Faction Icon Denied!
Comments
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GMs are customer service reps that probably don't have ready access to the code. They probably are the same folks that post the gameplay rules and guides (e.g., knowledgebase).
Devs are people that write the code and are off in China somewhere. They probably don't interact directly with the GMs.
Faction Icons are not an original part of the game, they were introduced with the latest expansion for Raging Tides. Allowing level-3 factions to get customized icons was probably always on the horizon for Raging Tides, but the people that write the code change summaries always have some facts omitted. That's just the nature of a big software project... little projects where the same people that write the code are also the customer service reps generally have less of an issue with this but it's still an issue (at least it was in a game I played before here where the GMs and devs were all on the same private forums and all had access to the code).
It's possible that the devs implemented some kind of a hash-function that is generated from the faction name to be able to quickly index a bitmap (having a name-lookup on a bitmap is slow while a numeric hash is fast). The hash may not work with certain ASCII characters (digits, tildes, stars, etc.) so any faction name containing these chars is simply not processed. Changing this is not trivial without breaking the existing hash function's map to icons that have already been implemented and associated with a faction name. This little detail (what is and is not allowable by the hash function) probably never made it into any summary of game features given to the GMs. What they likely got was (needs to be a 16x16 BMP) since that's what was initially told to people. After some failures, the documentation was refined (needs to be a 24-bit 16x16 BMP). After some more frustrations, the documentation was refined again (needs to be a 24-bit 16x16 BMP, if you want transparency, then add an Alpha Channel and save as 32-bit vs 24-bit).
As a professional software developer, I feel for the GMs that must put up with ignorant and irate players that have no clue how hard or easy something is to fix or who blame the GMs because the devs didn't provide all the necessary information to post in the rules and guides. At the same time, once the information is known, it's not too hard to update the Knowledge Base, so hopefully that will be assigned to someone as an action.
So give the GMs a break... faction names were allowed long before the new rule was made up by the devs (and probably considered too far down in the noise to pass along to the GMs as "important for players to know"). It'd be nice if those creating factions from this point forward though were told in the Knowledge Base what the naming rules are (e.g., A-Z, underscore, and ampersand are allowable; just an example as I don't know the rule).0 -
Hunter_PT - Heavens Tear wrote: »The problem is a silly name b:chuckle. They will explain why in the email the leader would of got back.
What is so silly about it I have seen sillier names?Looking for a decent casual understanding Faction.0 -
MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »What is so silly about it I have seen sillier names?
Since when is wind dark b:chuckle? Did the leader get the reason why in his email, when i submitted my faction's icon i got an email saying it had been accepted and added to the que?Executor Of Reunited ~ Level 3 ~ Level 85+ ~ No Drama, No Pressure Faction.
Hunter_PT - Cleric 9X, (Active/Main)
PoisonedTip - Veno 7x (Retired)
Skeln - Barbarian 4X (Rarely-Active)
Hunter_The - BM 1X (Rarely-Active)0 -
Stop with trying start b:angry war and it is DARKWIND.She got no explanation as to why just it was unacceptable.I will say this though the name is cooler than yours.Hunter_PT - Heavens Tear wrote: »Since when is wind dark b:chuckle? Did the leader get the reason why in his email, when i submitted my faction's icon i got an email saying it had been accepted and added to the que?Looking for a decent casual understanding Faction.0 -
MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »Stop with trying start b:angry war and it is DARKWIND.She got no explanation as to why just it was unacceptable.I will say this though the name is cooler than yours.
Lmao so they just said no? I don't think so. And sure it is, my new faction is going to be darkleaf or darkpetal or darkrain or darksun or lmao i give up b:victoryb:chuckle.Executor Of Reunited ~ Level 3 ~ Level 85+ ~ No Drama, No Pressure Faction.
Hunter_PT - Cleric 9X, (Active/Main)
PoisonedTip - Veno 7x (Retired)
Skeln - Barbarian 4X (Rarely-Active)
Hunter_The - BM 1X (Rarely-Active)0 -
So if I made a faction called monkeyass and I wanted the faction icon of a red butt it would be turned down
no fun at all QQ. pwcalc.ru/pwi/?char=d5665672759051ef
^ my barbs built, full buff in tiger.b:bye
I'm not going to troll anymore T_T0 -
Hunter_PT - Heavens Tear wrote: »Lmao so they just said no? I don't think so. And sure it is, my new faction is going to be darkleaf or darkpetal or darkrain or darksun or lmao i give up b:victoryb:chuckle.
