Server-wide /shouts

[Teraniku]

You'll love my "channel subscription" idea then.

Maybe the feature could even be given a graphic interface? Sort of like a combination of the "search area" interface and linkshell interface. Browsing areas with a menu similar to the area search, then selecting them and selecting "subscribe" from a sub-menu".

City of Heroes uses this feature, where a server wide channel is created and people can subscribe to / be invited to the channel. How effective the channels are is dependent upon the players themselves and who the channel mods are. As far as FFXI is concerned, maybe a special Linkshell given to everyone on the server, and then players can Equip it for help, finding Abyssea Parties, Help with missions etc.

[Doombringer]

"moogle crier" like a town crier, but he's a moogle. (cuz thats how ffxi rolls) put one in every city, maybe even every region/zone.

it'll basically work like a bulletin board. you post up what you're trying to do, who you need, what-have you, and of course it will have your name on your message, so people who are interested can find you.

then, since moogles are magic, the post is available at every other moogle, all players have to do is talk to one, and see what's been posted. if need be, break it down into categories.

then after some pre-determined amount of time, the message expires. you can choose to refresh this timer by talking to the moogle. (as opposed to having to repost it every, what, 15 minutes? 30?)

sure, it's still a bit more rigid than a real server wide shout, but it should be less demanding from a technical POV. (i guess though.. if you can check the moogle crier, you COULD just check for ppl's /seacom. actually.. why not just let us give our /seacoms a title line? so that way we don't have to load up 50 ppls /seacoms that have nothing to do with what we're looking for?)


edit: hell, add this functionality to the moogles in our moghouses to. call it moogle-net or something.

[Shadotter]

Was actually thinking about ways this could be implemented, one way I was thinking of was allowing people to sign up to get special KI linkshells for certain kinds of things, like one for putting up xp parties, one for events, maybe even one for campaign and stuff like that, or maybe just making an official chat channel per server in the forums that people can post stuff on instead, that way you can view it wherever in the game you are.

[Hoshi]

I remember a few years ago when someone was posting city chat to a website (I think it was whitegate chat on Bahamut or something like that). They had a mule who you could get to say things for you in the zone but that part of the feature wouldn't be necessary for this. If SE could make some sort of a shout aggregator that took shouts from all zones and posted them on a website instead of ingame this would allow players to check shouts at times when they were looking for group/quest/drama without sending global shouts to everyone (and that might reduce the server load required to make shouts 'global'?).

[Juilan]

Just thinking about this more, and remembering the chat log server in games like FFXIV Aion WoW and a few others that friends have told me about, the chat you see is being sent via a different connection than the actually game where you move... I noticed this in FFXIV when I dc'd and the chat log was going on until the "this server sucks at staying connected" error message comes up. That is why you have multiple linkshells among other things on that game, and I am sure a few others though I have no first hand experience with those... The question is would it be feasible for SE to make a side server that supports multiple servers that acts as a chat server for them, I could see it costing a bit of money and adding about 5s to your log in time since they'd have to have the ID for your character connect to multiple servers. I hope I could be corrected on this if I'm wrong. But that would make all end users happy and lower the congestion in every zone, just have a linkshell defaulted for shouts in the ls window, and oddly you could connect to multiple linkshells ... but I think SE is intimidated by the time it'd take to do that so that'd outweigh the out right demand by the end users to fix the issues that this would.

Also... if they can't do this, DONT SPAGHETTI CODE

[Juilan]

I remember a few years ago when someone was posting city chat to a website (I think it was whitegate chat on Bahamut or something like that). They had a mule who you could get to say things for you in the zone but that part of the feature wouldn't be necessary for this. If SE could make some sort of a shout aggregator that took shouts from all zones and posted them on a website instead of ingame this would allow players to check shouts at times when they were looking for group/quest/drama without sending global shouts to everyone (and that might reduce the server load required to make shouts 'global'?).

No since that'd only work people playing on PC... now just think if we had the ability to sign onto xbox chat on PC... then there would be no reason to play on anything else (and yes you can do xbox party chat on FFXI if MS can do it on games for windows live and xbox live, they can do it for every other game[now if we could petition that])

[Tsukino_Kaji]

For an example. There was just a 30minute /shout argument in port jeuno. This will occure more in a wider /shout channel.

[Tamarsamar]

Though we need to do some more testing, and we are not sure whether it would be possible yet, we are looking into the possibility of making/displaying shouts throughout multiple areas.

To be a bit more specific, we will be looking into grouping certain areas server side so that a shout from one of the areas in that group will be heard from each of the other areas.

For example:
If Ru’Lude Gardens/Upper Jeuno/Lower Jeuno/Port Jeuno were to be grouped together, making a shout in Ru’Lude would be heard in the other areas (Upper Jeuno/Lower Jeuno/Port Jeuno). However, this would ultimately quadruple the server load, so we will definitely need to pay close attention to this.

To be blunt, I would not be the slightest bit disappointed if this did not happen.

[kingfury]

Though we need to do some more testing, and we are not sure whether it would be possible yet, we are looking into the possibility of making/displaying shouts throughout multiple areas.

