UI suggestion: Worldwide shout channel

[Onidemon]

Chat channel that can be heard in nearby areas would be great. Not global where the whole game can see it. This would make it more lively and make it easier to find people for groups so you dont have to travel to town everytime you seek a party.

[Wolfie]

Oh god this game is so f**ked. The community in this game is like the f**king Tea Party of MMOs. I have never seen such a huge amount of ignorance, naysaying, and backlash against progress.

[TimonLoon]

Oh god this game is so f**ked. The community in this game is like the f**king Tea Party of MMOs. I have never seen such a huge amount of ignorance, naysaying, and backlash against progress.

This is part of the reason I stopped posting here... Some people are just too ignorant to understand how much they can benefit from this particular feature.

Basically what it boils down to is "Was it in FFXI? No? DO NOT WANT!"

They complain about lag in Ul'Dah - this would help.
They complain about not being able to find groups - this would help.
They complain about not being able to seek PTs while doing other things - this would help.

I hope the devs are smart enough to not listen to some of these whiners because they will do more bad for this game than good. These people are never gonna quit the game, but new players will be reluctant to come back if they find such a helpful feature missing... again.

- Kurokikaze

[Jinko]

Oh god this game is so f**ked. The community in this game is like the f**king Tea Party of MMOs. I have never seen such a huge amount of ignorance, naysaying, and backlash against progress.

I know it makes my head spin, you play FF11 long enough you end up with stockholme.

Although funnily enough the shout system in 11 was so much better than what we have in this game, in this game shout is actually shout as in a radius around your character .. seriously SE ?

[bobbygunz]

I know it makes my head spin, you play FF11 long enough you end up with stockholme.

Although funnily enough the shout system in 11 was so much better than what we have in this game, in this game shout is actually shout as in a radius around your character .. seriously SE ?

Shout in a radius around your character sounds like something that would take more effort to program, so I don't think it's technically the worse of the two.

In any case, yeah, I don't understand how people can have problems with a global channel. Can someone explain how it's bad for the game? It's just like a linkpearl, only everyone has access to it... :/

[Jinko]

Shout in a radius around your character sounds like something that would take more effort to program, so I don't think it's technically the worse of the two.

They asked on the JP side if it was possible for them to increase the range of the shout and they said no as it would increase the lag in the cities, so does seem to be a limitation.

[DeadRiser]

Oh god this game is so f**ked. The community in this game is like the f**king Tea Party of MMOs. I have never seen such a huge amount of ignorance, naysaying, and backlash against progress.

WE HAVE A PARTY SEARCH FEATURE THAT NO ONE USES.

I say "yeah the community is f**ked for not using an easy-to-use feature that no one uses." Do you not understand what I'm saying? Adding this is just making party search feature pointless and a waste of development time.

[Antipika]

This is part of the reason I stopped posting here... Some people are just too ignorant to understand how much they can benefit from this particular feature.

Basically what it boils down to is "Was it in FFXI? No? DO NOT WANT!"

They complain about lag in Ul'Dah - this would help.
They complain about not being able to find groups - this would help.
They complain about not being able to seek PTs while doing other things - this would help.

I hope the devs are smart enough to not listen to some of these whiners because they will do more bad for this game than good. These people are never gonna quit the game, but new players will be reluctant to come back if they find such a helpful feature missing... again.

- Kurokikaze

You forgot the "It's in WoW so we don't want it"!

The whole chat system needs to be revamped, with channels dedicated for:

- World (all areas)
- Region (entire city / region)
- Level xx - xx (level 1-9, 10-19, 20-29 etc.)
- LFG
- Trade/Repair
+ Allowing anyone to create any channel with a simple text command. /join [anything]

That's what MMOs already had in early 2000. It was proprably too efficient so SE didn't implement it. Instead we have... linkshells which are no more than a discussion channel technically with the ability to kick someone and promote "officers" but no other feature at all. (oh yeah a fancy icon next to your name \o/)

WE HAVE A PARTY SEARCH FEATURE THAT NO ONE USES.

I say "yeah the community is f**ked for not using an easy-to-use feature that no one uses." Do you not understand what I'm saying? Adding this is just making party search feature pointless and a waste of development time.

If no one use it, then it's not the customers fault but DEV's fault. It's DEVs job to fit customers needs.

I personally find it more convenient to ask for a group on a global channel, than use our current LFG system. The feature is too passive. A player LFG may be AFK or not responsive. Also you may not be LFG, yet still willing to find a group to do something.

