Remove the common channel from headsets

[rdght91]

This would really bring back the old feel of the paranoia that I think the game used to have. There are no real insta-silence-stun kill methods easily available any more, and with the common channel anyone can scream their location and the only hope for the killer is that nobody cares enough that's nearby.

[Super Aggro Crag]

I didn't kill, please nerf.

[CPTANT]

This would really bring back the old feel of the paranoia that I think the game used to have. There are no real insta-silence-stun kill methods easily available any more, and with the common channel anyone can scream their location and the only hope for the killer is that nobody cares enough that's nearby.

There is a big fat room full of telecomms materials that you can easily destroy if you don't want someone to scream their location.

[Wyzack]

People have been suggesting this for ages and it has never got any traction. I think that it would actually make it harder to kill silently. Think about it, if you took away the common channel people would start carrying station bounced radios everywhere which can be easily mass produced from the lathe. They will also probably keep the microphone enable, so aside from clogging up the common channel when 3-4 people have a conversation, it also means that anything said while ambushing them will go over the radio. D-ant-te sm-GLORF. Sc-i ma-in-HURK.

[Cik]

you could remove station-bounced too

i don't think it's a bad idea. maybe just remove common channel altogether and make departments have to use intercomms, request consoles or the AI to communicate?

i suppose command channel would become to go-between and people would actually have to talk to their department heads every now and then. that would be neat.

[Cheimon]

Or you could make it so you have to hold the station bounced to use it. You know, like normal walkie talkies.

[rdght91]

I didn't kill, please nerf.

Nice meme.

Everytime a suggestion makes the game more lethal, "LOL OP UNROBUST TATOR" and everytime it makes the game safer, "OP GETS DUNKED BY ANTAGS."

Anyway, the keys that go to the common channel can always be made, but starting default with only your own department means people have to look out for and rely on their own department. Intercoms and communication consoles would actually be useful now.

[Shaps-cloud]

But like... 50% of the interactions on station come from the common channel. Is that really worth throwing away just so it's easier to double tap someone with a revolver without them screaming for help (when you could just EMP them or dismantle telecoms instead)?

[Cik]

i'm not so sure you lose much. you lose two things really which is "HELP [antagonist] IS ATTACK-HURK" and memes. intercomms are in the game and used by precisely nobody, so if you have to make a broadcast for something under no duress you can always just use those. the AI can hear all channels these days so no one really loses the ability to chat to anything important, it just means it'll take a little while longer.

i'm not totally against the idea of leaving it in, but i think it would be a net improvement if it were removed. it helps antags and atmosphere and i'm not really sure you lose that much.

[rdght91]

But like... 50% of the interactions on station come from the common channel. Is that really worth throwing away just so it's easier to double tap someone with a revolver without them screaming for help (when you could just EMP them or dismantle telecoms instead)?

If someone needs someone announced over the intercom they can ask the AI or their boss to do so.

[DrPillzRedux]

No, this is dumb.

[ExplosiveCrate]

Didn't we try this before (several times, IIRC) only to come to the conclusion that it's a dumb idea?

[Shaps-cloud]

Intercoms get used all the time when comms go down

[invisty]

I think this is an idea worth exploring, with the nerf to SBRs (hold in hand to talk, no microphone button) included, as that seems an obvious shortfall.

It would be interesting to run a few rounds to see how players respond to the change.

[Lovecraft]

Every time this was attempted, from what I remember, we all agreed it was a piss-poor idea because without that constant feed of dialogue the game is just boring and empty.

[Anonmare]

As a meme expert, I can tell you all that this thread is, in fact, a literal meme and everything posted in it becomes a meme by association.

[ShadowDimentio]

Hey buddy. You posted in the wrong thread. The bad ideas thread is down the hall to the left.

[Malkevin]

Didn't we try this before (several times, IIRC) only to come to the conclusion that it's a dumb idea?

Never happened here, aside from maybe the CE running an experiment.

[Steelpoint]

But we've discussed this idea several times before and last times the general feeling was that the idea would have too many negative and unforeseen consequences over any positive effects.

[NikNakFlak]

No, this is dumb.

[Malkevin]

But we've discussed this idea several times before and last times the general feeling was that the idea would have too many negative and unforeseen consequences over any positive effects.

By discussed you mean a vocal few whinged and moaned that they wouldn't be able to get the attention they seeked by filling the common channel up with their bullshit.

Its a thing that no one's going to know how well it works until its been implemented for a few weeks.

[invisty]

By discussed you mean a vocal few whinged and moaned that they wouldn't be able to get the attention they seeked by filling the common channel up with their bullshit.

Pretty much this. There seems to be a vocal minority these days who are strongly against any changes which make a certain type of gameplay behaviour more difficult.

