Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: DMBEAR on December 03, 2009, 11:03:43 PM

Title: Why not permasquelch
Post by: DMBEAR on December 03, 2009, 11:03:43 PM
I'll be glad when we finally have the following options that have been asked for often.  I feel like a summer's eve for even asking and don't understand why so many long term players have asked for this w/o at least a trial.

At least I'd like an answer why it isnt Available.

1) Perma squelch - when you are just done with someone.
2) squelch kills landed
3) squelch damage landed
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Bruv119 on December 04, 2009, 06:29:12 AM
time and again we have wished for this   :pray

+1  permasquelch!!!
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Yossarian on December 04, 2009, 11:14:57 AM
I'd guess that it isn't here because a) it would encourage the old-timer players to band together, and ignore/isolate the newer players, and b) since it's permanent, if/when that permasquelched person says something useful, you won't know.  Also, it would probably result in many players permasquelching others the first time they said a single annoying thing, and eventually you'd wind up with huge numbers of permasquelches flying around, with some people not knowing what's happening in the rest of the arena.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Westy on December 04, 2009, 12:05:16 PM
"a) it would encourage the old-timer players to band together, and ignore/isolate the newer players"

 Newer players aren't automatically perma-quelched. Never saw too many say they wanted it to
squelch new players.  But for the few that couldn't stand new players asking how to start the
engines? Well we'd all be better off if they perma squelched newbies rather than have to hear
them constantly reply with the even lamer, "ALT F4!" or "RTFM!!"   


"b) since it's permanent, if/when that permasquelched person says something useful, you won't know"

 For someone to get perma- squelched the odds are extremely high that they ever had anything useful
to say at all. IMO it's very unlikely that after they were perma-squelched that they'd suddenly get
enlightened by finding Cheesus, change their anti-social, squeeker ways and become a respectful, leading
member of the player community.

 FO me personally HTC has never offered a valid reason not to provide perma-squelch. Then again it's
thir business and if a paying customer doesn't like some things well, no one is twisting thier arm to
stay as a paying customer. Hey. That's me!!   (dive bombing heavies, no perma squelch and the failure
of CT to come are my big 3 for no longer subbing)
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: bravoa8 on December 04, 2009, 12:33:33 PM
+1 For this idea!
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Soulyss on December 04, 2009, 01:07:31 PM
I count some of my current friends in the game among those I probably would have put on a permasquelch list a few years ago.  With that in mind I feel that I would have more to lose than gain by having the option.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Banshee7 on December 04, 2009, 01:13:11 PM
How about the ability to un-permasquelch
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: BiPoLaR on December 04, 2009, 01:23:59 PM
How about the ability to un-permasquelch
cause you would make most everyones list  :aok
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Banshee7 on December 04, 2009, 01:32:31 PM
That would be fine with me.  I'd still be able to have fun.  I don't rely on being heard or getting attention.  :aok
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Westy on December 04, 2009, 01:34:04 PM
"...having the option."

 Perhaps. Wouldn't be the case for me as I've only wanted to perma-squelch
online players that were just so obnoxious, out of control or constanlty using
the open channel as a political soapbox. These are people that 6 mos or 2 yrs
later I still wouldn't want to associate with online or in real life to be honest.

 But I think one of the main points of the whole perma-squelch thing is we don't
have even have the option. No choice at all. Other than being able to detune
ch 200 - but then isn't that even more contrary to building "community" and that
was (far as I recall/understand) was a (if not THE) major reason behind HTC not
providing a permanent squelch feature?  (search for HiTech and squelch. See a
post on it from 2000)
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: BiPoLaR on December 04, 2009, 01:34:33 PM
That would be fine with me.  I'd still be able to have fun.  I don't rely on being heard or getting attention.  :aok
cough cough  :aok :joystick: :airplane:
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Skuzzy on December 04, 2009, 01:35:24 PM
One of many reasons.  Here is the scenario.

1)  Player XX makes a nuisance of himself, gets perma-squelched by a ton of folks.
2)  Player XX realizes no one is listening anymore, so changes his game ID to XXX.
3)  Now XXX gets squelched by everyone.
4)  New guy comes into the game, picks up ID 'XX'.  Tries to talk to folks.  No one hears him.  He quits playing the game, thinking everyone is a jerk.

