Invalid names may not outlast the week.

[addicted2rpg]

An insurgent project appeared and sprung to the top of the dev queue. Player Names that contain spacing concerns may not be able to login soon. This may extend to name coloring and possibly foreign characters (although we love our European players who use them with legitamacy), but that may hang for awhile.

If your character's name violates the following six rules in any way, shape, or form, it will not be able to login soon:

1. The first name field begins with a space.
2. The last name field begins with a space.
3. The first name field ends with a space.
4. The last name field ends with a space.
3. The first name field contains a space that is followed by a non-visible character (like another space).
4. The last name field contains a space that is followed by a non-visible character (like another space).

For example in these forums, let '^' designate a space.
Joe^Blow = ok.
Joe^^Blow = not ok.
^Joe^Blow = not ok.
Joe^Blow^ = not ok
Joe^Blow^The^III = ok
Joe^Blow^The^^III = not ok.*

There are some cases that may be affected and might need to remake for legitamite reasons. I think I will be willing to help out with such remakes if you are a case as designated by the asterisk. Players who put spaces in their names for formatting or aesthetic purposes, especially if no other character of a similar name exists, will be given a certain amount of leniency on this matter.

Vugor and Vehdred are two known names (they registered with us DMs, or at least with me, prior to having made those characters many months ago) that are/were using the spaces for RP purposes. I'm thinking of actually allowing exceptions by registration. There is a big plot behind those two, so they arn't going to have to remake. At least at this stage. If you have a legitamite RP scenario involving clones, please register now. As RP is a social activity, we are expecting others to know about it to confirm it. I would also like to point out that in the Vugor/Vehdred case, one of the characters is actually played by the other, which was also apart of their dutiful fulfillment of their DM informing obligations . Thanks guys, you are great.

If you were making a *remake* of a char (with intention to never play the other one again), we can delete the past char and then do something about your name. The idea is just to make it so there is only one of you.

If you create a spaced up character after this posting to make yourself eligible for a free remake, we will just delete both characters

The windows file system stores a Date Created and a Date Modified field for every file. You can play with the Modified as much as you want by doing quests and saving your char, but the Created will tell Makzimia exactly who is in violation =-) So yes, we *can* prove it. This post is occurring as of 6/30/2004.

Although we arn't moving into other forms of name violations yet, we may do so in the future. To prevent hassling yourself, try to be as "straightforward" as you possibly can about character names. i.e., don't space them up weird, add weird characters, color tags, or anything that you think might put you at risk. I'm going to say that probably commas, parenthesis, and most characters will be ok. If someone makes a bad name, a DM usually approaches them. This is to catch those people who appear to have good names, or even someone else's name, and we can't tell the difference to tell you otherwise from the beginning. Yes, even we are fooled sometimes by spacing But not for long... heh heh..

[Zhoreb]

Good thing this happens now, because I think i would have started every new character with a space as the first character.... For sorting reasons in the available characters screen. I have some of those. I had a few doubles too, but didn't realise starting a new one with a space in front would result in same database entries. Most likely, because they had 0xp and never moved out of west styne before the remake happened.
Until Yesterday evening that is.

I started a new character using the same name as a level 6 character I have, but with a space in the beginning. The original had done Hili's quest less then a week ago. Then enter the new one. Tries to do Hili's quest...all goes well, until no ring appears. Quest broke for everyone. Needless to say, this didn't make Makz very happy. After deletion of both versions and a server reboot, the quest was fixed again.

So read the post addicted made again. it IS important!!!

And now, my problematic characters:

" Anoushka Sende'len" It would be very disappointing to lose her.
Next up, my hack and slash character: " Reynaerde Fox". Not involved in anything, pure hack and slash. Getting ready for the friday evening battle. If there is any possibility to save that one too..... . He still may get involved someday.
These 2 characters had lvl 1 doubles, but the level 1 doubles have been deleted already.

I have 2 more characters starting with a space. Both very low level. If they disappear, no problem. " Lomelith Duskryn" and " Mordax Duskryn" No doubles exist for these either. Just started with a space, for sorting reasons...

Zhoreb

[Barfly]

These are the characters I have on the server (^ = space):

"Ania Lane" <- my first one, just to see Fredian
"Sanu Duskryn"
"Sanu Duskryn^"
"Sanu Duskryn^^"
"Sany Duskryn^^" <- Typo ;D

Please spare the "Sanu Duskryn^^" character, which is my last attempt to create a decent Sanu build. All other characters can be deleted.

[Makzimia]

Removed. One left as requested.

Barfly said:

These are the characters I have on the server (^ = space):

"Ania Lane" <- my first one, just to see Fredian
"Sanu Duskryn"
"Sanu Duskryn^"
"Sanu Duskryn^^"
"Sany Duskryn^^" <- Typo ;D

Please spare the "Sanu Duskryn^^" character, which is my last attempt to create a decent Sanu build. All other characters can be deleted.

