Here's what. We know by default, Freelancer set your chat to system com. Which makes it that, you are forced to speak to the whole system at -all- time.
You can of course set it to group.
But to me, the most useful one is -LOCAL-, which can only be reached through the function /l
Now, logically, why, when you transmit a message, do you give it to everyone? When people speak on radio, they usually speak for the vicinity.
Advantages:
-no more system channel spam
-no more mixing one' roleplay with those of unwanted people
-we save time and 2 word slot for more roleplay
Disadvantage:
-well, I didn't really thought about it. Someone find them...
The problem now is just... how and can it be done at all..
i support a setting to "local" as default any time. - it might be possible? - cannon made a lot of things possible - so if we nag him enough - maybe he can work his magic once more:)
If im not mistaken, the local chat wasn't originally part of the game, it was just a flhook plugin. Seeing as Cannon was the one that implemented this, Im sure this thought wouldnt be too hard to do. Then if people DID want to speak in system, they can just type the /s before their message. I personally like the idea, it would help out extremely in NY and Penn. due to all the OoRP posts. I somtime get on and get into a group, and its hard to keep track of what the group is saying because of everyone else in the system talking.
I second this motion as it would make busy systems less cluttered. Also would in some ways make for more realistic role play, sort of limiting your radio range.
So I'm wondering, if you see someone on your scanner, like 11k away, you cannot select them, but you can see them on scanner - do they receive your local message?
I generally agree with local being default. My only issue with it is that I have been having a lot of conversations in system chat since I started playing in Gallia... Wonder why.... Maybe because it's empty... Anyway, I dont think this would be a big issue, using system chat like this is probably OORP anyway, don't need to be broadcasting my position to the GRN after all.