Reintroduce County Chat

Apelatia

Well-Known Member
Proposal

I would like to propose that we reintroduce county chat to this game, and remove the current 'Saloon' chats.

Current Workaround

Using the Saloon chats, or not using them at all...

Details

Many years ago, the heroic and adventurous players of The West were blessed with a stupendous feature, which was enjoyed immensely by all. Well, perhaps not all, but I believe that I am safe to say 'most'. This feature was the now non-existent county chat.

Some years ago, our favourite chat feature was replaced with one that has never quite sunk in with the players that were around at the time of the Saloon chats' implementation. Many of us were indeed skeptical about many of the features that the update to 2.0 brought with it, but over time, we have grown accustomed, and perhaps even grown to like these new and interesting features. I feel however, that this is not so with the Saloon chat.

Now, I will outline what I believe are the pros and cons to both of these chat systems.

Firstly, Saloon chats. The way these work is that upon logging in, your character is assigned to a specific general chat room in which there will be around seventy-six (approximate number) other players. This can vary though, and the chat room size is often determined by the number of players currently online on that particular world at that time. These players will range from complete beginners to the most experienced and oldest players. As far as is known, level ranges and position on the map are not taken into account. The pros of this system, as I see them are that one is able to engage with a large variety of different players from all around the map that they would otherwise be unable to do so with. (Though, I notice that the use of these chat rooms is very scarce...) The cons to this system are the pros of the County chat system, so I will talk about that next.

County chat. This is certainly one of the features that I miss the most from times gone by. I know of other players that feel the same as I do. County chats were what bound players together. People were able to converse regularly with people that they were often in the same county as. An example of this is how I made a friend in-game. We came across each other in County chat so often that we eventually began conversing, and ended up founding a town together, which turned out to be a large success. County chat presented players with so many options that are currently unavailable. People participating in the same fort battle together, on opposite sides were able to converse, and throw amusing banter in each other's direction. Market deals were able to be arranged much more promptly, as players were often closer to each other on the map. Over all, this system was a far better one, and one which brought players together in a way which the current Saloon chats do not.

I say that County chat should be brought back. The values of friendship, frequent conversation and friendly banter will return to the world-wide chat rooms!

It would also be useful if we were able to have a world-wide chat, so that all the players online on a particular world, e.g. Arizona, would be able to communicate with one another. I don't believe that I need to expand the details of this idea particularly, though perhaps the player chat list could be removed for this particular chat room, so that players that would rather avoid being pestered via whisper would be able to do so happily...

Abuse Prevention
They had these before, and I do not recall any specific problems to do with the feature.

Visual Aids
I don't believe that this is required for players to visualise my idea.

Summary
I am unsure as to whether there was a major reason as to why this feature was taken down in the first place. Whether this was to do with increased server load and consequently, lag due to there being large numbers of players in certain counties because of fort battles, I cannot tell. I am not extremely knowledgeable in the workings of servers, so perhaps a more experienced person than I might be able to shed some light on this aspect...

The map was larger before 2.0 came about, but I believe that the decrease in the map size will help bring players together even more than before.

Administration
Does this idea meet the Ideas Guidelines & Criteria? Yes/No
Does this idea appear on any of the Previously Suggested Ideas List? Yes/No
 
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DeletedUser33353

Hear, hear.....I for one would love to see the county chats back. It has always been my opine that the new chats were a VERY big step backwards in what this game really is......communication with the world at large.
 
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DeletedUser29835

I sooo miss county chat.
For all the reasons mentioned above and more.
Also for having fun conversations with those you were trying to duel.
I strongly belive this game when taking county chat away lost one of their most valuable social functions, and this is a very social game.
I am 100% sure that bringing it back would increse the social fun again.
Getting to know your neighbours. :)
 

DeletedUser29082

Yep me too :) i do miss the chats just after a good old fort battle :p
 

DeletedUser36794

Well I not old enough to be here when county chat was around , but Saloon chat does not cut the grass , so I be happy to go back to want seem to be a better system , so put me down for a vote for county chat.
 

DeletedUser28382

While I'm not normally very chatty, I prefer the old county chat system to the new saloon chat.
 

DeletedUser

I would love to see county chat come back! What about even a world chat?
 

DeletedUser25802

county chat all the way! you have my vote.

did i see Gude post! :O
 

DeletedUser36559

Saloon chats haven't been very successful in my opinion, majority of the time I just find a new beginner asking questions or players keep spamming for certain items. There's hardly any decent communication between players so you have my vote for county chat :up:
 

DeletedUser36011

Apel, you have finally done something useful! :D

Wait, I just said Apel and useful in the same sentence? This generally means something stupendous is about. A giant please(note that's not a yes) from me
 

DeletedUser

County chat is nice to talk to folks who are nearby. On AZ, we use to use the chat to "call out the guard" if unfriendly duelers (someone who hit anyone) showed up. Folks from otherwise unaffiliated towns would work together to keep our little county safe. This gave people in towns of their own without alliances some sense of belonging that the saloon chat doesn't accomplish.
 

Slygoxx

Well-Known Member
While county chats are fun, the global nature of the saloon chat is pretty nice too. Why not both and make the saloon chat a truly global chat with all online players?
 

DeletedUser35120

You mean.. like one chat for the all the online players in the world? If that is what you meant, it would be even better :D
 

Apelatia

Well-Known Member
Apel, you have finally done something useful! :D

Wait, I just said Apel and useful in the same sentence? This generally means something stupendous is about. A giant please(note that's not a yes) from me

Perhaps my usefulness was all behind the scenes until now...

Either way, I'm grateful for the support folks. Seeing as many people would also be interested in a world chat, I'd be happy to add that into the proposal. If you have any friends on worlds that might be interested in this proposal, whether because they think it's terrible, or because they like the idea, I'd appreciate if you could send them this way to comment!
 

delldell56

Well-Known Member
and perhaps an option to change chat rooms to roam free? i know a lot of people who want to be able to change rooms at will, because sometimes they are in one room and want some friends to join them there and chat / read chat, but they are unable to join. or people looking for their friends in public chats but are in different rooms (which would still happen in county chats). it really doesn't affect me, as i seldomly chat in saloon rooms or county chats, or anywhere but would make the game more lively for many.
 

DeletedUser33353

Have you gone silent Miss dell? I remember the time you were quite vocal on county chats ;)

But, I am remiss.....the option to change saloons should at least be an option, though county by county chat(the old way) would be preferable imo.
 

DeletedUser30224

I think it's safe to say that saloon chat has it's uses but I'd like to see a county chat as well, sure.
 
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