Those of you who know what a cvar is, good. (You can skip to the next paragraph.) This will be much quicker for you. Those of you who don't, listen up. A cvar is a variable that can be assigned a numerical value that affects its actions in the game. Any variable you use with the command set, such as fov or doKeyRamp, is a cvar.

I am proposing that players be allowed to create their own variables (or cvars as the case may be) for use within the game. One possible use for this would be to define a variable for the name of your ship, like so:

/set shipName "Amaterasu"

After that, in theory, if you were to type %shipName% in a message or bind, "Amaterasu" (no quotes) would appear instead, much like how %target% messages your target and not some person named %target%. *glares at Aon*

alias testMsg "msg %target% This is the %shipName%, responding to your hail."

If this worked, the other person would see on their screen

*YourNameHere*: This is the Amaterasu, responding to your hail.

One could also make a prompt to change the variable:

alias changeName "echo 'Enter new ship name in the space provided.'; prompt 'set shipName'"

Again, Discuss.

yeah, I'd like this.

I'd really like this, but I'm going to point out that %variable% only gets expanded in certain places. For example, the command /msg %target% "Hello, %target%!" would send the literal messaage "Hello, %target%!" to whoever you have targeted; it does not replace the %target% in the message with the name of your target. But I would like it if %variable% was always expanded, regardless of where it was.

I was aware of that, beolach, but the idea was that it would be implented such that it would work as described.

I figured you knew it, but you didn't mention it, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people who read this weren't aware of it.

/me glares at Aon and wonders what it will take to delete said character?

Perhaps % should be added to the list of not allowed symbols in character names.

I like the idea of being able to set differetn variables for certain things like ship names, possible other call signs like trader, miner, combat pilot, but I'm no programmer and this sounds like something better left to them. But, I will say that allowing the user to add a bit more of him or her self to the game through naming things and being able to share there persona through bios and other such descriptions is a good idea and worth investing dev time in.

sarahanne: I happened to be on at the time someone found out hailing with no target was generating the error, so I created the character before someone with worse intentions could.
I mentioned to a1k0n that I have it, and suggested that things like that should be removed from the allowable player names, I have no problem deleting it, I don't intend to even log on with the character.

for the record, what characters _aren't_ allowed in character names?

Regarding %target% :
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/2/9962

(Btw, so it's Aon who made that char! I was wondering who it was, very funny hehe.)

I especially like this because your example used a ship's name, but whatever we use 'em for, I totally agree with Celkan and like the idea.

I like the ability to rename a ship, but I think that the name should remain with whatever ship you're in at the time. Some people like to name different ships different things for role playing purposes. So you get "Titanic" for your Behemoths, but "Bismarck" for your Ragnarok, and "Thresher" for your Centurion, or something.