What would you like to name in the game?

TheWizard

Paragons will be interesting in a number of ways, but this poll focuses on our plans to offer players the chance to truly shape the Lore and the happenings in the gameworld narrative. Thus, if you had to choose, what would you personally like to get a chance to name in the game? (and what makes that interesting to you)

Darggie

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

What comes along with naming? Do you get to help write some lore behind it? 

If yes, how deep in the lore can we write? What information do we have available to us to add into the lore? 

Depending on the answers, I might change my vote.

Xeru

Why is there not an Other option lol?  

Because for me, personally, I'd like to name something that falls under the purview of NPC friendly: mount/pet/summon.

It might technically count as Gear or RPC but still, Other option helps for confusion like this

Finjinimo

Trait (passive benefit to your character)

TRAIT! Mwhahahahahahahahaa.... You want more explanation Whiz-fizz, or is the maniacal laughter enough?

Kjelfalconer

NPC enemy (monsters and such)

I actually force my players to name the monsters some times when I play d&d. I throw a description at them, inform them they have no idea what the frick it is, and make deciding how to refer to it their problem.

TheWizard

I like everything I'm hearing-- @Kjelfalconer's method of description then name is perfect. And @Xeru, feel free to wax poetic on the Others you'd name. The poll is just to get the discussion rolling.

@Darrgie, we're planning on creating some opportunities like this, so those would come along with some definitive guidelines for lore too.

And yes, Finji, the maniacal laughter leads me to all sorts of creative outcomes...

Talin

How about naming quests? I personally like the idea of naming proficiency quests. The kind of quest that one might do to prove that they are a journeyman herbalist, master healer, or grandmaster bard.

TheWizard

Ah yes, a good add, @Talin!  /makes a note...

Xeru

What about naming formers? IE Figures in Paragons Lores, Religion, and other stories of varying regions and their tales, heroes, and whatnot?

maybe even potentially have members write lore to potentially use and be looked at by you guys for a region

whackapple

NPC enemy (monsters and such)

Dungeons of Dredmor has fun skill (and other stuff) names: http://dungeonsofdredmor.wikia.com/wiki/Bankster

For minions and cities if the game world is non-permanent, I'd pick some fun names and randomly generate from there.

I think in the game, we should be able to name our player character and other content unique to us that other people in the game see: cities/guilds/pets we create or control. I don't think we want two people with different names for the same ability/gear, cause that would be confusing.

Other content - gear/abilities/etc - sure, tie it in with the lore & storytelling.

TheWizard

Xeru said:

What about naming formers? IE Figures in Paragons Lores, Religion, and other stories of varying regions and their tales, heroes, and whatnot?

maybe even potentially have members write lore to potentially use and be looked at by you guys for a region

That's an excellent add. GIven the plan for narrative is partially a dynamic, player-behavior-driven system, this could be very interesting.

TheWizard

@whackapple, you will definitely name your Character(s), your Loadouts and (probably) your camp, though that last one is a current debate. Those other bits you mention are good food for thought. 

I'm a personal fan of having players name different things in games I work on, cuz it weaves into the lore in interesting ways and injects things that we may not think of on our own.

Darggie

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

TheWizard said:

 is a current debate.

I feel like those things are the best time to call upon the masses and check out forum input as to each sides discussion. Even if you don't base a decision on it because of us, someone might say something that changes how the subject was thought about completely.

TheWizard

Definitely agree, Crier. As controversies over here storm, I will be sharing those and getting your guys' thoughts on the topics. A bunch of good design stuff has bubbled up in the past couple of weeks, that I'll be outlining and asking you questions about...

