(Garry's Mod - Sandbox) Petition/Thread for Giving Admins Proximity Chat Control

[CorrosiveSpiral]

Proximity Chat Discussion/Petition

As stated in the Thread Subject, this is a thread created to discuss the possibility of giving admins control over proximity chat, or more accurately the sv_alltalk command. It would be highly beneficial if not only admins (and perhaps the Garry's Mod server owner himself), but also members of this community to fairly discuss this subject.

Getting right into the meat of the subject, I will give you my initial reasons for why admins should obtain this command in a simplified list:

• When the voice chat in the server becomes simply too chaotic, it can be switched on to quiet down players while still maintaining communication.
  
• If proximity chat were to be switched on, any player that may have a complaint about a certain rule breaker could simply use the main chat or more effectively, the !psay command
  
• Proximity chat would allow for very immersive roleplaying and some semblance of order in an otherwise extremely chaotic server.
  
• Finally, if at any point people would start to complain about wanting to have voice chat on across the whole server (which doesn't seem very beneficial to permit absolute chaos and headache), you can simply tell them to use the chat or PM an administrator.
  

By now many of the people reading this may be thinking of ways to disagree with me and the "claims" that I have made, but I assure you that I have thought thoroughly on this subject. I would love some feedback on what everyone else thinks, after all progress can't be made without discussion and compromise.

P.S.: Does anyone else think yachts are a little too complex for anybody to spawn in? .-.
[CorrosiveSpiral/Deemo]                                                                                                         

Link to this thread in server suggestions, despite it already being there I think: http://lennyfacegaming.org/showthread.php?tid=5567
(I was notified that it is not there, despite it showing up only there when I look in the forums!)

[TheDiamondMiner]

Wait so this is like Dark RP Voice chat? Where you have to be near someone to hear them

(Btw this should probably be under Server Suggestions)


EDIT: If so, it would be cool to have a way to switch between Proximity Chat and normal Global chat, also same with typing

[Zellogi]

Why exactly would we need proximity chat? This isn't DarkRP so there's no reason why we really need it.
Also moved to server suggestions since its a server suggestion.

[UHC]

+ vouch on idea since 80% of the time I enter servers, theres so much talking going on where I can barely hear myself talking. Now yes, you could just use mute them, but some people don't shut up and cause glitches with muting. Also being able to chat with others about secret base stuff on sandbox w/o using party chat typing is also nice.

However, admin communication is an issue, most of the admins get notified about players breaking the rules through the mic and not the chatbox. Also, If you want to have only voice chat limited and not chatbox limited, that's a recipe for spam. Its like taking all the micspam that happens already and adding it to the chat. Even if you wanted to have chat limited to having to use things like /ooc for server wide chat, yeah... no. With limited mic distance ill just have to resort to the keyboard. I'd rather not double my arthritis rate.

Edit: one thing could work out better is mic party chat. You type in a command to chat like /pmic and now your mic is party chat only, that could help with some micspam.

[Deucedemon]

i see why you wants this. i have thought of it in the past and at the time i thought it was a great idea then i realized its not.

first off lots of sandbox admins use there's mics. When talking to players that need to be punished the players could not hear them that well or can't hear them at all.

Second: I like that you said chaotic (and yes sandbox is chaotic and the voice chat is annoying at times). But Its sandbox its kinda meant to be chaotic but the only reason why it should be annoying or super loud is Sequakers yelling into the mic or some people are arguing over some gay reason. I usually gag for people arguing in chat and squeakers exit the server after getting killed hundreds of times.

Third: I just don't see why this is needed, we have a client side mute that works 80% of the time. Although not a lot of players know how to mutes is quite easy to tell them.

-vouch: reasons above.

[CorrosiveSpiral]

Wait so this is like Dark RP Voice chat? Where you have to be near someone to hear them

(Btw this should probably be under Server Suggestions)


EDIT: If so, it would be cool to have a way to switch between Proximity Chat and normal Global chat, also same with typing

Yes, it is exactly like Dark RP Voice chat, in fact it would be using the exact same built in command. Also I definitely agree with you on it being cool to switch between both, either being dictated by and admin's will and/or a server vote.

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i see why you wants this. i have thought of it in the past and at the time i thought it was a great idea then i realized its not.

first off lots of sandbox admins use there's mics. When talking to players that need to be punished the players could not hear them that well or can't hear them at all.  

Second: I like that you said chaotic (and yes sandbox is chaotic and the voice chat is annoying at times). But Its sandbox its kinda meant to be chaotic but the only reason why it should be annoying or super loud is Sequakers yelling into the mic or some people are arguing over some gay reason. I usually gag for people arguing in chat and squeakers exit the server after getting killed hundreds of times.

Third: I just don't see why this is needed, we have a client side mute that works 80% of the time. Although not a lot of players know how to mutes is quite easy to tell them.

-vouch: reasons above.

