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Improvements Feedback Thread.
By Slither at Feb 3, 2022 7:25 PM
It appears that the ability to 'turn off' and 'turn on' televisions, wall screens, and touch screens has been depreciated in a recent code update.
I know that you can tune feeds in and out of monitors, but being able to turn a television off without having to completely reconfigure the feeds when you want to turn it back on was a very useful feature, and I'm not sure what we gain from taking it away.
Among other things, it's very convenient for RP to be able to turn off the TV instead of having to fiddle with the feeds. Additionally, turning a TV on and off is something the rest of the rooms sees and can react to, whereas I don't -think- there is a room emit for tuning feeds.
Please restore the turn off/turn on function on TVs, wall screens, and touch screens. (Recently purchased monitors aren't supposed to be able to be turned off/on by design, since it makes them more useful in certain security situations.)
By Pavane at Feb 5, 2022 7:30 PM
Separately, one of the advantages of new-style security monitors was that they could not be turned off, which meant that in certain security setups they were a way to protect against intruders.
The new tune function means that security monitors can now be effectively turned off by an intruder. Rather than being the same price as a television but with different functionality (can't be turned off but no TV feed, can be turned off but has a TV feed), monitors are now just worse TVs with the same features.
I would encourage staff to put back the 'can't be turned off' feature on security monitors, or lower their price. Perhaps security monitors always show updates from connected cameras even if they are not tuned to those cameras, or something like that.
By Pavane at Feb 5, 2022 7:34 PM
I agree with Pavane here. I'm not sure why turn television/screen off/on was disabled, whether this was intended or not. But the tuning feature doesn't work to 'tune' out broadcasts of feeds. It works to make it so you can't look at an unlimited amount of rooms/feeds by looking at a screen any more, that's all - and from what I understand that's how it's intended. So even tuning a feed to 'inactive', it's still broadcasting to the room and without an ability to turn off a screen, you're in a way where you cannot stop that kind of spam regardless if you want to or not.
I hope this wasn't an intended change. I don't see any benefit if it was at all. Maybe I'm not seeing something here, a bigger picture, but to me it just takes away functionality.
By crashdown at Feb 5, 2022 10:53 PM
There was a 'turn off all feeds' function that stood in for no longer being able to use wiring hubs as on/off switches for security systems, but I don't see it anymore. Is it gone?
I still think a power button on hubs would be great.
By Pavane at Feb 8, 2022 10:21 PM
I removed "turn off all feeds" since you can just turn monitors off now.
If your guests or intruders can just turn off your monitors, consider moving your monitors or just turning them back on? I don't see the problem here.
(Edited by MirageGM at 9:17 pm on 2/9/2022)
By MirageGM at Feb 9, 2022 9:17 PM
Yeah, those are just the two most prominent features the old networks had that the new ones don't that I have noticed.
- Security monitors could be put in an entryway hooked to a thermo so that someone sneaking in could be seen and not turn the monitor off.
- Wiring hubs could be used to turn off all feeds to a television so you could use the TV sometimes to monitor a security network and sometimes to just watch TV.
By Pavane at Feb 9, 2022 9:21 PM
- Security monitors could be put in an entryway hooked to a thermo so that someone sneaking in could be seen and not turn the monitor off.
This is no longer possible at all. Cameras in the same room as a monitor they're broadcasting to will not broadcast to that monitor at all. This causes infinite loopbacks so it was disabled, and it's not coming back.
I'll talk with Johnny about being able to block broadcasts on a hub.
By MirageGM at Feb 9, 2022 9:26 PM
Cameras in the same room as a monitor they're broadcasting to will not broadcast to that monitor at all. This causes infinite loopbacks so it was disabled, and it's not coming back.I guess you could connect the thermo to a separate network.
By beandip at Feb 9, 2022 9:28 PM
Thanks, Mirage!
