Character mugshots in chat

[Glebguy]

Basically, when someone speaks they have the mugshot of their character appearing before text. Sometimes I can get confused for a couple of seconds after a crowd of people speaking and I need time to identify who said what.

[Reimoo]

I'm no coder but that seems unnecessarily complicated. Instead, I think the job indicator script should be on by default, to be honest.

[Remie Richards]

It can be done easily if I ever port Dismemberment, just use the same proc I use to make head items match the head of the person it came from.

[cedarbridge]

Seems like this should only be something possible for characters on screen (complicating the code requirements.) Radio speak is not really the sort of thing that should be broadcasting your face around.

[Cheridan]

Seems like this should only be something possible for characters on screen (complicating the code requirements.) Radio speak is not really the sort of thing that should be broadcasting your face around.

Radio chat previously had the image of whatever you were using to communicate, such as an intercom or headset. This was eventually removed because it was inconsistent (how can you tell that dude is talking from a headset?) and could be used to meta. However it's a good proof-of-concept. Adding an icon is easy.
The harder part is getting the icon to add. It'll have to wait until we have an easy way to get that, like Remie said. Even then, generating the icon every time someone says something could get intensive, so it should cache the icon somehow.

[Remie Richards]

Seems like this should only be something possible for characters on screen (complicating the code requirements.) Radio speak is not really the sort of thing that should be broadcasting your face around.

Radio chat previously had the image of whatever you were using to communicate, such as an intercom or headset. This was eventually removed because it was inconsistent (how can you tell that dude is talking from a headset?) and could be used to meta. However it's a good proof-of-concept. Adding an icon is easy.
The harder part is getting the icon to add. It'll have to wait until we have an easy way to get that, like Remie said. Even then, generating the icon every time someone says something could get intensive, so it should cache the icon somehow.

With Dismemberment I made a human icon cache, so I have some experience with caches now.
Once Miauw's glorious rewrite goes in, I can port just the head icon proc and start caching player heads.
Maybe have a cool like, silhouette with a quesiton mark for a face for "Unkown"s.

[Cipher3]

This shows the character's current face when they type? Good way to make voice changers more meta-able.

[Remie Richards]

This shows the character's current face when they type? Good way to make voice changers more meta-able.

I assume it wouldn't work over radios.
And voice changers aren't really that smart a thing to use in person with someone.

[cedarbridge]

This shows the character's current face when they type? Good way to make voice changers more meta-able.

Might have the cool side effect of reducing the number of nerds running around with gas masks on all shift.

[Spacemanspark]

This shows the character's current face when they type? Good way to make voice changers more meta-able.

Might have the cool side effect of reducing the number of nerds running around with gas masks on all shift.

One step closer to being a server where people actually RP-
Who am I kidding, that's never happening.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

And voice changers aren't really that smart a thing to use in person with someone.

What

If this thing won't show headgear and show real face, not only it would be useless if the owner wears headgear of any kind, but it would be incredibly metagamey. So yeah, if this is done, it should be done with all headgear on the icon, not the face.

[Miauw]

I'd like to mention that having a radio appear in front of messages received over radio would be hard, since radios don't speak themselves. The speaker is actually a "virtual" speaker and Hear() is called directly by Broadcast_Message().
It's possible to set the icon of the virtual speaker to a generic radio so you can get a radio in front of messages heard over radio, but you won't be able to have a specific radio.

Mugshots for normal messages are very possible and even easy to do, though! (well, if you don't mind the entire image of people appearing. Mugshots would be a bit more complicated and should probably be cached in the speaker to reduce lag)

[Remie Richards]

And voice changers aren't really that smart a thing to use in person with someone.

What

If this thing won't show headgear and show real face, not only it would be useless if the owner wears headgear of any kind, but it would be incredibly metagamey. So yeah, if this is done, it should be done with all headgear on the icon, not the face.

Voice changers aren't a smart thing to wear when you're talking to someone in person. Over a radio is fine, But when you've slipped up and you hair doesn't match the person you're faking, or you're wearing the wrong gear, it'll really give you away.

And how I'd do the mugshots is cache them by name, and since voice changers change the name you use in chat, you'd be using their face in chat Thus, no issue.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Er, and what if they get a haircut, a plastic surgery or become a monkey? What if they grow a beard? What if they are Unknown (aka voice changer without ID)?

That's besides that recognizing one's face solely by voice makes no sense, especially if you've never seen it before. Any mask or headgear will make this feature useless, as well, since you will not be able to recognize the face of the speaker.

If you're not going to make it so all headgear is shown, then don't do anything at all.