Do you have a problem with names that start with Dark! b:angry0 -
I'm in R3N3G4D3S on Sanctuary and, even though we owned land, we had the same problem.
We weren't allowed to have an icon, which is very lame. 0 -
Darksylph - Heavens Tear wrote: »Do you have a problem with names that start with Dark! b:angry
Not really just wind that is somehow dark amused me b:chuckle.MistaBwanden - Sanctuary wrote: »I'm in R3N3G4D3S on Sanctuary and, even though we owned land, we had the same problem.
We weren't allowed to have an icon, which is very lame.
Any logo at all?Executor Of Reunited ~ Level 3 ~ Level 85+ ~ No Drama, No Pressure Faction.
Hunter_PT - Cleric 9X, (Active/Main)
PoisonedTip - Veno 7x (Retired)
Skeln - Barbarian 4X (Rarely-Active)
Hunter_The - BM 1X (Rarely-Active)0 -
Thelas_Carr - Sanctuary wrote: »GMs are customer service reps that probably don't have ready access to the code. They probably are the same folks that post the gameplay rules and guides (e.g., knowledgebase).
Devs are people that write the code and are off in China somewhere. They probably don't interact directly with the GMs.
Faction Icons are not an original part of the game, they were introduced with the latest expansion for Raging Tides. Allowing level-3 factions to get customized icons was probably always on the horizon for Raging Tides, but the people that write the code change summaries always have some facts omitted. That's just the nature of a big software project... little projects where the same people that write the code are also the customer service reps generally have less of an issue with this but it's still an issue (at least it was in a game I played before here where the GMs and devs were all on the same private forums and all had access to the code).
It's possible that the devs implemented some kind of a hash-function that is generated from the faction name to be able to quickly index a bitmap (having a name-lookup on a bitmap is slow while a numeric hash is fast). The hash may not work with certain ASCII characters (digits, tildes, stars, etc.) so any faction name containing these chars is simply not processed. Changing this is not trivial without breaking the existing hash function's map to icons that have already been implemented and associated with a faction name. This little detail (what is and is not allowable by the hash function) probably never made it into any summary of game features given to the GMs. What they likely got was (needs to be a 16x16 BMP) since that's what was initially told to people. After some failures, the documentation was refined (needs to be a 24-bit 16x16 BMP). After some more frustrations, the documentation was refined again (needs to be a 24-bit 16x16 BMP, if you want transparency, then add an Alpha Channel and save as 32-bit vs 24-bit).
As a professional software developer, I feel for the GMs that must put up with ignorant and irate players that have no clue how hard or easy something is to fix or who blame the GMs because the devs didn't provide all the necessary information to post in the rules and guides. At the same time, once the information is known, it's not too hard to update the Knowledge Base, so hopefully that will be assigned to someone as an action.
So give the GMs a break... faction names were allowed long before the new rule was made up by the devs (and probably considered too far down in the noise to pass along to the GMs as "important for players to know"). It'd be nice if those creating factions from this point forward though were told in the Knowledge Base what the naming rules are (e.g., A-Z, underscore, and ampersand are allowable; just an example as I don't know the rule).
Guild icons have been in the game since pwi was released. Older versions have had guild icons for ages. The only thing tideborn brought was the GMs making guild icon changes public. They were always able to be changed it's just the GMs never provided a way to do so.
