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Other => FOnline:2238 Forum => Archives => Suggestions => Topic started by: JustGreat on August 09, 2010, 07:22:40 pm
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A while back I played a small German MMORPG that was strictly for Role playing (you got banned if you didn't RP, doesn't mean there were no PKers :P). One unique feature that they had, and I don't believe I have seen it in other MMOs, is that each player's name is not known to other players, unless that player introduced himself. So any players you didn't know had the name Player[Random String]. For example, a chat log would look something like this:
Player128213: Hi
Player212322: What's up?
Player128213: Not much.
Now here, I am an observer, hence I don't know their names, but they actually might be in the same clan and introduced, so from Player128213 perspective, whose name is Bob, it would look something like this:
Bob: Hi
Tom: What's up?
Bob: Not much.
Over time, or upon leaving an area (I don't remember which, maybe both), the random string is generated again. So if Bob was Player128213, two hours later for example, he now becomes Player232993.
Now to go from Player[Random String] to your actual name, you type /i, and everyone in the area knows who you are, forever.
Now that I introduced the mechanics of the idea, I am going to argue why this would be a good idea to implement (maybe low priority), other than for a RP aesthetic value (which is important in my opinion) and not necessarily with the same mechanics.
- It is a lot more exciting to wonder through a town where the people are total strangers, instead of magically know who everyone is.
- While this idea might sound as the Holy Grail for the griefers, I disagree, right now a griefer can easily create a new alt and put all his problems behind him. With this feature, I imagine, that the griefer will not have to create as many alts (less stress on the server I suppose), because his/her identity is hidden.
- You form better relationships, because interactions with players because more personal and special (not everyone knows your name, probably only people you trust).
I guess the main problem would be if it is possible to implement, and if it is, with what difficulty.
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Yea, I really liked it in Arcanum, there was "Human Noble", "Dward Smith", until he say something, so it can be used too, like simple "Wastelander". It'll also solve all problems with name colorizing, because you won't see any names at all ^_^ But... just imagine yourself, players who use outgame chat like mumble/steam/skype will have great advantage, and game will become totally FFA Deathmatch.
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players who use outgame chat like mumble/steam/skype will have great advantage, and game will become totally FFA Deathmatch.
Isn't like this already? All the PvP gangs who participate in TC are using such programs. I don't know about FFA Deathmatch, but I doubt because your name isn't shown,it will increase or decrease the amount of PKing going on, it will probably stay the same.
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I really like that and had similar ideas in mind.
Although I can imagine it's very difficult to integrate. :(
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JustGreat, i thinked about it too, seem a great idea
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I hate this one... now when someone is killing me constantly, I can write his name to Colorizer and recognize him next time, which is corresponding with real life too: you remember the bitches forever... with this feature all PKers become nameless and unrecognizeable, which is bad, I think... it will cause more paranoic thinking through-out the wasteland in the way "better shoot, than been shot"
The second reason is, that I am trader, and people can recognize by my name... with this feature I will be nameless wastelander for everyone....
and as already mentioned, many players are using voice chats or irc, so this feature will be useful only for hardcore RPers, but still its imho pretty shitty one...
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The character (Bob from Klamath) is emulated in the mind of the player(Jean from France, who play fonline). So player know names of strangers, but character who is emulated in his mind, dont know stranger name.
Everyone has a characteristic appearance. Unfortunately, in fonline everyone looks identical. The name of character is like md5, or sha-one. The name is information for player, no for character(Bob from Klamath) who is played by the actor(Jean from France).
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I hate this one... now when someone is killing me constantly, I can write his name to Colorizer and recognize him next time, which is corresponding with real life too: you remember the bitches forever... with this feature all PKers become nameless and unrecognizeable, which is bad, I think...