Meanwhile, player XXX is still pissing off players and changing game ID's every 30 days.  You are not going to build a community by running off new players and allowing the ones that are the problem to stay around.

If a player is a bad enough nuisance he has to be squelched by everyone, he should not be allowed to stay in the game.  

Masking a problem does not fix it and perma-squelch is nothing but a mask for a problem.

Now, I am not speaking for HiTech.  He may have a whole different take on this. but as Community Manager, that is my take on it.  If HT wants to slap me down, it is okay by me.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: BiPoLaR on December 04, 2009, 01:41:14 PM
One of many reasons.  Here is the scenario.

1)  Player XX makes a nuisance of himself, gets perma-squelched by a ton of folks.
2)  Player XX realizes no one is listening anymore, so changes his game ID to XXX.
3)  Now XXX gets squelched by everyone.
4)  New guy comes into the game, picks up ID 'XX'.  Tries to talk to folks.  No one hears him.  He quits playing the game, thinking everyone is a jerk.

Meanwhile, player XXX is still pissing off players and changing game ID's every 30 days.  Your are not going to build a community by running off new players.

If a player is a bad enough nuisance he has to be squelched by everyone, he should not be allowed to stay in the game.  

Masking a problem does not fix it and perma-squelch is nothing but a mask for a problem.

Now, I am not speaking for HiTech.  He may have a whole different take on this. but as Community Manager, that is my take on it.  If HT wants to slap me down, it is okay by me.

How about a temp range squelch? that would be handy for fighters trying to block out too much radio chatter
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Plazus on December 04, 2009, 01:45:11 PM
One of many reasons.  Here is the scenario.

1)  Player XX makes a nuisance of himself, gets perma-squelched by a ton of folks.
2)  Player XX realizes no one is listening anymore, so changes his game ID to XXX.
3)  Now XXX gets squelched by everyone.
4)  New guy comes into the game, picks up ID 'XX'.  Tries to talk to folks.  No one hears him.  He quits playing the game, thinking everyone is a jerk.

Meanwhile, player XXX is still pissing off players and changing game ID's every 30 days.  Your are not going to build a community by running off new players.

If a player is a bad enough nuisance he has to be squelched by everyone, he should not be allowed to stay in the game.  

Masking a problem does not fix it and perma-squelch is nothing but a mask for a problem.

Now, I am not speaking for HiTech.  He may have a whole different take on this. but as Community Manager, that is my take on it.  If HT wants to slap me down, it is okay by me.

Thread pwned.

However I do like Bipolar's idea. For squelches, why not make the squelch last longer, like 4 hours? Also, make sure that the squelch remains intact, even if the player logs off and relogs. Itll reduce the frequency of squelches per person. Just my 2 cents. But I still give the loud mouths those wonderful bottle of Squelches to help with the radio silence!  :D

(http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n63/gowanis/wacky-ape5.jpg)
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Westy on December 04, 2009, 02:26:49 PM
 I hear what you're saying Skuzzy but the player base can't do anything about some a&& being able
to change their id - be it by request or via opening a new account.  And for sure it's been a while for
me being online but I thought "handles" were only purged once in a blue moon. So perhaps when
handles are purged an update could auto-clear perma-squelch files on the user end?

 But long ago the player numbers grew too big for the community to handle trouble makers and
police itself.  I'm sure folks send in stuff with the hopes of some action being taken but to be
honest we all have different levels of what is irritating and obnoxious. For myself that could be
haing to endure the same blow hards who seem to log on just to chat about politics or gun
control over the arena common channel.  Them and the "general" type of players who're always
telling the rest of us how dumb we are as we're not "fighting/playing right."
 When I can log on for 45 minutes twice a week (if that) I don't want to spend one moment of my
relaxation time having to re-squelch the same people over and over.

 Just my perspective is all.

 
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Skuzzy on December 04, 2009, 02:36:35 PM
Westy, you have been gone for a while.  When we gave players the option to change game ID's we started purging ID's on a daily basis.

Secondly, HiTech gave the community the .report/.vreport mechanisms to deal with players who were being abusive/derogatory online.  It works.  Unfortunately, it can also be abused, but we have ways to deal with that as well.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Motherland on December 04, 2009, 02:43:28 PM
Would it be impossible for a message to be sent to people's computers that a GameID has been purged and to take away the permasquelch associated with it? So that the ID can be used again by a new player?
Would it be possible for permasquelch to be tied to an account rather than a GameID?
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Skuzzy on December 04, 2009, 03:32:41 PM
Nothing is impossible, but then it comes down to being practical.

