Seems odd that I need to check the online active list to see what guild that guy talking on 100 is.

Instead of displaying:
[100]<Atice> I said something
Why not display the following:
[100]<[VPR]Atice> I said something

Sure, it takes a little more screen real-estate, but such information should be available outside of a target hud, as it's available online.

Edit: Come to think of it, guild affiliation should also be shown on the sector list. I mean, why not?

Yeah, that'd be a handy feature. Especially considering it's available in the hud, no reason not to show it in chat also.

It wouldn't hurt anything, at least. Would this really add any value to the game though? Generally we know who is in which guild, and that information doesn't really become relevant until you're in the same sector anyway.

Adding guild tags to the sector list would be a good idea, but the sector list shouldn't continue to exist long enough to make the effort worthwhile.

It'd save me some time, and would be a nice little fix. Would also introduce guilds to newbies earlier on (as they see the chatter, and wonder what the tags mean). I doubt it'd be that time-consuming a fix either, but then again I have no clue how the system is built.

I suppose making it an option was implicit?

Indeed Toshiro. Though I'd like it to be default.

For those of us who don't know which guilds people are in, I think it would be nice to have. Optional, as has already been suggested, but nice.

I wouldn't have a problem with this feature being added, as long as it doesn't take more than about 20 minutes to implement. I don't think it would be worth more than that in terms of development time, but it's (probably) such a small change that it would be doable without wasting much time anyway.

That being said, I can see at least one negative side-effect of this feature. It could potentially foster a certain degree of guild-ism, especially among newbs; i.e. "Hey newbs, don't listen to anything said by a member of X guild, they're just a bunch of <pejorative term here>". This feature wouldn't create the possibility for such abuse, but it would certainly make it easier to do. Would this be a problem?

Well that player on 100 can see my tag or not i do not think it will matter, my character name is quite explicit.

And it won't prevent players from getting in the same sector as me anyway...so why not?

: )

That being said, I can see at least one negative side-effect of this feature. It could potentially foster a certain degree of guild-ism, especially among newbs; i.e. "Hey newbs, don't listen to anything said by a member of X guild, they're just a bunch of <pejorative term here>". This feature wouldn't create the possibility for such abuse, but it would certainly make it easier to do. Would this be a problem?

While a legitimate concern, I don't think this will be a problem. I actually think it may have the opposite effect, as a player will more easily be able to see people in guild X talking on 100, see they are respectable (or otherwise), and be able to make up his/her own mind about a guild without knowing about IRC.

Aticephyr, i think this is really nice suggestion, because there are some pretty expierenced persons trying to look like newbies at channel 100 (attracting attention of other newbies and ensnare them later).

pirren: The behavior you mention is probably undesirable, but how would this help? With about one exception, guilds tend to fill their ranks with newbs, so having a generic guild tag doesn't mean much in terms of experience. If someone really wanted to trick people into thinking that they're a newb, they would just make an alt (which is generally what the do even now, I would imagine).

Good one.

Indeed, the GUILD affiliation tells MUCH more about "pilot" than his nation.

Also, if that becomes a problem, can be reverted.

Therefore, good idea.

Anyway, why so much aversion to guilds, anyway? Isn't this game focused on being MULTI-player? If one guild causes problem, that issue can be dealt on may ways...

I always considered having a brain-based database of the VO playerbase and its affiliation part of what made it interesting. It is part diplomatic relations (especially if you are in higher guild positions, unlike me), part memory jog (you don't want to end up with Alzheimer's disease, and I'm not joking).

My 2 cents.

With the active list gone, it'd be nice to see who is in what guild. Bump.

I have always wondered why this hasn't been done already.

As a semi-newb, I would have a better grasp of how the guilds and factions work had this idea been a reality.

As it is, I only know anything about guilds because I was fortunate enough to have a savvy mentor who told me about /msg irc active and TCS plugin (for the alert machine), which led me to research on the wiki.

Make it so!

I don't see what this has to do with the active player list but whatever. If it's added I there better be a way to turn it off because the superfluous noise on my screen would annoy me.

This is an awful idea.

It's another way to avoid pirates and persecute players, that's all. Atice will say "well don't chat then" which is ridiculous too. Atice and other members of his guild as well as others often suggest privately and publicly to /vote mute /ignore players of certain guilds. Imagine how much easier that would become were our tags listed in chat?

Really really stupid idea. -10^4 billlion

Confirming that people have instructed newbs to ignore entire guilds.

Seems like it would make the game even more obnoxiously cliquey than it already is.

I like toshiro's comment.

Wow, just wow. How untrue and slanderous Impavid. This suggestion is in no way malicious. Moving on.

It's useful to know if someone is talking from the perspective of ONE or SAS. It's useful to know if that Itani is in ITAN or TGFT. For newbies, it's a way to judge characters of guilds they might consider joining, and a way to differentiate people who might be trying to trick them into giving away their location on private chat.

@Pointsman: It's related to the removal of the activity list because there is no way for me to tell who is in what guild without either being in-sector with them, keeping a browser window open and manually searching, or asking them directly (which is pretty stupid).

Moreover, a way to turn it off is implicit, and was mentioned earlier in the thread.