Over on the discord, GMs shared how the owners of summonable mobs can't be kept that secretive because there are situations where they're used to harass players (makes total sense). There are also understandably situations where a player may just want to convey some OOC information over to the other player and needs to know who they'd be talking to just like if they'd use an in-person OOC whisper.

Some brought up that if you need to know something for an OOC reason (harassment, to convey info to another player, or otherwise), it shouldn't really require a device or skill check in order to get the information needed for an OOC reason, so it was suggested that a more explicitly OOC verb/method can be used to know that stuff, which could possibly allow the IC detection methods to be more competitive if/when needed and appropriate.

It would be kinda neat if this was something possible, both for summonable pets as well as situations where stealth information is conveyed for the sake of players needing to know X more than the character needing to know X. This way the info could get sent/filtered to the OOC window, so it's more clearly OOC, and not knowing if it was Bob who sniped you or Bill whose familiar is lurking in the corner depends on any appropriate IC skill based checks.

I personally care way more about my character staying stealthy/secretive than players knowing I, the player, am trying to have my character be stealthy/secretive, so I would gladly opt to have some of these things highlighted as more explicitly OOC information that goes to the OOC window if that means I could do a better job not having my character's name pop up in any kind of IC messaging. In the end, folks are going to metagame using OOC knowledge anyway, so best we can do is make sure the stuff is properly segmented for those who do want to operate on a more roleplay-y rail.

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Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

>>I got a bit lost.

Sorry to hear that!

Messaging that shows up because it has to show up for OOC reasons, like always seeing Bob snipe you even if your character has no chance of ever seeing that ICly, should go to the OOC window. Similarly, there could also be an OOC command to ID things in other situations, like summonables, which could also go to the OOC window.

Once that's done, it makes it more possible for IC measures that are more explicitly skill/ability-based to hide who is doing what.

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Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

>>Using a petIDer is not considered an OOC secret. It is an IC means for identifying the owner of a pet.

From what [I believe] you conveyed in Discord, there not being any way to "avoid" a petIDer, like with some kind of counter-measure magical device, was because players had to – understandably – know who is piloting what for more OOC/policy reasons, in the event that they're being harassed or need to know for more player to player reasons, etc.

If that's accurate/correct, my personal preference would be to not keep that info behind a device that requires a skill check, and have it just explicitly be understood as purely OOC information, so there could be more fun tools to not have that stuff get discovered ICly.

>>Can you help me understand how shunting this information to an OOC window would improve the experience?

I recognize that some stuff needs to be conveyed without being avoidable more for OOC reasons than IC reasons (sniping, who controls what summonable, etc). I'd love for those to get purely flagged as OOC information, so players can go "oh this is more OOC for me than IC for my character," allowing things to be more of an IC mystery for the characters themselves.

It's like how the profile verb is more of an OOC tool than an IC one. Profile might show "oh, Bob is a level 140 Necromancer" but that doesn't mean your character ICly knows Bob is a Necromancer. Similar situation for summonables.

My big thing is that it kinda stinks that there's such a simple/direct/easy IC way for characters to ICly see who is piloting what, but if that needs to be done to fulfill the needs of certain OOC policies, I'd rather just have that info be OOC, so discovering it "in character" could be made harder.

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Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.