Broadcast Beacons

[Zaphord]

Would there be the potential to make specific channels for the beacons to broadcast on. Like a faction channel and then a public channel?
I could see this being useful as signal relays or something of the sort.

Great idea, hadn't thought of specific chat channels. Good one!

 

[FatCobra]

Would there be the potential to make specific channels for the beacons to broadcast on. Like a faction channel and then a public channel?
I could see this being useful as signal relays or something of the sort.

I like this idea. It could broadcast warnings to faction enemies and landing instruction to faction members.

 

[srs008]

i can see a issue with this... i'll demonstrate it (in short)
Troll: I CR@$H U
Troll: I CR@$H U LOL
Troll: I CRA$H U
(one million times)
that is how i can see the chat...

or nearly as bad
Shop1: black hull 100
shop2: black hull 99
shop3: white hull 50
station1: welcome visitor
station2: you are near our area...
station3: you mad?
(millions of incessant chat messages scrolling two fast to read)


assuming that is sorted somehow, why not ADD this function to the almost useless beacon block? put a display block down, connect it to beacon... presto... screen content goes to chat (where possible)

this allows ANYTHING on a screen to appear...
which also leads to the enhancement of those displays...the beacon is turned off? so is the chat message...

turn it on? it broadcasts once every 30 seconds.

limit it to six messages a minute (once every ten seconds)... and we have a fairly controlled system.
limit the broadcasts to 2 actives per ship/station (INCLUDING DOCKED ENTITIES) and that should reduce the spam somewhat.

 

[Zaphord]

i can see a issue with this... i'll demonstrate it (in short)
Troll: I CR@$H U
Troll: I CR@$H U LOL
Troll: I CRA$H U
(one million times)
that is how i can see the chat...

or nearly as bad
Shop1: black hull 100
shop2: black hull 99
shop3: white hull 50
station1: welcome visitor
station2: you are near our area...
station3: you mad?
(millions of incessant chat messages scrolling two fast to read)


assuming that is sorted somehow, why not ADD this function to the almost useless beacon block? put a display block down, connect it to beacon... presto... screen content goes to chat (where possible)

this allows ANYTHING on a screen to appear...
which also leads to the enhancement of those displays...the beacon is turned off? so is the chat message...

turn it on? it broadcasts once every 30 seconds.

limit it to six messages a minute (once every ten seconds)... and we have a fairly controlled system.
limit the broadcasts to 2 actives per ship/station (INCLUDING DOCKED ENTITIES) and that should reduce the spam somewhat.

Needless to say there needs to be some spam control in place, like a cool down per broadcast or limiting how many active broadcaster you can have going at any one time. Having a dedicated broadcast channel in the chat window could also be a solution, that way you can mute it if you don't want to read all the messages.

Open to suggestions on spam control, this is the main problem with this idea.
​

 

[TomW1605]

maybe a system where it only gets received if you are in range

 

[Zaphord]

maybe a system where it only gets received if you are in range

Goes without saying. No good getting broadcasts from the whole server when you're just waiting for landing instructions from the station in front of you.

I'm thinking within a few sectors, maybe system wide at the most.

 

[Rixxan]

Yes, I was thinking a one-sector range for one beacon, with more beacons next to each other on the x y or z axis extending the range.

 

[TomW1605]

Yes, I was thinking a one-sector range for one beacon, with more beacons next to each other on the x y or z axis extending the range.

this dosent work very well for small escape pods
[DOUBLEPOST=1445511386,1445511182][/DOUBLEPOST]there could also be a system to block transmissions or some for of interference. or if you are on the edge of the transmission range u get a partial or garbled message
[DOUBLEPOST=1445511448][/DOUBLEPOST]

Maybe I should've titled this thread "Broadcast Beacons"

u can change the name of a thread

 

[jayman38]

Possible spam solution:
Max limit config options, similar to beam limits. (E.g. max 6 beacons per entity, max 24 beacons per solar system, max 1024 beacons total) If your beacon is #7 on the entity, #25 in the solar system, or #1025 in the universe, your beacon simply does not transmit to anybody.

