Chat requirements Options

[silmaril]

This thread is to gather requirements for the chat part of the game. It will run for a week, then we will close it and prioritize the requirements that have come up.

The thread is open to discussions as well, but keep it civil.

[emeraven]

Chat should be simple, switching between channels shouldn't require more than a few different prefix. There should also be filtering to customize to different needs. preferable chat could be contained in one area or window, being able to tab in between, with a quick way to move between the tabs.

I think that even the shout channel if implemented should only have a slightly larger range. Perhaps it might be an idea to allow the receiver to refuse a direct tell to themselves, but I'm not sure that is essential.

[Azgaroth]

chatbubbles as in comics(and swg) OR one window chat, like WoW, or like Wish had, i think the chatbubbles takes more power from the bandwith, then the one window chat... but i think it is easier to rp with the bubbles....

or maybe we could combine it(like swg)...

chat channels?
-General/spatial/local
-Team chat?
-Guild chat?
-World chat? (like general in wow, planetary chat in swg...)
-Tells/whispers/telepathy?

I would prefer:
-General chat, then both in a chat window and in bubbles above the characters head.
-Team chat, i do not really know, its useful but it is also not very Rpish to have a secret channel were just some can talk...
-Guild chat, a must i belive, to be able to comunicate with your guild mates is very important.
-world chat, hell no, that wont go... dont like that idea at all, even tho maybe i said it...

and... City guild chat
a channel for just the citizens in that special city you grew up in, or moved to... in Wish it made me feel part of something, made me feel like people were my neighbours and not just strangers... but still, there are no good "realistic" explanation for a city guild chat....

(did that make sense? i got fever and im sick as hell, and tierd..) :)

[Jerky]

There should be a way to display your chat channels in one view (tab) by color code(different colored fonts), with check boxes off to the left to turn them on/off at will (if you are getting spammed), a mute, if you will. You should also be able to turn them into tabs if you desire, but they should be combinable as well, so that it is however the user want to do them. Obviously, the transparency and colors (and even fonts) should be customizeable. We *could* even make a template for user made ones, so they could make their own layouts and do whatever they want. User want a lot of control here. Sorry that I brought GUI into this discussion, but they are very close, so I included it now.

[silmaril]

chatbubbles as in comics(and swg) OR one window chat, like WoW, or like Wish had, i think the chatbubbles takes more power from the bandwith, then the one window chat... but i think it is easier to rp with the bubbles....

The bandwidth usage is the same, so don't worry about that. It's the same amount of text that needs to be transferred no matter how it is displayed client-side.

[Melanthe]

and... City guild chat
a channel for just the citizens in that special city you grew up in, or moved to... in Wish it made me feel part of something, made me feel like people were my neighbours and not just strangers... but still, there are no good "realistic" explanation for a city guild chat....

This is a must. We can try to think of an "explanation" (born w/an innate telepathy for city?) but whether we do or not, it was clear in Wish that this was one of the most effective ways to create early opportunities for all-important social bonding.

I think i could have gotten used to the Wish chat system of a tabbed box, with the option of using colors like Jerky suggested. I'd put the guild and private chats in the box, and for local chat (within screen view) use the chat bubble or overhead.

If I can see the character on my screen, I like the overhead. If I can't, or if it's private, then it can go in the box.

[Pashta]

Ya, definitely don't forget the option of overhead chat as well as boxed chat. :) Or even.. just overhead chat with an optional private chatroom for guilds/alliances.

[sblmnl]

Yes the overhead chat Wish implemented a few days from the end was definitely a move in the right direction. Without OHC, a busy town appears silent and offers no welcome to the traveller or newcomer. Some way to control volume (spatial area in which you can be heard) would be neat, ie whisper/speak/YELL - in UO this is done very simply with commands prefixing the speech ie ; ! and so on.

I agree non-spatial chats such as guild/town/team chat are essential because of the way they engender attachment, and they should be in a private window - with the possible exception of team chat? Overhead chat should probably also be windowed for reference purposes.

A (non losable) "communication stone" crafted by an artisan or runemaster and perhaps linked to their guild or town or teamleader's stone, carried by each guild/town/team member would explain how they can communicate at a distance.

The chat interface in Wish was unwieldy and can be improved on with more visual cues and different ways to quickly switch between the different modes, such as
customisable hotkeys (so you can make alt+t = tell etc)
colour coded, draggable and resizable chat windows (so you can show them all, or none)
easily memorised chat commands: /t for tell, /p for team(party) /g for guild chat and so on
a contact list for friends/guild/team members etc - an address book where you can click on their avatar to bring up their name, it could also display personal information - to save you having to type out their names in order to speak privately or in guild chat. This could also show online/offline status and allow you to make freehand notes "ordered 10 crossbows, for delivery thursday" etc.

