CrisisGG Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 Hey guys! Reading over the latest patch notes I noticed the introduction of a new friends list, I knew one had existed on the UCP before but I don’t think it served any purpose unless I’m wrong and it had some sort of function — Anyway! I had some concerns and wanted to mention them to open some discussion, and here they are. My primary opinion of the friends list initially had me thinking it was a good way to open up more roleplay since you could figure out when friends were online, however I also thought further into this and was wondering if this function is something that both players had to consent to, if it wasn’t and people were able to use this as a means of figuring out when people were online, I also think it may open up ways to abuse it, specifically... - Using the Friends List to determine other people’s alternative characters they wish to remain anonymous with. - Using the Friends List to metagame and sway opinions because you knew their other character. - Using the Friends List as a means of stalking somebody playing the game by getting immediate alerts as to when that player connects to GTA World. What opinions do you have of the friends list functionality, and is this something that is going to bring more opportunities to the server, or something that can be used to negatively impact the community? Link to comment
ThomasNoman Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 I have the exact same thoughts. What I suggest is that, make the friend list per character, meaning that it'd only show (and alert) when a particular character is online, not all. And most importantly, there must be an option for the person being added to accept or deny. 1 1 Link to comment
Momo's Revenge Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 On LSRP some people would use friends list to MG when enemies were on to do something against them and yeah to RP with people they knew on a past character that they aren't connected to on the new one. Link to comment
Marksman Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 Is the friends list not a two way thing??? You have to accept it for them to see?? Link to comment
Shaderz Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 Just now, Marksman said: Is the friends list not a two way thing??? You have to accept it for them to see?? No. I remember when I did /friends for the first time, I had like five people on the list already. I then proceeded to ask them about it and they said they had added me. It's one-sided and the other party doesn't have to accept anything. This needs to change imo. 1 Link to comment
Entity Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 (edited) 19 minutes ago, ThomasNoman said: I have the exact same thoughts. What I suggest is that, make the friend list per character, meaning that it'd only show (and alert) when a particular character is online, not all. And most importantly, there must be an option for the person being added to accept or deny. It would be better if the feature was per character rather than per account. I'm personally more interested in seeing when my character's connections are online rather than my OOC connections. I don't think it'd be a good idea to have the ability to accept or deny requests though. After all, this is just a tool to know when people are online - that's extremely useful. There's a lot of IC scenarios when knowing if someone is online or not will benefit you but not them and that would basically render the tool useless since you'd keep having to spam /id. Some very specific examples are for PD/SD to know when someone who has a warrant on them is online, for detectives to know when they can try reaching someone for questioning, for illegal factions to know when they can interact with each other, for government licensing officials to know when they can If it were a request rather than just a notification, lots of people would just deny and you'd still have to spam /id in order to see if someone is online or not. It would end up like /highlight - extremely useful in theory, not useful at all in most situations since it only highlights RP lines and not chat too. What should change is for the lists to be unique for each player, as @Shaderz said. If I add you as a friend, you don't have me as a friend too unless you add me. Otherwise people will just heavily metagame - if you know you have a warrant on you and you suddenly see your friendly SWAT operator in /friends, you're done. Edited February 28, 2021 by Entity Link to comment
ThomasNoman Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 3 minutes ago, Entity said: It would be better if the feature was per character rather than per account. I'm personally more interested in seeing when my character's connections are online rather than my OOC connections. I don't think it'd be a good idea to have the ability to accept or deny requests though. After all, this is just a tool to know when people are online - that's extremely useful. There's a lot of IC scenarios when knowing if someone is online or not will benefit you but not them and that would basically render the tool useless since you'd keep having to spam /id. Some very specific examples are for PD/SD to know when someone who has a warrant on them is online, for detectives to know when they can try reaching someone for questioning, for illegal factions to know when they can interact with each other, for government licensing officials to know when they can If it were a request rather than just a notification, lots of people would just deny and you'd still have to spam /id in order to see if someone is online or not. It would end up like /highlight - extremely useful in theory, not useful at all in most situations since it only highlights RP lines and not chat too. I think they can use ID in that case. Friends list mean a list of friends. The people you add should be your IC friend or someone you know ICly, not that you can add random people to see if they are online or not. Link to comment
Entity Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 Just now, ThomasNoman said: I think they can use ID in that case. Friends list mean a list of friends. The people you add should be your IC friend or someone you know ICly, not that you can add random people to see if they are online or not. That's true, but it would be a pity to not use such a useful tool for alternate purposes, especially since you have way fewer IC friends than people who you have to or want to interact with. Realistically speaking, your character is always 'online' but due to various limitations and time zone differences, we can't be online 24/7 OOCly. The list should not be of people you know ICly, that'd be a by the book example of mixing IC and OOC. People's online status is an OOC matter while IC friends are an IC matter. A character would always be somewhere, it can't be 'offline'. Link to comment
Garras Up Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 I understand why it could be a concern but I don't particularly think it's as big of an issue as some may think it is. People have used the friends system on other servers for years and it has never been used maliciously. Link to comment
CrisisGG Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 2 minutes ago, Entity said: That's true, but it would be a pity to not use such a useful tool for alternate purposes, especially since you have way fewer IC friends than people who you have to or want to interact with. Realistically speaking, your character is always 'online' but due to various limitations and time zone differences, we can't be online 24/7 OOCly. The list should not be of people you know ICly, that'd be a by the book example of mixing IC and OOC. People's online status is an OOC matter while IC friends are an IC matter. A character would always be somewhere, it can't be 'offline'. I’m still not overly fond of people knowing when I’m playing GTA World and when I’m not, as this could be used as a way to try and get me to log on to a certain character which is a form of metagaming, I’d sooner find my interactions through the use of the phone system, as this is less likely to persuade switching characters just for the sake of a certain person knowing I’m online. Link to comment
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