New Chat Channel so we can finally use our indoor voices for RP

[Zilljah]

I'm in favor of the idea, and a range of 20-25 ft (6-8 meters) would be optimal

[BBBadger]

I love this idea.

The ONLY thing I worry about with having a /whisper or whatever channel is a lot of RPers don't just use Local. They use /emote. I would say the majority of RP I see done is via the /emote command. While a /whisper would cut down on some text scroll in tight confinements, emotes would still probably be their usual distance, correct?

Personally, I'd hope that if /whisper became the answer to the communities pleas for small chat distance, they'd also consider changing the emote distance as well. 

 

But again, I one hundred percent vote for anything that can combat text scroll for rpers. 

[VileTerror]

Excellent point, @BBBadger.  The Local and Emote channels are kind of very close associates.  Any changes to Local would need to be mirrored in Emote, or we'd be looking at some interesting awkwardness.

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

Honestly why not just several new channels with varying degrees of range? To be honest one reason I rarely bother with the D anymore is how chaotic it is, you have a small group talking actively and it can drown out and overwhelm anything else. Which would be fine if they were actually interested in others joining the conversation but it is far more common these days for it to be a clique of friends with no interest in random pug RP. Nor do they grasp they should keep it in a group chat as no one not in their RP group wants to have the local channel overwhelmed by private social drama RP none of us have any desire to hear about. Honestly it gets a lot of RPers on ignore these days as I see it as a sign of inherently uncivil RP to keep what is private RP in public.

 

For example channels with a real close range akin to a typical pbaoe attack, so only those right up next to you can see the text would be great for those of us wanting to be seen, and approached while having our personal chit chat without it impacting anyone around us.

[Doc_Scorpion]

2 hours ago, Llewellyn Blackwell said:

Honestly why not just several new channels with varying degrees of range?

The more channels you have, the more chances for everything to become bollixed up because people who should be using the same channel use different ones.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'm not a social RPer, and I 100% support this for exactly that reason.  I can't stand when I run to Pocket D to level or whatever and I get a barrage of cringey softcore dialogue in my window.  Keep that radius as short as possible, please!

[Shenanigunner]

3 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

The more channels you have, the more chances for everything to become bollixed up because people who should be using the same channel use different ones.

 

Yep. Like 120 CB+SSB channels did.

 

It *might* be worth repurposing Local for this closer-range use. That is, Broadcast to the whole zone, and Local/F2F/whatever for 20-25 feet. I don't think the loss of the ~100 foot or whatever range of Local would be a problem, and it keeps this channel-diffusion down.

 

I've always thought of Local as "these alts I'm looking at" and not "everyone who might hear me if I was yelling." Maybe the right approach is to change Local to match this idea, not add another channel.

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[Azari]

I love this idea

[VV]

Yes Yes Yes Yes So Much Yes!!!!!

 

Chat scroll is the biggest complaint I hear from the RP people. For many people, it actually gives them a headache, which I can totally understand. I would vote for an even shorter range than 25, like 20 or 10. Since we will still have "Local Scream", that range is always an option for people. Plus, anyone who does not like "Local Local"  can just move it out of their chat boxes, like many people do with General or Help.

 

This is an awesome idea to encourage more role-playing. And, I have no doubt that other sectors of the player base will find creative uses for. That's always what happens.

[Shenanigunner]

20 hours ago, VV said:

Chat scroll is the biggest complaint I hear from the RP people.

 

I solved my chat scroll issues by having four chat windows for the major stuff and a larger, separate one for "game" - NPC and team chat, mostly.

 

It seems like serious RP'ers could open a tall, fairly narrow chat window and assign it only to, say, Local and Emotes. That would keep other channels from pushing in and give plenty of time to "converse."

 

Bind or macro to open and close it, since heavy RP and heavy combat might not be compatible anyway.  🙂

 

ETA: I don't mean this to be an alternate solution. I am heartily in favor of the "close-range" chat channel as well.

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[Azari]

I definitely think there's room for a whisper channel.... 

[VV]

The positive change to player-made public spaces that this would empower is just awesome. Instead of having ridiculously massive clubs to allow players to space 

 

Many people complain about lag or crashiness in clubs and such. I bet shorter chat range would help a lot of people with that, too.

[VV]

On 9/13/2021 at 8:03 PM, BBBadger said:

I love this idea.

The ONLY thing I worry about with having a /whisper or whatever channel is a lot of RPers don't just use Local. They use /emote. I would say the majority of RP I see done is via the /emote command. While a /whisper would cut down on some text scroll in tight confinements, emotes would still probably be their usual distance, correct?

