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Thread: The Chat Interface And The Future

  1. #21
    I love the idea of having multiple windows to type in, would it be possible to add a list of people connected to that window? IE you could a chat group with 5 people in it, there names would be on one side and there would be a title on the top. The main reason I think this would be useful is for factions, if the faction window showed who was on it would be a major step forward. Plus you could add functionality like being able to click on that persons name and add them to your friends list or send them a tell.

    Just some more ideas, are any of these ideas going into the client any time soon?

  2. #22

    Thumbs up Woooooot !

    Hey back from week-end and happy to see that the thread http://aoforums.funcom.com/showthrea...0&pagenumber=1 is now giving birth.

    Thanks to all the ppl in game and in the forums that supported it.

    The choice of different chat windows is really cool. Thumbs up. Make sure that when you click in a specific window, your chat mode is automatically switching too (yeah I'm pointing the obvious).

    Please find a way to wipe all the ppl names that are clutering my FRIENDS interface. I just don't see the point of keeping all the names of the ppl I talked too.

    Nothing was said about the management of ppl in your GUILD.

    Well I can't wait to see an ETA on these fixes... Xmas seems to be a good time.




    Way to go FC !
    "Donner à des millions une connaissance de l'anglais, c'est les rendre esclaves". (Hind Swarâj, ch. 18)

  3. #23

    Lightbulb more windows?

    How about creating references to the different chat channels, and adding them e.g. to the "actions" menu? ...or just save those icons and enable us to drag a channel from "friends" directly into the favorites bar... like this I could devote one favorites bar to the chat! I haven't used all of them yet

    So, e.g. I could switch to the chat bar ("shift-5") and select team chat ("2")... quite faster than opening and closing friends menu in the middle of tir lag.
    And if you would be allowed to create groups in the friends menu (which could be dragged into the favs just like the standard channels)... hm i kinda like the idea, but perhaps it's just me!? To me it doesn't seem absolutely necessary to add even more menus, I'm personnally quite happy with the color codes for the channels. (Oh btw, customizable colors? keyword filtering? O baby yess pleease).

    My Idea would be to add another icon to the "friends" options (where you accept or delete friends), so you could turn a person reference into a group, and then add more people to the group via drag&drop. You could e.g. add a dialog to the description menu (the shift-left click thingy i mean) where you can select word filter, channel color, channel name, switch on/off, add/remove people, etc. If there was something like a very simple tree structure (that is, showing the group members or not) in the friends menu, you could also save some space, depending on how you organize things .

    Sorry I keep editing this post... I should write a post in the texteditor next time, and submit it only after a couple of days or so




    ---------------------------
    sharp objects please!
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    Last edited by Tak; Dec 3rd, 2001 at 11:38:44.

  4. #24

    Arrow mistells

    Oh one more thing. If you'd see the text already in the correct channel colour while you are typing, that could prevent some mistells...

  5. #25

    Font Size !

    Could be nice if we could change the size of the font, because
    i think the chat box dont have enough lines....

    Could be nice to change the chat height too...

    and a Copy Paste function is important...

  6. #26

    shortcuts

    The shortcuts are in a way already availible. Try making a script :
    /ch vicinity - named v
    /ch team - named t

    You can make such scripts for all your regular channels.
    A great help.

  7. #27
    I don't really follow your suggestion for a script? For instance, how would I send text to my guild chat? Or are you suggesting that the script would change the channel, and then on the next line you would type your msg, then use a macro to get back?

    I would like to be able to /guild Hi guys and have it go to my guild, but stay in team chat since I'm in the middle of a fight
    Tiphany of Freedom's Edge
    82 Trader on RK2

  8. #28
    The ability to create semi-permanent private chat channels would be nice. I or a friend usually start up a private chat, and we add on people who are needed as we locate them. We do this partially for the RP aspect of creating an underworld communications backbone. The problem with the current system is that, everyone must know who is running the current chat and contact them to get connected. This isn't much, but when someone repeatedly disconnects, its a hassle to repeatedly add them back to the chat. When the person running the chat leaves, it also boots everyone from the chat channel, and a new channel has to be developed... this leads to confusion as some people are left off in the transition, and finding out who is now in charge could be difficult since a person only appears in your friends list if you can visbly see them, or you have both /telled eachother.

