Make radios transmit their ID

[EchoMan]

Short and simple. Make radios automatically transmit their ID. This is to reduce a lot of freaking spam on the radio network, and to allow for two of my characters to very IC crusade to kill every idiot abusing radios.

[Ronja Rotschopf]

good idea

[Snickie]

I've always thought radios should at least transmit gender of the speaker and maybe even approximate age, but never the distinct identity, and most definitely not with dynamic naming. I can easily see it being abused too (not that every other system can't be abused, so so much for that argument). For example, I've listened to plenty of people on the radio, but most of them, unless seen on TV or internet (neither of which are existent in Cantr thank Jos), I wouldn't be able to recognise immediately in person. Why should Cantriians?

[SumBum]

A little iffy on supporting this but I haven't had to deal with too much radio spam. Maybe I'd feel differently about it if I had.

Veering off topic a little but it's something I've often thought of and never got around to searching/posting. At the very least gender should be recognizable. I have mixed thoughts on broadcasting the name of the char. It might be complicated to work around the dynamic naming, but there are people you would recognize based on the sound of their voice. It's a little awkward when carrying on a lengthy convo with multiple people you know well and have to keep repeating your name with each broadcast.

[SekoETC]

I haven't heard radio spam in ages. I think enabling radio disassembly as suggested in the other topic would make more sense than broadcasting the id. Revealing the approximate age and gender would be good. Another thing you can do is build a lock on the buildings with the transmitters, then not every newspawn can get to it, it would have to be someone with a crowbar.

[RedQueen.exe]

I think Echo has a character in the same area as one of mine, if I know what inspired this post. I'd happily go hunting with you!

That said, gender should definitely be broadcast. There was an exchange just yesterday that never would have happened the way it did were it just this little bit closer to reality.

It would be nice too, if even if you couldn't get the dynamic name (and I don't think you should) That you could at least distinguish between voices, and tell at least that multiple broadcasts were by the same person, the same voice, even if you wouldn't be able to identify that person in a face to face encounter. You would quite probably be able to tell repeated messages by the same voice on the radio, however. I'm not sure how this would work. Perhaps assign them some sort of identifier only used by the radio. "You hear male voice 23952 say on X radio:", etc.? Inelegant, I know.

[Piscator]

Would feel more realistic to get the direction and approximate strength of the signal rather than an ID. That would probably be a bit difficult with repeaters though.

[RedQueen.exe]

Would probably be more easy for me to track them down and kill them, yes, but realistic? How would you determine the direction of the signal with the radio unless you were dinkering with the antenna?

(p.s. In my personal lexicon, dinkering is a real and frequently used word; its a combination of the word tinkering with the more colorful variation of the phrase "messing around")

[joo]

Even if this isn't impemented, it is possible for players to include the approximate age and sex in an emote at the beginning of the broadcast. You might say that people couldn't be trusted to give honest information, but most of Cantr relies on trust anyway, as far as not breaking the CR goes.

[SumBum]

My thinking was along the lines of:

- if you already have the person named, you would see their name with the broadcast
- if you haven't named a char, only their gender would show and you would not be able to dynamically name them from the radio message.

I know the 2nd part would frustrate those who are experiencing radio spam. I just don't think you should be able to assign a name to a voice over the radio so that you'd recognize them on sight if you come across them in person. Unfortunately, the system doesn't know how well you know someone so the 1st part would have to be based solely on whether or not you've changed the dynamic naming of a particular char and consider that "familiar" enough to recognize their voice.

[EchoMan]

This suggestion primarily addresses the abuse of radio's which I find very annoying. I really don't think all of these immature punks on the radio are IC when they tell some Queen on the radio to go f*** herself, right after describing how the rape murder someone. I just don't buy it, just as little as I want to see it in my events. Realism etc come in second hand.

[joo]

Would probably be more easy for me to track them down and kill them, yes, but realistic? How would you determine the direction of the signal with the radio unless you were dinkering with the antenna?

If there was some metric of approximate signal strength (and some assumptions allowed about how signal strength relates to distance from the transmitter; for example, the maximum voltage which occured in the radio during reception) which a radio could display with each message, it would be possible, using 3 land- or ship-based radios with sextants in different locations, to trilaterate the approximate position of the source.

However, that raises the problem that the knowledge of how to do that wouldn't be coming from inside the game, but from externally established practices.

[EchoMan]

The repeaters that are the reason that we now hear all messages from all around the island prevents (or at least very much complexifies) the use of triangulation.

[RedQueen.exe]

Would probably be more easy for me to track them down and kill them, yes, but realistic? How would you determine the direction of the signal with the radio unless you were dinkering with the antenna?

If there was some metric of approximate signal strength (and some assumptions allowed about how signal strength relates to distance from the transmitter; for example, the maximum voltage which occured in the radio during reception) which a radio could display with each message, it would be possible, using 3 land- or ship-based radios with sextants in different locations, to trilaterate the approximate position of the source.

However, that raises the problem that the knowledge of how to do that wouldn't be coming from inside the game, but from externally established practices.

That's kind of what I mean. Strength I can understand, and from strength you could determine location IF you were to get readings from multiple locations like that, or if you did some putzing around with directional antennas while a broadcast was ongoing to getting repeated that you knew was coming from the same place.

And yes, Echo and I are most certainly talking about the same incident, though I don't want to go breaking the 4-day rule.

That new repeater system is kind of nice, though will probably lead to amplifying abuse down the road.

[FrankieLeonie]

There is a reason you can change the radio frequency... If you don't like the spam change channels. My character loves to hear radio spam. It entertains her to no end.