Chat UI feedback

Note: This has evolved into an omnibus Chat UI post. Thank you to everyone involved so far.

Greetings Release 16! It's time for my obligatory feedback on the Chat User Interface!

Communicating in game is frustrating at the best of times, and a train wreck once you have 40-50 avatars in a single location.

Suggestions (rearranged slightly since last post):

1. Shift-click an avatar's name in chat to paste into the active text input box
2. Add filter by whisper target
3. Chat tabs should be able to be broken out into several separate windows
4. Ability to lock windows in addition to pinning them
5. Locked windows (not pinned) should be immobile/non-resizable
6. Locked chat window partial transparency when inactive
7. Click-through support on chat windows
8. Better text editing in chat input!! ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts#Text_editing
   -mostly "go to previous/next word" because that is driving me crazy (R17 feature)
9. Flowing chat input element, increase in rows and line breaks as we type
10. More, much more granularity in context filtering
11. Chat tab configuration is persistent (can close an edited tab, and reopen it later)
12. Optional timestamps in chat
13. The ability to copy some text in the chat window
14. The ability to click links in the chat window
15. Consolidate NPC speech into a single tab (and allow us to disable auto focus on that tab)
16. Disassociate loot/xp from combat messages, allowing a strictly "combat log"
17. Chat tab setting to have specific tabs save to log file in real time (R17 Feature)
    Location of logs;
    Windows: %appdata%\Portalarium\Shroud of the Avatar\ChatLogs
    Linux: ~/.config/Portalarium/Shroud of the Avatar/ChatLogs
18. Font type /size settings for chat
19. Select a player in game to highlight their text in chat
20. Drop down select for Local, Party, Guild chat (in addition to the shortcuts)
21. Option to save unique chat settings to your Deck ("combat" vs "social" settings, etc)
22. Allow mouse-navigated movement to continue when hot-keying chat focus
    
    Spoiler

    Right now I can give focus to Chat by either hitting Enter, or by clicking the Chat input field.
    When it has focus all keyboard strokes go into the Chat input field.
    However the issue is that as soon as Chat gets focus, your avatar stops moving.
    There is no need for that if I'm using the mouse to move forward.
23. Chat tab setting to pulse as an alert for new messages matching the filter when the chat window is hidden (should not block click-through [see #7])
24. Optional "You were mentioned" audio notification (ala-irc)

Cheers!

*9 suggested by steanne
*10 suggested by many
*11, 12 suggested by Net
*13 - 16 suggested by lollie
*19 - 22 suggested by Spoon
*23 suggested by Vignir
*24 suggested by Hraw

 

Would be nice to have an optional in game voice chat feature, complete with mouth animations and possibly sound being emitted by your character. I know this has been done in another MMORPG.

 

10. Also the ability to copy some text in the chat window, and the ability to click links in the chat window.

 

Great feedback so far, there are soem things I would like to see:

More control over Misc (NPC?) messages.
xp gains
loot of party members
Items left on the lot (to the limit)
people going online/offline
peole joining leaving party (and guild).
people adding you as a friend (this really should trigger some accept deny message or at very least we should see who has us as friend)


option to 'lock' tabs so we cannot close them by accident, and if we close them and open new tab it should be the closed one, I do not want to change settings all the time (there should be option to set default settings though)

Different shades of blue for different whispers. Option to have whispers with one person! in separate tab (not all whispers)

Option to enter longer messages. (And perhaps game could break them in smaller chunks with few second delay?)


=======================
For events it would be great to be able to feed game from the file, maybe something like subtitle file with timing on messages. With option to hit Esc or something to pause the automated copypasting and enter custom message. Though maybe it can be app made by community.

 

I would also like to see the just the chat NPCs make go into its own tab (and its own channel, more on this below), so we can stick this chat tab somewhere of our choosing, and so it never goes over the top of our guild chat/fight data/party chat/etc and obscuring all the things we actually do want to be seeing at any time. NPC chat currently pops up in a new tab for each NPC we click - this needs to stop. Let the NPC chat stay in its own tab, in whatever tab/s we have assigned this NPC chat channel. No more NPC chat tab pop ups! If I click a number of NPCs that's two, three, or four extra tabs that have suddenly appeared over the chat tab I was actually trying to watch. Then I have to click each one shut again, just to see what I was doing a few moments before trying to interact with an NPC or so.

As players, we find this clumsy, and time consuming (not immersive). If I want immersion I will assign the NPC chat channel to its own tab, stretch it out lengthways, place it somewhere in the lower middle of my screen, then give this NPC chat tab some transparency so I can see the world underneath while still seeing what NPCs around me are going on about. I would really like to be able to do this.

Also right now for some reason NPC chat is connected to the loot and gold drops and xp data channel (from memory), and (for example) you would have to have NPC chat selected in the tab you have your fight data going into to see gold drops/xp etc at the same time as your fight data, which is a very odd choice, and this needs to be disassociated. NPC chat should have its own channel. Loot and gold drops should have its own channel. XP data should have its own channel. Fight data should have its own channel.

And the above for ourselves all separate from seeing the fight data/loot and gold drops/xp of other players/party members.

All these need to be player choices, so in the drop down menu where the tickboxes are for selecting channel input into the chat tabs, all the above have separate tickboxes.

