Recently in our community survey many players commented on the fact that the chat is sometimes too busy. This is going to become more and more of a problem as we continue to grow. We also have had a problem with people spamming the same message in the chat. I am interested to hear any ideas everyone has to solving this problem. One solution would be to limit chat by a radius, so you have to be x blocks from a player to get their chat messages (for example 300 blocks). This would actually be pretty easy for me to implement and it would work well. However you wouldn't be able to coordinate with a friend that is off in another area (unless you whisper). I also see this as a problem with new player because they may ask for help and not hear anything back. What do you think?
It is a very tricky issue. What I have in mind may be somewhat complex, but could work. Essentially it's just a clone of the channel system in WoW or any other MMO. Each world would have a channel that you automatically join when you enter that world. Obviously this means you cannot communicate with someone in another world, but there could be a global channel which would behave as it does currently. You could also change to another world's channel manually if you wish. Proximity chat would be useful if you're off on an adventure and don't want to be bothered by anyone else, except for your other party members. As for people spamming, I imagine there is a flood filter mod you can install.
The easiest (albeit laziest) fix would be to simply add a scrolling feature in the current chatbox. Yes, the chatbox is becoming more full as of late and will only continue to grow in text as we grow in numbers. I think that adding a scroll feature would give you more time to work on a more elaborate chatbox and it should calm the masses anger of missing a message because of spamming, too many "lol"'s, had to use the bathroom, etc. As far as full improvements go, I agree with AusQB's idea for the usage of a "channel" system. Maybe even with an added ability to create one's own channel? That way parties who are adventuring off in the woods don't have to worry about Joe Griefer accidentally hearing about where their going? For spamming...well....Maybe a three-strike program? One that would kick players from the server if they repeatedly post a message three times.
I'm not sure if that can be accomplished by a server mod. It is a client-side change so only you can add it. Spoutcraft has chat scrolling built in, but if you'd rather use the normal client, there are a number of chat mods available.
I found a pretty good open source chat channel plugin and I am currently in the process of adapting it to our server / fixing some bugs. I will keep everyone posted.
