Apologies & Removal of Global Chat.

[King Kong]

Apologies for the couple downs we had tonight. We were not down long, but I under there were minor reverts. Doesn't happen often, but with millions of line of code, something is bound to break sometime. We are weeding out issues, and think we have most of it taken care of. I appreciate you guys letting us do out maintenance we need to do once and awhile.


Also Pandora is getting so large, along with other things, simply how our shard runs it's engine now (the 10 second save times sometimes, less lag, etc etc) that our [c and [t chats are simply spiking players a lot. That uses a ton of resources to broadcast and ping so every single person can read it, and it goes non stop all day. This is why no large shards have a chat room inside the game, we are very lucky we have gotten this far. Not saying it is gone forever, as of course we will try and do a work around, but we are past the point of a bandaid. You still have [pm and your guild chats which work great. Not to mention, has nothing to do with you guys, but moderating global chat eats up a ton of resources for the staff, not just making sure it's running smooth but then answering pages about chat bans, people getting upset, etc etc. Also it makes us vulnerable to other shard attacks and a lot of other things.

INCASE the global chats do not come back, I of course will not leave you hanging. Mostly this effects trade channel. So Vorspire and me are currently building a nice auction system for players to sell things on, buy things, etc etc. We will be working on this even if we get a work around with global chat. It's a complex system, so thank you for your patience as we work on it. Trade is what a removal of these chats would most effect.

[c not so much, 80% of the time it is just fun chit chat, but their are a good amount of questions in it, which in turn will make me have to hire some more counselors to be able to answer them. But that's on us.

I was also thinking about broadcast deeds, for a certain small amount you can buy a broadcast deed, where you can say 1 thing to the entire shard... But these are just random ideas, we might be able to get chat working again perfectly. But to be honest, I knew this was coming. That's why I have always said no big shard ever has global chat and why chat rules are so strict. As if you are going to talk, it better not be negative, etc. It lags lags lags and eats up tons of resources.


I am open to idea on other methods to replace [c / [t -- Please do not complain about it, it's not a 100% for sure thing yet to begin with. But in case it is I do want to here ideas to Trade easier. Maybe even easier than the channel.

I also thinking about getting a shard mIRC channel set up. I will of course pay for it and host it, if someone has a lot of experience with IRC please shoot me a private message on forums.

Again sorry folks, working around the clock for you. Also will need some people on test shard soon enough to start testing the new Battle system. Will let you know.

Stay tuned.

- King

[King Kong]

Actually while thinking this over, I do miss the days of people spamming their items for sale at Brit Tram Bank - that  just tickles me to death, I am sure all the old school UO players remember it.

 :lol:

[Belegerandh]

I remember the fun mischief there. Herding dozens of critters through the area at once, gating to suicide spots ... gating to the bank from a house in Fel with my friends. *Gank* *I ban thee* *loot*

The bank was lots of fun!  :lol:

[Enix]

How about making chat only work regional?  Meaning if you're in Insula, only people in Insula will see your chat.  This could also work at Brit Bank, seeing as you like the "old school feel".

[Angel0178]

This is just a thought, and it may not work since not everyone has a headset or microphone, but the last time I was on ventrilo, I noticed aside from the guildies, no one really uses it. Why not suggest that be for the chat. That way, people can actually talk to each other while they are battling instead of having to type and constantly seeing spells that they cast with the keyboard letters. Again, just a thought, take it or don't.

[Maggdalena]

Ventrilo is always an option  

You don't necessarily have to have a mic or headset, as there is a chat feature.

There's even a New Player Channel if you just need to ask questions, or would like to hang in there and help others.

From the Wiki:

Pandora's Ventrilo

IP: vent.pandorauo.com
Port: 3124
If you have a guild & want your own password protected channel, contact staff in game.
Download Ventrilo Here!

[ONE BAD BRO YOYO]

I always thought a general chat was one of the greater additions to the client, especially on OSI.  Always made it so much easier to connect with the players, without having to wait for them at a central location (Luna/WBB), or hope you run into them out in the game, which has expanded so greatly, making it more difficult.  Buying/selling I've had a lot of trouble with, and I think it'll become more difficult, but at the same time maybe it'll direct players to the forums here, that would be great.

