Suggestion:20070711 Walkie Talkie

From The Urban Dead Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
Stop hand.png Closed
This suggestion has finished voting and has been moved to Peer Reviewed.


20070711 Walkie Talkie

. . . swiers BigEYEwitnessLOGO.png 17:39, 11 July 2007 (BST)

Suggestion type
new item

Suggestion scope
survivor communications

Suggestion description
Description- a portable self powered radio transmitter / radio combo with limited range and only 10 channels, that is heard only by other characters who have a "walkie talkie" tuned to the same channel. Details as follows:

Encumbrance- 2% (like a cell phone)

Found In- PD's, Fire Stations, Tech Stores, Fort Storehouses and Gatehouses. Same search rates as radios in those locations (or if radios not currently found there, the same as radios in Tech Store). Newly spawned Police and Fire Fighters would start the game with a Walkie Talkie, not a radio- their jobs required two-way communications.

Interface- appears on screen as a text field with a button next to it saying "walkie talkie N". N is the channel, and clicking on the button (edit- which costs 1 AP) without entering anything in the text field allows you to set to a channel from 0-9, similar to setting a radio frequency. If you DO enter something in the text field (limit 50 characters), you make a "broadcast" on the channel designated by N.
User settings would allow you to selectively ignore walkie talkie broadcasts in the same way you can selectively ignore radio broadcasts.

Effect- Walkie talkie broadcasts are heard by other character's who have walkie talkies tuned to the same channel, but ONLY if the broadcast originated from within 2 blocks. Survivors who have the "radio operations" skill can hear walkie talkie broadcasts from up to 3 blocks away, as they know how to properly use the walkie talkie's squelch and other settings, so get better reception. Additionally, signals travel better without any walls to block them; if the user is outside, the signal goes an extra (+1) block, and if the listener is outside, they can hear signals from one (+1) block farther away.
In effect, a walkie talkie can broadcast / pick up signals in a 5x5 block area centered on the user at a minimum, on up to an 11x11 block area centered on the user under ideal circumstances.
Note- Ranges are intentionally short to encourage people to buy the radio operations skill and to go outside when making broadcasts. If you go outside, you can reach anybody who has the skill in a nearly suburb sized area centered on your location. A longer range would increase this to an area larger than a suburb, which seems unreasonable for a walkie talkie, given that cell towers only cover one suburb!

Intent- by creating a radio that has a limited range, this could limit spam and make broadcast messages more likely to have relevance to the person who receives them. In effect, this would be "feeding groan for survivors", providing a location-specific way to communicating at range.

Tech Details- the 10 channel limit is intended partly to make these easy to fit in the inventory system. The code would just be something like "wN", with the w signifying a walkie talkie, and the N being the channel it is set to. It also means its possible to get 10 walkie talkies and monitor all channels- slightly unrealistic, but perhaps a useful game effect. For a "realistic" walkie talkie, you'd need at least 100 channels (most have 30 or more) or even 1000 (because lots of them have privacy "encryption" settings in addition to channels)- but this isn't about realism, its about utility to the game.


Voting Section

Voting Rules
Votes must be numbered, justified, signed, and timestamped.
# justification ~~~~

Votes that do not conform to the above may be struck by any user.

The only valid votes are Keep, Kill, Spam or Dupe. If you wish to abstain from voting, do not vote.


