In-game, I've usually only got the time on the launchpad to say what I need.  I'd like to be able to type when I'm selecting a ship, and I'd like to be able to finish typing whatever was in progress when I get destroyed (happens sometimes).

The global chat is a great idea.  Will it be a minimizable window while in-game or will it be visible at all in game?  (sometimes it would be nice to ask/answer a question in game)

Scripted messages would be good.  Are you intending to use the old list?  Can you please give us the option to customize/replace a few?  Will there be a way to send to just your wingmates or battlegroup?

Questions about Taunts/Gloats;

Creds, He3, or both?  (I suggest He3 only if you're looking for revenue...)

Will these appear automatically when you destroy someone?  Or are they user-activated?

Can you enable/disable so that you can choose whether to see them?

...sorry for the question spam...

Global chat would *replace* in game chat.  Players could turn it on and off (probably with keystroke).  In the lobby, there would be team chat and global chat.  Players would wait in the lobby for a fixed period of time between games, with on option to practice or duel.  

Probably not the old list.  The list would be editable.  Except taunts/gloats, all messages would only go to your team (with in-game visual/audio ques).  There would be wingmates (and/or radius limited) messages.

All items (except boosts) will be purchasable with both cred and he-3.  However, some items will have low he-3 costs but much higher cred costs (especially items with no balance effects such as taunts).  

Choosing not to see a taunt kind of defeats the purpose of taunting...  But the frequency will be controlled/context sensitive to prevent spam.  Really I am not sure exactly how they should work. --wj

I also vote for MechWarrior-style reticle zoom. It's much better for a game where you can't necessarily stop moving just to zoom and aim.

I suppose this isnt' the thread for it, though.

maybe give say 5- 6 second to advise the game will  start soon (after enough player appied for start), so not time for long chat for explanations or such.

I've had a lot of good conversations in the in-lobby chat, but I find that those conversations tend to hold up the game starting, pissing off those who just want to get to the pew-pew. Trying to resume those convos in-game is challenging, but not impossible, but frustrated by the fact that the in-game chat disappears forever, and does so really quickly.

As long as a conversation started in lobby can continue in the game and/or resume afterwards and retain scrollback history in case you missed something that was said while you were busy with pew-pew, I'd be happy. From there, take your time working on improvements and features, focusing on the gameplay/fun issues first. Not that socializing isn't part of the fun.

I think the dream would be something like WoW (or any MMO) style chat, plus voice (EVE online has nailed this down, if you're looking for examples), with separate, color-coded channels for every imaginable granularity and group boundary, and a UI that's both customizable and unobtrusive. I wonder if there's some sort of open-source codebase for that type of functionality available somewhere. I guess it's basically just a dressed-up IRC implementation.

The simplified, hotkeyed command/taunt concept does suit this game pretty well, also, due to the fast pace. I say in the short-term, that'd be less interesting to me than just a solid unified chat system that works across lobbies and games seamlessly.

Oh, I wouldn't recommend copying EVE's chat. Too much info noise, I agree. But they have a good structure for voice chat, which is tightly integrated into their regular chat system. Players without voice capabilities can still listen in, and all the channels are the same as the text chat, so joining groups and so forth can be totally seamless.

WoW's chat UI (at least last time I checked), by default at least, is fairly minimal. It takes up 20% of the screen, but it fades out to almost nothing when you aren't using it, but allowing you to still track it visually without interrupting your gameplay. Fades in for good readability when you summon it. If it's visible and running in a periphery zone, after getting used to it, players can follow it without taking their eyes off the targeting zone. I'm fine with it where it is right now, I just wish it retained some history and had some sort of visibility toggle so that at least between lives I could retain a persistent thread of information.

you meen implement a teamspeak/ventrillo type of future in the game itself ?