[WOLFsmokey]

Well my new character has 2 spaces between first and last name , there is no double of it , just did a double space by accident i believe . So what will be done about it ? i mean to prevent me not being able to login anymore .

[addicted2rpg]

We'll probably remake the snags. A DM will eat your XP and make you login as a new one, and get it awarded back probably. Unless Makz has a special way he wants to handle it.

We will have a control method to toggle the enforcement of spaced named logins. This means we disable the blocker without having to reboot the server, so people running in on the forums or on teamspeak can otherwise inform us that they were blocked and we can set them up, although initially I think it will probably be off for awhile until most known "spaced" chars are handled. Just from this thread, it looks like quite a few have come out of the woodwork. In the long run, this will be best for everyone.
There will always be ways to denote remakes (Bob (I), Bob (II), Bob (III)) -- In RP, people are just going to call you Bob, and for that matter, the actions of Bob I and Bob II will probably be known as one in the same. It is just an implicit note to others you are remaking for build reasons This is mostly over quest bugs. This is by far the foremost reason. However, we should not forget the Master(s) of Narithal. They were a series of characters that were played very abusively (if you offended one, a spaced version of the same char, about 20 levels higher [and each one was a different class so he could choose the most effective to kill you with], would login and PK someone on the RP grounds of actually being the same char as the first -- and yes, that person was banned so don't worry about it happening again). If the differences were more obvious (i.e., in Bob's case), it is less likely to trick people and abuse is more obvious. This second concern is an afterthought, because really we don't have enough abusers for it to be an issue. Only one case I have heard of to date. It really is mainly the quests.

I probably won't write the code until next week just to give people time to circulate the news and get their berings. It seems there is a lot of eligible characters. It would be a lot of havoc if they were all blocked out at once.

I havn't been on in awhile, but hopefully next week I will be able to make it in to help out with the remakes *looks around for glaring eyes from other DMs*

[clark625]

The only Octo Morenkind currently running around on the server has a space at the very end. The original one has been deleted. Is this going to be an issue where a rebuild is necessary, or can he just keep going on as he has been?

[Phoenix]

With rebuilds, consider a totally different, related name.
Phoenix has been rebuilt as The Red Wizard, for example.

[Naraldur]

um...
How about "Stalwart" who has NO last name, how will he be affected?

[Makzimia]

Read what was said after all "Stalwart" is not "Stalwart^" yes?

Naraldur said:

um...
How about "Stalwart" who has NO last name, how will he be affected?

[Naraldur]

Makzimia said:

Read what was said after all "Stalwart" is not "Stalwart^" yes?

Okay, in reading, I still don't see a definite answer. I could have just missed it, of course.

Is a complete lack of a name bad, like "non-visible characters," or is it only "non-visible characters" which are bad?

[addicted2rpg]

Empty first/last names will not be affected.

[Makzimia]

addicted2rpg said:

Empty first/last names will not be affected.

However, as always no name at all, is not accepted.

Makz.

[addicted2rpg]

Yes, of course.


Oh, and umm, one little thing of note.
I have a preliminary version made already. I was doing some testing.

If you fill out the firstname and leave the lastname blank, it is OK.
However, if you leave the firstname blank and make up a proper name for your last name, i.e.,:
First Name: [empty]
Lastname: Smithers

Neverwinter nights is *adding* a space in for your first name. I had it print out to my screen. My name checker perceives this as a string beginning with a space and boots it. Sorry folks

You can pull first/lastname tags into a conversation window, but there is no script functions to pull just the first or the last name field. What is up with that?!

I can kind of see why. Think of the file system. Two chars, both different people:

First Name: Smithers
Last Name: [empty]

File Storage name: "Smithers.bic"

First Name: [empty]
Last Name: Smithers

uh oh. Can't be "Smithers.bic", or that it is the other guy, so we will pad the First Name with a space:
"^Smithers.bic"

In essence, this is correct thinking on Bioware's part. First Name=Smithers DOES NOT EQUAL Last Name=Smithers.
So Smithers and Smithers are two different people.

Looks like our multiplayer friends at Bioware had code correctness on their minds instead of a multiplayer RPG
whoops! "Nah, they wouldn't do much beyond single player campaigns..."

However, the reality of a multiplayer RPG is you can't/shouldn't have two guys running around both called "Smithers", even if you do pad one as "^Smithers". Therefore, I'm going to classify my name checker is not only a bugfix for the quest system, but also a Bioware bugfix

Sorry to those of you who left the First Name field blank. We'll just have to remake you too.

[Naraldur]

Makzimia said:

However, as always no name at all, is not accepted.

I still have that character at Lanthar's Lair, actually. I play him when this server is down. lol.