My only friend who was working on CC expansion left CM so I feel some responsibility for the role now. I am the one who added the broadcasting mechanic, and the more I observe people trying to engage with it, the more flaws in it I see.
So what my thought are of what should/can be improved:
Probably CC should be able to “wield” the camera with one hand. Turning off the stream just to open a cade is pretty annoying, and I think being able to interact with stuff while broadcasting will feel better.
CC should be able to carry the camera in the suit slot or on the back. Can anyone sprite on_mob sprites???
Probably broadcast should not stop when CC drops the camera. While it is kinda soulful that it leaves some mystery when the broadcast suddenly cuts, I think it might be better if broadcast continued. It’s kinda sad when people trying to watch TV only to find out that broadcast is offline as CC permad 2 hours ago, at least now they will be able to watch the aftermath I guess?
TV should have different sprites when the broadcast is online/offline, so you can know it’s working by a glance. (need spriters help again)
Ok so what if instead of the camera shutting down when dropped or one handed it instead displays the one tile it is over and when the CC dies and drops it it gets all bloody to indicate as such.
I understand that you are trying to flame my topic out of disrespect, but you are not the first one who thought of a similar idea:
While this PR is just unfitting for the setting, some kind of interaction between the CC and the audience would be cool. Don’t know how to make it fit the setting and not be too silly though. Maybe if we made phone calls to the correspondent display on the broadcast…
Also in the PR Drathek is mentioning some kind of spotter kit you can give to a private to become your cameraman or just an assistant, might be worth exploring this idea as well. I don’t really like the idea of adding more CC slots, as different people may want different experience from the role, some people like to play alone, so an optional kit you can take if you wish works better IMO.
I actually really like the idea of showing a much smaller area when the camera drops.
I meant no disrespect- I didn’t intend it to come off as dissing you or anything. Apologies if it came off that way.
Speaking seriously, I think the whole ‘adding a camera assistant’ thing would be pretty interesting to see, and would definitely represent a good RP experience, similar to spotters and snipers. I agree with you on the fact that since it’s optional and not a full-fledged role, it wouldn’t be too intrusive in terms of rolebloat. Plus, some people would rather work alone, anyways.
I do think it’d be soulful to have the CC be able to focus more on the ‘reporting’ role, and having the camera guy run around filming. We could finally be able to recreate this scene, which imo should justify adding the assistant kit on it’s own:
Phone calls would also be interesting- Not entirely sure how it’d work, but I guess it could evoke a kind of radio station feeling. People call the radio hosts all the time to talk about stuff, and I feel like that vibe would actually fit into the game relatively well. Even if people use it to fuck around, it’s something the CC can react to, anyways.
I think CCs would find it’d relieve a bit of pressure to find situations themselves, given it means RP situations are presented to the CC autonomously, rather than having them seek out interviews and find ‘interesting’ things to talk about on their own 24/7.
-One handed broadcasting is a MUST if you’re giving it QOL. Forcing them to two hand the camera does nothing except make it annoying as fuck to watch when they have to constantly move through barricades.
-Let the broadcast stay on for another 10 or 20 seconds after the go down. Same thing for the above; If they get hit by a stray xeno attack and drop, getting back to broadcasting is sort of annoying.
These two changes alone will make CC actually not the most annoying role in the game. The only other thing would be just adding TVs in certain places on the Almayer by default (recreation, CIC??? medbay???), but you can ask any MT to do it for basically no downside.
Thank you for taking up the mantle of responsibility for this. This sounds like a great idea that will increase RP. I can’t wait for the results of your work. I agree with the proposed ideas, except for twitch.
I’m of two minds about this, on one hand building TVs in public places is one of the first bits of even slightly interesting “content” shipside engineering has had in ages, on the other hand, it sucks that for literally anyone to see your broadcast you have to have engies build one or pester them to do so
It’d definitely be cool to walk by mess and for it to broadcast openly a TV with a feed from a private.
Is there a way to programmit so you actually hear the gunfire and xenos screetches and whatnot as you walk by? Maybe a little muffled or staticky like its a actual satellite feed?
Reminder that the camera in alien 3 didn’t require being held with two hands.
as for actual suggestions: Give Mil CC a smaller camcorder that requires film unlike the Civ CC, the main reason it should be a film Camcorder for CC is because the helmet cams are analog in aliens, so mil CC should be using analog camcorders as well.
make it work like a miniscope where it has to be activated and has that tiny zoom and the area seen in in the broadcast is the side the cameraman is currently facing so they stop fucking running into marines despite rules saying that they shouldnt do that
once xenos observe CC and know what it does, allow queen to pick up the CC’s camera and use it to project some psionically powerful intimidation message that fucks up whoever watches the broadcast
Give it a zoom like bino’s or a 2x zoom, main reason being they block people on the front trying to get good footage or generally get them self’s killed, if that’s the desire then ignore this.
Ehh id rather it remain just rp. If you make it so the role can help marines it will bring “balance” into the equation and give xenos a legit reason to target the guy (if minor).
