Multiple Chat/Log Windows

One thing that bugged me the most when I first started playing FFXI, was the lack of multiple chat or log windows.
I played Asheron's Call 2 before FFXI, and well pretty much used all the 4 available windows you could put on. (one chat, one battle, one shouts, etc) and put the on various positions on the screen.
Like I find the battle logs intressting but they don't have to be in my face all the time.
The fact that you could check what you wanted to see in which window yourself, was very handy.

Also, I think most MMORPGs these days actually use such customizable setup.

I think id rather the less clutter and lag, than FFXI already has at times. :]

*Nods.* Tbh, I don't really mind the current chat log. I like to dualbox, so that means two 800x600 windows on my screen at a time. Because my resolution is smaller, I have less room for multiple windows.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea and shouldn't be included. Many like the customization and proliferation that other games like AC2/WoW/PWI offer. Sooo.. I'll rate it up anyway. Heck, if I can't dualbox in FFXIV, I'll be running it at a much larger resolution because I have my two desktop displays that I can use for browsing the web / watching videos.

You'd have the same amount of lag... You'd just have the chat that's flying by in the chat log split into multiple windows. It 'would' be nice to have a window for LS chat, a window for shouts, and then the regular window for the dmg/pt chat/effects.

I think multiple logs and positioning might be odd to handle on a console (given some people are persistant on not using a keyboard....)

All you have to do is make a menu option to select a certain window, then use an analog stick to switch the position of the window on the screen.

As far as scrolling up/down through the chat logs, it'd be as simple as switching between the windows. You could only have one selected at a time anyways. Would be weird to type in 3 at the same time.

I hate the clutter that having multiple windows creates and love FFXI's chat log because of this. However, it is very easy for the current chat-log to get spammed.

So I'd like to see this fully customisable. Allow you to have as many chat windows as you like for the different modes, allow each window to show multiple elements, or just one if you prefer. Greatly expand the chat filters and chat colour change options. Make it easy to switch a particular windows chat mode (perhaps + to get to chat window then TAB to change view mode. Escape to cancel, Enter to to expand to full screen chat log and shift-enter to add or remove the current chat-mode from that window)

Most importantly for this proposition is to keep the /s /sh /t /r /p /l chat modes we have now, as compared to other games I've played they're a super easy way of communicating.

Not saying that it has to be mandatory. I just think it's pretty handy to have.
Also in every game that actually uses multiple chat windows you always have the option to toggle them on and off.

So if you'd just use one with everything in it, well that works just like FFXI is now.

But yea, it might be a bit weird to handle on a console with just a gamepad =^.^=

Yeah, as I said, fully customisable so you can choose whether you want 1 with everything in it, or add more windows to divide up the chat.

Personally I'd like it how it is now, but perhaps set the top 2 or 3 lines for chat with the rest for battle. Even just changing the settings on the hold for chat would even be enough for me, especially if I could fine tune my chat filter a bit more.

Also, what's Xi?

Xi(XI) as in 11, FFXI? D:

Just make everyone that plays on a console use a keyboard. >.>
Keyboard > Controller for MMO's anyway.

Maybe <_<

It was the lowercase i that threw me off, I read it as a word instead of a roman numeral, BAD BART!

Also, FFXI doesn't have multiple chat windows. We mean having more than one window on the screen at once, not being able to put one chat window at full screen and switch between viewing different chat modes.

tbh...I think the XI one was fine. But it's easy to miss tells, so a much smaller window for those would have been nice, in case somebody told you "OMG I HAVE YOUR GIL!" while you were in Dynamis, then got emo you "ignored" them. Or maybe a small icon, like a POL message pops up that can be toggled on and off with a slash (/) command.

maybe just two logs, one for battle and one for all types of chat.

just an idea.

Yeh, I personally would like two logs (but only one typing bar), but others might want more/less. Full customisation is such a small bit of code on the grand scale of things, and it's all done client side as well so there's absolutely no reason for not adding it (aside from that they didn't think of it or couldn't be bothered).

I don't know about multiple logs, but certainly easier communication would be nice, specifically with people cross server. Also, how about a built in voice client? That may be nice, although I'm sure there'd be the retards out there that try to ruin it...

Yeah... I don't want voice chat to be the norm. I don't want to have to make excuses as to why I don't want to listen to some 12 year old shouting at me. I think the whole auto-translate means they won't have it anyway which is good.

Cross server communication would be good, the current method sucks balls. Having said that, I'm pretty sure they mentioned that friend lists could be carried across from FFXI and that there would be some sort of communication to people playing XI available to us. That would be awesome (if it's better than the current /flist chat method)

FFXI has multiple chat histories, you can't display single chat histories on the screen while running around doing every day things. Just wanted to make that comment so people know what the above OP is talking about.

LOTRO did this well

Battle log

LS log

/tell log

/shout log

it was awesome i would really like this implemented

It can certainly be handy and I know a lot of people like it, but a lot of people hate the clutter it creates as well, so yeah, I'm hoping for customisation.

actually no clutter at all

imagine a little floating chat Box that has 4 little titles ontop of it

when your chatting you would hit on the chat title of the box and boom you got your chat

same goes for battle log or /sh log

if you want to split them like have the battle log floating by itself leaving the 3x other titles inside the main Box you can also do that

In the end the UI was pretty decent :O

Ahh okay, but then some people don't like having to switch between boxes and would like to have everything in one box, others might want just /tells in one box and everything else in another, yet other people still might want LS and Party chat in one, /tells in another and battle /say and /shout in another. The system you describe is certainly one answer to it, I'd just like to see COMPLETE customisation.

I really like the way FFXI's chatlog layout works, but I'd really like to add a "battle log" and/or "emote log" along with the say/shout/linkshell/party/tell logs when you press the + key. But other than that, I like that it's all integrated into one general chatlog, but you can quickly check what your party or what your linkshell said in their specific logs while you were afk. Also, the filters that FFXI has are very handy.

That would be awesome enough if I were honest. 2 logs, one battle, one chat.

Well from the little gameplay video I've seen of it (don't remember what site is was), it seem like there are at least more than one chat/log window.
So I guess we don't have to worry about that nomore ^.^

This ^

I like the idea of that, i get annoyed with the battle chat at times tbh, but this way would be more practical