1 dismissal Huge plothole/bug with radios

[DekserBecauseILostMyAccoun]

Essentially, anyone on Odin can read and speak with Aurora via radio. If that's possible at such a distance, why do fax's exist?

Devs pls fix

[Carver]

I think this can't really be easily fixed, given any good fix for it would make people unable to communicate between z-levels.

At best you could give them their own frequencies outside of the reach of antags/station roles.

[KingOfThePing]

People are told not to do it - at best only when the shuttle is already in transit. 

 

You could expand this argument to "why do faxes exist when there are long-range holocomms" etc. etc. I guess you could force the Odin to be on a different NTnet but why bother if you can just /not/ do it.

[DekserBecauseILostMyAccoun]

Gotta love the plotholes.

[KingOfThePing]

its not a plot hole its a technical limitation.

[CampinKiller]

I just RP as not being able to hear it until the shuttle is in transit

[Arrow768]

If you want a IC explanation:
Sector Administration requires that important communication is sent via fax for tracking and handling purposes.
Think of it as a IT service desk with a e-mail address that you have to mail to get help.

For an OOC explanation:
We have two major usecases that require communication from the odin Z level to the station Z level:

Response team "guidance" in the from of a ERT Commander

Antags Listening to the things that happen on the station.

Due to the way tcoms work at the moment it it not possible to restrict a relay to certain areas.

In my opinion its too much work to implement a system that can handle all these different usecases.
Therefore voting for dismissal

[SatinsPristOTD]

We could just respite the fax machines to be something a lot more... future friendly, but still have the same function? I don't want a radio communication to Central, as it implies there's a reason for them to have someone CONSTANTLY sitting there, monitoring a facility they should already trust.

Plus, the "fax" is private, and can't be heard by the Janitor, or that merc with a Jayce hammer.

Also, we have canon instances of knowing our communications isn't exactly the most reliable and secure thing out there, so sensitive stuff should be sent via "fax" (Or whatever the heck we call it)

Edited November 30, 2021 by SatinsPristOTD
Added a thing about comms

[KingOfThePing]

well, I agree that it machine itself could be named differently to something more sci-fi(ish). 

 

IC the fax and fax machines work independently from telecomms - both the Aurora and the Odin (as are most of not all interstellar vessels and station) are fitted with a blespace communications arry - it utilizes, as the name implies, actual bluspace (hence the "could be" unreliability) instead of radio waves or something similar. So the tech behind is is actually lore friendly and sci-fi, just not the name of the thing itself. Maybe we can re-name it for NBT, if it really is needed, since the distances there are even greater.

[stev]

To address the weirdness of Odin chars getting every station channel, we could easily just reduce the number of channel keys their headsets spawn with - Common and maybe Command for all of them, with maybe the key for their relevant department channel i.e. Sec frequency for checkpoint specialists, Service for bartenders/chefs, Medical for medical specialists, etc.

[Marlon P.]

Im a radical with lore meeting mechanics. And in this case i side with arrow. A handwave about it being extraordinarily expensive ro directly contact CC is stablished by the command consoles' flavortext when DMing the odin. At the point we establish radio contact from the odin its presumed the expense is temporarily deemed worth the effort. See: briefing erts. 

Its not a plot hole or a technical limitation with this.

[Triogenix]

Just axe the station channels from OdinSec headsets, make them only have the ERT channel, same with the chef, bartender, and medical personel. They're who I see do it most often and ensuring they can't hear or communicate with the station will reduce a lot of the issues people seem to have.

[Kintsugi]

Overmap will technically fix this.