Announcement 18APR - Ingame Communications: Chat

INGAME COMMUNICATIONS

Hi all,

We've put live an optional, ingame, serverwide, global chat facility.

You can drag and resize the chat window as you please, and close it if you prefer not to have chat open.

If you wish to close it, please click on the cross in the top right corner of the Chat Window.

If you close chat, you can open it again by clicking on the "Options" text in the top left corner of the Illyriad game interface, underneath the Illyriad logo, and select "View Chat".  Check the "Active" box next to the channel you wish to join (there is only Global at the moment) and press the Change button.

This Chat Channels page will - in the fullness of time - list all the channels of which you are a member or have access to, and will also be where you create and administer your own channel.

Please be aware of the following:

• The Illyriad Terms & Conditions apply to chats 
• You are specifically pointed towards the rules regarding abusive behaviour
• Moderators and GMs may not always be available in chatrooms to enforce chat standards, however players may report conversations that break the Illyriad Terms & Conditions to the GMs.  To do this, simply click on the Playername next to the post that you wish to report and select "Report Abuse"
  
• Please be aware that we will not take kindly to frivolous abuse reports

This chatroom is the first step in increased communication facilities inside the game.



UPCOMING FEATURES INCLUDE

• New Player Help channel
  A specific chatroom for new players, called "New Player Help", into which all new players will be placed for their first couple of weeks in Illyriad.
  
  
• Alliance chatroom channels
  New roles will be added to the Alliance Roles management screen for appointing administrators and moderators
  
  
• Private channels and invite-only channels
  So players can talk directly to one another ingame, or form specific chatrooms for specific purposes.  In these chatrooms the creator of the chatroom will be the administrator.

• Enhanced Functionality
  
  • "Block/Unblock" player function, so you can ignore people you don't want to hear from
  • Emotes of the "/me smiles happily" type
  • Some Formatting (bold, italic) + font size adjustment
  • Some BBcode-style functions for linking names, locations etc
  • MOTD (Message Of The Day) function
    
    
• Alliance Forums
  A cut-down version of the public forums, for alliances to use internally and externally.
  
  Alliances will be able to create their own subforums, and set permissions on these to be:
  
  
• Public access (for eg an Alliance guestbook, Diplomatic overtures etc),
  
• Alliance only access (for eg Alliance operations, planning etc), and
  
• Invite-only access (for eg specific Alliance groupings, such as a 'War Council')

• Revamp of the Mail System
  As per this thread here.
  

We hope you like this enhancement to ingame communication.

Best wishes,

GM Stormcrow


Edited by GM Stormcrow - 18 Apr 2010 at 16:17

Great work SC. Love the game and the regular updates, this being a stellar. Kudos guys.

Make TC work and sweat! 

Some suggestions about the chat:

Maybe add an option to see how many people are in the chat.
Also make an active list of people who were just talking for the last 10 minutes.
And how many are afk not talking for 10 minutes.

A chat userlist as in IRC.
For easy private chat.

A way to minimize the chat.

Alliance tags.

Also i find it annoying when i type something and hit enter, the cursor disappears from the chat.
I have to manual click the chat again to type more.

EDIT:
More things:

- Fluffy said autocomplete in names.
- Clickable names, like rightclick to view information, etc etc
- Button to report people.
- When someone highlights your name, it should flash and/or make sound. Same with a PM.



Edited by Wuzzel - 19 Apr 2010 at 01:11

Damn, you can even move the chat thing around. That's some epic coding right there. :o