Character Names. Surnames. Should we have more room?

[WarderDragon]

Simple Question. Does anyone find the sixteen characters we're alotted in name creation irritating?

I am a roleplayer. Thus I attempt to create for my characters realistic and somewhat believable names that one could imagine existing in Medieval or Renaissance Europe. (Or Japan.) But nine times in ten the given and surname combination I come up with is too long to be used. And even worse if I want to use a preposition such as 'Von,' 'Van,' or 'De.'

You couldn't fit the EM Character Names 'Scarlet Von Trinsic' (Chesapeake) or 'Erasmus Battersby' (Baja) in such a scheme.

Suggestions? Should Ultima Online allow more characters? (i.e. 20-25.) Should there be a surname and family system? Should name change tokens allow for more characters due to the money we fork out to buy and use them?

Discuss.

 

[Victoria Navarre]

I agree that there should be more characters allowed in name creation.My characters name,"Victoria Navarre",barely fit in the limits we have now.I guess we just have to be really creative in what we are given.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Maybe. The vast majority of mine and my hubby's characters do have surnames, and we have a family among our characters, so it is possible within the limits.
The thing to ask is, what is needed to do this, beyond just adding a few extra spaces to the log in screen? Because I'm darn sure there are unrealised knock-on effects somewhere.

 

[Lord Gareth]

Simple Question. Does anyone find the sixteen characters we're alotted in name creation irritating?

Yes because I really want to name my character "Gareth The Best Person You Will Ever Meet And You Will Fall In Love With Him"

Serious note it would be nice.... but for all of those extra names isn't that what your character profile is for?

 

[WarderDragon]

The Town Guard Regiment of Britain - our shards answer to the Royal Britannian Guard - has earned and received titles from Mesanna well above and beyond the sixteen character limit. (e.g. 'A Town Guard [Rank Corporal]'.) So we've established that nothing is broken.

I too have characters with surnames. The frustration I have is that so many of the combinations I come up with would need two or three more spaces. You usually have to pair a three or four letter given name with a longer surname or vice versa. If I want to be 'Thorin Oakenshield' or 'Sigmar Heldenhammer' I am up the proverbial creek.

One solution I could imagine - a potential moneysink - would be a familial registrar where you can create a surname and then select it in the titles menu. (i.e. I could be Nicholas Heldenhammer or Nicholas Oakenshield rather than Nicholas [BRPA].) You could then grant other people your surname. (i.e. Your character is married IC then you grant the title to the spouse who could then select your surname from the titles menu.)

 

[RaDian FlGith]

They've increased name length in the past... when I started UO, my character's name was intended to be Radian Flouggith, but it wouldn't fit... Thus it became Ra'Dian Fl'Gith. However, if I wanted to, I could definitely make a Radian Flouggith today.

Now, there does need to be some sort of solid limit, but I'd say between 25 and 30 characters for a first/last name combo.

 

[WarderDragon]

That seems fair.

Was there a reason given for the change?

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Suggestions? Should Ultima Online allow more characters? (i.e. 20-25.) Should there be a surname and family system? Should name change tokens allow for more characters due to the money we fork out to buy and use them?

I would not have a problem with adding an additional five or six spaces. If you allowed for more than that the incoming names could get to a point where they took up the enitre width of the screen (and yeah we ALL know folks that would do that just because they love atention).

I do believe in the Surname however. All but 2 of my characters (have 2 hidden so people don't know it's me) have the last name Kinslayer. I operated in the bounds of the limited number of spaces and had to get creative on a few occasions. When I went to "name" the character I would be changing to a pirate due to the coming booster I was unable to name him Kaptain Kinslayer and had to settle for Kapt. Couldda used those spaces then.

Good suggestion tho.

 

[MalagAste]

Well my character was supposed to be Malag'aste Hla'ate...

But first off the character name creation doesn't allow for the use of the ' in names... so it was MalagAste... which doesn't look right at all... But this was back when you had to page a GM to get a character name change...

And he couldn't do it right. But I would love to be able to fix that to include the last name.

Many years ago when they had UO Weddings the first time. I had a character get married. They asked me what name we wanted for our characters. It was easy.

I said Willa should become Willa of the Yew-wood. Which they did for me and the name remains. However her husband became Polynikes of the Yew-wood.

Fast forward about 3 or 4 years after the wedding and someone with some vendetta or something pages a GM and says "Hey this guy has a name that's too long". The GM comes and says.... sir you have to change your name.

So Polynikes of the Yew-wood became Polynikes of Yew.

Not exactly the same. I was not happy at all.

But I do agree the names should be lengthened to allow for the use of a first and last name or whatever. And they should take into account names that are of other cultures... such as Drow which often use the ' and - in their name.

