I think there's been plenty of feedback on these players who either have no names (due to asian character names) or short-letter names (taking advantage of this being allowed). It clearly is a combat advantage, especially when they are tanks, but also a slight advantage in the air.

If this advantage continues without a game correction, many of us will simply use these names, and the social aspect of the game will deteriorate. I suppose you can debate that point, but IMO people will be less passionate to play the game if you don't know who you're fighting. I sure am tempted to pick up a "dot" name, but currently, I'm still holding out for a fix. However, it's incredibly frustrating to get my butt kicked by swarming nonames, knowing that I might tip some advantage my way if I were just as stealthy.

Maybe this is just a problem with me being red-green colorblind, but a reasonable percentage of this audience has the same or similar problem, and game makers often consider that dynamic when creating UI's.

My proposal is to force any name, however short or kanji-charactered, to display X's left and right of the name to fill out a three (or even four) character total on the flight viewing screen (score display can be left as is), plus any spaces anywhere would be substituted with either "X" or "_". A single character kanji name would become "XXxX" onscreen, the single letter name "M" would become "XXMX", the single punctuation "." would become "XX.X", ". ." would become ".XXXX.", and "Man fred" would become "ManXXXfred".

This would minimize name advantages, and discourage people from gaming the names. It would restore the social aspect of the game- at least for english character names, with people no longer encouraged to name themselves something unrecognizable just to gain an advantage.

If we can't incorporate something like this or something that meets this goal, the following things may happen for me, and I suspect others too:.
1) I might change my name to a short or kanjia name to level the playing field and leave it to raw skills.
2) My interest in the game will diminish, with more and more players doing the same thing.

That would be a sad turn of events.

Manfred

Hang in there Manfred! I think once this dang Appel update comes thru things will get better.

I dont like this idea. I have a space in my name, but its way over to the right where it really wouldnt matter. My name is [e]Terminator X . I dont want it to be [e]TerminatorXXXX. That would be kind of retarded. But maybe if it was a single underscore ( _ ) that woupd be alright. But good idea though. Shortnames and no names are very annoying. Possible, z could make it to where only letters numbers dashes and underscores are allowed. No japanese symbolizing, no dots, and it would have to be at least 4 letter names a.d, for the people that have those names, z can send an email to them stating that if they dont change their name, they could be banned for so and so amount of time.

Lol my new name is ths -_-

Yes, exactly why I mentioned underscore, although the examples I used were all X.

I probably understated the advantge of short/no-names in the air. When someone is spawnkilling my base (either ethically as part of real strategy, or just obnoxious kill-mongering), sometimes as I takeoff (always into a hard turn near a building if enemy is upon us), I often take a quick peek behind or to the side with a flick of the screen to get a feel of the danger. Under this scenario, short/no-names will be much harder to see.

Manfred

I agree, but foriegn symbols should still be allowed, simplY dislplayed as "xxx" or something like manfred suggested.

Manfred, there's a way to view detailed information on players with the mod-commands. Look back at one of my PM's to you, you'll see a list and you'll know which one it is.

I've used it on several "Aces" who change their names. It's interesting I suppose.

Yeah, except that my mod commands don't work! They get accepted (don't print out), but nothing happens!
Manfred

hmm.... email z!

Yup, did that.
M

well, i hope u get ur controls back! we need lots of mods to control idiots, lol

Agreed! There is some really bad language of late.

definitely.

Agree with Manfred and some minimal number of characters or numbers like 4 or greater. Names are part of the fun and rivalry in the game though certainly an advantage/disadvantage - though as I thought about this, it would be cool to have an anonymous option to just fly as "Friend" or "Enemy" - imagine the sense of danger not knowing who was lurking. I do find that with long names, long squad names, fireballs, and smoke in the air - it is hard to tell what is happening, even on an ipad. I certainly would also keep an upper limit on plane and squad names too.

to the guys trying to hide with these names should be glowing until they change there name to something that I say should be no les than 3 normal size letters or numbers.

Agree totally, although I'm mostly with B that it should be something horrible like turning your plane/tank neon yellow.

I LOVE THAT!! THAT SHOULD BE A MOD COMMAND, IF SOMEONE IS TEAMKILLING, SWEARING, ETC, THEY GET THEIR SIZE DOUBLED, AND THEY'RE BRIGHT YELLOW!!! I LOVE IT!!

Heack no size doubled i do not like and them geting changed a diffrent color. We should make them where there name is red to there team and to the enemy and be worth 200 points to kill them. That results in every one killing them and they will hate it and leave. Also maby there guns should be turned off. Also it should take 3 or 2 team kills befor it happens so that we there is room for accidents. Who is going to accidentally team kill twice or 3 times.

how about both??

i've been banned for accidents before. i think 4. it seems to vary, cuz ive seen people teamkill like 5 times and stay, and ive seen two get people banned.

dam I hate these no names or short ifs getting crazy. We have #, ##, ###, ',. Give us a break and fly ur colors like men.

exactly. a name thats DESIGNED to keep you alive is just another way of saying "Im a wimp and a noob! I think that this is going to save me, but it's just going to make all the good players see me as a more interesting target!" lol, i go out of my way to shoot the guys. theres a couple that dont suck too much, but they still cant play like an ace no matter what their rank is. that guy "x" that's invisable? he sucks. he uses the fokker e3, (which i use ONLY because i dont have money to upgrade my new plane yet), he goes all out evasive, won't fight head on... yeah. i single him out more than anyone but you, wat up, mbizzi, sky, and dawsonn. (no offense to anyone else, the 31s are a target for obvious reasons, and sky and dawsonn are just fun to *try* to hit)

Whoa, B that's an incredible idea. What if not only they were glowing/had some sort of "attention" getter over their nametag -- but EVERYONE could shoot them and everyone would gain points. Like they'd be their own awful team, hahahah!

Give that man a medal, he's onto something.

what if anyone with an undisplayable name glowed, doubled in size, and theyre name changed to "\\\\////" and their squad was"SHOOT ME"? I like it!

Well said B - make a name for yourself that you can be proud of. I played against a very high ranking player last night whose callsign was "O o" I almost asked him what great player he used to be before he changed to a cowards name, but figured I didn't need to help start any more fights around here. Fortunately I can still see them just fine on an iPad, so it doesn't hinder me from shooting them down.

No names help me fine hone my skill and I thank them for that! At the same time u guys have a couple of brilliant ideas I would love to see implemented. Thanks. Sgt. Rock

Yeah, i saw him too. I figured out who it was, but i forget. I remember he was on like my top ten feared aces tho, and it takes a ot to scare me.

hounstly i don't see how the name helps them do better or hide because i can see the planes so easily also there is a big rank above there head.

It makes it harder to snipe them at long distance, and if theres two, or brian, wat up, or mbizzi are there, you cant tell who to shoot at. Its harder to snipe cuz theres moe room for error when using the rank to aim instead of the name.

Skydavis1 wrote: hounstly i don't see how the name helps them do better or hide because i can see the planes so easily also there is a big rank above there head.

Try looking at crossed swords in that new bright ass sun with no name very hard to c.

Lol thats true, but cmon man, you can do it! Your a 31, your supposed to be our best!