[Cheimon]

But I enjoy bullshitting on the common channel. It's fun. Why should it be removed just for the fun of traitors, instead of the other 70% of the station?

[Shaps-cloud]

are we actually trying to say that people speaking to each other is a dumb feature and adds nothing, cuz if you are then I sincerely think you're not only playing the wrong game, but you're playing the entirely wrong genre of games

[invisty]

are we actually trying to say that people speaking to each other is a dumb feature and adds nothing

Shaps you're better than this.

[Zilenan91]

are we actually trying to say that people speaking to each other is a dumb feature and adds nothing

Shaps you're better than this.

The fuck are you even talking about

[Shaps-cloud]

are we actually trying to say that people speaking to each other is a dumb feature and adds nothing

Shaps you're better than this.

In a thread where people are boiling down removing the entire common channel to

i'm not so sure you lose much. you lose two things really which is "HELP [antagonist] IS ATTACK-HURK" and memes.

I don't see how I was strawmanning

[lumipharon]

Like 90% of communication in this game is over common.
Half the jobs would just be near silence all round long if you don't have common.

comms going down in round is great, it actually lets antags get shit down without the validhunter tide swarming them.
But not having it at all? This game seriously needs it - it would be pretty terrible without it.

[Shaps-cloud]

Like 90% of communication in this game is over common.
Half the jobs would just be near silence all round long if you don't have common.

comms going down in round is great, it actually lets antags get shit down without the validhunter tide swarming them.
But not having it at all? This game seriously needs it - it would be pretty terrible without it.

Yeah, you can take out all of tcomms for pretty much the entire round with one bomb no issue

[invisty]

In a thread where people are boiling down removing the entire common channel to

i'm not so sure you lose much. you lose two things really which is "HELP [antagonist] IS ATTACK-HURK" and memes.

I don't see how I was strawmanning

Well, to be fair, he is wrong. You do lose something valuable, which is an easy all-access chat channel.

But I don't think most people were acting under the illusion that such a change would be without perceptible "downsides".

So yes, to be entirely fair, you weren't wrong yourself.

[lumipharon]

Most people try the old bomb outside the r-wall though (instead of c4'ing in, or emagging etc/etc), which does pretty much nothing with a syndie bomb, which really needs a buff.

[Zilenan91]

The way to do it if you're a traitor is to C4 the APC, then C4 the hub.

[Gun Hog]

Absolutely not. The background chatter helps to provide entertainment as well as something upon which to focus while doing a boring job (Virology, Cargo, etc). For me, the loss of Common channel would greatly drive up my boredom, especially if I am in a role that does not belong to a department. Most antagonists have a way to prevent radio calls for help, anyway. Learn to deal with the threats you know anyone will have BEFORE you attack. It is like breaking into the armory and not expecting to be tased by the warden.

[oranges]

I know this is a shit idea because it showed up on singulo first

[Zilenan91]

Wasn't it Scones that asked for common channel to be removed

[PKPenguin321]

I know this is a shit idea because it showed up on singulo first

[firecage]

No. The times it was tried on the server, it failed horribly. Every round comms gets disabled, it is bloody horrible. Do you REALLY want to remove an important part of the game just so traitors have a slightly easier time killing someone with less effort? And add atmosphere? I highly doubt it would add anything to except annoyance to the atmosphere.

[LiamLime]

Every round comms gets disabled, it is bloody horrible.

Hm. I was thinking about how I wouldn't mind if this was tried, but then I read this and changed my mind. I think firecage's right, removing the common channel would not be the right way to do this. Making silent kills possible might be a good thing though, maybe with cheap traitor items (jammers) which silently disable earpieces for nearby people. Or-or-or how about a changeling screech which prints something like Your ears are burning, you cannot think straight enough to speak coherently or something more reasonable than that, which makes nearby people unable to use "say" for a while, but the screech is heard all over the station (like an explosion). So other people know a changeling used it somewhere, they however don't know where. The difference between this and voice-removing stings or whatever being that it's an AOE effect, meaning witnesses wouldn't be able to call for help either.

So yeah, while I disagree with the OP's proposed solution, I think there's something to the problem.

[MisterPerson]

An idea I considered for awhile was tying speaking over the radio or on common to the station intercoms in some manner. Maybe bouncing the message to a nearby one if it's on or actively requiring someone to stand nearby it, I dunno. Obviously the ability to just do say ;message is really important here; fiddling with the intercoms is a dealbreaker. Extra advantage: radios don't work in maint because maint doesn't have any intercoms. I never really thought either would actually make things better so I didn't bother pursuing them. I'm just posting them here to give people more ideas that aren't quite as severe as "kill common".

