Clantag as a 'badge' on your human/alien skin.

[Bajsefar]

Ok, I know this has been suggested a million times before, and I am a kind of person who would really like to see something like this through.
There was a thread about customizable look on your different human and alien models..
Then the sugestion of having a small, customizable logo shown on your skin, which was met this reply:

N.M.I."]It's not a bad idea after all.
There could be an option to use your own logo (just like in Counter-Strike) let's say on the chest of the human armor or on the back of the aliens (black widow Dretch - as someone pointed out earlier).
It would be cool, simple and useful.

Yea, till someone puts porn on their logo.
I wouldn't mind, but others might.

In which i understand and agree, this would be just another challenge for admins, and another way to grief/irritate admins and other players.

But...
I thought of something, what if this customizable logo of yours were only the font of Tremulous made into a logo, with a max number of characters allowed. This would not be any easier to abuse than the ability to customize your name.

There would be a field in the options menu, next to the space you fill in your name, marked [Clan tag/logo] In which you could insert maybe 5 letters (+-).

This could be shown when you point your mouse at someone aswell as on their uniforms as a logo.

This would IMO make organizing and overwiev easier, You could even use it internally in your clan so that you could easily identify a fellow clan member. Maybe you could even use this to mark yourself visibly as  a builder or attack leader. The possibilities for using this strategically, helping in coordination would be quite huge.

I ask you now, people who know how to code and mod: Would this be hard to implement? Turning the Tremulous font (or any other font for that matter) into a part of your player skin (With a standard size of course)
And preferably with colour codes allowed.

Edit: I was thinking that there might not be enough space on the different skins to display the letters properly readable, would it maybe be an option displaying them permanently over teammate's heads, if the max letter cap was small enough? (say 3 or 4 letters).
One of the main points of the idea is anyway to be able to recognize a player without looking at them directly. (can be a pain when there are many players).

Or maybe the tag/whatever you decide to write there could be displayed on the chest of the human uniforms and back of aliens like proposed, those seems like the best places for visibility.

Should the tag be visible only to tammates?

[n00b pl0x]

how do you suppose a person fits porn on a small badge?

i dont have a problem with the idea but its a little excessive...no matter where you put it as long as its just a badge you wont be able to see it unless youre looking at the person from a certain angle anyways

it just doesnt really sound worth the effort...

[Bajsefar]

That was why i suggested it being permanently shown over a teammate's head. And would it be a lot of trouble to implement?

If someone has the skills, and is wondering if this change would be for the better or not. Please, mod it! :p I would really like to see it. I'd also like to have some recognition of who just said what in teamchat visually to associate with players on your screen.

This is sometimes a huge problem to me. 'Follow me!'

And my post was as long as it was because i wanted to have put some thought into it.
It's not a very complicated idea.

[==Troy==]

[ 8y.o. boy] No way.

Id loved to see a goon with Printed badges on his back, when you psaw them from above.

A Tyrant running, with a badge on his chest, looks quite impressive, especially for most of the noobs, who will die facing his chest.

Dretch with a little something on his belly and/or back? very nice to see as a last sign when he jumps onto your head ))). [/8 y.o. boy]

Personally I think its not that very hard to make, and it is worth the fun of it

Ill make some screenies with badges, as I see them, but I do like the idea.

[Bajsefar]

It's not supposed to look fun, strange or otherwise ridicolous, it's supposed to be simple, practical and informative.
Preferrably only to be seen by teammates, a bit like the icons above unpowered buildings as a builder.

Atleast in my opinion.

[Nux]

So long as the user can disable it this feature would be welcome. Just wanted to note that not all players might want these tags to be flying around and blocking their view.

Also, it might be handy to have an overhead symbol for when someone is typing AND a symbol that remains for a 2 seconds after to give people the opportunity to look out for the guy who just said "Follow me!".

[==Troy==]

having something above the teammates is just a worthless view block.

It would have been fun to have it on the skin of the body itself, as I mentioned above, but since its not what you want, then F2 from me, not worth the trouble, I would have definitely disabled this if it has existed. :roll:

its not a big trouble to just scan your mates with the crosshair.

[Bajsefar]

Actually it is, it all depends on the amount of humans. And you can not imagine this not to block too much of your view?


Big deal.

[Bajsefar]

So long as the user can disable it this feature would be welcome. Just wanted to note that not all players might want these tags to be flying around and blocking their view.

No, of course it would be an option. I don't think forcing something like this on everyone is a very good idea.

Also, it might be handy to have an overhead symbol for when someone is typing AND a symbol that remains for a 2 seconds after to give people the opportunity to look out for the guy who just said "Follow me!".

Yeah, I thought about it but decided not to put it in the thread. Here goes anyway.
Imagine that with an option to make it more or less transparent, maybe the chat icon itself too would be more discreet. Same goes for visual tag (the transparency thing) Could be a part of the options menu.

[Mr. Phawks]

This could most likely be easily done, with the logo saved as a JPG or some image format on your PC then uploaded to the server when you connect.

The player model could have the gaming equivalent of a green-screen patch where the custom logo would just fill in.

The server saves your logo image, then deletes it if you're inactive from the server for a specified period of time. Then, when you connect, your logo is reuploaded.

The server saves your logo image by IP address and attributes that to you, that way impersonators/Unnameds don't continually FUBAR your image files.

Of course, I'm not much of a tech person, so I have no idea how hard this is.