The end of the thermo setup hits a lot of security setups, but to be honest it might be better for it to be handled more elegantly than the old thermo+monitor way. Maybe I'll do some thinking and post an idea.
By Pavane at Feb 9, 2022 9:28 PM
Just to be clear Mirage's change doesn't mean cameras don't show up on a monitor if they're in the same room, it just doesn't broadcast. You can look at the television and see the feed.
By crashdown at Feb 9, 2022 9:29 PM
By MirageGM at Feb 9, 2022 9:30 PM
That probably is slow enough that the old 'oh shit someone just came in with me' alarm isn't functional in the same way, though.
Is that true for motion detectors as well, I wonder?
It may be that some kind of 'intruder detector' a la weapons or cybernetics detectors is what should get an @idea.
By Pavane at Feb 9, 2022 9:31 PM
It's true for every sensor that sends a message into the network.
By MirageGM at Feb 9, 2022 9:32 PM
I'm really glad that the 'travel end' message got added back into vehicles, but one of the changes broke chained flight movement and the validate command and it's very frustrating.
Mirage: RSB asked me to hide this.
(Edited by MirageGM at 11:17 am on 2/12/2022)
By RedSteelButterfly at Feb 12, 2022 10:29 AM
I'm confused as to why a flying robot shouldn't just have to fly up a room of they don't want to be bonked about... They can fly so going up to avoid this is an option for them in places that make sense (mainly outside) and isn't where didn't make sense (mostly inside). Sure, the view isn't as good up there but if you want the reward, take the risk.
By Grey0 at Feb 12, 2022 6:14 PM
It's to make them more annoying and let them still surveil an area.
By MirageGM at Feb 12, 2022 6:24 PM
In real life, if I'm in a restaurant or bar with TV screens broadcasting sporting events, news, etc., it's very easy to mentally tune out and "ignore" what's going on on those screens and instead focus on the conversations I'm directly involved in, or other things around the room. I'd expect the same to be possible in Sindome. I find the removal of the ignore/watch commands to be frankly unrealistic.
Is there a reason for this beyond forcing arguments over what to watch?
By Blackbird71 at Feb 13, 2022 3:32 PM
I was so relieved and grateful when the /ignore function was introduced because of inescapable ad spam during roleplay, if nothing else would love the ability to still do that even if ignoring actual televisions is not going to be an option again.
By Nymphali at Feb 13, 2022 3:55 PM
The ignore command for TVs is not the same ignore command for monitors.
By bitMuse at Feb 13, 2022 4:03 PM
Sorry for double post, the proof is I can still use ignore despite the monitor one being removed.
By bitMuse at Feb 13, 2022 4:03 PM
You mean ad screens? I've been testing it out and wasn't sure if it was still working or not, hard to tell some times. If it is then disregard my previous post!
By Nymphali at Feb 13, 2022 4:07 PM
The /ignore feature is great, but the spam of an active TV in the room can be even worse for keeping up with RP than the ad screens.
By Blackbird71 at Feb 14, 2022 1:24 AM
FORCE OUT OF VEHICLE
Is this different from eject?
By 0x1mm at Feb 14, 2022 1:07 PM
In that someone outside the vehicle can drag the driver out of the vehicle? Yes.
By MirageGM at Feb 14, 2022 1:08 PM
Can we request cybernetic butt magnets for motorcycles now? ;)
By Blackbird71 at Feb 14, 2022 1:21 PM
If it's going to be possible for
whole people to pass through open vehicle windows, I think it only makes sense for items or money to be freely given back and forth through them as well.
Security systems and/or safety harnesses could reasonably be factored in the contested action as well, if they aren't already.
By 0x1mm at Feb 14, 2022 2:02 PM
I don't think anyone has ever contested it's not possible for items to be passed through vehicle windows? I just don't want to program it lol. There's other stuff to work on.
By MirageGM at Feb 14, 2022 2:22 PM
You can pass items through windows with the throw command. Money can go in money containers to achieve this effect.