Radio/say disabling is also a possibility, although stunning a player and knocking out their headset literally leaves them helpless, which is not remotely fun. Probably not worth it unless the player knows their radio is off for whatever reason.

Common is obviously quite a useful and powerful tool for making the game more interesting and dynamic socially. Any potential gains on fun for the antag-victim dynamic are insignificant compared to the loss of pretty much everybody else's ability to do basically anything interesting.

[Phalanx300]

Make it so stunned people can't use their headset if its not already enabled.

[Malkevin]

An idea I considered for awhile was tying speaking over the radio or on common to the station intercoms in some manner. Maybe bouncing the message to a nearby one if it's on or actively requiring someone to stand nearby it, I dunno. Obviously the ability to just do say ;message is really important here; fiddling with the intercoms is a dealbreaker. Extra advantage: radios don't work in maint because maint doesn't have any intercoms. I never really thought either would actually make things better so I didn't bother pursuing them. I'm just posting them here to give people more ideas that aren't quite as severe as "kill common".

You can already say ":i blah" to speak into an intercom within a 3 tile range without having to fiddle with their archaic UI.

Incidentally, you can also use ":l" and ":r" to talk into radios that are held in your left or right hand respectively.

[Shaps-cloud]

Every round comms gets disabled, it is bloody horrible.

Hm. I was thinking about how I wouldn't mind if this was tried, but then I read this and changed my mind. I think firecage's right, removing the common channel would not be the right way to do this. Making silent kills possible might be a good thing though, maybe with cheap traitor items (jammers) which silently disable earpieces for nearby people. Or-or-or how about a changeling screech which prints something like Your ears are burning, you cannot think straight enough to speak coherently or something more reasonable than that, which makes nearby people unable to use "say" for a while, but the screech is heard all over the station (like an explosion). So other people know a changeling used it somewhere, they however don't know where. The difference between this and voice-removing stings or whatever being that it's an AOE effect, meaning witnesses wouldn't be able to call for help either.

So yeah, while I disagree with the OP's proposed solution, I think there's something to the problem.

That already exists, EMP's and that one EMP changeling screech. There are already ways for traitors to (mostly) silently disable radios in a small radius

[Saegrimr]

EMP screech is fucking robust as hell, but says "valid" quite like an EMP blast centered on yourself.

[onleavedontatme]

>man, parasting was really unfun, being stunned and muted then dead forever was terrible
>I know, what if comms didnt exist and I could silently kill everyone with a single stun

This would make the game completely unplayable with less than 50-60 people.

[Malkevin]

>implying department radio channels don't exist when you're something other than a greysuited goyim that exist only to give traitors easy maint access.

[oranges]

this should be in the shitty ideas thread.

[ShadowDimentio]

Hey buddy. You posted in the wrong thread. The bad ideas thread is down the hall to the left.

Tfw nobody quotes my post in agreement

Why live

[DrPillzRedux]

Take away all headsets from greys and all spares around the ship.

Give the captain a button that prevents people outside of heads from talking over general.

ruin everything

[LiamLime]

You know those authentication devices that you use to escalate to code red? There could be a "Radio silence" option added to those.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Am I the only one who likes the game for its social aspect?

I mean, seriously. Most of the game's systems are terrible. Combat is terrible, things like R&D are bad, most of them are just a recipe of clicks that you have to repeat over and over. Gets old quickly enough.

Talking to people though? Really doesn't. Which is why I like security and meaningful command roles (and assistant lately).

And now you want to make it so you don't have anyone to talk to a lot of the time (hell, something like service or medical channels barely even get used), AND you also are subject to be killed by something you have no hope of countering (unless perhaps you shy away from every person closer than 5 tiles to you), even just by screaming "AI help". What's the point? You want to be able to come up to anyone with a stunprod, without them being able to do anything? Department radio is all good and all, but security response time is not good now, and without common it will increase tenfold. Unless there's particularly good AI, or particularly caring coworker (if you do have ANY coworkers at all), anyone's fair game for traitors basically.

Paranoia, you say? Well, currently being antagonist can make me pretty fucking paranoid, it's a welcome challenge to complete the objectives because I know that if I'm careless, a train of harm batons is coming. I'm not sure why you believe that traitors should have an easy time. That seems counter intuitive. They are the ones with agenda, they should overcome challenges to complete it, not just be handed it on a silver platter.

And if being a regular member of crew is not exciting enough for you, well. Have you tried may be... roleplaying? Shocking, I know. Instead of being afraid of everyone around (I guess that's what you mean by "paranoia"), avoiding other people and just looting survival gear every round, actually start interacting with others more. It can be pretty fun, trust me.