Yes, in real life we have name colorizer, that is why people never make mistakes when picking people out of a line up. Anyway part of the problem, and I suppose it is a valid one, is you cannot decipher if someone is an enemy (because you cannot know the name). My response to that is you will die/get attacked regardless if you know this guy is a PKer or not, and if you know for a fact that he isn't it is most likely that you have met him before and introduced each other. Also being constantly killed is a separate issue in it of itself.
it will cause more paranoic thinking through-out the wasteland in the way "better shoot, than been shot"
This is already a common occurrence in the game, or the alternative is to run away.
many players are using voice chats or irc, so this feature will be useful only for hardcore RPers, but still its imho pretty shitty one...
What exactly does IRC and voice chat have to do with this? As a means of recognition? I don't understand.
The second reason is, that I am trader, and people can recognize by my name... with this feature I will be nameless wastelander for everyone....
In the beginning, yes, but as I said in my OP, you can introduce yourself. I think this is rather realistic as a trader to gain reputation of the wastelanders.
The character (Bob from Klamath) is emulated in the mind of the player(Jean from France, who play fonline). So player know names of strangers, but character who is emulated in his mind, dont know stranger name.
Everyone has a characteristic appearance. Unfortunately, in fonline everyone looks identical. The name of character is like md5, or sha-one. The name is information for player, no for character(Bob from Klamath) who is played by the actor(Jean from France).
Yes, this is why it is a unique string, and over time it changes (I mean you don't remember all facial features if a man ran by you, and over time you forget). I suppose the mechanics (such as how often a string changes and under what conditions) need to be further polished, but I am just bringing out the general idea and not the specifics ( I see no point of doing this, if it cannot be implemented or the Devs are against this idea).
In addition, this mechanic rewards players who play one character as they would be better familiar with the wastelanders, and behind each name will be some sort of story. Where as someone who keeps creating alts will not be able to tell who is who, or at least would need to be constantly reintroduced to the same people.
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it would make roleplaying in towns a lot more fun, I was actually thinking about this same idea last night lol if only we could make it work
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ok... you all convinced me... +1
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idk,sound good,but i simply do not like it
idk why i must introduce to PKs to be hinted,we now are using out ingame nicks to trade whit others
i think this will create more confusion, the reason that the player 12135 was implemented i thing is becoze is 100% roleplay,in FOnline, is 20% roleplay only
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I don't really understand how this idea is supposed to work, for me it seems like current system with added inconvenience.
If I expose myself, everyone in the area knows my name forever? I dunno what interesting this could bring... gang mates would be exposed to each other and except making name colorizing pretty much useless I see nothing new, and man, some FOnline areas are huge (NCR) so everyone there would know you name forever?
Much more fun would be if for each player, others players names were partially covered up by random characters, how much would depend on the amount of previous interaction between them, but could be very hard to implement.
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Sure. But not until alts cease existing. Right now this is basically "implemented" because players create new chars all the time.
ok... you all convinced me... +1
Impossible. Nobody can be convinced in the internet.
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idk,sound good,but i simply do not like it
idk why i must introduce to PKs to be hinted,we now are using out ingame nicks to trade whit others
i think this will create more confusion, the reason that the player 12135 was implemented i thing is becoze is 100% roleplay,in FOnline, is 20% roleplay only
More like 1%..
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This really makes a lot of sense. Just two things. Maybe this would be the case anyway, but I think flagging someone as green or red should stay regardless of what their number is. Also, a command, like /i , would be nice for some areas, bases etc. but there should be an option to only introduce yourself to specific people. For example, by adding the other player's name after /i , the introduction would be restricted to them. Another way to do this would be to add a button to the menu you get on each player, but that is already getting fairly long.
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Like I said, I don't remember specifically the mechanics of this function in the other game, however to address some of your concerns:
To prevent unwanted people from finding out who you are, you can have /i only introduce yourself to someone you are facing and they must be 1 hex away (This way at maximum you can only introduce yourself to one person; making it also impossible to accidentally introduce yourself to a sneaker). Or it could work the way Gunduz pointed out, I think that would work good as well. (Maybe even have both ways :P)
Also yes, flagging would be needed, like green/red (I don't expect anyone to remember the random string), however when the string changes, the flag goes away. Now I know, in my example I said 2 hours for the string to change, but it could be say 6, 12 or even 24 hours, to prevent constant harassment from the same person. (Though 2 hours does sound fine to me.)