[Nux]

It's not just about how hard it is to program. There's going to be loading time costs for managing these picture files. A test based tag or preset picture (comes with tremulous and you select the one you want) are the most sensible ideas

[imperiumZero]

uhh....if you want chatbubbles....look into }MG{ patches for the chatbubble patch....

speaking of which i fixed the sprite orientation error...

[Bajsefar]

It's not just about how hard it is to program. There's going to be loading time costs for managing these picture files. A test based tag or preset picture (comes with tremulous and you select the one you want) are the most sensible ideas

This would however be solved if the logo is something the game drawis itself, using the custom tremulous font.

Am i right? Could this be done?

uhh....if you want chatbubbles....look into }MG{ patches for the chatbubble patch....

speaking of which i fixed the sprite orientation error...

Cool, I'd like that, but i'd like it in the 'oficcial' version so mos servers would have it. Woulda been handy.

[Matt2k10]

This could most likely be easily done, with the logo saved as a JPG or some image format on your PC then uploaded to the server when you connect.

The player model could have the gaming equivalent of a green-screen patch where the custom logo would just fill in.

The server saves your logo image, then deletes it if you're inactive from the server for a specified period of time. Then, when you connect, your logo is reuploaded.

The server saves your logo image by IP address and attributes that to you, that way impersonators/Unnameds don't continually FUBAR your image files.

Of course, I'm not much of a tech person, so I have no idea how hard this is.

Other people would have to download your logo to see it. The amount of logos you would have to download on a populated server is ridiculous.

Text, however, would work.

[Mr. Phawks]

This could most likely be easily done, with the logo saved as a JPG or some image format on your PC then uploaded to the server when you connect.

The player model could have the gaming equivalent of a green-screen patch where the custom logo would just fill in.

The server saves your logo image, then deletes it if you're inactive from the server for a specified period of time. Then, when you connect, your logo is reuploaded.

The server saves your logo image by IP address and attributes that to you, that way impersonators/Unnameds don't continually FUBAR your image files.

Of course, I'm not much of a tech person, so I have no idea how hard this is.

Other people would have to download your logo to see it. The amount of logos you would have to download on a populated server is ridiculous.

Text, however, would work.

Even extremely low-res high-compression image files would be problematic? Doubtful.

Also, the server sends all the connected clients the small files when they connect.

Of course, text would be fine. But for images, think something along the lines of a Windows desktop image, very few pixels. If you can't download a few of those upon connection, you shouldn't even be playing an online multiplayer game anyways.

[fmart]

good idea but I do not have a clan
I can get some name I want as band tag

[benmachine]

Even extremely low-res high-compression image files would be problematic? Doubtful.

Also, the server sends all the connected clients the small files when they connect.

Of course, text would be fine. But for images, think something along the lines of a Windows desktop image, very few pixels. If you can't download a few of those upon connection, you shouldn't even be playing an online multiplayer game anyways.

If new players joined mid-way through your game, you'd then have to download their graphic too - the lag this would cause, even if it only took half a second, could prove critical and very, very annoying. Especially when it turns out that after a week you have 9000 crudely drawn penises in your base folder.

[Nux]

uhh....if you want chatbubbles....look into }MG{ patches for the chatbubble patch....

speaking of which i fixed the sprite orientation error...

Yes, I've seen this and liked it. What I suggested in addition to this is a seperate symbol for when the message has been finished which remains above the head for long enough to be spotted by the people who have just read the message. Otherwise, people who didn't see him typing would still have to do the aim-search for the name of the person who asked them to follow.

Also, does this chat bubble patch have the chatbubbles visible from the enemy team when they use teamchat? Or perhaps not viewable from enemy team at all?

It's not just about how hard it is to program. There's going to be loading time costs for managing these picture files. A test (I meant to say text) based tag or preset picture (comes with tremulous and you select the one you want) are the most sensible ideas

This would however be solved if the logo is something the game drawis itself, using the custom tremulous font.

Am i right? Could this be done?

That's what I meant by that last part

[Bajsefar]

9000 crudely drawn penises in your base folder.

Hah! I'd rofl, and make a collage.

[Lava Croft]

I just want to add to this discussion that a multitude of crappy clan logos totally degrades the graphical quality and with it the atmosphere we all love. Everybody knows what happens when you let users add their own graphics. I just silently point you all into the direction of most custom HUDs.

[Shadowgandor]

lol lava, some of those huds are pretty good

[FisherP]

Mostly I kinda think it's a bit gimmicky. However the only real way I can see this working is to have a predefined number of graphics (possibly allow 2-3 graphics that can be combined in preset ways) that can be manipulated by color/size/transparency/placement then overlay text. The problem then comes about when someone closely mimics your clan tag and colors. At this stage there will be people wanting to register their emblems just like the GUID.

I dunno it's a cute idea and should be possible but the devil is in the details.

[Bajsefar]

Ok, so scrap the picture idea.
Text is a better idea, and any kind of option like this should be... ..well, and option.

[maxell]

that's an idea i have never thought before but i got a question how would u make and add it to trem???  i like the idea of the tag thought =) i whish ou the best for that idea (bout time there do about that) i feel it would be better you could see it even for the opossition  so not only your teammate can read it but every1 which i think it is better also it give an idea but not the namewhich is even better =) ahh... ne last thing, tell me when u finish (email me)