Ideas for chat utility?

TwistedAngle · Post by **TwistedAngle** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:10 pm

Hey!

I'm developing chat utility with autohotkey. I could share it when it's ready.

Everybody knows that Allegiance chat system sucks. I can't understand why moving cursor between words is not possible! It's like... umm... sumb (*dumb). Voice chats are great though.

So... What kind of things you guys would expect from your ultimate chat extension?

(Other question: Would it be easy to add basic text editing capabilities to Allegiance source code? Like atleast left-right arrowing with and without CTRL and delete?)

TwistedAngle · Post by **TwistedAngle** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 12:39 pm

Ok. Here's some ideas I came up with.

1. Basic text editing
I managed to display a tooltip on top of the playing screen. I can use it as input textbox. It has better text editing capabilities than basic chat window. Script feeds the given input to basic chat box.

Problems: If you are not in windowed mode, the tooltip flickers annoyingly. I think it has something to do with screen refreshing.

2. Text shorcuts for voice chats
I have problem with remembering some voice chats. Basic ones are easy and logical. Like ´am - attack miners. But I have hard time with some others (I'm using Tigereyes chatpack). So I have this idea to make my own chatpack with chats like attack-a, defend-d, find-f, found-ff, need-n as logical as possible. Then use text shortcuts with others like, heh->Heh, heh, heh; go->Go, go, go; wait-> Wait for signal; r base-> Repair the station! and so on. Maybe some autocomplete system would help in here.

Ok. I know that it would be almost as easy to learn voice chat shortcuts than remembering the text shortcuts, but I think it would help me.

Please, give me some feedback.

Sealer · Post by **Sealer** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 3:37 pm

Everybody knows that the allegiance chat system sucks? You pulled this out of your ass, didn't you?

I have no problem with remembering voice chats - those that really need to be remembered, others require just a quick glance - and I've never heard of anyone complaining about chat system (apart from it not having enough lines). For me alleg is so fast paced, that there is little room for much chatting, much of what is important is communicated via either vc or giving commands. Apart from that there is TS. So, why bother?

^^^

My feedback

TwistedAngle · Post by **TwistedAngle** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:41 am

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, my ass is wide and productive.

Sealer wrote:QUOTE (Sealer @ Nov 14 2008, 05:37 PM) I've never heard of anyone complaining about chat system (apart from it not having enough lines).

This is the first time then. Ok, I admit that saying it sucks is maybe too heavy. But I still can't understand why it lacks basic editing funtions. And yes, more lines would be nice also.

QUOTE For me alleg is so fast paced, that there is little room for much chatting, much of what is important is communicated via either vc or giving commands. Apart from that there is TS. So, why bother?[/quote]
That's a good question. One purpose of this thread is to find out is there any reason to. I would like to know if anybody else would use this kind of tool. I think lot of people chat with long messages in certain situations especially in lounge and everybody don't want to, or just don't, use TS. And when the game gets fast I would enjoy the voice chatting to be intuitive as possible. In those situations scanning through voice chat list to get the right one is not very intuitive in my opinion.

So first vote was negative. Anyone else want to comment?

badpazzword · Post by **badpazzword** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:43 am

TwistedAngle wrote:QUOTE (TwistedAngle @ Nov 14 2008, 01:39 PM) If you are not in windowed mode, the tooltip flickers annoyingly. I think it has something to do with screen refreshing.

I guess it would be much easier to add inline editing than finding an ugly hack to properly render a textbox on the top of a game. Also, does your textbox support commands and target autocomplete?

TwistedAngle · Post by **TwistedAngle** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:25 am

Badp wrote:QUOTE (Badp @ Nov 15 2008, 11:43 AM) I guess it would be much easier to add inline editing than finding an ugly hack to properly render a textbox on the top of a game.

I agree, it would be nicer but I have no idea how hard it is to implement.

> Also, does your textbox support commands and target autocomplete?
Not yet. I hope that I could get rid of the textbox so not going to focus on that, but it could be done.

This second function I call text shortcuts doesn't need that tooltip thing. So I think it's clean and nice to use.

Sealer · Post by **Sealer** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:13 pm

Badp wrote:QUOTE (Badp @ Nov 15 2008, 10:43 AM) I guess it would be much easier to add inline editing than finding an ugly hack to properly render a textbox on the top of a game.

I agree. It would be a minor tweak (nice, but not necessary).

sgt_baker · Post by **sgt_baker** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:30 pm

Do a forum search for "AllegChat" and "AllegTongue".

TwistedAngle · Post by **TwistedAngle** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:15 am

Thanks, sgt_baker! That was great information.

Cortex · Post by **Cortex** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:58 pm

TwistedAngle wrote:QUOTE (TwistedAngle @ Nov 14 2008, 01:39 PM) 2. Text shorcuts for voice chats
I have problem with remembering some voice chats. Basic ones are easy and logical. Like ´am - attack miners. But I have hard time with some others (I'm using Tigereyes chatpack). So I have this idea to make my own chatpack with chats like attack-a, defend-d, find-f, found-ff, need-n as logical as possible. Then use text shortcuts with others like, heh->Heh, heh, heh; go->Go, go, go; wait-> Wait for signal; r base-> Repair the station! and so on. Maybe some autocomplete system would help in here.

Ok. I know that it would be almost as easy to learn voice chat shortcuts than remembering the text shortcuts, but I think it would help me.

Please, give me some feedback.

If you're still considering to set up your own dialect, you should consider starting with the CortDialect (it's on my blog). It's based off TE's, but a bit more radical. Apart from more consistent spelling and punctuation, it also features an (imho) more logical structure. However, the main focus wasn't on the structure, but on making the important VCs more easily accessible, which for example led to various extra one-letter-VCs, e.g. 'q, 'w and 'e for the mined/towered aleph related stuff and '_ (space) for "need repairs". Generally, all the important VCs (particularly those needed in the middle of a battle) are very close to the trigger key (1-5 keys after opening the respective menu), so you can invoke them without moving your hand a lot (and having to look down on the keyboard).

PS: The Alleg chat system is really one of the best systems I've ever seen of its kind and unless you can show examples of vastly superior systems, you should really restrain from making statements like "everybody knows it sucks".

-- Cort