Regarding confusion, yes there will be, but only in the beginning, as you interact with more people and know the populace better, it will be become less confusing. So next time you enter NCR and you see people with actual names, you know these are people you personally know. This idea would also be an annoyance to people who make multiple alts, because they would be at a disadvantage because no one knows who they are and they don't know anyone else. Also it encourages smaller groups and not mega alliances, if you make a new character for example, and you have a 100 man alliance, you have to do /i at least 100 times, while not impossible, it does discourage people to make alts.
Yes, this will increase roleplay, but I don't see that as a bad thing.
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What if we all had 1 account with multiple characters? So instead of seeing player183838 we see Tcat223 for example, introducing yourself to that char will show his char name instead of his account name ? Changing Tcat223 (account name) to "Ted Jones" or "Killer" or something ? (Character name) or vice versa? So we know all of Tcat223's alts? Showing you his char name with the account name above?
(Tcat223)
Ted Jones
(Tcat223)
Johnson Shoeknif
Hmm the more I think about this the more it just seems like a ..... bad idea.... sounds really complicated... the alternative is to simply pretend and introduce yourself anyways lol and RP with ur imagination ...
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What if we all had 1 account with multiple characters? So instead of seeing player183838 we see Tcat223 for example, introducing yourself to that char will show his char name instead of his account name ? Changing Tcat223 (account name) to "Ted Jones" or "Killer" or something ? (Character name) or vice versa? So we know all of Tcat223's alts? Showing you his char name with the account name above?
(Tcat223)
Ted Jones
(Tcat223)
Johnson Shoeknif
Hmm the more I think about this the more it just seems like a ..... bad idea.... sounds really complicated... the alternative is to simply pretend and introduce yourself anyways lol and RP with ur imagination ...
Currently we have one account name for one in game name, so I am not sure why you think this will change. In any case you could simply create multiple accounts.
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Roleplaying?
Realism?
+1
And I'm gone fapping.
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This idea is great. The only question is whether it is possible.
I would go further and suggest the following:
option to allow permanent remembrance of your name to certain people (simulates your character knowing them, or telling them whenever they meet)
Random character strings change based on a duration unique to characters based on their Intelligence score. The player may not know your name, but the random one won't change for a while so they will know who you are.
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you can have /i only introduce yourself to someone you are facing and they must be 1 hex away
Or easier to use science on that person. ;p Of couse it doesn't make any sense, but I think we need to prevent using console commands as much as possible if it can be used in-game more simplier actions.
Question:
What about exploiters and/or bot users? GMs must be right there to see who's that, screenshots and logs won't help anymore.
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simply dissable anonymity for gms?
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No, he's talking about reports of exploits if the user doesn't show his name. I think it can work if we GMs can know which number was given to which character (and when).
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Izu, its exacly what im talking about, its no matter if there is such script, it wont affect report script in anyway
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I still have no idea what awesomeness this can bring...
If I see someone named "Gordon Jones" and I haven't heard of him before, I know nothing about him, same like with this feature implemented.
Only thing this feature achieves is disabling of name colorizing which I guess is a sneaky way why this is brought up in such way.
I'm not a fan of suggestions fighting for realism at the expense of gameplay.
With this suggestion, if you are member of a gang whose rule is not to kill newbs and miners, with this feature it would be impossible, because the newb/miner could just send you a screenshot where there is some PK with some random string as name, no way of finding out if it's your gang member or some PK...
If you have been PKed many times by same person, you would never "remember" him, recognize his face, whatever...
I do not think that this is entirely bad idea to somehow bring the concept of general familiarity to game, but not this implementation...
Like I said in previous post, better would be if I the random string covered up part of the name, based on characters interaction with other players.
Lets say there is Alice and Bob.
