Chat channels on HC

[ZamuelNow]

Back on Live, several servers had their own chat channels in game.  Is this still a thing or do people just use General?

[Krimson]

There are a LOT of global channels out there that no one uses. General is the main one.

[Lunar Ronin]

22 minutes ago, ZamuelNow said:

Back on Live, several servers had their own chat channels in game.  Is this still a thing or do people just use General?

 

Global chat channels are nowhere near as prominent on Homecoming than they were back on live, thanks to a combination of General and LFG.  That said, like @Krimson said, there are quite a few, but they're mostly dead.

[Krimson]

What happens is that someone joins a channel on an account, but joining a channel doesn't put the said channel in any of their other toon's chat boxes. It MIGHT appear on subsequent toons they make, but not already existing ones. So channels get forgotten, and new ones see activity measured in days.

[Frozen Burn]

Many SGs create their own chat channels, and then eventually invite coalition SGs to it, other players, and etc.  So, yes, there are plenty - at least on Torchbearer.  I've been invited to SO many I've turned most down because It's already difficult to keep up with the 6 or so I'm already in.

[Major_Decoy]

There are probably a number of invite only chat channels that see a fair amount of use, but if it's just about wanting to talk to strangers while you play, most people feel like General chat is fine and they don't need a special purpose channel.

[Snarky]

Cosmic Council imploded…a year ago?   There are still a few people that use the channel.  But it is a shell of a once glorious past.  
 

Task Force Junkies is sporadic but the players are very good.  The day of the update one of them advertised for the new LGTF badges.  Now, my lazy butt never goes to beta. I had no idea.  I listened in chat and did my job as best I could.  There were a number of team wipes. I was so glad in the last mission we had incan. I was beyond lost in there.  I felt like a cat at the groomers half the time, just being bounced into a place i did not know and lashing out at giant creatures that were really pissing me off. We got the badges. 
 

Two things, 1) they almost always know exactly what is about to happen before you even start to calculate it. 2) most of the stuff they do would have the new crowd of 50s either shivering at the door, or blindly trying to “help” and generally being constant veng bait.  

[Shenanigunner]

14 hours ago, Krimson said:

What happens is that someone joins a channel on an account, but joining a channel doesn't put the said channel in any of their other toon's chat boxes. It MIGHT appear on subsequent toons they make, but not already existing ones. So channels get forgotten, and new ones see activity measured in days.

 

A good argument for adding a regular /chatsave and /chatload tasks to alt-switching.

 

I generally have a system, with bindfile and config file management, that lets me save an update on any alt and load it on any others. Completely circular so that all my toons have the same options, chat setup, and general/shared bind set.

 

I really dunno how altomaniacs manage the basic need for UI/setup consistency when they seem to be the ones who vocally reject things like bindfiles. 🙂

[ZamuelNow]

15 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:

 

Global chat channels are nowhere near as prominent on Homecoming than they were back on live, thanks to a combination of General and LFG.

 

Ah, thank you.  General was pretty lively just now so not having everyone hidden in too many hidden channels is probably for the best.

[ZemX]

2 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

A good argument for adding a regular /chatsave and /chatload tasks to alt-switching.

 

Yeah, shame it doesn't just load the default window and chat files for you.  I always try to remember to do a /wdwload and /chatload on any new alt.  Binds seem to be the only thing reliably loaded by default.

[Shenanigunner]

17 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

Yeah, shame it doesn't just load the default window and chat files for you.  I always try to remember to do a /wdwload and /chatload on any new alt.  Binds seem to be the only thing reliably loaded by default.

 

Not quite sure what you mean. Nothing except the shared options are loaded on any new alt, along with a shared windows.txt file if there is one.

 

There is a fuzzy line between chat, windows, options and binds but all have to be loaded at least initially for each alt. I only have trouble with option settings affecting an alt that prefers some different option here and there, which isn't often.

[ZemX]

34 minutes ago, Shenanigunner said:

Not quite sure what you mean. Nothing except the shared options are loaded on any new alt, along with a shared windows.txt file if there is one.

 

Pretty sure I don't have to /bindload on every new alt to get my usual keybinds.  But I might be starting a new char tonight.  Will see if it's just my faulty memory.

 

Regardless, it'd be nice if when you execute a /wdwsave or /chatsave without an argument, it saves to a default file that is automatically loaded on any new alt.   I'm not saying it's a big deal to run a couple commands.  Just a QoL thing.

[Shenanigunner]

2 minutes ago, ZemX said:

Pretty sure I don't have to /bindload on every new alt to get my usual keybinds.  But I might be starting a new char tonight.  Will see if it's just my faulty memory.

 

Binds are per alt, AFAIK, unless you save only to the generic file. The generic files are loaded by default for new alts, and option.txt seems to get loaded for existing alts at unpredictable intervals. I don't find it too much hassle to load my base config on new alts, just to make sure.

[ZemX]

1 minute ago, Shenanigunner said:

Binds are per alt, AFAIK, unless you save only to the generic file. The generic files are loaded by default for new alts, and option.txt seems to get loaded for existing alts at unpredictable intervals. I don't find it too much hassle to load my base config on new alts, just to make sure.

 

I generally do save to the default files. i.e. No argument given to /bindsave, /wdwsave, or /chatsave because those are the ones I want on all alts.  If I have a special case on a particular alt, I deal with that separately.  

 

I'll have to see what happens with /chatload on this next new alt.  My recollection is that the chat tab I created for my custom channels is there but the filter is not set to include those global channels until I run /chatload.  It's actually been a little while since I last alted, so I could be remembering wrong, like I said.

[Ironblade]

23 hours ago, ZamuelNow said:

Back on Live, several servers had their own chat channels in game.  Is this still a thing or do people just use General?

 

Yes, it's still a thing.  At least, I know it is on Everlasting, where I mostly play.  The 'Everlasting TFs' channel is very active and also has a Discord server.