Server Side Chat settings.

[AssIn9]

IMO global chat should be Admin only.
Chat should be your loaded sectors only or disabled.

I propose server config settings to control chat permissions, distance and History.

Faction chat would be still global.

One idea was to make out of starsystem chat have a delay dependent on distance.

 

[NeonSturm]

If [edit: only] faction chat is global, you need a NPC-messenger from your and other [edit: ally] faction in one same sector to exchange chat data.

I have found an efficient algorithm to create an array for communication stations. It is the same as in http://starmadedock.net/threads/holographic-space-streets-help-orientation-in-3d-space.22208/

 

[Valck]

IMO global chat should be Admin only.
Chat should be your loaded sectors only or disabled.

While I agree chat should be limited to local, experience shows that people will then use external comms even more than they already do...

I'd even go further and say general chat should be limited to the immediate area, with direct chat channels allowing radio-like sector wide communication. But I don't even want to imagine the outcry if anything like that would merely be considered... :)

If faction chat is global, you need a NPC-messenger from your and other faction in the same sector to exchange chat data.

Why would that be if local chat covers a whole sector, or even the surrounding (i.e. loaded) sectors?

 

[Jaaskinal]

I think even having faction chat localized (possibly system dependent or otherwise range-dependent) would be cool. Especially if wireless logic retains it's non-range based properties, forcing communications over long distances to have to be engineered :P

 

[NeonSturm]

Valck:
You ←→ Your NPC-messanger (modded relay-speaker) ←→ Ally NPC-messanger (modded relay-speaker) ←→ Ally player.
If only faction-chat is global.

It could be a server-setting.
As long as it is possible and not TOO difficult to set up a proper communication over Warp-Gate stations, peoples will use it rather than external programs.

Alternatively you can setup a delay for messages to show up when not using engineered communication devices.