So, you do not log in for a while, and the game ID gets reused, before you connect for it to be removed.

Any scenario which precludes a new user from being able to communicate, with the community, is unacceptable.

And again, perma-squelch is not a fix for anything.  It masks the actual problem.  That is also unacceptable.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Delirium on December 04, 2009, 05:55:14 PM
I was once a big fan of perma-squelch but I've realized that the text doesn't really matter to me.

What really irritates me is when someone tunes their vox channel to you and unleashes a verbal tirade. It isn't easily ignored and completely takes away from the game.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: L0nGb0w on December 04, 2009, 06:00:24 PM
If your list of people permasquelched was to reset every tour, it would remove any players that may have just bugged you on one particular day, and you now don't know why they are squelched, and don't remember em.  Of course there's always that guy or two you are just done with  :lol     +1 to the idea  :aok
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: DMBEAR on December 04, 2009, 07:06:52 PM
What really irritates me is when someone tunes their vox channel to you and unleashes a verbal tirade. It isn't easily ignored and completely takes away from the game.

This could be stopped from happening to you again by that particular player with permasquelch.


One of many reasons.  Here is the scenario.

1)  Player XX makes a nuisance of himself, gets perma-squelched by a ton of folks.
2)  Player XX realizes no one is listening anymore, so changes his game ID to XXX.
3)  Now XXX gets squelched by everyone.
4)  New guy comes into the game, picks up ID 'XX'.  Tries to talk to folks.  No one hears him.  He quits playing the game, thinking everyone is a jerk.

Meanwhile, player XXX is still pissing off players and changing game ID's every 30 days.  You are not going to build a community by running off new players and allowing the ones that are the problem to stay around.

If a player is a bad enough nuisance he has to be squelched by everyone, he should not be allowed to stay in the game. 

Masking a problem does not fix it and perma-squelch is nothing but a mask for a problem.

Now, I am not speaking for HiTech.  He may have a whole different take on this. but as Community Manager, that is my take on it.  If HT wants to slap me down, it is okay by me.

People that would permasquelch someone the first time they heard them or got annoyed by them are not the type of players that would help to begin with.

None of the people I'd use this feature on are new or need help...at least in playing the game.  ;)

I'll just deal with it and play along as I have been for a couple years.  I'm just saying that after that short time there are several players I could tune out permanently and it would be more enjoyable than them popping up on the buffer or on range vox and then having to squelch them.

Just like Arena Caps, Ill accept that it won't change and still gladly log in daily.  I love the game, the forums, and the fact that HTC lets us Wish for stuff.

Thanks for responding Skuzzy.  Another reason I enjoy this game and forum is that you guys respond to us.  :salute
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Pongo on December 04, 2009, 07:42:59 PM
Skuzzy I guess that is a reason..but how likely is that really?
I think there has to be an implementation reason that trumps any "social" reason.

.Squelch seems to be a server side command. IE the server doenst send your client messages from the squelched player, as opposed to a client side thing that filters out the squelched messages or voice.
So when a name gets "reused" just delete the server side squelch lists. It would be stored against the .squelched party, not the squelching party.

The implementation issue I would see is that all those squelches have to be registered with the server every time a person logs in, whether the squelching person is there or not.
For a person that has been playing for years, 200 perma squelches might kick in at log in. Wastefull.
If its on the client, then its not so wasteful. But I don't think it is or can be.

Probably better to just make us decide if its worth our effort to take the time to squelch people every log in.
Channel 200 makes perma squelch less desirable to me. I just shut that off most of the time and the trouble goes away.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Bruv119 on December 05, 2009, 12:30:38 AM
new take on the perma squelch idea.

the squelch should last for 2 weeks!
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: stran on December 05, 2009, 01:45:45 AM
someone mention combat tour? what was combat tour? not much info about it.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Oleg on December 05, 2009, 02:49:09 AM
Secondly, HiTech gave the community the .report/.vreport mechanisms to deal with players who were being abusive/derogatory online.  It works.  Unfortunately, it can also be abused, but we have ways to deal with that as well.

