munge said:
I feel the chat system is out of date in MMO's it's like entering a 90s chat room. For a game based on social interactions the main form of communication, the chat bar needs to be revamped with drag in emoticons and such so people can better express and communicate. There should be icons that you can display in the chat bar to quicken communications. The chat bar should play out like a MUD of the future. As well maybe some communication displays that you can send to the main screen so you can get the attention of people not reading chat box.
I like this line of thought but I really want to stay away from any emotes in the chat box, most eastern games have full chat boxes with just emotes, hearts, smiley faces it looks horrible and is just spam.
I really like the old simple style because it is bare to the bones chat, no fancy emotes if you want to smile you type :) or a variation of that and the other person knows you are smiling, they don't needs 50 x yellow smiley emotes mixed with red love hearts, brown poops and black cats across 6 lines of chat!
Call me old fashioned but I like the plain and simple chat boxes that have enough options for me to move them around, change the text colour, size, position, check boxes for what I want to see and in what tab and be functional and easy to use, also it's important for it to be immersive, especially with a game like Pantheon so rich in lore, I don;t want to be travelling around lost in immersion to then be ripped straight back to reality with bright coloured emotes filling the chat spam in general/trade/craft/region etc.
Anything more is better suited to a newer F2P game filled with screaming young kids in my opinion ;)
Pantheon is supposed to be a mature game for a niche EQ/VG crowd that were fine without all those things but again, it is my opinion.
Nice simple chat:
Loud obnoxious chat:
I play Korean games from time to time, and yes the emoticons are abused a lot. For the general feel of this game I feel the text based chat box would best evoke that Eq/Vanguard feel.
Now I will take it a step farther- I like having voice in my games, but I am sure there are a lot of people in our gaming demographic that do not want it in this game. Those of us that like voice chat have our systems in place to do so (Mumble, Ventrilo, Teamspeak), so I would rather see the development team spend their time working on the game itself and let us handle the VOIP.
the truly original can do wonderful things with a simple chat system. i remember in EQ i used to group with a character named Shortbus his incoming message when he pulled was a All aboard %T for the (insert diagram of a bus made over several lines of text with just lines and slashes and such and even had "shortbus" where the name of the school would go on a school bus.
another character i remember from VG every time he logged in to the game up in guild chat we would see a message that said "AHHH HOME AGIAN" and then you would see a picture of friggin bob vila appear. and you could tell it was supposed to be bob vila
also VOIP while it would be awesome to have in an Xpac i think resources could be used better elsewhere till after release.
sajbear said:
No emoticons for me :)
I had a thought tough, what about chat bubbles? Like in SWG for instance?
They have those in Guild wars 2...dont like them but if theres an option to turn them off then im cool with it
Kilsin said:
I don't remember chat bubbles being in EQ but Vanguard definitely had them as a toggle option, I like having that option to turn them on or off, some like them and some don't ;)
A toggle option would be great! ^_^
I like basic text chat. I like it because it actually takes a little time to do. That little slice of time in a subconscious way involves me more than just throwing an emoticon in a chat box.
A measure of Pantheon for me will be whether or not I feel like the game gives me that little slice of time when I'm in a group, in a dungeon, hunting stuff. In EQ you always were able to find that spare moment to say something in the chat box. In today's games, you don't. Things just move too fast.
I'm also not really fond of voice chat in most cases. I don't mind it at all if I'm either in a raid, or with people I know. In a raid, if I'm leading I'm expected to say certain things and if I'm not leading I'm expected not to say anything - and so that's fine. With people I know, I feel at ease. In voice with people I don't know (or only know a little) - I typically feel more guarded in voice chat.
For me, voice chat is all too often like being at a wedding with my wife. She wants to go dance - I'm TERRIBLE at dancing and don't like to. She says "Don't worry, nobody's watching..." Then two minutes later she say "Oh my GOD, look at that guy!"
Not really my thing. Plain, ordinary, simple chat for me (with all of the % modifiers that were in EQ and VG)
I'm good with chat bubbles if they are able to be toggled. Sometimes I will toggle them on if I'm not in a group because it takes some focus off the chat box - but I usually turn it off if I'm in a group and already focused on the chat box anyway.
I have to disagree with OP. I’m strongly in favor of no emoticons. I also have no problem with traditional chat.
What could be vastly improved are things like personal options for viewing chat. Give me options to change the chat colors for different sources. Such as my spells, my pet’s spells, npc spells my groups spells…
So many games let you change colors but fall vastly short of allowing for perfect customization.
I pretty sure EQ never had a way to change “just” your pet’s damage color. You could change others damage which included your pet but it also included a few other things.
Also not a fan of an in-game voice chat. I for one hate talking online with others, especially just random people. Typing is the way to go for me. When a group chat is silent for hours because they are using voice chat its never he same as good old fashion group chat.
Xonth said:
...snip....
What could be vastly improved are things like personal options for viewing chat. Give me options to change the chat colors for different sources. Such as my spells, my pet’s spells, npc spells my groups spells…
So many games let you change colors but fall vastly short of allowing for perfect customization.
I pretty sure EQ never had a way to change “just” your pet’s damage color. You could change others damage which included your pet but it also included a few other things.
....snip...
I agree, I also would like to see chat customized more. With colors like you said, but also with Tabs. Many MMOs nowadays have tabs that you can create and filter just things you want to see. For example I always make a combat tab, and a communications tab (for guild chat, whispers, says,emotes and grouping). that way if I need to see something combat related I can easily find it there, and I my tells do not get lost. Improved chat features are certainly a nice to have. There are more important features I am sure that need attention first.
Kilsin said:
I don't remember chat bubbles being in EQ but Vanguard definitely had them as a toggle option, I like having that option to turn them on or off, some like them and some don't ;)
The ancestor of all MMORPGs, Ultima on line also had text floating above character's head. Not really bubbles but a switchable option and I liked that much.
I admit that I like bubbles or text in the main window because I don't need then to check all the time the chat window which is full of clutter all time anyway.
munge said:
Lol how about game specific icons rez,sow,clarity,lfg,bathroom, afk, a poopsock icon to let people know your a poopsock exp group looking for more, CongoRats , gnomepunt, etc
Personally, I would rather type that stuff instead of clicking a picture but that's just me. :)
Also we will most likely have macros so /lfg etc with a custom message can be broadcast in /region too with spam detection of course to stop too many going through at once but I really like going back to the simple old school style of actually typing something, rather than trying to say it with different emotes and pictures, to me those pictures and emotes represent laziness and remind me of the instant gratification crowd, I have trouble separating the two for some reason, maybe it has just been my experiences in other games.