No auto-repeating. It simply broadcasts to a given player once, when that player reaches beacon range. If the builder wants to resend the message every so often, they have to build a clock to cycle the beacon. That way, the builder is in charge of how often the message is repeated, and can use logic to vary the delay. There needs to be a config option for beacon cool-down, so that players can't just throw their beacon on a rotary rapid repeater. (E.g. minimum 5 seconds between transmissions.)

 

[Zaphord]

u can change the name of a thread

Done. Couldn't do it from my phone for some reason.

 

[Zaphord]

Possible spam solution:
Max limit config options, similar to beam limits. (E.g. max 6 beacons per entity, max 24 beacons per solar system, max 1024 beacons total) If your beacon is #7 on the entity, #25 in the solar system, or #1025 in the universe, your beacon simply does not transmit to anybody.

No auto-repeating. It simply broadcasts to a given player once, when that player reaches beacon range. If the builder wants to resend the message every so often, they have to build a clock to cycle the beacon. That way, the builder is in charge of how often the message is repeated, and can use logic to vary the delay. There needs to be a config option for beacon cool-down, so that players can't just throw their beacon on a rotary rapid repeater. (E.g. minimum 5 seconds between transmissions.)

Was thinking that maybe a passive broadcast (not sent out, but just there to read for anyone who scans for it) would be better since you'd have to actively be looking for signals. Perhaps clogging up the chat window with broadcasts wouldn't be such a good idea, so I propose a 2 block system; a broadcaster and a scanner. The broadcaster stores a message, and the scanner (we could even use the existing scanner to save on block ID) would pick up signals and display them in a separate tab in the scanner window.

I'm a little surprised Bench hasn't put his 2 cents in on this subject, thought he'd be interested in something like this.

 

[Zaphord]

:D bump.

Sorry, I think it's a great idea and I'd hate to see it buried under all the other threads. At least until it gets a recognized or something.

 

[Rixxan]

The idea is great, but I still think that the range of the beacon and it's power should be determined by the number of beacons, but I can see it both ways.

 

[Ithirahad]

Why not have a separate channel for beacon messages?

 

[Rixxan]

Why not have a separate channel for beacon messages?

That would work great, but it would be hard for distress calls or landing instructions if you muted to avoid spammers.

 

[TomW1605]

maybe if you could mute certain people or other factions

 

[srs008]

Was thinking that maybe a passive broadcast (not sent out, but just there to read for anyone who scans for it) would be better since you'd have to actively be looking for signals. Perhaps clogging up the chat window with broadcasts wouldn't be such a good idea, so I propose a 2 block system; a broadcaster and a scanner. The broadcaster stores a message, and the scanner (we could even use the existing scanner to save on block ID) would pick up signals and display them in a separate tab in the scanner window.

I'm a little surprised Bench hasn't put his 2 cents in on this subject, thought he'd be interested in something like this.

maybe if you could mute certain people or other factions

you realise you just solved the issue right? "recieve" beacon broadcasts by using the tag "[Beacon]" in the display screen...
if your "in range" it places messages on the screen
if you connect MULTIPLE display's together, each one simply reads a different broadcast.
allowing us to have WALLS of "dynamic" content... or just two displays...
the catch being, is each display MUST have the exact same "[Beacon]" tag.

the beacon broadcast also reads the faction ID of the attached structure, hence transmitting FROM that faction.
and the player who editted it get's set as the "speaker"...
even though it does not say "Faction:user:blah blah blah" it does say "blah blah blah"
by muting either the faction, or the user. that message is not recieved.
to "increase" the range, you simply use more beacons tied in. since the system is effectively a part of the chat system,
you can report a person for spamming the same way. (if the system don't flag them first)

 

[Zaphord]

That works, we'll go with that.

 

[Zaphord]

Last bump, I swear :D.

It's a great idea, with mostly positive feedback from the community. Just wish one of the devs or someone on council could give it a thumbs up if they think it's worth being in the game. If not, then the thread will just have to be buried.

 

[Rixxan]

I am honestly surprised this hasn't at least been read by either the council or schine, and that no dev has put in their two cents.