Open Discussion: Player Identification

[Maiyannah]

One thing done in a few persistent worlds is to have a system where until identified, player characters have a generic description, and then either their proper name is displayed, or the player is given a command where they can apply a name that displays for that character.

I think adding this kind of system would make the world a bit more immersive and help the players and NPCs blend a little more.

Thoughts?

[GuardianTai]

I think it would definitely prevent people from knowing your name right off the bat. Which I have seen a lot recently, on a certain other server. It would also be a lot more immersive, because you don't know people's names from the start. You have to ask for names, or know who they are through descriptions given by others, that do know those characters. I like the idea.

[Ouroboros]

I would suggest that if this system is implemented, some consideration could be given to the following;

Firstly, a way for a player to intentionally reveal themselves to a target player, if possible. Being a high level that categorically can't be unveiled by a new character means there's niche scenarios such as a higher level PC trying to mentor and guide lower level ones, being inherently incapable of having their details visible to those lower level PCs.

Secondly, a placeholder or "disguise" description that is shown on failed attempt to reveal the target, perhaps with attendant rules attached. This way a player can write a purely physical appearance description for the purposes of what everyone can see; "This character stands yea tall, has this colour hair, generally wears clothing such as this" etc, versus the more in-depth description revealed on examine success. This both allows PCs to engage in surreptitious roleplay while also still allowing people to interact with them without knowing basically anything about whom they are dealing with. Also it allows players to prevent the meta-tells that give them away, if they are indeed trying to pass themselves off as an NPC (Examples on other servers where players will intentionally letter-for-letter copy NPC descriptions for their wildshapes, to prevent being metagamed.)

[Maiyannah]

I would ideally have wildshape NOT able to be customised - just because it would be a meta-tell, like you say.

I think changing the character name display without NWNx can only be done on the client side (ie, just that player) - but it would indeed be nice to let the player reveal themselves. I'll look into that.