I motion for star vault to eventually revamp the communication system/add to the communication system with a few features, and changes.
First off a point of contention that I have
Imo the ability to chat at any moment with anyone in a guild, or a whisper is a mistake with the game.
My first few days playing before I knew about whispering and group chat features (guild & help chat) left me with a very promising impression for the communication in game.
I remember the feeling of having to actually go into town physically and ask if anyone had seen other people who i had wanted to contact and it drove me to interact with people right off the bat.
I remember next how cool it felt when the person I had asked actually had just seen the friend i was looking for and pointed me in the right direction to find them.
This moment was truely unique.
I still have these interactions now, but after knowing about the whisper function in game it really only occurs with people I have not added to my friends list.
the instant communication with players imo takes more away from the experience than it gives to it.
if people really want to instantly communicate with people I think using an external program is a much more salient solution because it is far more customizable and you will both be in agreement on wanting to play like this.
I can't stop people from whispering me in game and the feature obviously promotes this so I can't really blame people for using it.
All of this applies to guild chat but multiplied because it is ever present.
if i want to allow myself to see local chat with people near me I have to also see who is whispering me and who is having conversations in guild.
-----
How I think it should be done:
Players should have options in game for methods of communication at a distance that range in time and distance.
1. Common: the simplest form of communication with people around the world should be through the mail npc.
When a player goes to write a message to another player if they are local in the same town the other player will immediately receive the message in their inbox to check on.
Use case being to simply leave a message for an offline player or a player you wish to talk to at some point in the future but it is not urgent.
—-
If the player is in another town you can send it to them via parcel of some kind and it will take around 10 minutes to an hour depending on how far that player is.
(Possibly can tie this into a mail mission where players can bring a mail bag item to another city to deliver letters manually or even have NPCs doing this automatically. Weather the mail bags would be lootable is up to star vault I could see both sides on this)
In order to send mail to someone a player must either:
a) be your friend
b) be in a guild with you, or
c) have completed a successful trade with you at some point.
You could also have the ability to block mail from a sender if you are getting spammed by someone.
——
2. The next tier of communications would be found also at the mail office as a more expensive option where you could send a messenger bird / courier to a player directly. In order to do this a player must be your friend just like how whispers work.
Simply system with this would be to write a letter and pay to send it, you would then hear a sound effect of a cage opening and a bird will fly off toward the recipient.
In a short amount of time the bird will arrive at the player where the player will grab and unfold a written note with the message written on it. The player can now write a reply on the back of the paper and the bird will return to the other player/ mail office where you sent the message from.
This is a one time use and has a fairly cheep cost.(10-50 silver)
——
The same npc would also give players an option to write bulk messages to many players on their friends list or even to their whole guild.
Price would be the single letter price x the number of recipients.
——
These messages would replace whispering for new players who want to communicate quickly with a player but are without other means that I will outline as more rare / “skilled” communication options.
——-
1. Skilled: fast communication between players should be added to abilities players can earn access to through different skills both magical and otherwise.
To continue with the previous examples I think we tamers should be able to train their pets to deliver messages.
In this case a tamer would be quite valuable in a traveling group if there would arise a need to send information to other players.
——
Magically inclined players would also have several options for communication as well, a player with the right skills could use their mental powers to speak with voip to other players who they are friends with as well as sent messages in text form instantaneously provided those players had a minimum low level of spirituality to establish a connection.
Along with the spells a magic character can use a mage could also have the ability to craft/enchant a medallion or ring that can be used as a whisper stone with a set number of charges.
The whisper stones would have no need for any spirituality to use as the magic is within the trinket.
In order to use these abilities the player must either
a) be friends with the caster,
b) be in a guild with the caster, or
c) have been targeted by the player in the last 15-30 minutes.
d) be in possession of the whisper stone
——
Like a whisper stone a guild leader would get access to a number of guild stones which could be given to select members of the guild.
The stones would act as chat channels in a game like squad or a game like arma.
In tactical games and games where you have these options people will use them more often than not because they break up the chain of command in a clever way as to not over saturate communication.
Players who are not needing to communicate with the commander are also not constantly having to hear everything they say to each other.
——
A guild stone would be an item that the guild leader gets from a guild pillar
The stone can be fragmented and those fragments would be given to officers or whoever they choose to give it too.
The officers could use the stones with a hot key to speak with the guild leader and each other.
The officers can also split their fragments into other fragments and give them to other guild members( call them soldiers)
The soldiers fragments would allow for them to communicate with the officer and the other soldiers connected to that officer’s stone.
Guild stones will stay in a players possession on death.
A guild leader can recall all stones.
An officer can recall the soldiers fragments.
(Epic bonus points for cool animation where stones fly off toward the person who recalled them)
Again this would work to provide a level of cohesion that you would not get with external software and I think it would become the standard very quickly when people get the hang of using it and start to win fights because they are more organized.
——
So all my suggestions here are basically to close one door to open a better one imo.
The logistics and the overall kinds of communication can be anything really, but the purpose of this suggestion is to say that comms should tie into game play rather than be a way to get around it.
an army general doesn’t set up constant communication with the grunts in his command.
—-
the last note I will give on communication is less impactful for me personally but I think it’s just better design,
Help chat as it is should be removed from the chat bar and instead a help section should be added to the escape menus.
there a separate window would pop up with more options for what help you need and have categories.
from Here you can basically create an in game forum for help in game on various topics.
imo it’s just a simple tweak that will give a better user experience at the end of the day.
help chat as it is really is just something to turn off for most people and it’s because there is no real structure to it and if they were to add more channels it would just turn your chat window into a mess.