Then as in OP, all these chat tabs need to be detachable from main chat tab, the size of the chat tab we have just detached needs to be able to be changed to any size we prefer (click-dragging the arrow sizing tool), we need to be able to place these detached tabs separately anywhere on our screens, and we need to be able to lock and unlock each detached chat tab so they stay on our screen if we want. And so in each chat tab we have detached and placed around our screen, only the exact channels we have selected would go into each different window, precisely as we choose to set the things up.

If devs need some ideas, here is a guide on pretty much the most ultimate chat tab system designed in a game ever.

 

Oh, one more thing.

Optional timestamps on messages would be greatly appreciated.

 

This is an awesome thread btw, and it's nice to consolidate our ideas here for once and forever, hopefully to get the chat system overhauled at last :3

 

Thank you for the additional feedback and suggestions. I've summarized and added to the list in the original post.

 

I love the idea and hope they implement this slowly because most people have PC setups that can't handle it. They are still using monitors that are smaller than 30 inches.

 

Features should be optional, you don't have to separate your chat tabs from each other for example.

Better UI does not mean it has to be bigger UI.

 

• If you select a person their text in chat should be Highlighted.
  For instance, during an event you highlight the event holder and their messages are highlighted.
• Multiple chat windows.
  For instance splitting out one window for purely Guild chat, then splitting a different window for purely Game chat, allowing you to have a chat free for actual in game chat.
• Buttons for /l /p /g etc. (not very new folks friendly to have commands instead of UI)
• Split the filter of NPC actual talk and NPCtoNPC banter.
  For instance, running through a town your chat fills with the NPCtoNPC banter, but if you filter that out then you no longer see that important NPC talk you had 1min ago.
• Split "game effect text" filter seperate from NPC filter.
  For instance, Xp gained is toggled by same filter as NPC which are two totally different things.
• Silence, AoE spells and objects.
  Which blocks local chat while in the AoE or while on the object (bleacher) but not party/guild chat. (If you have been to an event with a disruptive person you know why).
• Chat settings tied to "decks".
  If one can save ones chat settings then I'd like it to be deck based, this so that I can have one Chat configuration while using my "social" deck and another while I have my "combat" deck.
• Ability to run with the mouse, while typing in chat with the other hand.

better stop there..

 

Spoiler

Thanks Spoon!

 

"Already suggested #3"
If so then you need to rephrase that one, #3 seems to be to have one window with multiple stacks of tabs side by side, not multiple windows.

"Already suggested #10 (will add lots of examples soon)"
As long as you add the ones I had I'm happy.

"I think it would be hard to differentiate between chat input and WASD movements."
Not really, right now I can give focus to Chat by either hitting Enter, or by clicking the Chat input field.
When it has focus all keyboard strokes go into the Chat input field.
However the issue is that as soon as Chat gets focus, your avatar stops moving.
There is no need for that if I'm using the mouse to move forward.

 

Does numbers 4-7 make more sense now that I've rephrased #3?

Now that makes more sense and would seem like a reasonable suggestion. Then perhaps the input text box would only lose focus if you clicked in the world again? I forgot that Enter hot-keys chat focus.

 

+1

 

You can already change the font size! Just sayin'. I keep mine at a modest 14. The default being 18 seems a bit much.

All of these ideas are helpful. I've found myself several times entering a command involving a player name (/zone for instance) for someone with a long, tedious name and wished I could have just right-clicked on their name in chat and had some options.

Also, I wish the last person I whispered would not still linger in my bar, especially after I've been logged out for a while and return.

 

I've said it before but chat focus should be based on a short key press buffer rather than requiring manual focus. If the buffer contains repeated movement keys then lose focus and start moving else I've started chatting so set focus, additionally use a timer to test the delay between keys strokes so as not to focus chat when using shortcut keys.

 

Great post. I like a lot of the ideas going around!

Here's my $.02

Whispers / Alerts:
I never seem to see my whispers. I know they pop up the message window but if you don't notice the popup the window (if chat isn't pinned) the window will disappear. Also if there's a lot going on in your chat the whisper may just scroll right by.

I think it would be cool If we could set up an "alert" for different types of messages and add the icon near the top right with the other icons. Think of the email icons on your phone that have a message count next to them indicated how many new emails you have. The same thing could work for alerts. In the middle of a PVP battle? No problem you'll notice the alerts are coming in (some sort of notification?) and review whatever alerts happen during the battle after the battle. Setting up what alerts your interested in getting would also be important. I might not want to be alerted about every single party chat but still want alerts for leveling up and direct whispers.

Chat log export
While it's cool to use the in game chat (OK so not really cool yet... but it will be!!) It would be awesome if chat exported to a file in real time. Maybe 3rd party app's could snatch that chat log up, parse it, and throw it up in a separate application for viewing (Unless SOTA is going dual screen? Which I haven't heard yet). I also love running statistics so being able to parse through chat log would be ideal.

 

Spoiler

Code:

I took some liberty when adding this to the feedback list. Less "in-game cell phone" more current feeling (just from what I've seen while browsing the forums).

Code:

I changed the wording and specificity of #17.

Thanks!

 

Do not remove local/party/guild chats when talking to NPCs. Or at least allow us to add them in NPC tabs permanently. It is so annoying. I am sure it was said before but it needed to be said again.