Deleting & re-starting a character

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

Dash no Chris wrote:
> Wondering if any of the folks here have attempted this:
>
> A while back, I started a new alt with the Science origin. I only got
> him up to lv.6, as I've been spending most of my game-time working
with
> my main (who's now lv.43). I've been thinking about going back to the
> Science alt for a while, but it occurred to me that Technology is,
> conceptually, the more appropriate origin for this character (I
realize
> that while origin might effect the contacts/missions a character gets
> early on and really doesn't have any appreciable effect on gameplay,
> I'd still prefer to build this alt with the more fitting origin).
> Anyway, here's my question:
>
> If I delete the alt as he is now, will that immediately make his name
> available again, so that I can rebuild and restart the character with
a
> different origin and the same name? or will the name only become
> available after a certain amount of time has passed? or will it never
> be available again?

Yes, it immediately becomes available. Many people, when trying to find
that perfect name for their character, will just make a random
character to try the name first, then if it succeeds, they delete the
random character, then design the real character.

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

"The Black Guardian" <blakgard@aol.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

>Dash no Chris wrote:
>> Wondering if any of the folks here have attempted this:
>>
>> A while back, I started a new alt with the Science origin. I only got
>> him up to lv.6, as I've been spending most of my game-time working
>with
>> my main (who's now lv.43). I've been thinking about going back to the
>> Science alt for a while, but it occurred to me that Technology is,
>> conceptually, the more appropriate origin for this character (I
>realize
>> that while origin might effect the contacts/missions a character gets
>> early on and really doesn't have any appreciable effect on gameplay,
>> I'd still prefer to build this alt with the more fitting origin).
>> Anyway, here's my question:
>>
>> If I delete the alt as he is now, will that immediately make his name
>> available again, so that I can rebuild and restart the character with
>a
>> different origin and the same name? or will the name only become
>> available after a certain amount of time has passed? or will it never
>> be available again?
>
>Yes, it immediately becomes available. Many people, when trying to find
>that perfect name for their character, will just make a random
>character to try the name first, then if it succeeds, they delete the
>random character, then design the real character.

There's an easier way.

While in game on another character

/friend name

If it's free you get the "doesn't exist or offline" message (dunno why
it says anything about offline since you can add offline people to your
friends list.)

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

On 8 Mar 2005 17:23:25 -0800, "Dash no Chris" <dashnochris@gmail.com>
wrote:

>If I delete the alt as he is now, will that immediately make his name
>available again, so that I can rebuild and restart the character with a
>different origin and the same name? or will the name only become
>available after a certain amount of time has passed? or will it never
>be available again?

When I tried this, and I've done it twice so far, the name was
immediately available for reuse.

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

Greg Johnson <greg.gsj@gmail.com> wrote:
> When I tried this, and I've done it twice so far, the name was
> immediately available for reuse.

Ditto on one char - MMM.

--
-= Victory Server =-
-= Shenanigunner: Level 38 Natural Tanker, Fire/SS, M =-
-= Sgt Glory B: Level 22 Tech Blaster, Electric/Energy, F =-
-= Mean Mr Mustard: Level 8 Science Scrapper, Dark/Regen, M =-
-= See you on HEROICA! - http://www.dgath.com/coh/ =-
-= The Keybind & Macro Guide is now available! =-

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

Shenanigunner <shenanigunner@NOdgathSPAM.kom> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

>Greg Johnson <greg.gsj@gmail.com> wrote:
>> When I tried this, and I've done it twice so far, the name was
>> immediately available for reuse.
>
>Ditto on one char - MMM.

Ditto on gods only knows how many alts that got remade in the early days
because I hated their costume after a few days.

It's just possible that you could delete a character and have someone
else scoop up the name before you've finished the costume, but it's
unlikely unless you've chosen a name everyone wants.

