I would like to take this opportunity to suggest that the developers put together and implement a more robust chat system than we currently have in-game. Based upon my experiences in other games, I believe that such a thing would help to foster a stronger sense of community.

The features that I would like to see in such a system are as follows:

1. It should be a cross-faction system so that, if I am on an Imperial alt and a friend is on a Republic alt and we want to team together, we can A) actually know that the other person is online and B) arrange for one of us to switch alts so that we can team.
   
2. Considering how alt-friendly this game is, it is entirely possible that people will fill up all their character slots on one server and have to create an alt on another server if a really good concept comes to them. Therefore, to facilitate teaming, the redesigned system should be truly global, allowing us to communicate with each other no matter what server we may be on.
   
3. The new system should allow for the creation of fully-functional custom chat channels and for a person to be able to join as many of these as they choose. (I'll describe in detail what kind of functions I think such a channel should have further down in the post.) This would allow not just guilds, but any groups of people with similar interests to more easily keep in touch and build a community. One example might be a channel for people on a certain server for people with a strong interest in accomplishing achievements. In such a channel, someone might say "Hey, I need to beat down X mob type on Y planet. Anyone want to join me?" And someone else might respond "Sure, let me switch alts and I'll be right there."
   
4. It should allow for the use of unique chat handles. I'll go into that in detail below, too.
   

When it comes to custom chat channels, I would like to see the following as settings and options.

Settings:

1. Private Channels with Invitation-Only access.
   
2. Public Channels that anyone can join.
   

Options:

1. No Restrictions. New members can just jump on in.
   
2. New members are temporarily silenced upon joining a channel and will be unsilenced by whichever channel mod happens to be online. With this option, a whisper will be auto-generated to each mod whenever someone joins the channel so that they know someone needs to be unsilenced.
   
3. Each channel will have one Owner, the person who created it. However, that person may appoint as many moderators as they choose.
   
4. Mods will have the power to invite people, silence them or kick them based on the behavior and actions of the member in question. They will not, however, be able to unseat the Owner.
   
5. If the Owner of the channel decides to step down or leave the game entirely, they can transfer ownership to one of the current mods. This will turn the former owner into a regular mod.
   

Unique Chat Handles can, I believe, be put into place in the following manner:

1. When the system goes live, each player will be assigned a temporary Chat Handle which will be the name of the character that they just logged in with.
   
2. They will then be given, via a pop-up box like the ones used to tell us all our skill points have been refunded, the opportunity to change the handle to whatever they choose.
   
3. After that, if they want to change their handle again, they will be given one token each year that they remain a member that they can use to do so.
   
4. There will, naturally, be profanity filters put in place to prevent certain words/phrases/names from being used as handles.
   

In order to make any of this even possible in the first place, of course, we would need an overhaul of the Friends/Ignore system. I believe the following to be a sensible plan:

• When adding friends, a person will be given the option to choose between server-only friends and Global friends.
  
• Selecting the Global option would send a request to the person you want to add. If they say "Yes," then you now appear on each other's Friends list whenever you log on no matter what faction or server you may currently be playing on.
  
• When you Ignore someone, it will automatically ignore every character on that person's entire account.
  

The TL/DR version: I would really, really like to see a better chat system in this game than the one we currently have. I think such a system should be cross-faction, cross-server, allow for custom channels and unique handles and come with improvements to both the friends & ignore lists.

]When you Ignore someone, it will automatically ignore every character on that person's entire account.

This is the only part I want to comment about. If ignores were made to ignore the entire account of the ignoree. then the ingnorer would have to be disallowed to see the auto-added alts on their ignore list. Otherwise, it would be a tool for harassers and griefers.

This is the only part I want to comment about. If ignores were made to ignore the entire account of the ignoree. then the ingnorer would have to be disallowed to see the auto-added alts on their ignore list. Otherwise, it would be a tool for harassers and griefers.

Excellent point. I do think that if someone is a jerk on one alt, then they're probably a jerk on all their alts and there ought to be some way to not have to ever deal with them in any form ever again. So something would have to be worked out there.

Excellent point. I do think that if someone is a jerk on one alt, then they're probably a jerk on all their alts and there ought to be some way to not have to ever deal with them in any form ever again. So something would have to be worked out there.