Alice is the harpy of saloons, drinking at bars till morning, chatting with players in NCR, possibly picking their pockets when in opportunity.
Bob is a secretive loner who likes to hunt.
The players Alice talks to often would see her as "Alice", those who talked to her somewhat, but not really every day or so "Ali****", for Bob who never was in NCR she would be "********" - mystery.
As Bob comes to NCR bar, those who see him talking will start to see his name uncover.
This would also work, with actions like stealing, applying drugs, first aiding someone, starting shooting at someone etc (in various effects on the familiarness meter).
The familiarness could deteriorate during the time spend in game - lets say 1 character per 20 game days (1 real day).
This way the name colorizing wouldn't be entirely useless - if someone PKed you 3x and you have him in name colorizing, you sould be able to recognize him even month afterwards.
Also intelligence could affect this "face remembering".. :)
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In Cybercity2034, one kowns everyone as "unknown". You can manually enter the name of every people. This way, when a personn tells you his name, you can write in and always "remember" it. It's a more efficient way to put the anonymity in, because when you meet someone, there is a great chance that when you meet him again, you recognize him.
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In Cybercity2034, one kowns everyone as "unknown". You can manually enter the name of every people. This way, when a personn tells you his name, you can write in and always "remember" it. It's a more efficient way to put the anonymity in, because when you meet someone, there is a great chance that when you meet him again, you recognize him.
If I understand correctly, every player has the name "Unknown", with the option to manually write down their name. Why would this be more efficient? First, you cannot discern one Unknown from the next, so it might be a problem with tagging. As well as lead to immense amount of impersonation as there is no way to know if Unknown is really Bob or is he lying.
I still have no idea what awesomeness this can bring...
If I see someone named "Gordon Jones" and I haven't heard of him before, I know nothing about him, same like with this feature implemented.
The scenario can be reversed and I can ask, since you don't know anything about him, why should you know his name. I guess this is just a preference of gameplay, but as been pointed out the latter increases roleplay.
Only thing this feature achieves is disabling of name colorizing which I guess is a sneaky way why this is brought up in such way.
If I wanted to disable name colorizing I would have made a suggestion about it, this really has less to do with name colorizing (though it is affected) then to intensify the gameplay.
I'm not a fan of suggestions fighting for realism at the expense of gameplay.
With this suggestion, if you are member of a gang whose rule is not to kill newbs and miners, with this feature it would be impossible, because the newb/miner could just send you a screenshot where there is some PK with some random string as name, no way of finding out if it's your gang member or some PK...
If you have been PKed many times by same person, you would never "remember" him, recognize his face, whatever...
What is a "newb" or "miner"? FOnline, is class-free, and no one knows each others level. Also if someone is a "newb" or "miner" they most likely won't attack you first, where as a PKer will. Like I before, I don't think a hidden name is going to encourage or deter PKers (They are doing it now anyway). Regarding the actions of gang members, well this is something you have to work together as a gang to figure out, also screenshots can be Photoshopped and it usually never tells the whole story.
I do not think that this is entirely bad idea to somehow bring the concept of general familiarity to game, but not this implementation...
Like I said in previous post, better would be if I the random string covered up part of the name, based on characters interaction with other players.
Lets say there is Alice and Bob.
Alice is the harpy of saloons, drinking at bars till morning, chatting with players in NCR, possibly picking their pockets when in opportunity.
Bob is a secretive loner who likes to hunt.
The players Alice talks to often would see her as "Alice", those who talked to her somewhat, but not really every day or so "Ali****", for Bob who never was in NCR she would be "********" - mystery.
As Bob comes to NCR bar, those who see him talking will start to see his name uncover.
This would also work, with actions like stealing, applying drugs, first aiding someone, starting shooting at someone etc (in various effects on the familiarness meter).
The familiarness could deteriorate during the time spend in game - lets say 1 character per 20 game days (1 real day).
