The mask discussion

[Yputi]

Hello!

I think many people are aware of the fact that masks are a well known thing in ECRP. If I use the search option on the forum alone and type in "mask", I already get 1,934 results. 
I've seen new players asking if certain stuff was normal, for example:
- People driving like crazy in the city
- People wearing masks everywhere, even in banks

Now the people driving issue is already being taken care of by implementing speed camera's. In this post I would like to focus more on the masks thing.

 

Now many people already made suggestions about adding rules regarding the use of masks on the server. It only took me 1 minute to find these 2 already by @Astrox and @CaesarSeizure:

 

These suggestions started to make me thinking a while ago. As I consider myself as a really active player, I see a lot happening on the server and I realize it is quite crazy that wearing masks became sort of normal while I think it is not realistic, mainly wearing them around banks. Even when arresting people as a member of LSPD it is quite rare you will see someone without a mask.

What I think the issue is, is basically metagaming.

It is metagaming using someone's ID/player tag IC. IRL you know someone by face, voice and behaviour. You won't see someone wearing a tag 24/7 with their name that you gave them. I do realize in GTA it's harder to tell people appart due to the limit of clothing, hairstyles, etc, but I believe the main issue why people wear masks is that they get recognized way too easy. I even caught myself wearing masks in cars or on bikes while having a helmet on, pure because I get recognized so fast sometimes. It feels like wearing a masks technically makes it more realistic, because thats the only way people can not just identify you by tag's.
I remember when I was fairly new to the server a year ago. I didn't even know the /alias command existed for easily a month if no longer and I can tell, it was quite possible to just remember people.

I started thinking about server suggestions, but not just rules that say you can't wear masks in NCZ's (which I indeed think should be considered poor RP and unrealistic). It is quite hard to do something with player tags since they are also being used to identify people OOC (player reports for example), so that is why I opened this discussion:

- Is why I think so many people wear masks (even while not commiting crimes) true?

- What could be a possible solution if you think something should change?



Possible things where I thought about, which I still think are not the solution for this:
- Add "Player ID" to CTRL + X and remove tags completely
- Make the range of player ID's/alias shorter in general
- Make the range of player ID's/alias shorter in general + even shorter when someone is in a car
- Make people only have ID's and no aliases anymore

Edited June 9, 2019 by Yputi

[Drizzy.]

I don't mean to be the devil's advocate but I like the current system, the fact that we can interchange from mask to no mask and the effects of those. I don't see it being a real issue.

Edited June 9, 2019 by DrizzyDre

[alexalex303]

I would be in favor of removing aliases completely and making it so players have a player ID used for reports, that changes every time they connect. 

[Bala]

I came from a smaller server where people using masks excessively was seen as a problem and that it didn't make for good role-play in a role-play server.
There was the idea that the mask was supposed to be used to hide your face only when doing illegal activities, not to walk around mostly anonymously.

Here it's widely accepted and practised by a lot of people, so I think getting rid of it or going the full way with it might potentially split the community further.

Personally, I just accepted that everyone masked up and I got on with it. It doesn't really bother me that someone wants to dress up like a post-box or wear a halloween costume on their face, I just continue on with my roleplay.

That being said though, here are some potential suggestions.

• Have the mask auto-remove for people on foot in the no crime zones. I don't know honestly if it's a rule or not but there are that many people masked, it becomes impossible to enforce or report everyone and having a mask walking into the bank or the police station is frankly stupid.
   
• Assign someone a 'Mask ID' when they put their mask on in the server so players have a reference point to report people if necessary but their player id is independent of their mask id. So for example, Player ID 8 masks up and there are already 45 masked people on the server, he'll go from "8" to "Masked 46". When he puts his mask on, it records it in a log file that admins can look at and see who was masked using that id.
   
• Have a cool-down of sorts for masks, where-by you can only use it for x amount of time before you can't use it for x period of time again, could be similiar to the health/hunger system in that it decreases when you use it and increases when you don't use it.
   
• Have your /alias of someone be wiped when they name change but also limit the amount of times an individual character can change that accounts name. To me the name change feature does get a little undercut by the fact that even if you are roleplaying someone completely new, they will know you on /alias as the previous person.
   
• Also add a /pn command to allow you to write a few notes about that player. This would become exceptionally handy for factions that see lots of people, as like an RP way of remembering people that you've encountered. For example, I'm a cop and a taxi driver and it would be nice to be able to write a few words about how i met someone and how they acted so i'd be able to remember and use that in the roleplay. It's all IC knowledge anyway and knowledge i'd have, it's just when you are meeting 50-100 new people every day it becomes difficult to keep track even if you have their names aliased.

[Scott Cleverley]

I think masks are way too op, people with masks 24/7 running arround with guns and so on. remember that there is no way to track person down with help of npc, cameras all around the city. If you would look in real life majority of criminals get caught because cctv's are everywhere as well as people report crimes. here if you haven't seen the man face basicly no way to charge him, even if you got robbed your claim is not enough of an evidence itself to punish the guy.

[SaltyPython]

I definitely think that people just going around wearing masks is highly unrealistic, bordering on the Non-RP. Even crazy gang members IRL don't go around walking in the middle of the streets with masks on, and especially with like, Slasher/Monkey/Cat masks on.

[Yputi]

2 minutes ago, Hoxton_Curry said:

Should be dealt with ICly (and I heard that new laws regarding masks are coming) and having a cooldown for putting on a mask is a terrible idea

I agree partly on that. I just came to a point it is not realistic and I believe the reasons for wearing masks are no IC reasons. It was stated in the post, but yes, maybe laws would help.

[ShyNudist]

Maybe make wearing masks sufficient probable cause for a police officer to stop and frisk?  It is suspicious after all.

[MSJC]

I think the aliasing should be removed from constant view as many people whether they want to admit it or not have aliased someone and used that as a method to recognize them. I tend to not alias someone unless i can recognize who they are from their voice.

 

If the aliasing is removed i would bet that the amount of people in masks would decrease, but not down to the levels of no use within NCZ, unless they introduce a rule against it.

[Yputi]

31 minutes ago, MSJC said:

I think the aliasing should be removed from constant view as many people whether they want to admit it or not have aliased someone and used that as a method to recognize them. I tend to not alias someone unless i can recognize who they are from their voice.

 

If the aliasing is removed i would bet that the amount of people in masks would decrease, but not down to the levels of no use within NCZ, unless they introduce a rule against it.

Correct. I've tested this not too long ago. I simply went on duty at Bayview, I hold C, pressed T while holding so I would permanently crouch and no one would see my alias... Almost everyone asked who I was and then all of a sudden they knew me once I stood straight again...

[Bala]

7 hours ago, Hoxton_Curry said:

Should be dealt with ICly (and I heard that new laws regarding masks are coming) and having a cooldown for putting on a mask is a terrible idea

I mean, I only need to take one look at your signature to know you wouldn't be in favour lmao, as much as we are the police, people OOCly have to police their behaviour and how they roleplay.

Unless there is a sandstorm or a airborne virus, you don't need to be masked all the time.

Edited June 12, 2019 by GOAT

[Darius Bivins]

no i like wearin masks at md cuz im banned from it 

[Bala]

13 minutes ago, Darius Bivins said:

no i like wearin masks at md cuz im banned from it 

Welp thats that, the OG has spoken