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idea: global chat as default

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DErank[2up]knorke
12 years ago
global chat should be default to help new players communicate.
The danger of new players giving away secrets is rather low anyway.
just played vs some new guy and watched the replay.
Noticed he was asking stuff during game, but because it was in ally chat it was invisible. (during game)
Appearently he did not notice.
Don't know if that would need widget or just change of some setting.
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FIranksprang
12 years ago
(edited 12 years ago)
Acuelly, newbies used to give away stuff all the time when global chat was default. And basically every new player had to be explicitly told to use alt+enter, since they knew nothing of chat hotkeys or label placement. Current system is fine, and if a player asks a question in allychat, usually the player's own team or the spectators can offer an answer.

Ps. Global chat is still the default in 1v1 and non-team ffa. If it's not, then there's a bug.
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USrankluckywaldo7
12 years ago
Defaulting to ally-chat detracts from the social experience of the game.

I would rather risk having a newbie ally accidentally give information away.
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FIranksprang
12 years ago
(edited 12 years ago)
It doesn't detract from the social experience at all. Players can still use global chat when they learn of its existence. Much better than having to tell every single newbie how to use ally chat.
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USrankluckywaldo7
12 years ago
(edited 12 years ago)
It makes people psychologically less inclined to chat with their opponent a bit before the start of the game, or during the course of one.

No official studies prove this, just my own observations.

And it is not that they need to 'learn of the existence' of a global chat. They just need to learn chat isn't global by default. Because they expect it to be default. Because it is always default.
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FIranksprang
12 years ago
(edited 12 years ago)
Whereas in my extensive experience, when global chat was default, many newbies used to be really surprised that their opponents could also read what they were trying to say to their teammates. :)
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CArankPxtl
12 years ago
iirc, global chat was originally the default and frustration lead to making it the exception.

Imho, FPS games have the best approach: two separate chat keys, one for global and one for ally (traditionally T and Y)

And the spec-chat feature is dumb and unnecessary - specs ally-chat to other specs and players have no freaking reason to need to whisper to the specs.
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USrankluckywaldo7
12 years ago
My experience is hardly limited*, and I remember teaching lots of people how to ally chat, but I don't remember any cases where someone was actually surprised at default global chat.

And there is a bad tendency in zk development to invent newbie-related problems that don't actually exist.

---

* Perhaps recent experience, but the change to ally-chat was many months ago, so recent experience is moot anyway
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USrankluckywaldo7
12 years ago
Anyway, when in doubt, I think it is better for defaults to lean toward vanilla.
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FIranksprang
12 years ago
(edited 12 years ago)
Having to teach people how to ally-chat was a legitimate problem though. My relief was great when I didn't have to do it anymore.
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USrankluckywaldo7
12 years ago
Moderns RTS games usually have a button or toggle to click on, with the hotkey or shorthand shown in the tooltip.
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SErank[Er0]Godde
12 years ago
Why can't chat default to ally chat in a teamgame and global in an FFA or 1v1?
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USrankluckywaldo7
12 years ago
Why must there be different interface defaults for different game types?
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AUrankAdminGoogleFrog
12 years ago
quote:
Why can't chat default to ally chat in a teamgame and global in an FFA or 1v1?

Pretty sure this is the current behaviour.
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SErank[Er0]Godde
12 years ago
Good!

@luckywaldo
Because in teamgames you should chat with your allies rather than your enemy and in 1v1 you don't have any allies to chat with.
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USrankluckywaldo7
12 years ago
Clearly, but is discouraging chat with the opponent in team games worth inconsistent defaults? (Even without considering whether or not discouraging chat is desirable in itself)
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