Global chat on the table? 1.x release?

[lefty1117]

FD or anyone else "in the know" - do you have any info you can provide yet on whether some form of global chat will be in 1.2 - station, system, regional, alliance chat, etc.

Presumably within wings the players will be able to chat with each other so the underpinnings for a larger chat system should be in place. When can we expect to see or hear more about this?

More player interaction is needed to bring the galaxy to life and draw players into Open play. Thanks in advance for your reply!

 

[WiseDuck]

Well, you will most probably won't see a "global" chat in ED, in fact, I'll go as far as saying you will never see it at all. This game is played in P2P instances and it's not like other MMO titles which use a "mega" server or set of servers , like EvE.

In their infinite wisdom FD thought this would be the best online experience they could offer, weirdly enough.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[lefty1117]

I can't believe bandwidth would be an issue when you have other games that support group voice as well as text chat. Planetside is a good example. Also, most MMOs use separate chat servers that the clients connect to, not hosted by the clients themselves. I would think FD could put just a few, maybe even 1 or 2, servers to run chat in AWS or wherever they're hosting the core servers, and that would be enough. Add in the ability to create chat channels like in Planetside or Eve and we'd be good to go.

 

[TonyW]

Broadcast Chat per instance except in supercruise would be nice. Keep the same chat as now for individuals but hit enter to broadcast to all in the same instance.

 

[Gasoline]

Apparently working chat that is on par with the industry standard is not "dangerous" enough.

 

[MarcusReed]

You can chat with any one of your friends globally now in game ( love the in game comms. LOVE IT). I assume in wings you will be able to chat with the entire wing at once. How will they handle prioritize speaking I am unsure of. As for global chat in the sense of how other MMOs do, it would kill immersion for me personally. I really don't need to see guild and credit farmers spam all day long. But I am sure there is a middle ground that can be reached some how.

 

[Khan]

Mah immersion at being able to talk to more then 1 (or 4 at 1.2) people at a time.

Gotta keep out those gold farmers
Even though currently they just PM you directly....

Vision™

So no its never going to happen. For various reasons that make little to no sense in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Gasoline]

for global chat in the sense of how other MMOs do, t would kill immersion for me personally. I really don't need to see guild and credit farmers spam all day long. But I a sure there is a middle ground that can be reached some how.

That middle ground was figured out about 2 decades ago, it is called "A checkbox to let players turn off global chat channels if they wish"

 

[Duckfather]

The only way I could see this happening would be to offload the chat functions to either a physical server, or more likely, an AWS instance, with the client just telling the chat server where the players are and which players can see which other players (ie players in the same instance). But a global chat system would be a bit of a waste in my opinion and would be too open for spammage and abuse. A system wide chat, however, would work for me

 

[lefty1117]

Agreed - global chat is too much, but a system chat or maybe the ability to create chat channels that people can join - that would be great.

 

[Brakespear]

Agreed - global chat is too much, but a system chat or maybe the ability to create chat channels that people can join - that would be great.

It would be more than great. It'd be essential.

At the moment, even if you encounter really sociable, friendly players... everyone is isolated. You can talk to that guy, OR you can talk to that other guy.

Station chat would be nice - kinda limiting, but it would create a nice sense of community. People would actually go to a station to hang out and talk to others.

 

[lefty1117]

It would be more than great. It'd be essential.

At the moment, even if you encounter really sociable, friendly players... everyone is isolated. You can talk to that guy, OR you can talk to that other guy.

Station chat would be nice - kinda limiting, but it would create a nice sense of community. People would actually go to a station to hang out and talk to others.

The main problem I have with station-chat as the solution (instead of just an option among a number of chat options) is that the playerbase is fairly spread around to begin with. I would choose system-chat over station-only chat so that at least people that are in SC can participate as well.

