Improved chat

The rise of global channels begs an update to the chat interface. You have to switch through all of them to get an idea if someone has said anything. This doesn’t work if you’re looking for a hunt or to answer any help questions that might have been asked. I propose to have an option to keep something of the chat always visible, and an option to have always visible unread message counts.

Something like this maybe? You might even hide the ones with no activity to make it more compact.

This could be expanded to reveal the current chat interface, although it might benefit from some small changes as well, like better keyboard navigation.

7 Likes

I would like to see a higher character limit and a little noise, a ding or click when you reach that limit.
So many times i am typing a sentence and I look up and only half the sentence is there. If I only knew when it stopped accepting my inputs :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

1 Like

Yes 100 characters is rather short… Also a noticeable notification sound on new messages (toggleable by channel?) would be a welcome addition.

2 Likes

Unread indicators always on screen would be nice as well as a way to change channels without the mouse. Tab opens the channel menu but I can’t figure out how to navigate thru it without clicking. Slash commands like other MMOs would help. I’m most used to those. Here’s some other feedback in no particular order:

  • Remember my chat channel preferences when I reload the game. The view I’m in (usually #All) as well as the expanded chat setting
  • Don’t hide the quest UI when expanded chat is enabled but the chat UI is currently to closed
  • Typing emotes like /wave should not spam whatever channel you’re in with a message saying “wave”
  • Seeing the same message multiple times for all your alts could be curbed. I have a guild with all my alts and whenever one of them collects coin from a beacon the chat fills up with alerts to all of them with exec/leadership powers
  • Still don’t know the difference between shout and say, or the range
  • Change the UI to show dead players as wailing instead of shouting so it’s easier to notice ppl who need a rez. “Fig wails: can someone rez me in gyosha mall”
  • If you use a letterbox to PM someone, change the chat channel off it when they close the window or leave the beacon. Ppl don’t realize they are still sending PMs long after they leave your letterbox
  • A way to clear names out of your PM list, or at least sort them by recency
2 Likes

Needs unread indicators or notifications.

1 Like

On the topic of improving chat, It would also be nice if when we used the Esc key to close the chat it would clear out anything that was typed in it. Too many times I almost sent a message with some random thing prefixed on to what I intended to send, because I had changed my mind about sending the last message, and it remained in the chat box.

This is double edged, sometimes, especially during hunts, I start typing a message but something forces me to stop and attend to the problem, it’s a relief I don’t have to start from an empty prompt.

If this is the case, then they should make it an option to change how the ESC behavior works so people can pick which they prefer. in every single game that I have played, if pressing Esc closes the chat box, it also clears it, so I am extremely used to it working that way.

1 Like

Thought of another suggestion.

Display the message times relative to the current time (e.g. 2hrs ago) rather than in absolute time. Or if it has to be in absolute time, at least be in my timezone. I have no idea what timezone the chat times are reported in and since it’s a global audience those “good morning” messages could have been from 12 hours ago :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s 7am here but I said good morning to my guild at 15:00

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I totally agree! but when it’s beyond 24 or maybe 48 hours I much prefer having the absolute time.
maybe we can have both :smiley:

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wholeheartedly agree with all points! All good suggestions.

YES. I meant to put this in my own suggestion post and totally forgot.

I hate having someone else’s random timezone attached to all of my chats as timestamps. I have no clue what time someone’s message was actually sent bc I don’t know what time zone the chat is attached to.

A couple of times I’ve done the math and figured it out, but I forget it every time. and I shouldn’t need to be doing math to figure out the timestamps on my chat in-game. Just use MY TIME ZONE. PLEASE.

1 Like