More Chat Options

Equilibrium21 · Jul 7, 2017

This is an older suggestion i made, but i thought it would be better if i repost it because i believe it would be an important addition to the game further along the road and its a simple thing that would enhance gameplay and would help RPers.

NEW CHAT CHANNELS:

Say Chat: Only people in your proximity can see this (Could show a bubble above the player's model like certain MMOs).
Sector Chat: Pretty straight forward.
System Chat: << <<
Galaxy Chat: (Don't think that would be useful right now since not a lot of people leave the starting galaxy).
Global Chat.

Deserea · Jul 7, 2017

That wouldnt be to bad honestly, though the usefulness of Galaxy is understated, when it comes to build servers alot of the players just spread out to the far reaches of the starting galaxy, or at least in my experience thats what happens.

jayman38 · Jul 7, 2017

I have to disagree with this suggestion, because it would appear that a player would need to monitor multiple channels and could therefore easily miss some important message.

Doesn't chat already have numeric channels? It might be helpful to standardize some of the lower numbers for different things, depending on RP needs. (E.g. Channel 51 for faction-wide comms, 63 for squad comms, 71 for galaxy comms, etc.) It might also be useful to be able to universally name channels. Even better would be a way to "claim" channels so that others cannot use it. This could be explained in-game by encryption and jamming. To avoid griefing, any individual could only "claim" 20 or so channels, not everything at once.

Alternate:
It would be better to have a chat prefix to determine range. E.g. /local This is a "Say Chat" message. /global You can see this message everywhere. /galaxy You can see this message anywhere in the same galaxy, including some void space around it.

In addition to a prefix, you could give admins the ability to project to a location. E.g. /local:SomeOtherPlayer You (SomeOtherPlayer) and nearby astronauts can read this. This is a good way to communicate with a specific player, other than "whispering" to them, which should be another prefix option, if it's not already. /sector:2 2 2 Only the spawn area can read this message. /galaxy:2048 2048 2048 Only the galaxy containing this sector can read this message.

If anyone knows a lot of details about chat in-game, the official Wiki could use some love on that subject.

kiddan · Jul 7, 2017

Equilibrium21 said:
Say Chat: Only people in your proximity can see this (Could show a bubble above the player's model like certain MMOs).

I like this idea the most. It would be quite useful for quick, mid-flight trading, private meetings, etc. Maybe some sort of scan line hologram instead of a bubble, though? Bubbles seem a bit too meta for Starmade's theme.

Equilibrium21 · Jul 7, 2017

kiddan said:
I like this idea the most. It would be quite useful for quick, mid-flight trading, private meetings, etc. Maybe some sort of scan line hologram instead of a bubble, though? Bubbles seem a bit too meta for Starmade's theme.

That's a good idea and i agree bubble is just too generic.
[doublepost=1499453225,1499452893][/doublepost]

jayman38 said:
I have to disagree with this suggestion, because it would appear that a player would need to monitor multiple channels and could therefore easily miss some important message.

Doesn't chat already have numeric channels? It might be helpful to standardize some of the lower numbers for different things, depending on RP needs. (E.g. Channel 51 for faction-wide comms, 63 for squad comms, 71 for galaxy comms, etc.) It might also be useful to be able to universally name channels. Even better would be a way to "claim" channels so that others cannot use it. This could be explained in-game by encryption and jamming. To avoid griefing, any individual could only "claim" 20 or so channels, not everything at once.

Alternate:
It would be better to have a chat prefix to determine range. E.g. /local This is a "Say Chat" message. /global You can see this message everywhere. /galaxy You can see this message anywhere in the same galaxy, including some void space around it.

In addition to a prefix, you could give admins the ability to project to a location. E.g. /local:SomeOtherPlayer You (SomeOtherPlayer) and nearby astronauts can read this. This is a good way to communicate with a specific player, other than "whispering" to them, which should be another prefix option, if it's not already. /sector:2 2 2 Only the spawn area can read this message. /galaxy:2048 2048 2048 Only the galaxy containing this sector can read this message.

If anyone knows a lot of details about chat in-game, the official Wiki could use some love on that subject.