By crashdown at Feb 14, 2022 2:25 PM
Though I guess technically that only works one way at this time.
By crashdown at Feb 14, 2022 2:26 PM
Rolling windows down and vmoting are basically RP tools. Why discourage their use?
Anyone who was using their vehicle defensively was going to keep it locked and rolled up anyway, and characters could already be forced from vehicles with unlocked or missing doors with eject.
By 0x1mm at Feb 14, 2022 3:12 PM
Because locked vehicle doors can be picked.
By MirageGM at Feb 14, 2022 3:14 PM
I am excited and terrified by this :D
"This heft affects the relative damage a vehicle will do on ramming"
By fopsy at Feb 15, 2022 3:40 PM
Love the vehicle billboard (and the 'board' system in general for information). Any chance we could get a 'passenger limit' row on the info readout?
By himble at Feb 15, 2022 5:45 PM
Hahaha I have never been so simultaneously "This is amazing!" and "Fuck my life" over something before. Amazing work Mirage. Your ability to take rather coarse and simple systems and turn them into something balanced by complexity rather than hard limits will never cease to amaze me.
By RedSteelButterfly at Feb 15, 2022 5:48 PM
Did anyone else read this...
All of this has been EXTREMELY TESTED WITH GREAT Scrutiny
With a /s tag?
As in, "Have fun beta testing my code in prod. Muwhahahahaha."
??
By Hek at Feb 16, 2022 7:41 PM
Wasn't sure if this would be better off for the ideas section or for here, but I guess since it is tangentially related to recent vehicle changes it might be good here.
With changes being made to vehicle power and fuel consumption, would it be possible to revisit putting a publicly available ethi tower on Gold? I'm sure people are going to be able to adjust to any changes in fuel consumption but it'd still be convenient to have something near the Lucky Dragon/Southside Motors for civilian use.
By himble at Feb 16, 2022 9:32 PM
I think @himble has a great idea but I'd favor more promotion of the tow truck role to create RP intersections around the need for ethanol.
By ReeferMadness at Feb 16, 2022 9:34 PM
It appears that the security update has depreciated the ability of wall screens to take multiple inputs without a wiring hub. Not sure if this is a bug or working as intended.
In general, the update seems to have now collapsed security monitors, televisions, and wall screens into essentially identical devices. I would encourage staff to consider differentiating more between these three types of screens, either by restoring some of the prior differences. If something strikes me maybe I will @idea some differences.
By Pavane at Feb 17, 2022 1:14 PM
Working as designed and not going to change.
By MirageGM at Feb 17, 2022 1:31 PM
So, a bit of feedback on the self evaluation of your driving skill. I really don't know how the check works, but with my PC at least, it feels kind too unfocused. I'm not getting useful information out of it, because the 'benchmark' is either 'easy' or 'challenging' every time, and it seems to alternate between the two on the same vehicle.
If, based on my PC's stats, this is what you want, cool. But I feel like the target for this ability is probably a lower UE character, so maybe a bit of tweaking would be good in that regard.
By RedSteelButterfly at Feb 17, 2022 2:23 PM
I think the monitor rebalance is not quite right. The item formerly known as a security monitor now known as a flatscreen monitor is the same price as a television but considerably worse, with only 1 feed. I would encourage making it 6 feeds like the device also called a security monitor, just with no TV.
Then you'd have two identically priced items: televisions, with fewer feeds but can access television channels, and (flatscreen) monitors, with more feeds but no TV channels.
Alternately, the current (flatscreen) monitor price should be drastically reduced since it has only a single feed. I don't think that's the right answer, though, since it may encourage bloat by having people put four or five (flatscreen) monitors in a room. I do like that the changes mean that large security setups will now have multiple monitors, but I don't think every security setup should need that.
