Ryzom

OK, this isn't a high priority thing, but if it's a small enough amount of work, I think it would be kinda cool:

A small app that would allow a person to log into their character for CHAT purposes only. Please don't tell me I can use irc or klients. I mean the ability to actually chat in-game during times when I can't really justify playing a game, but a little chatting is OK (like at work).

No, I can't load up the game here at work just for chatting. Neither my laptop nor my work computer's video cards are capable of running Ryzom. But a small chat client should work fine.

The only strangeness would be what does "around" and "region" mean if you aren't actually logged in? IMO, "around" doesn't apply because people can't see you. "region" should be the region where you last left your character. And, "guild" (the main one I'm interested in) totally applies in this situation.

Other strangeness would be whether the friend's list and /who command would consider you as online or not. If possible, I'd suggest the /who command show you as online in your last known region with the word "(chat)" after your name. The friend's list should show your online indicator as on, but maybe in a different color.

What do others think? Would this be useful and desirable? Is there anything about the idea you'd change to avoid potential problems or enhance the idea's usefulness. Obviously, if the scope of work on something like this is significant, I withdraw the idea. It isn't worth delaying anything major that we're waiting for.

I think Oldmess' idea is a good one, I have been wanting for something like that for long time now. I think it would be enough to enable guild chat and tells, forget around and region chats.

mmatto wrote:I think Oldmess' idea is a good one, I have been wanting for something like that for long time now. I think it would be enough to enable guild chat and tells, forget around and region chats.

Thanks. I agree that guild and direct tells would be enough to satisfy my immediate desire. And... I'd like to see my Friends list as well in this applet (same one that's in the game; don't make me setup a new one). Just so I know if I can even bother trying to /tell someone and help me get my spelling right. Some of you peeps have names that are hard to spell.

I would LOVE such an app

And yes, I'd be content with guild chat and tells.

To keep it simple, you don't need to be in any "who" list at all and can show as online normally on others lists, they'll just find out you're not in game when they talk to you.

Yeah I'd be pretty happy with a Guild and /tell program, but I would imagine it'd be really pretty hard to code up and implement :-/

sprite wrote:Yeah I'd be pretty happy with a Guild and /tell program, but I would imagine it'd be really pretty hard to code up and implement :-/

That depends on the structure of the code really. If the chat systems are a 'seperate entity' within the engine as a whole, those systems will lend themselves to operating without the rest of the client.

However, I think the chat system is an extension of the background message system, the one that control sys.info and all combat messages (it makes the most sense from a design point of view). Trying to get a new app to interface with that, without the 95% of client code you'd be chopping out, would be fun at the least Getting yourself on the 'online players' list without that 90% of code would also be a big challenge.

Doing the reverse, and changing the in-game chat to use an IRC channel(s) would probably be easier - but that in itself is a reasonably big job, and if your IRC server goes down you have a new set of in-game problems...

dazman76 wrote:That depends on the structure of the code really.

heh, ain't that the truth. That's why I started with the caveat that if the scope of work is big, just discard the whole thought.

Doing the reverse, and changing the in-game chat to use an IRC channel(s) would probably be easier - but that in itself is a reasonably big job, and if your IRC server goes down you have a new set of in-game problems...

Personally, I would oppose this idea just because I don't want this to turn into a significant change in the main game code. We've all been reading the descriptions of the QA cycle and I understand them (I work in a small development shop). Adding to the main game code is too risky IMO with everything else going on.

But, if a separate applet could tap into the existing chat protocols with minimal risk, it might be worth considering. There's a lot I don't know about thier code structure, so I can't say for sure.

Seeing as how the code doesn't even allow something simple like adding friends to the list when they're not currently online, I don't foresee tapping into the chat to be possible anytime soon

Too bad though, it would be awesome.

xfire sorta work ... well actually it doesnt

When I use Xfire in GW and CS, they show up in-game, but not so for SoR.

Maybe if enough pple ask the Xfire team to fix0r it for SoR ...

edit to add:

I also like the idea, because it would be awesome to learn about things happening on Atys even if you're not logged on.

AO has the ability and its really great. Was always nice to be able to log in and chat with friends and guild when not logged in. But as Daz said, its all down to how their chat coding is done.