 

[Darth Ender]

I think they should remove chat altogether. Instead you should have prewritten canned communication. I can only imagine the kind of nonsense player reporting that would go on if open communication were to be shotgunned to more people. It's hard enough making sure nobody's feelings are hurt on the forum to avoid getting slapped around, there is no way in-game chatter is going to be g-rated for long.

 

[Armour]

You should be able to broadcast on a player-specified frequency.

There could be certain frequencies that are customary for pilots to use, but the ability to change to another frequency would be necessary too.

Some frequency bands could be off-limits (security/military/private commercial/etc), and should result in a fine (or worse) if you trespass on them.

Friends and/or wings should have encrypted comms channels with shared key exchange.

There could be missions that involve getting the frequency keys from a black box which will allow you to listen to the channel that was used by that ship, which could come in handy with espionage missions and the like.

Frequency keys could be a valuable commodity - getting hold of the local police band would doubtless come in handy for pirates, and being able to listen in to a given faction's comms channel would allow you to sabotage their plans more effectively.

Smuggling or retrieval missions could give you a frequency key to tune in to once the cargo has been acquired, so that location data could be transmitted and an off-station exchange (or ambush) could be carried out.

 

[Sanderson]

One of the biggest, among many, mistakes (IMO) FD has made was the voice communication in ED, or the lack thereof in this case.

There's quite a few ways better voice (or text for that matter) communications could be implemented in game without using additional bandwidth (other than what was originally planned for) that would add so much to the game.

One way, IMO, would be (as many many have suggested over the last 10 months or so) to have a selectable "on" and "off' for it, channels inside a system (think CB radio) or just the ability to have "always on" chat between friends, no matter where they are or within a reasonable distance, coupled with the ability to hail others outside3 the "friends" and to allow others to "join" the friends chat.

That would require that multiplayer actually works, reliably and consistently, which it does not right now. Maybe "it's on the list" or "soon" or "check future newsletters" but, right now, no one outside FD has a clue.

 

[Tinman]

Wings will probably have a common chat between the players.

As for other types of "chat channels" the lead designer was originally rather hesitant against the idea for a number or reason. The last we heard about it was just before the holidays when he wrote this:

Hello Commander LeiHarper!

That's a completely valid argument; I'm a little torn on this. Whilst I'm really not fond of local spam channels, I definitely see a need going forward to increase social aspects of Elite and multi-person coms is a part of that (as are I'm sure a bunch of other features).

So I couldn't give you an ETA on when we will address this, as we have to work out exactly what it is we want, first.

So he seem to have warmed up to it somewhat. We'll probably never have global channels though...I find open coms in an instance to be likely personally and they might potentially stretch it as far as systemwide coms. More than that is unlikely IMO, nor do I think that it is necessary. We can still chat with people on our friendslist and/or wing no matter where they are and that's what most people really need.

 

[edgar]

I don't want to see a "global" chat functionality. It would just become a trollbox.

I would however like to be able to "broadcast" to ships within my sensor range; both in supercruise and in realspace. In SC it would enable CMDRs to send out "distress signals", to call for help or to set up ambushes; around Stations they can send out offers of employment, organise on the fly co-op hunting expeditions etc. No voice broadcasting though, just text; and enable a toggle to allow the uninterested CMDRs to mute all local broadcasts.

Alternatively, allow CMDRs who are docked in Stations to log into the dockside commlink, which would be a Station-local chatroom accessed via a cockpit panel interface.

 

[Shear]

It could easily happen P2P or not, that doesn't matter.

But for some reason I don't see FD putting that in, seems like they are having issues with the basic chat working.

Maybe when FPS comes out or in stations once you can walk around them, I don't see why not. ATM hardly.

 

[Madbeard]

This is how the chat system should work...

Systems while in SC - Anyone on the radar while in SC should see what you type in the chat.
Nav Points - Anyone on the radar while at the nav point should see what you type in the chat.
Outside/Inside Stations - Anyone Outside/Inside stations should see what you type in chat.

Anything less will be a disappointment.