What would be the downside of simply removing the vicinity message on unproed shots and having neither of these options?  

Neither of these really have to exist in the current game, and I don't necessarily agree with the concept of the vicinity message or this new alert system for many of the reasons listed above including the mechanics of 3 district cities.  Removing both of these "sixth sense" features would cut towards realism and level the advantage back towards rogue/individual accounts. With the removal of the vicinity message, it may also have the added benefit of being just be a bit harder to find people and might - as Coltrane suggested - spice up the war aspect of this game without introducing a feature that changes the game's fundamental war mechanics.

But if we collectively decide that we're keeping the vicinity message, I think it's only fair that this feature stands.

Removing the vicinity mechanic is an interesting idea Spaceman.  I personally don't see a problem with it being in the game and it's always worked well for it's purpose.  It gives players of all power levels the ability to find their target with money and effort.  Right now pure stealth is pretty much all powerful.  Even people posting on full vision start up answers can not see pure stealth players at the highest level.  The only way to find active pure stealth players without someone with an insane amount of constant work put in is the vicinity mechanic. 

If the vicinity mechanic was removed it would give rogues and war leaders alike a harder time conducting their operations.  I don't think more stagnation is what any era needs.  Turnover is healthy at a certain point.  I can tell you that if the vicinity mechanic wasn't in the game some rogues and wars that changed the face of the game would not have been successful.  As I've said before in my other posts I don't think giving the top end of the game more advantages is a good thing.  It is exactly counter to the other game changes we have seen to lessen those advantages.

I think if the vicinity mechanic was removed the stealth stat would have to be tweaked a little bit.  Right now pure stealth is free and way more powerful that info given that you need to post a lot to see 101 pure stealth, high ranking people, even if you sign up on full vision answers.  A rogue wanting to change the face of the world would need to have a team put in an insane amount of work just to make one shot happen.

My message really is "if it ain't broke don't fix it".  War is already a challenging and dynamic part of the game.  Roguing successfully is even more of a challenge.  I understand that the vicinity message isn't exactly RP kosher but those are just my two cents on it.

Some positives brought forth for this change was to "Help the little guy" which it wont, or doing it just for the sake of making a change, which is redundant. I don't see the need to change something that has been a fundamental part of the game mechanics for so long. I also think such a drastic change would impact the stealth vs info dynamic. Which is currently extremely well balanced.
I'm also not in favour of changing the vicinity message. Again another fundamental mechanic that has been used strategically for years. I'm not sure what the value is of dumbing things down. I'd rather let people use their wits to figure out how to use everything that is given to them to their advantage.

I respect your point of view, Yheti.   My experience leads me to a different conclusion on stealth's value, and I just don't feel that it's all powerful when compared to the value of info, whose benefits extend outside of direct PvP war to things like IA lists, Durden spawns and higher odds of catching a witness statement (rare these days since the bulk of these were removed, but still tangible).

The sole benefit of stealth - anonymity - is one that is only implied, but never guaranteed. In my view, the mechanics of stealth over the years have become one that, in war, theoretically buys someone a small amount of time but doesn't confer much beyond that - and what anonymity you have on paper can simply be neutered by getting caught up in a jail. Changes were made to remove the imprisoned status and I believe the jails are slightly randomized now to lower the odds of someone with stealth getting caught up on them - but those can be addressed by simply throwing more jails.  Outside of skirmishes like the odd BG shooting, I just haven't seen many real-world scenarios that have convinced me that the game is tilted towards stealth.  Nine times out of ten, in my experience, it's simply an annoying inconvenience.

But I'm still of the belief that if we're going down the path of giving everyone a "sixth" sense, that it's only logical that this new feature stays. Without this, the vicinity message is a free gift to shooters in a game that already rewards those who shoot first.  This would rebalance that, slightly -  and if this feature proceeds I think that there should be a few safeguards to avoid some of the more abusable aspects that other users have pointed out. But that doesn't change my opinion that neither of these features should exist on the game - the vicinity message is relatively new and we were able to get on just fine before it. 

After leading many, many wars have seen the vicinity message help locate high ranking individuates that could otherwise not be seen.  I actually couldn't count the numbers of instances with all my fingers and toes.  Had the mechanic not been in place I really don't know if the game changing wars that have been conducted would have gone off or been successful.  If you need specific examples I can give them to you.

My point still stands that stealth is more powerful than info because full stealth takes no work to maintain opposed to info.  Two Godfather, one 101 info and the other 101 stealth with 0 posts each.  The info GF will not be able to see the stealth one 9 times out of 10.  The vicinity message helps elevate some of that skewed power towards stealth.

I can agree that the "sixth sense" mechanics do not make sense from an RP standpoint.  If the vicinity mechanic was removed something else would have to be put in it's place.  The vicinity mechanic is a free=free way to find someone where as BG shooting, PPing, and info/posting costs time, money, in game actions, and other resources.  The stealth man has the advantage especially the higher the ranks go.  The vicinity mechanic helps everyone, big or small, locate a target in times of need.  The proposed game feature is heavily skewed towards those already in power in my opinion.  We don't need anymore advantages.

I have read every reply and can see everyone's point of view ..... for the most part. I can see this as both a advantage and disadvantage. It depends on how much you like your current profile. Me, I could give a shit. I restart as something better. AGAIN.

Being new, now 6 Months old, different accounts, my opinion is that if you want to keep your current account, then don't be a dick. Besides that, I see this as a advantage for both HIGH and LOW accounts. Regardless of the 30's RP aspect, this is a mafia game. Do some history searching ...... in the 30's we were dirty ass bastards. Currently in the 2000's, just a bunch of political pussies. JMO. As always, respect to all.

Busy reading through all the Announcement I've seemingly missed.

Was this ever instituted? I assumed "Game Change" stuff is stuff that has changed but i've never seen this work?

Thanks!

It got instituted very briefly then put on hold and has been like that since Squishy's post on the 2nd page of the thread. I actually think it's become more useful and fairer now that the majority of cities are 3 districts. When it was first put in place only DT and PH had 3.