Ambient Radio in Chat

[Miharu]

The way the radio script is set up creates an unfair advantage for those with a radio.

 

For example, if you are stood next to a police officer who is transmitting on the radio, you cannot hear what the other person on the radio is saying, but the cop can, despite not using an earpiece, and this reasonably being audible.

 

/earpiece [on/off] - this would make radio chatter private to the user who has their earpiece enabled. It should also then show an actual earpiece model on the character, so that, for example, if someone is in plainclothes with a radio, and walking around with an earpiece in, it should be obvious to others that that is the case.

 

As a disadvantage, this should then reduce the radius they can hear /low and normal chat from other people, because one of their ears is now plugged up with an earpiece. It could also turn the /r text yellow (because it's loud and clearly able to be understood), and change all other chat text to dark grey (because one of your ears is plugged up, and it would make hearing what's going on around you more difficult). 

 

If a player doesn't have an earpiece in, all radio chatter that they receive would then be printed into the chat box for all players within the same radius as would hear their normal talking text, so they can hear everything going on around them.

 

e.g. '(Calvin Hamilton's Radio): 2L21, Code 6 on a White Dilettante, ABC123 on Legion Square'

 

This would mean police etc would need to be more careful about what they put over the radio, and whether they have an earpiece in or not (e.g. when sneaking up on somebody), because of the risk of people over-hearing what's being said.

 

This would need to build in whether or not the windows on a vehicle they are in are up or down, e.g. if the windows were up and a police car rolls up behind someone quietly, they wouldn't hear the radio chatter, but if they were down and the officer didn't have an earpiece in, they would.

 

Likewise, I think vehicles that would reasonably have a radio (police cars etc) in them should have something like /carradio [on/off] and /setcarradiofrequency [frequency].

 

That way, if the windows are down or /vdoor is open, even if the officer has an earpiece in, anyone within a reasonable radius can hear the radio chatter on that frequency. If an officer runs off and leaves the vehicle unattended with the windows down, transmissions over the radio will be able to be heard.

 

I feel, as a police role player, the radio has too much guaranteed privacy/security built into it. It's unfair that those with a radio have this guaranteed totally private method of communication that, realistically, would have much more collateral impact, that would create interesting role play and mean cops etc have to be on the ball around information security.

 

 

[Nathan Bennet]

Support. More incentives to think about windows being open/closed as well as realistically being careful about what you're saying on frequency would add to immersion, too.

 

You could also add a 'volume control' for the radio in non-earpiece mode which determines how far it can be read by others. The lower the volume the less far it can be read, but the text is darker for the user too.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Nathan Bennet

[Sebz]

I've always thought this was  good idea but never suggested it. This is coming from someone who primarily does police RP. However, an issue, what if there's lots of cops nearby? Does it just spam the chat? How do we avoid that?

[Buster]

Exact same thought as Sebz. The suggestion will definitely add to immersion. However, wouldn't everyone's screens be cluttered with that? Cops' (different agencies) and civilians' alike.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Buster[]

[Eniseekay]

I agree but not the normal talking radio is for the chatter. It should definitely be low range. 

[Ronnie two poles]

On 6/26/2023 at 7:42 AM, Buster[] said:

Exact same thought as Sebz. The suggestion will definitely add to immersion. However, wouldn't everyone's screens be cluttered with that? Cops' (different agencies) and civilians' alike.

 

As everyone else said - but I have a suggestion that would fix that.

 

Instead of every single line of text being audible, maybe a random blotter can pop out and some of it be broken/in-audible? IDK about anyone else but even when you stand near police IRL and they have it turned up, it's pretty muffled and poor quality. It's difficult sometimes to make out what is said. 

 

So maybe instead of full lines of every single chatter...

 

'(Calvin Hamilton's Radio) (Muffled): 2L21, Code 6 — *Inaudible*  — Legion Square.'

 

 

Something like that idk so people can't RP hearing word for word of each transmission. 

 

 

Maybe in large groups, people can OOC toggle it or something IDK or make the distance really close. 

[Miharu]

To avoid the excess spam, I'm sure there's a way to script in that if there's four people there whose radios are all tuned to the same frequency, the line of text would only print once for those not on that frequency.

 

And I guess you could also add a /togambientradio if people don't want the spam!

[Aqua.]

I think this would be a great addition as long as peoples screens don’t just get spammed with radio chatter. If there’s a lot of police officers at an active scene for example, if there’s a way to get around that then this has my full support.

[eTaylor]

Great suggestion. Maybe something using the /ame thing but in a different color? I’ve seen this on the old prison roleplay server on SAMP. It worked well then, and prevents the chat from being spammed. 

[F34]

I like the idea and I'm all for it but I worry about what Sebz mentioned about potential spam.