Evilteddy

NPC enemy (monsters and such)

This poll took a lot of debating for me.  I loved coming up with new equipment for the Continuum, but also felt that some of the equipment needed a trait that was not in the game, and would have to combine attributes into the item to get that desired trait.  And getting to name my new bad ass attack or other ability something sounds like an amazing idea too. 
However, I had to pick being able to name NPC enemies, mostly because running into another green, red, blue, rainbow, sparkly, etc. slime, gets old since they are so common in so many different games.  Now if I am out looking for a battle and run into a green-ooze-slime-ball-thingy and I get a little pop-up asking me what I want to call it, and maybe including the top 3 names among all other players, could be fun, and if I do not like any of those names I can be like, "F- those lame names, I am call these 'Tim'."  Now whenever I fight them in the game I am randomly attacked by a pack of 3 wild Tim's.  That would be the greatest thing ever.

TheWizard

Haha, that's a new idea! Here I was thinking you were going for making your claim on a nice piece of lore in the game and then your example made me laugh out loud. I share your repetition concern and are currently figuring out how to eke out as much variety as possible, in lore, NPCs, Quest chains and the like. 

But naming an enemy something arbitrary to yourself and then encountering might just be-- in fact-- the "greatest thing ever."

Heromaster

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

The only problems I see with naming them yourself is how do you report a bug on something thats uniquely named?
Ex.
Me: Lvl 3 Tim just hit me for 5000 damage......
Dev: You've been smited.

The other one is how does one talk about enemies to other players if they all have different names for them?
 

Kjelfalconer

NPC enemy (monsters and such)

@Heromaster

"I've been having some trouble killing the smeerps. Any tips?"
"A what?"
"A smeerp. You know, the white fluffy things with the longs ears, and the fluffy tails."
"...you mean rabbits?"
"No, smeerps. What are you, some kind of crazy? Who calls them rabbits?"

TheWizard

Points taken. @Heromaster, I more meant that the opportunity to name would be universal and (hopefully) understandable. For example, if you got naming rights over a piece of equipment, like a Sword, it would probably be part of a competition or reward for doing something Fantastic in the game. In the contest scenario, we'd make sure that the name fits the fiction. E.g., we wouldn't accept a name like "Tim," though that does have a nice ring to it.

And for enemies, it would be EVERY rabbit would be called a smeerp, to Kjel's point. We wouldn't randomly name ONE rabbit "smeerp." You know, unless it was a Grand Powerful Rabbit of Unknown Power. In which case, I suppose "Smeerp" would be that one Boss Rabbit's given name...

Xeru

On the rabbit thing, can we name NPC animals/Make our own variations? *Is off to make a board*

Also, on the 'one rabbit named smeerp' thing, what if that rabbit is an NPC?

Like, he's the Mufasa of the Rabbits? Specialty quests from NPC animals anyone?

"You're next quest must be obtained from Gurglemeister, the Prince of the Skunks."

TheWizard

oh yes, we will no doubt do that for Quest bosses and such...

Xeru

I have no doubt about.

i have an idea. Can we have one special NPC boss in the game known as the Wikipededia boss? Why do I call him or her this? Simple really! When a player kills him, they get to change his name (with mods approving to prevent the obvious obscene names)

make him difficult enough so it's hard to do and bam, trolley boss people grind to beat

Darggie

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

Xeru said:

I have no doubt about.

i have an idea. Can we have one special NPC boss in the game known as the Wikipededia boss? Why do I call him or her this? Simple really! When a player kills him, they get to change his name (with mods approving to prevent the obvious obscene names)

make him difficult enough so it's hard to do and bam, trolley boss people grind to beat

I feel a more appropriate tittle for that boss would be changling. 

TheWizard

Love that idea (and the changling name, Darggie). It fits well with our idea about Unique items. But this one would be a beat for naming rights-- i sense an event in this...!

Xeru

Other Ideas in this area (Cause my brain is awesome!)

