Alright

 

I almost deleted that part, but decided to leave it as troll bait. You didn't fail to deliver to hone in on it and ignore a well-thought out post around it. Ah well, thanks for proving my suspicion and giving a good laugh.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Aulus_Claudius

I am somewhat suspect that this question will be answered, here or anywhere, but I do have one concern. Can you finish the rename later or do you HAVE to complete it when you try to play the character? I realize you will need to complete the name change to actually play the character, but if I try to play the character and find out I need a name change, can I cancel out and finish renaming later?

While I understand the attachment to ones character names, I really wonder about your names in particular, I have one server merge and later another transfer of my whole legacy behind me and out of around 40 characters there was one I had to rename and that name just was a very common name so not really a surprise.

 

Obviously there are fun and polular names a lot of people would like, I have some of those, but I wouldn't unsub over chars I played for maybe 100 hours, just because I was the first to grab that name on my server.

 

My main really grew on me in the 117 days /played, though. The name itself isn't anything special, but in this case the answer to "what's in a name?" is "everything". The name is taken on the other servers, but being on a high pop server that gets merged with two "dead" ones, I'm confident that the other players don't play anymore or moved to another server and left those chars behind.

 

If I lose the name, I will first try to bargain, with everything I have to offer, including giving up other names. If that doesn't work, then my time with SWTOR may come to an end, as that char was what kept me playing as a single-player who originally just went slumming in the MMO community, because there was a lack of good RPGs in late 2012. Meanwhile I have accounts and even subs in other MMOs but keep coming back to Swtor, and not really because of stellar story, exciting gameplay or marvelous technology.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Mubrak

I am somewhat suspect that this question will be answered, here or anywhere, but I do have one concern. Can you finish the rename later or do you HAVE to complete it when you try to play the character? I realize you will need to complete the name change to actually play the character, but if I try to play the character and find out I need a name change, can I cancel out and finish renaming later?

 

Most likely it will work like it does after server transfers, and you will already see in the char selection that the char has random letters as a name as well a red sign telling you that you need to pick a new name.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Mubrak

My only question is.. what is going to happen to inactive players and their character names?

 

Are they going to be put into some vast expanse that contains their data but free up all of their names? I was away from the game for quite a stretch, and while I'm back and an active subscription now I went and checked the servers I'm merging with.. While quite a few of my characters names were available on those servers, they characters that I mainly play are not. So I'm expecting to have to name change to be honest.

 

Now this in itself doesn't bother me, but when I created a couple of new characters recently I spent over an hour finding names that the system would accept. While I know we can create names with spaces in them, that isn't my preferred naming style. I prefer one name no spaces.

 

If they did put inactive players into a void and completely free up their names, it would make our lives easier if we do in fact have to rename.

My only question is how do we know if we are going to lose names or not?

 

If Bioware is establishing a priority, there should be some way of knowing beforehand what names are going to be kept and what will be lost.

My only question is how do we know if we are going to lose names or not?

 

If Bioware is establishing a priority, there should be some way of knowing beforehand what names are going to be kept and what will be lost.

 

There is:

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20171002

Premium players (Subscribers) will have priority over Free-to-Play and Preferred Status players.

Highly played characters will have priority over characters with less play time.

 

To proactively offset unnecessary challenges around character names, we are initiating a process of removing names from long inactive accounts. Any character that has not logged in for 90-days or more which has not progressed beyond level 10 will be flagged to rename their character.

 

So first go to the other servers yours will join, and try to create a new char with that name, if the name is already taken, do a /played on your char and try to guess how likely it is that another subscriber has played more.

 

You can also go to the server to farm the starter-planet achievements for the CC, while having "your" name in the friends list to see whether they still log in.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Mubrak

How important can your RP community be to you that'd you abandon it cause you have to rename a character?

 

So silly. Those that leave in a huff over this will return eventually anyway. Get real.

 

I am not abandoning the people I RP with. I am "accompanying" them to something else. If my guild decides to leave the game because some characters lose their identity, then we will re-focus onto a new game. That's the entire point about having such groups of friends.

 

Secondly, you can believe I will return all you want. I am a major Warhammer fan, yet I never returned to Warhammer when the game was not what it was supposed to be. Believing that is your right, but at some point, the barrel just spills over.

 

Meanwhile I have accounts and even subs in other MMOs but keep coming back to Swtor, and not really because of stellar story, exciting gameplay or marvelous technology.

 

That's part of the problem, really. SWTOR has nothing in terms of big content, stellar story, exciting new gameplay or major changes that can make you come back. For many of us the only drive remaining to play or come back is groups of friends. We built character arcs and relationships over many years, and the name is a part of that identity.

