New Dev Blog: Character Creation Preview + Naming Policy

Announcements
#1

There’s a new blog post up today where we preview our Character Creation screen and discuss the Name Policy. Check it out:

As you can see from the blog and accompanying policy, other than restricting the use of offensive names and a few technical limitations (such as no spaces or numbers), you have a lot of freedom to name your character whatever you want. However, we do have a ‘preferred’ name policy to go along with the mandatory one, and if you want to follow that because you’re into roleplaying you can also be granted a Surname upon reaching Level 20.

Let me know if you have any questions on the policy or how character creation will work. Thanks!

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#2

I am a bit sad, as I will never be able to become Unrivalled Super Hottie like in other games. I will either have to think up a method to make it work, or change name shudders

#3

Thanks for the update! The character creation screen looks really solid, can’t wait to start playing with it! I do have a couple questions to follow up with.

  1. Have you guys decided if there will be a limit on how many characters we’re allowed to have? If so, what’s that number?

  2. In the naming policy you state that you can not “Attempt to impersonate a real-life person that you are not, or well-known fictional character”, but in the preview screen you choose the name Ogden for your character. I assumed that was a nod to the character Ogden Morrow from Ready Player One (which I appreciated, by the way). Would that fall into the category of well-known fictional character or would you have to really dedicate yourself to impersonating that character and name yourself OgdenMorrow for that rule to apply?

  3. Surnames. Very cool idea. I’m going to assume that if I decided to use the name “Damage” in game it would fall under the username category and I would not be able to receive a surname. If I’m wrong, would “Da Mage” be an appropriate surname or would that be rejected because it doesn’t adhere to the naming policy?

Bonus Round
4) You may have other ideas in place for how fellowships will be identified, but I thought this was a neat idea and wanted to ask anyway. If spaces are allowed in surnames would fellowship identification be allowed as a valid surname? For example, if a group of people from the community discord wanted to get together and form a fellowship named “Discordia” would we all be able to choose the surname “Of Discordia” upon reaching level 20?

Sorry to blast you with so many questions. Just a curious guy I guess :sweat_smile:

#4

It looks like capital letters are allowed mid-name so you would probably be able to use UnrivalledSuperHottie. I don’t think that breaks any of the naming requirements, but it would probably exclude you from the surname option. If keeping your name consistent is that important you probably won’t mind missing out on that though. I’m probably going to end up going with DamageDaMage because that’s how all of my friends will recognize me and miss out on the surname as well.

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#5

  1. The limit will be 1 for the Alpha/Beta. We haven’t decided long-term yet.

  2. If I had named my character “OgdenMorrow” that would be an issue. “Gandalf” would be an issue. “Ogden”, “Peter” (without “Parker”), etc, would all be fine.

  3. So “Damage” is fine with me as a name that falls under the full policy. Really we’re going to be pretty lenient on that. If it were “DaMaAgE” that would be an issue. For example, we have an Innkeeper in the game named “Mugsy.” Still totally fine. We’re just tying to avoid stuff like “MyNameIsRalph” or “Treasurehunter65”. However, Surnames cannot have spaces in them just like first names, so you couldn’t do “Da Mage” either way.

  4. There will be a separate part that shows what your Fellowship is with your name, the surname is really meant to be in addition to that.

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#6

Looks great! I see why the earlier thread was way premature and much appreciate the thought put into it. Every new tidbit we get to see makes me more and more excited to play again. That’s for the update!

Edit: Bad Grammar

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#7

Awesome! I was going to ask about when we’d get in-game character creation! I really like how you implemented the in-game keyboard, and am really looking forward to trying it out.

I do think that it would be nice to be able to have multiple characters though. Some players may eventually want to go through the startup experience again as their preferred class, as there are multiple ways to get to higher level.

I do understand why you don’t want to add multiple characters during Alpha & Beta though, we will probably get to go through the startup experience many times due to character resets before the game comes out. Those of us that were in the stress tests have been through the starting areas a few times already, though they have changed slightly during each reset.

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#8

I love the new naming policy and have already thought about what I’d like my character to be called.

I agree, although it’s also likely that the earlier thread influenced the creation of the current policy.

@Damage_Da_Mage You might be able to get away with “Da’Mage” or “Da’mage” :slight_smile: I also appreciated the nod to Og :grin:

2 Likes
#9

For a second there, I thought you were talking about characters “per name”… :laughing:
It’s been a long day…

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#10

We’ll definitely have some mechanism by which you can have more than one character after the game launches. Just not sure what the default limit will be or if it’s going to be like a “pay some money to get additional slots” type of deal.

Glad everyone is liking the name policy! Looking forward to getting some hair on these player models too haha…

2 Likes
#11

I’d be cool with dropping a bit of money to free up an additional character slot. I also can’t wait to give my character a glorious golden mane.

#12

I don’t mind paying a little for extra character slot, especially since they are not needed for the full game experience.

I need a toon to play on after I log out with my fat loot when I see pk running toward me.

#13

Hehe, you’ll be good. All “fat loot” will be soulbound. At least, based on the PVP info that Riley posted a few months ago. An extra character might be good for extra storage though, or if you wanted a bandit’s life for one of your toons.

#14

Wow, Love it already!
I hope that the trend of making this a true “reality game” stays after release.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop Riley!

#15

Looks good so far! I’m excited to start playing.

I was wondering if you were planning on have a lady-shaped body available in the character creation soon-ish.

#16

There’s only one “body” model that’s going to be in the game. It’s not really intended to be either male or female, just “person.” There are eyes, mouths, and there will be hair styles that should provide plenty of variety so you can assemble a character that is more male or female. In addition, the intent has always been that any armor would be shared between male/female, so once you start equipping things I don’t think it would look any different.

That said, it might be worth adding some additional starting ‘shirt’ options since I do think the current one could be considered male. Let’s wait and see what it looks like when the hair gets added in. I’m not opposed at all to adding more choices for folks.

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#17

Do you think we’ll see mirrors in the world at some point? I imagine it might be tricky to fit lots of mirrored surfaces into the game naturally, but occasionally catching sight of yourself in the world would be delightful.

#18

Thanks for commenting on this. I do like to have both male and female characters in my stable when play MMOs. Hair/shirt/eye options are greatly appreciated. Doesn’t need to be EQ level character customization. Lots of MMOs have only basic options, but it’s nice to be able to define male/female/other :smiley:

#19

I know the VR userbase is small now but how will you deal with taken names in the future? I imagine if people stick to the policy then there will be very few names to actually choose from.

#20

I had an idea to help with the taken names. You could have it so there can be many people with the same name, but everyone has a unique title. So I would be Leo “the shade” and people could find me by looking up “the shade”. It would still bring a sense of uniqueness but that’s just my opinion.

1 Like