[Dragonar]

I've been waiting for a thread like this, so I'll just open my own one.

I'm sure that a lot of people feel that the current chat system is a bit dated. The disadvantages to it are that it's terribly inflexible and awkward due to a minimalist nature, but on the other hand, this minimalist nature makes sure that it doesn't get in the way of the game.

A few changes have already been made now, but I'm very sure that it will receive another massive overhaul with Evolution, so I figured we could collect some ideas here.

Like I said, I appreciated the fact that chatting did not stop me from playing. It is obvious that in a game like this, using your hands to type whilst having to properly fly your ship, you don't want a huge chat window popping up, for example. Another issue though is that whilst you type, you can't use your keyboard to enter other commands. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's crashed into the back end of a jumpgate desperately hammering the J key whilst writing something.

It'll have to be a tough balancing act between increased functionality, such as better support for (password protected?) chatrooms, size of chat window, etc., and practicality, so that it does not get in the way of playing.

Any thoughts?

[Smegit]

Originally Posted by Dragonar

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's crashed into the back end of a jumpgate desperately hammering the J key whilst writing something.

Your not.

I think the chat system was one of the best features of Jumpgate Classic. Didn't take up too much space, was fairly simple to operate etc etc. I like the way you get all the channels in the same window without having to tab through various tab screens.

But at busy times it could be damn difficult seeing all the messages, and hopefully all times are going to be damn busy times.

So maybe a bit bigger and more options, but no whole scale changes I hope

Smeg

[Dedsquirrl]

As long as I can still load my macros!

A few filter options and the ability to max/min the chat screen would be nice.
If people actually get into the habit of using different channels (trade, arty, flux, etc.) it wouldn't get as cluttered as it used to.

[alphabet]

I like one little screen to tell me the environmental effects, like:

SHIP: Just jumped to Outer Depths
SYSTEM: Shield Storm in GVB
SHIP: Shield status 95%. Armor status 100%

..and a tabbed window below that to keep track of all my channels, ex:

Faction|Sector|Squad|Help

The windows should be sizable, font sizes scalable, custom channel tabs should be able to be added and each channel tab should be accessable by F keys.

[vorlon31]

If when Jumpgate Evolution goes live its populated with 1000's of players (feel the dream for a moment), any scroll window will scroll out of control if its linked to all. So I think the old global all over the universe chat needs to be removed.

Comms Id like to see are;

Squad chat*have now
/wing chat (chat open to everyone your winged with ( with multiple winging))
Factional chat secure - same faction only - subject to beacon tunes.*have now
Factional chat open - common f5:chat like but limited to the faction of space your in. (ie, quant, sol, aman, hyp, inner unreg, fspace, sol fringe, oct fringe, quant fringe...)
Sector chat open*have now
Tight beam comms (sector chat secure)*have now

With a activation needed to bring up the display, so that if any chat box's are scrolling away and Im not actively looking to read it, my screens not polluted with endless streams of chatter.

[Hurricane]

I'd like to see the messages about exp/cash reward in a seperate window, or see if seperated from TRI / K-TRI so I can ignore it completely. When your holding multiple beacons and killing flux all other chat can get scrolled up way to quickly. But at the same time ignoring TRI / K-TRI make it so you ignore other annoucements that may be important.

[Sephiroth]

The WoW chat interface works really well. It's tabbed but completely customizable so you can view whatever you want and ignore what you don't want to see.

[Milkman]

i have to agree.. WoW's chat system is my favorite so far of MMOGs i have played.

[Wild_Bill]

I'm definitely with Hurricane on this one. Don't know about WoW's chat so I cannot comment on it at all. I would hate to lose the universal chat, but if we actually did get to the 1000's of players on at one time it could ge chaotic I guess.