By Pavane at Feb 17, 2022 7:46 PM
I can say with confidence you don't know what the prices are because the stores haven't been updated. :P
And also half the monitors in the game are named incorrectly.
By bitMuse at Feb 17, 2022 7:47 PM
I can say with confidence you don't know what the prices are because the stores haven't been updated. :P
And also half the monitors in the game are named incorrectly.
By MirageGM at Feb 17, 2022 7:47 PM
There are places in the game that access 'list prices' that are not storefronts.
By Pavane at Feb 17, 2022 7:47 PM
"High performance engines use less. High efficiency ones across the board use a little more."
I assume this is reversed and just a typo?
By DancingRoo at Feb 19, 2022 11:36 AM
No, it's correct. It's supposed to mean relative to what they were, not generally.
By MirageGM at Feb 19, 2022 11:37 AM
It seems like AV stalls are more likely at a given character skill level, and I know the evaluation for driving difficulty is meant to be fuzzy, but my initial impressions is that players relying on that evaluation feedback as to whether their characters could use an AV safely would probably find themselves crashing with some frequency.
Flying is really unforgiving for new players, it might be an idea to fuzz the feedback a little more in the direction of players overcompensating with skills rather than undercompensating, just because of how bad the outcomes can be.
By 0x1mm at Feb 19, 2022 12:31 PM
Flying is not supposed to be something that's easy for new characters, it is one of the riskiest ventures because it is so powerful. This balance is intended. Handle this in character. The outcomes are also minor, and scale to your speed.
Edit: Edited to clarify my first statement, as it was too vague and easy to take out of context.
(Edited by MirageGM at 1:01 pm on 2/19/2022)
By MirageGM at Feb 19, 2022 12:57 PM
Additionally, I'm going to say that crashing is a very, very minor consequence and this game is a game about losses. If you crash once, it isn't the end of your character. We want you to make mistakes, and you should be embracing those mistakes are part of your character development.
By MirageGM at Feb 19, 2022 12:59 PM
I don't disagree, and I'm not saying it should be made easier. I think difficulty itself is something separate from feedback provided to players, and even if something is difficult it makes sense to communicate that; or at least not miscommunicate it.
I am saying that system feedback given to a player telling them something will be easy, when it is in fact still very difficult isn't preparing players to roll with consequences, and may frustrate them while they're trying to learn.
By 0x1mm at Feb 19, 2022 1:19 PM
I'll take your feedback to the staff meeting.
By MirageGM at Feb 19, 2022 1:21 PM
The @upgrade-tats is a cool addition, but I'm a bit confused on the format. Could we possibly see an example of what an @upgraded tattoo would look like?
By svetlana at Feb 20, 2022 10:32 PM
I avoided adding literal examples, but try to provide extensive guidance, because there's a lot of variation among tattoos and I didn't want to unduly give cookie cutter direction that resulted in folks Brief messages all looking more or less the same over time. Y'all are a pretty creative bunch, after all. :)
By Johnny at Feb 20, 2022 11:56 PM
Can the tattoo thing be a toggle? I like seeing my tattoos and other people's when I look at them and tbh i don't feel like bothering with figuring out a way to describe a description of some artwork. And I'm definitely not going to walk around looking at people's exposed body parts to see their tattoos.
By Stiza13 at Feb 21, 2022 10:14 AM
It appears that there is no way to see a person's detailed tattoos in a photo, or at least I can't figure out the syntax. 'Look at right shoulder in photo' or 'Look at photo's right shoulder' or any other variation I can think of doesn't seem to cut it.
Given that photos of a person are a way to preserve their likeness, it seems like this should be something that ought to be possible.
By Pavane at Feb 21, 2022 11:27 PM
For the new tattoo system, What should be done about tattoos that were removed by overwriting them with a blank message? Do we just put in an empty 'brief form' as well, or is there some other process we should apply?
