In-Game Chat Edits/Suggestions? Cool ways to interact?

[[LoG] Trent Kusters]

On a number of threads, we've heard that some of you want free text chat in games, and we've heard all the reasons why, however, it won't be happening. Ever. Let's just get that out of the way.

Why? Well, I've gone to great lengths to establish why there won't be free chat in Armello. To reiterate...

• Armello is an all ages game and we place our current ratings in numerous regions at risk by having free chat.
  
• We in no way want the possibility of people (of any age) encountering toxic or hateful language in a game of Armello.
  
• As a small studio we simply can't afford to (and tbh have no interest in) moderate chat.
  
• We won't be implementing an opt-in chat either, as we do not want to split players communications across multiple channels.
  
• We prefer to retain the character and tone of the world through the messages written in the voice of the Heroes of Armello.
  
• Right now, players can communicate with each other regardless of the language they're playing in.

However (and here's where you come in) we're always keen to hear ideas for how you guys feel you could better interact or how the current options on the Chat Tree could be improved?

So, let's hear it. Let us know how you want to interact and how it could improve Armello?


<3 Trent

[Kletian999]

A Truce request was present in the beta, but not in Live. I remember saying that a "private" truce message might be too easy to manipulate everyone against each other, but as long as it's public I think we could use it back.

Others were asking for directable "private" emotes like Beta had; but I prefer all chat being open like it would at a real tabletop.

Another thing I saw a lot was that people thought "decoding" the flavorful back to the base meaning. Example Merc's "I will remember this" should be followed with (Thank You) so the meaning is not lost by people unfamiliar with the character.

There needs to be a good emote for venting salt/rage. Bad Luck doesn't cover the cases that aren't luck driven.

Lastly, a "Don't pick on me" or "I'm not a threat to you" for when you are in last place and need people to focus on the real threats of the game.

[JoJordan]

In my opinion an Hearthstone-like in-game chat, with fixed phrases, could be a good starting point.

Maybe there can be a small portrait of the playing characters in the top-right corner of the screen (very useful to quick-check prestige point, stones...). You can click on a character's portrait to aim your phrase to him, or on the King to aim your phrase to all. In ANY case, all the players are able to see the phrase and the target. Then you can choose the phrase you want to send to the target: "Hello!" / "Have a nice game" / "Don't touch this village!" / "Thank you" / "I'm the last, show mercy"...

Using pre-set phrases avoids comunication problems between different language players.

To avoid chat spam, there could be an option that every player can use the chat a fixed number of times every turn / every turn per every player.

[sasanaki]

Hmm, i would prefer for the chat to stay open for all, like in a real life tabletop game as kletian999 suggested before.
But it is quiet difficult to get the timing right, if you want to adress a specific character in the group. Could be helped by a non-private "@[player]" function.

What i really missed were some phrases which could expand the current collection.
For example: a "cheer/whish you luck" one (in some rounds we had a pretty good atmosphere going (despite those limited communication options), so I really wanted to cheer Player B on, as he was harrassed again and again by banes, that poor guy).
Or "i fear for the worst" as to express deep concern. Or a mild "Curses!" option (since the "bad luck" one does not get the point across sometimes.

To sum it up: the current system works well, but an expansion in phrase options would be great! and could help players to express themselves :D

[Tailwind]

I have a couple of ideas here...

- It would be nice if players can pre-view the texts before actually sending them. I tried seeing a few quotes, and found that I would surely mis-use "Oops!" ones.
- "Look out for..." and "Go for..." could use different texts when used on self.

- Crazy ideas: Voice-overs for characters? And on-map animations on Quotes? For example, when Thane uses his "Threaten" quote, it's read aloud if your camera is close to him, and/or you can see him taking a menacing pose on the map, perhaps toward the target of his player's choice. (...I'm almost certain that they would take more cost/effort/risk than their actual worth.)

[Rusty]

I have a few ideas.

Functionally, I like the current system; it's similar to the emotes used in Hearthstone.
I would like to see emotes that can be targeted to the board; tiles ("Move to the mountains!", "Get out of my settlement!"), or characters ("Attack the bane/King's Guard"). This could be used for the emotes that already target heros via the drop-down menu.

I don't know what limits are in place for the emotes to keep players from spamming the them, but giving players a way to op-out of a individual's emotes during a game could be an option (Squelching in Hearthstone).

Asthetically, I would like to see more character out of the heroes, like adding one or two additional phrases for the more generic emotes (like 'Threaten" and "Greetings") for the game to randomely pick from.

Getting into bigger budget ideas: giving the characters more of a voice/animation to go with the emotes (and in general) would be neat. Not strictly voice-overs, but adding more to the grunts and howls to each character would be pleasing since I think we only have them victories and defeats now.

[Phlox]

I would love to have a emote "Congrats" for the winner...I often feel that "Thank you" doesn't fit well when you had a good game and the winner took the throne with a witty play.

I do experience a lot of "friendly" used chat via the emotes, so I really do think it is the right way to keep the game a good experience.

