First, this is NOT a complaint thread!

Apparently, something with Town Chats will interfere with how the "new Hub" system will work. Most of us really don't have any idea how the Hub WILL work, but the majority of the people involved in creating it seem to be excited about it. I think that their enthusiasm is very encouraging :)

However, we've been hearing about the Hub for 4+ months now. As a project engineer, I completely understand the idea of "we're not going to tell you every step of the process because a) we may have to change something in the middle if it doesn't work the way we thought it would and b) the steps don't matter, just the end result." I know keeping the end result a secret means you don't have to explain why certain "features" you told everyone about a few months ago is not going to be able to be released...ever. (ie: Diablo II guilds)

Believe me, I can't wait for the new stuff, it sounds like it will be game shifting!

But... is there going to be an alternative to Town Chat? Something that I can use to talk with anyone in a large town, no matter where I and they happen to be?

**While Local works to 500 blocks, Lancaster (Arcadia Nation) is about 16 (1000 x 800, I think) towns now. I can't hear the CENTER of town from the edge in Local, let alone the far side.​

**We could use Party Chat (if that is still staying), but there are some problems.​

1. 1. a Party "starter" must invite every person. There is no alternative, co-mayor, extra owner-type arrangement. Only one person can be the Inviter. If they are offline, no one gets in until the Inviter gets online again.
   2. You may not fight anyone PvP who is also in the Party. This makes Town PvP arenas really difficult to use. (I have no idea if Party Chat works in SG or not) The person would have to leave the Party, go fight, then be re-invited. The Inviter would quickly get tired of re-inviting the same 4 people 10+ times a day.

**Global Chat is.... *recalls "school assemblies with the entire 1500+ student body in one massive room* just... no.

**PM's only really work for person-to-person, not groups.
​

I don't mind the Town Chat being removed, as long as there will be some way for our community to communicate effectively with each other over long distances, preferably across worlds. It's been great being able to hear people in town asking for a Erep, water placement, or ask questions about the town... while I am in the Mining World. No one has to "stand guard" in the center of town on the chance a new resident will need something.

Maybe we had too many Town Chats and it caused lag (like cookpots). If so, maybe the replacement will need some sort of requirements beyond money (ie: must have at least 4 towns bordering eachother, must have at least 30+ people have perms to said towns, etc.)

I really don't need to know exactly what the new stuff will be. Surprises and improvements ARE cool, otherwise Minecraft would still just have one wood, one stone, no colors, and only 4 biomes.

However, I WOULD like to know if 5+ town communities are something that ECC, in the future, will be supporting with some sort of easy communication method. Without some way to talk to just a certain number of people over long distances, larger towns will become unwieldy and obsolete.

Again, this is NOT a complaint. It is a request for reassurance / information.

 

Andrew (note: no tagging *grin*)

It may help us come up with alternatives if we have some ideas on why the existing Town Chat will not be compatible with future changes.

If it's laggy issue, maybe we could add more stringent requirements before allowing them. (How many were there anyway?)

If it is a software compatibility issue, suggesting various chat plug-ins won't work without knowing what the new stuff will be.

If it's a "hard to manage administratively" issue, not too many replacements are going to be "administratively automatic" (nothing works right, every time, all the time *grin*)


I am completely non-programmer compliant. I had to Google how to change my skin last week! (and before you belligerent 11 year olds start with the "coding isn't hard!" comments, neither is starting from a standstill, up a hill, driving a manual transmission, without stalling... with experience *grin*) So I have no ideas on what a replacement would be. Hopefully we can put something back into the "Town Chat hole", but nothing we already have will work without turning it into something that may get in the way of the new stuff anyway (ie: Party Chat with multiple Inviters)


Hmm... Can you change it so there is more than one "Inviter" in a Party Chat? Can it be changed that people could be in more than one Party?


Hmmm

You heard (read) him folks, let's hear the ideas! I already made the "I don't know" suggestion, so 5 more people commenting "I don't know either" wont help ;)

 

So, any word on the reason they were removed? (software issue, lag, etc.)