Goonhub
09-29-2019, 11:57 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-30-2019, 12:16 AM by Silvercloud29. Edited 5 times in total.)
I love the idea of needing a radio man (Backpack portable radio station that runs off of a power cell) in telesci zones till you find the comms array of some kind. Also makes the communications officer viable in not just manta but other maps too.
As for cellphones and how to not make them useless:
Well for right now. The problem is that radio comms outclasses everything. And there wouldn't be any reason to use cellphones when even in other z levels you have cellphones unless there was some form of way they play into the communications system.
Here are my thoughts:
NT Radio headsets only work with NT radio equipment that has been approved by a NT comms officer. On the station we would have the best transmission since it's our station, once you leave the station you lose touch with it. On other Z levels. If you find Nt approved gear, modify gear that lets headsets connect to the NT comms network, or fix old relays. You can chat again with your headset. but only within range of that relay. (example, say a comms dish in the space diner has a transmission range of 12 tiles in a circle around it. outside of that, nada)
The best man to modify or restore relays would be a comms officer, but if hes not around or dead. a engineer or mechanic can probably do it less effectively.
Now, onto other forms of communciation.
So here, the idea is that radio headsets are the instant, generally reliable (till someone breaks the comms array on station) always on, easy to use communications method with a way of expanding some limited function into other Z levels.
Where as Messaging and calling are alternate forms of communication that are always available, but they aren't generally cheap or instant to use. And really help tie their devices together.
When it comes to station side Messaging, it should be instant and very, very cheap. Well in a comms relay activated area. or cheap and near instant if the relay is broken (Like bouncing a message off a sat dish the station may be near) Example would be like, Relay active, NT charges 1 - 5 credits per message. using a Satcomm dish on station would be like 10 credits for a 2 -3 second delay. And this should scale up depending how far you are from the station. (Depends on how the admins want to set this up since it may effect lore a bit) For example, trench to oshan or manta. Little delay for almost no cost to message. Being out on some telesci locations, at least a good 200 - 1000 creds per message with a good 30 - 60 second delay. Are you dying and need help fast? Use the premium NT quantum messager beaming service. You're looking at paying a good 1.5k to 10k credits for at least a 10 - 20 delay. That's fast! hope you got deep pockets though.
Add a feature to the messenger to give out group messaging invites so you can have a messenger group like you do for departments, with accept and deny in the links. And we could have a nice alternative for when the radio relay goes offline.
Calling: Different from messaging, it might be cheaper in the long run to call someone or someplace rather than message them all the time. Calling charges you a forward connection cost and possibly a streaming fee surcharge. (Thats NT for ya. Again This should be something that is effected by distance from station. Say on some z levels it might be an upfront 500 - 2000 credit charge, with a 10 - 50 cred per min rate, but you are connected for as long as either party wants. Or money runs out.) However it's only a 1 on 1 connection. You could put the person on speaker phone. or privately talk to them with your headset. There are ways to lose and drop your call. Like being tasered, arc shocked, emp'd (by grenades or the singularity) teleported, ending up in some areas (Some telesci zones might have poor signal unles you got a radio man with you.) If a call with someone gets dropped you can reconnect to that person for a 50% reduced charge though.
So with these ideas. Messaging and Calling have their strengths and weaknesses. So what about the devices? Well a lot of the stuff in this post is just idea extensions of the main post, expanding on them and probably using 4 different types of devices. Most devices are going to need your ID to register that device to you, so not only can you be charged for your usage fees, but also tracking reasons. The secmate terminals might even be able to see who owns what devices. (Or other things.)
With that in mind. Here's what I was thinking.
PDAs should still be kept in the game and still be a thing. However their messenger will be upgraded to the new messenger idea posted above but generally keep about the same functionality as they already have. Being a great utility platform for crew members with their high storage capacity, being able to use pretty much any application and can use the old data carts. However people don't generally start with these anymore, like most civilian department. only some jobs will. Since there will be new toys to take over. Also PDAs should be a decent mid teir price, not too cheap but not too expensive 2000 range maybe
Burner Phones. Very cheap, like 50 - 100 credits each. You can choose to pre load them with a number of credits when you buy them from the vendor though they have the option to scan your ID into them, but thats not why you want to use them (Since well. you want to use them to threaten dept heads. Set up the bomb. etc) Very cheap, throw away POS flip phones. Clowns start with this, maybe a handful of other jobs.
The NT Standard 1. The first of its kind intelliphone (What a Smartphone would be) in production across the system months a go. and only NT now started to give it to some of their employees. It's a sleek, mid range phone that can not only make calls, but can function partly as a crewmans PDA as well. Letting them take atmos reads, and doing other functions. It might not be able to load carts like a PDA and doesn't have nearly as much storage space as one. It's a great multi device in the palm of your hand (maybe can even give some links to the wiki about your job and stuff with it too) Most crew should start with this instead of PDAs. (or an option of either or since they are priced about the same)
(Some high teir expensive phone name) This phone does it all and then some. Only the captain, (And maybe other job roles can start with it, or you cna use space bux to start with the bigger phone) Phone just that just came out and is the next biggest top of the line intelliphone, it can do anything the NT phone can do and more! More storage space, can load PDA carts. Can do speaker phone calls. great for your long distance corporate conferences! All for the low price of 8000 (?) credits! (Probably add more features to this phone as well)
I hope anyone likes some of these ideas.