    If we could build a chat channel, let it run and let people connect and leave as necessary, it would be helpful.

    On a side note, I'd love there to be encryption on private chats. Allow anyone to spy on a given chanel (existing or not), slip the conversation through a scrambler. If you are not a crypographic god, a fixer with a high complit, or (more probable) have been given the private key, it comes up as garbage or partial garbage.
    Sometimes, old fixers die in Bitterness.

  9. #29

    Lightbulb Clan leaders Channel

    Some excellent ideas here but for me one of the nicest additions would be to allow my deputy to listen to the Clan Leaders channel.

    I can't always be on and it would be nice for the guild to still be able to contribute when I am not there. This is especially true when sending a rep to a meeting as a lot of background chatter takes place on this channel.

    Vhairi
    Clan Excalibur

  10. #30
    Originally posted by Teamdoc
    One part of the chat that hasnt been mentioned here is the Chat Client on the AO- website, I Love It!

    It is a great tool to check quickly if friends are playing or not. Or just have a discussion in the guild or whatever. A really nice feature would be if this could be intergrated into other existing IM services. There are several opensource IMs out there that intergrate with existing once, such as ICQ, MSN etc. So it wouldnt be that hard.

    Does FunCom plan to develop the web-chat further?

    Would they support intergration with an opensource IM?
    How about the web-chat supporting us people on RK2?

  11. #31
    I've brought this idea up on the old message board, but here goes...

    Put the Chat Window in a seperate window away from the 3D graphics. Much like when you hit "/" on your keyboard your window shrinks and expands to see if you want your Tools on the right covering up part of the action on your screen.

    The reason I mention this is because I type very fast and like millions of people I type a lot of things wrong. Its a pain in the butt to have a split second delay while typing in the game, and misspell something. Or in most cases, give a misstell.

    If you have no idea what I'm talking about, open up Notepad. Type out a sentence. Delete a few words and retype it. Take note of how quickly the text popped up onscreen. Now, do the same thing in game. You'll notice the text shows up noticeably slower (and agonizingly slower in busy populated areas) and that hitting backspace to correct a spelling error sometimes deletes more words than you wanted.

    So put the chat window in a seperate or split off window where there are no 3D graphics being rendered so that chatting is generally easier and not as lagged.

  12. #32

    Lightbulb

    Maybe you could have an option to show a window that would display the stats of a person who you are private chatting with. You could also get to see a picture of their face like the ones for the character searches. You should also make an e-mail system in case you want to save messages that were sent to you. Maybe you could make internet cafes where you have access to computers to check your mail or play in-game games against people all over Rubi-Ka (I know that has nothing to do with the topic). Well thats my 2 cents.

  13. #33

    Thumbs down Shouting

    I would like to see a filter that would allow the player the option to turn off shouts. I am tired of hearing a lot of the crap that goes on in the shouts. The other night we had some moron yelling about a d!ld0s and other crap. I am tired of /ignoring every person around. If I could just turn shouts off I would be happy.

  14. #34
    I'd like to see a real-time coordinate display.

    Filling my screen with F9 spam isn't my idea of fun.
    Rookie Reno Renegede Raines
    The Madquack
    Enshroud yourself in darkness to escape the fear.
    Various others 176 Enf, 160 Fixer, 150 MP, 140 Agent, 130 Soldier

  15. #35
    how about a chat bar at the bottom of the screen (or anywhere you want to put it I suppose) that has all your windows tabbed and labeled. When you went to speak to a chat area you click on the tab and type. essentially a Windows taskbar for chat windows.

  16. #36

    Wink

    Originally posted by Trycia
    I'd like to see a real-time coordinate display.