.report dont work in low populated arenas like EW or MW, does it?
There are number of ppl who constantly spam chat with trashtalk, insults and other BS and say nothing worth to read at all. Squelch is only way to deal with it, and resquelching them every time is annoying at least.

btw, is insulting w/o using "bad" words forbidden and can result a mute? I dont want to annoy support for nothing, but probably it worth to send screen/film in that cases?
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: EskimoJoe on December 05, 2009, 03:19:49 AM
Haha nevermind.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Skuzzy on December 05, 2009, 07:08:48 AM
Oleg, you are correct.  In low populated arenas the ,report is not as effective.  I have been manually scanning the logs based on the .reports to see what the report was all about and manually issuing the restriction if the violation warrants it.

And yes, screenshots/films are always welcome.  We do endeavor to keep the arenas a *fun* place to be and be rid of the obnoxious.


Pongo, you are also correct.  Squelches are handled on the server.  Keeping a perma-list on the server would not be practical, as you mentioned.  Moving it to the client gets us back to the possibility of a newbie being ignored.

How often does someone request a game ID that is already taken?  I get, at least, one phone call or email a day about it.  I would call it, quite often.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Stalwart on December 05, 2009, 12:20:21 PM
One of many reasons.  Here is the scenario.

1)  Player XX makes a nuisance of himself, gets perma-squelched by a ton of folks.
2)  Player XX realizes no one is listening anymore, so changes his game ID to XXX.
3)  Now XXX gets squelched by everyone.
4)  New guy comes into the game, picks up ID 'XX'.  Tries to talk to folks.  No one hears him.  He quits playing the game, thinking everyone is a jerk.

Meanwhile, player XXX is still pissing off players and changing game ID's every 30 days.  You are not going to build a community by running off new players and allowing the ones that are the problem to stay around.

If a player is a bad enough nuisance he has to be squelched by everyone, he should not be allowed to stay in the game.  

Masking a problem does not fix it and perma-squelch is nothing but a mask for a problem.

Now, I am not speaking for HiTech.  He may have a whole different take on this. but as Community Manager, that is my take on it.  If HT wants to slap me down, it is okay by me.

So you're saying when a guy changes ID's you can't release the squelches?

Hmmm...
Maybe restrict how often you can change IDs to no more than once per tour.
Maybe release perma-squelch at the end of each tour too.  So it's only sorta perma-squelch.
Release squelches when a player changes ID.
Seems to solve your dilemma, and I bet there are a lot of folks that could live this idea.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Skuzzy on December 05, 2009, 02:39:55 PM
So you're saying when a guy changes ID's you can't release the squelches?

Hmmm...
Maybe restrict how often you can change IDs to no more than once per tour.
Maybe release perma-squelch at the end of each tour too.  So it's only sorta perma-squelch.
Release squelches when a player changes ID.
Seems to solve your dilemma, and I bet there are a lot of folks that could live this idea.


1) Right now a player cannot change his ID but once every 30 days.  It does not help.  Player XX, who you perma-squelched, changes his ID.  You now have to squelch him.  Now new guy comes along and adopts the old ID.  He is now squelched.

2)  Perma-squelch is on your computer.  Auto-relasing it once a tour does not fix the #1 scenario where an innocent is being squelched.

3)  You are offline and the player changes his game ID, so now your list cannot be changed as it is stored on your computer.  It cannot be stored on the server as the amount of init data to get into an arenais already quite hefty.

And one more time.  Perma-squelch is still masking the real problem while doing nothing to block the person you want to block.  Ok, do not allow him to change his game ID, ever.  Ok, so he closes his account and starts a new one.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: guncrasher on December 06, 2009, 12:03:25 AM
guys no, means no.  give it up  :D.

semp
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: soda72 on December 06, 2009, 09:14:43 AM
1) Right now a player cannot change his ID but once every 30 days.  It does not help.  Player XX, who you perma-squelched, changes his ID.  You now have to squelch him.  Now new guy comes along and adopts the old ID.  He is now squelched.

2)  Perma-squelch is on your computer.  Auto-relasing it once a tour does not fix the #1 scenario where an innocent is being squelched.