 

Most of my PvE and PvP friends are already playing WoW, and I am juggling between RPing on SWTOR and chatting on my second screen and playing Mythic+ with them. If those RP friends decide to move to WoW too, there is nothing left that'd even make me log into SWTOR.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Alssaran

Most likely it will work like it does after server transfers, and you will already see in the char selection that the char has random letters as a name as well a red sign telling you that you need to pick a new name.

Pretty much this, which is different to how a rename token works. I have one level 70 fully utilitied character whose "character information" menu icon (left end of the screen-top menu) blinks just like it does when I haven't selected all my eligible utility slots. Why? Because she bought and used a rename token, and never actually picked a new name. In her "C" panel, there is a RENAME button next to her name.

 

Why did I end up with this?

 

She's my very first character, a Consular-turned-Shadow. I decided to give Commando a try when poor Kylarina was about level 24-25, and liked it better. I was Preferred at the time, and along came the first name-release, and Kylarina lost her name because I had been neglecting her. So I renamed her by "you lost your name, pick another" fiat when she logged in again. Recently, I searched for her old name and couldn't find it, so bought and used a token only to discover that Republic characters can't tell between "no character has this name" and "an Imperial character has this name" when trying to /friend someone. Yeah, the current Kylarina on that server is on the Imp side, but I have yet to log in at the same moment as that imposter on my Imp characters that have friended her.

How important can your RP community be to you that'd you abandon it cause you have to rename a character?

 

So silly. Those that leave in a huff over this will return eventually anyway. Get real.

 

Names are part of RP; you don't really know much about the topic do you?

 

Oh and welcome to my ignore list

Edited October 3, 2017 by Foambreaker

I was Early Access, and between the 2 forced mergers I went through I literally lost 100% of my names. They shouldn't do server mergers until they fix the system to allow per account unique names instead of per server unique names. Or merge all servers into one so there is no chance of being screwed a fourth time.

 

I got screwed over too and decided I'd come up with names that others likely had little interest in. This has happened in every game where servers got merged (lots of them). I finally figured out how to not get borked. I use names from historical sources, mainly Anglo-Saxon but not limited to. It'll be interesting to see if those names get snarfed. I'd be very surprised if they do.

 

And grouchy. Very grouchy.

I have had my original character of Zaphkiel since day one of early access. It has remained as such against odds through mergers. It had been my account name for many months before launch itself. After the first Merger I even grabbed it as a backup on Harbinger, just in case. I never thought to back it up on Bastion since it wasn't even a notable server at the time and I was on POTF then anyway. I don't do endgame crap but I do regularly duo for story stuff on alts with my roommate. I'm by no means an idle subscriber but I almost never play my main except for new chapters as there's no real point for me. I now feel like I either have to grind dailies with every moment of free time I have on him just to add a security buffer that may not even be enough depending on the Bastion players play schedule or trust in the hands of fate. I will say this though, if I, an OG, pre-release, CE owning, veteran of this game lose the name of my first character, a character I had to painstakingly grind Jedi Battle Lord armor for back when those were super rare and appearance tabs didn't exist, a character that exclusively uses a vehicle mount that was only available for a limited time from a limited vendor to control inflation, a character who's name origin dates back to my first ever MMO character in 2005, loses his *********** name over this then I'm officially done with this game. Period. I'll go back to FFXI before resubbing in that case.

I only have 3 characters, but I was lucky enough to name one after my wife -I don't want someone taking that name, she's my only wife darn it.

I only have 3 characters, but I was lucky enough to name one after my wife -I don't want someone taking that name, she's my only wife darn it.

 

Bah, you can always buy another one.....that is how it works right? Been a while since I was married.

I like the part that says "In most cases, nothing will happen to your character name."

 

When I read that part of the blog, I actually laughed.

 

A very humorless laugh.

 

"In most cases, nothing will happen ..."

 

... How very optimistic.

 

You know, when I read what they were doing with conflicting guild names (attaching the original server's name to the guild name, so that "The Jedi Order" becomes "The Jedi Order - The Harbinger") I found myself wishing that they had done something like that with the character names.

 

I've seen other people on the forums also saying that they would have liked the developers to create a way to let more than one player on a combined server have a character name, by appending a number or server name or something to the end of it.

 

I know that some players wouldn't be happy with a suffix attached to their characters name like that, and would rather rename their characters altogether. So I was wondering if the developers could have given players with conflicting character names the option to either rename their characters or just have a suffix attached to it. Maybe that would have been too complicated, I don't know.

