idea for name displays in-game

[FESFES]

GOOD IDEA (keeping it short and simple)

[Detan]

Ok I tihnk everything can be done normally if each player is designated a shout name. So whenever you shout that name will appear. People\'s shotu names could be anything from \"Booming Voice\" to \"Strange Echo\" or there own names if they don\'t care about people knowing there names. This shout name would be made 2 character creation. This wouldn\'t effect people finding out who you are cause they can\'t see that you are the one shouting. This shout name could work for say and tell as well and would never be displayed over your head or if someone click ed on you. So say if \"Scary Voice\" said \"Hey you\" to a Character. The character would see \"Scary Voice\" on the chat screen but not know where it is coming from. I tihnk all the suggestions for the name request are good and i thought I might try and solve the problem of chatting but noone knows your name. Forgive me if this is just totle rubbish ^_^

[Melbourne]

Originally posted by Seytra
The chat thing is missing one important detail: proximity. If you\'re in a real tavern, you are going to speak to the ppl. in your immediate vincinity, and only these will be able to hear / understand you. The bubbles and chat window therfore need to reflect this, so that the ppl. who you can hear _unless_ they shout are only the ones you are very close to. This is an extension to your comment about the \"shout\" command.

But you must remember, not everyone speaks in a whisper.  And in the tavern right now someone standing next to the bar will be able to here conversations from people standing by the fire.  It would be really annoying to have to be standing right next to someone in order to talk.  And there should be a shout command, people do have the ability to shout, it should just be limited to a certain range.  

I still don\'t know about the bubbles. How about just having tiny bubbles with no text that fade away with time and that maybe have a color associated with them, while the text can be found in the chat window, along with the same color and fade (or some other link)? This way, you could see whop speaks and it would make ppl. less talkative. Along with the short talk range, it might work.

That would just force me to continualy shift my eyes from the screen to the chat box for no apparent reason.

And people seem to be forgetting reality.  In reality, I can tell the difference between people\'s voices.  If I heard someone say something but don\'t know who said it, I can figure out who said it by listening to their voice, which can\'t be replicated in-game.  The closest I could imagine would be custamisable chat with different fonts or colors.  But that will still not work because there will always be the  \"cool\" font that everyone uses and everyone will use the same 10 colors.

[GodAmongShadows]

I\'m going to stick with one idea. The others are important, but if we\'re going to stress real-ness, I think this is important:

Get rid of the \"Shout\" command. Perhaps instead of using shout as it is (talking to someone across town via \'shout\'), I suggest having a range; just like the say command.

I think the client-side idea is justified enough to let stay as it is (quite simply, it would work).

I also think that the bubble idea is just as justified. That would render this \'bar scene\' possible. If there were just bubbles, people across the bar would still be able to read, depending on how good their eyes are. There still needs to be some sort of identification, and the \'Scary voice\' idea seems plausible. There\'s no real need to make it colored, other than to strain your eyes and confuse yourself. Nor would you need a link between the chat box and the bubbles, as your \'scary voice\' (or other name tag) will be said link.

Basically (assuming that there is no shout command), the bubbles will say the same as the chat box; the chat is just there for those who miss what someone says and have to read it again (also a bit unrealistic when you think about it; maybe we should get rid of the chat box too, lol). The bubbles will have your \'shout tag\' which should be unique, such as \"A Petrifying screach says:\" or something to that extent.

It\'s simple, really.