Chat Usability Enhancements Suggestion

[John Kucera]

Civ World looks great on first glance!

The biggest issue for me is that Chat is on a separate page, making it impossible to monitor.

I encourage the dev team to look at how Galaxy Online II from IGG does their chat inline, with toggles for World, Civilization, Private, and City.

This UI format is a lot more social and engaging as the Chat window is always present, and there aren't clunky (and slow) toggles between world/civ/friend.

The downside of GO2's chat is the lack of a Civilization forum, which is needed for coordinating activities with people not yet online. Perhaps adding both would work (TribalWars.net does the team forum well).

Having an ever-present world chat is important for new players as they attempt to learn the nuances. Without it, you'll see more people bail within the first login and never come back.

[Glinda]

Yes, chat needs work, because when you have good communication in a nation, you can do well.

[mugwump67]

Chat is pretty cumbersome right now. One very simple thing that could be done is to save the state of the chat window when I leave it. Right now if I'm chatting with my civ, leave the chat window and come back, it resets to global. I'd like it to stay in civ mode. Count the clicks and you'll improve the interface.

[dukemagus]

transform a chat in a mini forum, requires more memory, but at least makes communication and planning easier