Let's say you just walk around and see a message for an Ifrit party @7/8, maybe you were on the way to do some craft, but instead thought "oh well I might just do some Ifrit runs!". That kind of thing cannot be done with our current LFG system.

I remember sending tell on XI to non-LFG players to make EXP party, having always in mind that anyone not level 75 (except lv1 or 37 players) may want to have some EXP, and guess what, it often worked. Even non LFG people were willing to accept to join a party, especially when the party was almost full.

[Rokien]

don't want a world chat.

/shout covering an area is fine.

[Asiaine]

You forgot the "It's in WoW so we don't want it"!

The whole chat system needs to be revamped, with channels dedicated for:

- World (all areas)

I hope this does not get noisy/messy. I can also imagine a lot of people would turn this off due to the uncensored behaviour that can occur there. I would also hope that the culture does not end up relying on this channel so much that you have to use it if you want to participate in any activity.

- Region (entire city / region)

I'm not sure why this would be so heavily used when one can just use the world chat all the time.

- Level xx - xx (level 1-9, 10-19, 20-29 etc.)
- LFG
- Trade/Repair

This should be do-able with the search functionality. It is there (albeit not lovely to use or look at). Perhaps an enhancement to the search functionality would do us best. Yes shouting could work, but I believe a better search tool would actually be more beneficial to everyone.

+ Allowing anyone to create any channel with a simple text command. /join [anything]

Do not forget, this will mean to create an ability to search for a channel (to see what's out there) then join it. Then perhaps a way to kick people off of it? Then there will be requests to manage it. It starts to lead the way of LinkShells... Not saying there is no use for it, just not sure how high on the list of important features this is, and how widespread its use would be.

That's what MMOs already had in early 2000. It was proprably too efficient so SE didn't implement it. Instead we have... linkshells which are no more than a discussion channel technically with the ability to kick someone and promote "officers" but no other feature at all. (oh yeah a fancy icon next to your name \o/)

I'm not sure SE is trying to clone other MMOs. I think they would like to make their own MMO. I think they should be respected and allowed to try out new/different/unique things that are not copy&paste of what is in fashion in other worlds. And if what is in fashion in other places are of such great importance and desirability, then there are other places that offer those features. What is happening here is different and interesting with the concept of LinkShells, as it starts to promote 'large groups' or 'organizations', and creates a whole new social atmosphere. I think its been mentioned many times by many people that the social aspect of interaction with people here (knowing who is who, and who are good and who to avoid) is a very strong aspect of Eorzea, and not something you find in other places.

Although, yes, LinkShells could use 'more features', I believe what you are seeking is being reserved for 'Private Companies', and LinkShells will be more 'social/chat' places, whereas Private Companies will be our 'End Game LS of Old' so to speak.

I personally find it more convenient to ask for a group on a global channel, than use our current LFG system. The feature is too passive. A player LFG may be AFK or not responsive. Also you may not be LFG, yet still willing to find a group to do something.

Yes, I think it can be universally agreed upon that the present search functionailty needs a fair bit of enhancement. But I think if we look at it correctly we can realize that the solution to our problems lies more in enhancing the search functionality, rather than resorting to global shouts.

Let's say you just walk around and see a message for an Ifrit party @7/8, maybe you were on the way to do some craft, but instead thought "oh well I might just do some Ifrit runs!". That kind of thing cannot be done with our current LFG system.

Well, actually... before I start crafting or harvesting I set my little flag up and say: I would be interested in CC, or DH, or Moogle.. please invite me. (And then list my jobs). I never get a request of course, even if I'm standing next to someone who is shouting for an hour to do a DH run ^.^;;
I also am on all my LSs, so if someone on LS wants to do something, I hear about it and can respond.

So yes, it is possible, just not very popular with today's limited search capabilities, and lack of people using search (a lot of level 50s still do not know it exists let alone how to use it!).

I remember sending tell on XI to non-LFG players to make EXP party, having always in mind that anyone not level 75 (except lv1 or 37 players) may want to have some EXP, and guess what, it often worked. Even non LFG people were willing to accept to join a party, especially when the party was almost full.

Yes, this can still happen today with the equivalent of:
/sea all WHM 40-45
/tell <person> {Party} {Do you want it?}



Sorry for long reply.. but to sum up:
I think fixing the search system for seeing and setting up group activities should be our focal point. Persisting in using shout or mass communication as a workaround for this should not.