I appreciate the serious feedback, but I would like to defend my case even if it isn't the most structurally sound one. First and foremost, the simple act of being able to switch back and forth between both forms of voice chat would be a good way to partially eliminate some of the reasons you've given (usually at the cost of the entire point of proximity chat). Secondly, I do understand that Gmod sandbox's natural state is completely chaotic and usually a pain in the rear, and I most certainly agree with you on being able to just mute squeakers and other annoying microphone users. However I do believe that the mere act of being able to hear everyone with a microphone at once on the server creates an exorbitant amount of audio to have to sift through mentally to even hear anything significant. Finally, your third reason wasn't particularly a reason against my case as it was simply a statement about a useful feature. In no way shape or form (even though you never implied this), would client side muting stop working if the sv_alltalk command were to be changed.

I rest my case, Deemo.

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+ vouch on idea since 80% of the time I enter servers, theres so much talking going on where I can barely hear myself talking. Now yes, you could just use mute them, but some people don't shut up and cause glitches with muting. Also being able to chat with others about secret base stuff on sandbox w/o using party chat typing is also nice.

However, admin communication is an issue, most of the admins get notified about players breaking the rules through the mic and not the chatbox. Also, If you want to have only voice chat limited and not chatbox limited, that's a recipe for spam. Its like taking all the micspam that happens already and adding it to the chat. Even if you wanted to have chat limited to having to use things like /ooc for server wide chat, yeah... no. With limited mic distance ill just have to resort to the keyboard. I'd rather not double my arthritis rate.

Edit: one thing could work out better is mic party chat. You type in a command to chat like /pmic and now your mic is party chat only, that could help with some micspam.

Everything you've said is entirely true and quite helpful, so I'd like to discuss what I think about the topic based on what you've said! When it comes to admin communication, specifically players being able to contact admins, a simple (yet technically slightly challenging) solution is to add channels to the chat system. For instance a Global channel, Party channel, and of course Administration channel. As for your idea on, "mic party chat", I completely agree! Such a command would become incredibly useful for speaking to only the people you want to speak to! The main challenge of this entire idea isn't particularly whether or not we should do it, but rather are we willing to go through the trouble of doing it.

For the sake of creating a better experience for all that are still dedicated to this community, specifically in the Sandbox server, I believe this is a massive step in the right direct. Perhaps even the last step that even needs to be done!

Thanks for your time, Deemo.

[CorrosiveSpiral]

I just decided that perhaps with such a feature life in the sandbox server would be just a bit more bearable, that's all I have to say, thank you.

[skinny720]

We have proximity chat on DarkRP, there's nothing wrong with this because it's better for the RP experience. We have global chat on Sandbox because maybe people who are building bases on opposite sides of the map may wanna chat about whatever bullshit they want to because they aren't trying to roleplay even a little. I get the idea, but overall, if it were implemented, it would ruin the experience of sandbox being a much more open gamemode.

This channels idea is much better, individual clients being able to mute/pmic with one simple button/command without console would be nice.

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Beautiful format on this thread btw, hats off to ya'
Don't you dare touch my fucking yachts

[Wayne]

+vouch, This could be useful. reason being people in party's other then typing don't have a way of talking. But i think admins should have a way to make it to were they don't have this. Or it could be something in the !Lfg menu (if possible) that a member can change

[CorrosiveSpiral]

+vouch, This could be useful. reason being people in party's other then typing don't have a way of talking. But i think admins should have a way to make it to were they don't have this. Or it could be something in the !Lfg menu (if possible) that a member can change

Agreed, it would be quite nice to actually have the option to decide on that, either by voting and/or at the discretion of any admin currently online, or at the very least an admin of high rank/reputation. Don't forget to rank this thread, it would be very helpful to catch the attention of others!

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We have proximity chat on DarkRP, there's nothing wrong with this because it's better for the RP experience. We have global chat on Sandbox because maybe people who are building bases on opposite sides of the map may wanna chat about whatever bullshit they want to because they aren't trying to roleplay even a little. I get the idea, but overall, if it were implemented, it would ruin the experience of sandbox being a much more open gamemode.

This channels idea is much better, individual clients being able to mute/pmic with one simple button/command without console would be nice.

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Beautiful format on this thread btw, hats off to ya'
Don't you dare touch my fucking yachts

I understand what you mean by that quite well, though I'm going to of course defend my case of why we should have the option of turning on proximity chat in some way anyways. First and foremost  you say that sandbox is meant to be more open, which I completely agree with. However I know for a fact that at the same time that everyone is trying to build bases in cooperate, there are extra-chaotic battle going on at the same time, offensive, often tactical battles that lead some to the point of screaming. Tying into what you said after that, implementing channels, specifically voice and/or chat channels into the server would improve it in practically every way related to the aforementioned topic on building bases and combat. Finally, don't worry about your yachts, I was just concerned that lag is often caused by excessive yachts in the server. Thanks for the compliment on my format by the way, I appreciate it. (Giving this thread a nice and high rating would certainly help it get some attention, not that I'm asking for it or anything~ 7w7)

CorossiveSpiral/Deemo

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Although this might be a little off topic, I have been feeling that perhaps the player limit on the server is too high. As when over 20 to 25 people show up in the server, things start to crash and get very high latency. While this is a rather important topic I would not be able to create an entire thread on the subject due to the simplicity of the subject. Replying to this post to either vouch for it or discuss it would be extremely appreciated.

CorrosiveSpiral/Deemo

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Testing my signature here in this totally relevant comment!