Replacing mask ID's with actual names

[Entity]

Short description: Replacing mask ID's with actual names.

Detailed description: Seeing Mask over someone's head inadvertently leads to metagaming, whether we like it or not. Seeing two masked people on a bike or four masked people in a car almost always means that something is up. Thus, there is no element of surprise - we will always know that something is about to go down on an out-of-character level. On the other hand, seeing Ben and Jerry riding a bike will not raise as much suspicion on an out-of-character level. In the same spirit, seeing Earl Johnson tell you their name is Alex will also inadvertently raise an out-of-character suspicion. We must obviously play along ICly, but that doesn't mean that an out-of-character immersive feature would not be welcomed. That OOC suspicion should not exist at all.

 

The whole purpose of the mask system is to give people a way to carry out scenarios without their real identity being disclosed. A way to set an alias would, however, be a simple change that would help a lot in this regard. The alias would be set separately from wearing the mask item. This means that you would be able to use /mask in order to enable the visible item or /maskname (after doing /setmaskname) in order to only enable the name.

 

The feature would only change the character's name over their head, it would not return anything in the MDC and their actual name would still show up in /sdl. The restriction would be you cannot set your alias to be someone else's name. Forum reports would not be an issue as said alias would only be tied to a character, so reporting Alex Johnson, the actual name, will be the same as reporting Andres Contreras, the alias.

 

Commands to add: /setmaskname + change the functionality of /maskname (and allow it to be used without doing /mask).

Items to add: None.

How would your suggestion improve the server? More immersion for everyone who wants to role-play posing as a different person, while taking away the OOC advantage and suspicions.

Additional information: This stems from a different suggestion by @Procaine - because the suggestion is different, I decided to post a new topic.

[Valkyria]

No, the current system is fine and creates way less confusion in the long run. This would create a mess in logs and make administrative work extremely painful.

Please stop making GMod esque suggestions that may work very well on 60 player servers because they are not going to work on large ones.

[marbella mondays]

If anything just remove the nametag.

[Toihin816]

good suggestion, but as valkyria stated it might cause agony and turmoil for staff.

i liked lsrp way of just removing the nametag.

[SaintBatemanofWallStreet]

1 hour ago, bidi bidi bom bom said:

If anything just remove the nametag.

Yeah, and then watch the magic of mall rat gangbangers and robber squads go unchecked because they couldn't be reported.

[Beholder]

What? No. Just don't use /maskname then or don't do 10 laps with your name masked. If your fear is being metagamed then just make sure you always have evidence and hold people accountable.

2 hours ago, bidi bidi bom bom said:

If anything just remove the nametag.

I want this. I'm just worried about how many steps it would add for staff in a report's process, potentially always having to pull names from the server, which could slow down reports even more.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Beholder
Typo

[Moe]

No, if there's 4 people in a car wearing masks, your ooc suspicion would also be ic, since they'd be wearing bandanas or whatever mask they're wearing. This would only create a mess rather than benefit the server. 

2 hours ago, bidi bidi bom bom said:

If anything just remove the nametag.

And in regards to this, it's a hard no. There's only so many faces you can make on the server and considering everyone looks like Chris Hemsworth, it'd be impossible to differentiate people, when in real life no two people look the same (yes i know twins exist).