Aliases, or how I learned to learn people's names

[JamOfBoy]

So basically, you create a secondary name for your character, that is more of a brief description.

Take an 18 year old small cargo technician. _{What she lacks in height she makes up for in breast size}
Their name is Alex White.
However, their alias is Young Woman.
Whenever she speaks, you do not see Alex White. Instead, you see Young Woman. This applies to over the radio. The only way for you to be able to see Alex White is for their player to add you to a list. Being on this list then shows Alex White, and not Young Woman. This list would persist throughout rounds.

It is a simple idea, quite dumb, but solves a lot of "i moused over the guy in the vault, i know exactly who they are", while adding a potentially good RP feature.
Is it feasible? Not a code monkey, but it might be difficult. Not sure what sort of system would be needed to make the recognition persist throughout rounds. It might be easier to just have a verb that toggles between your alias and real name.

To be honest, there are a lot of issues present with this. Aliases would become redundant unless you could change them between rounds, because people would just recognise your alias instead of name from an OOC viewpoint. Perhaps the benefits outweigh the flaws?

If you know any better ways to do this or solutions to the problems in my proposed method, that do not cause more problems of similar scale, please post them. I am not interested in issues with my method, because I know they are plentiful, but I can not conceive of ways to solve them.

Edited July 19, 2019 by JamOfBoy
so people stop bringing up issues and start solving them

[Guest Menown]

It'd require persistence, something we don't presently have.

Hazordhu 2 has this, on byond. You're given an alias that fits your description, then you tell people your name and they assign it in their memory.

[JamOfBoy]

Hey this is a retrospective thought. You can also make people's aliases go away by adding them to a list but it notifies the person when you do it. This means no one can really just abuse it and add everyone to their list so they know everyone's names, and also prevents someone from staying perma alias'd to you.

[MattAtlas]

15 minutes ago, Menown said:

It'd require persistence, something we don't presently have.

Hazordhu 2 has this, on byond. You're given an alias that fits your description, then you tell people your name and they assign it in their memory.

We do have a database though. Pretty sure this can be done.

I really like the idea regardless, but it's gonna be real funny when the sec mains use 'Grizzled Voice'.

[Pratepresidenten]

Finally I can name myself mrowling asshole.

But in all seriousness though, I like the suggestion if it can be done at all.

Although, I think it might be a little problematic if you can only know their name if they add you to THEIR list. What if they dont or dont want to? Seems kinda shitty that you'd be stuck with the alias and you'd be forced in having to keep track of many of the same ish-nicknames.

Could a reverse list be better perhaps? Making so you would see people as unknowns until you can pin a name on the voice using your own list?

[MattAtlas]

6 minutes ago, Pratepresidenten said:

Finally I can name myself mrowling asshole.

But in all seriousness though, I like the suggestion if it can be done at all.

Although, I think it might be a little problematic if you can only know their name if they add you to THEIR list. What if they dont or dont want to? Seems kinda shitty that you'd be stuck with the alias and you'd be forced in having to keep track of many of the same ish-nicknames.

Could a reverse list be better perhaps? Making so you would see people as unknowns until you can pin a name on the voice using your own list?

Unable to pin their name and voice down until they get examined with an ID, maybe? It would be relatively simple to do, I think.

[Kaed]

I suggested something along these lines before, and it was shot down.

I"m glad to see such positive feedback now.

Please do this.

[Nantei]

I like the idea, but I am not sure I want it, as odd as that sounds. I have really mixed feelings because the confusion that comes with this can both add and subtract from a round. Also generally speaking, I don't want to have to manually type in peoples names or otherwise go through a lot of hassle. If it was automated that might be different, though.

[Scheveningen]

It's a fine idea but requires pretty heavy enforcement. Oh well, let's see if it works. Anything apart from mapping changes is easy enough to revert after all 8)

[Arrow768]

8 hours ago, Scheveningen said:

Oh well, let's see if it works. Anything apart from mapping changes is easy enough to revert after all

While yes, it would be easy enough to revert, it definitely wouldn't be easy to implement in a persistent manner.

[Carver]

Absolutely adore the idea if only so people will stop complaining when my characters ICly call others by their station ranks. Slight joke aside, I cannot express how much I genuinely love this idea.