Moving on, I think having numbers or special characters in the guild name doesn't effect the code at all. There is no defect in the software believe it or not (rare, i know). Older versions have chinese symbols, numbers, stars and any unicode character you can imagine. Originally pwi had a filter on character creation and guild name creation. This was due to the fact they wanted their game to not look like other versions and not be cluttered by symbols. This also created problems contacting someone without directly clicking their name. The only approved characters in this version are: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz. No numbers, no symbols, simply letters. Somewhere along the line pw made a mistake; names started having spaces and backslashes, guild names had special characters. As far as I know this was never intended. I remember a while ago I had a guild with chinese characters and eventually I was given an email to delete the guild or be banned. I think the amount of forbidden guilds became overwhelming before they fixed the filter (is it fixed? i haven't created a guild in a while) and instead of wasting valuable money paying someone to track down and resolve these issues they simply are in a way deprecating forbidden guild names by not providing guild icons.0 -
I've only ever played PWI, never Malaysian versions and I assure you there were no faction icons at all of any sort (see the pic below from 29-Oct-2009 which only shows squad icons).Devoted - Lost City wrote: »Guild icons have been in the game since pwi was released. Older versions have had guild icons for ages. The only thing tideborn brought was the GMs making guild icon changes public. They were always able to be changed it's just the GMs never provided a way to do so.
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Thelas_Carr - Sanctuary wrote: »I've only ever played PWI, never Malaysian versions and I assure you there were no faction icons at all of any sort (see the pic below from 29-Oct-2009 which only shows squad icons).
Ah, that would be the case of ALT+h which removes the faction icon.
Here's a picture of the first guild ever created in pwi:
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Hunter_PT - Heavens Tear wrote: »Lmao so they just said no? I don't think so. And sure it is, my new faction is going to be darkleaf or darkpetal or darkrain or darksun or lmao i give up b:victoryb:chuckle.
Why are you quoting me so much and what is the problem with this and what is wrong with the name of the faction I am in name.It isn't on your server so why did you go through all this nonsense a more mature person would of just ignored it.Looking for a decent casual understanding Faction.0 -
Where can I find icons to submit? And then where do I submit them?For those times when *facepalm* and *headdesk* just aren't enough, I present...*brickhead*...painful, effective, and guaranteed to make you forget why you hit yourself in the first place.
R.I.P.:
SkyLight (faction)
Andracil (teh BEST MOD EVER!)0 -
SinCityChick - Dreamweaver wrote: »Where can I find icons to submit? And then where do I submit them?
I got my answers from here b:chuckle.MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »Why are you quoting me so much and what is the problem with this and what is wrong with the name of the faction I am in name.It isn't on your server so why did you go through all this nonsense a more mature person would of just ignored it.
Only thing im going to say is get over yourself hun, i was merely having a joke at first but you took it the wrong way and got all serious so i merely carried on my happy mood regardless of you taking it as an insult.Executor Of Reunited ~ Level 3 ~ Level 85+ ~ No Drama, No Pressure Faction.
Hunter_PT - Cleric 9X, (Active/Main)
PoisonedTip - Veno 7x (Retired)
Skeln - Barbarian 4X (Rarely-Active)
Hunter_The - BM 1X (Rarely-Active)0 -
Thanks Hunter ^^For those times when *facepalm* and *headdesk* just aren't enough, I present...*brickhead*...painful, effective, and guaranteed to make you forget why you hit yourself in the first place.
R.I.P.:
SkyLight (faction)
Andracil (teh BEST MOD EVER!)0 -
Binary isn't magic. Don't assume it is.
Also, don't assume everything interfaces with everything fluidly.Bladestorm lets you spin around like a carnival ride and do damage. Not using it is almost like having a move called Confetti Rocket Power Leap and saving it for "emergencies"
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Nakhimov the Kingslayer of Kil'Jaeden's <Criminal Scum>
wowprogress.com/guild/us/kil-jaeden/Criminal+Scum0 -
i just saw a faction Misfit5 - yes its a 5 instead of S they got a logo - so i dont see why others cant have? o.O"Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"
"PWI-forums, when trolling your own forum aint enough" ~ iluc ~
"dev A: oh hey guys we got a rubberbanding issue
dev B: psh what ever look how many $100's we got today
dev C: oh hey somebody can't buy item in botique from some glitch
dev B: OMG NO MORE MONEY I'LL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY"
quote from: Kairu_ - Sanctuary0 -
I didn't start this you did so why don't you get over yourself and stop insulting my Faction.flamer.Hunter_PT - Heavens Tear wrote: »
Only thing im going to say is get over yourself hun, i was merely having a joke at first but you took it the wrong way and got all serious so i merely carried on my happy mood regardless of you taking it as an insult.Looking for a decent casual understanding Faction.0 -
Hunter_PT - Heavens Tear wrote: »Not really just wind that is somehow dark amused me b:chuckle.
