Alien OOC "Nicknames"

[Wickedtemp]

Having the Xeno's listed at the end of the round is entirely missing the point -though it would be nice regardless.

Now, having the Ckey listed DURING the round, IE "Runner 217 (Wickedtemp)" would work perfectly, if it can be done.

[apophis775]

That could be possible.

[DesFrSpace]

Just watch the movie "the Revenant", and I remember some thing from a German comic/manga, of how people tend to give name to creature that is deadliest of them all. Maybe Xeno already have nickname, Marine call them the "Overgrown Lizard".
(Not new, not my idea)

[Stivan34]

Like the dragon or specimen 6, Aliens should have a nickname so you know who is a good player. Big +1, The queen would know what alien to send in FOB flanking or other missions.

[Gandalf]

Eh. Not a fan of this working like Marine names.

IDK if it would be possible, but a dynamic system working like 'achievements' giving names as the game goes on would be cool. You start as Queen, but maybe become Hag Queen by surviving for 2 hours, or Bloody Mary by having >30 humans die during your 'reign'. The Praetorian who survives crit 3 times becomes Scar and the Runner who gets 5 infections becomes Snatcher.

Probably impossible to code though. If only other xenos could see your name, I'd be neutral.

[Ninjah!]

As an alien player I would really appreciatie this. By giving these names we would finally know if that runner is constantly dieing is the same person. Also being an alien player would no longer be punished with no one knowing you. This shoudn't be an RP thing tough, just something to keep track of who plays what and such.

+1

[Azmodan412]

Boiler (12) "Sniper" +1

[Toroic]

Eh. Not a fan of this working like Marine names.

IDK if it would be possible, but a dynamic system working like 'achievements' giving names as the game goes on would be cool. You start as Queen, but maybe become Hag Queen by surviving for 2 hours, or Bloody Mary by having >30 humans die during your 'reign'. The Praetorian who survives crit 3 times becomes Scar and the Runner who gets 5 infections becomes Snatcher.

Probably impossible to code though. If only other xenos could see your name, I'd be neutral.

This would be 10x as much work and still wouldn't solve the problem. There would be multiple "Hag Queens" and "Bloody Mary" after a few months, so you would only be able to know it was a new queen, which isn't the same as an incompetent player.

[dasdelan]

-1 Marine 'nicknames' are bad enough

[Logi99]

Honestly this can also help the hall of fame, I saw an alien being named hunter (number idk) on it. People will just lie to say they are that alien but if we had nicknames for our aliens, but people can metagame but I heard if we only make aliens see the nicknames only but that would be a hard thing to code. Neutral. But you can convince me to 1+ if you can.

[Boltersam]

People complain against aliens being "faceless", then I see all the -1s on this thread, and I feel like kicking a puppy.

I'm neutral, it'll be hard to code, it'll solve that "faceless" problem, but I think that problem is non-existent. There is no "faceless" problem as evidenced by the amount of -1's here.
I'm disappointed in all the people who complained of being "faceless" and then posted a -1 here.

[TR-BlackDragon]

People complain against aliens being "faceless", then I see all the -1s on this thread, and I feel like kicking a puppy.

I'm neutral, it'll be hard to code, it'll solve that "faceless" problem, but I think that problem is non-existent. There is no "faceless" problem as evidenced by the amount of -1's here.
I'm disappointed in all the people who complained of being "faceless" and then posted a -1 here.

This right here sums it up. Ya bitch that they are faceless then sat you don't want them to have a face..kinda back words thinking.

[Wesmas]

What if the numbers were constant throughout rounds? It would allow you to slowly identify how good people are, but be unintrusive and subtle.

[DesFrSpace]

"Immortal" - Most round do not go down/die easily.
"Survivor" - Last of the alien race, to get slain or avenge.
"Behemoth" - Boss Level.

Here is what Des would imagine this title to alien's talent naming.

Note: Alien with not experience get .

[Gandalf]

This would be 10x as much work and still wouldn't solve the problem. There would be multiple "Hag Queens" and "Bloody Mary" after a few months, so you would only be able to know it was a new queen, which isn't the same as an incompetent player.

These wouldn't carry across between rounds, and wouldn't allow more than one with each name per round.