This way the name colorizing wouldn't be entirely useless - if someone PKed you 3x and you have him in name colorizing, you sould be able to recognize him even month afterwards.
Also intelligence could affect this "face remembering".. :)
Other people might feel differently but, partially hidden names could possibly lead to impersonation and personally I don't think recognition should involve a grind. (How many times do you have to use first aid on someone before you know who the person is; people with long names are at a disadvantage).
option to allow permanent remembrance of your name to certain people (simulates your character knowing them, or telling them whenever they meet)
Random character strings change based on a duration unique to characters based on their Intelligence score. The player may not know your name, but the random one won't change for a while so they will know who you are.
The first suggestion, is already like the original idea, once you introduce yourself it is permanent, unless I am misinterpreting. The second, sounds good, maybe also tie in Charisma some way into this.
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The scenario can be reversed and I can ask, since you don't know anything about him, why should you know his name. I guess this is just a preference of gameplay, but as been pointed out the latter increases roleplay.
If I wanted to disable name colorizing I would have made a suggestion about it, this really has less to do with name colorizing (though it is affected) then to intensify the gameplay.
What is a "newb" or "miner"? FOnline, is class-free, and no one knows each others level. Also if someone is a "newb" or "miner" they most likely won't attack you first, where as a PKer will. Like I before, I don't think a hidden name is going to encourage or deter PKers (They are doing it now anyway). Regarding the actions of gang members, well this is something you have to work together as a gang to figure out, also screenshots can be Photoshopped and it usually never tells the whole story.
You haven't convinced me this is a good implementation of the idea.
I don't think that remembering people by numbers intensifies gameplay, and it gives even more power to back-stabbing thieves and killer than they have in real life. If someone tries to kill me in real life, most of the time I can reasonably identify him which can lead to his capture... I see no way how this is accounted for in your idea.
Other people might feel differently but, partially hidden names could possibly lead to impersonation and personally I don't think recognition should involve a grind. (How many times do you have to use first aid on someone before you know who the person is; people with long names are at a disadvantage).
Impersonation could be avoided to some point by forcing automatically generated names, which would add to RP even more.
Recognition wouldn't involve grind, there could be a way one could give his ID forever to someone, like a photograph, but what my idea is about is (mostly undesired) disclosing of your ID to your surrounding depending on your actions.
And you got that one wrong - it would be the one who gets first aid getting to know his nurser, the reverse only small part.
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You haven't convinced me this is a good implementation of the idea.
I don't think that remembering people by numbers intensifies gameplay, and it gives even more power to back-stabbing thieves and killer than they have in real life. If someone tries to kill me in real life, most of the time I can reasonably identify him which can lead to his capture... I see no way how this is accounted for in your idea.
The idea was not for people to remember others through a number, if you decide to become friends, you would know each others name. Like I also said previously, introduction would not be necessary as you have the option to flag someone until the string changes. Back-stabbing thieves (here I assume you mean people who pretend to be nice but then kill you in the wastes), cannot be avoided currently when you know a person's name. Your best bet with this system is to travel with people who introduced themselves, therefore you are not better or worse off relative to the current system.
You are saying that killers are given more power, with this system than the current, well lets look at plausible scenarios and see how much power if any do they gain.
- Current: A PK gang has control of a town (can be checked on PipBoy), and when you use Town Preview, you see well known PKers. You probably would not enter the town.
New: A PK gang has control of a town, and when you use Town Preview, and you see random players you don't know. Realistically you still probably won't enter the town.
- Current: An Anti-PK gang has control of a town, using Town Preview, you see well known Anti-PKers, so you decide to enter the town. Since you are not A PKer you do your thing in the town.
New: An Anti-PK gang has control of a town, using Town Preview, you see random players (though heavily armed). Now it could be two possibilities, one, is that it is the Anti-PK gang, or two it is some PKers, causing trouble. If, two happens and you die, well, you can tag them, and for certain amount of hours you know there are PKers in the town upon using Town Preview. Now, lets say one happens, you have a chat with the Anti-PK gang and introduce each other. Next time you enter the town, it would work like the current system, maybe there will be new people you don't know, but you can introduce each other so it isn't a problem. Now when ever you see random heavily armed players in Town Preview it is a good assumption that they are PKers.
