I don't like community names

[cbk1994]

Community names are probably the most annoying thing in Graal. Please change the system somehow. The script I'm working on right now has to keep track of a player's account and community name, then update the community name if it happens to change. It has to display the community name in about 10 different places, but also hide the account so when they make changes to those places, it knows what to change. It took at least a few hours adapting the system for community names.

They're completely pointless. I'd much rather have an account like 'chrisboy123', which is unlikely to be chosen, then have to deal with all the problems the community name system presents (and not just the ones presented to developers).

[Tigairius]

Well, it wouldn't be too bad if more RC commands actually worked with community name.

Also pretty irritating to right click someone and see their account name displayed as "0"

[Crono]

I agree, don't know what they were thinking when they made this move. I doubt they're going to listen, they never do no matter how right you/we are.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Tigairius

Also pretty irritating to right click someone and see their account name displayed as "0"

This is the most annoying "feature" of the community names so far.

[Crow]

I agree, once again.
It's really a pain to make sure everything runs fine with account and community names. What's even worse is that handy features are not documented anywhere. I didn't know anything about the "/global communityname" command until I think Chris mentioned it somewhere on the forums.

[Hiro]

i completely agree with everything said here

really it stems from a lack of information from CJ. i wish we weren't left out of every decision made by them when they affect us in some way

[DuBsTeRmAn]

Agreed..

[Umat]

Doesn't the accounts that has accountnames show the account name as communityname?

[Robin]

I don't understand Chris,

Why not just use community name? As long as you've got that you don't need the account name? Right?

[Skyld]

Originally Posted by Robin

I don't understand Chris,

Why not just use community name? As long as you've got that you don't need the account name? Right?

Generally speaking the community name is changeable. When you do not have a community name set yet, you are probably set to "GraalXXXXXX", but when the player picks a community name, that changes. The account name doesn't so it is a good way of reliably identifying the same player and so that the player does not lose their stats when setting their community name.

The problem is that the community name support is very lazy and they are not entirely supported by either the RC or client so occasionally the GraalXXXXXX account name leaks through. You can't do /openrights communityname because it is expecting an account name. Also it is habit for scripters to use player.account instead of player.communityname, for instance, with owner tags on scripts and such and that also causes confusion.

Whilst I understand the benefits of community names, they just complicate everything.

[Robin]

Would be easy if there was a lookupcommunityname(player.account) that would work regardless of whether the player was on-line or not.

[kia345]

Originally Posted by Robin

I don't understand Chris,

Why not just use community name? As long as you've got that you don't need the account name? Right?

Community-name isn't treated like an account name in every instance. I can't kick people from events or summon them based on their community-name (which is displayed), so I either have to ask for their Graal # and hope they play along, or go through the playerlist and find their name, where it does display the number. On top of that, they're a train wreck for guys with dyslexia.

Originally Posted by Robin

Would be easy if there was a lookupcommunityname(player.account) that would work regardless of whether the player was on-line or not.

A random series of numbers is way too annoying to cater to, I'd rather see it removed.

[Skyld]

Originally Posted by Robin

Would be easy if there was a lookupcommunityname(player.account) that would work regardless of whether the player was on-line or not.

Well if that were to work, then the player would have to be online already to find the account name out. If they are online, then you would use player.communityname or findplayerbycommunityname(), but there's no disputing that the account name was just easier and less confusing. Before community names, we were able to identify players by account names and nicknames. Now we have to identify players by account names, community names and nicknames. It's just not necessary.

If community names cannot act exactly like account names used to, then they should not be there.

Edit: Oh, and it's annoying that every guest player has community name "guest", sometimes communityname comes up with no value and that suddenly I now have to check for every chat command involving a player account whether or not it's actually a community name instead of an account that's been typed in.

[salesman]

Originally Posted by Robin

I don't understand Chris,

Why not just use community name? As long as you've got that you don't need the account name? Right?

I've had player.communityname return null sometimes, so in order to use it you have to check for a null value as well...it's quite a pain.

EDIT:
One thing that is REALLY annoying to me is when you type /open Graal###### in RC, it echoes salesman loaded the attributes of <communitynamehere>. THEN, when you set the attributes it echoes salesman set the attributes of player Graal######

I may have mixed up the order, but my point is that it is very inconsistant. Says the community name in one instance and graal account in the other.

[Angel_Light]

Originally Posted by Skyld

Whilst I understand the benefits of community names, they just complicate everything.

What are the benefits?