Keep Votes

  1. Keep Mobile phones--useless, radios--one-sided, talking--too short ranged, not private enough... yeah, I like this. --Magentaine 17:53, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  2. Keep - Reasonable alternatives of communication are great. --Vault 18:09, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  3. Keep as above. --KiT 18:21, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  4. Keep Thanks for the informative link, too. I wasn't aware that there was so much to walkie talkies!--Seventythree 18:44, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  5. Keep Author Vote. Probably the only suggestion I've made that I think would actually add significantly to the fun of playing, rather than being an interface / numbers / balance tweak. . . . swiers BigEYEwitnessLOGO.png 19:13, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  6. Keep - Good idea. --The Hierophant 19:34, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  7. Keep - still think the range is a little too small but thats just me. good idea overall.--'BPTmz 20:38, 11 July 2007 (BST)
    Pat of the universal walkie talkie experience is that the range is always annoyingly short.  ;) . . . swiers BigEYEwitnessLOGO.png 23:16, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  8. Keep - as Magentaine and Vault --Duke GarlandTLCD SSZ 21:57, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  9. Keep/Change - I love the idea, but I'd change the Channel Change function to that of the radio and when a player clicks the Walkie Talkie Button without including text, it will read that they 'Squelched' over the channel.--teleport 17:31 ,July 11 2007 (EST)
  10. Keep - It'd be fun, and nice. I'm quite frankly tired of hearing "Blackmore needs help!" every thirty minutes even if I'm all the way in Arkham.-- dǝǝɥs oʇ ɯɐds: sʎɐʍ1ɐ! 23:16, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  11. Keep - A nice idea. I always like to see non-weapon item ideas, and this one is great. I like that you thought it through in good detail and also incorporated the Radio Operation skill. Werewolf32 23:18, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  12. Keep - I'm new but from what I've read on the wiki this idea seems alot better than any of the communication methods right now.--Colonel Steels 23:26, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  13. Keep - It would be a seriously reliable method of communicating during a mall siege.Studoku 00:26, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  14. Keep - I always encourage more ways to communicate. ~m T! 02:49, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  15. Keep - Sonny, they have lots of ways to communicate, but they all suck. I only play zombies and I have a slight bias, but you are a bias FREAK. Anyway, feeding groans and speech are enough for zombies already. --Wooty 04:23, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  16. Keep - Very, very nice half-way measure between the little used mobile phones and the spamarama radios. --Ducis DuxSlothTalk 06:14, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  17. Keep - A good way to recieve more location-specific news. --Midianian 13:21, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  18. KEEP This idea is great. But i think the range can be increased a little more, as 11x11 at max is only one suburb.--RayHanley 15:02, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  19. Keep - Pretty good, and well thought out. --Saluton 18:41, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  20. Keep - Mheh, Survivors should have good communications. and it's not as if anything useful is ever done with it anyway.-- Vista  +1  18:51, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  21. Keep- I like the idea and it isn't way too over powered. In real life if cell phones and radios were down these would work(looking at you karek) so it seems reasonable to me. Plus the range seems just about right.--Mayor FittingTalk RR 03:16, 13 July 2007 (BST)
  22. Keep - Damn you for beating it to me. Glenstone 03:44, 13 July 2007 (BST)
  23. Keep I like it. Good new comunication form.--Wee Sonny MacGregor 05:06, 19 July 2007 (BST)
  24. Keep - I've been wondering where the Walkie Talkies were for awhile now. Seems like they would have been in use long before the Mobile Phone.--Sara M 04:24, 24 July 2007 (BST)


Kill Votes

  1. Kill - Survivors have enough ways to communicate. --Sonny Corleone RRF CoL DORIS Hunt! 23:28, 11 July 2007 (BST)
  2. Kill - Better than radios, only problem is that there is no effective downside. This gets rid of radio spam and such by limiting range but because zombies have no way to stop it it actually improves on survivor communications a lot. Make it so that if the radio mast is down it won't work or something or this would be way too big of a boost to the radio system already in place(mabey it needs to be a powered building/plugged in to a generator for 1 AP or something.) I didn't think about that on the talk page, did now.--karek 09:23, 12 July 2007 (BST)
  3. Kill - Karek makes a good point - this would be a powerful form of 2-way radio, which would boost survivors, that the zombies cannot interfere with.. It concerns me that there is no AP input required by the survivors apart from finding the walkie talkies just the once. Perhaps the batteries run out in a similar to spray cans after so many broadcasts? See the talk page for discussion. 'arm. 03:27, 14 July 2007 (BST)
    Point 1, zombies can LISTEN to the broadcasts, if they find WT's while alive and set the frequency. (In fact, not needing equipment for other uses, they could carry one WT for each freq.) Which means they would hear LOCAL broadcasts, and could hunt down the broadcaster. Sounds like a form of interference to me. Point 2, making a broadcast (or setting the freq) would cost an AP. That seemed so obvious that I forgot to mention it. . . . swiers BigEYEwitnessLOGO.png 20:25, 14 July 2007 (BST)
    1. It's not interference to listen to the broadcasts, the broadcasts do not stop because they are listened to by a zombie. 2. Of course it costs AP to use (just like the current radio system does), I meant costs AP in that radios have to be fuelled by generators - requiring AP to search for fuel. And also replacement of generators and radios if they are destroyed. Once Walkie Talkies are found, they cannot be destroyed or lost. They are a permanent upgrade to survivor communication. 'arm. 23:09, 16 July 2007 (BST)
  4. Kill - There's already have enough ways to communicate. Do they really need another way to spam? - Braggledorth 04:48, 14 July 2007 (BST)
  5. Above. And technically...walkie-talkies are 2 way radios... --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ #nerftemplatedsigs 18:19, 16 July 2007 (BST)
  6. Change -The phone mast needing to be up and running to send messages would serve the dual purpose of both making walkie talkies balanced and making defending the phone mast worthwhile. and to everyone else who voted kill, walkies are NOT two-way radios, read the suggestion... plus, radios already ARE two-way, transmitters can receive messages as well as broadcast.--AlexanderRM 00:19, 17 July 2007 (BST)
    Yes they are. 'arm. 03:08, 17 July 2007 (BST)

Spam/Dupe Votes

Retrieved from "http://wiki.urbandead.com//index.php?title=Suggestion:20070711_Walkie_Talkie&oldid=1102201"