Well, as you point out, it's the player who is the jerk, not the character. So the concept is a good one.

Bump, I like this idea. My guild has a sister Republic guild, and during the double exp weekends the officers and crew enjoy going 'pub side to level our alts and take a break from the Imp classes. Problem is, we'd also love to be able to participate in our Imperial guild chat so we can show our members that we are online and are willing to answer questions if they have any. Sure ventrillo is good for this, but not everyone has a microphone that they can use.

Personally I think this would make a nice QoL update somewheres down the road.

Bump, I like this idea. My guild has a sister Republic guild, and during the double exp weekends the officers and crew enjoy going 'pub side to level our alts and take a break from the Imp classes. Problem is, we'd also love to be able to participate in our Imperial guild chat so we can show our members that we are online and are willing to answer questions if they have any. Sure ventrillo is good for this, but not everyone has a microphone that they can use.

 

Personally I think this would make a nice QoL update somewheres down the road.

Thanks. The guild(s) I'm in are in the same situation. We have a Republic guild and an Imperial guild and whoever's on one side has no idea if anyone's on the other side.

Bump. We need this, the more support the better.

Thanks.

Assuming that all of the options are able to be chosen creating the channel I completely and absolutely support this. I know it has been done in other games. Even SWG had this and that was forever ago.

/BUMP and fully support this.

Like others stated I run guilds on both sides and wish we could speak in a chat that is cross faction. Most of the time my officers will hop over to come get me for raids and things. So it would be amazing to just see it pop up in my chat, and then I can just hop over and save them the time and effort.

Something I feel I should ask:

Since the friend-alt list reads to sound like a "add friend to legacy friend list" type option, could I choose to not have all my alts added to my friend's lists? Sometimes I log off one alt to play another just to end a drama conversation that I no longer wish to participate in.

And a "Ignore Account/Legacy" topic has been floating around as highly popular and controversial since there is the question of griefing once you can see all an ignoree's alts. Unless it said something like "(initial Ignored name)'s Legacy, ignored"

Something I feel I should ask:

 

Since the friend-alt list reads to sound like a "add friend to legacy friend list" type option, could I choose to not have all my alts added to my friend's lists? Sometimes I log off one alt to play another just to end a drama conversation that I no longer wish to participate in.

So, add some kind of "Hide" feature, then? A slash command "/hide" that would bring up a list of categories of people that you don't want to be seen by while you're in-game. Yeah, I can see that working.

And a "Ignore Account/Legacy" topic has been floating around as highly popular and controversial since there is the question of griefing once you can see all an ignoree's alts. Unless it said something like "(initial Ignored name)'s Legacy, ignored"

I've seen a chat system just like this in a now-defunct game (City of Heroes) and I'm not even sure how griefing someone who's on your ignore list would be possible, really. Basically, you put someone on your global (think account-wide, not Legacy-wide since Legacy is a server-specific thing) ignore list and then you and that person could never interact again. No team invites, no whispers, no being matched on a team with Group Finder...yeah. I'm just not seeing how you can grief someone if you can't interact with them at all.

So, add some kind of "Hide" feature, then? A slash command "/hide" that would bring up a list of categories of people that you don't want to be seen by while you're in-game. Yeah, I can see that working.

 

 

 

 

I've seen a chat system just like this in a now-defunct game (City of Heroes) and I'm not even sure how griefing someone who's on your ignore list would be possible, really. Basically, you put someone on your global (think account-wide, not Legacy-wide since Legacy is a server-specific thing) ignore list and then you and that person could never interact again. No team invites, no whispers, no being matched on a team with Group Finder...yeah. I'm just not seeing how you can grief someone if you can't interact with them at all.

Grief by /ingore Bob, see all of Bob's alts, unignore Bob, and then grief Bob's Alts as well.

I would love a /hide option as well.

Grief by /ingore Bob, see all of Bob's alts, unignore Bob, and then grief Bob's Alts as well.

The obvious solution to that is that /ignore Bob, see "Bob and legacy" on ignore list. (Seeing "Legacy Bobifiers" wouldn't work because legacy names aren't unique within a server.)