SleepyDragon Report post Posted January 29, 2007 Not sure if this is the right place to put this so apologies if it's not but I am having problems whenever the Freya bot in Iddy is offline. Due to auto name completion in pms whenever Freya is offline I am recieving constant pms from people asking for my inv or telling me I am wanted. While this is nice sometimes on the whole it is becoming a complete pain. This weekend she has been offline all weekend and still is today. Is there a way to stop this happening? Other than changing my name before some smartie pants suggests that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Infamous Report post Posted January 29, 2007 (edited) Not sure if this is the right place to put this so apologies if it's not but I am having problems whenever the Freya bot in Iddy is offline. Due to auto name completion in pms whenever Freya is offline I am recieving constant pms from people asking for my inv or telling me I am wanted. While this is nice sometimes on the whole it is becoming a complete pain. This weekend she has been offline all weekend and still is today. Is there a way to stop this happening? Other than changing my name before some smartie pants suggests that. change the bots name x,x Edited January 29, 2007 by Hardcore Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LadyReni Report post Posted January 29, 2007 bot might have been here before FreyaB started playing, dunno Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LabRat Report post Posted January 29, 2007 (edited) change the bots name x,x And the bot's customer base gets lost? Hardly fair. People take other player's names all the time and add a letter or number. That is allowed and it is down to the player to deal with the consequences. Ever stop to think how many PMs for freyababe freya actually receives? If changing your name isn't an option, why should the bot? Edit: if you get inv, wanted, loc just ignore the PM. After a few times your brain will learn to filter it before you even see it \o/ for the human mind Edited January 29, 2007 by LabRat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aislinn Report post Posted January 29, 2007 bot might have been here before FreyaB started playing, dunno It was But that isn't the point. Labrat is right, there is nothing that can be done unless there is a change in the way the server searches for names, which I don't see happening. People have similar names, it's been that way forever. You can't say that YOU are the only one entitled to the name Freya or a variation and nobody else is. This will always happen and you will have to learn to accept it or change your name...but even if you change your name, you can't guarantee that you pick something nobody else will ever like as well and make a variation of... It happens to all all of us at some point or another. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SleepyDragon Report post Posted January 29, 2007 I would like to thank you for your responses and would like to point out that I was not suggesting a name change for either the bot or myself or complaining about anyone having a similar name, merely enquiring as to whether there is any way to stop a missent pm. If not fine, I have been living with this since I started and will continue to do so. as I said it was merely an enquiry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DragonStorm Report post Posted January 29, 2007 First point aislinn, theres no need for a stroppy reply Second point, i understand what freya is saying, i typed her full name in local channel and the bot picked up the word freya and thought i was speaking to it but i was greeting freyababe i have noticed this with a few names myself and understand the issues, if something can be done then all well and good but if not then like freya said she will put up with it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aislinn Report post Posted January 29, 2007 First point aislinn, theres no need for a stroppy reply Erm? O.o This "issue" has come up a lot, as I pointed out, it happens to most of us. We all understand what she is talking about. I was only covering all bases that have been asked about and answered before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MagpieLee Report post Posted January 31, 2007 Freya was the first C2 merchant bot ever (a piece of EL-bot history right there). I really commend your patience Freyababe and politeness in the face of semi-constant spamming :/ I for one, will try to look if the bot is online before pming /freya inv Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
senkrad Report post Posted January 31, 2007 A couple of suggestions; if The bots looked for "their_name "(notice the space) when checking the public chat channels some crossover will be reduced. If there was a #online botname command; as the name contamination becomes more common it would be easier to confirm if a certain bot is online (having it available for everyone could lead to lots of server lag, I am guessing). All the bot names could be changed and in future require a more in role name, ie Lord_Legend & Lady_Legend are imo good names however Adarah imo is not a 'good' name and would suggest maybe something such as Adarah_Riven (hides in corner expecting flaming and banning from using Adarah (who I love dearly btw)) btw there are also names such as Trader, Speaker, busy . . . Or a Pronoun could be declared off limits to average players, such as Lord and Lady as above or maybe Duke and Duchess, this would give some name standarization of bots possibly providing many benifits like knowing you are talking to a bot in the