/shout is broken. Put your suggestions here-in for fixing it.

[miadon]

no you mis understood, I did not mean increase the RANGE of the shouting, I meant range of "shout" options, like mentioned. :p

[Karyuu]

Woops

Well, personally I would avoid too many options. I think adding /whisper and /yell (maybe ending with /scream) would be enough.

[miadon]

No problem Karyuu, it was easily misread .

Altough perhaps there could be a kind of voice "HP(?)", if you constantly yell all the time you will strain your voice and thus can't yell or even talk normally at all.

[Kerol]

Why would /auction be OOC?
Maybe the GM's feel that way, but the players don't.

Not long ago, there was a big discussion about the usage of /auction.
The problem is that actual RP in that channel makes it impossible for other people to auction (because it's simply too much chat), whether OOC or IC.
So we agreed on minimalistic usage of that channel in order to make it possible for everyone (but OOC) to offer things to the public.
The actual bidding should be done in /say, in an RP fashion.

It's exactly the same issue with /auction as with /shout. With that many people, a usage as intented is doomed to become undesired due to being simply too much.

I think that the /help channel is the best way to help newcomers.

I thought /help is global? And I agree that /help :should: be the best way to help newcomers. But it needs a lot of improvements to become the prefered way over all.

A /tellall command would be amazingly useful.
Sometime ago I had a discussion with Nethrys and other people about similar things, and Netrhys suggested to have permagroups.
A permagroup works just like a normal group but gets restored at next login.
I think this can elegantly can be combined with your /tellall command.
Just imagine a buddylist like that:
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
NAME       TELL           Group1
Utm          [ ]                [ ]
Karyuu       [ ]                [ ]
Miadon       [ ]                [ ]
Zorbels       [ ]                [ ]

The TELL buttons can be used for /tellall like you suggest, that gets reset with relog simply with a /tellall reset.
The Group1 column shows the people you are in group with. Can be used for a /permagroup 1 Hello! . Those settings don't get reset with a relog.

The clue is that you can /permagroupadd, which adds a new column in the buddylist like that:
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
NAME       TELL           Group1          Group2
Utm          [ ]                [ ]                [ ]
Karyuu       [ ]                [ ]                [ ]
Miadon       [ ]                [ ]                [ ]
Zorbels       [ ]                [ ]                [ ]
and it opens a new group window (similar to the group window now).

So you could /tellall for a one-time "shout" to all, and use invites into /permagroup (maybe the command name is a bit long..) for session-indepedant group talks.
Take into account that the buttons in the TELL column can be clicked on and have direct affect on the command while the "buttons" in the Group1 and Group2 columns
can't be clicked but only indicate who is in the permagroup. To get people in the group, same invite system as it is now for /group.

I see that related with /shout as grouping often is the only way to /shout things without the disadvantage of spamming other peoples chat.
It also is the only way to organise complex RP without using an external IM or teamspeak (or /guildchat).

One idea about /shout: with the different ranges of /shout, one wouldn't have to give a chat output like "Bla shouts strongly: Omgftw!" or "Bla says aloud: Hello!"
It all could be generalised by whisper - say - shout and indicate the steps inbetween by different (more or less bright) colors.
Actually, why not having a /shout [percentage] [text]?
/shout 60 Hello! would only give 60% of the maximum shout range. The maximum shout range could be dependant on the strength and shouting itself could eat up (mental?) stamina just like spells, dependant on the energy you put in.
Thats much more flexible (because of individual ranges) and is also more RP like.

[DaveG]

First of all, you're all giving some suggestions that are waaaayy too complicated.  Do you really think a field of checkboxes or added parameters will be used, especially by the idiots who are shouting too much?

Secondly, you aren't allowed to shout for the first hour of your character's life.  This should be helping, but I guess there are a lot of people who stay idiots forever. 

Thirdly, I thought we had already settled this here?  The idea was to make all chat ranges dynamic, based on the overall sound level of the area.  In a crowded area, the plaza for example, with lots of people (talking) chat range is shorter, and shouts really don't go that far.  In a quiet area, the sewers for example, with few people the chat range is longer, and shouts go rather far.  This way, all the user needs to know is /say is normal and /shout is far, with each adapting to only reach relatively nearby people and not go insanely far.  Aditional ideas such as dimming far off chat in the box have come up, and might be nice too.

Oh, and please don't say "/shout is broken".  It's not; it's just wildly abused.  I've used it properly many times.  Most common of which is to yell at someone a ways off as they're about to be attacked.  Though, I guess me doing "/shout Do you need help?" probably isn't that useful to most newbies, as by the time they type out the response they're dead. 

[steuben]

i'm going to toss this in, i don't think it has been mentioned. but maybe limiting shout to the map and then a range on top of that. for example, i think the tavern is a separate map, and you can't shout outside of the tavern from with in it.

don't know how complicated it would be to code. it feels like it would just be a check against who is in what map to hear the shout, and then a check against range.

[DaveG]

No, chatting has to cross all sector boundaries, or it makes no sense.  What we need is for it to automatically be dampened by walls.

[Mirashi]

Well, they do make it so people who talk to someone right next to them across the line between the tavern and the plaza can't hear eachother, but if you step outside you can hear them and they can hear you.

[Karyuu]

What..? No no, that's not how it's supposed to work... And not how I remember it working. Are you sure?

[Mirashi]

I'm positive. Check it yourself.

[Under the moon]

DaveG: This is a constructive idea thread. All thoughts that are constructive are welcome. You may want to edit your post to remove the 'idiot' remarks and anything else of condescending nature. You may also wish to add something constructive.

Things are only settled until a better idea or way of doing things comes along. Refusal to admit this leads to stagnation.

I, for one, like most of the ideas I have seen here. But, in PS terms, the ideas are only pre-alpha. They can be improved to suit player's needs.

In closing, any system that can be wildly abused is broken. If that was not the case, we would still have uber swords of Doom ingame.

[Karyuu]

I don't think calling abusers "idiots" is that bad, to be honest ;P

And you'll be surprised at just how much can be abused. There is no interactive feature that can be completely abuse-proof.

[Mirashi]

It's too early in developement to worry about stuff like this anyway.

[Kerol]

I think its counterproductive to call ideas that actually could make those features more "abuse proof" "too complicated" and state that it's "too early in development to worry about stuff like that".

We are here to think about possible solutions to problems, and this problem here is an actual problem and nothing yet to come. IMO this thread actually shouldn't be in the wishlist but in development deliberation.

And I too think that /shout is broken, as the mere usage by many people (but in the intented way, not "abusive") makes normal /say very hard to use.
It is impossible to use /shout in a bit bigger RP event without disturbing everyone else who is not participating but in range.

I wouldn't say that blocking /shout by walls should be priority here but putting /shout in a seperate tab (again) and create a "PERSONAL" chat tab, enabling people to select what other channels they want to see in that tab. Just like switching on and off the system messages about fighting, but for channels. If you want to concentrate on organisation, select /guild, /tell and /group for your personal chat tab; if you want to RP take /say and /shout in the tab...

[DaveG]

UTM:  You're really missunderstanding things.  I was calling people who run around doing "/shout were can 1 fnd MONEY!!1" idiots; the people who are abusing this command...

The broken vs. not thing is a symantics issue.  It works exactly as intended, so it's not broken.  Basically the it's difference between a flaw and a bug.  It's working fine, just abused to death.  Anything can be abused, so it's just a matter of trying to make things as idiot-proof as possible and kicking the rest.

With respect to complexity, no new player is going to use 7 different say commands or a pile of checkboxes.  It has to be simple, or it will not be used.