To be a bit more specific, we will be looking into grouping certain areas server side so that a shout from one of the areas in that group will be heard from each of the other areas.

For example:
If Ru’Lude Gardens/Upper Jeuno/Lower Jeuno/Port Jeuno were to be grouped together, making a shout in Ru’Lude would be heard in the other areas (Upper Jeuno/Lower Jeuno/Port Jeuno). However, this would ultimately quadruple the server load, so we will definitely need to pay close attention to this.

-----------------
Great to know this is being worked on ^^

Now my 1st thought was "Why not make the Key Item Link Pearl concept that offers channel filters" and such like Juilan and a few others brought up:

"Try to find a way to set it up like a linkshell, you can sign on to the linkshell to view server shouts, I see no difference there than a large ls with 64 people, other than the requirement of making /sh do two things... or make it so people just cant see the shouts XD"

But after thinking about the concept more, and more, Illianna has a very valid point here:

"This sounds an awful lot like a better /seacom system... one where you could search comments by keywords ^.^; Wouldn't it be a lot easier just to make the tools that already exist more user friendly rather than think up something completely new?"

The point is, we're already connected to each other "World wide" without any new system being implemented via the /seacom system. At the core of the issue at hand, people simply want to add the functionality to both "Continuously Play the game while being updated on any and all relevant pick-up happenings being planned at the time regardless of where they might be in the world", and "Effectively communicate with everyone world wide when planning a pickup-like event."
Although we are indeed connected to each other via the /seacom system, the system falls short of solving this problem since it cannot "automatically update you via the chat log" based on what players world wide would like to accomplish like a /shout can. We have to manually stop what we're doing to go through each and every single comment if we want to know what's happening with each player listed throughout. That's very inefficient, and can take a bit of time away from "Playing the game". This, in my opinion, is why the /seacom is rarely used by a majority of players. It also falls short of the solution since it can not "Automatically Filter" the type of commented activity you wish to stay tuned into as it is added by players.

The Problem:
I believe there is no way to add such a functionality such as /world, /zone, and /area-like "shouts" without people abusing and cluttering up those new airways which would potentially cause 90% of players to just /filter out + /turn off these channels due to being annoyed. Even with a timer set to how often folks could /shout, it would only take a handful of people not interested in anything else other than /shouting about /random mess to start a now "/world wide" poop tossing fight lol. It really wouldn't benefit those that truly want to listen out for valid pickup happenings to have to /filter out these channels based on such buffoonery each time.

A Possible Solution:
I suggest revamping the /seacom's abilities to feel like it's a special Link pearl that has the ability to filter out content based on how that content is plugged in.

-Include a new way to quickly type in the /shout-like messages similar to how we would if we wanted to compose a /shout currently but via a new "/seacomshout EXP" or "/seacomshout Abyssea" so it would only be displayed in the chat logs of those that are tuned into those /seacom channels. This way we could be automatically updated in our chat log on all things Abyssea in terms of "Pickup happenings" while freely continuing to play the game. The /seacom shouts would be instantly added the appropriate /seacom channel based on the subject listed in the shout(Example: "/seacomshout (subject)" ) accompanied by perhaps an ending command like "<comment>". So a player composing a "/seacomshout EXP" message would have the message displayed to all those tuned in to EXP /seacomshouts both in a player's chat log and within the /seacom "EXP Party" channel listing as if they put it in using the menus. The amount of time the the comment remains in the listing could possibly be altered to a timed system in which the comment will disappear from the listing should only one /seacomshout be issued. Each time the same player repeatedly inputs the same /seacomshout message, their comment in the appropriate listing could be bumped to the top of the list so as to not create multiple listings for the same comment.
--------
-Additionally, include an intuitive method of tuning into multiple "/seacom shout topics" at the same time. This way, players could filter in Missions, Quest, Magian, and Abyssea "/seacom shouts" at once all while fishing or killing a NM. Truly, a simple toggle ON/OFF for each /seacom subject would probably be the most intuitive. Simply going down the /seacom comment list and toggling "ON" for all the channels you wish to stay tuned into would suffice. If you no longer wanted to hear the /seacom shouts, simply toggle all of them off. Alternatively, adding a quick "/seacomshout OFF" command would be nice and sweet too. ^^ Adding a "/seacomshout ON" command would tune a player into all /seacom subjects, allowing them to hear /seacomshouts for every topic.
--------------
-What then would stop a player that is hellbent on tossing out drunken conversation into the mix via /seacomshout (subject) at will? Please also include either a special filter that targets individual players within this new shout ability such as "/shoutfilter (Player's Name)", so nothing they attempt to /seacomshout reaches your chat log or your comment listings from that point on, or just make sure /blacklist reaches them through this system

So long as the method feels like a natural /shout or /linkshell message when typing it in or receiving it, I think a modified /seacom system could be the answer we're looking for.

Thanks again for listening guys /salute

[Zumi]

Region wide chat for jeuno really needs to happen soon.

On the weekend again Port Jeuno got 750 people and locked out. Because of being one of the servers that had people merged into. The reason people stay in Port Jeuno is because they want to see shouts for pugs.