Remove round-start channel interception from heist+nuke ops

[Guest]

Title. I've always felt this sort of freebie advantage was overpowered and it would be better off for it to not be a thing for team-based antags to start with. Antagonists should have to work to get to be able to hear several comm nets at one time.

Hence why I suggest thusly: For the heist and mercenary shuttles a communications bug should spawn in the cockpit. How the comms bug would work is that you would have to enter the telecommunications satellite, plant the bug on the telecommunications hub, and then let the bug do its work in intercepting all station comms nets and transmitting them to the #unk channel. Effectively it would just enable the interception for syndicate headsets. This bug can be removed by anyone with a screwdriver and a multitool. It can be hacked or rewired to instead transmit #unk comms publicly to the station.

This gives antags more incentive to storm the telecommunications satellite for more than just to blow up comms, it's primarily for the purpose of emphasizing the importance of securing telecommunications to keep your comms advantage. A team can also opt not to go for it and try to execute their plan going in blind.

This would allow for gameplay to be more natural and unpredictable on both sides, and thus more fun.

ERT channel would be exempt from bugging, however. Doesn't really make any sense why that channel would be heard.

[Alberyk]

Just a small detail; the heister skipjack is unable to jump to telecomms, unlike the mercenary shuttle.

[Carver]

ERT channel would be exempt from bugging, however. Doesn't really make any sense why that channel would be heard.

Contrary to everything you've been trying to do with this suggestion and the other more ERT-based one, ERT does not need buffs in any way shape or form. ERT should not be lent Deathsquad-esque silence. ERT should be whitelisted before anyone even considers giving them more advantages.

As for the rest of the suggestion, I would be fine with the Raiders losing their immediate access to it due to the fact they're just plain old pirates. Nukies, on the other hand, are prepared paramilitaries with resources from outside benefactors. Nukies having the comms bugged already and being able to tap into them at the start makes sense considering their rather high-tech nature and aforementioned benefactors, in comparison to the lowlier pirates, who should be more reliant on their vessel and stealthy nature for eavesdropping purposes.

[Guest]

ERT channel would be exempt from bugging, however. Doesn't really make any sense why that channel would be heard.

Contrary to everything you've been trying to do with this suggestion and the other more ERT-based one, ERT does not need buffs in any way shape or form. ERT should not be lent Deathsquad-esque silence. ERT should be whitelisted before anyone even considers giving them more advantages.

As for the rest of the suggestion, I would be fine with the Raiders losing their immediate access to it due to the fact they're just plain old pirates. Nukies, on the other hand, are prepared paramilitaries with resources from outside benefactors. Nukies having the comms bugged already and being able to tap into them at the start makes sense considering their rather high-tech nature and aforementioned benefactors, in comparison to the lowlier pirates, who should be more reliant on their vessel and stealthy nature for eavesdropping purposes.

 

I'd be able to concede regarding nook ops getting round-start tapped comms, but I still do take issue with the part where the nuclear ops can effectively neutralize the effectiveness of an ERT because their favor somehow got them the ability to tap into an ERT comms bus that doesn't even exist on telecomms itself. One of the major advantages of an ERT is separate communication amongst themselves and nobody else outside of the team. I'd be cool with nukes hearing anything from Sec/Command/Engineering/Research/Medical/Supply/Service, but from an ERT tcoms hub that's actually situated on the Odin? I find it hard to believe that the nuke ops have that level of favors drawn out for their operation.

In regards to whitelisting. Our previous system had a player age blacklist, as Emergency Responders count as "antagonists" for the sake of keeping track of special circumstance roles. And they're heavily responsibility roles on top of that, since they're basically "the good guys" version of nuclear. I'm rather neutral on the concept of whitelisting ERT along with command, I would be for it if there was more people arguing for it as well, but, I suppose that's another suggestion to post about, maybe today, maybe not.