Even then you could cut the downtime by making another alt with a
throwaway name, get the costume right, then delete the named one, and
that costume should be the default layout (though with different colors)
so it can be finished quickly.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

Xocyll wrote:
> The Black Guardian wrote:
>> Dash no Chris wrote:
>>> If I delete the alt as he is now, will that immediately make his
name
>>> available again, so that I can rebuild and restart the character
with
>>> a different origin and the same name? or will the name only become
>>> available after a certain amount of time has passed? or will it
never
>>> be available again?
>>
>> Yes, it immediately becomes available. Many people, when trying to
find
>> that perfect name for their character, will just make a random
>> character to try the name first, then if it succeeds, they delete
the
>> random character, then design the real character.
>
> There's an easier way.
>
> While in game on another character
>
> /friend name
>
> If it's free you get the "doesn't exist or offline" message (dunno
why
> it says anything about offline since you can add offline people to
your
> friends list.)

Heh... chalk that up to being so obvious that it never occurred to me.
I've never added a friend manually like that (usually, I just use the
mouse to add a friend).

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

Thus spake Xocyll <Xocyll@kingston.net>, Wed, 09 Mar 2005 03:44:18 -0500,
Anno Domini:

>Shenanigunner <shenanigunner@NOdgathSPAM.kom> looked up from reading the
>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
>say:
>
>>Greg Johnson <greg.gsj@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> When I tried this, and I've done it twice so far, the name was
>>> immediately available for reuse.
>>
>>Ditto on one char - MMM.
>
>Ditto on gods only knows how many alts that got remade in the early days
>because I hated their costume after a few days.
>
>It's just possible that you could delete a character and have someone
>else scoop up the name before you've finished the costume, but it's
>unlikely unless you've chosen a name everyone wants.
>
>Even then you could cut the downtime by making another alt with a
>throwaway name, get the costume right, then delete the named one, and
>that costume should be the default layout (though with different colors)
>so it can be finished quickly.
>
>Xocyll

Yeah, they really need to have a usage policy/statute of limitations on name
'ownership'. There are probably 1000s of great names out there that aren't
even being played anymore *sigh*...just reset to a random jumble after X
days of inactivity in a given timeframe & allow 1 free selection if & when
that player gets back on, that's what I reckon  

--
No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again.
Sometimes I just want it to stay saved! You know, for a little bit?
I feel like the maid; "I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!"

Replace 'spamfree' with the other word for 'maze' to reply via email.

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

Nostromo <nostromo@spamfree.net.au> wrote in
news cet211iucf9elhoq8g752mhcmlvn40e4v@4ax.com:

> Thus spake Xocyll <Xocyll@kingston.net>, Wed, 09 Mar 2005 03:44:18
> -0500, Anno Domini:
>
>>Shenanigunner <shenanigunner@NOdgathSPAM.kom> looked up from reading
>>the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the
>>signs say:
>>
>>>Greg Johnson <greg.gsj@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> When I tried this, and I've done it twice so far, the name was
>>>> immediately available for reuse.
>>>
>>>Ditto on one char - MMM.
>>
>>Ditto on gods only knows how many alts that got remade in the early
>>days because I hated their costume after a few days.
>>
>>It's just possible that you could delete a character and have someone
>>else scoop up the name before you've finished the costume, but it's
>>unlikely unless you've chosen a name everyone wants.
>>
>>Even then you could cut the downtime by making another alt with a
>>throwaway name, get the costume right, then delete the named one, and
>>that costume should be the default layout (though with different
>>colors) so it can be finished quickly.
>>
>>Xocyll
>
> Yeah, they really need to have a usage policy/statute of limitations
> on name 'ownership'. There are probably 1000s of great names out there
> that aren't even being played anymore *sigh*...just reset to a random
> jumble after X days of inactivity in a given timeframe & allow 1 free
> selection if & when that player gets back on, that's what I reckon  

It'll happen, eventually, though it won't be for the names itself.
Many/most MMO's that reach a critical mass of subscribers start
implementing a minimum use policy, simply to keep their storage costs
down. IIRC, in UO, it was 3 months - In Diablo II, it was 6 months, and
so on. If there was no account activity, the characters and their
possessions were deleted, though the account was still viable (assuming
it was still paid in full)



--
Marc Bissonnette
CGI / Database / Web Management Tools: http://www.internalysis.com
Looking for a new ISP? http://www.canadianisp.com

