "Optimus" or "Galvatron" or "Magnus" or other things like that. I just don't want the variences in canon names like ~Gavlatron~ or -Starscream- or others with the like filler characters, but I would still like the ability to keep the names that I have had from day one, unless some jack@$$ decides to steal them before I have a chance to get it.

[Psychout]

Veep, I take what I said back. Thats not even original...

Also, are you going to outright ban the canon names in team time. Like I have Optimus Magnum, which I think is a cool name, or Galvatron Prime. I know you can limit it through keywords like "Optimus" or "Galvatron" or "Magnus" or other things like that. I just don't want the variences in canon names like ~Gavlatron~ or -Starscream- or others with the like filler characters, but I would still like the ability to keep the names that I have had from day one, unless some jack@$$ decides to steal them before I have a chance to get it.

I'd better point out, the NPC's are OS call. I'm just backing him on it as its somehting that people have asked for here for as long as Ive been a HMW player. (The -Prime bit is a personal rant so it may not even happen)

The way I see it though, Optimus Magnum would be absolutely fine. Optimus in itself cant be that uncommon a cybertronian name, and in Ultra Magnus's case, its Ultra thats the title, not Magnus, so that would also be fine. Galvatron Prime however may not, if OS decides Galvatron to be an NPC and Prime is reserved as a title then GP may fall foul of it but under those circumstances, there is always room for compromise.

I do agree on the ~Gavlatron~/-Starscream- type names though. If I had my way, Id do away with all punctuation in character names except maybe the hyphen, but im a bit a purist and have never used a canon name apart from in my comedy parody of Wheelie.


As for preventing the names from being stolen, I dont see how that will be possible. We dont yet know how long it will take to loot character keys, but as new players arrive to the game its hardly fair to them to say 'no you cant use that name, a guy from 5 years ago bagged it and is planning to use it eventually'.
Im afraid we will all have to just accept the chance that someone else may come up with a name we thought of previously.

[Absolute Zero]

Is there going to be some sort of control on the keys to unlock new character slots? It would really suck for someone to have 30 and someone else to have 0. And if we're going to be able to sell them in a market place like most MMOs allow you to do for drops is... Likely going to end up broken.

[Venomous Prime]

Veep, I take what I said back. Thats not even original...

It is too

Man, every site I go to today the mods are being meanies

[Psychout]

You love it Veep


AZ, Yes there will be controls on them.

As for trading, I dont know yet, OS is playing those cards pretty close to his chest. There will an open market as such, but I have no idea if keys will involved or tradeable.

[Redimus]

You're all still thinking of this in terms of HMW1. Remember, we'll still have to earn the allspark keys to get more than 1 team member, so names will be lost all over the place.

Correction:
OS said somewhere (maybe this thread) that the innital potential team size would be smaller than V1, but he also said it would be more than one, I beleive he was conciderign 4 at the time.

I dont think bits of canon names should be blocked or banned. For a start, there are a lot of good names that wouldnt exist without them (Elita Nemesis from my team would be at risk for instence), and also I just dont think people should be censored at all. I only want to see an end to the whole thing of there being 5 diffferent Hot Rods on 2 or 3 different factions, all with different alts and some with the wrong colours*.

I started here as Redimus Prime, and I fully admit it was a complete and utter bout of lack of imagination, but not long after I realise just how much of an epidemic 'Prime' is, I dropped it, my charecter however has never been a Prime (he's a con ffs).

*May not be 100% fact.

[Psychout]

1, 4, whats the difference? You've still gotta accept the fact that you may lose a bunch of names when you start. You've all had your turn with them, now to let somone else have a go.


And you havent actually read what I said to Eeep, have you Red?
Nowhere have we said we are blocking partial canon names, most likely OS will just register the names he wants at the start to prevent them from being used by players and the only name extention I'm suggesting assigning a purpose to (i.e. earning instead of just allowed) in the game is Prime.

[Burn]

You want to talk unoriginality on names?

Burnimus Prime.

That one right there deserves to die, BY FIRE!

[Me, Grimlock!]

You want to talk unoriginality on names?

Burnimus Prime.

That one right there deserves to die, BY FIRE!

Whu-HEY! He hasn't gone by that name in years. Besides, he found the Matrix so he got to keep it.

One of these days I'm going to start taking you seriously! THEN who'll be the president of the fan club? Me, the only member, that's who.

[Omega Sentinel]

Currently the plan is to block cannon names. "Optimus Prime" will be blocked but "Prime" will not. Granted you will earn rank in your faction and "Prime" is a rank, but if you have Prime in your name it doesn't mean you are one.

I am also blocking all characters that aren't a number or letter.

[Editor]

I am also blocking all characters that aren't a number or letter.

[Evolution Prime]

Currently the plan is to block cannon names. "Optimus Prime" will be blocked but "Prime" will not. Granted you will earn rank in your faction and "Prime" is a rank, but if you have Prime in your name it doesn't mean you are one.

I am also blocking all characters that aren't a number or letter.

What about the space? I don't know if would cause any character names with two words to have problems or not. Glad to hear that special characters will be blocked. Still could see someone making a character list like 1Optimus Prime1 or like some one did by using a 0 for an O in Optimus. Ghey...

[Me, Grimlock!]

