Chat mode is a Must !

[Osco]

CTP did not have a chat mode
will CTP2 have a chat mode.... i believe it is a must have.

[MidKnight Lament]

It had an attempt an one, didn't it? Using the ' key...? Probably could have been better though.

- MKL

[Mr Ogre]

What games do you think have really good chat systems? I'm frankly pretty disappointed with most I've seen (and I do play a good number of online games), so I'd be happy to check out some good ones if you guys have suggestions.

(and yes, CTP1 did have one)

[Osco]

I think the game Heroes of Might and Magic 3 had a good chat system, it was out of the way and quick and easy to use.
Thanks for telling me that " ' " was the key for chat mode in CTP, i have played at least fifty multiplayer games and did not realize it was there .....

[MidKnight Lament]

For such a relatively important feature, it wasn't documented very well. I think I only found it when I was looking through the .txt file with the keyboard settings.

There was also a bug in it before the first patch.

Can't say I've played a lot of MP, so I'm not much good for suggestions, but it's great that you're asking.

- MKL

[Atahualpa]

Starcraft isnt that bad. You can choose with which to talk (only allies,...) and it is easy to use. Or Diablo.

As for CtP2:
I would like to see "private rooms". So that you can make your own room (for example: "Alliance of the Skull island") and invite your allies in there. Then you can discuss strategical things. The one who openes the private room is the moderator and can kick,ban and close/open the room. When a new room is created it should be closed. "/open" would then open it while "/close" would close it. In closed rooms, only users with invitation can join in.
Also I would like to see a chat system where you can be in more rooms than just one. Like in mIRC where you can switch between rooms. However, if you are not currently in a certain room, "(away)" should be appended to that name.
So to say: "Atahualpa" is in room "Lounge" and "Alliance of the skull island". While I am looking in room "lounge" my name in room "Alliance of the skull island" changes to "Atahualpa(away)".
This way players know if the person will listen when they write something in the room or if he is away.
Then there should be of course other standard chat options like: un/ignore, shout, the /me command...

Lounge is open to everybody.

There should also be an ability to have a log file for a chat-transcript or something like that.

Of course this sound quite a lot, but interesting too, or?
Ata

[Private Viper]

Well, I can not remember a really good one in any game, but if you manage to incorporate the ICQ-style chat, maybe even with messages, in addition to the chat mode they use. That also incorporates the "user away" feature Atahualpa mentioned.

just my .02

------------------
Viper
viper@cnc.net.nz
CNCNZ

[sammyboy7]

there's a shareware game called 'Shattered Galaxy' that has a good chat system. it's actually an internet-only game, for win, but i think the chat system is well-placed and easy-to-use. You guys should check it out (to play the game too, i mean, it's pretty cool, even though the battles are rts.) It has a public adress function, ally-only function, and a private converstaion mode.

------------------
WWAAZZAAAAAAAAAAPP!!!!
sam87@quincymail.com
OR!!!
sammyboy7@homestead.com

I think sammyboy has the worst signiature
-the 1212 problem
yeah, baby yeah
-sammyboy7

DUKE RULES!!!!!

Come visit the worst website in the civilization community with this adress....
http://thecivroom.homestead.com/thecivroom1.html

[TheLimey]

Well... UT's chat functionality works well enough... I guess its a slightly different style of play though

Of course, you could always take advantage of the new voice systems that have come out... RogerWilco for instance.

We use that in UT, and it works nicely.

[rpm]

Another YES for Chat mode!
Starcraft2 has an interesting chat mode where the chat is superimposed over the bottom of your terrain window. While somewhat distracting, it is less distracting than toggling back and forth to a separate window.

There are certainly more, but I can imagine only 3 chat modes right now: 1) a separate chat window that stays out of your way until someone speaks or you toggle over, as in ICQ or AIM; 2) an in-game chat window as in many zone.com multiplayer games such as Acrophobia (only better because Activision would let us move/resize/dock the mini chat window, right? ); or 3) an inline chat superimposed over the bottom of the terrain window as in Starcraft2.

[Shadowstrike]

Starcraft2? Are you a time-traveller? (bring me back a copy of Civ3 and Ctp2! )

Diablo II had a good one, with the hotkeys for commonly used phrases. I hope this feature will be in Ctp2

[Kwang]

Atahualpa is totally right. I often contemplate the future of communications and his system is exactly how I have always imagined a futuristic cyborg communications system would work.

However I don't understand the point of "open" channels. If it's going to be an open channel, then it might as well be the public address channel, right?

[Pin]

Ogre....

For the best online ingame chatting system, go have a look at EverQuest its like mIRC but in a game

[Matthew Hayden]

I would like to see shortcut keys (of your choice) which would instantly produce a line, phrase or sentence of text (obviously written by you). Hope this is at least a moderately new idea.

[Devourer]

I think the Blizzard's Battle.Net system was the best chat system I have seen. It's got private channels (that you can moderate), public channels, away and do not disturb modes (you type /away or /dnd with a message), whispering, and chatting to allies. It worked extremely well. One important point, is that you couldnt highlight text which people sent you - note this is good, as it meant you could still send units to somewhere behind the text, which was vital in battle scenes. Something following Blizzard's example would prove extremely useful and popular I think.