Any logo at all?
No logo at all.
They pretty much told us to delete the faction and make a new one if we want a logo/icon.0 -
When I made the icon for my faction (I'm not the leader, but I had the privilege of making it for them b:cute ) he submitted it through a ticket on a Sunday. It took roughly 2 weeks before the icon was uploaded to the server - it was the third maintenance since the submission.
For the longest while, I was really irritated at how we couldn't have transparencies in our icons. With the information the GM's and Mod's (or actually that automated response I received when submitting a ticket with more questions than they answered too), I was completely misinformed.
They do take in icons that are submitted in BMP format, but it was stated that was the ONLY format they accepted. So we had to settle for a box icon.
However, I randomly visited the Faction Supervisor NPC in-game and came across that he said I was to submit one in TGA. Man, I was so annoyed at that. I really could've used that bit of information before the icon was submitted. Well, the faction still likes the icon, and it's nice and whatnot - but I still would've liked to have gotten even more creative with transparencies in a TGA format... oi.
Other than that, I didn't have much problems with having the icon submitted and uploaded to the server. Though, the leader and I would've appreciated some kind of email confirmation that they've received the icon and will get around to uploading it. Once we submitted the ticket, we had no clue when or if it would get uploaded.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Who heals the healer?0 -
That's interesting that the in-game NPC says TGA when the Knowledge Base says BMP. By the way, I submitted a 32-bit BMP with an Alpha Channel and got transparency, so you don't have to settle for a box icon in BMP format--you just need to know how to add an alpha channel and set the mask.Zikai - Heavens Tear wrote: »For the longest while, I was really irritated at how we couldn't have transparencies in our icons. With the information the GM's and Mod's (or actually that automated response I received when submitting a ticket with more questions than they answered too), I was completely misinformed.
They do take in icons that are submitted in BMP format, but it was stated that was the ONLY format they accepted. So we had to settle for a box icon.
However, I randomly visited the Faction Supervisor NPC in-game and came across that he said I was to submit one in TGA. Man, I was so annoyed at that. I really could've used that bit of information before the icon was submitted. Well, the faction still likes the icon, and it's nice and whatnot - but I still would've liked to have gotten even more creative with transparencies in a TGA format... oi.
To be honest, I think if you submitted a TGA image it would get rejected and they'd tell you to submit it in BMP like the Knowledge Base says.0 -
As a software developer by profession I can easily understand the issues at hand here.
While yes the computer deals with 0s and 1s and it all translates down exactly, we aren't open to our own rules sometimes in programming. Very many things keep us from doing certain things in code that we'd like to do.
For instance, once upon a time in the Microsoft world spaces were not allowed in file names and even more than 1 period was disallowed.
(Yes, I know this game probably runs their servers on linux or some derivative and I do not have a lot of knowledge about those OS's which makes this even more valid to a point)
Anyway, when we, as developers, have ONE thing that resides outside of our control we are forced to ultimately disallow that item on every occasion.
Using the old Microsoft reference. Since spaces weren't allowed in file names, we had to disallow the space character for naming files. Along with a whole host of other characters as well. The asterisk, semi-colon, colon, question mark and on and on... Even specific file names were disallowed and even today are disallowed. con, lpt1 (or 2 or 3 or 4) and a few others.
So in code we basically check the value of each character entered... and if any character value = 32 (ascii value of a space or for the binary minds 00100000) we'd kick it back with an error. Same with the other disallowed codes.
Other versions of Microsoft's operating system came along and suddenly spaces were allowed and some other characters... But legacy code, that is code written for older systems, still disallow these items because of old rules that had to be followed.
Soooo, I'm guessing that somewhere in some piece of code for the game there is something that chokes when presented with certain characters. Numbers for instance might be handled by the code as control characters when validating things. 2 to the code might mean process 2 times or duplicate 2 times or whatever. MOST LIKELY NOT but I've seen it before. Therefore they have to disallow those codes (numbers) from the names before processing or they get undesired results. So they follow this rule anywhere that requires use of the code that disallows the numbers.
