Names are a problem

[lordfabianshrie]

Finding a fun name that fits a character is becoming a huge pain.

 

Finding a suitable, fun name takes far longer than making a character. It is really frustrating.

 

This is especially true for new players. I actively try to recruit for the game via streaming, tiktok, facebook, etc, and the number one complain is the fact that no names are available.

 

This goes beyond just taken names though. The restrictions are too tight. I wanted to create a name similar in style and strucutre Obi-wan Kenobi or Ki-Adi-Mundi. Like Kenyo-Tal Bewaz or Tel-Visha-Ba, but these would not be allowed.

 

Honestly, please allow multiple spaces, remove the required 3 characters after a space, etc. We really need to open these options up.

[Falensawino]

take a page from Cryptic Entertainment

makers of Neverwinter Online

and yeah, that game, that one, that star trek online thing.

 

They have names in two layers

 

There's a identifiable layer that is account wide

There's a public facing personalization layer, this is what people see

 

^ there's some degree of repeated names allowed, because your unique identifier is the account wide layer

 

when you friend someone, you friend the account layer

Edited July 6, 2022 by Falensawino

[DarthCasus]

take a page from Cryptic Entertainment

makers of Neverwinter Online

and yeah, that game, that one, that star trek online thing.

 

They have names in two layers

 

There's a identifiable layer that is account wide

There's a public facing personalization layer, this is what people see

 

^ there's some degree of repeated names allowed, because your unique identifier is the account wide layer

 

when you friend someone, you friend the account layer

 

I wish I could remember the thread but there was so much pushback against reforming the naming system and changing how friending works here, because without a doubt, something like this being implemented would result in them wiping out friend lists (I've lost faith here). I've been for something like this for the better half of a decade though, but I don't see them touching it for at least another year at best if they were to mention it, which they never have.

[Samcuu]

Ppl are very particular about their names but as an example you could change Tel-Visha-Ba into.....Tel-Visha'ba and that name would work. Either that or you could do Tel'Visha-Ba or Tel Visha-ba again ppl are very particular about how a name looks aesthetically but all the examples I just gave would probably work. Also don't forget about alt codes 👍👍

[Tahirri]

I just saw this on YouTube recently and she is a dedicated fan of the game. Maybe this generator will help.

 

https://swtorista.com/names/

[SteveTheCynic]

and the number one complain is the fact that no names are available.

That statement is blatantly untrue. Lots of names are available.

 

No, names similar to characters from Star Wars lore are usually not available (or occasionally invalid == prohibited by the basic filters), but duh. (You're not supposed to use them anyway...)

This goes beyond just taken names though. The restrictions are too tight. I wanted to create a name similar in style and strucutre Obi-wan Kenobi or Ki-Adi-Mundi. Like Kenyo-Tal Bewaz or Tel-Visha-Ba, but these would not be allowed.

The structure of "Obi-wan Kenobi" (e.g. "Kal-tor Harbin" - same numbers of letters, etc.) is allowed.

 

"Kenyo-Tal" suffers, obviously, because SWTOR only allows word-initial caps, and the "Tal" there isn't word-initial. (Same for the Visha and Ba parts of the other, naturally.)

Honestly, please allow multiple spaces, remove the required 3 characters after a space, etc. We really need to open these options up.

The word "need" is a bit strong, but I agree that it would be good to loosen the restrictions that you highlighted here.

[Zarahemla]

Let's say you want the name "John Doe." Well that is a pretty common name, and unless you picked it at launch, someone else may have already gotten it.

 

Here is the work around: Name your character "John Doe," with the legacy name of "Doe" Then your character's full name is "John Doe Doe." Then just hide your legacy name, so people only see you as "John Doe."

[Bida]

I don't usually have to much trouble naming characters, but I draw inspiration from movies and books. For instance I was creating an Operative that I knew I was going to play as a dark side healer, so I started to think of names of characters from movies and books that were dark themed. I thought of Dr. Jekyll, Hannibal Lector, Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau, Dr. Evil and others. I decided to use a play on Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs), finally naming my character Annabelle Lector. I also have a character named Hannah Kin, which is an obvious play on Anakin. Lou Tennantdan (Lt Dan from Forrest Gump) is one of my Vanguards as well.

 

Find a name from some source that speaks to you and twist it a bit. Maybe Hal La'Looyah might be for you?

[TexasMarine]

Let's say you want the name "John Doe." Well that is a pretty common name, and unless you picked it at launch, someone else may have already gotten it.

 

Here is the work around: Name your character "John Doe," with the legacy name of "Doe" Then your character's full name is "John Doe Doe." Then just hide your legacy name, so people only see you as "John Doe."

 

I don't think that is how that works, otherwise, we wouldn't need to reformat how we create certain character names. The legacy name has no bearing on whether the system allows your particular name. If it did, when servers merged and my toon named "Jarood" got moved to a server where someone already took that name, I wouldn't have had to change it to "Ja'rood"

[Ardrossan]

In LOTRO they have specific naming conventions tied to canon based on what the different species used. It's weird af but probably effective at curtailing trollish and unimaginative names.

 

I usually name chars after a specific trait or descriptor for how I intend the character to act. My last char was a neutral aligned human SW who tried not to make waves, so I called her Status Quo. Sometimes I'll use a different language: awhile ago I made a DS consular named Kalos Kagathos...sometimes the descriptor is the opposite of the character when they're done leveling lol. With some classes I use specific themes: business jargon for BHs (Cost Effective, Fair Trade) and military jargon for Troopers (Tango Mike, Sierra Hotel). If none of the names I shortlisted are working, I'll use a descriptor I want and an alliterative color (Blush Bravado, Iris Imbroglio). Last time I commented on this, someone said they didn't want to call their chars after lipstick. Well, if you can come up with your own names that you like, you don't need to. If you are so uncreative that you need to uselessly complain to BW to change it, then perhaps you do!