Can we get this for pets too????? Why can't we have spaces in pet names??? If this is all about inappropriate name use.... I hate to break it to you... but folk find far too many subtle ways around your filter and have for years naming themselves and their pets some really offensive things despite your filtering system.

Fix the filter system or turn it off.... and put spaces in names allow more than 16 character say up to 25.... and seriously give us a break.

 

[Evlar]

I always wanted to name a character Theopolis T. Wildebeast.

 

[CassieDarksong]

My character's name, Cassie Darksong, was created before they put the "filter" into it. Now, you can no longer create characters with the name Cassie or Cassandre. I'd like to see that get fixed first, then the longer names....

No offense to anyone, but the filter is really REALLY borked.

 

[Fink]

No offense to anyone, but the filter is really REALLY borked.

I tried to put the word "Documents" into a vendor name but it was disallowed. I guess it must be a reserved word like GM or something.

As for long names, I don't see the issue there, either.

 

[Saunders]

I tried to put the word "Documents" into a vendor name but it was disallowed. I guess it must be a reserved word like GM or something.

As for long names, I don't see the issue there, either.

A really twisted mind would suggest it was letter 3-5 that made "Documents" an invalid word.

 

[ChReuter]

I so want the name Mattius Awsomnus Maximus... In fact I think I'll file the paperwork in RL to have my name legally changed to that.

 

[Aran]

If you can't do it in 16, 17 is just clutter.

 

[War Wizard]

race horses get 18 letters.... because they must be unique when registard. for pure uniqueness and RPing you have a point Warder.

 

[MalagAste]

I tried to put the word "Documents" into a vendor name but it was disallowed. I guess it must be a reserved word like GM or something.

As for long names, I don't see the issue there, either.

A really twisted mind would suggest it was letter 3-5 that made "Documents" an invalid word.

Stupid isn't it? You would think they could come up with a far better filter system.

 

[Fink]

I tried to put the word "Documents" into a vendor name but it was disallowed. I guess it must be a reserved word like GM or something.

As for long names, I don't see the issue there, either.

A really twisted mind would suggest it was letter 3-5 that made "Documents" an invalid word.

Stupid isn't it? You would think they could come up with a far better filter system.

Once again the ever-vigilant Profanity Filter has taken a perfectly legitimate word and turned it nasty. Nice job breaking it, hero.

 

[Basara]

One thing I've suggested in the past was only half-done in the current title system.

For the paperdoll, there are 3 lines, but no line breaks. IF the combined titles are too long, something gets truncated.

I suggested, prior to the current title selection system, having the following:

a. Increase to 4 lines (if necessary, using a smaller font, to ensure no line ever needs to wrap). Each of the 4 lines is now the full width of the paperdoll, and only contains one variable.
b. Line One would be the Reputation title (example: "The Glorious Lord").
c. Line Two would be the Character Name, and the maximum length of the name would be that of the line space on the paperdoll.
d. Line Three would be the monster/spawn title, if used. Otherwise, Line Four's content would appear here instead.
e. Line Four would be the Profession Title chose by the player. This will be Line Three (with Line Four blank), if no Monster/spawn title in effect.

This shouldn't be all that hard of a modification to do to the CC paperdoll, though the EC paperdoll might be a little more difficult, since (IIRC) it wraps at even shorter lengths than the CC (but with more possible rows). Of course, adding longer names would require a little DB tweaking, if it isn't already set to handle it (with the lengths artificially throttled down - after all, we have the Married names from old EM weddings and the guy who got pwned by Serado, as examples of the longer lengths being possible, just not player-enabled).

 

[Aran]

Assassin is DOUBLE profane.

 

[Saunders]

Once again the ever-vigilant Profanity Filter has taken a perfectly legitimate word and turned it nasty. Nice job breaking it, hero.

The filter is perfectly ridiculous in its effects, especially as it does not prevent unpleasant results that are intended.

 

[Basara]

Any other American find it ironic that "Constitution" is an illegal name for a pet?

 

[Aran]

Tit.

 

[MalagAste]

I still say they need to come up with something better since most folk who want to name their character something offensive will do so no matter what anyway they come up with more and more creative ways of doing it is all.

I mean yes there are somethings people should NOT name their characters... but normal things just because it has a word in it come on.

 

[Basara]

Tit.

"You know, Tit doesn't even belong on the list... It sounds like a snack food (yeah, I know it is...)

'Try NEW Nabisco Tits!!!!!! There's cheese Tits, corn Tits, tater Tits.... Betcha can't eat just one!!!!' "

RIP, George Carlin....

 

[Aran]

Why I could snack on tits all day!