Posts Tagged ‘Chat’

Open Chat (and Commands)

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Open chat is in, including both non-gangmembers and chat between gangs. I’ll get to how you use it in a second.

I hate to even go into it, because we do have a good crew here, but there’s basically one rule of chat: don’t make me sort out drama. Any drama I have to sort out comes straight out of development time, which isn’t something I’m going to get involved with lightly or punish lightly if I do have to. In other words, if you know you’re going to start drama or can’t judge, don’t go into open chat.

Sorry about that, but I wanted to get it out there up front.

Here are the shiny new commands:

  • /join channel – Joins a given chat channel. Options right now include open, gang (if you’re in a gang), and gang warfare (the chat notifications you get, can’t be posted to).
  • /leave channel – Leaves a chat channel. Same options as above. You can also use /leave chat to get out of chat entirely.
  • /which or /where – Tells you which channels you’re listening to and posting to.
  • /quit or /exit – Leaves chat.

When you’re in multiple chat channels, a dropdown will appear to select which channel you’re speaking to. Also, messages from other players will be say which channel they’re speaking in.

The Leave Chat link at the bottom has been removed to reclaim a bit of space. So remember the /quit, /exit, and /leave chat commands. You just might need them :)

Other updates:

  • Avatars now appear in your profile when other players are looking at it and don’t need to be reset when you change gangs.
  • Quantum Mechanics and Walk With The Blind now have alternate ways to unlock them. The old ways are still there and probably easier, but the new ways are what intuitively should work.
  • Leaving a gang should now always force you out of gang chat, instead of just not letting you post. Thanks Olaf!
  • Ghoultouched no longer turns off when you gain a new skill. Great catch, dudeathome!
  • Sailors (well, ex-sailors) freed during the Ship of the Damned quest will now show up in your quest log. Good suggestion, RazielSonOfKain!
  • Also, a big thank you to Caradal and Jetalynn for catching some typos.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features

Slash Commands

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

The basic chat commands are in and seem to be working properly.

The ones in so far:

  • /tell, /whisper, /t, or /w – Sends a private chat message to the person named. This does require putting underscores (_s) to replace any spaces in their name. So, Dr. Thomas would be “/tell Dr._Thomas I need some Eclipse.”
  • /reply or /r – Replies to your most recent tell. Like all such systems, I wouldn’t suggest using it when you’re getting a lot of tells.
  • /em, /me, or /emote – Says things like “Kinak does wacky stuff” instead of “Kinak: does wacky stuff.”
  • /who – Replaces the “Who’s On” at the bottom of the chat list.
  • /time – Advises you on the current system time.
  • /? – The command that tells you the commands so you don’t have to look at this list.

Also corrected some bugs today where Metros was sometimes charging people unfairly. Thanks Zeladoni!

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features

Chat Chatty Chat

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

So, mostly worked on chat today. Hopefully, the weirdness with it refreshing and losing what you’re typing or focus or both should be gone. Works like a charm for me, at least.

On a related note, you can now see the current time by mousing over “Who’s Here?” to go with the details on when messages came in by mousing over them.

Other Updates:

  • Added some pretty cool functionality to contacts, where I can plug in floating conversation bits (like asking Hawk about your friends or the Squatter King’s son) separately and have them show up as needed. In the process, Lo started blabbing about some crazy puzzle box. Thanks to Justin and Thrillhouse for helping me get him back under control.
  • The images in the Mall preview now link to their item descriptions. The text still links to the listings. Good suggestion, RazielSonOfKain.
  • Log messages for Gang Warfare should be showing up consistently now. Thanks for the bug report, Mag.
  • Beancounters should no longer get stealth-demoted everytime somebody leaves a gang. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for helping sort this out and RazielSonOfKain for being the test subject.
  • Also thanks to RazielSonOfKain for reminding me that I hadn’t turned off image borders everywhere. Shouldn’t have to worry about them again.
  • Thanks to Cristiona for snagging a typo for us.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Bug Fixes

Today’s Updates

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Whole bunch of updates today. Mostly expanding the Chat interface, but snuck in a few other updates as well.

Chat

  • At the bottom of chat it’ll show who’s viewed that chat recently (last five minutes or so). Good suggestion, the Kitchen Sink.
  • The Gang Warfare messages showing up in chat have been revamped. I think they’re clearer, but the secret is this: the first name listed is your gangmate.
  • The autorefresh should no longer clear out what you’ve been typing. Good catch, Cryptodynamic.
  • Your name will now also show up in bold in the chat as it does in the gang log. Thanks for the suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
  • When you mouseover a comment in chat, it’ll display the time posted. Remember that is server time, which is set to GMT. Thanks for the suggestion, Cryptodynamic! Always up for a good excuse to use mouseover text.

Other Stuff

  • You can now search in the OmniMall ignoring items in your inventory/equipped by checking the “Listings Only” checkbox right under the search. Thanks for the suggestion, Wyrd!
  • The Gang Log now includes people entering the gang, leaving the gang, promotions, and demotions. These are under a new section called ‘Members.’ It’s pretty cool. Good suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
  • Shard will now be encounterable after luring a guard away. Thanks for the bug report, Cryptodynamic!
  • The Mall Previews on the front page now have images. It’s kind of shocking how much more interesting that makes them look. Good call, RazielSonOfKain!
  • Third Eye Stashes you collect from now on (using Big M’s Maps) will now show up under your completed quests. Good suggestion, Harrakan.
  • Also corrected a typo from PaidPiedPiperPal.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features, Updates

Gang Chat

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Gang chat is in! It doesn’t really have bells or whistles at the moment, but we’ll burn those bridges when we come to them.

The gang warfare messages will get reworked to fit in a little better with today’s changes (both the Gang Warfare change and this). But for now, they’ll be their old selves.

As a side note, I don’t intend to interfere with gang internal politics, which includes moderating your chat.

Thanks to Mag and Lord Finisher for errors that occurred while chat was rolling out.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features