Suggestion Changes to the way radio frequencies work

[ovxy]

Okay this is actually news to me, never executed that command.

It was added during City V, but we never had an occasion to use it. Maybe once on T6? don't remember

e:
/disableradio [tagline]
/enableradio [tagline]

It was added to accommodate for the "COMMUNICATIONS SEVERED" jist of tagging a cop auto

 

[OneClassyBanana]

If a cop is captured alive or goes rogue undetected - as in remains as a plant in the garrison - then great. They either have a hostage they can keep around for intel or a willing accomplice on the other side of the fence. Even better if the rogue cop only agrees to help them for absurd personal compensation instead of actual camaraderie. Either way, sweet, give the rebels that insight into tac-3, no matter how brief it may be.

If the capture is noticed and rescue fails or if the rogue is found out and killed, oh well, shit happens, but you can always try again. A system like that, if that isn't already permitted by the ruleset for some bizarre reason, on the rebel side would work well I think. And no OOC protection needed for either side. Just an OOCly coordinated, cooperative effort to change how we approach the issue and the way we tell this story.

 

[PilotBland]

Wasn't it a thing that combine channels constantly shift frequencies outside of being encrypted, making it impossible to pinpoint and crack?

who cares its rp cracking into cop frequencies would be cool as long as its not oocly metagamed

 

[sky]

I would like @Numbers or @sky to confirm if what you said is completely set in stone and if we can try and find ways around it.

Nothing has really been set in stone, other than rebels can't loot dead Combine to get their radios, much like how we can't either.

We put quite a bit of effort into acquiring the rebel frequency, which they seem to change every 1-2 days at this point anyway. As long as similar effort is put in by rebels (which isn't doing a couple rolls at a stationary radio to "hack" the frequency), then I don't see why something like tac-3 couldn't be eavesdropped on. The main barrier to this would be the need to have a lot of admin oversight to subscribe & unsubscribe the radio from the resistance player that has the frequency, and for determining exactly how long it would last for (as Combine can't change "frequency" in-game). In reality, just having rebels use radio jammers more would probably be easier to manage and keeps up the whole asymmetric sides thing we have going.

About /disableradio: We will probably use in the event we have a legitimate reason for doing so, but that hasn't come about yet.

Also, all this talk about radio eavesdropping is reminding me of the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine.

 

[Erkor]

A common practice for Civil Protection is to switch to their protection team channel when deploying for any reason as a protection team. This helps in clearing out radio pollution, and also can be a factor in operational security.

If the rebel frequencies keep getting eavesdropped, have you ever considered that the issue isn't in the fact that it's not "OOC protected", and instead a consequence of bad security practices?

 

[Señor Jaggles]

A common practice for Civil Protection is to switch to their protection team channel when deploying for any reason as a protection team. This helps in clearing out radio pollution, and also can be a factor in operational security.

If the rebel frequencies keep getting eavesdropped, have you ever considered that the issue isn't in the fact that it's not "OOC protected", and instead a consequence of bad security practices?

Thank you, Gordon Freeman.

 

[Erkor]

I think I should elaborate for the sake of clarity that I don't mean to be insulting or rude or anything like that but instead am suggesting that -- if you're going to attack or being attacked -- switching your frequency to an 'operational frequency' is a good way clear up radio pollution and clear communications while also avoiding the issue of "oh no, my frequency has been leaked yet again!"

 

[Rabid]

Rebels having access to mono-frequency Combine faction radios has historically been a nightmare because these factions had no ability to change frequences to compensate for it like rebels themselves can. Sometimes rebels would store captured radios away and bring them out every so often and just walk around listening long after the radio should have been disabled or swapped out script wise.

A fair few high-profile UM/CWU/WI PK's came about because of this sort of thing being possible.

That being said.

Cracking into cops comms, even if only the side channels, on the sly? It'd be cool, in this setting, if rebels actually found a way to do it and there was a lot of RP surrounding it. I know people would be interested in it.