Name Ascended Weapons

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

@"Bollocks.4078" said:First, and for the record, I am not for or against this idea. I don't really see the benefit of doing this.That said, it seems to me it would be pretty easy to implement.

UI for setting name --> use or copy UI for setting ranger pet name.The UI for setting the name would be called up from a right-click menu item. We've seen various items added, such as the Use All on many stackable items.

Mmm, that probably isn't too hard.

UI for displaying name --> I'd expect the existing item display to be generic enough to handle showing a new attribute with minimal changes.

You mean, only on tooltips? Yeah, that'd likely be easy. ("likely", in the sense that, for example, sometimes design decisions make it way harder than it could be; Path of Exile can't display timers on their "offering" buffs, because they tied the timer display to the fixed expiration time of a buff, and it is a huge effort to rework the system to support it. So, technical decision makes it way harder than it should be.)

Adding an attribute to the item instance to hold a user defined name should be easy enough. I would hope they designed the game to be able to handle such things easily.

Maybe. Remember that GW2 deals with really, really huge volumes of data, and it was doing this on release in 2012, with software built earlier than that. Think about how much performance and especially memory and hdd/ssd storage have improved since 2010, and how that might change what was built.

So, arbitrarily expandable may or may not be a thing, and it is hard to know the exact cost of that. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that, for example, a bunch of this stuff was binary packed data shoved into roughly fixed size blob fields in a database though...

Why would network protocols need to be changed. Adding this wouldn't have any affect on the network protocol.

Once you set the name, you gotta tell the server about it. When you start the game, the server gotta tell the client about it. Also, if you want this visible to others (which I thought the OP did) you gotta start shipping that data about other players to every client in line of sight.

The only way this name might be visible to others is if it's visible when someone links their ascended item in chat.

That is definitely a simplifying assumption.

I'm not a game programmer but I do have plenty of experience with UI design and database schema design. Based on my experience I see nothing here that would be complicated. Obviously it depends on how things are programmed under the hood of GW2. Unless someone here has sufficient knowledge of GW2 programming we can only speculate.

It is true, we can only speculate, though we can do that on the basis of related experience. I mean, last time I saw some reasonably credible estimates they were sitting around 3.3 million active players. That is a large scale system, and running that in a way that performs well on 2010 to 2012 era hardware is definitely not a trivial undertaking, which likely adjusts how the efficiency vs flexibility trade-offs were made.

We do know, for example, that adding items to material storage is not just a simple matter of throwing a few item IDs into a table. Even after the decision making was done, it took a significant amount of time and testing before the last big burst of moving things in there. So, clearly, there are some aspects of their system that were engineered for performance over flexibility, hence my assumptions that this is likely true of other areas.

[Khisanth.2948]

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

• update the network protocol to support that extra information and operations

It should be noted that they haven't done this even for things that is already in the game. Items with selectable stats do not show the stat and infusions are also not shown. This is because they are not supported by the link format which is not the same as network protocol but definitely required for what the OP is asking.

[Meestercat.2748]

Remember what The Hound called people who name their swords... ?

[VanWilder.6923]

Yes please. Would love to able name your weapons/armors.

Alway want to name weapons/armors back to their real names:Bifrost -> StaffTwilight -> GreatswordTriumphant's Hero armor -> Heavy armor (depends on weight and piece like "Heavy Shoulder" etc)

[Ashen.2907]

@"Turkeyspit.3965" said:I can't see why anyone would want it, but I also can't see any reason why they couldn't implement it.

But let's be honest folks, it will be something like "weapon naming contract - 150 gems", only available for 10 more days!

I'm not opposed to ANET making money off the store - I'm happy to support them - but there are times I think they go a bit far :)

Oddly enough this is the sort of stuff I would prefer to see inn the store (if enough demand exists to offset the cost). Meaningless and no impact on gameplay or non buyers.

[Ulyssean.1709]

If we can name our chat tabs we can name our weapons.

[OrbitalButt.5708]

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:As long as it’s completely private and no one can see the name. I’m not interested in seeing what some kid names his Greatsword as I’m sure it will either be disgusting or an eye roll.

My sword is named after my father, Mufasa Goku

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Ulyssean.1709 said:If we can name our chat tabs we can name our weapons.

A handful of chat tabs per person, versus potential 6-12 weapons per character. It's not about whether ANet can, it's about whether it's a good use of their resources, given everything else we want from the UI.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@OrbitalButt.5708 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:As long as it’s completely private and no one can see the name. I’m not interested in seeing what some kid names his Greatsword as I’m sure it will either be disgusting or an eye roll.

My sword is named after my father, Mufasa Goku

Really? I call my sword daddy and my staff is mommy.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:Really? I call my sword daddy and my staff is mommy.

Your therapist must have a field day discussing your "daddy issues."

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:Really? I call my sword daddy and my staff is mommy.

Your therapist must have a field day discussing your "daddy issues."

Watch your manners or my mommy is going to beat you over the head.

[Edgy McEdgelord.4790]

I am incredibly disappointed that none of you made a slippery joke about staff names yet. This is going downhill by the minute.