No idea why I haven't seen this previously requested, I guess there has always been someone willing to do this with a bot. Despite this, it seems odd that we don't have inbuilt IRC into the game. The amount of times you have to explain to people that Xishnik is an IRC relay is quite annoying but the real benefits are that the features could be integrated much better if it handled it directly between the VO server and the IRC server.

I guess a more simple solution to some, but not all, of the issues would be to get the IRC character back and make it grey like momerath used to be, setting it apart from other characters so that it stands out as an IRC relay. They do this in Red Eclipse quite well with a grey IRC <TheRedSpy> blablabla kind of setup.

Ideally though it could be baked properly into the game so that people can privately PM through the relay and use other channels etc..

FiReMaGe's original relay used the character name IRC and had far more features than the one I am currently running. His relay supported everything you suggested.

Further, they have enough things on their plate that I don't think they should be bothered with having to implement an IRC client into the game client.

momerath has talked several times about integrating Jabber/XMMP support into the game, but it's never been enough of a priority to actually get done I guess.

The benefits of having the feature in the game far outweigh the overhead of development. If it wasn't for the community run IRC relay so many players would have their questions go unanswered. So often have people come on in my peak time and no other players except IRC based ones have been there to answer questions and help new players.

Also, if it exists as a plugin you cannot tell me it's going to be developmentally complex to insert it as a feature, should be a matter of slotting the existing code in the right place. Being a guide i'm sure Firemage is accessible via email to the devs, surely they can just ask him to forward the code and then insert it into the game as a feature.

New players are at the constant benefit of people commenting and assisting them over IRC, it should certainly be a priority to have this as a feature.

FiReMaGe's relay had a complete feature set. You had to register from ingame to be able to talk from irc. You could msg to/from irc. You could even use irc to talk from one ingame character and have it talk from irc as another ingame character, as long as both characters where registered to you. It could even create a complete historical record of all chat. I can not think of a single thing it would not do.

Frankly, I just do not see any point in having anything that does more than firemage's relay did.

The name IRC is taken, and it is a good name, but that still leaves names like "IRC_relay".

I trusted firemage. firemage's actions and attitude expressed a sense of integrity. I did not worry about him tracking or exposing alts, getting involved in petty disputes, or otherwise compromising the usefulness and availability of his relay. I do not know that I trust anyone else that much.

Now that I consider it, I am tempted to make an IRC bot, and charge $5mo for access. The thought of developing and maintaining a relay on par with firemage's with the same integrity strikes me as a full time job.

Frankly, I just do not see any point in having anything that does more than firemage's relay did.

I do.
Prevent unsubscribed players from talking shit all over in-game channels.

It wouldn't be hard to add that - just have it record a timestamp when characters are linked, and then update it any time the plugin sees one of that player's linked characters chat in-game. If it hasn't been updated within a month, disable their ability to chat from IRC until the next time it gets updated.

Edit: on second thought, you'd have to have separate timestamps for each character, even if all owned by the same player, to avoid trial-account based exploits. Though even then, you could exploit it by linking to a trial character, then only logging in on that trial account long enough to update, then log out. And if you stayed in the training sector, it would work indefinitely. You just couldn't chat through old mains (unless you were willing to delete them and remake the name on a trial account, that is).

As long as it links character IDs instead of names, that shouldn't be a problem. You can tell if a character has been or renamed that way too.

howbout just actually adding firemages bot to be part of the game code so nobody needs to spend the overhead and time to get an IRC bot.

You ask why we need a feature that firemages bot does.. uh.. duh.. because firemage isn't here and neither is his bot for starters. This is a relay that never goes down unless the game is also down. Plus the obvious advantages of being able to integrate into people's guild chats and potentially in some sectors and all sorts of stuff you can't do well with a bot.