With two different people in him, he can work twice as much! :P

We love you, a1k0n!

I see that some people have yet to familiarize themselves with sarcasm.

=)

(edit) I deleted my own post cause it was wayy off topic.

i meant for a ingame player list like Camps described... i dint mean for in sector stuff... heck i wouldnt care if a pirate was in teh same sector as me... i get killed by noobs and they arent trying to pirate me... bottom line is: if you are near a pirate you better not be a crappy pilot

*hints to himself...*

-io

Since were talking about this for a space game where we all fly around in ships.. how about, actually making this something of a ship feature.

A radio console/hud popup. You add in multichannel radio, and you add in a radio hud that can be keyed up. You add peoples callsigns to the list, which is like saying you added their frequency to your radio. Pull up your radio, click a name and talk to em. :)

For alerts when they come online. Have a button to toggle wether or not you want such things, and let the game say "Communications "Playername" now online.

When they log off "Communications with "playername" Offline."

that alert thingy sounds nice.
maybe you should have the choice between having a chat message being displayed (like the "echo") or having a sound played as buddies log on and another as buddies log off, or having both signals being sent to you.

and implementing this list into the hud would be a great thing, too. the question is, where to put it?
maybe something like the cargo menu, just on the right-hand side? the problem is, how would you make the names on the list selectable without losing control of your ship (i am assuming the greater part of players out there is using the trusty mouse/keboard combo)?

Hmm, just thought I'd jump in, make menus hideable or tabbed. This could apply to any of the menus, and not just the comms panel. Also, a key to toggle between using mouse to fly and using mouse to interact with menus. (might even be able to use this to customise weapon groups, targeting, etc) depends on what the devs decide to do.

I think the seperate channels is the best idea so far, and these could be divided into public and private channels (private needing some sort of security/encryption code to access). Public radio channel user listings are up to disgretion of devs (too many drawbacks IMHO), but private channel user lists I feel would be a must-have.


As a side-note, sectors could have communication relays, thus adressing radio range problems while allowing for local radio jamming and other such nifty tricks.

here is a thought: people like Kastin Thunderclaw and other miscellanious pirates will hate if people have warnings for a person who comes online...

my thought is that a person adds a name to the alert list... a message is sent to the person and the person may deny or accept their name being added... (kinda like what the yahoo instant messenger has... actually that is exactly what i am thinking...)

-io

would that make people a little more satisfied with it???

*note this would be just for a char not the account... so if i added silentsuicide to my alert list and silent denied then he would not be on my list but if i added s7 turret #2 and he accepted then i would know when turret #2 came on but not when silent was on...

/me thanx silent for being an example, though it wasnt voluntary... lol

Yes, I see where youd get the idea that.. pirates arent going to like being noticed. And, it could, yes and no, fit into my radio panel idea if you like that?

The idea being. In order to add someone to your radio list, you send out a comm's request, and it has to be approved to get their frequency.

So, pirates just don't approve anyone and don't get added to private channel lists.

However, the part where it doesnt fit in is when you actually see the ship, or are attacked by it.

Lets say a certain pirate either attacks you and chat's with someone while, or just before doing so. Your ships computer could now say... Hey!... communications on channel 1234 just came from that ship... therefore.. they're frequency is!...

And boom, they're on your list, not to talk to, but because you were attacked by them and got a frequency out of it.

Either that or the ship might decide its worth keeping track of any comm chatter occuring when ships are coming at you...

That would also screw up the list adding.

well it wouldnt make sense for the computer to hack a frequency (of any player not just pirates) and then get killed for it... just doesnt make sense to me.

im not for the radio idea, no offense, if that was implemented it would mess with rocket targeting more than likely. if you shot a jackhammer it would be messed up by the radio frequency so it would be a total waste of a shot and a weapon. that is in real life though so if this game is trying to make it as real as possible then the radio interferance would have to be included. if all the weapons run on a different frequency, plus the powercells which have a frequency the frequency for a radio (needing much more than just 1 frequency) would interefere with all the frequencies of the other aspects of the game. with the number of players many frequencies would be needed.

an example would be 9/11 people used so many cell phones in the building that some of the fire fighters that died only died because of the interference. the system would need to become much more complex and to my knowledge the 9/11 interference example has yet to be solved. though i might be wrong

-io

simple solution. rockets have internal guidance systems, that aquire initial targeting info from a hard connection to the ship launching the rocket, then manage the rest internally. No need for radio communication there.

Shielding also.. if you're so fussy about RF interferance, then shield components. The devs don't need to program RF dependancy into their game engine. If you want to explain how the game radio doesn't make your rockets careen off course or turn your gerbil inside-out, go for it.

While you're at it, explain how the weapons currently used in-game work, draw up schematics, and for a kick, make one of them work. Mount it on your car to clear traffic jams or put it on your coffee table as a conversation piece. This game is fiction, and not every single detail needs to stand up to dissection and inspection on the molecular level. It's a game.. have some fun.

spectre, galorin....
I really have no idea what the heck your both talking about?

rockets?... tracking?
Ah. What does this have to do with a radio comm panel?

The "frequency" is the players name. Its just a fancy interface for the buddy list, nothing special. Nothing but a ship would ever have a frequency.

When a player, who is not on your buddy list, fires on you. Your ship would make a log. Noting their... "frequency". Or in other words keeping their name and alerting you when they are around because they like to shoot you!

So, please.. um.. I dunno... Stay on topic when posting? Cause this had nothing to do with weapons, rockets, or hacking frequencies...

I was trying to point out the flaws in his argument, i.e. radio has nothing to do with anything else if the devs don't want it to. realism is limited by playability.

I feel that some form of anonyminity during combat would be nice, so you don't know right away who blew you up. Unless of course they identify themself to you. It should be possible to find out though.. but I'm just rambling.
Radio=good idea
advanced, auto-identifying radio=not so good IMO

Yes, I know. But they would only be identified if they decided to chat about something while heading in for the kill. Just means your ship goes.. ah, why is that ship talking when.. ***BOOM***...

And your home station gets this log that looks like *Frequency 18989542 detected in... **!34!bfha! [NO CARRIER]...

So the station says.. hmm,, and tells your ship to give you a warning next time that radio signal is near you. :) Seems like a feature ships would have to avoid repeat pirates.