Callsign
A callsign - or nick or username - is the name by which other players identify you both in and out of the game.
You can create a new callsign here. Names are limited to 12 characters and only letters, numbers, and underscores "_" are allowed. The first character must be a letter.
Primary Callsign
A primary callsign is what people think of as 'you'. All other callsigns that you may create are referred to as 'hiders' (see below).
Generally your primary callsign matches your forum account, and what you sign into chat programs with (if you ever do). It is the callsign displayed on the leaderboard, and if you join a squad it will be the callsign your @squad is attached to.
It is the callsign you should log in to organised events such as Zone Games with, as you are normally issued with a temporary tag (see below) to determine which team you are playing for.
Hiders
In addition to your primary callsign players are allowed two other callsigns (for a total of three). Once you log in from the same machine with a second callsign ASGS will 'link' the callsigns permanently. This means that both callsigns will share the same stats, rank, and other information.
WARNING - Linking Callsigns
You are only allowed three callsigns and attempting to log in with a fourth callsign will seem to work (Allegiance will launch with no error messages), however upon entering a game you will notice that your name is your primary callsign, not the fourth.
Twice a year everyone's callsign limit is reset, allowing you to link new callsigns to your primary callsign. You can change which callsign the system considers as your primary under the options in ASGS. Your old callsigns remain in the system and are still loosely linked to you in ways I don't understand.
What's the purpose of Hiders?
There are a variety of reasons. Some people like to play casually without getting bothered by other players because of who they are (for instance, admins). Some people like to goof off without their actions tarring the reputation of their main callsign. Some people want to create an 'alter-ego' and build up a new reputation under that nick. Other people have to create an alter-ego because they screwed up their main reputation so badly.
Reputation
One of the most under explained aspects of Allegiance is 'Reputation'. Because the Allegiance community is so small and because to become a skilled player requires a lot of hours, pretty much everyone in Allegiance knows everyone else.
Your reputation is built from your skills as a pilot, your ability to work with the team, the actions of your squadmates, your interactions with other people on the chat channels (and on TeamSpeak), and your posts in the forums.
- To build up a reputation as a skilled player, an asset to the team, someone people want to fly with - takes months. To get a reputation as an intelligent player, someone who knows all the techpaths and strategies, someone people want to fly for - takes even longer.
- To build up a reputation as an idiot, an egomaniac, an annoying git, someone people don't want to fly with, for, or even accept on to their team, someone people will join the other team just for the chance to pod you over and over again - can take as long as one minute. All it needs is a single ill-thought out rant on the forum, constant bitching in-game, constantly giving bad tactical advice in-game, ignoring people when they try and offer advice, or perhaps a screaming fit on TeamSpeak.
So don't go trying to command a team on the main server, at prime time. Don't try bossing people around or using CAPSLOCK to tell everyone what you think they should be doing to make the team win. Don't make long posts in the forums about how you think the game code should be improved, or gameplay changed to make it more 'fun'.
Don't do any of these things ... until you know what doing ;)
Tags and Tokens
Tags are the @XYZ attached to the end of a player's callsign. They show what particular organisation that player belongs to - whether it be a certain squad, an Admin, or a Cadet.
Tokens are special characters attached to the front of a player's callsign.
Tokens * Squad Leader ^ Assistant Squad Leader + Zone Lead ? Admin $ Special one of a kind token
granted to KGJV
Newbie Tags
Every new player is given a number in brackets which displays their rank. It disappears when they reach rank 5 (Novice 4). This newbie tag is added so that other players know that you are new, and cannot be relied on to perform most tasks. It also means that you are protected from being booted from a team unless you commit a major infraction.
Warning: The newbie tag shows other players that you will probably lose a dogfight and they will hunt you for easy kills.
