Due to forum issues we lost this thread (devs have read it before though)- please post your suggestions or comments on the chat feature here.
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Due to forum issues we lost this thread (devs have read it before though)- please post your suggestions or comments on the chat feature here.
Now.... not having read the thread before it got lost, I'm just going to have a go at summing up the comments
The chat feature kinda sucks. It's lack of refresh is dodgy, you can't see who is online, there's no notification of new messages. It needs to be more like irc
Slap command for aussies like tzar would be niceeeeeeeee !
I haven't read the previous thread, so this might be repeating what others have said. Here are my points:
- Next to 'Kingdom Chat' add a star to indicate someone is talking, similar to Mail
- Next to 'Kingdom Chat' add number of online users in parenthesis - ex: Kingdom Chat (16)
- Inside the Chat either show who's currently online or have a command that you can type to show a list of online provinces
- Inside the Chat change the formating to resemble modern chat, white background black text, or black background and white text, smaller font size than current look
- Better Integrate the Chat into the page, maybe have it at the bottom or on the side, and not take the whole width or height of the page respectively
- Have an option to minimize the chat within the page to stay logged in while performing attacks/ops or reading the forum, and just in general navigating the game pages
just as a reminder, general consensus was that KD chat was an awesome addition to the game! Amazing for Ghettos, sort of redundant for everyone else since they use irc.
few things needed:
1. List of who's online
2. Notification of a new comment (make window flash like IM's or change title like irc[only applicable in the separate window mode])
3. Different colors for people (I like the colors as is, but I'm color blind, so I really have no say in this)
4. Fix the occasional bug that stops new messages from showing up except when you type something. Relogging fixes it, but it's temp and still annoying)
Its okay, and its a start, definitely needs some tweaking as pointed out by the others above.
keep on tweaking it up, and it'll be profitable to many, however IRC is awesome!
One thing I do not like about the feature is it sits on top of ur web-page, it would be great if it opened another window or tab, or box, which we could move to another part of the screen, or onto one of our OTHER screens.. HAHA.. so its there and we can look at it at will without having to open it on top of our utopia pages.
good going, and good to see changes on a positive note, which are not bringing the server down... ;-p
Well just add me to the points that are already said. I'm not going to repeat all the same. I just agree with all that it needs some tweaking to get work well.
I really think it's a great addition to the game.
The idea is great!!!!! Nice improvement to the game.
Still, indeed, you should be able to see who is online in chat and their should be a refresh mode on.
Thx
Well I'll repost what I said in the other thread but basically:
- Refreshing on it rather sucks. Its not as bad as the kd page update, but still annoying.
- Needs a list of who is currently online. *'s next to provs on the kd page is not accurate enough. Needs to be more live-time.
- Don't see why it has to come down and cover the entire page so I can't actually do anything in-game while chatting. Yes, you can put it in a seperate window, but clicking back and forth, or resizing both windows, is just a pain. I know that utopia itself only covers maybe 3/5 of the screen (1366x768), so why not incorporate all the empty space on the sides? Only people who might have issues with this are those still using a 4:3 res, but they're likely few and far between, and it's not to hard to give people the option to resize their chat window. Even in-game (so ignoring the blank spaces from widescreen) there's an inch of unused space opposite the menu. That could be utilized. And even then, 4:3 may have the blank space. Game looks kinda narrower than 4:3, so if someone with that screen can confirm?
If they can get a way to auto-refresh the chat, I think an inter-kd chat would be a cool function too.
Could we just integrate IRC? That way we would have more control over the chat and it would be more functional?
Please pay no attention to the nay sayers... they can not be made happy...
But I really think that if you used IRC and let Kingdoms work it out on their own you would have a VERY good winning combo.
lol go a bit out of the box (like you have done) and REALLY make people HAPPY
Agreed!Quote:
Originally Posted by khronosschoty
Here's the problem: IRC uses some sort of persistent connection protocol.Quote:
Originally Posted by khronosschoty
Browsers use a protocol without a persistent connection (HTTP).
In a bit more details:
In a typical irc conversation, where somebody writes something, it gets sent to the server which in turn sends a message directly to every client which tells them: "Hey buddy, somebody else wrote something... here it is, display it!"
The server can do that because there is some sort of persistent connection with all the clients.
In HTTP, there is no such persistent connection.
The client contacts the server at a known address (in your address bar) and sends a request for some data.
The server responds with the data and closes the connection.
Until the client sends another request, the server has no way whatsoever to contact the client.
To remedy the above, you have 2 possibilities:
1) You can try to implement a client-side solution to support the irc protocol (like Chatzilla does) by extending the capability of the browser to support other protocols, but unfortunately, this solution will vary from browser to browser (for those that you can possibly extend in such a way) and won't be highly portable so its a fail for a game that must be cross-browser compatible.
2) You can make a "simulation" of IRC by letting the web server interact with some IRC server on behalf of its clients and make the client-side polls the server at an insane rate via Ajax requests to simulate real time reaction to the input from other users. Obviously, there is a big performance issue (due to the number of polling requests needed from the client to simulate real time responsiveness) here as indicated by the serious perf problem of existing solutions of this type like Mibbit.
This is why supporting irc via a browser is a major head ache.
I think what they implemented is a very good compromise.
I don't say it sucks as others do, 'coz it don't.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magn
The problem with the chat is that people have extensive intel/war helpers on IRC via bot. Until S&B can't offer same functionality, Kingdom Chat won't be used as much as intended.
I really think S&B should ANONIMOUSLY take a look to Randevous(?) and BoyFriend(?) to see how much this game can be improved without altering the basic feeling of the game. Oh yes, I forgot, that takes time and actual work, which we don't have.
But the chat function isnt meant to be helping them in the first place so that argument is hardly worth anything. Those that are organised enough to make use of irc, will still use irc.Quote:
The problem with the chat is that people have extensive intel/war helpers on IRC via bot.