Making LOOC chatbox only and saying âjust read the chat windowâ is something I would consider to be a complete UI failure and unacceptable to merge. Complete NO for me.
While the UI âfailureâ is valid, I believe the issue of LOOC being abused is big enough to warrant playtesting via CVar.
General consensus from most seems to be that LOOC should use your OOC username but stay above the characterâs head.
I can agree with that, but still donât think itâll change anything in regards to LOOC malding.
Pros: Seeing text pop up over character looks very much like IC thing, otherwise why it is bound to character? It is partially breaking RP.
Cons: I usually saw LOOC usage not for complains but to ask advice on how to do something and making it not show who actually was talking will lead to more confusion for newbies.
I dont think that PR will fix too much about the problem the problem is very-very deep inside promise of free and rich RP and being welcoming to new players who could have very vague understanding of âRPâ.
No, just absolutely not. We do not have to playtest features that we know objectively will break the gameâs UI.
If LOOC LRP malding is a problem then turn it off. People on the GitHub PR already pointed out this wonât fix LOOC malding, itâll just make new players not notice LOOC (which is what itâs intended for).
Iâll add another issue too: there should be nothing mid-round to reveal a personâs username for meta reasons. Some people just prefer to be anonymous characters and this also breaks that.
Anonymizing is something this game sorely lacks and there has been work made on that front. Of note is that RT currently provides all connected player account names to all clients which doesnât feel necessary.
PR above was made primarily with admin anonymity in mind, but there is no reason why its functionality canât be expanded to cover players as well.
I do believe there are ways to mechanically lower the amount of LOOC mald that doesnât involve killing LOOC completely, I just need to sit and have a good Think about it.
Yeah, I agree with PJB.
I already mentioned github that I see a problem with new players likely not keeping an eye on the chat window when someone explains controls to them.
I donât see âthis should be in a tutorial anywaysâ as a valid solution as
- we donât have a tutorial yet.
- it wonât be able to cover every interaction a player might need help with.
- sometimes you need a reminder while in-round.
there should be nothing mid-round to reveal a personâs username for meta reasons
Yeah, revealing the OOC player name in-round just makes meta-friending even worse.
And I would like to be able to play the game without players immediately recognizing me as a maintainer when Iâm using LOOC to explain something to a new player.
Not sure about this as turning LOOC off wonât stop people going âLOOC: abcdâ in IC chat
- This does not solve the problem. By moving it to chatbox, it only becomes more hidden from players - it doesnât prevent LOOC malding, it makes it less visible, along with actual useful information in LOOC.
- Introducing more ways to link characters to player nicknames introduces more ways to metagame and harass players based on their in-game actions.
A better solution would be moving the CVar to server-side, optionally anonymizing LOOC messages, and/or adding OOC chat blocks/mutes for specific people.