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Enuf

Group Chats?

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I'm sure this has been suggested before (I'm kinda sure its not in-game yet, I've been away for a ltitle bit).

But something like an alliance chat that I can invite people to cross servers. I can alt-tab and use discord for this, but why not keep people in-game.
I'm sure most of us have friends that play on different servers and would love to chat in groups vs PMs.
 

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fyi: The game has an irc client, so you can use that for this. Not as easy as it could have been, but also not too bad. This also opens up the chance for those people that for what ever reason can not be in game at the very moment to still participate in the chat via a 3rd party irc client and not feel left out :)

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Yeah, I know about IRC built in, It's archaic though... It's an OK solution I guess, but it would be much easier just to make a "global alliance" chat lol.

By easier, I mean more user friendly. Just being able to right click someone to add to chat or type a small chat command to invite them. Rather than having to join an IRC channel.


 

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+1

I think with suggestions like these it's usually better to approach it from the perspective of "why not?".

Having cross server group chat on non PvP servers imo, would only add to the game. Especially when you might have groups of friends over multiple servers. I don't see any downsides to implementing it given from a complexity and development standpoint such an idea would be very minor. 

Sure IRC and 3rd Party Software like discord can be suggested as a potential alternate, but they only serve to prove there's a demand. There's no reason why people should have to use external resources to connect with their friends. 

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13 minutes ago, Enuf said:

Yeah, I know about IRC built in, It's archaic though...

The in game IRC is very similar to other in game chats, do not see why IRC as a technology for message transport should not be sufficient enough. Yes, some nice ui tricks to help make it more user friendly would be nice tho :)

 

3 minutes ago, Emoo said:

Sure IRC and 3rd Party Software like discord can be suggested as a potential alternate, but they only serve to prove there's a demand. There's no reason why people should have to use external resources to connect with their friends

There is no need to use any 3rd party for this. The reason I mention IRC is that it can be used in game, but it can also be used out of game. So, instead of developing exclusive in-game only chats, one could improve the IRC part of the game, so that everyone is included.

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2 hours ago, Drogos said:

 

The in game IRC is very similar to other in game chats, do not see why IRC as a technology for message transport should not be sufficient enough. Yes, some nice ui tricks to help make it more user friendly would be nice tho :)

 

I would be fine with them making IRC more user friendly within the game. I wouldn't be bothered how they achieved the chat functions hah. It just needs to be more user friendly.

For example. I join IRC as a test and got this --

NsnFAgx.png

 

 

I've used IRC in the past so I could navigate my way through this. But this time when connecting it didn't even connect me to the #wurm server.

When it does, it doesn't fit the UI correctly  -
raQaw0A.png

And as someone who has never used IRC before, how do I make a channel and how do I invite people etc. I know how, but most people probably haven't used IRC since its a fairly old program and even on the #wurm channel, they advertise the Discord hah(which is active but IRC has been dead for ages)

I think we are both basically agreeing on the same thing though Drogos hah. I think you agree that more ways to chat easier across servers is good?  But I feel the IRC function would need a COMPLETE overhall...


But I still feel intergrating it into the actual Wurm chat would be better than IRC.

Edited by Enuf

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1 hour ago, Drogos said:

 

There is no need to use any 3rd party for this. The reason I mention IRC is that it can be used in game, but it can also be used out of game. So, instead of developing exclusive in-game only chats, one could improve the IRC part of the game, so that everyone is included.


IRC is quite literally 3rd party, despite being integrated into the game. It may have been somewhat popular 10+yrs ago but these days barely anyone knows or wants to use/learn to use IRC. Especially if the functionality of cross server group chats was possible, the same as alliance or group chat works within the game. 

Just cut the extra step out of the equation. There's no need to revamp IRC, which i'd venter to bet it would actually take less time to implement the OP.

It's also worth noting that should YOU specifically require connecting with friends ingame while you're out of game. This suggestion isn't proposing to take that away. 

Edited by Emoo
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1 hour ago, Emoo said:

IRC is quite literally 3rd party

This is just wrong, IRC is just a standard for for communication. atm, Wurm uses a 3rd party provider for the IRC network, but that does not have to be the case. Also, it does not really matter. You, as the player, do not need any 3rd party tools or programs to be able to chat via irc in game. What the game uses back end does not really matter for the player (As long as the UX for it is the same). If they develop a proprietary system which lets you talk only in game, or if they use irc as the protocol so that one has chance to connect while game is not running, is more of a extra convenience given to the players. That said, what is easiest for them, I do not know. If improving IRC interface is much more work than making channels for the other chat system, then sure, save the time. Until then, if you want group chat, you can have it, at the cost of a bit clunky ui.

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1 hour ago, Drogos said:

This is just wrong, IRC is just a standard for for communication. atm, Wurm uses a 3rd party provider for the IRC network, but that does not have to be the case. Also, it does not really matter. You, as the player, do not need any 3rd party tools or programs to be able to chat via irc in game. What the game uses back end does not really matter for the player (As long as the UX for it is the same). If they develop a proprietary system which lets you talk only in game, or if they use irc as the protocol so that one has chance to connect while game is not running, is more of a extra convenience given to the players. That said, what is easiest for them, I do not know. If improving IRC interface is much more work than making channels for the other chat system, then sure, save the time. Until then, if you want group chat, you can have it, at the cost of a bit clunky ui.


I'm unclear what is just wrong?

The fact I stated IRC is 3rd party software which you then agree with? The fact I stated that IRC is dramatically less popular than 10yrs ago? Both statements are completely true?

Seems bizarre that you want to argue about semantics when in general you seem to agree with the overall suggestion albeit you think that it would be easier to better integrate and UI develop IRC into the game for this specific purpose.  

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What I try to say is that IRC is not by definition 3rd party. At work we use IRC for many things, and all is in house services, with no 3rd party components. You can even connect to twitch chat via IRC. The majority of users on twitch has no concept of the IRC part of it. What I am trying to say, is that if they refine the UI a bit around the already existing IRC so it feels just like any other chat, that could be just as easy, or maybe even easier to implement than a new team chat. And, doing it the IRC way, will make it possible to use any out of tonnes of 3rd party IRC tools out there. Like you can easy make a IRC -> discord hook if you prefer discord over IRC, and so many other possibilities. And, for those who does not care about this, the in game chat would just look and feel like a normal group chat. Since I have developed many services that uses IRC backend, I personally feel like it is easier to just use that than to invent a new protocol for chat myself. I can of course not speak for the Wurm team, but I would suspect they also could take benefit from just utilizing this already existing technology.

 

Think we all agree that group chat is nice to have, and that using IRC for this now is not a great user experience.

 

In short, for those that just want an easy to use in game chat, it does not really matter if it uses IRC under the hood or not. For those that do care, it is very nice to have, so I do not understand the resistance to IRC.

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Slack, Discord, Teams, etc are just IRC channels in concept, but with more features.  IRC is still very good and has it's uses.  Having to type ( /join #channel ) is not that hard to do or tell people for joining.  Not sure if Wurm IRC can give admin rights to a channel owner though to only allow certain usernames.

 

Maybe they can adjust the "Teams" feature to work without having the people be in local and work cross server.

Edited by nicedreams

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