- Current: You meet a person in the mine (or the wastes), who is armed heavily, you don't know, so I am assuming you begin running away. Three possible options here. (1) He manages to kill you, so you add his name to name colorizer. (2) He shouts "I am not PKer", when you go back he waits for you to mine, then kills you, you add his name to name colorizer. (3) He shouts "I am not PKer", you mine in peace and leave.
New: You meet a person in the mine (or the wastes), you don't know who is armed heavily, so I am assuming you begin running away. (1) He manages to kill you, you tag him for future reference if you decide to come back into the mine a little later. (2) He shouts "I am not PKer", when you go back, when you go back you ask to introduce himself, if he says no, you peacefully leave the mine, if he says yes and kills you after you mine you add his name to name colorizer. (3) He shouts "I am not PKer", you ask him to introduce himself, he says yes, and you mine in peace, next time maybe you introduce yourself to him, if you see him in the wastes.
As you see, if you die, you die regardless if the name is hidden or not, and it would be difficult only in the beginning when you don't know as many people. If you have more scenarios that I might have overlooked, mention them.
Impersonation could be avoided to some point by forcing automatically generated names, which would add to RP even more.
Recognition wouldn't involve grind, there could be a way one could give his ID forever to someone, like a photograph, but what my idea is about is (mostly undesired) disclosing of your ID to your surrounding depending on your actions.
Yes, I see nothing wrong with this, if generated names would be implemented, however that is up to the Devs.
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JustGreat:
Ok, I've taken a while to think about your suggestion. I don't think it is possible to account for every scenario, best would be just to try it for a week.
There is a problem that some people would like to be known by everyone - for example a leader of TTTLA would like every newb to know him, so when they first arrive to BH and from town preview see him there in the main entrance, they know the town is secured by TTTLA so they can safely enter and do their thing, unless TTTLA considers them as outlaws. It would be hugely impractical and boring to stand in NCR and wait for every newb to pass and do the introduction kung-fu on them. So I think this could be solved by electronic notice-boards (imagine 1m tall pipboy) in guarded cities which would have central database of faces, and if you wanted everyone to know you, you could upload your ID there and anyone who updated their database in their pipboy by interacting with terminal in any city would know you.
I also would want some functionality of a mugshot - also integrated in the pipboy terminal database... wait... doesn't it sound like name colorizing? (even better - integrated in game!)
There would be no need to display some weird strings like "Player63643" (I hate the idea of this) - the client could all manage it internally, the tagging etc, and just display "wastelander".
So what this would bring? Since all well known outlaws, deliquents, lawyers and outlaw hunters would have mugshots in the database, not much would change for them... On the other hand newbs and alts would experience a change... it is possible that some kinds of chars would essentially become worthless for their purpose after being put in database, so there could be interesing game of hiding your identity. A thief would not only have to successfully steal, but also successfully disappear unseen.
I really don't know, it probably would be fun system. My suggestion about unintentionally revealing your identity would be accounted by the mugshot thing, so I am content with that.
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If I understand correctly, every player has the name "Unknown", with the option to manually write down their name. Why would this be more efficient? First, you cannot discern one Unknown from the next, so it might be a problem with tagging. As well as lead to immense amount of impersonation as there is no way to know if Unknown is really Bob or is he lying.
It could be Unknown like it could be something else. Someone presents himsel like he want. The cool thing is that he can lie. But if you had his real name before, you had written it, and you know that he is a liar.
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JustGreat:
Ok, I've taken a while to think about your suggestion. I don't think it is possible to account for every scenario, best would be just to try it for a week.