The point I was kinda making was that the idea of recognising xenos from engagement to engagement sounds good. That is a thing that will bring personality and uniqueness to rounds. The queen can instantly tell which of her ravagers was a successful hunter and which hid in the hive for 20 minutes, and a marine can spot the Praetorian that was once the Spitter that offed his buddy.

From round to round though? It'll bring metabuddies and circlejerking and marines weirdly obsessed with killing a certain xeno despite it looking the same as the others. You'll have a newly hatched larva who's somehow earned the name "Devourer". That is bad.

As for hard to code - only in that we're having trouble sticking names to xenos. I dont think assigning new names based on numeric parameters will be hard once we've cracked that.

[Toroic]

These wouldn't carry across between rounds, and wouldn't allow more than one with each name per round.

The point I was kinda making was that the idea of recognising xenos from engagement to engagement sounds good. That is a thing that will bring personality and uniqueness to rounds. The queen can instantly tell which of her ravagers was a successful hunter and which hid in the hive for 20 minutes, and a marine can spot the Praetorian that was once the Spitter that offed his buddy.

From round to round though? It'll bring metabuddies and circlejerking and marines weirdly obsessed with killing a certain xeno despite it looking the same as the others. You'll have a newly hatched larva who's somehow earned the name "Devourer". That is bad.

As for hard to code - only in that we're having trouble sticking names to xenos. I dont think assigning new names based on numeric parameters will be hard once we've cracked that.

I think you grossly, grossly overestimate the positive impact of what you're suggesting.

It is a huge amount of work to basically add alien acheivements that give a special name for part of one round, sometimes.

I cannot imagine a worse time/benefit ratio done intentionally.

The entire point of OOC nicknames is to support the community of xeno players. Nothing you suggested does anything positive to support that goal, and a ravager who is just going for kills might be neglecting to infect and ultimately weakening his team.

It is not a good idea, especially not as a replacement.

[Gandalf]

The entire point of OOC nicknames is to support the community of xeno players.

Pretty vague goal, what exactly do you mean by 'the community of xeno players'?

Nothing you suggested does anything positive to support that goal

,
Again, I'll mention that 'the goal' is pretty vague. IMO the main problem with xenos in terms of arghpee is that there is no substantiality or cause and effect. Every interaction a xenomorph has, be it saving an ally, fighting a marine, or just shooting the shit in the hivemind is largely an occurance unto itself. It's rare that anyone gives a fuck about noting more than a xeno's class - there's usually more than one of any given class bar queen and they move between them. Every time you interact with anyone, you might as well be a completely different person to the previous time - this makes you just another part of a faceless mass. This here is what I would say the problem here is.

In terms of how this 'supports that goal'; Let's be real specific here. What I say xenos need is consequences and narrative. Memorable personalities and actions with fixed 'actors'. Actions will have consequences, both in the long and short term and actual RP will happen. I've already given examples in the form of a marine spotting a xeno he recognises or a queen having a favoured hunter who's proven himself.

So when you say 'it doesnt support the community of xeno players', I'm not 100% sure what angle you're coming from without elaboration.

and a ravager who is just going for kills might be neglecting to infect and ultimately weakening his team.

This, however, is a fair point. However at the same time, what I just said would come into effect. The Ravager has a permanent identifier, he's being a shitlus and the queen calls him out on it, he's going to be put on guard duty and not trusted with anything critical - and since he's not Ravager (420), other xenos will recognise him on sight as being 'that one fucker who killed when he should have infected'. This is the kinda shit that would happen with marines, and IMO the kinda shit that makes a multiplayer game like SS13 in general worth playing. It's a lot better than the runner killing 5 monkies then just evolving and getting a brand new name.

And with regards to the effort to implement, again, I'm really not convinced that it would be a huge investment. 90% of the work here is getting nicknames that stick with evolution - presumably something that will be fixed in time regardless. I'm no byond coder, but in terms of assigning it should be as simple as variables counting shit like kills with thresholds to apply the names.

[Ninjah!]

Everyone complains that these names will ruin the RP of aliens but forget that the suggestion is clearly meant for OOC. All people want is the ability to be recognized as an alien player. Right now you can be the best RPer but if you play as an alien no one will actually know.

