Enforcing of a chatkill rule

[acerspyro]

As proposed by Quin himself , I am creating a poll asking you, the community, what your thoughts are on the topic of chat killing.

The poll consists of three options:

1. Unmoderated - Leave the rules as-is, chat killing is frowned upon, but not banned.
2. Manually moderated - The rule is in place, and moderators will take care of players who frequently chat kill. This method leaves the decision to the discretion of the moderator (i.e. a human being).
3. Auto moderated - Using a system similar to what we currently have in place for team killing, players would be automatically kicked, and subsequently, banned from the game after a certain amount of chat kills. To prevent abuse and accidents, we should leave a 3-second buffer after the player has started chatting before the game starts incrementing the chat kill counter if somebody kills them (and maybe even a timeout, say 30 seconds, to prevent AFK abuse).

Please feel free to add your thoughts and suggestions below.

[bonifarz]

[Alxa]

I don't think it should be enforced; if you want to chat, then go to spec or wait until you die (or just log into Windows Live Messenger). But it's considered good manners to not kill people while they are chatting

[DonGeilo]

I think everybody agrees that chatkilling is a bad thing, but even worse are people that keep chatting all the time... Especially in modes like Survivor it is very unfair.

When theres is a thing like autokicking, some people would be "chatting" until they have won or at least until there is only one other player left.

[SniperGoth]

Chatkilling is a bad thing, but when the person just starts chatting while alive out of nowhere when i already pressed the fire key, then kill them, it's not my fault.
Want to chat? Do so before spawning, instead of doing it while on a crossfire.
I already moderate chatkillers a lot, but if they just keep doing it, /kick, no need for an automated system imo.

[shacknetisp]

Chatkilling should not be moderated, RE is a game about shooting, not watching people talk. If a kill would benefit me or my team point-wise or remove an enemy from the area, I'll go for it. Just the fact that the chatter can suddenly stop chatting and enter the action makes "invulnerable" chatting an unfair advantage.

[Bobbo]

Enforcing any kind of rule makes the opposite a problem; it allows me to press T/Enter/Return to open the chat window to give myself immunity.

I suggest just removing the above head chat icon for non-spectators.

[qreeves]

The icon is a courtesy, it allows the attacker to make the decision of whether to provide mercy.

Personally, I refuse to chat while still in play because I always get slammed with questions and shit. Just wait until you're dead if it bothers you that some people shoot chatters. Seriously, questions can wait a few moments.

[Lagetta]

In my opinion this is absurd idea. I talk too much myself, but I don't even want to have some new rules like: not killing people for chatting when they are atill alive.

It's not our fault that people chat too much In-game, but some people just react too much about being killed by writting some long sentence or keep spamming for too long.

But instead it would be better to be able to see their icons when they are with symbol on their heads like dominating or something (idk how they are called)
It's kinda annoying in 1v1 duels after you or your opponent kill 5 times in a row and starts suddenly chatting.

Baam! He's dead now. Chatkill!

[marioxcc]

Red Eclipse is a game where one kills and is killed in a virtual world. When somebody is playing and decides to chat, it follows that he accepts the possibility of being killed while chatting. Moreover, as already stated, one can chat before respawning. Therefore, I do not see any reason of why there should be a rule against this.

It is useful to know which kills are chatkills for various reasons. For example, to know if one's teammates are being killed because of chatting, and to know that it is no indicator of skill of the one who kills (because the player chatting is almost always static).

[yeatta]

There are other fps's and RE can be erratic in this topic aswell.
On other fps's you can hide, or take cover and chat for a bit, with almost no danger at all because the enemy is far enough and no sniper can hit me in cover.
On RE, that's also possible, some few maps allow for effective cover or even hiding spots, that will viabilize chatting with no danger. Unfortunatly, on most maps/gamemods, the opponents can either cross the map in seconds, or use the radar to find the last survivor.
It's a fast-paced game, and on some occasions we are lead to think we have 3 seconds to reply to chat and then mid-typing we get interrupted.

Im not in favour of a chatkilling rule, because as it was stated already, players could use an insta-shield and the players would abuse the system, naturally.
I fancy Bobbo's idea, removing the chat icon except for non-spectators, because it would end with chatkills.
On the other hand the game would go silent, and I admit I kinda enjoy the chatroom.

Not sure if chatkilling is an actual problem, but here's some other ideas to try to help solve this
- pressing for chat will not work unless player is in spectator
- pressing for chat will make you go to spectate
- chatkilling is barbaricaly nerfed, the points for fragging a chatter are reduced by 9/10
- longer time intervals between rounds, for chatters to chat
- a bigger chat icon, so chatkillers can be more hasty in chatkilling
- an un-official guideline, for shortening chat using acronyms, like instead of "get the flag here" the guide would suggest using "f here" (or something else less suggestive)

[Bobbo]

[LoxForever]

I do not kill who has the chat icon visible, but I admit that this feature can be (and often is) abused.
To prevent abuses I propose to add a delay of at least 2,5 seconds before showing the chat icon and a timer that automatically removes the icon after 5 or 6 seconds.

[shacknetisp]

I don't thing any adjustment is necessary here, with the current system players can decide if they want to chatkill or not depending on the situation, It's quite useful in duels to see if your opponent is temporarily occupied, and chat abuse is not often done purposely.

[acerspyro]

As a parallel to this discussion, please see this

https://github.com/red-eclipse/base/pull/703