There is a problem that some people would like to be known by everyone - for example a leader of TTTLA would like every newb to know him, so when they first arrive to BH and from town preview see him there in the main entrance, they know the town is secured by TTTLA so they can safely enter and do their thing, unless TTTLA considers them as outlaws. It would be hugely impractical and boring to stand in NCR and wait for every newb to pass and do the introduction kung-fu on them. So I think this could be solved by electronic notice-boards (imagine 1m tall pipboy) in guarded cities which would have central database of faces, and if you wanted everyone to know you, you could upload your ID there and anyone who updated their database in their pipboy by interacting with terminal in any city would know you.
There would be no need to display some weird strings like "Player63643" (I hate the idea of this) - the client could all manage it internally, the tagging etc, and just display "wastelander".
Yeah, I can agree here with what you wrote, I only suggested using random strings because it would be a way to keep track of people talking.
I also would want some functionality of a mugshot - also integrated in the pipboy terminal database... wait... doesn't it sound like name colorizing? (even better - integrated in game!)
So what this would bring? Since all well known outlaws, deliquents, lawyers and outlaw hunters would have mugshots in the database, not much would change for them... On the other hand newbs and alts would experience a change... it is possible that some kinds of chars would essentially become worthless for their purpose after being put in database, so there could be interesing game of hiding your identity. A thief would not only have to successfully steal, but also successfully disappear unseen.
I really don't know, it probably would be fun system. My suggestion about unintentionally revealing your identity would be accounted by the mugshot thing, so I am content with that.
Can you explain what you mean here further. For example how does a mugshot work, and when is it taken, and is the mugshot mechanic, assuming generated names or not?
It could be Unknown like it could be something else. Someone presents himsel like he want. The cool thing is that he can lie. But if you had his real name before, you had written it, and you know that he is a liar.
Yeah, that is pretty interesting, it has potential for griefing, although I like the idea.
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Ok, been thinking about the mugshot thing a lot - Fallout world resembles old american wild west a lot, so I am gonna draw parallels from that...
On the wild west, there WANTED posters of outlaws, usually with a price on their head. This isn't really applicable to FOnline universe, since there is no single authority like sheriffs - outlaws have their WANTED posters too.
On the other hand in wild west there were numerous places which propagated themselves to visitors and customers. The analogy to FOnline isn't too clear in this case - it is practially impossible to maintain a public place, like a shop, bar or a town - they change ownership too often. So instead of places, we have faces - if you can recognize TTTLA members guarding a town, you may consider it safe, if you are not an outlaw to them.
These two features today are provided by name colorizing.
Using the innovative system we discussing this feature would be provided in game, by pipboy. Imagine pipboys were a very common accessory in the pre-war world of Fallout (they had energy weapons and power armors after all), much like iPhones, Android phones and whatever are becoming today. Since the war probably has wiped out all the satelites on the orbit, we are kinda disconnected, have to use radio etc...
So there would be an pipboy management agency lets say in NCR which not only sells and repairs pipboys but manages data which users can download - sort of digital library, poor wastelanders internet. This agency would manage the mugshots... for a fee you could submit your own depiction with name to the database so everyone recognized you.
Or, out in the wild you could take a depiction of someone (kinda like those angel/devil coloring buttons). Whether the person introduced to you or not, the agency won't accept your depiction and associated information with it - like name, name coloring etc, because stuff is relative, they have no reason to trust you.
Factions and individuals could have accounts in the database where they could manage the depictions and their associated information. It would get really complex when dealing with distrubiting and merging these data... I really don't think creating such complex in game system is a good way to spend time as a developer.
So I think best would be just that players keep their name coloring and name records in their pipboy and it could be exported and loaded from file like NameColoring.txt now is. That file would contain internal server ID of the character, it's known name (optional) and coloring (optional).
This would be nice way for gangs to manage lists of their members, friends and enemies, while not breaking the original idea.
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So I think best would be just that players keep their name coloring and name records in their pipboy and it could be exported and loaded from file like NameColoring.txt now is. That file would contain internal server ID of the character, it's known name (optional) and coloring (optional).
I think this is a great idea !