The goal here is to improve and add some complexity to how players communicate between eachother. Please note this is a collection of individual suggestions all pertaining to the communication between players.
Chat Volumes
First off is different volume levels in chat. These increase and decrease the radius in which your chat is received. The options being whisper, speak, and yell.
In this example a tab is available in the chat box which opens up to the 3 different options. Every time the chat box is opened up it will set itself back to “speak” by default and the player can then change to the desired mode. (This is to prevent layers from leaving it on a mode and foregetting that they changed it. Ex. A player pleaving it on whisper mode and being completely oblivious that nobody is recieving their chat.)
Whisper
5 unit radius
Speak
50 unit radius
Yell
100 unit radius
*note: these are numbers I randomly came up with and are open for suggestions
Listening Devices
These are items that allow you increase your chat receiving range in the direction you are facing. Obviously this corresponds to the previous suggestion of chat volumes.
An example of a listening device, the ear horn is crafted from any animals horn
Messaging with birds
This adds the ability to talk with players outside of your chat range. Instead of a /msg command or the like, players have the option to send a messenger bird that will “fly” to the desired player and deliver the message.
messaging has a delay ratio of 10 seconds per 200 units
*note: this ratio is open for suggestion.
If you personally liked any of these suggestions or have any ideas, additions, or modifications please comment and/or like. Thanks for reading!
Not really, you seem to have covered quite a good bit. The only thing I’d kinda say is a /me /it system? I know those are usually for far more in depth rp games/systems, but why not?
The send a bird to give messages idea sounds cool, literally have an animation of sending your messenger away and then the receiver will see the bird drop the message on them. maybe if the receiver is afk at the time they will be given an animation where they are just holding the message in front of them. I know in Mabinogi the new message icon is always covered up by my massive inventory, so a visual announcement would be appealing to me.
The Idea with the bird is superb, but I think the delay should be fixed to 10 seconds, not measured by distance. Could be quite annoying to chat over a damn long distance if you are talkng more then 1-2 messages each ^^. In Guild Wars 2 Mail was also sent by birds which could be seen by everyone flying by and touch the recieving player ^^ …
The different volume levels are just perfect … but still there have to be a “whisper to the ear” over some blocks. Secrets should stay secrets
Another Option for long range chatting could be the use of a radio, but you would need tokens of the players or guild you want to reach. That would make talking also easier without leaving the importance of atmosphere in game
I was actually thinking about this earlier, but I still haven’t come up with a good example for a megaphone like amplifying device. Another type of horn possibly?
That’s a really good question. Il start by saying that there isn’t an actual bird flying immense distances only to deliver a message. The player sending the message would see an animation of a bird flying away with their message. Then after some time has passed the recipient will see an animation of a bird flying down and deliver them the message and fly away.
So if a player were to log out the message would stay “up in the air” until the player logged back in. Then a bird will fly down and deliver all the messages the player missed while they were away. This would mean that messages would have to be temporarily saved server side until delivered.
This sounds a lot like a replacement for common ways of having conversation over a long distance (like mail, obviously). Maybe it’d make sence to make some kind of a stationary “birdhouse” where the bird would chill till the recipient comes to check for messages.
Mhrmmm. For the sake of a good discussion my questions for you are what if you havnt set up a birdhouse? And what would happen if someone broke your birdhouse? Can multiple people use the same birdhouse? Would the birdhouses be cross-server?
Think of a birdhouse as a common mailbox with another skin The main function of a mailbox is for letters to remain unharmed and/or untouched until the recipient comes to read them. So if you get a message in Oort (let’s think that this system is already in place), your birdhouse-mailbox will be visited by a birdie with a scroll in its beak, which will patiently wait for you to read the message.
So if your birdhouse is broken, then you’ll simply have a birdhouse with a bird waiting in it upon restoration of a birdhouse, because the appearance of the birdie just means there’s a new message for you. I imagine multiple people should be able to use a sinble birdhouse, though it might be a bad idea since some people may have messages waiting for them and others don’t. Maybe each player should have a single mailbox/birdhouse for their needs.
And no, I imagine birdhouse message system - should we call it “chirp” for short? - won’t be cross-server.
Well my idea with the messenger birds was to keep things simple, just a more fun way to /msg somebody that is out of chat range vs just putting in a command. A problem I see with a birdhouse is that if you are away either adventuring, mining, fighting, etc. other players would have no way to reach you. And nobody would want to carry around a birdhouse with them.
It’s the same thing as going for a walk IRL, you won’t see forum/skype/etc messages, you won’t read your emails, unless you check it from your phone. Almost every player sets up some kind of home or base for himself, and this is where the mail will be checked. If an urgent matter needs discussing, especially if the person you’re looking for is currently on another server, wouldn’t it be better to message him in Steam?
The birdhouse/mailbox looked like a flavor feature for me, please correct me if I’m viewing this from a wrong point of view.
It’s a wonderfull idea, I’m only debating against it simply because I personally prefer to keep things simple where they don’t necessarily need to be complicated. I wouldn’t be surprised if we did have some form of mail system for announcements and events but I personally would prefer an easier method to message people, rather than wait and hope they notice it in their birdhouse. Commenting on the steam chat point, perhaps in the future Oort will not be on steam, or if it is maybe it will be on other sites as well. (ex. Desura) So people playing Oort through different means wouldn’t have the ability to message someone unless they were to add that person on every steam equivalent and have it open or running in the background in order to recieve those “urgent messages.”
Now I ask, what do you have against just being able to send a bird off and then recieve a bird exchanging messages between players?
Sorry if it seems like I’m putting your idea down, I just like to argue (or debate might be a better word) sometimes haha.
I don’t understand why is it different from regular chat, not including the distance restriction on the chat. I personally don’t see the need to implement a feature that is already present in the game.
Mail, however, is different means of communication, and it’s present along with chat in all MMO games I’ve played (and that’s a LOT).
The main function of a mailbox is for letters to remain unharmed and/or untouched until the recipient comes to read them. So if you get a message in Oort (let’s think that this system is already in place), your birdhouse-mailbox will be visited by a birdie with a scroll in its beak, which will patiently wait for you to read the message.