Personally, I'd hope that if /whisper became the answer to the communities pleas for small chat distance, they'd also consider changing the emote distance as well. 

 

But again, I one hundred percent vote for anything that can combat text scroll for rpers. 

Ahhh, this is a really really good point! Definitely need to cut down the distance /e rolls her eyes. Nobody could see that from 100 feet away!

[Kartanian]

Reducing Local distance would be nice, if possible. Differing Local and Emote radii would require some getting used to, but could be done. It would just not be first choice.

 

One good thing about putting emotes in the chat channel, *winks slyly to VV*, is that the emoted action then gets in the line with the player name color. When bartending, I can really easily scroll back to find what specific characters asked for and spot the request by the player name (when colored) much more easily than I can read each white-colored emote.

 

(So, players, when chat scroll is high, please put more of your emotes into the chat channel! And you do have individual player name colors turned on in your chat options, don't you?)

Diego Cruz: *thanks all of the Black Friday guests for their patronage!* And don't forget to try the Buenos Nachos!

Edited September 16, 2021 by Kartanian

[Shenanigunner]

I'd say that if any changes are made along these lines, Emote chat/text strings should be reduced to the closer distance.

 

I'll firm up my preferences as this: simply reduce Local and Emote to about 20 feet. Done.

[Triumphant]

Could definitely be helpful for reducing confusion when you're rping in a high traffic area with lots of people milling about.  It can be pretty challenging to keep up with the text and parse the local conversation from distant chatter.

 

I'll vote yes on this one.  👍

[Shenanigunner]

Probably no way to implement this, but if you're entering chat text, a ground glow of your contact radius would be awesome. That is, if you're set to Local or Really Local, as long as you're typing there's a faint blue glow on the ground around you (only visible to self), that tells you if alts will receive your message or not.

 

Pipe dream, I know. If it was possible, we could have selectable targeting range display for attacks and AoEs, too...

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[A.I.D.A.]

Reduce the range of Emote and Local to 30 feet. For reference, the range of most melee attack powers is 7 feet (9 or 10 feet for Titan Weapon). I feel like you should be able to use your 'inside voice' to talk with someone within three Excaliburs' lengths. Anything less feels like it would be in the realm of actual whispering, like "trying to discuss secret heist plans at the back corner table of a bar" whispering. Plotting. Conspiring.

 

Add a new channel, Yell, which has the old Local range of 100 feet.

[Kataklysm]

16 hours ago, Aida LaCanthe said:

Reduce the range of Emote and Local to 30 feet. For reference, the range of most melee attack powers is 7 feet (9 or 10 feet for Titan Weapon). I feel like you should be able to use your 'inside voice' to talk with someone within three Excaliburs' lengths. Anything less feels like it would be in the realm of actual whispering, like "trying to discuss secret heist plans at the back corner table of a bar" whispering. Plotting. Conspiring.

 

Add a new channel, Yell, which has the old Local range of 100 feet.

this 100% this, absolutely what I was thinking. 

[Kartanian]

The only downside here (other than development and testing time) is that people who come looking for drama will have to try harder to get an audience for their attention-seeking.

*major eyeroll at a couple of scenes this last weekend*

 

But I'll take it!

[Andreah]

We have a pinned topic for roleplay suggestions via CR Tempest:

 

 

The top post has a nice list, the second from the bottom of which is variable distance chat (i.e., a shorter range /local)

 

It would be worthwhile, I think, to add a link to this topic to the end of the suggestions in that topic; or even better, to distill out a summary of what's here into a post for there. 🙂

[NeuralFiber]

I like the idea. Would make larger groupings much more tolerable

[BlackHearted]

SO...... just to throw something out there.. Turns out that the individual shards can potentially set different chat distances ..... so .. in theory.. we could have the local distance changed on just Everlasting.... That could potentially be a cool option to address this issue.

[Kartanian]

37 minutes ago, BlackHearted said:

SO...... just to throw something out there.. Turns out that the individual shards can potentially set different chat distances ..... so .. in theory.. we could have the local distance changed on just Everlasting.... That could potentially be a cool option to address this issue.

 

Honestly, this would be even better, yes.

 

Still not sure about how to handle the distance on /emote, but local would be a good start.

 

[The_Warpact]

Yes plz! I don't RP but having everyone talk in local or bc is annoying. Sorry I know its y'all thing but really when I'm in AE on a team in team chat and have a group in local doing their thing im having to sift through team chat while an active rp event is going is no fun.

 

So yes plz! Have fun!