rgr.
I’ll admit, I’m often idle in TS, but only because for some strange reason, PS takes a good ten minutes or so to shut down. Literally. I don’t have that kind of patience, so upon leaving the game, I click on O.K. to leave the world, then go watch TV or get something to eat, coming back later to then shut down the game from the world select screen, at which point, I have another five minutes or so to go and do my own thing before I can get to the desktop. I doubt it’s usually that big a problem though, as by that time, there’s not a whole lot of people in there, and i doubt there’s a lineup to get in at 3:00 AM EST ;)
The other soulution, simple and elegant, is to have austen set up a few admin accounts. I used to host/run GG’s TS server for Ghost Recon (and a handful of other games, but it was mostly used for Ghost Recon) I’d chosen one or two other people to act as admins. I’d created an account for them under their usual names, and assigned a password for them to use. When they logged in, instead of usuing the server password, they’d log in using their personal password and they’d have registered/admin status (an “RA” beside their name) and could kick or move people to appropriate rooms as neccessary, create persistent, registered rooms etc…
If TS begins to get really bloated and unwieldly, then there’s still a few other things that can be done to increase the numbers who can use it while maintaining it’s stability, and make it easier for people to communicate more effectively. Already I notice that with a full squad on, it’s tough sometimes to get a half-intelligible word in edgewise. :) Possible solutions are splitting the room up into sub-channels. Set up two or three sub-channels in the planetside channel, and assign each room a channel leader. At this point, the people in each sub-channel can speak to each other normally, but not to people outside their sub-channel. A key can then be bound to braodcast ONLY to channel leaders, so for example, I have an enemy AMS at my death position. I can broadcast it to my channel, and let those two or three other guys know, and then hit the key to broadcast to channel leaders, and let the channel leaders know that there’s an AMS at my death position. The channel leaders then filter it down to their respective channels…should they choose to do so. The advantage to this is that you get a more hierarchical communication structure that cuts down on the amount of chatter each person has to hear because there’s less people in each channel. Also, channel leaders can choose to task their channel members more effectively by passing (or not passing) on important situational information. The downside is that we all can’t communicate with one another without some of us having to go through a “middleman” first. If I’m in subchannel 1 and redfives in the main channel, with triggerhappy as the main channels leader, I have to send a broadcast to the channel leaders, and ask triggerhappy to tell redfive “<insert important tactical information here>”
Thats just one very off-the-cuff solution, TS is pretty versatile in what it will allow players to do with it, and there’s a dozen different variations we could try. From as simple as “guys, cut down on the non-critical chatter, use the typechat to goof off” to as complex as convoluted channel/subchannel structures with leaders and a half dozen different keybinds to speak to everyone/leaders/individuals or any combination thereof. :P