[mrjihad]

An ignore system.

[Blacksmile]

I would like (as i am gathering the requirements at the moment) to hear your opinion to the following:

I think some channels (like the town channel, maybe even guild channel) could be telepatic (given from birth or by some magical artifact provided by the group).
For other channels, that tend to change more often (team channel for example) a telepatic communication would just not be reasonable for nonmaigc characters. So i think, there should be channels, where things need to be spoken out in spatial. Everyone beeing in the channel and spatially able to hear the word spoken to this channel that the speech is intended for would be able to distinguish "normal" spatial speech from the channels speech.

In my eyes this model would make team channels more reasonable in a rp-way as it would not allow distance speech to the team and make the stuff beeing said in team channel hearable by everyone in spatial proximity.

[Melanthe]

Hmmm, this is getting confusing!

Let me suggest some definitions, at least for this thread:

Overhead chat (OH chat)-- text appears over the characters' heads on the screen, possibly in a bubble

Boxed chat -- text appears in a scrolling window

Spatial chat -- player can only see chat which is within a certain limited distance of their avatar. Can apply to both OH and boxed chat. OH chat can only be spatial by nature.

Town chat -- a chat channel that includes characters which were created in that town (or have chosen citizenship there), and can be heard/used throughout the game world, no matter where the avatar is located.

Guild chat -- chat channel for guild members

Natives -- the characters native to a town who have automatic access to their Town Chat (I'm reserving the world "local" for another definition, so it doesn't become confused with spatial chat or natives)

Non-natives, foreigners or travelers -- characters who are not native to a town and do not have a birthright or citizenship right to participate in Town Chat there

Localized Town chat -- the ability, as suggested above by Criaus, for non-natives to participate in Town chat channel in a special location in a town. Geographically limited.

Global chat -- chat which can be heard/used by a character anywhere in the game world.

Team/Group chat -- chat channel for temporary teams or groups

Whisper -- a spatial chat which can only be heard in a very limited geographic area close to the avatar, by someone standing close

Shout -- a spatial chat which can be heard by everyone in a broad geographic area close to the avatar

[emeraven]

More thoughts:

Text conversion, that would change the text you entered into other text to displayed in the chat. This is a concept idea that I would really like implimented.

Would there be a way to link the characters in game so that a game mail (offline, or anything but a direct tell) message could be picked up if you were on an alt?

The above suggestion comes from Guild Wars, where there is one central mailbox. I believe you can also tell a character and it will be dirrected to their alt, but Im not sure of that system would be needed or even wanted.

[Lucky_Luciano]

Overhead chat (just text, no bubble) should definatly be included: the amount of immersiveness this adds to the game is immense.

Other then that: I think we should keep the chat-system as easy and flexible as possible: Players should be able to make new channels, join/leave channels, change colors of different channels, block people, group chat, guild chat, city chat, off-topic chat(?), ...

[Blacksmile]

I agree on the flexibility and configurability part, but i would not like to see any off-topic or even out of character stuff discussed in the game. With this given i think creation of channels should be completely handled by the game and not by players.
Maybe it would be a good thing to include a possiblity to explicitly contact the player of a character and not the character himself with a tell-like chat command. This channel of communication could then be used to make up out of game contacts to discuss off-topic stuff outside the game.

[silmaril]

I agree on the flexibility and configurability part, but i would not like to see any off-topic or even out of character stuff discussed in the game. With this given i think creation of channels should be completely handled by the game and not by players.
Maybe it would be a good thing to include a possiblity to explicitly contact the player of a character and not the character himself with a tell-like chat command. This channel of communication could then be used to make up out of game contacts to discuss off-topic stuff outside the game.
Even though those restrictions are good from an RP point of view, I think it will lead to players using an external IM for chat (or IRC) if the ingame chat doesn't give them what they want. Or even worse, it can lead to them being frustrated enough to not play the game.

For me, this is a point where realism must be sacrificed on the altar of fun. I think players should be able to create the chat channels they like simply because communication and community is a so important part of a mmorpg to many.

Listening to oldtime players in games, "the guild" or "my friends" is often what keeps them from cancelling their subsription. I don't think we should restrict how the players can communicate too much. They expect a /tell and in the later games also to establish private chat channels. We should deliver as expected here in my opinion.

[Blacksmile]

Ok, the thread was announced to be open for a week. This period is already over since some days. Closing this thread now.

Blacksmile, Member of the Server Team