Hope you can find a way to bring it back one day, even if it's not the same as it once was.

[King Kong]

and one who is IRC savvy, somewhat. Please send me a message

[xcalibre]

You can just add a button on pandorauo.com (chat) with the same room than you have on pandora.  PVP, Trading, Global, Russian  Something like "ajax chat"...  For UO if someone press [t or [c just link to web browser in appropriate room...

https://blueimp.net/ajax/img/screenshot ... -users.png

[Voxpire]

Here's an option I'm willing to here ideas on, World Chat is a key staple of any MMO environment.

The main reason that the current global chat was and has failed is because of the age of the code internals, it uses algorithms that have not been finely tuned to live up to the latest standards in technology and the chances are that it was weighing down the shard because it was sending messages to offline players also, which is an unnecessary amount of extr work-load which would cause spikes.

If you think about it, 200 players on-line, one chat message has to be sent out from the server 200 times within a split second - now usually the server could buffer that no problem but when you factor in a few hundred offline players you're heading down the road to destruction if it's not optimized.

Suffice to say, I will be discussing World Chat further with Konstantine to see if it should be put back in.

I'd like to hear your views on it too, if World Chat gets reinstated, would you like it to remain the same, or would you like a more robust and feature rich chat style like World of Warcraft? This can be done... most anything can be done, the only limits we face are those of the UO Client itself, other than that, our limitation is our imagination, so get on board

[zaxarus]

Is there an IRC channel now?

@Worldchat:

I liked worldchat, it made it much easier to communicate, to trade or "only" to know that you're not alone. Well, something of feelings...
If it's not up to date it sounds like a wise decision to work on it - because I am sure that a big freeshard like Pandora needs it. It is standard.

I've got no big wishes concerning a new world chat. I need to type and to read people's thoughts, offers and whatever. I don't need a battlechat or something else. Just a system which can help us all to find each other, sometimes to trade or simply ask gameplay questions.
I think if world chat would become something like in WoW it also could eat up resources or can get a little annoying (--> *hates WoW*).

There is also an option to connect IRC with UO. You could type and read in IRC AND simultaneously ingame.

[King Kong]

Is there an IRC channel now?

@Worldchat:

I liked worldchat, it made it much easier to communicate, to trade or "only" to know that you're not alone. Well, something of feelings...
If it's not up to date it sounds like a wise decision to work on it - because I am sure that a big freeshard like Pandora needs it. It is standard.

I've got no big wishes concerning a new world chat. I need to type and to read people's thoughts, offers and whatever. I don't need a battlechat or something else. Just a system which can help us all to find each other, sometimes to trade or simply ask gameplay questions.
I think if world chat would become something like in WoW it also could eat up resources or can get a little annoying (--> *hates WoW*).

There is also an option to connect IRC with UO. You could type and read in IRC AND simultaneously ingame.

Global chat actually is not standard. It's a script created by Knives from the RUNUO community and is custom and not included in any UO engine.

IRC is coming, will be a ton better than the global chat was, will be a window right off the website you can just keep on your screen. And yes you can connect it to UO, many many things we will do with IRC.

I hate WoW too  :lol:

[zaxarus]

Global chat actually is not standard. It's a script created by Knives from the RUNUO community and is custom and not included in any UO engine.

IRC is coming, will be a ton better than the global chat was, will be a window right off the website you can just keep on your screen. And yes you can connect it to UO, many many things we will do with IRC.

I hate WoW too

@Standard:
Yes, I know. What I wanted to say was that it's somehow standard for a freeshard, in my personal opinion.^^ (At least on a shard with 100+ players online.)

@IRC:
I am very excited to hear this.
Maybe that window could pop up as a gump?

@WoW:
You're my man.^^

[Casho]

...if World Chat gets reinstated...

I think we do not realy need more features.
but...hm...maybe..one thing would be nice.
(dont know if its possible)
if we could click on the name in chat to send PM would be great.

[Angel0178]

I second that idea.