friends online

[antonio842]

i think somone said earlyer that there would be no way to privite message somone in the game, but you could send mail, and i was wondering if there was a way to see if your friends were even on the game at that time other than searching through the vast world

because some people might not want to go back to there house all the time to check for mail

[acraig]

Yes. Something like that will most likely be implemented at some time. We are still bouncing around some ideas for this.  But let us know how you\'d like to see it work.

[antonio842]

i kinda like to be able to privite message somone in the game or at least have it notify that your friend has signed in becuase at least you can have a meeting place when you know each other is on

[Kerrick]

I think the simplest way would be to have the good old \"buddy list\" - simply a list of names of your buddies, say max of 50 names. You could also use this with your e-msgs, i.e. set it to \"can only receive letters from buddies\". That would cut down on harassment in-game (which I hope not to see much of, but we all know how that goes...). You could also have a setting, \"Can add me without asking\" or \"must receive permission to add,\" where the person being added receives a message: \"Joe wants to add you to his buddy list. Allow it? Y/N\"

[elmundo]

I think you should be able to \"remember\" the people you have met, and that the amound of people you are able to remember should be limited by your inteligens.

Then only the people you have remembered should appear on the who-is-online list.

[antonio842]

couldnt you just write down names elmundo, and what does that have to do with telling when they are on

just askin not saying what you said makes no sence

[elmundo]

Well it depends... if you will be able to see everyones name even though you never met, then you might just write them down. But if you can\'t tell who is who until someone is introduced to you (by himself or by another player who knows him), then it should be as I proposed....

Hmmm.. did that make sence???

Well I don\'t think it is realistic to see the name of someone who havn\'t been introduced yet, caus how would you know that name? Maby a spell can tell you, but then it\'s still the same concept as introducing.

[Scilantius]

I totally agree with elmundo as it is very realistic and you could read in books about high level characters and then know them but that is the same as introducing as elmundo pointed out

[Mustang]

Why not have a private message function? Are we going for realism, or functionality? If we go for realism, then a mailbox would be the way to go, perhaps when the player first logs in for the day, the \'mailbox\' pops up and says \"You\'ve got mail! Do you want to read it now?\" This way, it would solve all the hassles about going back \'home\' and checking ur mailbox.
Whaddaya reckon??

[Scilantius]

Well you could have a private messaging system included, but it could work well with the introducing system, I mean, would you want to private message someone you dont know??? Unless you want to bug the person to death, you dont. Anyway, if you get introduced to someone, according to your intelligence, you could forget them in a matter of days, unless you met them again.

[Kerrick]

I mean, would you want to private message someone
you dont know??? Unless you want to bug the person to death, you dont.

  You\'d be surprised, Scilantius. Most RS players can tell you horror stories about being harassed over PMs by total strangers for no better reason than because they can.

 

Are we going for realism, or functionality? If we go for realism, then a mailbox would be the way to go, perhaps when the player first logs in for the day, the \'mailbox\' pops up and says \"You\'ve got mail! Do you want to read it now?\"

  That sounds more like functionality than realism, Mustang. In fact, it sounds like a game version of AOL, and it would detract a lot from the atmosphere that Talad et al are trying to produce, IMHO. In reality, you would have to go to your home, room, guildhouse, post office, whatever to check your mail - it doesn\'t just magically appear and say, \"Hey, you\'ve got some mail!\" It would especially weird if you logged out in the middle of the Labyrinth - how on earth would you be able to get mail out there? And it would be more realistic to have it go to your house - you go out wandering for a week or so, and you come back to find a pile of messages, just like you would today.    

Then only the people you have remembered should appear on the who-is-online list.

  Only problem with this is that you\'ll be having names constantly added to your buddy list, and you\'ll lose the names you want on there. The best way, IMO, is just to have the option to add them yourself.

[whitti]

Well...your Familiers should be able to send and recieve messages . Also mail should be cool

[Vengeance]

My personal opinion is that social interaction and the friends you make in the game are what make any particular game addictive.  That is what keeps players logged in 20 hrs a day playing.

As such, we need to have many different tools to promote, enhance and enable social connections being made.  These would certainly include chatting, private messages, some kind of mail capability, other forms of private msging like Guildchat, etc.  Of course, to avoid abuse, we need things like ignore lists and security settings like someone in this thread suggested.

I think we should be looking for MORE ways to help people communicate--not ruling out certain ones for not being realistic.  To me, not having PM\'s is like saying \"let\'s just not display anyone\'s name above their head and not have any formal guilds because that\'s not realistic\".

The fun should take priority, imho.  :-)

- Venge

[Mustang]

I see what ur saying Kerrick, but I don\'t think people are going to be going and checking their mail all that often...that\'s why u hire a rat or rabbit or elephant or something.
An alternative would be to go to the nearest town, then u can access ur mail. This would simulate the mail being forwarded on to your last known address/sighting whatever u want to call it.
Like they do with ships.

[whitti]

heh..well I like all of your ideas.

Also I agree Vengeance that if this game didnt have a community I wouldnt be here.

I NEED friends...thats what keeps me addiscted...Not mudering ppl, not killing monstors, not getting the best armor ever...BUT A COMMUNITY