Remove the Distant Sounds...

[Delite]

Please please please get rid of this annoying message. It's bad enough hearing the actual chatter without being constantly told that you're missing it.

[Sigi]

Isn't there some setting in the chatsettings to exclude this?

Or if there isn't maybe there should be. Removing it totaly is too radical thing imho.

[Creme]

I find myself somewhat annoyed at all the new system messages--it's a bit of overkill. The distant chat is one thing, another is the "limiting setscale to .25"...there is possibly another 1 that I can't recall at this time.

[Knossos]

Irritating also is the spam of listing all disabled quests for each trophy quest taken by a low level school of a heavily multiclassed biped. There is no need to remind the player for each trophy hunter quest taken, when the change to that low level school has already given the listing of disabled quests due to current school limitations.

Knossos

[Steelclaw]

How about removing the "game feedback" channel from the window?

[anonimas]

Removing "distant sounds" - I would not agree. It may be important, but it may be unimportant. It adds some mystic atmosphere to the game.
Quests: dear developers, please be so kind to do anything with "maze" quest. Once I was unwise enough to take it and now it re-appears every day. Is there any possibility to get rid off that quest other than enter maze, be there for some hours and fail the quest?

[awdz]

Quests: dear developers, please be so kind to do anything with "maze" quest. Once I was unwise enough to take it and now it re-appears every day. Is there any possibility to get rid off that quest other than enter maze, be there for some hours and fail the quest?

Can't you delete it from your quests log with the little - sign on the right hand side of its title?

[Ladydragon]

does it have signifigance for some future addition? I find it annoying when it spams like 8 times in a row, but the occasional spam isn't so bad. I'm more curious to know if it will lead to a future development. bring it on!!

[Delite]

According to Amon, the maze quest was designed not to be deleted from the quest log - I had reported this as a bug and was told it's not a bug.

@steelclaw - I want the game feedback, I just don't appreciate the spam of distant sounds when I'm using the NT vault due to the magpie chatter of hatchies by the shrine :/

Just love how these threads get derailed.

[Dhalin]

According to Amon, the maze quest was designed not to be deleted from the quest log - I had reported this as a bug and was told it's not a bug.

@steelclaw - I want the game feedback, I just don't appreciate the spam of distant sounds when I'm using the NT vault due to the magpie chatter of hatchies by the shrine :/

Just love how these threads get derailed.

Well, the chatter is most likely classified as a system message, and as such, the system message wasn't really off-topic or a derail, but more an addition to your suggestion.

And I totally agree with the Quest Disabled spam every time I change school, take a new quest, and if I remember right, opening my vault causes it too.

My biped has like 5 quests on her that I don't really want to have to drop right this second, or, have to stop everything I'm doing, to go do these quests just to get them out of my quest log so I stop getting spammed.

And of the chatter? Maybe put a cooldown on it, say, 5 minutes. One time, I entered NT, saw the chatter message, turned a quest in, and then headed back out, saw the message, came back a couple minutes later via recall, saw the message, and then headed back out, and saw the message again.

Is that Really necessary?

I don't mind seeing it occasionally, but I think it is a little overkill, yes.

[Fratricide]

I'm sure the chatter spam is caused because of a proximity trigger to a certain place on New Tris. I personally have all these stupid system messages sent to my combat window so that I don't really pay attention to them. The window sits open, but unless I'm actually in combat, I don't pay a whole heck of a lot of attention to it.

[Finkledbody]

I honostly can't believe some of you are complaining about something that can be ignored so easily.. This is just pethatic.... Remove something entirely because you don't like it? Please

I don't want to see these messages removed.
I don't want them to be appear less often.
And I certainly don't want the sounds to be removed.

I personally have all these stupid system messages sent to my combat window so that I don't really pay attention to them.

BINGO!!! We have a winner!! Same way I have it set up. Out of sight, out of mind! But when I do want to read the message. Its still there!!

[Akrion]

The entire point of the "Distant sounds" message was because of an issue primarially brought up by roleplayers. Under normal play conditions the chat distance isn't really an issue but with roleplay it is. Someone on one side of the New Trismus town square often won't be able to hear someone on the other side, which can become very problematic with roleplay. At the very least the 'distant sounds' message lets the player know there's conversation they're missing. Steelclaw didn't want to simply increase chat range because he didn't want the chat range to be extended beyond minimum draw distance (thus hearing people talk that one might not be able to see). So as a sort of middle ground the 'Distant sounds' message was born.

[Fratricide]

BINGO!!! We have a winner!! Same way I have it set up. Out of sight, out of mind! But when I do want to read the message. Its still there!!

Yay.. I win.. now whats the prize? How bout some nice fresh Chocolate chip cookies covered in homemade vanilla icecream.. that'd hit the spot right bout now.