    Filling my screen with F9 spam isn't my idea of fun.
    Just click on your map to get your coords or the coords around you.
    "Donner à des millions une connaissance de l'anglais, c'est les rendre esclaves". (Hind Swarâj, ch. 18)

  17. #37
    Whatever you do , please move the selection box for Guild Chat so it is beside Vicinity Chat. In badly lagged areas it is a nightmare trying to scroll between these two most popular channels, when you have all the shopping channels in-between.
    SIsTeRs.oF.eVIL
    A band of psycho renegade techno-nun disco-enthusiasts, working on the extreme boundaries of respectable behaviour in OMNI INQUISITION.

  18. #38
    Also, the text editing function in the chat bar sucks. If you write a long message it is almost impossible to edit it, because Left and Right keyboard Arrow keys dont move the cursor, hence it is sooo difficult to edit text. Now that's so utterly basic I think you should fix that before doing anything else.
    SIsTeRs.oF.eVIL
    A band of psycho renegade techno-nun disco-enthusiasts, working on the extreme boundaries of respectable behaviour in OMNI INQUISITION.

  19. #39

    Post

    shift+left-arrow or shift+right-arrow move the cursor around on the chat line.

    As far as changes to the interface goes, one thing I would like to see is the ability to remove unused channels. At level 85 I have no use for OT Looking for Team 1-10, for example. This only causes more headache when switching between private channels and faction channel.
    Last edited by >Cifi<; Dec 4th, 2001 at 14:44:55.

  20. #40

    Exclamation

    Its wonderful that the people at Funcom are recognizing the need to improve the chat interface. Communication is an incredibly important aspect to this game, and the current chat interface often leads to confusion.

    I think its important to first note the problems and limitations of the current chat interface:
    - It is difficult to see your active channel without opening the friends panel.
    - It is difficult to manage conversations across multiple channels when many people send you tells.
    - It is easy to miss incoming tells when your chat window is being bombarded by vicinity messages. For example, when involved in combat.

    * ACTIVE CHANNEL:
    To address the first issue, it is cumbersome going between the chat window and friends panel to change the active channel and see what the active channel is. I think it would be useful to be able to display the active channel somewhere on the chat window to avoid this confusion. Also, any improvements to the friends panel will help elevate chat problems, like being able to clear the names of individuals you don't want on your friends list with a single action.

    * MULTIPLE CONVERSATIONS:
    It would be useful to be able to specify a set of channels you wish to send to (including individuals and groups), and to be able to cycle through those channels from the chat interface. For example, when chat input is activated (by pressing RETURN), if you press TAB, it will cycle through your active channels. If you want to simplify this, active channels can include all channels you have set for display, and all individuals who you have sent or received tells from recently. To improve this, allow individuals to be easily removed from this list. As you TAB, there should be some feedback so that you can see what channel you are switching to.

    Also, it is important to recognize that there are already features that help with this. If you press SHIFT+R, you will start a tell to the last person who sent you one, and if you hold down the SHIFT key and use the cursors, you can cycle through everyone who sent you a tell recently. Most people I run into do not know this and only learn about it by word of mouth. The first thing Funcom can do to improve the chat experience is to document any existing chat features. Once you know about this feature, there is no reason to ever use /r. Slightly off topic, I noticed that the new /org commands are not documented either. These can be found in old patch notes, but should really be documented in the online user guide.

    * INCOMING TELLS:
    This is a serious problem. First, I'd like to say that the proposed solution of having multiple chat windows for different channels is HORRIBLE. This would make the chat system cumbersome to use. I see there being three classes of in game communications channels: vicinity, group, and tells. The easiest way to unravel these messages is to add buttons for filtering chat window content based on these classifications right on the chat window. By filtering, I mean filtering the display, not what messages your receive. Add one button for each class, and a fourth button for all (all being the default). For example, you are in the middle of combat, but want to check on what tells you've received recently. Press the "tell" button and only tells are displayed for your review, then press "all" and you are back to the original view, which includes all the messages, including those you received before pressing the "tell" button and any you received while you were filtering on tell.

    Another feature that would be useful would be to enable a beep when you receive a tell so that you know when to check for an incoming message.

    I would suggest putting the active channel, and the four filter buttons in an attachment to the chat window that could be easily hidden/shown so that it does not interfere with what you see on the screen in front of you.

    - Szentisha

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