Spec chat OFF

[FrogNuker]

Hey guys,

I would kill to have this implemented.
From my understanding this cant be done from the mod.

Simply the ability to turn spec chat OFF in full.

So that players in game cannot and do not get flooded with Spec chat.
Whilst there is the ability for specs to chat amoungst themselves, you only need one to abuse the players, spec cheat etc. cause flooding and any number of issues.

I say, players don't need to hear the specs. Turn it off.

This could be implemented with a vote system.
I would suggest that default is OFF, and players should vote to turn it on.

This should also apply to any messages from the lobby. They should be considered one and the same.

Much thanks,

FrogNuker

[bibim]

This functionality is already implemented.

If you are hosting a game, you can enable it with "/noSpectatorChat".
If you are playing on a SPADS autohost, you can enable it with "!noSpecChat 1". And if you want it enabled by default, ask the corresponding autohost admin to set the noSpecChat setting default value to 1.

[gajop]

This does not qualify as an engine request, as it already exists. You may want to post it as a wanted feature for your game, like the topic in ZK forums, but that's a question of game design.

[FrogNuker]

Ahh much thanks. I was not aware and I had asked the community before posting.

Few must know of it. Ill pass it around.

Much thanks for your assistance !

[Forboding Angel]

This does not qualify as an engine request, as it already exists. You may want to post it as a wanted feature for your game, like the topic in ZK forums, but that's a question of game design.

It would make sense to have a player toggle for spectator chat, in that respect it makes sense as an engine request.

[Silentwings]

It is already easy for a games UI to filter/augment chat via widget:AddConsoleLine.

[Forboding Angel]

Yes, it's easy for games to do it, but it isn't easy for players to do it themselves. That is why this makes sense as an engine request, to give the player the ability. Maybe game xyz thinks that specchat isn't an issue regardless of the spec abuse and bs that happens during games. With a player level toggle, the player doesn't need to succumb to unnecessary stupidity in the game.

Additionally, how many games use chat widgets that have the ability for the player to turn on spec chat filtering? One? If any?

You're putting it out there as if it's a choice when realistically, it really isn't.

[Jools]

It is already easy for a games UI to filter/augment chat via widget:AddConsoleLine.

That's how you can augment the chat, but to my knowledge there is no good way of filtering/reading the current chat without risking to alter it.

[Silentwings]

Far from being a minimal example, but e.g. http://imolarpg.dyndns.org/trac/balates ... e.lua#L311, http://imolarpg.dyndns.org/trac/balates ... e.lua#L361

(Maybe I misunderstood you, or maybe you are confused about the purpose of widget:AddConsoleLine; it is called after a new line (chat or otherwise) is added to the infolog.)

[Jools]

It's just the Spring.GetConsoleBuffer: I've used to here to display a desync warning: https://github.com/xta-springrts/xta-sp ... arning.lua

... and it has the effect that some of the input text is sometimes swallowed. I figured that maybe this call-in wasn't supposed to be used for getting chat text, that it maybe actually has some other purpose.

You haven't noticed any disappearing chat?

[Google_Frog]

This does not qualify as an engine request, as it already exists. You may want to post it as a wanted feature for your game, like the topic in ZK forums, but that's a question of game design.

gajop that thread in the ZK forum was not useful because it already exists in ZK. I had already edited the widget handler to make a modoption for blocking spectator chat.

This does not qualify as an engine request, as it already exists. You may want to post it as a wanted feature for your game, like the topic in ZK forums, but that's a question of game design.

It would make sense to have a player toggle for spectator chat, in that respect it makes sense as an engine request.

Your reason given does not make this make any more sense as an engine request. How is an engine request going to make players able to toggle spectator chat when games are the ones that implement the UI? If a player wants the ability to block spectator chat then they had better ask the game developer to do it because the game is going to have to have the UI to support the option. Since it's so easy to do in a widget the game dev may as well do the final implementation as well.

[Silentwings]

You haven't noticed any disappearing chat?

GetConsoleBuffer has a limit on how many lines into the past it can look, I think. And it won't pick up some stuff at the very start of the infolog. But that's all I've noticed.

[Forboding Angel]

Your reason given does not make this make any more sense as an engine request. How is an engine request going to make players able to toggle spectator chat when games are the ones that implement the UI? If a player wants the ability to block spectator chat then they had better ask the game developer to do it because the game is going to have to have the UI to support the option. Since it's so easy to do in a widget the game dev may as well do the final implementation as well.

You're saying that the engine is incapable of filtering out stuff that is exposed to lua?

[Google_Frog]

Your reason given does not make this make any more sense as an engine request. How is an engine request going to make players able to toggle spectator chat when games are the ones that implement the UI? If a player wants the ability to block spectator chat then they had better ask the game developer to do it because the game is going to have to have the UI to support the option. Since it's so easy to do in a widget the game dev may as well do the final implementation as well.

You're saying that the engine is incapable of filtering out stuff that is exposed to lua?

I am not saying that at all. I am saying that the engine is incapable of adding a toggle in a way that is coherent with the UI of any particular game. Only game developers can make coherent additions to their UI because the engine knows nothing about their UI. So the game dev has to do some work to add the toggle and, since it is so simple to do in a widget, they may as well do all the work.