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

Marc Bissonnette <dragnet@internalysis.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

>Nostromo <nostromo@spamfree.net.au> wrote in
>news cet211iucf9elhoq8g752mhcmlvn40e4v@4ax.com:
>
>> Thus spake Xocyll <Xocyll@kingston.net>, Wed, 09 Mar 2005 03:44:18
>> -0500, Anno Domini:
>>
>>>Shenanigunner <shenanigunner@NOdgathSPAM.kom> looked up from reading
>>>the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the
>>>signs say:
>>>
>>>>Greg Johnson <greg.gsj@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> When I tried this, and I've done it twice so far, the name was
>>>>> immediately available for reuse.
>>>>
>>>>Ditto on one char - MMM.
>>>
>>>Ditto on gods only knows how many alts that got remade in the early
>>>days because I hated their costume after a few days.
>>>
>>>It's just possible that you could delete a character and have someone
>>>else scoop up the name before you've finished the costume, but it's
>>>unlikely unless you've chosen a name everyone wants.
>>>
>>>Even then you could cut the downtime by making another alt with a
>>>throwaway name, get the costume right, then delete the named one, and
>>>that costume should be the default layout (though with different
>>>colors) so it can be finished quickly.
>>>
>>>Xocyll
>>
>> Yeah, they really need to have a usage policy/statute of limitations
>> on name 'ownership'. There are probably 1000s of great names out there
>> that aren't even being played anymore *sigh*...just reset to a random
>> jumble after X days of inactivity in a given timeframe & allow 1 free
>> selection if & when that player gets back on, that's what I reckon  
>
>It'll happen, eventually, though it won't be for the names itself.
>Many/most MMO's that reach a critical mass of subscribers start
>implementing a minimum use policy, simply to keep their storage costs
>down. IIRC, in UO, it was 3 months - In Diablo II, it was 6 months, and
>so on. If there was no account activity, the characters and their
>possessions were deleted, though the account was still viable (assuming
>it was still paid in full)

I can't really see that happening these days though, especially not for
CoH.
Storage is cheap, characters don't take up much space, and not deleting
characters means you'll get people drifting back into the game to pick
up where they left off.
With CoH especially, there's no big list of items to maintain, just
skills and slotting, an 8 slot inventory and the gui/binds settings.

Hero planner text files are only 3k in size (no inventory though), so
with everything you'd be looking at what, 3k for character, 3k more for
binds (that's the size my saved ones are) and the colors/layout
settings.
On the outside that might total what, 40kb for each character?

UO did it in the early days when they were pretty much the ONLY MMORPG
around, and Diablo2 wasn't fee based.

I think EQ decided not to wipe pfiles ever and they did get a certain
amount of returning subscriptions because of it.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (More info?)

"The Black Guardian" <blakgard@aol.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

>Xocyll wrote:
>> The Black Guardian wrote:
>>> Dash no Chris wrote:
>>>> If I delete the alt as he is now, will that immediately make his
>name
>>>> available again, so that I can rebuild and restart the character
>with
>>>> a different origin and the same name? or will the name only become
>>>> available after a certain amount of time has passed? or will it
>never
>>>> be available again?
>>>
>>> Yes, it immediately becomes available. Many people, when trying to
>find
>>> that perfect name for their character, will just make a random
>>> character to try the name first, then if it succeeds, they delete
>the
>>> random character, then design the real character.
>>
>> There's an easier way.
>>
>> While in game on another character
>>
>> /friend name
>>
>> If it's free you get the "doesn't exist or offline" message (dunno
>why
>> it says anything about offline since you can add offline people to
>your
>> friends list.)
>
>Heh... chalk that up to being so obvious that it never occurred to me.
>I've never added a friend manually like that (usually, I just use the
>mouse to add a friend).

Heh, I had lots of practice typing in lists of people's mains and alts
every time I made an alt.

The downside is of course that if it does exist you have to remove it
from the friends list after.

Sure beats getting the perfect character mapped out and _then_ trying
out names though.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr