[MRP] Infiltration & Communication

[Ziggy 1,353]

Preface: It is very important that you read this suggestion through and through, probably more than once. The goal of this suggestion aims to bring back the disguise NPC, silent raids, and remove party and radio chat as possible forms of communication. The reasoning and justification for these suggested changes will be explained and examined through how RP exists on the server. 

 

Removing squad/nation radio(U chat)

• Creating and maintaining an expectation of RP on the server has never been an easy task. There are a few systems that were used back in the day that were since removed and in doing so, forced us to change the way we RP. I would like to remove /p and u chat. One day on Garnet Gaming, before those systems existed, players were forced to utilize the /channel command. Later with the addition of squad/radio chat that command became niche. While it existed and was used, an activity factions often participated in was sneaking into the opposing nations base to steal their radio channel during pre-war debrief since war leads were required to get their nation on one comm. This would allow the opposing nation to listen in on the comms if they successfully stole the channel number and if you found out your nation’s channel was compromised, you quickly scrambled to get a new one and get everyone on the same page. This system allowed for players to infiltrate, gather information, and share it as to actually have an effect on the outcome of the next war. I think that this can be something we try, but is also easily reversible if unpopular. 
• The radio channel was an achievable and attainable thing that factions could actually steal. If they did, they gained info and caused a panic when discovered. These things had an actual effect on the way war played out. RP currently exists mainly through mediums like kidnapping or raids. When kidnapping, players seek out information like what the nation's rank structure is and who holds what position. I actually really like this notion of kidnapping to gather info about players/ranks. However, it’s no secret that this has its issues and is entirely metaphorical. I am not suggesting to replace this form of RP and I encourage it, but I think that there can be more mediums for RP that actually give one nation an advantage over the other. While what I’m about to suggest are systems we used long ago, I think that they are solid and created a lot of fun on the server. 

 

Pros	Cons
Allows for the channel to be stolen in RP and used for an advantage in war. Additional aspect of RP.	Harder to communicate easily between factions/groups.
Teamspeak is widely used for tryouts/training so faction communication would still exist and be fairly easy.	Additional training to teach recruits how the /channel command works.
Party chat can be replicated by telling your squad to use their own private radio.	Squads using their own private radio channel will be absent from the rest of the nation’s comms. Con can be fixed with an additional ./channel command. (ie. /channel2 92.2)

These are some pros and cons I created to going through with this swap to using /channel. Feel free to add your own as this is a suggestion and feedback is encouraged. 

 

Disguise NPC & Silent Raids 

An old but gold system that existed on Garnet Gaming was silent raiding and disguising. Spy classes from various factions could utilize it for silent raids. Silent raids were when a disguised spy would infiltrate the opposing nation’s base to gather information like ranks and the radio channel for war. It also important that we create an NPC for disguising as it is very annoying to have to have a GM on to set your model and the chat display immediately creates a cloud of metagame in the server air. If something like this were to exist on the current server, here is a draft of what the rules would look like: 

1. The classes that may silent raid are DF Infiltrator and Badri/ISI : Stalker. 
2. You can not kill anyone, even if you are shot at. An exception applies if a raid by your nation is called while you are infiltrating. 
3. You may not call a standard raid while silent raiding.
4. One person may silent raid one time per peacetime. 

What would an example of this look like in game? 1stSFODD OPT Patriot heads over to an NPC a few minutes before war, picks a disguise, it would change his model/job color(if possible) and he heads over to AFG base to blend in. He enters pre-war debrief and hears that the radio channel is 98.2. He then escapes back to base before war starts to relay the information (swapping jobs immediately would be failRP). Also to specify, stealing the radio isn’t a job that only tier 1 players can attempt to do. Anyone can do it, a silent raid just provides a much safer method of doing it. 

The exception on bullet two means that: For example, if a silent raid is ongoing and a USDF operative is undercover, they would be able to attack AFG if the US called a standard raid.

 

Alongside the removal of party/radio chat, silent raids give players the option to steal the radio channel while undercover and do extra damage if positioned properly during a standard raid. Gives operatives of tier 1 factions an actual attainable objective to infiltrate for. 

Edited February 20, 2023 by Ziggy

[shax999 148]

+1 Would love to see all of this implemented, all of these ideas go hard and how can anyone be opposed for roleplay aspects during war. This will make everything more interesting and endless possibilities of outcomes can now occur and having turning points occur because of channel interceptions would be so fun.

[Reynolds 69]

+1 would spice things up, i love the concept of radios and being able to infiltrate the enemies radio

[Ozzy 1,992]

Denied

The cons outweigh the pros too heavily. One con you omitted was the easy ability metagame and get away with it. There’s also the issue of making callouts an even more arduous task by having to type /radio before the message. If Garnet were to make “U” a shortcut for /radio chat (if that’s even feasible) this could be a conversation.

On the topic of disguisers and silent raids: both already exist albeit with different rules. With the old quest system we were able to disguise without the global chat print but unfortunately that’s not available anymore. I’m in favor of adding the NPC.
As far as rules with infiltration, it became abundantly clear that when Reynolds went and got 2 US Army documents while posing as a DS that a larger set of rules need to be made.