 

Sigh. I'm willing to trust that this server merge is the best thing for the game as a whole, but there's no way around it - being forced to change a character's name really, really sucks.

I have had my original character of Zaphkiel since day one of early access.

 

Same with me.. I figured out since then not to use character names as forum names.. Cause people will steal them and use them.

The good, the bad and the ugly. Names are just 1 of the many problems with Servers merging.

 

I feel terrible for the RP'ers, because they are not going to stay subbed, but only a few that can stand being made fun of. No i'm not a RP'er, but 20 years ago and in SWG i did a little bit, until it got too serious. But Not having an RP server and an only PvP server is bad. Instances don't work the way people think, it not the same.

 

As for names, if anyone takes mine i'll kill them lol. or i can to the characters named family for a vote, but i doubt me or anyone lse would really qualify bearing such a great name.

 

Final tiebreaker--dueling 1v1

I used to be seriously into RP (not here mind you). D&D, VtM, VDA, WtA, DtA and even took it online to the MUDs back in the day. The thing was, in all those pen and paper RPGs and even on the MUDs they were there just for RP. Only those interested in RP were playing them. I am not sure just how well mixing the PvE, PvP and RP crowds in larger numbers will really work. Me personally, I wouldn't intentionally interrupt someone's RP, everyone has their thing and I believe that with few exceptions, everyone should do their own thing. But there are people out there that would likely try to bother those they view as different. Hopefully that will not happen much and there will be means in place to curtail such behavior if needed.

So sad about the name merging; I have a character in each class (well except smuggler) on Harbinger & I liked my characters so much that I decided to hop to a new server and replay the characters as different classes- I call them my 'AU Crew'

I hopped servers so that I could keep all their names... but I happened to hop to Begeren Colony. So, I have pretty unusual names and wouldn't usually need to worry except I'm gonna be fighting myself for those names lmao

It's not the end of the world; my characters are way more than just their names & if I have to spell them slightly differently then who cares? But it does make me sad that the whole reason I hopped servers has now been nullified & it feels like I've been playing on a dead server for nothing

I am willing to wager that no one have spend more time on character names in this game than me. I have been maxed out globally for a long time, and I have take unconventionally methods in use to secure and transfer character names across servers for years. As such I have some very iconic names on TRE, and my investigation reveals I might lose several of them with the merger, as Prog and Tomb might have more active players with those names. Of all the silly things to fret about losing these names might be the final nail that breaks the camels back for me.

So if you ever paid for a name change are they going to refund you?

I am willing to wager that no one have spend more time on character names in this game than me. I have been maxed out globally for a long time, and I have take unconventionally methods in use to secure and transfer character names across servers for years. As such I have some very iconic names on TRE, and my investigation reveals I might lose several of them with the merger, as Prog and Tomb might have more active players with those names. Of all the silly things to fret about losing these names might be the final nail that breaks the camels back for me.

Well, to be honest. If you picked unbelieveably common and basic names like John or Sarah then yeah, I can imagine several other players across Euro servers having high playtime with characters like that...

So if you ever paid for a name change are they going to refund you?

Why would they?

 

The name change is a service that allows you to change the name you have at any give time. The name change service doesn't include protection for your name. The protection of your name is governed by the standard rule that no two names on a server may be the same. In case of server merges this can cause conflicts and so you get a free change if you lose your name due to server merges.

 

I'm not saying it's nice, but there is no grounds for a refund.

I am willing to wager that no one have spend more time on character names in this game than me. I have been maxed out globally for a long time, and I have take unconventionally methods in use to secure and transfer character names across servers for years. As such I have some very iconic names on TRE, and my investigation reveals I might lose several of them with the merger, as Prog and Tomb might have more active players with those names. Of all the silly things to fret about losing these names might be the final nail that breaks the camels back for me.

If something is the final straw that breaks the camel's back or is the final nail in your coffin...well, then you're already 99% there. I would suggest that if it just takes one thing to tip you over, you should already stop playing the game really.

 

Oh and when you do, could you delete all your characters and pm me their names

Why would they?

 

The name change is a service that allows you to change the name you have at any give time. The name change service doesn't include protection for your name. The protection of your name is governed by the standard rule that no two names on a server may be the same. In case of server merges this can cause conflicts and so you get a free change if you lose your name due to server merges.

 

I'm not saying it's nice, but there is no grounds for a refund.

 

So you're saying if you bought a suit of armor on the Cartel and they just decided to remove it from the game you'd be cool? It's the same thing. You paid for it specifically. I don't recall any stipulation in the CM about, "You're just buying this for the time being. We can take it back anytime after tomorrow".

 

Any naming conflict is a conflict Bioware is creating themselves.