chat: indication that message is being composed

[Merak]

Currently, I have not seen any indication than someone is typing something he wants to tell you (except for Help channel). So either PC1 left PC2 when he is trying to finish to type his sentence, or PC1 and PC2 are waiting five minutes face-to-face, both thinking that the other is typing something.

Ideal feature would be facial animation (lips) as soon as a player has typed \"/tell \" or \"/say \" and lasting until ENTER is pressed.

As efficient but simpler should be to light on a small icon on the border of chat window...

[Externals]

Ahh so your refering to a light that will go on when the other player is currently typing something to you? Yes that would be a smart little feature to have indeed. Until they could properly do this? Well they have to fix the Refresh issues.

As for the lips moving when you talk, thats something nice to have when you talk. Very creative.

[Seytra]

This idea is nice, but it cannot work except for the facial expression thing, which, however, is also a bit problematic.

The light cannot go on, because you\'ll not know whom the person is talking to. In /tell this could be done, but not in chat, because it\'s a broadcast thing. Therefore, the light would be on for everyone in your vincinity, even if they\'re not talking to you or never have. Furthermore, the chat windows contents scroll past quickly, there won\'t necessarily be any name left that you are interested in to provide the light.

Facial expressions might look a bit odd if they then decide to not send the message, but it would be doable. Yet I don\'t know if it wouldn\'t just look plain dumb.

[Merak]

Originally posted by Seytra
The light cannot go on, because you\'ll not know whom the person is talking to. In /tell this could be done, but not in chat, because it\'s a broadcast thing.

There is 3 ways of speaking : /tell, /say, /shout. Currently, when ENTER is pressed, the command line is analyzed. Then PS displays the corresponding message in chat window of people who can hear it.

What I suggest would be to detect when SPACE is pressed for the first time too and to analyze the beginning of the line at this instant: it would make the light blink once in chat window of people who will be able to hear the message at the end. Then, each time a space typed (or each 10 typed letters), the light blinks once again in chat window of people still close enough. At the end, when ENTER is pressed, the message is written for people still within earshot as usual.

Also, with this system, if someone gives up writing his message, there won\'t be any problem.

Also posted by Seytra
Furthermore, the chat windows contents scroll past quickly, there won\'t necessarily be any name left that you are interested in to provide the light.

The light would be only to indicate that someone is currently speaking within earshot. You may overhear something that is not for you, that would be the same.

Also, the light shouldn\'t be attached to a particular name (too complex, imho) but it should be only a auditive sense visualization.

With this system also, if several people are speaking at the same time nearby, the light will naturally blink faster. That can make the player feel the brouhaha in the tavern...

[Phinehas]

I think Seytra\'s point is that if say, I\'m running past a group of people, and the light flicks on. I\'ll stop and stand around waiting for someone to say something, only to find out that they\'re not talking to me. This would be just as annoying, if not more so, as the present situation.

[Merak]

Originally posted by Phinehas
I think Seytra\'s point is that if say, I\'m running past a group of people, and the light flicks on. I\'ll stop and stand around waiting for someone to say something, only to find out that they\'re not talking to me.

In the real life, you don\'t stop each time you overhear something, do you ? This would be the same.
The light does not have to be as big as a smiley. The size of the dot in a radio button would be far enough. It just has to be a discreet indicator of someone spoking around...

Detailed functionning:
/say, [no slash], /shout, /guild and /group works the same:
  /say, [no slash], /shout: if you are in the vicinity, the light blinks
  /group /guild: if you belong to the group (or guild), the light blinks

/tell must wait its first parameter (the name of the player) to know whose light must blink.

[zinder]

I really dont understand why you want a software solution.
That will have to be maintained and introduce new sources for bugs. There are the addressing problems seytra mentions. Then there are for example people, who write-delete-rewrite-delete, who go afk with a halfwritten sentences in the chat line.
We already have developed a basic set of simple rules for conversation. You start with a greeting. You end with a farewell. If you want an answer, use question marks. Etc. This beats most of your problem. For the rest there is the use of moderate sized main clause and avoid sub-clauses.

[Merak]

Originally posted by zinder
I really dont understand why you want a software solution.
[...]For the rest there is the use of moderate sized main clause and avoid sub-clauses.

It was just to know when someone is currently speaking around. I agree that simple sentences with a single clause avoid the matter, but for a nice roleplay I prefer \"I am Arthur Pendragon, King of the Britain, seeking for the Holy Grail with my brave knights of the Round Table.\" to \"Call me Art\' !\"...
Also, the possibility to overhear a conversation is reduced.

For the moment I get round the difficulty by introducing a long sentence by a short pre-sentence like \"Can I ask you something\", or I create shortcuts for long phrases that occurs often: \"/me takes off his hat and bows... \'Greetings my lord !\'. He straightens up and look at you straight in the eyes with calmness...\"

Also posted by zinder
We already have developed a basic set of simple rules for conversation. You start with a greeting. You end with a farewell. If you want an answer, use question marks. Etc. This beats most of your problem.

I haven\'t found these rules in the guide (perhaps I haven\'t read it properly), nor the /farewell emote. Could you tell me more ? What does it trigger ?