Feedback on cross-server presence system in testing on BG

[Darkmystic]

I completly approve of this.

[Heero]

This system tells you when a DM logs onto another server. Is expected, or no?

[Basilica]

Yes, the same as what the website shows. (Whether or not the website, bot, etc should count DMs is a separate discussion.)

[Heero]

Cool.

Only thing to consider is that ya dont really see when a DM logs into the server yer on, but whatevs.

[Basilica]

Yes, and no. It's shown in some places.

Regardless, the whole topic of DM presence is a different discussion as that touches a whole bunch of other services. It is being considered.

[Keryn]

I like it!!

[Ronan]

I would definitely disable cross-server communications and notifications by default for DMs. Spam is probably one of the biggest problems they have to deal with.

[maxcell]

Turned it off right away. Have no need to know what is going on on other servers that my character is not on and do think it will lead to meta infractions down the road. Rarely use 'tells' in game as it is now as it deters from immersion.
As long as it doesn't bog down the server, and there is a way to disable it or enable it like you have now, it doesn't bother me one way or another.

[Basilica]

[This thread is primarily about feedback for changes to how the information is presented.]

That being said, forum PMs, the forum, in-game chat, out of game IM, IRC, and face-to-face meetings with friends all present opportunities for meta violations. We have well-established policies and procedures for dealing with this.

You'll continue to be able to turn the notifications off if you like. That setting is per-character and remembered across all servers.

[Basilica]

I would definitely disable cross-server communications and notifications by default for DMs. Spam is probably one of the biggest problems they have to deal with.

I'll follow up directly with you about this and mitigations for it.

[Rotku]

That being said, forum PMs, the forum, in-game chat, out of game IM, IRC, and face-to-face meetings with friends all present opportunities for meta violations. We have well-established policies and procedures for dealing with this.

How wisely stated! +1 to that.

[oldgrayrogue]

[quote="Basilica"][This thread is primarily about feedback for changes to how the information is presented.]
[quote]

Nice tool for a DM playing on one server who wants to catch up with players on another. As to presentation its a bit spammy and distracting. (kind of like those weird server messages you get on the DM client about stores and such that I would love to turn off) Didn't realize folks were logging on and off so often! Any chance it could be presented in a separate chat window? like maybe a single line crawl you could place somewhere unobtrusive on your screen, something like the foreign language chat bar for instance? I think that would be an improvement.

[Basilica]

We've thought a little bit about that but there are some downsides. I'd certainly like to avoid it from being overly spammy though as I would rather people want to leave it on than want to turn it off. So any suggestions to that end are gratefully accepted.

It would be easy to move the events to the combat log. I am not sure how hard it is to move it to a custom window entirely. Zelknolf, our resident GUI expert, may know more. Although GUI management is sometimes finicky.

Anyways, as to why I presented things the way they are:

- Making another GUI window for the text to go into (if we can do it easily) would take up more screen space. There were a lot of people that wanted to avoid yet more GUI windows that you'd keep open all the time proliferating around and cutting into their available screen real estate.

Some sort of "notice bar" GUI that appears for a little bit and then maybe goes away after might be an interesting option though. I'm not sure if that would be more or less distracting though (fading/appearing things tend to draw the eye... but then I suppose people manage with floaty text above creatures without too much trouble).

- It seemed to make more sense having the login/logout notices go to the same place that chat goes to, so you notice if someone you were talking to went offline. That and it's consistent with login/logout notices on this server.

Now I realize that you can't yet talk to anyone that isn't on BG (as the other servers don't have the code enabled yet) so the second part doesn't quite get realized yet. Do you think it's better to move the login/logout notices to the combat log even so, though?


We are hoping to have a GUI that looks something sort of like (and superseding) the quick chat list that shows online players that you can send a tell to. So if that happens, you'd still be able to see who is online without having to watch the text notifications fly across. But that serves somewhat of a different purpose, and it would only show you the current state and not the historical data.

[oldgrayrogue]

Can you just add a tag to the quick chat list that identifies a given player as either being "Online" by server logged onto? Something like:

/t Voric Mael [online BG]

In the quickchat window, with the online status flashing on or off as a player logs in or out.

I don't find the historical info particularly useful IG, but it would be useful to know when another player is online and which server they are on. Alternatively, can you add another "crossserver quickchat" menu button that opens up a quickchat box for players logged on to servers other than the one you are on? Players could click this open or closed as they wish.

Nice idea, especially with the applications for the future you discuss. Moving it to the combat log window would be better IMO as it would be less obstructive to chat. There are so many log messages now that I find I have to scroll back to keep a convo going or expand the window very large which eats up more screen.

Still think another "log box" -- just a single line you can park above the combat log -- would do the trick though. Be nice if other miscellaneous messages such as on the DM client could be broadcast there as well.

[Basilica]

That's something like what we were thinking of for the in-development GUI (for augmented quick chat list).

In the mean time, you can now change whether character and server join/part notices, if enabled, are delivered to the combat log or the chat log:

#notify combatlog - these notices go to the combat log
#notify chatlog - these notices go to the chat log

Actual ServerTells from other players always go to the chat log as [Server] channel messages no matter the setting; this just redirects the join/part notices. The setting is per-character and remembered in the database.

This should go up on BG some time soon.