Don't think there is a lot of chat to be missed right now. Most situations find some kind of fitting emote, though I would love to have the chosen emote being written in the Game/chatlog (in order to get clear, what the player meant). New players might be irritated by the wording the different chars get when saying "Thank you" e.g.

[BirdMawf]

Maybe some situational dialogue options to go along with quests. A comment to sort of resolve the story of the quest itself but with different options to leave room for role playing the different paths.

It would also be cool to be able to make comments about the specific tile you ended your turn on, using the name of the tile and having different phrases based on type of tile. You could make a comment about the people in a settlement or about spending the night in a stone circle.

Multiple ways to say each basic dialogue option which could be unlocked depending on stat requirements. It would add character developement throughout a game and role playing variety.

Basically I wouldn't expect the dialogue system to serve a more practical purpose than it does already. I envision a way for four people to organically create a story together out of the progression of the game. I think something like this would strengthen the rpg aspect of the game.

[burning.phoneix]

I ,for one, cannot play a multiplayer game where I cannot raise questions regarding the opponent's mother's promiscousity. Where have we gone wrong in civilizastion where the questioning of the infedility of mothers is out of bounds. I say!

Question: I always recall ESRB ratings for online games with the following disclaimer: Online interactions not rated. So how would having free chat risk your ratings? Is it different in other regions?

[Kletian999]

I imagine Austrailia is a lot more strict, considering how puritanical it is about other video games.

[Dezzmont]

The reason people really feel this game needs a chat is because it is currently completely impossible to convey nuanced strategic information, and because it makes the game more social. I just can't help but notice that I have a huge advantage in games I join with a friend because, even though we don't gang up on other people without reason, I can actually talk to him and reason with him to not beat my face in. Playing in public matches can be a nightmare simply because I can't actually talk to anyone and sometimes you just need to get past a *specific* tile that is in between mountain and swamp chains and people keep ending on it.

I don't know if there are any better examples, but Phantasy Star Online had a good one where it basically let you construct a sentence with a few button clicks through sorted data menus that contained a list of every item, monster, spell, ect, as well as what you might want.

For example by clicking attack, the monster list, and then the conditional modifiers the system would automatically tell your team to attack a specific monster first.

Similarly having such a system in Armello would go a long way to make the game more tactical. It doesn't need to be perfect. Being able to say "Stay away from [Tilename]" and "I have Ally's Pact" or "Zosha is hiding in [Tilename]" and "I will play a good spell on you!" gets the message across. The main annoyance is that the current emotes for the most part convey general feelings rather than information, and some strangely make some characters worse because the focus on developing their personality comes before clarity.

I also recommend adding a way to, in all caps, say that you will burn your entire hand if someone attacks you, at least as Amber, ala the penny arcade comic.

[Texugo]

When hoovering the mouse on top of a chat message, like "Thank you", there could be a pop-up showing what the character will really say.

I think that showing the opposite (like reading a message from a player who was playing Mercurio saying "I'll remember that" and having the translation - "Thank you" - along) will kill the purpose of different characters saying different things. If this is to be implemented, it's better to remove all specific messages and leave only real a "thank you" there.

To avoid misunderstantings and to avoid killing each character's personality through the chat, I think that the messages could suffer a small adjustment, so everyone will understand that a player means "thank you" regardless of what the character says.

[[ Rizno . 雨 ]]

I only play this with a mix of Steam friends and AI so far. It would be cool if I had the option to talk properly if the game has no random online players from matchmaking. I mean we can talk over Skype already, but this isn't always ideal as we're not always available for voice chat - and it's more of a pain to alt-tab to another group chat window. I feel that you miss out on a lot of what's happening in the game if you have to chat with your friends using alternate software instead of the game itself.

[Currently Nameless]

A few minor points...

~ The ability to Threaten specific players, including yourself.

~ Additional sub-emotes for messages, to further convey the tone. You might speak angrily, fearfully, sarcastically, triumphantly, etc.

~ The ability to "Challenge" other players, as distinct from Threaten. It'd be more of a "Come! Let us decide this!" than an "I'm going to get you!" kind of sentiment.

~ The ability to say, "..." or "What?" or "Huh?" or other statements of confusion.

~ The ability to encourage players, generically.

~ A simple Yes/No/I Can't Say option, perhaps directible.

~ The ability to respond to Zosha's "Haste makes for error." with a "Yeah, but he who hesitates is lost." PJ

~ The ability to Proclaim more than just the victory conditions, but also that you're going for a quest, about to use a peril ("Xyzzy! Xyzzy! Xyzzy!") or about to leave the game.

And, one aside.

What in th'Rot does "Veyest Dahn" mean?

[ThorGoLucky]

"Bah!" (or some similar exclamation of disappointment)

Thanks!

[mousepotaeto]

I think more options would be nice. Espcially to say 'good game'. The 'well played' option gets kind of redundant, especially when I would rather say something along the lines of 'what luck!'. Instead I am stuck with Mercurio saying "Clever. I like it." For good plays, lucky rolls, to say gg, etc. Other non text emotes might be cool too. Like being able to change your character protrait to express how the game is going for you (confident, sad, laughing, corrupted).