I know some people like the text chat and all but I think also there needs to be proximity area chat in the game. Especially for around hubs and hunts all that which would be cool for people to communicate
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I thought that was what the (say* chat was for or do you mean proximity chat where the closer you get to another person the chat pops up?
Yes, chat has ranges - normal and shout allow you to be “heard” at different distances, while whisper is a private chat without range limit.
However, using chat in a larger and moving group is awkward as players pop in and out of range.
I think, @TheeMidnightGamer suggests a group chat that makes all participants to see messages, no matter how far individual participants fall behind.
I think it would work best if there was a party mechanics, allowing to create a temporary group (for hunting for example). Chat system would have party chat then, that has no distance limit, and is global instead, making all party members to see all messages at all times.
This would have additional benefits:
- players wouldn’t have to use track feature to follow the group leader
- less hassle when organizing and leading group activities (like hunting)
- better NPE (easier to understand joining of group activities; easier to understand chat mechanics when in larger group)
As a side note, considering existing in-game tools for group activities.
Friend Request and Tracking systems, in its current state, are used to somehow organize and control group activities, but it’s not optimized for that. What hunt leaders do for example, is more of a work-around or creative use of available game mechanics, to get the best possible result when organizing a group of players. The truth is the game doesn’t offer user-friendly and efficient tools for group work.
There is unnecessary pressure on individual group members to friend request group leader and then activate tracking to keep up with the group leader location. Considering the amount of interacting needed to organize that before a hunt starts, and limit on number of players on the friends list, this is pretty awkward and inefficient system.
Also, hunt leaders can have their friend list filled up pretty fast, while the entire hassle around using friend tracking is confusing for new players joining hunts.
Anyways
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There could be another type of chat/group than a party - more stationary, area based chat: maybe a beacon chat. So all messages would be seen by whoever is in the same beacon (leaving the whisper function to allow private conversations). That could be inactive for small beacons, where normal chat range is bigger than the size of the beacon.
But if you imagine people gathering in a big portal hub for an event (for example exchanging roses during Valentine time, a raffle or a grand opening with prizes etc.) , it would probably be easier for them to be automatically in such beacon chat, than for any organizers to create a party and try to get everyone around to join.
Since some large places are divided between several beacons, stationary area chat could have 3 levels: beacon chat (messages for all within an individual beacon), settlement chat (messages for all within the same settlement) and location chat (visible for all within the same larger settlement, meaning a group of settlements displayed in the beacon menu as “located in…”).
world - seen at world you are on without distance limit, just world
global - seen across universe no matter planet you are on
local - seen at beacon plotted area
NO USAGE LIMITATION
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I think the op meant audio proximity chat?
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Considering there is a hard cap on the number of friends you can add to your friend list, this is especially inefficient.
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Oh, that’s a possibility too indeed lol.
At least he made people think here 
Misunderstandings can be useful it seems 
Party mechanics would still be great and a voice chat with it then.
I just want voice chat like guild voice chat an proximity voice chat for Mic
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new campaign: Give Voice To Guilds 
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