As for cellphones and how to not make them useless:
Well for right now. The problem is that radio comms outclasses everything. And there wouldn't be any reason to use cellphones when even in other z levels you have cellphones unless there was some form of way they play into the communications system.
Here are my thoughts:
NT Radio headsets only work with NT radio equipment that has been approved by a NT comms officer. On the station we would have the best transmission since it's our station, once you leave the station you lose touch with it. On other Z levels. If you find Nt approved gear, modify gear that lets headsets connect to the NT comms network, or fix old relays. You can chat again with your headset. but only within range of that relay. (example, say a comms dish in the space diner has a transmission range of 12 tiles in a circle around it. outside of that, nada)
The best man to modify or restore relays would be a comms officer, but if hes not around or dead. a engineer or mechanic can probably do it less effectively.
Now, onto other forms of communciation.
So here, the idea is that radio headsets are the instant, generally reliable (till someone breaks the comms array on station) always on, easy to use communications method with a way of expanding some limited function into other Z levels.
Where as Messaging and calling are alternate forms of communication that are always available, but they aren't generally cheap or instant to use. And really help tie their devices together.
When it comes to station side Messaging, it should be instant and very, very cheap. Well in a comms relay activated area. or cheap and near instant if the relay is broken (Like bouncing a message off a sat dish the station may be near) Example would be like, Relay active, NT charges 1 - 5 credits per message. using a Satcomm dish on station would be like 10 credits for a 2 -3 second delay. And this should scale up depending how far you are from the station. (Depends on how the admins want to set this up since it may effect lore a bit) For example, trench to oshan or manta. Little delay for almost no cost to message. Being out on some telesci locations, at least a good 200 - 1000 creds per message with a good 30 - 60 second delay. Are you dying and need help fast? Use the premium NT quantum messager beaming service. You're looking at paying a good 1.5k to 10k credits for at least a 10 - 20 delay. That's fast! hope you got deep pockets though.
Add a feature to the messenger to give out group messaging invites so you can have a messenger group like you do for departments, with accept and deny in the links. And we could have a nice alternative for when the radio relay goes offline.
Calling: Different from messaging, it might be cheaper in the long run to call someone or someplace rather than message them all the time. Calling charges you a forward connection cost and possibly a streaming fee surcharge. (Thats NT for ya. Again This should be something that is effected by distance from station. Say on some z levels it might be an upfront 500 - 2000 credit charge, with a 10 - 50 cred per min rate, but you are connected for as long as either party wants. Or money runs out.) However it's only a 1 on 1 connection. You could put the person on speaker phone. or privately talk to them with your headset. There are ways to lose and drop your call. Like being tasered, arc shocked, emp'd (by grenades or the singularity) teleported, ending up in some areas (Some telesci zones might have poor signal unles you got a radio man with you.) If a call with someone gets dropped you can reconnect to that person for a 50% reduced charge though.
So with these ideas. Messaging and Calling have their strengths and weaknesses. So what about the devices? Well a lot of the stuff in this post is just idea extensions of the main post, expanding on them and probably using 4 different types of devices. Most devices are going to need your ID to register that device to you, so not only can you be charged for your usage fees, but also tracking reasons. The secmate terminals might even be able to see who owns what devices. (Or other things.)
With that in mind. Here's what I was thinking.
PDAs should still be kept in the game and still be a thing. However their messenger will be upgraded to the new messenger idea posted above but generally keep about the same functionality as they already have. Being a great utility platform for crew members with their high storage capacity, being able to use pretty much any application and can use the old data carts. However people don't generally start with these anymore, like most civilian department. only some jobs will. Since there will be new toys to take over. Also PDAs should be a decent mid teir price, not too cheap but not too expensive 2000 range maybe
Burner Phones. Very cheap, like 50 - 100 credits each. You can choose to pre load them with a number of credits when you buy them from the vendor though they have the option to scan your ID into them, but thats not why you want to use them (Since well. you want to use them to threaten dept heads. Set up the bomb. etc) Very cheap, throw away POS flip phones. Clowns start with this, maybe a handful of other jobs.
The NT Standard 1. The first of its kind intelliphone (What a Smartphone would be) in production across the system months a go. and only NT now started to give it to some of their employees. It's a sleek, mid range phone that can not only make calls, but can function partly as a crewmans PDA as well. Letting them take atmos reads, and doing other functions. It might not be able to load carts like a PDA and doesn't have nearly as much storage space as one. It's a great multi device in the palm of your hand (maybe can even give some links to the wiki about your job and stuff with it too) Most crew should start with this instead of PDAs. (or an option of either or since they are priced about the same)
(Some high teir expensive phone name) This phone does it all and then some. Only the captain, (And maybe other job roles can start with it, or you cna use space bux to start with the bigger phone) Phone just that just came out and is the next biggest top of the line intelliphone, it can do anything the NT phone can do and more! More storage space, can load PDA carts. Can do speaker phone calls. great for your long distance corporate conferences! All for the low price of 8000 (?) credits! (Probably add more features to this phone as well)
I hope anyone likes some of these ideas.