So the server I regular has an ongoing discussion about KOS problems and how they might be helped.
Pretty much everyone agrees, Kill-On-Sight is way too prevalent but there's just not enough reasons to not do it.
The problem:
1) You have too much to lose by trying to identify someone you have the drop on.
2) Everyone is effectively anonymous unless they identify themselves or are dead.
I had been thinking about these two facts affect gameplay, and how other mechanics could affect this so that KOS was less common. Several times I've killed someone only to learn who they were via the death message and then apologized for my actions. The typical response is 'this is DayZ', it's just a harsh accepted truth.
At the same time, we already have 'friendly tagging'. It isn't persistent through logouts, and requires an initial contact of trust. It causes a magic green floating dot on the other player so you know they are friendly. We mostly play on the same servers and given time, you start to identify regular players. Without some sort of forced dialogue, there's not often a way to randomly run into a player and have a net positive outcome. Usually, someone ends up dead.
Why not take this a step farther and allow players to opt-in to displaying their own name if someone is aiming at them?
The idea is that even though I may have never run into player 'Robot' in-game, from interactions with him in side chat or in forums would allow me to give him the benefit of the doubt. If I had the drop on him and saw that it was him(because he opted into showing his name) then I might say "hello" first or ask if he'd like to be friendly. The risk is still there, as now I've given up both the fact that I have the drop on him AND who I am, but he might reciprocate and we just had a 'good' random interaction in Epoch. He might also turn and shoot me in the face, which is 'DayZ'. The side effect there is I would know it was him and his 'reputation' could be marred.
The real world current example is I see him running around with gear, I shoot him and kill him, apologize and if I'm feeling nice, help him get his gear back.
Some scenarios as to why nametags being a choice of the player is preferable:
The above interaction, being a net positive. I have the drop on someone, see it is a regular and potentially friendly, ask them and we don't shoot at eachother.
I see a player who has name tags turned off, I'm likely to just shoot them as I would today in our current system. I take their gear, or miss and they kill me.
I decide to do some banditry. I turn my name tag off. That way, if I get in a firefight with someone, they don't know who I am. If I win- they never know who I was(unless they check the kill board).
Someone gets the drop on me, sees my nametag, and shoots me anyway. They either don't care, don't like me, or feel the need. Their gameplay has not been affected.
I keep my nametag on, and hope that players see me and decide not to shoot me in the back. I am banking on my reputation on the server as a deterrent to random victimization.
The last part is most important. It's an option that adds more depth to Epoch and helps foster a community on a single server or hive. It doesn't cost anything or force anyone to change their gameplay habits. It is entirely optional, and in my opinion could only improve the quality of play at the small expense of losing a little realism. This realism imo is already lost with red/green dots on player characters. I feel like this could be implemented as an additional field in the character data table. It could be read in on each login and death.
Update:
I've been digging into this quite a bit recently and started to poke at the idea of how this could functionally work. Others have graciously linked related name tag scripts which look fairly simple to implement. I've been researching how we can provide both an item interaction and possibly a visual reference for if the 'mask' is on.
My current idea is to utilize balaclava code or create a custom glasses model that is a mask. This way, I don't need to make a clone model for each custom outfit that is wearing a mask. If I can apply it to the player's model head then it just goes on 'over' the player model, just like a real mask. Both Night Vision Goggles and Balaclava/glasses work to accomplish this, but in slightly different ways.
The two hurdles I'm working on right now are:
how to dynamically apply the player model change
how to handle the interaction menu to enable/disable the mask.
Changing the animation is something we are going to do, as well as giving change. I think next patch 1.0.2.3-ish I will add a magazine item for a "coin pouch" that would hold 0-900 coins to replace all other lower bars as currency. All bars lower than 1oz of gold will just be trade-able into coins. This would be used for trades on items lower than 1oz of gold. When making change this item will be consumed and a item will be replaced with the proper change. Over 1oz Gold Bars will still be used and made to stack in 1oz increments (1-10oz). Briefcases will function the same as they always have but will store increments of 1oz (0-100oz). On selling the trade would look for partially filled "coin pouches","Bar Stacks","Briefcases" and append the output.
On buying the trade will look first for the exact Item/change consume that item and return nothing. Otherwise it will give the highest denominations back as change, for example:
Player has a coin pouch with 900 coins, makes a purchase costing 50 coins Returns: (900 - 50 = 850).
Player has a coin pouch with 500 coins, makes a purchase costing 50 coins Returns: (500 - 50 = 450).
Player has 10 x 1oz Gold Bars, makes a purchase costing 50 coins Returns: (10 - 1 = 9oz + 900 - 50 = 850).
Player has 10 x 1oz Gold Bars, makes a purchase costing 1oz bar Returns: (10 - 1 = 9oz).
Player has a Briefcase with 100 x 1oz bars, makes a purchase costing 1oz bar Returns: (100 - 1 = 99oz).
Player has a Briefcase with 100 x 1oz bars, makes a purchase costing 50 coins Returns: (100 - 1 = 99oz + 900 - 50 = 850).
(1-900) Coins
(900-9000) Bars
(9000-90000) Briefcase
Bags2247 got a reaction from MGT in jackfrags does Epoch with frankie :D