Your Account and Identity

Your Account and Identity

You never type a username or password in 5th Echelon Enhanced. The launcher makes you an identity the first time you connect, and it signs you in from then on, on every server, from any PC you've copied it to.

Your identity

An identity is a key that stays on your PC. Its short id (e.g. DNIC-JULS) shows on the launcher's profile card and in the overlay. It's used for two things:

1. Finding your account. When you connect to a server, the launcher signs in with your identity to the account linked to it. No name or password to remember.
2. Linking your accounts. Every account you make is linked to your identity, so your friends and your name follow you between the servers of a network.

It's kept in the launcher's folder:

	Where	Protected by
Windows	%APPDATA%\5th-Echelon\identity.key	Encrypted for your Windows user: copied to another PC as a file, it doesn't work
Linux	~/.config/5th-Echelon/identity.key	Readable by your user only

Warning: Whoever has your identity can sign in as you on every server you've played on. Never post the copied text, and only paste it into your own launcher.

Your name

The first time you connect, you choose the name other players see.

• Characters: letters A–Z, digits, _, - and .. Spaces become _, and other characters are dropped.
• Length: up to 32 characters.
• Case: names are unique whatever their case: "Kiwi" and "kiwi" are one name.
• Reserved: names like admin, moderator, server, support, staff or ubisoft are refused.
• No admin or 5th Echelon anywhere in a name (from 0.4.6), so nobody looks like staff: xX_Admin_Xx, 5thEchelon-Team and look-alikes such as Adm1n are refused. A name you already have is kept.
• No slurs or hate, and no web addresses (from 0.4.5). Swearing is fine. A word list checks every new name and every rename, and sees through look-alike letters, digits standing for letters and spacing. A number after a name is just a number: Kiwi1993 is fine.
• One player per name across a network: within a network (such as the community network), a name belongs to whoever used it first, on any of its servers. On another server of the same network you get the same name, made for you without asking.

When your name is taken

On a server where someone else already has your name (an account from before names were kept for each player), the launcher asks you to choose another for that server, and suggests free ones (Kiwi_NZ, from your country, or Kiwi2). It checks each name as you type: Free, Taken on this server, or why it isn't allowed. Your friends still see it's you.

The same dialog appears when you connect to a server of your own (outside the network), with your usual name filled in.

Renaming

Settings › Servers and accounts › Rename. Your friends, blocks and invites carry on, and the old name is free again. Restart the game if it's running.

If the overlay asks you to rename (Another player has your name on the servers that share friends with this one), do it there: two servers that each had a "Kiwi" joined one network, and the other one got there first.

When your name isn't allowed

A name the rules refuse is turned down when you choose it, with why:

Renaming checks the new name the same way (Settings › Servers and accounts › Rename):

When you're asked to choose another name

A name from before the rules that breaks them, or one the network's admins asked you to change, has to change before you play again. The launcher says so above the Play screen, with Rename… and, on the community network, Ask for a review:

Until you rename, Play says what to do instead of starting the game, and the server keeps the game out under that name (the overlay says why if the game is started another way):

Renaming lifts it at once. Your friends, blocks and invites carry on under the new name.

Think it's a mistake?

Word lists catch innocent names now and then. Press Ask for a review: the launcher's Support page opens with a message started for you, naming your account (no logs are attached unless you tick them). Say what the name means and send it.

The admins answer there (you're told in the launcher and the game). If they agree, they allow the name: the banner goes, and the name isn't flagged again. A name you were refused when you tried to take it can be given to you by the admins in the same way. On a server outside the community network, ask that server's own admins.

Passwords

The launcher still makes a password for each server, behind the scenes: a random one, different on every server, so no server operator ever sees a password you use elsewhere. Settings › Servers and accounts › Show passwords shows them, but you never need them.

On Windows the saved passwords are encrypted for your Windows user. On Linux they're in uplay.toml in the game folder, readable by your user only.

Moving to another PC

Do this before you connect to any server on the new PC.

1. On the old PC: Settings › Identity and friends › Copy to move it to another PC. Paste it somewhere private (a note only you can read, a USB stick).
2. On the new PC: install the launcher, let it find the game, then go to Settings › Identity and friends, paste it under Import and press Use this identity.
3. Connect to your server. The launcher finds your existing account by itself.

Important: Import first. Connecting first makes the new PC an identity of its own, with a new account under another name (Kiwi2, since your usual name belongs to your old identity). Importing afterwards still brings your real accounts back, but the extra account stays on the server.

If the PC already has a different identity, Import asks before replacing it (Replace it / Cancel). The replaced one is kept in the launcher's folder as identity.<its id>.key, so you can go back by copying it over identity.key.

Lost your identity?

If the PC is gone and you never copied your identity, the launcher can't sign in to your old accounts: they're only reachable with that key. Connect with a new identity and you get a new account. The server's admins may be able to help on their own server (renaming or deleting the old account), but there's no way to recover the key itself.

Messages about accounts

Message	What to do
<name> is linked to another identity. Import that identity in Settings to use this account here.	This account belongs to another identity: import it (above)
Your identity can't be read: … is encrypted for another Windows user or PC; import your identity again	The identity.key file was copied as a file. Use Copy and Import instead
that isn't an exported 5th Echelon identity / the identity is damaged	The pasted text is incomplete. Copy it again; it starts with 5th-echelon-identity:v1:
<server> can't find accounts by player identity, which this launcher needs.	The server runs an old 5th Echelon. Ask its operator to update it
That name belongs to another player on the servers sharing friends	Choose another name
That name isn't allowed (no slurs or hate). Try another one, or if it's a mistake, ask for a review in the launcher's Support.	Choose another, or ask for a review (above)
Names can't be web addresses. Try another one.	Choose a name that isn't a web address
Your name <name> breaks this network's rules …	Rename, or ask for a review (above)
Too many name checks from this address; try again later	Wait a few minutes