Warframe Chat: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[Grythor]

The Chat Box in the Warframe client has always been very basic, the only real enhancements over basic text being the @Mention, [Link] and the :emote: functions. I am starting this topic because I believe that it is past time for some changes to it and this topic could be the place for DE to look for community suggestions.

The Good: Sometimes it's simplicity serves it well, the Q&A in Region chat will get you answers fast, with community + DE mods there to help. In addition, the whisper function and squad chat are readily available and easy to use, making inviting and ignoring people who talk to you quick.  however there are issues with the other tabs that the chat box is not really sufficient for.

 

The Bad: The recruiting tab has to serve the needs of Clans and Squads, when both could be handled outside of the chat box as separate features: Clan recruiting could be done via a browser, a space where the Clan leader can write a few facts and tick a few boxes that represents the clan, allowing recruits to filter through ads and apply directly through a browser. An example of Clan recruitment done well, would be EVE Onlines Corp system, which is minimalistic and easy to use.

Squad recruiting could be handled via a separate lobby system, a significant issue with squad recruitment at the moment, is it bumps the less common clan recruiting off the screen constantly and often people who want the same thing are unable to notice over the sheer number of people looking for Relic farm. The lobby system should be simple, so there would be two main things to select. The objective and the Warframes you are willing to play and those you need. The objective would be either the mission you want, or the resource you wish to farm, with a filter for keys / relics being required for people that join. The Warframes you are willing to play should be a simple selection on or off, with the additional filter of requiring a level 30 Warframe.

 

The Ugly: This to me comes in the form of Trading chat, which is aided by the help offsite trade listing websites, however is still a complete mess. This is probably the most difficult to fix by just adding additional features but I think some separation would help this chat a lot and I thought of two differing approaches to help with this. First of all, a separation of goods, for example: Rivens, Primes and Other could work. Rivens are the biggest category of items linked in Trading chat and are the hardest to advertise offsite, so making a different tab for them could really help. The Prime category could include Prime parts and primed mods, with mods and syndicate goods in another tab as well. Another idea that comes to mind, is a separation of intent: Allow people to tab their posts With either WTB, WTS or WTT, then allow people to filter their Chat box so they will see any combination of the three post types, so they can filter out WTB for example if they aren't selling anything.

 

Just to re-iterate; I want this to be a place where people can BOTH suggest and discuss their ideas and thoughts on the Chat Box in Warframe and I welcome any and all constructive feedback you have.

 

My Thanks in advance,

Grythor

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by Grythor
Additions to last major paragraph.

[Grythor]

The Chat Box in the Warframe client has always been very basic, the only real enhancements over basic text being the @Mention, [Link] and the :emote: functions. I am starting this topic because I believe that it is past time for some changes to it and this topic could be the place for DE to look for community suggestions.

The Good: Sometimes it's simplicity serves it well, the Q&A in Region chat will get you answers fast, with community + DE mods there to help. In addition, the whisper function and squad chat are readily available and easy to use, making inviting and ignoring people who talk to you quick.  however there are issues with the other tabs that the chat box is not really sufficient for.

 

The Bad: The recruiting tab has to serve the needs of Clans and Squads, when both could be handled outside of the chat box as separate features: Clan recruiting could be done via a browser, a space where the Clan leader can write a few facts and tick a few boxes that represents the clan, allowing recruits to filter through ads and apply directly through a browser. An example of Clan recruitment done well, would be EVE Onlines Corp system, which is minimalistic and easy to use.

Squad recruiting could be handled via a separate lobby system, a significant issue with squad recruitment at the moment, is it bumps the less common clan recruiting off the screen constantly and often people who want the same thing are unable to notice over the sheer number of people looking for Relic farm. The lobby system should be simple, so there would be two main things to select. The objective and the Warframes you are willing to play and those you need. The objective would be either the mission you want, or the resource you wish to farm, with a filter for keys / relics being required for people that join. The Warframes you are willing to play should be a simple selection on or off, with the additional filter of requiring a level 30 Warframe.

 

The Ugly: This to me comes in the form of Trading chat, which is aided by the help offsite trade listing websites, however is still a complete mess. I think some separation would help this chat a lot and I thought of two differing approaches to help with this. First of all, a separation of goods, for example: Rivens, Primes and Other could work. Rivens are the biggest category of items linked in Trading chat and are the hardest to advertise offsite, so making a different tab for them could really help. The Prime category could include Prime parts and primed mods, with mods and syndicate goods in another tab as well. Another idea that comes to mind, is a separation of intent: Allow people to tag their posts With either WTB, WTS or WTT, then allow people to filter their chat box by these tags, so they will see any combination of the three post types, so they can filter out WTB for example if they aren't selling anything.

 

Just to re-iterate; I want this to be a place where people can BOTH suggest and discuss their ideas and thoughts on the Chat Box in Warframe and I welcome any and all constructive feedback you have.

 

My Thanks in advance,

Grythor

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by Grythor

[Dahx11]

IMO region chat is far more toxic than recruiting tab. A lot of players' bias get in the way of what the real answer to your question is. And a lot of players in it just like to troll instead of give real answers. At least in recruit chat, if you're persistent enough you can get the squad you're looking for.

 

P.S. I'm with you in the trade chat part tho

Edited January 14, 2018 by Dahx11

[Entharias]

1)No different tabs for trading, it's stupid.
2)There is already a filter for chat.

[(PSN)XxDenyer143xX]

Even more tabs would make the chat experience worse. For ex: your separate trade chat for rivens, primes, and "other", there is already a filter that can do twice as much, by getting you just primes and the primes you want.

[Grythor]

I was trying suggest to suggest tags rather than the current filter, although your points still stand.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Grythor

[Grythor]

Currently you cannot filter out riven mods categorically although you can do the same for primes.

[(PSN)XxDenyer143xX]

Just filter the words "rivens". I can guarantee to you that when people plan on selling rivens, they go, "selling a <item name> riven!  " 

Edited January 14, 2018 by (PS4)XxDenyer143xX

[(PSN)BMWWOW]

Its "good enough" IMO, however I do like the idea of have a separate chat JUST for Clan Recruiting.  Clan messages in the same chat as LF / Hosting game does kind of clog the flow.  As for the Trade chat, my only beef is that during mid-day the scroll zooms by soooo fast that its almost impossible to keep up.  Would be kinda cool to be able to throttle (slow down as needed) the scoll-flow.