Inactive Topic MERGE - Improve/Develop CHAT

[DeletedUser14492]

Proposal:

I have played Grepolis for around 3 years. In this time there have been MANY ideas posted by various people in an effort to improve the atrocious in game chat facility.

Here are some examples...

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?30952-In-Game-Chat-Box

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?34386-Idea-Permanent-Chat

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?43043-Improve-The-Chat

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?26364-chat-notification

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?28910-chat-room

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?28681-Resizable-Chat

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?21355-Chat

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?31862-Master-Chat-Box-(Connects-whole-Server)

http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthread.php?38706-BB-Codes-in-chat-box

I propose to effectively merge all of theses ideas/threads into one place in some fashion. In this way all the comments and suggestions are in one location. This will be easier for people to contribute and easier for the mods/devs to take things forward hopefully as there will be a greater impact.

As we can see from these threads the weight of opinion is really quite large.


Reason:

Over the years there have been so many people posting ideas to try and improve the atrocious in game chat facility. These ideas often do not "pass" or get taken forward for a number of reasons. But one thing is clear, the community WANT CHANGE. Common sense dictates that if this ideas forum is to serve its purpose then given the weight of opinion Inno must surely now look at this matter seriously.

There is simply no valid reason for Grepolis not to have a good and functional world/alliance/pact chat facility etc.


Details:

I am unsure how this would work, it may need one or two dedicated players/mods to look through the threads I have linked above and try and come up with one coherent idea that pulls together the salient points, I would be happy to try and work with someone to achieve this if we decide to try and make this work. However really I think this is the job of the devs, the ideas are there, the comments and suggestions are there... please do something with them!

A large body of opinion shows that the community want the chat facility improved. There are various ways to do this, various ideas and many many comments with good suggestions to help develop matters. Bringing these together should result in strong "idea" that the devs can then hopefully take forward.

No more excuses like "oh it cannot be coded" or "oh it will reveal online times" or "oh I dont want to chat" or "oh we already use skype etc" or "oh its not needed" or "oh its been suggested before" or "oh it wont pass" or WHATEVER. I have personally dealt with all of these critisisms in a post I made in one of these threads. These are not valid reasons and I can explain why if need be.

Chat improvement ideas keep being posted because the community want it. People that post in the ideas forum are representative of the entire community - it must surely now be time for the devs to take action.


Visual Aids: n/a


Balance/Abuse Prevention: n/a

Ev

ps, ideas dont get taken forward unless you, yes you reading this, POST and RATE threads. Please post and rate.

 

[DeletedUser]

yeah i agree. I'll go through and mash the good points together.
Need to do some work though... Should be up by midnight tonight though (GMT, so in about 7 hours tops)

 

[DeletedUser]

Disagree completely.

Not all of those ideas are good and by meshing them together you reduce the control the players can have over what the Chat Improvements could be. They can pick and choose the great ideas and dump the awful ideas.

 

[DeletedUser]

Very few of those ideas are individually going to succeed though... One idea that comprehensively covers all of the good points would be better. The devs are more likely to listen to one solid proposal then someone saying- oh here are a few ideas that may work individually but not necessarily together.

 

[DeletedUser14492]

Disagree completely.

Not all of those ideas are good and by meshing them together you reduce the control the players can have over what the Chat Improvements could be. They can pick and choose the great ideas and dump the awful ideas.

I agree with theonlythomas, not all the suggestions can or should neccesarily be taken forward. But there are some excellent suggestions, not only in the original posts but in the replies that follow and these can and should be implemented.

The list of ideas listed also shows the body of opinion there is that the chat function needs to be improved.

If the devs really did want to improve the game in this way, it would be easy for them to look at all the ideas already posted and come up with improvements to implement. In my opinion we should not even have to come up with a merged "idea".

Ev

 

[DeletedUser]

Very few of those ideas are individually going to succeed though... One idea that comprehensively covers all of the good points would be better. The devs are more likely to listen to one solid proposal then someone saying- oh here are a few ideas that may work individually but not necessarily together.

I am extremely confident in my two ideas, that are in the mix there, succeeding and passing with ease.

One whole beast of an idea is like saying 'Here's what we think the idea's chat should be Yes/No?'. We should allow players to pick and choose the ideas they like and throw out the ones they don't.

I also feel the number of ideas regarding chat features sent to the devs will makes them listen more so than having one big idea.

 

[DeletedUser]

Well, what we need in that case is for Lane to do one big chat poll... Currently only 3 separate ideas get looked at.
We need all of the above to be put into a poll, pepole vote either yes or no to all of the above in one poll. We will see the ones that people like the most.

If that happens, then fine. I agree with you. If it doesn't, then our way is another way of doing that.

 

[DeletedUser]

Hey Guys ~

Just giving an update to everyone.

I received a mail from TOT today asking for a poll. I replied that it would be a little bit as I'm currently busy IRL with a few things. I will try to get it all done this week for you all..If not it will be directly AFTER the Improvement and Development polls (as I don't really want a lot of polls going at once).

Also, I'm not for sure the chat ideas will get passed as they have a lot of downfalls. I'm not 100% sure what those downfalls are ...as I'm not an advanced coder, but from what I do know it makes it easy for backdoors into the system. I'm sure there are ways to prevent this as well..but I will let the devs handle that bit. If an idea gets passed as my job I will pass it on to them for review.

I appreciate all of your time and patience ~

~ Lane

 

[DeletedUser14492]

This is not addressed to you Lane... but in general am getting pretty fed up with folks saying chat ideas cannot get implemented cos of coding/problems etc or downfalls as you say.

That is fine, but we never receive any hard comment from Inno/devs on the matter, WHY. Thats what we want to know if they refust to implement improvements.

It seems to me and many others utterly preposterous to suggest Grepolis is somehow so different from the hundreds of other online MMOs out there, so much so that we cannot have the improved chat facilities we deserve and that other games take for granted.

Ev

 

[DeletedUser]

It seems to me and many others utterly preposterous to suggest Grepolis is somehow so different from the hundreds of other online MMOs out there, so much so that we cannot have the improved chat facilities we deserve and that other games take for granted.
Ev

I share your frustration entirely. When I post an idea with the word 'Chat' in it's title, people's kneejerk reaction is to reply with 'too much coding'.

 

[DeletedUser18132]

Err, no. Some of those ideas are much better than others. Putting them together would be bad for the better ideas. We should vote on each one separately.

 

[DeletedUser]

This is not addressed to you Lane... but in general am getting pretty fed up with folks saying chat ideas cannot get implemented cos of coding/problems etc or downfalls as you say.

That is fine, but we never receive any hard comment from Inno/devs on the matter, WHY. Thats what we want to know if they refust to implement improvements.

It seems to me and many others utterly preposterous to suggest Grepolis is somehow so different from the hundreds of other online MMOs out there, so much so that we cannot have the improved chat facilities we deserve and that other games take for granted.

Ev

I share your frustration entirely. When I post an idea with the word 'Chat' in it's title, people's kneejerk reaction is to reply with 'too much coding'.

I understand..I for one would support the ideas..I would love a nice world chat etc..

I'm not sure on the certain extent why these ideas can't be implemented and am in no place to discuss or give my opinion..I will try to get someone with more brain than I to comment.

~ Lane

 

[DeletedUser14492]

Err, no. Some of those ideas are much better than others. Putting them together would be bad for the better ideas. We should vote on each one separately.

Thats kinda already been dealt with, its the good ideas we want taken forward. The list of ideas threads served to highlight the body of opinion out there that the chat facilities require improvement.

Ev