[Delite]

The entire point of the "Distant sounds" message was because of an issue primarially brought up by roleplayers. Under normal play conditions the chat distance isn't really an issue but with roleplay it is. Someone on one side of the New Trismus town square often won't be able to hear someone on the other side, which can become very problematic with roleplay. At the very least the 'distant sounds' message lets the player know there's conversation they're missing. Steelclaw didn't want to simply increase chat range because he didn't want the chat range to be extended beyond minimum draw distance (thus hearing people talk that one might not be able to see). So as a sort of middle ground the 'Distant sounds' message was born.

So this is part of the reason why there is so much lag in NT on Chaos server -- because the server has to check each person's proximity to another player in order to determine whether or not they're missing out on some player's role playing chat that could be done with a chat channel and not local chat?

Ok makes a lot of sense. NOT!

[Steelclaw]

So this is part of the reason why there is so much lag in NT on Chaos server -- because the server has to check each person's proximity to another player in order to determine whether or not they're missing out on some player's role playing chat that could be done with a chat channel and not local chat?

Ok makes a lot of sense. NOT!

The above doesn't make a lot of sense -- but that's because that's not what causes "lag" in NT. The poor client responsiveness often described as "lag" is a result of the combination of the hardware the client software runs on, and the client software itself, which uses the hardware inefficiently. Simply put, there's too much for the client to do. Turning down the graphics detail and view distance will improve the client responsiveness in this case.

That's not to say that the distance calculation involved in broadcasting local chat doesn't have any performance impact on server-side processes. It does, but that distance calculation happens (and has happened since local chat was implemented) every time anyone says something in local, regardless of whether or not the server sends the client a message to indicate that its character was too far away to hear what was said. As for the magnitude of the performance impact, it's negligible. A heated role play session would have an impact two to four orders of magnitude smaller than the same number of characters beating up on a monster for the same period of time.


As mentioned before, changing the message is an option and suggestions are welcome. (This implies that a more favorable suggestion hasn't come up yet. ) Some goals:
- Indicate that someone is talking near the character, but the character can't hear what is being said.
- Indicate the general direction of where the conversation is taking place, so the player can move their character closer.
- Not break immersion... too much. "EH! Someone is talking near you!" is out of the question.

Would moving the out-of-range message to the local /say channel help or create additional confusion?

What about replacing out-of-range messages created within a certain time window with "[...] from the <Direction>"?

Example: 60 second window. Text in {} is commentary and will not be visible. The "Distant sounds" message will only get repeated after not receiving an out-of-range message for 60s.

{00:00s from the N} [...] Distant sounds bearing the familiar cadence of speech emanate from the North.
{00:02s from the N} [...] from the North.
{00:03s from the E} [...] from the East.
{00:15s from the N} [...] from the North.
{00:22s from the E} [...] from the East.
{00:30s from the N} [...] from the North.
{00:49s from the N} [...] from the North.
{05:00s from the E} [...] Distant sounds bearing the familiar cadence of speech emanate from the East.
{05:10s from the N} [...] from the North.

[Akrion]

So this is part of the reason why there is so much lag in NT on Chaos server -- because the server has to check each person's proximity to another player in order to determine whether or not they're missing out on some player's role playing chat that could be done with a chat channel and not local chat?

Ok makes a lot of sense. NOT!

Like Steeclaw said, the client is going to have to check distance regardless in order to determine wether or not to display to you what was typed. The only difference is that instead of not displaying what was typed, it displays a set message.

@ Steelclaw
Maybe throttle display frequency based on how often messages are coming from a specific direction? Such that the more messages coming from the West you get, the less you're told that there are 'distant sounds' coming from the West.

Edit: I was thinking a fairly bare bones way of doing it is that you could check for an out of range message (in whatever direction) every 3 seconds, for example, and if one is recieved under that 3 second limit you skip displaying the 'distant sounds' message and reset the timer. You may want some way to make sure it re-displays after, say, a minute and this would be a fairly sudden 'throttle' but.. Just a thought.

[Shian]

I'd rather keep the fact that I can hear someone across the square because with the way it is, I feel my dragons are going deaf.

This change screws up more RP problems than it solves to me.

I've seen AROP gatherings that yes, take up the entire NT square.

It's hard enough holding gatherings for speeches and bonding ceremonies in halls. Haven't tested the peak yet, but I'm sure there's issue with it too when you've got many atendees. Another popular spot for gatherings is New Brommel at the waterfall, but we've always had trouble hearing there.

[Akrion]

I'd rather keep the fact that I can hear someone across the square because with the way it is, I feel my dragons are going deaf.

This change screws up more RP problems than it solves to me.

I'm confused.. Do you think that we're talking about changing the range you can hear people talk at? The only thing that has ever changed in this regard is the message ("Distant sounds..") that informs you that people are talking outside /say range. At no point has /say distance been changed.

Even if the 'Distant sounds' were completely removed the change would do nothing but return things to the way it already was a year ago. So what change, exactly, "screws up more RP problems than it solves"? o.O

[Raptress]

I suppose it's not possible to shunt the "distant sounds" to their own chat channel (like emote, say, etc.)? I'm assuming it must be, because this solution seems so obvious.