Using these commands is not user friendly and not attractive to new players, i strongly disagree with you. Whats the problem with not having preset chat rooms? They could all be displayed in the same chatbox (Like an MMO RPG), but say Local is blue color (or whatever) Global another color and so on. Also, add a notification sound for when a message is received. Of course all of this can be customizable.

jayman38 · Jul 8, 2017

Equilibrium21 said:
Using these commands is not user friendly and not attractive to new players, i strongly disagree with you. Whats the problem with not having preset chat rooms? They could all be displayed in the same chatbox (Like an MMO RPG), but say Local is blue color (or whatever) Global another color and so on. Also, add a notification sound for when a message is received. Of course all of this can be customizable.

Fair enough. My primary concern is players missing important messages in different chat rooms.

However, chat commands are still powerful tools for power users. Their function should be available for new users in an easy-to-use format like you want, but they should also be available directly on the chatline to power users like I want.

I definitely like the idea of different colors or other "hints" on where a message comes from, all together in the same chat window. They don't need to be different colors if it's clear where they come from. For example, a message list might look like this:

Whisper: System MOTD Bot: You are on the RandomUniverse Server.
Whisper: System MOTD Bot: Please follow the rules as posted.
Global: System MOTD Bot: Warning! There is an anomaly reported in 256, 256, 256.
Nearby: RandomPlayerName1: Does anyone have an extra rocket launcher?
Nearby: RandomPlayerName2: Yes, but you need to pay me 30 shield caps for it.
Galaxy: RandomPlayerName3: The hawk has landed at 304,407,110. Attack.
Sector: TraderNPC1: Sector 2,2,2 is protected. Hostile action is not tolerated.

(Now that I can actually see it, I really like the different colors from different "chat rooms".)

It would be good for players to be able to easily "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" to different channels. (Players will want to be able to unsubscribe from different channels, at least temporarily, to focus on more important messages and avoid clutter.)

It would also be real neat and useful if you can hover a mouse cursor over a line in chat and get additional information in a temporary pop-up.
Example additional information: Origin sector (could be modified or blanked-out by electronic warfare!), whether it is to you in particular or a broadcast message for all, details on the source, such as their faction, if known, and maybe an "options" button to change chat settings on the fly, like the client's global text color and subscriptions.

Equilibrium21 · Jul 8, 2017

jayman38 said:
Fair enough. My primary concern is players missing important messages in different chat rooms.

However, chat commands are still powerful tools for power users. Their function should be available for new users in an easy-to-use format like you want, but they should also be available directly on the chatline to power users like I want.

I definitely like the idea of different colors or other "hints" on where a message comes from, all together in the same chat window. They don't need to be different colors if it's clear where they come from. For example, a message list might look like this:

Whisper: System MOTD Bot: You are on the RandomUniverse Server.
Whisper: System MOTD Bot: Please follow the rules as posted.
Global: System MOTD Bot: Warning! There is an anomaly reported in 256, 256, 256.
Nearby: RandomPlayerName1: Does anyone have an extra rocket launcher?
Nearby: RandomPlayerName2: Yes, but you need to pay me 30 shield caps for it.
Galaxy: RandomPlayerName3: The hawk has landed at 304,407,110. Attack.
Sector: TraderNPC1: Sector 2,2,2 is protected. Hostile action is not tolerated.

(Now that I can actually see it, I really like the different colors from different "chat rooms".)

It would be good for players to be able to easily "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" to different channels. (Players will want to be able to unsubscribe from different channels, at least temporarily, to focus on more important messages and avoid clutter.)

It would also be real neat and useful if you can hover a mouse cursor over a line in chat and get additional information in a temporary pop-up.
Example additional information: Origin sector (could be modified or blanked-out by electronic warfare!), whether it is to you in particular or a broadcast message for all, details on the source, such as their faction, if known, and maybe an "options" button to change chat settings on the fly, like the client's global text color and subscriptions.

That's a good visual representation of what i was thinking, just was too lazy to make it :D. I think this should be implemented in the game when possible, it will be very handy.

Wolverines527 · Jul 16, 2017

the chat should also allow you to invite a person directly if that person don't have an alliance rather then having t remember that persons name

pigghoti · Jul 10, 2018

I like this and was just thinking of how useful it would be.

So I bump at thee.

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More Chat Options

Equilibrium21

Deserea

jayman38

Precentor-Primus, pro-tempore

kiddan

Cobalt-Blooded Bullet Mirror

Equilibrium21

jayman38

Precentor-Primus, pro-tempore

Equilibrium21

Wolverines527

Warrior/Builder

pigghoti