I think the dash and apostrophe should be fine. Without the dash, we wouldn't have characters like Wreck-Gar or First-Aid. Without the apostrophe, we wouldn't have Rack 'n' Ruin. Mind you, there are very few examples in canon, but in non-canon, I can see these having legitimate uses, unlike an ampersand or a carat.

Not that I'm advocating taking canon names, but there are times when a dash or an apostrophe is legitimate for non-canon names. I'd suggest don't allow them (or spaces) at the start or end of a character name, but otherwise I suggest they're fine.

[Psychout]

Thanks for the clarification OS.

[Name_Violation]

i'll be glad to not have a million Primes, megatrons, and galvatrons running around.

the closest to a cannon name i got is wrought gut, which i found out there was a mutant ape in the comics called rot gut afterwards. oh well. i don't think thats close enough to count.

I think the dash and apostrophe should be fine. Without the dash, we wouldn't have characters like Wreck-Gar or First-Aid. Without the apostrophe, we wouldn't have Rack 'n' Ruin. Mind you, there are very few examples in canon, but in non-canon, I can see these having legitimate uses, unlike an ampersand or a carat.

Not that I'm advocating taking canon names, but there are times when a dash or an apostrophe is legitimate for non-canon names. I'd suggest don't allow them (or spaces) at the start or end of a character name, but otherwise I suggest they're fine.

i think it would require a bunch more code. too much to be worth the hastle, IMHO

[Editor]

I spent a good chunk of a saturday morning a while back trying to figure out a dozen original names that I would be happy using, because I didn't want a team of copycats.

Hopefully I can hold on to those names but if I can't oh well.

[Omega Sentinel]

What about the space? I don't know if would cause any character names with two words to have problems or not. Glad to hear that special characters will be blocked. Still could see someone making a character list like 1Optimus Prime1 or like some one did by using a 0 for an O in Optimus. Ghey...

Won't be possible. I'm going to catch cannon names anywhere in the whole name. Now if someone wants to be 1Op1t1m1us1 P1r1m1e1 or something like that they can, but they will just look ignorant anyway so who cares.

[Redimus]

And you havent actually read what I said to Eeep, have you Red?

Pot calling the kettle black much?

Anyway, I was actully refoering more to the other posters, who kinda built up a head of steam all on their own.

And for the record, I not only suport OS's plan for smaller innital teams, but I dont know if I am even keeping any of my team.

I spent a good chunk of a saturday morning a while back trying to figure out a dozen original names that I would be happy using, because I didn't want a team of copycats.

Hopefully I can hold on to those names but if I can't oh well.

It took me until a few weeks after I joined the preds to finaly settle on a set ot names I liked enough to keep for the long term, up to that point I had been chopping and changing and keeping and losing names as ideas came to me. I think there's one name that is 100% origanal from my very first days, one that is a translation of it's original name, and one who's name has changed by who's charecter is virtully the first charecter I created. Other than that, I've had a LOT of chaff, and retired then brought back a few (Elita Nemesis comes to mind).

Anyway, long story short, there's no rush in finding the perfect set of charecters, and there's no harm in having halfbaked charecters as standins, hell they might develop to become pivotal charecters in your team (Purple Floyd was a bad joke based on an alt I can no longer get and can now change the colour of for instence, yet he will almost cirtainly survive into V2 now).

[Galvatronus]

Thought I'd throw in my cent.

So, OS, is that meaning the my main character will no longer be usable by me? I know I haven't played much of late but that's a little harsh (for lack of a better word).

I can understand some of the uses of the names but people such as EP and myself have had these characters for years. It's not like we just made them on a whim - well recently anyways.

Just curious about the situation is all

[Omega Sentinel]

Thought I'd throw in my cent.

So, OS, is that meaning the my main character will no longer be usable by me? I know I haven't played much of late but that's a little harsh (for lack of a better word).

I can understand some of the uses of the names but people such as EP and myself have had these characters for years. It's not like we just made them on a whim - well recently anyways.

Just curious about the situation is all

Its possible I can make exceptions for your own name but it will need to be done on a case by case basis. In you and EP's case I could manually setup a character for you with your name since you technically aren't canon names.

[Galvatronus]

That would be GREATLY appreciated

[Me, Grimlock!]

i think it would require a bunch more code. too much to be worth the hastle, IMHO

Not that hard, actually.

Code: Select all

function valid_name($name) {
  $valid = 1;
  if(!preg_match("a-z0-9\ '\-", $name))
    $valid = 0;
  if((substr($name, 1) == "-") || (substr($name, -1) == "-"))
    $valid = 0;   //first or last character a dash?
  if((substr($name, 1) == " ") || (substr($name, -1) == " "))
    $valid = 0;   //first or last character a space?
  if((substr($name, 1) == "'") || (substr($name, -1) == "'"))
    $valid = 0;   //first or last character an apostrophe?
  if(in_array($name, $list_of_reserved_names))
    $valid = 0;

  return $valid;
}


My PHP is a bit rusty, especially with the preg_match() statement, and this hasn't been debugged, but it's a start.

[Absolute Zero]

On the one hand, I'm excited for V2. It sounds epic. It sounds awesome. It sounds fun.

On the other hand, I'm absolutely dreading it. Not because of it being different and changed. Change is good. Lack of change made Craplo 3 and Glitches of War 2 be so dull and bad online. I'm dreading it because not everything ends up being as epic or awesome as promised. The quest games advertised on this site are an example. An even bigger one is Gaia's ZOMG game.