The voice range rework!

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Learner
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:29 am
Byond Username: Learner

The voice range rework!

Post by Learner » #617142

Recently, I became aware that when it comes to speaking with people, you are allowed 3 options… the station wide radio, 7-tiles from the speaker, and 1 tile. I think it’s about time that some expansion on this come into play.

Let’s say 5 people gather in a public room like the bar, maybe at a table, and they decide to whisper (1 tile). Suddenly, one person can’t listen in to the full conversation because he wasn’t in the mandatory 1 tile radius. So now, they either have to stack on the same tile, or speak normally so that everyone nearby can hear, even the people in the kitchen. There is no middle- ground. So… why not add an adjustable setting that can influence how far your voice carries?

Once such a setting exists, you can easily adjust your ‘loudness’ so that yelling carries a voice even farther, especially megaphones, or casually converse with the people at the table you’re with. Exclamation points increase loudness making your voice carry further, and god forbid the clown get the megaphone!

But why stop there? You could make certain clothes dampen and muffle your voice too! So you too can roleplay as the TF2 Pyro and become impossible to understand!

The current issues and ideas don’t stop here though. Currently, the biggest requirement with being heard is line of sight. Take 2 people in a large empty room, stick a single tile of wall between them, and suddenly they can’t hear each other. What if voices could carry around a corner or obstacles then?

Or what if you happened to be having your secret discussions in maint… and the botanist decided to stop what he was doing, got paranoid, right clicked a wall where he heard a strange noise to put his ear against the wall… right across where you were, and heard everything because you were a bit loud? What if the doctor used his stethoscope to listen in to a chat on the other side of an airlock? What if examining people just seconds after they spoke could allow you to read their lips to middling success? What if it were the skillful astute detective doing it?

There is a lot of potential in this area and I think we should look into what can and can’t be done. Because really, whispering is only good for 1 or 2 people. And there is so so much to say.
Valorium
Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2020 6:26 pm
Byond Username: Valorium
Location: Somewhere, I dunno.

Re: The voice range rework!

Post by Valorium » #617154

I like the idea of being able to use stethoscopes to listen to conversations behind walls. It would give them more functionality than they currently have, and make it so you can actually put something useful in your neck slot. Would have to be an in-hand system kinda like what we have for defibrillators, so you take the end of the stethoscope and use it on a wall to hear conversations on the other side, provided they stay next to the wall and don't start doing other things.
Native Manuellian and Shiptest admin. Ignore me.

Also the author of several drone adventures.
Learner
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:29 am
Byond Username: Learner

Re: The voice range rework!

Post by Learner » #617155

Someone had the idea of giving the Detective the passive ability to understand distant whispers like they were normal says, and giving him a listening device that also works as the Stethoscope idea, with even a small fuzzy visual of the other side.
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Farquaar
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:20 am
Byond Username: Farquaar
Location: Delta Quadrant

Re: The voice range rework!

Post by Farquaar » #617163

Learner wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 2:57 pm Someone had the idea of giving the Detective the passive ability to understand distant whispers like they were normal says
This could give detectives an incentive to go undercover and I love it.
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