A sound that played whenever you received a personal message or money transfer would be nice just to alert you to what happend. Also a /reply or /r command (if there isent one already) to reply to the last person who pm'd you, to make communication faster and more effective.

if someone msg's you open your chat line or console and press tab.

it will fill in the /msg "name" part for you.

Indeed, we can do a lot more to make in-game communication more effective. Global chat is becoming increasingly noisy, and it may not be best suited to the game as it stands; certainly not as it grows. So there are vague plans for having a tabbed chat panel with various communications channels (team chat and private messages being in separate tabs, etc). No idea when this will be implemented. Not a priority at the moment. We'll see what happens if/when we start averaging >100 users.

Well, it would probably work best if a "band" system were implemented. Basically an obfuscated version of the standard "channel" setup, but with frequencies from 1-250 (to start). A person could tune to any channel they wished, but would need a decryption key to understand what was being said by whom. Certain channels (for example, 1-10) would be designated public, and would need no key. Private keys would be assigned by request, and last for 48 hours, unless specifically stated otherwise (permanent teamchat or organization keys)

Actually, that's what I was thinking but neglected to metion the "frequency" aspect. The channel encryption key idea is a good one, as long as different keys can transparently share the same channel number. (i.e. two different parties could be on channel 50 with different encryption keys and not hear the other party at all.) That has realistic basis, too, if you're using CDMA spread spectrum communication. An alternative implementation would have channel operators who can set the channel key, but that's just too hairy.

Ooh, never thought about it that way. So it'd be like this?

Six people are tuned to 210.53. Three of them (group 1) have Key RU1337, and the rest have Im5ux012. Everyone's talking, but those with RU1337 hear their teammates, and the Im5ux012s hear their teammates, and those without a decryption key see a bunch of garbled characters?

Thems some good ideas. I mean, I've always thought of the teamchat as an encrypted frequency anyways (many times I've resisted the urge to call it that in game, I may have once or twice). The only problem is with all the tabs and keys and frequency variations and god knows what else, would things be too complicated. The chat shouldn't take so much time as to be a distraction to the accual game. If I need to chat while flying, I just set a reasonalbe cruising speed, press "t", and type. If I have to fiddle with keys and tabs and frequencies, it'll get in the way.

one would assume that you do the fiddling ahead of time so you're talking to your friends every time you hit t.

I like the idea of having different "channels" or "bands". That way we could assign spies to our nations to listen in on enemy chat. But the number of channels should be high enough so that there's still some level of privacy restored. Tapping into enemy communication should take time, in other words.

What about solely intrasector communication? Seems to me a way to quickly talk to everyone in a single sector only, regardless of national affiliation, is a sorely missing thing. Would keep things like non-hostile declarations off the global chat lines, for example.

Yes! the in-sector communication is severely missing, and many general chat issues can be held there...

"Not hostile, I repeat, not hostile, I'm not in the cap run, I'm just trading!"

"Gold bus entering sec 12, turn back at once or face the consequences of hostile fire."

and the likes

That's what I was thinking too. Allow the player to toggle between universal chat, intra-sector chat, and team chat.

I'd want to make even smaller divisions. It'd be nice to be able to set up "groups" that you could talk to. For example, when FurBall was spying, it would have been nice to talk to the cap team and ONLY the cap team without me sitting behind and /msg ing everyone.

So here's what I'd like:
Universal Chat (everyone, every sector)
In-Sector Universal Chat (everyone in your sector)
Team chat (your team, every sector)
In-Sector Team Chat (your team, your sector)
Group Chat (Your defined group, every sector)
In-sector Group Chat (Your defnined gruop, your sector)

They could use Num Lock or something to toggle between in-sector and regular modes, and they could just set up another button for group. Maybe Like this:

[Num Lock]t-----In sector universal chat
[Num Lock]T-----In sector team chat
[Num Lock]g-----In sector Group Chat
t---------------Universal Chat
T---------------Team Chat
g---------------Group chat


Maybe even having two definable groups, G and g, definable with a '/group2 "StarFreeze" "Roguelazer" "Phoenix"' style command. I dunno... Just a thought. Or four... :)

I'd like to do away with chat entirely. It's an RPG not a chat room.

Replace the chat system with an IC radio system.

Let people only chat in stations.

Ok, your saying, make people unable to ask for back up, make people unable to say not hostile, make people unable to ask where the wormhole is in s8.
Riiiight........

Shouldn't the pilots have radios in their ships, though? I don't like the idea of only being able to talk when docked. Then you wouldn't be able to request assistance when you're being attacked, etc. I think I may have read what you said incorrectly, though, and you're suggesting basically a "bar" or something in stations for a general chat. *That* I'd support...

It's kind of silly the way "universal" chat works though. Radio waves take a loooong time to travel through space. How can our chat, supposedly used to simulate radio contact, go from the end of the universe to the other without any delay or interference? While I realize this game isn't a realistic space simulator, it would be interesting to see what would happen if chat had a limited distance. Maybe only to the surrounding sectors, instead of the entire universe.

I think ambushes would work far more effectively if the victim wouldn't be able to call for backup from all the way across the universe. A player who wants to send out an SOS signal would have to travel from sector to sector until they reach friendly contact to get that help. It would add a lot of suspense and excitement to the game. It would most certainly encourage pilots to travel in fleets also.

And at times maybe it would be necessary to have that "universal" chat feature. Requiring a player to dock at a radio tower station of some sort (one at each nation home station city maybe?) may fulfill this need. They may even provide ambush victims a safe haven to call for backup. But they should be few and far apart to keep the game challenging.