Common courtesy rules for public servers

[Ryo]

2. Put in a shouting policy on your servers - it is important to have shout as a global message because it is a convention in the genre and it is useful for real important stuff (like 'server is going down' or 'I need help'). A little fun is nice too (like shouting 'hey Norm') but if shouting is common then it is bad and annoying. A policy stated on the server about shouting is necessary so that when it is abused the DM feels free to muzzle a player. If there is no policy then the DM may hesitate or not be consistant which are bad things and cause resentment.

Here i must say i disagree, about the policy you define, not the fact of having one
I often chat with people using shout, and i don't mind people using shout for general things (like: anyone can help me find this place? or does someone have that item? or someone party to clear this map?)
Also i consider part of politness to welcome people on the server, even if it's only to say 'hi'.

For me shouting isn't bad, it's part of the game....
If no one shouts, the game becomes not fun, it'd be like playing alone on a server...

[Avion]

Here i must say i disagree, about the policy you define, not the fact of having one
I often chat with people using shout, and i don't mind people using shout for general things (like: anyone can help me find this place? or does someone have that item? or someone party to clear this map?)
Also i consider part of politness to welcome people on the server, even if it's only to say 'hi'.

For me shouting isn't bad, it's part of the game....
If no one shouts, the game becomes not fun, it'd be like playing alone on a server...

Well I didn't really define a policy - I said a server policy should be defined... Some servers it would be one big yelling fest and others the players may like relative quiet. I don't mind people using shout for things you mention but I don't like to see detailed directions and spoilers shouted out (use tell) or pointless and private gooning spilled all over the place.

Did you read the rest of my post? The part about channels? I have seen people often want to talk about topics like server politics or technical stiff our just chat. I like to do this too, but only if the topics are something I am interested in - If you could sign up for some channels instead then you could decide the level of socialism you like to have.

Plus looking at the code it would be pretty simple to do I think.

[Ryo]

I read the rest of your comment, yeah, and i was off target, i guess

Channels are a nice idea.
And to go with that, i suggest improving current client interface for communication

Basically we could have channels:
* general, with shouts, global events (death, join, leave)
* channels for chatting for one player
* channels like irc for multiple players

Maybe that's too many, now O.o

[hoxu]

Channels? I think that would be too complicated. IRC is for chatting. For me, shout is a perfect way to chat in Crossfire.

[Avion]

I would only make the channels for speaking, not for other server events - that is what the listen level should be for. Here is how I picture it working:

The server will initialize an array of a defined size (set in etc/settings - maybe something like 99 or whatever is a useful number) and populate it with some channel names from a file called var/channels and fill the rest of the array with nulls.)

There is an char array added to player structure to hold the channel names players subscribe to.

There is a command to add a new channel (temporary) like 'channel add <name>', to list all the channels like 'channel list', to subscribe to channels like 'channel join <name>'. The channel list will show the channel name and the operator name.

Maybe a command like channel hide <name> that checks to see if you are the creator and takes it off the list of channels. Of course channel close which will remove the channel if you are the operator.
There is a DM command to make a channel permanent (writes the channel name to the file in var)

So when you want a new channel you add it and it is added with your name attached - if you leave the game the chanel is removed. If a Dm sets a channel or it is hardwritten into the channel file in var then it is not assigned to any player and is persistant.

An entry is added into new_draw_info that checks if the message is a channel shout (by using the listen level for channel shouts - something we set up) and if so if you are subscribed to a particular channel - if you are you get the message.

Maybe the command would be 'cshout' for "channel shout"?

To shout you have to type 'cshout <channel>', if you want to shout to all chanels you belong to you type 'cshout all"

I guess channel messages would appear like <channel:playername> and all channel messages should be the same colour to distinguish that this is where the message is coming from.

So to recap - anyone can make a channel but only DM or admins can set up permanent chanels that stay around. If you leave your channel is closed.

Then if you want to shout - it's still ok but really if you are shouting all the time the DM will shut you up.

Sound reasonable? Any other thought on this? I guess finding out what are the different listening levels would have to be done but as far as I can tell 0 is system, 1 is shout and 5 is used for stuff like players joining or leaving the game so maybe 2 or 3 would be a good one to use since you will only get messages if you join a channel and I can see folks turning off other messaging but keeping this on for stuff they signed on for.

[Avion]

Channels? I think that would be too complicated. IRC is for chatting. For me, shout is a perfect way to chat in Crossfire.

When you play on servers with two or three people maybe but if you get 10, 15, (dare I say 20+?) folks you need a better way to communicate over distances without bothering people I think.