[Gandalf]

Everyone complains that these names will ruin the RP of aliens but forget that the suggestion is clearly meant for OOC. All people want is the ability to be recognized as an alien player. Right now you can be the best RPer but if you play as an alien no one will actually know.

What's the point in being recognised OOC if not to carry into IC on some level?

The only things an OOC name would provide would be the knowledge that your buddies are playing, or the ability to base decisions and RP off OOC knowledge. One is pointless circlejerkery, one is bad RP at best, metagaming at worst.

[Ninjah!]

What's the point in being recognised OOC if not to carry into IC on some level?

The only things an OOC name would provide would be the knowledge that your buddies are playing, or the ability to base decisions and RP off OOC knowledge. One is pointless circlejerkery, one is bad RP at best, metagaming at worst.

Have you tried to connect with the community with random name turned on for every round? Because that's how it feels for alien players right now. Compare the ammount of alien players you know with the ammount of marines.

[Wickedtemp]

One reason I don't play alien much anymore (aside from losing all the time during high pop hours, the only time I'm able to play) is that marines have characters. Constant names, reputations, etc.

Then there's aliens, who are random every round. If the marines were random and faceless, they'd likely not be played as much because it's not as fun being a clone.

[Gandalf]

Have you tried to connect with the community with random name turned on for every round? Because that's how it feels for alien players right now. Compare the ammount of alien players you know with the ammount of marines.

I come on the server to play space marines and create stories to share in the process, not to make online buddies - which I guess is the key distinction in our viewpoints.

If that's what the majority of people want though, fair point. Didn't even occur to me.

[forwardslashN]

There is actually a lot of camaraderie between aliens that people usually overlook, since aliens are mostly anonymous. It doesn't happen often, but it's pretty neat when it does happen, like earlier today. Three random xenos came together just by being in proximity and held off a huge marine counter offensive while completely cut off from support or reinforcements. I'd personally prefer to know nicknames or some identifier via the hive menu, so I can look up who is who, but it wouldn't really matter to me. Alien nicknames are alright too, and are mechanically an easy thing to implement. The game assigns a number when someone becomes a xeno--just attach a "xeno name" string there based on client settings of the player and you're done.

The problem is, that each time an alien evolves, it's a new instance. It carriers nothing over, except transfering the "mind". So it's not possibly to maintain the numbers easily.

While there are a number of ways around this, I will list a three in order of clarity: Store the variable in the mind datum, and this is probably the most simple and elegant solution; store the variable in the jobs datum (or whatever it's called. It's written at the beginning of the game and maintains all the character identities--look at how respawn-character works), so you can recall a number or anything else needed for persistent xeno identity; feed the proc a parameter (in this case a number string) with each new transformation, with this being probably the ugliest solution.

I definitely do not want to see xeno achievements or anything like that though. Runs counter intuitive to RP, in my mind.

[Toroic]

There is actually a lot of camaraderie between aliens that people usually overlook, since aliens are mostly anonymous. It doesn't happen often, but it's pretty neat when it does happen, like earlier today. Three random xenos came together just by being in proximity and held off a huge marine counter offensive while completely cut off from support or reinforcements. I'd personally prefer to know nicknames or some identifier via the hive menu, so I can look up who is who, but it wouldn't really matter to me. Alien nicknames are alright too, and are mechanically an easy thing to implement. The game assigns a number when someone becomes a xeno--just attach a "xeno name" string there based on client settings of the player and you're done.
While there are a number of ways around this, I will list a three in order of clarity: Store the variable in the mind datum, and this is probably the most simple and elegant solution; store the variable in the jobs datum (or whatever it's called. It's written at the beginning of the game and maintains all the character identities--look at how respawn-character works), so you can recall a number or anything else needed for persistent xeno identity; feed the proc a parameter (in this case a number string) with each new transformation, with this being probably the ugliest solution.

I definitely do not want to see xeno achievements or anything like that though. Runs counter intuitive to RP, in my mind.

It's like you read my mind and say it more intelligently.

[Troydav98]

-1 Apop said on Toric's post about Alien OOC achievements like, Like Xeno player and stuff like that is impossible due to you are assigned a random number every time you evolve and join so basically tor a NCP that is controlled by a person with Xeno commands with 0 personality unless your the queen.