1. If player made/owned Houses are introduced, what if we have one where it's a constantly changing House and constantly changing House Ruler, but it will have an NPC House Emperor. It will be like the Feudal Japan of Houses so to speak, everyone that defeats the House Ruler will do it in the name of the Emperor to restore the Emperor under the new House of ______

2. More simplistically, A City that has it's name changed based on the Top House's vote and this 'city' becomes the ruling city of bragging rights for that House. Where the Top House is determined by an event, most quests, best amount of members, etc

3. NPC Friendly of name I have not thought of yet offers a quest for you to give it you're most powerful piece of armor and your most powerful weapon. If you do, you get to name him, the zone he's in, and he gives you a new piece of armor and weapon of the same type that can become potentially stronger, though it takes a long ass time. But you get to name that also. Trick though? He won't tell you this, he'll only say "Gimme yo loot." Minimum power level requirements will be placed to ensure noobs won't spam him for power weapons. It also won't be a quest marker, just an aggressive conversation bubble

4. Mod Based Quest to write a story. Basically, players submit stories, mods read them, winners gets their story added to Paragons lore and badass lewts.

5. A CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED! This random quest is simple. An enemy known as the Random challenger will randomly fight players, even if they are not in areas where random battles occur(programming wise that means random battles are everywhere for him I believe) but only at like a 1% chance or less. Anyone who defeats the random challenger gets to name him, so each time someone fights him, he is named something completely different and yet, he is just a normal enemy, who is literally a random challenger.

TheWizard

#2 there is something we're fiddling with, @Xeru. As I think I've mentioned (and I will expound upon), the design for the narrative is a constantly changing, player-affected one, and that includes effects on the cities, politics and Quests (and such). 

And #4 is something we can figure out-- as you know, I'm a fan of player-created things and Quests are something we can weave in easily...

Kingkobbler

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

Naming the gear in my DnD campaigns is my favorite thing lol

TheWizard

Well, you will definitely be able to name your guy, your ability sets and your gear loadouts. I gotta think about the equipment ITSELF though. We're planning events to name stuff officially, but you mean naming your own Common Sword if you like, right, @Kingkobbler?

Darggie

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

TheWizard said:

Well, you will definitely be able to name your guy, your ability sets and your gear loadouts. I gotta think about the equipment ITSELF though. We're planning events to name stuff officially, but you mean naming your own Common Sword if you like, right, @Kingkobbler?

Maybe there could be a little give and take with this. 

I assume, (maybe incorrectly) that were will be "qualities"  Maybe you can Nickname gear of lower/mid qualities. The kinds of gear you'd find in any run of mill blacksmith. But those unique or legendary pieces of gear will already have their own name. That's part of why they are legendary. 

You may have the most powerful amazing sword in existance, but if no one has heard of it. There are clearly no legends about it, so how could it be legendary? If however, there are legends about it, people can tell what weapon you wield just be looking at it. It clearly already has a storied and well told name across the name. Such an piece of equipment would be unable to named.



You can wave your Excalibur around proclaiming, "This is Tigerfang!" Everyone will laugh at you proclaiming, "You goof, don't you know what your holding? That's Excalibur!"

That seems like something that would be a fair trade-off to me. Allowing people to name pieces of gear, but also limiting it from lored pieces of gear in a reasonable and explainable way. Otherwise people will of course want to name their equipment.

As a Dungeons and Dragons player myself @Kingkobbler I understand how enjoyable it is to run a few adventures with a weapon, perform amazing feats, and decide that your weapon deserves the name "Wyrmbane", because of the amazing critical attack you rolled to save the party from the dragon one turn before breath weapon. 

But at the same time, you may encounter an artifact that has already had a story, and thus already earned it's name.

Just my opinion from a Gamer, D&D player/Dungeon Master. 

^.^
 

Kingkobbler

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

I was referring to what I would want to name, if we had the opportunity to name something in the game.  As you said, being able to name loadouts, and skill sets is awesome !, as far as just being a player and being able to name an item, being able to name a piece of gear you craft would be awesome

Tyrael

Gear (weapons, armor, equipment)

give a name to your weapon its like you give life to a child
so u vote for Gear ofc