Thanks for reading
First off a point of contention that I have
Imo the ability to chat at any moment with anyone in a guild, or a whisper is a mistake with the game.
My first few days playing before I knew about whispering and group chat features (guild & help chat) left me with a very promising impression for the communication in game.
I remember the feeling of having to actually go into town physically and ask if anyone had seen other people who i had wanted to contact and it drove me to interact with people right off the bat.
I remember next how cool it felt when the person I had asked actually had just seen the friend i was looking for and pointed me in the right direction to find them.
This moment was truely unique.
I still have these interactions now, but after knowing about the whisper function in game it really only occurs with people I have not added to my friends list.
the instant communication with players imo takes more away from the experience than it gives to it.
if people really want to instantly communicate with people I think using an external program is a much more salient solution because it is far more customizable and you will both be in agreement on wanting to play like this.
I can't stop people from whispering me in game and the feature obviously promotes this so I can't really blame people for using it.
All of this applies to guild chat but multiplied because it is ever present.
if i want to allow myself to see local chat with people near me I have to also see who is whispering me and who is having conversations in guild.
-----
How I think it should be done:
Players should have options in game for methods of communication at a distance that range in time and distance.
1. Common: the simplest form of communication with people around the world should be through the mail npc.
When a player goes to write a message to another player if they are local in the same town the other player will immediately receive the message in their inbox to check on.
Use case being to simply leave a message for an offline player or a player you wish to talk to at some point in the future but it is not urgent.
—-
If the player is in another town you can send it to them via parcel of some kind and it will take around 10 minutes to an hour depending on how far that player is.
(Possibly can tie this into a mail mission where players can bring a mail bag item to another city to deliver letters manually or even have NPCs doing this automatically. Weather the mail bags would be lootable is up to star vault I could see both sides on this)
In order to send mail to someone a player must either:
a) be your friend
b) be in a guild with you, or
c) have completed a successful trade with you at some point.
You could also have the ability to block mail from a sender if you are getting spammed by someone.
——
2. The next tier of communications would be found also at the mail office as a more expensive option where you could send a messenger bird / courier to a player directly. In order to do this a player must be your friend just like how whispers work.
Simply system with this would be to write a letter and pay to send it, you would then hear a sound effect of a cage opening and a bird will fly off toward the recipient.
In a short amount of time the bird will arrive at the player where the player will grab and unfold a written note with the message written on it. The player can now write a reply on the back of the paper and the bird will return to the other player/ mail office where you sent the message from.
This is a one time use and has a fairly cheep cost.(10-50 silver)
——
The same npc would also give players an option to write bulk messages to many players on their friends list or even to their whole guild.
Price would be the single letter price x the number of recipients.
——
These messages would replace whispering for new players who want to communicate quickly with a player but are without other means that I will outline as more rare / “skilled” communication options.
——-
1. Skilled: fast communication between players should be added to abilities players can earn access to through different skills both magical and otherwise.
To continue with the previous examples I think we tamers should be able to train their pets to deliver messages.
In this case a tamer would be quite valuable in a traveling group if there would arise a need to send information to other players.
——
Magically inclined players would also have several options for communication as well, a player with the right skills could use their mental powers to speak with voip to other players who they are friends with as well as sent messages in text form instantaneously provided those players had a minimum low level of spirituality to establish a connection.
Along with the spells a magic character can use a mage could also have the ability to craft/enchant a medallion or ring that can be used as a whisper stone with a set number of charges.
The whisper stones would have no need for any spirituality to use as the magic is within the trinket.
In order to use these abilities the player must either
a) be friends with the caster,
b) be in a guild with the caster, or
c) have been targeted by the player in the last 15-30 minutes.
d) be in possession of the whisper stone
——
- Guild Coms.
Like a whisper stone a guild leader would get access to a number of guild stones which could be given to select members of the guild.
The stones would act as chat channels in a game like squad or a game like arma.
In tactical games and games where you have these options people will use them more often than not because they break up the chain of command in a clever way as to not over saturate communication.
Players who are not needing to communicate with the commander are also not constantly having to hear everything they say to each other.
——
A guild stone would be an item that the guild leader gets from a guild pillar
The stone can be fragmented and those fragments would be given to officers or whoever they choose to give it too.
The officers could use the stones with a hot key to speak with the guild leader and each other.
The officers can also split their fragments into other fragments and give them to other guild members( call them soldiers)
The soldiers fragments would allow for them to communicate with the officer and the other soldiers connected to that officer’s stone.
Guild stones will stay in a players possession on death.
A guild leader can recall all stones.
An officer can recall the soldiers fragments.
(Epic bonus points for cool animation where stones fly off toward the person who recalled them)
Again this would work to provide a level of cohesion that you would not get with external software and I think it would become the standard very quickly when people get the hang of using it and start to win fights because they are more organized.
——
So all my suggestions here are basically to close one door to open a better one imo.
The logistics and the overall kinds of communication can be anything really, but the purpose of this suggestion is to say that comms should tie into game play rather than be a way to get around it.
an army general doesn’t set up constant communication with the grunts in his command.
—-
the last note I will give on communication is less impactful for me personally but I think it’s just better design,
Help chat as it is should be removed from the chat bar and instead a help section should be added to the escape menus.
there a separate window would pop up with more options for what help you need and have categories.
from Here you can basically create an in game forum for help in game on various topics.
imo it’s just a simple tweak that will give a better user experience at the end of the day.
help chat as it is really is just something to turn off for most people and it’s because there is no real structure to it and if they were to add more channels it would just turn your chat window into a mess.
Thanks for reading
