Revamp Audio Recording rules for Intelligence RP

[TheOblivionist]

Description of the idea: Intelligence RP is a very fascinating aspect of Prometheus, offering diverse routes and opportunities for players who actively participate in Intelligence RP. However, its potential has been constrained by certain underutilized features. One such feature is audio recordings, which could revolutionize the way Intelligence RP operates. From enabling more espionage opportunities to providing evidence in court cases, audio recordings equip agents with more tools to be used against their opposition. Unfortunately, this feature has been left redundant for way too long. Very few people know they exist, the only people who are able to approve and oversee them are typically very busy and the rules constraining Audio Recordings are a little unbalanced and make audio recordings not really worth the time. I can see why uniform stealing RP is constrained to UA, due to what you could do with that, but audio recordings have a broader range of use and would therefore be used by more agents. Nobody encourages it anymore, which is rather sad to see. 

 

An obvious solution to this would be to just remove Audio Recordings from the Intelligence Rules and call it a day, but why do that when you can revitalize them and make them useful without essentially making it absurdly overpowered? With enough care and effort, you could turn it from just another redundant feature to a useful tool that can change the tides or backfire depending on how its used. It's not only effective, but it's unpredictable, as recording the wrong conversations can lead to the agent's demise and getting caught can also lead to the agent's demise. Unpredictability is very fun. First, I believe that the approval threshold should be lowered to Senior Administrator+, or to Administrator+ with UA approval. If an administrator can approve government PK's on anyone up to faction leads, it would be reasonable enough that they would have the trust and responsibility in them to oversee audio recordings, only requiring approval from a UA member (Staff have significantly easier access to UA anyway). It is implied in the rules that audio recordings can be both portable (via attached microphone devices), or grounded. It would make sense if both mediums had their advantages and disadvantages too. Agents who have microphones attached to their collar sleeve would A: Need to roleplay attaching it on them via /me and B: would only be able to record audio conversations for two minutes maximum. The player would also need to do /me turns on microphone to start recording (and to indicate to the overseeing staff member that they are recording from then on), only needing to edit their audio recording to cut off any footage after the two minute mark before using it ICly (they can't cut any footage recorded prior to turning the microphone on). Now you might ask, "how do we identify players who are recording or are potentially recording conversations?" Very easy solution. Have the overseeing staff member force the player to put in their description "You would notice the man has a microphone attached to their collar sleeve." This allows for anyone to identify when an agent has a microphone attached on their collar sleeve and forces agents to be careful about it. As for those recording interrogations and whatnot, with grounded recording devices, recording would be 7 minutes max and would require the player to have pet flags to be able to place the equipment necessary to record said audio and would also have to be roleplayed out properly via /me's, like /me turns on recording equipment and whatnot. 

Audio Recordings should also only be approved if it is proven that doing so would be absolutely beneficial, like significantly more beneficial than if they just wrote about it. Recording a dossier you're doing, unless the person in question is being extremely uncooperative, is inherently cringe and wastes staff's time. Optionally, have the player distort their audio a little bit, i don't know maybe for rp realism or some shit but that would be unnecessary. Maybe I'm just that kinda guy that likes to be larpy like that. 

 

Why should this be added?: This opens up new avenues for players who actively do Intelligence RP and equips agents with more tools to use against opposition. Intelligence RP is very notorious for being a "high risk high reward" thing where whatever the player does can either lead to commendations and promotions or a shot to the head. Audio Recordings, if moderated correctly, allow agents to obtain information that can be used to blackmail, or for court trials. In turn, it puts the agent and anyone else involved at a risk of being pk'd for dirt, or other IC consequences that could follow depending on the situation. This also empowers double agents and actually makes them more useful than ever, forcing intelligence agencies to keep a closer eye on their personnel and ensure that whatever information they're disclosing between eachother wouldn't be intercepted and recorded by a double agent. In short, it makes RP significantly more interesting and creates more conflict.

 

What negatives could this have?: If unregulated and/or used improperly, it would basically turn audio recordings into a form of loophole for metagaming (IE: recording literally everything and presenting them as evidence where it would otherwise be considered against the server rules to do so). 

 

Additional Information: Would love to hear the community's opinion about this

Edited November 19 by TheOblivionist