3)  You are offline and the player changes his game ID, so now your list cannot be changed as it is stored on your computer.  It cannot be stored on the server as the amount of init data to get into an arenais already quite hefty.

And one more time.  Perma-squelch is still masking the real problem while doing nothing to block the person you want to block.  Ok, do not allow him to change his game ID, ever.  Ok, so he closes his account and starts a new one.

To bad yall can't create a 'login Id' and a 'game ID'.  Where the 'login id' is created for every new user and is controled by HTC so the same 'login id' won't ever be used a second time.  Then allow users to change their in 'game ID' which everyone sees them as while playing the game.  When a person needs to squelch someone use the login id which should always be unique for every person and will never be reused to avoid affecting any new players.  

 :uhoh




Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Stalwart on December 06, 2009, 09:45:54 PM
Soda, Thinkin like a programmer.  :aok
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: guncrasher on December 06, 2009, 09:57:36 PM
To bad yall can't create a 'login Id' and a 'game ID'.  Where the 'login id' is created for every new user and is controled by HTC so the same 'login id' won't ever be used a second time.  Then allow users to change their in 'game ID' which everyone sees them as while playing the game.  When a person needs to squelch someone use the login id which should always be unique for every person and will never be reused to avoid affecting any new players. 

 :uhoh






its not that it cant be done.  what they're saying is that it just hides the real problem.  now think about that.

semp
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: AKDogg on December 07, 2009, 05:01:27 AM
How about tying the perma sqeulch to the account instead of the cpid.  This way no matter how many times he changes his name, he be squelched.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Skuzzy on December 07, 2009, 06:39:31 AM
You already have a separate login ID and game ID, but the login ID is your account number.  We are not going to propagate that information any further that we absolutely have to.

I am running out of ways to say it. This option would still serve to mask and support a problem, it does not solve the problem
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: guncrasher on December 07, 2009, 01:44:38 PM
You already have a separate login ID and game ID, but the login ID is your account number.  We are not going to propagate that information any further that we absolutely have to.

I am running out of ways to say it. This option would still serve to mask and support a problem, it does not solve the problem

i think he means no permasquelch, sorry guys he's been saying that since earlier in the thread. give it up.  they way to deal with problem players is to report them.  that simple.  to deal with players yo dont want around, then squelch or move to another base.

semp
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Westy on December 07, 2009, 03:21:37 PM
"i think he means no permasquelch, sorry guys he's been saying that since earlier in the thread."

Ya think? Actually we've been told that for almost 10 years


"...give it up."

I hear what skuzzy is saying. I'm not convined there's not a solution that doesn not accidentally penalize
a new player or someone who decides to suddenly mature. So I will still wish there was a perma-squelch
feature. It is something I *know* would make *my* time online more enjoyable for *me*
 Because you and I and everyone else won't necessarily share the same opinion on what constitutes poor
behavior or disruptive activity by others IMO the report is not a good substitute.
 A perm-squelch would alleviate the need to manually squelch a list of players every time I logged in. When
the same old people exhibit their typical lack of self control or have "diarrhea of the text" on the game radio
I would not be subjected to it. Kind of plain and simple.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: guncrasher on December 07, 2009, 07:04:36 PM
I understand your wish completely trust me and I also wish there was one.  but....


semp
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: saantana on December 07, 2009, 07:43:05 PM
(http://ahdywizjon308.servegame.org:8000/fileDownload.php?filename=this_thread_delivers_ups_chick_amaz.jpg&system_name=repository_file_275)

No to perma squelch, but please allow me to choose who gets to tune to my vox. Like Delirium said, personal voice tirades over VOX can be quite disturbing, and I'm far from easily moved.
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: Ack-Ack on December 07, 2009, 07:49:35 PM
.report dont work in low populated arenas like EW or MW, does it?



As a victim of a grief mass .report twice, I can say that .report does work in a lower populated arena like MW.

ack-ack
Title: Re: Why not permasquelch
Post by: AKDogg on December 07, 2009, 10:14:43 PM
BTW, what is the current disenplinary action for vox and text foul language?  Another ? is when u .report for voice, how does that get reported?  What I mean is, does the server take the last few mins of what was said and log it for Roy to hear?  Or does it just say/log that this individual said something bad?  Reason I ask is, is it necessary to film the voice chat and sent it to Roy along with the .report or is the .report voice enough?