It doesn't always make sense but it happens and it isn't always outside of our control.
So, basically they follow their programming rules.. and we follow their policy rules. It's just how it is sometimes.
And for those fellow geeks out there. Yes I know you could/can actually create files with special characters and reserved names in them... but it's not easy and it wreaks havoc on just about anything that attempts to use them. I do know linux is more lax on this... but it's just an example.
Geek on![SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
i don't have the same issue as you did, but i did get a message from pwi customer service saying there was some technical issues with my char not being associated with my faction and to contact them again in 1 week. after contacting a gm in game, she verified that i am indeed leader and associated with my faction. b:laugh yay, 2 more weeks of waiting.0
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frankieraye wrote: »Sorry guys, numbers aren't allowed in character or faction names either, and there are currently no plans to change this.
EDIT: Sorry, misspoke, factions names can have numbers, but the general policy for faction icons is that anything that doesn't get past the character name filter will not be implemented as an icon either.
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=1407392&postcount=2
I would think that question 9 from this post then would need to be updated as it states by a mod that numbers ARE allowed in names.
What characters are allowed in a name?
-Currently, only uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, underscores ( _ ) and slashes ( / and \ ) are allowed.
Live to win, 'till you die, 'till the light dies in your eyes
Live to win, take it all, just keep fighting till you fall
Obsessive, compulsive, suffocate your mind0 -
MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »The faction I am in is experiencing the something as it get submitted and is denied and we only have letters.What would be the problem with this as the faction name is DARKWIND.
I've seen that faction name running around and it's DARK~WIND. Don't remember exactly where the ~ is positioned in the faction name but it's in there somewhere, which is probably why you guys are having problems.
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vfrankieraye wrote: »[...] the general policy for faction icons is that anything that doesn't get past the character name filter will not be implemented as an icon either.0 -
MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »I didn't start this you did so why don't you get over yourself and stop insulting my Faction.flamer.
Yeah, sure....MistaBwanden - Sanctuary wrote: »No logo at all.
They pretty much told us to delete the faction and make a new one if we want a logo/icon.
That sucks like really sucks b:surrender. So you have to go an splash out on 12.1m to get a faction logo now...Executor Of Reunited ~ Level 3 ~ Level 85+ ~ No Drama, No Pressure Faction.
Hunter_PT - Cleric 9X, (Active/Main)
PoisonedTip - Veno 7x (Retired)
Skeln - Barbarian 4X (Rarely-Active)
Hunter_The - BM 1X (Rarely-Active)0 -
Zikai - Heavens Tear wrote: »When I made the icon for my faction (I'm not the leader, but I had the privilege of making it for them b:cute ) he submitted it through a ticket on a Sunday. It took roughly 2 weeks before the icon was uploaded to the server - it was the third maintenance since the submission.
For the longest while, I was really irritated at how we couldn't have transparencies in our icons. With the information the GM's and Mod's (or actually that automated response I received when submitting a ticket with more questions than they answered too), I was completely misinformed.
They do take in icons that are submitted in BMP format, but it was stated that was the ONLY format they accepted. So we had to settle for a box icon.
However, I randomly visited the Faction Supervisor NPC in-game and came across that he said I was to submit one in TGA. Man, I was so annoyed at that. I really could've used that bit of information before the icon was submitted. Well, the faction still likes the icon, and it's nice and whatnot - but I still would've liked to have gotten even more creative with transparencies in a TGA format... oi.
Other than that, I didn't have much problems with having the icon submitted and uploaded to the server. Though, the leader and I would've appreciated some kind of email confirmation that they've received the icon and will get around to uploading it. Once we submitted the ticket, we had no clue when or if it would get uploaded.
You can make guild icons transparent in bmp format.0 -
Hunter_PT - Heavens Tear wrote: »Yeah, sure....
That sucks like really sucks b:surrender. So you have to go an splash out on 12.1m to get a faction logo now...
You did to so don't say yeah sure.
We don't have it Dark~Wind it is straight DARKWINDLooking for a decent casual understanding Faction.0
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