Lamkin
Level: Smitemaster

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One of the things I like about chatting via the forum is that you're able to tell immediately when someone either enters or leaves the chat room. But while using the in-game chat, aside from periodically checking by pressing the return key (or aside from the occasional "Hello" or "Good night"), there's no way of knowing who has entered or left the chat room.
So my suggestion is to show a little message in-game whenever a person either leaves or enters chat. (AOL used to do this, I believe....I wouldn't know if it still does.)
And yeah, I realize it's totally inessential and trivial, etc., and I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement; it obviously wouldn't be worth working on if it took too much time to implement.
Anyway, it's just a thought.

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[Last edited by Lamkin at 11-09-2010 07:27 PM]

Tahnan
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On the other hand, considering how often people drop their connections for a moment, or the fact that (I think?) you drop out of chat if you escape out of the game in order to restore, it seems to me that the constant messages would quickly turn into spam.

Lamkin
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Tahnan wrote:
On the other hand, considering...the fact that (I think?) you drop out of chat if you escape out of the game in order to restore, it seems to me that the constant messages would quickly turn into spam.

Yeah, I was thinking that somehow that could be taken into account. As for dropped connections, I hadn't thought about it.
But, in general, it does seem like there would be too many messages, so I dunno...maybe it could be an option for those who want it. Again, it's no biggie.

wisprabbit
Level: Master Delver
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Lamkin wrote:
But, in general, it does seem like there would be too many messages, so I dunno...maybe it could be an option for those who want it. Again, it's no biggie.

Yeah, I think this should be optional. Maybe just have a checkbox for announcing your presence whenever you're in chat. This'd be best for me because I tend to hop in and out of chat, as I usually play DROD in short bursts of about 10-20 minutes at a time, and I don't talk much. In quiet moments the chat would just go "MHighbrow has entered chat. MHighbrow has left chat. MHighbrow has entered chat. MHighbrow has left chat. MHighbrow has entered chat... "

Probably a better option for chat regulars, though!

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formerly MHighbrow

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[Last edited by MHighbrow at 11-09-2010 10:04 PM]

Elfstone
Level: Smitemaster

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We don't need an announcement - we just need a list similar to the one in forum chat. And we're back to that bit of wall again (apologies to those of you who were not in chat when 'that bit of wall' was being discussed). We could have the list on the section of wall below Beethro's face and names would appear and disappear as they do in the forum chat name list.

I have no idea how difficult/complicated/time-consuming it would be to make this - as Lamkin says it is not high on the priority list of the Greater Scheme of Things - but I would like it.

____________________________
Winner of: Novice Architect Excellence 2006.
FAPCA - Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
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I'd be up for announcements as long as chat stays logged in as soon as someone actually fires up DROD as opposed to be actually playing a hold

Banjooie
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Syntax wrote:
I'd be up for announcements as long as chat stays logged in as soon as someone actually fires up DROD as opposed to be actually playing a hold

this is exactly the thing that needs to happen