[MUD-Dev] Introductions and

[coder at ibm.net]

On 18/11/97 at 07:47 PM, Mike Sellers <mike at online-alchemy.com> said:

>This *is* interesting.  Given that we randomly generate character stats
>all the time in games, I'm surprised randomly generating names isn't more
>prevalent.  After all, how many of us got to choose our names? :)  (And I
>suppose for a fee, you could go to city hall or whatever and register to
>change your name if you wanted...)

IIRC US federal law allows any person to use any name they wish at any
time, unless that use is for libel, embezelment, or slander.  Everything
else is legit, and an acceptable legal alias.  As such anything but my
"full name" is a legally acceptable alias, encluding "J C Lawrence",
"Chris Lawrence", the various mispellings of my name that have been used
by others including the US Govt etc.

>Frankly, if I never see another desc along the lines of
>"flaming red hair and lips to match, ice blue eyes that at once chill
>your soul and inflame your desire..." (ugh) that'll be fine with me! :)  

Tall, very tall, very tall and thin; somehow all angles and jutting boney
corners with torn wrinkled skin stuck on like old dried glue.   Hunched
slightly as if leaning into an ever present wind, a great jagged beak of a
nose slicing forward.

<sigh>

Been at least 5 years since I've entered a variation on that one --
originally penned for my fav char, Aethir the dark.  Extra kudos points
for the titles of either the book that the name "Aethir" was stolen from,
or the book that the general physical description was taken (in spirit)
from.

>While we're talking about names, how do you propose to deal with
>name-collision?  

I don't -- one of the nice side effects of not having a global name-space
is that this sort of problem descends to the minor style.  All name
collisions are local -- which makes name space viruses something to fear
and cultivate.

>I've never really liked the fact that all names in
>typical MUDs must be unique.  

Agreed.  Its even more annoying to find current day web sites which
require unique ID's to log in, and won't accept unique ID/password pairs
(eg wired, travelocity...).  Bloody annoying.

>It seems like you could easily allow for
>multiple name instances by keying off the combo of character name and
>player name internally.  The only problem comes up in areas where, for
>example, I want to talk to "Joe" or send game-mail to "Joe."  If there
>are a dozen Joes out there, how do I know which one I want?  Even in the
>scheme described above, you could have several "Joe Doe" characters.  I
>suppose you could list further, publicly known information for each, such
>as occupation, general area where they live ("Joe Doe of Tos, who is a
>merchant"), or in a graphical environment, a picture of them -- anything
>to help other players differentiate their Joe from all other Joes.

>Thoughts on this?

Because I expect namespace viruses to become very common, I've been
thinking about this one.  I currently have two types of mappings:  a name
string that maps to an internal unique ID value, and a name string that
maps to a list of such ID values (ie individuals and groups).  Creating a
group is a special process as compared to creating an individual name
assignment.  In the general case I have newer name assignments override
ones, thus:

  > l
  There is a troll here.
  > name troll Bubba.
  > l
  Bubba is here.
  An elf walks in.
  > name elf Bubba
    // I'm in debate over whether to warn the character over the prior 
    // existance of the Bubba name assignment, or to prompt directly into 
    // a Bubba group name assignment.  Currently I do the latter, but 
    // allow replacement for:
  > l
  Bubba is here.
  There is a troll here.

What I'm thinking of doing is creating name stacks, such that there would
be no warnining or alert of the name collision above.  Thus "Bubba" would
end up refering to the elf, but could be prompted for earlier assignments:

  > l
  Bubba is here
  There is a troll here.
  > l at Bubba?  // The '?' request assignment stack expansion
  Do you want:
    1) Bubba the elf (current default).
    2) Bubba the troll.
    0) Cancel command?
  >> ...etc...

Ideally the list would be keyed by most recent reference, most significant
interaction with character etc rathe than simple race.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...