By RedSteelButterfly at Feb 22, 2022 9:57 AM
It seems to be possible to apply aliases to cameras and in doing so, replace the default (their serial) forever. This could cause problems if you later want to check what the serial of your aliased cam is because you're being taxed or something.
Ideally, the serial for a networked cam with an alias should still be findable some way, even if it's in the details of scan results.
By Rhicora at Feb 23, 2022 12:01 AM
Transcoder feeds being slashed down to 3 makes the whole thing little more than an expensive and complicated novelty.
I know I feel willing to spend huge amounts of time and effort on expensive in-game tools under a certain amount of expectation they're not going to get phased out unexpectedly in an update.
By 0x1mm at Feb 23, 2022 11:19 AM
It is a fraction of the cost of a monitor, has more feeds than the average monitor, and cannot be stolen except through death. I feel like you're overreacting.
By MirageGM at Feb 23, 2022 11:21 AM
It requires multiple items, both chrome installed in a character and devices, but more to the point they are very literally fixed in their functionality. Going from unlimited feeds to 3 is a dramatic decrease by any metric. I don't think that's an overreaction.
By 0x1mm at Feb 23, 2022 11:32 AM
There was never a future where this item was going to be allowed to have infinite feeds forever. It has been brought in line with the rest of the game.
Yes, it is a nerf. It is now balanced.
By MirageGM at Feb 23, 2022 11:33 AM
So I'm not just being a grump about it: The new transcoder controls and tuning commands are nice, and I like it much more than the menu-driven version, lot of dynamic options to switch around on the fly while doing other things.
If there was some additional hardware that could bring in more feeds, like a co-GPU or multiple transcoding chip modules installed in parallel, it might end up more in line with the other output device options.
By 0x1mm at Feb 23, 2022 4:46 PM
The new job boards are cool! It'd be nice if you could 'touch' them like the vehicle and chrome boards and see job duties, though.
By Pavane at Feb 26, 2022 9:44 PM
By Nymphali at Feb 27, 2022 11:14 AM
And today, Mirage introduces the 'Hold my beer!' mechanic. Brilliant.
By RedSteelButterfly at Feb 27, 2022 11:44 AM
Finally, talking on the phone while driving is a bad thing to do.
As is swapping clothes on a bike.
Time for some RTC madness!
By fopsy at Feb 27, 2022 11:46 AM
Would it be possible if with certain car interfaces that this check -doesn't- occur given what it is supposed to be doing in regards to driving?
By Dawnshot at Feb 27, 2022 12:07 PM
I love the holding items / driving update, way more than I have any right to.
If dropping a drink and or cigarette on yourself, when you instinctively 'free hands' at the messaging, doesn't force a loss of control check I'll be sad.
By Nyarlabrothep at Feb 27, 2022 3:05 PM
The new transcoder updates are a godsend, but xhelp yellow isn't exactly my first color choice to receive large amounts of text in.
By Something_Wicked at Feb 28, 2022 12:30 AM
No idea how to fix it or I would, not an intentional choice.
By MirageGM at Feb 28, 2022 12:36 AM
Clearly I have no idea how the coloring works on the backend, but from how the yellow color bleed seems to reset with each new feed, it seems to be coming from the \[device:XXXXX\] header.
By 0x1mm at Feb 28, 2022 12:46 AM
Can tow trucks now tow motorcycles?
By Blackbird71 at Feb 28, 2022 3:41 PM
VEHICLE PART INSPECTION
This is so, so good. One suggestion might be if the 'fuel efficiency' stat was named 'fuel consumption' so that the syntax of reduces/increases jived with what's happening.
By 0x1mm at Feb 28, 2022 3:48 PM
I would love if instead of the brief tattooed message, 'expose body part' produced the detailed tattoo message.
By Papertiger at Mar 3, 2022 8:52 PM
I would love if instead of the brief tattooed message, 'expose body part' produced the detailed tattoo message.
By Papertiger at Mar 3, 2022 8:52 PM
