In game messaging

[Greater German Reich 2]

I have an ally that is not in either the discourd or present in the discussions and it would be nice if I could talk to him in game. I feel that adding a in game messaging system with allies “or possibly others” would add a new aspect such as asking for resources from a wealthy ally when in need, to help during war or plan to attacks together, and just general discussion. It should have a mute system if someone just spams and mabey a censor for the younger players and of course it could be changed as time passes.

[Mr. D 622]

On 27/03/2018 at 7:54 AM, Greater German Reich said:

It should have a mute system if someone just spams and mabey a censor for the younger players and of course it could be changed as time passes.

That is pretty much why we don't have a chat system right now, to be honest!
The question's been raised many times in various threads, but to recap there are several issues with in-game chat system that we aren't ready to face yet; the key ones being:

• It is indeed a significant development requiring lots of sub-features. As you've correctly pointed out, ability to manage contacts, mute/block/ignore, create channels and groups will be required; no one's really going to be satisfied with a non-configurable message box and a free-text input.
  And as it's only me developing the game right now this functionality is just a bit too time-consuming compared to some other features that are being requested more frequently.
   
• Moderation: you may know that I've built another game published by Epic Dragon  (a browser-based MMORPG named "Flamefrost" - flamefrost.com) and that game does have a fully-featured chat box.
  Of course, an MMORPG cannot function without an in-game chat & mail, but occasionally I do wonder if it actually causes more harm than good. The number of times our new players have been discouraged from playing by spammers or malicious players (i.e. haters or fans of our competitors ) is greater than I can remember.
  Additionally, having an in-game chat does involve certain legal responsibilities, e.g. if our in-game chat becomes a hub for arranging criminal activities we may become liable for any real-world issues arising as a result.
  
  So no chat can be left unsupervised and we just don't have enough people in the team to monitor a chat in DE (I'd love to do it myself, but then we'll unlikely see any development done; real-time chat moderation is a full-time job ).
  That is why our chat is currently based within Discord, a server run by our veteran players (and they have full control over it). This approach is really helpful and time-saving for me!

A very interesting feature has been suggested in the past, which involves "message-less" communication between players: i.e. the ability to send pre-defined messages, commands or requests (e.g. suggestion to attack someone, meet in Discord etc.).
This way it would be impossible to send any offending content and no moderation or excessive development will be required.
I quite like this idea myself, but I haven't been able to finalize the details of its implementation yet, so I'm not sure when it will appear in the game.

However, as always, I'm open to any alternative ideas or suggestions.

[AntKeeper 11]

Maybe this is not a key feature but it is still very important to have the ability to contact another players. Otherwise it is impossible to negotiate, create alliances, discuss meetings, invite to messenger chats etc. Discord is not popular in my country, I am pretty sure no one of regional players has it installed. Telegram became a standard for GPS games. The simplest implementation could be just P2P chat system. Better than nothing. Just add there black list and maybe prohibit sending messages during several days after registration and from inactive players to prevent spam from newly created accounts. Of course regional chat is better, it could give feeling that the game is alive, that something happens alongside. BTW some log or daily reports in some form could be helpful for that too. It would be fun to see what new lands appeared/upgraded, who of players is active nearby.

[DSEGTeam 8]

In the meantime You could try to get his attention by changing your in game land names like bourqie did to me..example.."dseg go on discord"...or similar..I just used my game name as an example.

Edited April 11, 2018 by DSEGTeam

[Grizzlyfilms 41]

Why not make it easier to join the discord? The players could be more happy

[Luna 23]

The problem with changing land names is that it costs money. If renaming was made free that might work, but I don’t want to get out my credit card just to message people.

[ValarMorghulis 31]

@Luna You can change your ingame name and your "nations" name for free in profile settings

[Luna 23]

Oh sorry, I thought you meant by renaming the lands themselves.

That still seems like a janky way of doing things, but at least it’s free.

Edited June 2, 2019 by Luna

[John Blackwood 1]

The thing is that we need comunication, in my country Discord is not so popular either, i have a WhatsApp group for my allies, at least the ones i know, but the ones i dont know, what do i do with them? I dont have the means to even introduce myself.

Other point in this subject is that the game without a chat feels Dead, in my experience for example, if not for the few flags from my friends in my hood i would not know if someone is even playing because in my country this game is not known almost at all, proove of that is that im sort of new in here and i already am the number one. This is why we need a chat, it would encourage people to play more, socialization is a powerful way to keep the whole thing alive.

[Mr. D 622]

On 1/16/2022 at 12:10 AM, John Blackwood said:

The thing is that we need comunication, in my country Discord is not so popular either, i have a WhatsApp group for my allies, at least the ones i know, but the ones i dont know, what do i do with them? I dont have the means to even introduce myself.

Other point in this subject is that the game without a chat feels Dead, in my experience for example, if not for the few flags from my friends in my hood i would not know if someone is even playing because in my country this game is not known almost at all, proove of that is that im sort of new in here and i already am the number one. This is why we need a chat, it would encourage people to play more, socialization is a powerful way to keep the whole thing alive.

Sorry for the massive delay in responding to your message!

My points from the post above ( April 5, 2018 ) are still valid, but since then I actually started to warm up to the idea of an in-game chat; it has been added to my task list.
Unfortunately though, I am swamped with an immense backlog of development features (for DE and other projects that help to pay the bills) and I am currently behind schedule, so it is unclear when I will get to working on the in-game chat.
But I am positive that one day this situation will change. 😉