marketing channel, no name overlapping, good roleplay value This being a game with a roleplaying element and the bots being regular impressions of the game environment (To quote Entropy "We have over 60 bots in the game, which is about 15% of the game population during the day, and about 30% during the night." to which I am adding they are likely interacting with the players) as well as being a growing game more and more overlaps in names will occur. What happens when we get 15 versions of Anna or worse someone uses Mike or John(worked in an office with 4 people named John). The rules orginally suggested name guidlines like no names such as 3H4e89, as bots play such a strong roll in the environment , I am saying have them adhere to a higher standard on naming. Eventually as EL grows it might be a good idea to require stronger names for everyone. Senkrad_Luna Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jamincollins Report post Posted February 1, 2007 if The bots looked for "their_name "(notice the space) when checking the public chat channels some crossover will be reduced. Freya for one, no longer monitors any public channel for her name. I found it annoying when I first put her on the server. Now that I have rewritten her code, I've removed that functionality. As for the other suggestions about naming. You have to keep in mind that all bots were created first as normal characters before becoming or being declared a bot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Puntif Report post Posted February 1, 2007 On a related note, I PMed poor SavannaJade when the bot Sava was offline. I'm afraid as the namespace gets fuller there will be more collisions . . . It might be helpful if there was a way to request that the server use the name as typed instead of trying to extend it to find a match. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
senkrad Report post Posted February 1, 2007 I applaud your choice to improve your bot. I do recognize that building a character to become a bot will likely be the norm, as I am doing atm, however it would be well within the power of the mods to allow a free name change at the time of conversion to a bot as well if it were made a requirement for already existing bots then offering said name changes free should provided long term gain for short term pain. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aislinn Report post Posted February 2, 2007 however it would be well within the power of the mods to allow a free name change at the time of conversion to a bot as well if it were made a requirement for already existing bots then offering said name changes free should provided long term gain for short term pain. Mods have neither the power to authorize name changes nor the power to actually do so. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LabRat Report post Posted February 2, 2007 I registered bots with specific names that matched their functionality - if someone wants to go name themselves agneum9 or titanta17 then to be honest, my reaction to their problem would be something along the lines of "well, you're a moron - go spend $5 and change your name" and you can guarantee I would personally repeatedly PM INV by mistake. Should I change my bot names because someone else wants to retrospectively call themselves by botname+some random number? I don't think so. If a player can't get another player's name changed due to namespace conflicts, why should a bot be forced to switch names? As for the "bot_botname" idea, how about bot_1 bot_2..bot_botn would that make things easier for you, in the same vein as the ants? Again, not something I would be willing to accept without some form of financial recompense. Are you willing to pay me personally $1000 so I will change my bot names to something more to your liking? I think not. At the moment if you ask which is the biggest bot ingame, the answer "Agneum" is widely known. What happens with your system? "Erm I think it is bot_472 or something like that" The same goes for "What is the bot in the silver mine? I can't remember if it is 742 472 774 506 wth is it? I keep PMing a guard bot that threatens to pull out my pancreas - and I don't even know what my pancreas is!!1!1" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
senkrad Report post Posted February 2, 2007 Wow people do get jumped on for the stragest of things. I appreciate it being pointed out that it would not be the mods that have the ability to change names per se, however it does exist within the game system and could be used if such changes were deemed benificial. I would find it hard to support any naming scheme of Bot_1, Bot_2 etc. Aside from the Ants, which iirc are a special case, from my understanding we are to spdcifically try to avoid such. A new player, not being aware of bots, might try using titanta find it used so, not being aware of the issue of expanding an already used name, chooses Titanta_Bloodclaws. They should not have to consider themselves a suitable target for spam just becuase of this naming conflict. When they join, there is no problem, the system gets updated so they update their client come back in and now people are sending the loads of messages, because a popular bot got taken offline for upgrading. FreyaBabe did not nessicarily even try a shorter name when she joined, but she inherited this problem all the same. From this discussion another option comes to mind, how about simply locking the name so they cannot be used as a base for other names. It would require new name to be checked for existing as the begining of any name, and that it is not the extension of any name existing. I am unsure of how complex that would be to implement, however likely a min number of characters might be needed to keep a large number of name available.