[Kaed]

I don't know about this. The heist game-mode already suffers from enough crippling weaknesses (poor armaments, shitty tools). Why do we need to take away one of their few concrete advantages? Speaking as someone who, as a heister, actually was adminbussed into being able to access telecomms, I can tell you that you are making it sound like they have things a hell of a lot easier than they actually do. Have you ever been on a heist team before? They have like 2 voidsuits and three rigs to go around, each of their rigs really only does one set of specific things (cloak OR hacking OR have nice armor values) unless you cannibalize the three rigs modules into one suit, and the 'hacker' suit doesn't even have spacefaring capabilities, you will die if you go into space with it. Everyone starts out with a single randomized weapon that ranges from 'shit' to 'decent' and an agent ID, and NO BACKPACK.

[Guest]

I don't know about this. The heist game-mode already suffers from enough crippling weaknesses (poor armaments, shitty tools). Why do we need to take away one of their few concrete advantages? Speaking as someone who, as a heister, actually was adminbussed into being able to access telecomms, I can tell you that you are making it sound like they have things a hell of a lot easier than they actually do. Have you ever been on a heist team before? They have like 2 voidsuits and three rigs to go around, each of their rigs really only does one set of specific things (cloak OR hacking OR have nice armor values) unless you cannibalize the three rigs modules into one suit, and the 'hacker' suit doesn't even have spacefaring capabilities, you will die if you go into space with it. Everyone starts out with a single randomized weapon that ranges from 'shit' to 'decent' and an agent ID, and NO BACKPACK.

 

They're pirates, though, not nuke ops. Of course they're piss-poorly equipped, I say that's the point. The narrative around heist should be a bunch of pirates trying to steal shit so that they don't miss several meals on the way back home.

[Kaed]

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They're pirates, though, not nuke ops. Of course they're piss-poorly equipped, I say that's the point. The narrative around heist should be a bunch of pirates trying to steal shit so that they don't miss several meals on the way back home.

 

That narrative is already served fine by the current setup, though. You don't need to make their lives even MORE miserable just to fit your personal desired standard for what a bunch of mangy pirates have or don't have.

Though, personally, I think it would be interesting if a different spin was taken on the matter than as it is done now. Give the pirates access to intercepted comms channels from the beginning, but make it an object on the ship itself they can sit next to and listen to, i.e. one of the heisters was the captain and gets to use the interception radio because they stay on the ship, and they have to warn the others about problems they overhear on it.

Slightly on the same topic, I'd like for the pirates to be able to destroy captured pirate radios somehow. I get sick of certain players who I am not going to name always grabbing a radio off the first dead heist member they see and listening in on the private channel or spending ages insulting the pirates over it like petulant toddlers.

[Arrow768]

I dont think that completely removing roundstart access for heisters is a good idea.

The Tcoms Bug sounds nice at first, but it still takes quite some time to get into tcoms (which you cant right now, without adminbus) and set it up.

So you are now 40 minutes into the round and have achieved nothing but setup a tcoms bug.

But I would support the idea of a wall intercom in the ships cockpit, that listens into all the station channels.

So basically you have to decide if you want more man power on the station or if you want to have some intel on whats going on.

[K0NFL1QT]

I'm not in favor of both crew-based antagonists having preset access to every channel on the station. These channels are encrypted. That shit takes time and specialist technical knowledge to break, and it's just given away as a handwave. I like the idea of them having to earn it, or decide whether to proceed without it.

 

But I would support the idea of a wall intercom in the ships cockpit, that listens into all the station channels.

So basically you have to decide if you want more man power on the station or if you want to have some intel on whats going on.

 

This might be an acceptable compromise. Except it would lead to the return of the dreaded 'unreachable bigmouth' nuke op, who just does nothing but troll the station over comms and move the ship if crew get near.

[Kaed]

This might be an acceptable compromise. Except it would lead to the return of the dreaded 'unreachable bigmouth' nuke op, who just does nothing but troll the station over comms and move the ship if crew get near.

 

I see this far, far more often from crewmembers who raid a dead pirate's headset and spend ages insulting them over their private merc channel. If I have to suffer through that in 2/3 raider rounds, you can all suffer through some antagonistic comms messages.

[K0NFL1QT]

Taunting nukies with looted headsets is just stupid.

You put it on and say nothing, and you listen to their plans. Unless they're Vox, in which case you get only squawking.