Edited July 7, 2022 by Ardrossan

[SteveTheCynic]

I don't think that is how that works, otherwise, we wouldn't need to reformat how we create certain character names. The legacy name has no bearing on whether the system allows your particular name. If it did, when servers merged and my toon named "Jarood" got moved to a server where someone already took that name, I wouldn't have had to change it to "Ja'rood"

The example was to show that if you want your nameplate to show "John Doe", there are two ways to do it:

* Character: John, Legacy: Doe (show legacy name as surname)

* Character: John Doe, Legacy: irrelevant (hide legacy name)

[SteveTheCynic]

Ppl are very particular about their names but as an example you could change Tel-Visha-Ba into.....Tel-Visha'ba and that name would work. Either that or you could do Tel'Visha-Ba or Tel Visha-ba again ppl are very particular about how a name looks aesthetically but all the examples I just gave would probably work. Also don't forget about alt codes 👍👍

Actually, no. You can't do "Tel-Visha-Ba" because it becomes automatically "Tel-visha-ba".

[SteveTheCynic]

On the other hand, if you have access to or speak another language, many times you can make a name either in another language or a combination of languages. I frequently use Hebrew and Yiddish names for my characters as seen below. You could try a combination of say, French and Latin, or Spanish and Ukranian.

But beware of using random words from languages you don't know. You don't want your character to be known (to speakers of that language) as "Felt-tip pen" (example, but it would mean exactly that if you took the French word "feutre"...)

[black_pyros]

I wish I could remember the thread but there was so much pushback against reforming the naming system and changing how friending works here, because without a doubt, something like this being implemented would result in them wiping out friend lists (I've lost faith here).

Your friend list files are located in your own computer and not their servers, there is no chance for them to wipe it out unless you do it yourself.

Edited July 8, 2022 by black_pyros

[NOFORKNKNIFE]

The Game just needs a process that makes any names from characters who haven't played over 3 years to have the option to be taken and force a rename on them.

[TexasMarine]

The example was to show that if you want your nameplate to show "John Doe", there are two ways to do it:

* Character: John, Legacy: Doe (show legacy name as surname)

* Character: John Doe, Legacy: irrelevant (hide legacy name)

 

That's not the way it reads though. The way they explain it is if "John Doe" is taken, by having the legacy name "Doe" your Legacy would override the system so you could name your toon "John Doe" giving it the full name of "John Doe Doe" and by hiding the Legacy name you would get "John Doe"

 

Here is the work around: Name your character "John Doe," with the legacy name of "Doe" Then your character's full name is "John Doe Doe." Then just hide your legacy name, so people only see you as "John Doe."

 

Even if your Legacy name is "Doe" but "John" and "John Doe" are taken, that's it. Without finding who has the name and convincing them to give it up there are ZERO workarounds to get "John Doe" as a character name without modification of the spelling.

[Thunderisaclone]

Having more options for names certainly won't hurt. However naming a character is not that much of a problem as I have never spent more that a few mins picking a name that's acceptable.

 

Then again I don't try to pick names that look like, sound like official star wars character's names like Han Solo or similar names like Ham Solo, Han Soloo.

Edited July 8, 2022 by Thunderisaclone

[Shayddow]

The Game just needs a process that makes any names from characters who haven't played over 3 years to have the option to be taken and force a rename on them.

 

No, make it for "accounts" that haven't played. Not characters. Sometimes you might have characters on other servers that you don't play as often.

[SteveTheCynic]

The Game just needs a process that makes any names from characters who haven't played over 3 years to have the option to be taken and force a rename on them.

No. It should not automatically take the names away. It should leave the names in place unless another player tries to use it, and take it *then* and not before. (No point in taking the name away *just* because the character hasn't been played in a while.)

[SteveTheCynic]

No, make it for "accounts" that haven't played. Not characters. Sometimes you might have characters on other servers that you don't play as often.

All previous name unlocks have been character-based, but didn't affect accounts with active subscriptions anyway.

[Nickodemous]

It really not. Just have to be mildly creative.....

 

There are so many options. I have never had to alter a letter to get the name I want.

[Screaming_Ziva]

I just saw this on YouTube recently and she is a dedicated fan of the game. Maybe this generator will help.

 

https://swtorista.com/names/

 

I created a new character a couple days ago. Used SWTORISTA's name generator. Picked a name, changed the first letter (my characters start with Z) and off I went. There are so many options for names I really don't understand why these threads come up every now and then. People really need to stop using existing Star Wars names for their characters.

[Ardrossan]

There are so many options for names I really don't understand why these threads come up every now and then. People really need to stop using existing Star Wars names for their characters.

 

I mean, I've seen these threads since launch and this is the first time i've seen someone mention a species specific name generator. So, one assumes the reason why these threads come up is that, um....they don't know?

 

Like, another thread that comes up often is that people level too quickly, when we have the white acute module that slows it. But since there's nothing in the tooltips to suggest it works outside of 2xp, very few people seem to be aware of it, certainly not new players.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Ardrossan

[Shayddow]

this is the first time i've seen someone mention a species specific name generator. So, one assumes the reason why these threads come up is that, um....they don't know?

 

I've seen species specific mentioned before. I've even used them for some of my Chiss & Rattataki. You can google it.

 

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/chiss-names.php

 

https://codexnomina.com/rattataki-names

[LD_Little_Dragon]

But since there's nothing in the tooltips to suggest it works outside of 2xp, very few people seem to be aware of it, certainly not new players.

 

That's because it DOESN'T work outside of double xp. I've tested it, not sure why so many players think it does anything.