(I think it might be 4 atm). This would only leave the few problems that exist. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LadyBea Report post Posted February 2, 2007 All the bot names could be changed and in future require a more in role name, ie Lord_Legend & Lady_Legend are imo good names however Adarah imo is not a 'good' name and would suggest maybe something such as Adarah_Riven (hides in corner expecting flaming and banning from using Adarah (who I love dearly btw)) btw there are also names such as Trader, Speaker, busy . . . The names Lord_Legend and Lady_Legend were chosen as they were reflecting who we are, and our guild name - Lords and Ladies of Legend. There is also another one - Lady_Legend2 - and when Lady_L has been offline and LL2 is on, then we also get the name confusion. If LL2 is ever turned into a bot, then a name change will have to occur as it is too close to the other one. Even now i'm not sure how having both online together works. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aislinn Report post Posted February 2, 2007 From this discussion another option comes to mind, how about simply locking the name so they cannot be used as a base for other names. I would never support this idea. People are very attached to names, it is an extention of their identity for a lot of people, myself included. It is not right that because somebody found this game an hour, a day, a week, a year before them, they are allowed sole rights to a given name and any creative variation of it. I see the problem happening for two reasons: 1. People tend to be lazy and not type the full name. 2. The server has been coded to send the message to the first available person/bot who fits what the person typed. If the exact name is not online, it will search to autocomplete a lengthier name. As I already stated, this issue has come up before, and it was deemed not a big enough problem to go to the efforts of recoding the entire setup. It isn't just pm's that have this problem, other commands fall into this category as well. Yes it can be annoying, sometimes it can be very funny, but definitely not worth making half of EL lose their name over. I will make note here that I do not do coding, so if anybody wants to take this up that does, it turns into a whole different story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ttlanhil Report post Posted February 2, 2007 I will make note here that I do not do coding, so if anybody wants to take this up that does, it turns into a whole different story.err, unlikely. since server code is not available, and name completion happens on the server. entropy and learner are the only ones that do this, and they have better things to spend their time on (on the other hand, something like `=name message` for an exact-name PM probably wouldn't be much coding... but still, people wouldn't use it enough to make it worth while) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jamincollins Report post Posted February 2, 2007 (on the other hand, something like `=name message` for an exact-name PM probably wouldn't be much coding... but still, people wouldn't use it enough to make it worth while) What about an opt out option? Where someone that gets a lot of completion messages can opt out of the auto completion matching? Something like the privacy option. That way the only way they would get messages is if their full name was typed. Just an idea. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LadyReni Report post Posted February 2, 2007 Since LLL's bots showed up people started PMing me with 'inv' .. so I disagree that these bots names are good/better (in comparison to other bots names). And I don't complain. Bots should have the names the owners chose/like. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ikaris Report post Posted February 3, 2007 somehow ... i'd be tempted to keep a VERY long notepad file that took about ten PM message lengthes to send to the offenders.... and do it any time some idiot short typed and spammed me... ... ten pm's from a live player that is being regularly spammed by some fool that doesn't want to type more than the first three characters of a bot's name ... fair game Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lotheneil Report post Posted February 3, 2007 In this situation it's not the problem of shorttyping, but the way server chooses message reciever. Freyababe will get messages meant for bot everytime the bot is offline, and nobody can do anything about that.... Sidenote: peeps, please use full name of Lotharion when you want to pm him, kk? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ttlanhil Report post Posted February 3, 2007 What about an opt out option?sounds good, but in practice it wouldn't turn out so well.what percentage of people type the full name when PMing someone? what percentage wouldn't even be able to remember the full name of some of the people they want to PM? an exact match only option would be useful a lot of the time... and a hassle other times Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kabuya Report post Posted February 3, 2007 What about windows (~ same buddy window) with "interactive" filter for name online player? You type 1st letter name,window show all name online begin the letter ; 2nd letter, show only name online begin 2 letter,etc... Its fast only show some name,and you choose the one you want. Maybe hard for program? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