+1

[Doxxmedearly]

This is an absolutely incredible idea. But as arrow said, implementation might be too difficult.

Still... Goodness, I'd love this.

[Zundy]

So the player of 18 year old melon farmer Alex White decides if my character knows their characters name? ?

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Isnt this a lot of busywork? My character meets and would remember at least a dozen new people every round...

[JamOfBoy]

35 minutes ago, Zundy said:

So the player of 18 year old melon farmer Alex White decides if my character knows their characters name? ?

 

16 hours ago, Pratepresidenten said:

Could a reverse list be better perhaps? Making so you would see people as unknowns until you can pin a name on the voice using your own list?

Look at my response, the second reply to the original post, for answers to this.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

17 hours ago, JamOfBoy said:

You can also make people's aliases go away by adding them to a list but it notifies the person when you do it.

This is the busywork I was talking about.

[Carver]

32 minutes ago, Marlon Phoenix said:

Isnt this a lot of busywork? My character meets and would remember at least a dozen new people every round...

I suppose it varies per character, I OOCly struggle to remember the names of characters after a round even when I do interact heavily with said characters.

[JamOfBoy]

6 minutes ago, Marlon Phoenix said:

busywork

Mechanically it serves little value. OOCly you would attribute aliases to names or ckeys without the game doing it for you. The value of this comes from the roleplay aspect. We are a heavy roleplay server.

Also, I don't think it is particularly hard to:

Right click someone and press a button that adds them to this list
Press a verb, opening a menu that lists everyone nearby, allowing you to pick who you want to add to the name list.

Those are the two ways I envision this happening. Of course how it actually happens, if ever, is up to the developers.
Heck, could even just tie it to examine or something dumb like that. 

[Nantei]

1 hour ago, JamOfBoy said:

Right click someone and press a button that adds them to this list
Press a verb, opening a menu that lists everyone nearby, allowing you to pick who you want to add to the name list.

This is what Jackboot was talking about that I agree with. It seems like a lot of effort for something that I don't feel adds a ton to the server. Sure, we don't have that awkwardness of calling out names of people you have never met, but... is that really worth all this hassle? Not to me.

[JamOfBoy]

I personally can't fathom how two clicks is too much hassle, but you could always just not do it, and use your memory to associate names with aliases.

[Zundy]

So it would become a list of names that you yourself match with the unknown person? For example I see "young girl with zz cup and a juicy peach and....she stare at you!" and I have a list of names which I would then match the name. Now the name says Geoff Studmuffin when I examine the person but haha I've been rused and mismatched the name. A couple of rounds later as my self insert I head on over to the bar and flex my guns to seduce this shrew but oh no, I realise they're actually Alex White so rematch the name correctly. We head back to main and then she gives """"my character"""" the succ.

 

Is this the functionality you mean? @JamOfBoy

Edited July 17, 2019 by Zundy
I don't even play

[Skull132]

1 hour ago, JamOfBoy said:

I personally can't fathom how two clicks is too much hassle, but you could always just not do it, and use your memory to associate names with aliases.

It gets tedious, it then becomes an automated action that you do on everyone forever without thinking about it. Making it require active input is meh, IMO.

Technologically this is doable, myself and Arrow discussed a few schemes for implementing this years ago. Simply maintain an associative list in the DB, pull relevant names via a 2 index search probably and you'll have what you need.

[JamOfBoy]

@Zundy
What are you referring to? My first reply to this post? In which case, no. You simply gain access to their name, but they got notified when you do. If you're referencing busywork, also no.


I'm open to suggestions on better ways of doing this. I understand the systems I have proposed are a long way from perfect.
This is a polite way of me trying to say I don't like trying to defend this system, so stop attacking it.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

On 17/07/2019 at 13:33, JamOfBoy said:

I personally can't fathom how two clicks is too much hassle, but you could always just not do it, and use your memory to associate names with aliases.

Its too much of a hassle and then im punished for not using it by being completely in the dark, and constantly confused.

Its constant busywork. Its two clicks all the time because we meet dozens of new characters every shift.

[MattAtlas]

aka just click examine on the person you dont know and you get added to the list automatically