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Implemented Landlines & Pagers

M!NT

M!NT

Village Elder
GALUNGA
Joined
Apr 13, 2020
Messages
479


NOTE: This is an idea that has been approved, and we will likely implement it in some capacity. I am making this thread as a way to take community suggestions on features here.

CMU, CWU, CCA, etc. should move away from faction radios and towards landline phones & pagers to incentivize face-to-face RP and heighten immersion. However, phones are a complicated system. I propose that for organizational purposes we implement both PSTNs and PBXs that can be controlled in-game so that factions have the ultimate control over the layout of their phone systems, yet inter-faction communication can still be possible.

Here is an example of what that would look like. Keep in mind, this is just an example:
example_phone_dir.png

In this example, if someone from the assembly needed to call the CMU front desk for an emergency- they could approach the phone in the assembly and dial the CMU prefix (9) and the reception number (000) or #9-000. Or, if Heartwick needs to call Newcastle he can just dial #011 without the need of an extension.

When this happens, we should have a bell ringing sound effect that plays from the radius of the phone entity with an accompanying chat message. Something along the lines of "The X phone is ringing..". When a player presses E while looking at the phone it will stop ringing, and then they can use '/phone' and /phonewhisper' to talk to whomever is on the other end. This person can also put the phone on speaker so that everyone in a radius can hear what is being said.

Pagers might work a little bit differently. I suppose it could just be a one directional chat message to whomever possesses that specific pager. Down the line we could think about integrating a UI for this to make things easier to follow.

We should also consider allowing bad actors to plant bugs with approval (and accompanying RP success) so they can listen into conversations in game. On the flip side, we should allow union players to be able to search for and find bugs with the right tools and RP success.

To summarize on my proposed integration for this:
  1. Implement a PBX and PSTN system in game, similar to radio channels but with routing.
  2. Add placeable phone items to hook into PBXs.
  3. Add '/phone' '/phonewhisper' and '/hangup' chat messages to interact with said phone item.
  4. Add '/togglespeaker' which turns on/off speaker
  5. Add '/speakervolume' which affects the speaker volume (radius of people able to hear and speak when speaker is on)
  6. Add pager item which, when equipped and connected to a PBX, will receive one way messages similar to a request device.
  7. Consider implementing a system so that resistance characters can add bugs, and that those bugs can be found and removed.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below!

 
my old suggestion finally coming into fruition... it's enough to make a grown man cry
 
UPDATE: This has been partially implemented. Below is a demo of how the landline will most likely work IG.
 
I'm partially just putting this up here for myself to keep track of, but also for transparency for those watching the development of this.

I currently am at >1200 loc and I'm about 50% complete with everything.
I have all the basics done:
  1. Landline phone item & entity with the interactions and basic UI complete.
  2. Touch-dialing added
  3. Add and implement commands /phone(say/whisper/yell), /hangup, etc
  4. I wrote a basic exchange and commands that go with it to add/edit/remove exchanges and connections.
  5. I've integrated the landline phone into the switcher so a player can send and receive calls and speak over an active connection.
I want to get what I have up on development for testing this upcoming weekend.

Features yet to be implemented:
  1. Fitting pagers into this system (this needs further discussion)
  2. A UI to indicate call status to the player while in an active call
  3. Phone should hangup automatically after player has left radius of the phone
  4. Adding speakerphone and maybe conference calls down the line as well
  5. Hooking up the switcher to the DB so that it is all persistent
  6. A way to add/remove/detect bugs.
On the topic of bugs: I see this becoming a really cool feature if used effectively. I want to see about having them be individual items that players can craft with the right equipment and skills.
Perhaps they 'record' to cassette tapes that need to be retrieved and replaced. Then these cassette tapes can be 'played' (aka, shows a text box of the conversations that went through the line while the tape was recording). This is so that if a line is tapped, then the bad actor has to return to the phone frequently to the bug to replace the tape; increasing the risk.
Detecting these devices can be done via checking for impedance changes on the line, but should also require a high enough character skill level and rolls (with a timeout so that in the case of a failure, that line can't be looked at again for X amount of time). This could all be rolled into a device.
For all of this to be useful factions should prioritize having discussions over the phone. Otherwise its just a waste of effort.

There are a few pending items and questions yet unanswered:
  1. Need to work with faction leaders to figure out how we will use this (if it isn't used then its a waste after all). Like, will CWU allow shops to have phones? If so what is the process for getting a phone? etc
  2. Will loyalists get them in their housing? If so at what tier? We could even sell them in shops..
  3. I need an icon graphic for the chat to be made and added to the cuntent pack
  4. Lastly, we need to talk about how we will keep track of the phone network. Will we just have a directory on the forums? Should there be a page on ig computers that is updated in real time?
Anyways, thats all I have.

P.S. check out this cool distortion effect for when someone yells over the phone:
image.png


:cool:
 
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring....BANANA PHONE! Dum dum dee dum dee dum........
 
atle said in the update thing there would be TVs as well to play media so where is that
 
dawg I need a phone booth so that I (the worlds best city 8 civil protection department detective) can step inside the booth on a rainy day and call dispatch (aka, big ‘jim’, a fat call operator in District 3 who monitors request devices and sends out calls to CPs on patrol) to update them on my ongoing homicide case


add payphones
 
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