Chat System

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The Chat System

Basics

The chat servers are using xmpp, and will be located at xmpp://xmpp.battlebazaar.net. These will be secured using TLS/SSL, using a signed certificate from GoDaddy, just like our current servers do. The chat domain will be battlebazaar.net, and there will be interoperability with the Jabber and GTalk networks (as well as any other XMPP gateway).

XMPP is also used for messaging between the servers as well as communications with the master server. XMPP is available in many chat programs, including Trillian. Voice Chat will be an option eventually if we choose to do it, as well.

XMPP is also used to request the server list, and for some other purposes within the game engine.

Jabber ID's

A jabber ID looks like an email, for example john@battlebazaar.net (that is one of our spam accounts, by the way, so if spammers harvest it then its less spam for the rest of us).

In order to allow tells to easily route through XMPP, I'm going to assign jabber ID's in the following pattern:

john@battlebazaar.net -- master account

char1@shard.game.battlebazaar.net -- character 1

char2@shard.game.battlebazaar.net -- character 2

Subscriptions on the master account will fire when any character is logged in, and messages sent to the master account will be delivered to all characters.

Tell's 101

Same game and shard tell:

/t person message

Same game, different shard tell:

/t Failed to find InterWikisTopic [_InterWikis]. message

Different game, different shard tell:

/t person@shard.game message

Different chat service tell (IM):

/t person@gtalk.com message

Chat 101

Multi-user chat is a feature in XMPP that allows you to have chat rooms. Users join those chat rooms, and exchange messages with each other. Each player association receives a private chat channel, which will look something like this:

player_association.shard.game.battlebazaar.net

The display in chat will be:

(abbrev) Soandso: is it true that missle dodge step 5 is broken?

When a sector server starts up, it will create several channels automatically:

say.sector.server.game.battlebazaar.net -- vicinity chat

shout.sector.server.game.battlebazaar.net -- shout chat

combat.sector.server.game.battlebazaar.net -- combat spam

analysis.sector.server.game.battlebazaar.net -- automatic stat computations

Note

chat in these channels is always identified by location and volume. People who are over "volume" distance from the point of origin don't receive the message. Specific sectors can apply positive or negative volume channel.

Dependent on play mode, one or more team and faction chats will be created as well.

Users may create their own chat channels as well:

/create channel:password

(or they can get to it from the right click on the chat menu as well)

say and shout are on the typical / commands:

/say

/shout

In keeping with MUD tradition, an apostrophe or single quote will trigger say and an exclamation point will trigger shout.

Also keeping with MUD tradition:

/me - suppress : after name

; - suppress : and space after name

: - suppress : after name

For example:

/me dances

Whoever dances.

Accomplishments and Awards

Any time a "letter rank" is assigned to a task (F, D, C, B, A, S), the character's score goes up:

F: 0

D: 1

C: 2

B: 5

A: 8

S: 11

(those are proposed numbers subject to change). The player's overall score is the total of all their character's scores. The score is broken into two columns, however. One is for PvE and the other is for PvP. When you inspect a character, you see both the player and the specific character's scores. The total number of updates for both columns is also kept.

Note

the average rank is one factor in scaling encounters -- if you are getting S ranks every time, the system can scale the encounters to make them more difficult. Conversely, if you are getting a F rank every time, the system can scale the encounters to make them easier.

My thought is that a similar scale would be used for baseline mission rewards.

Other services

Other services, such as Player Association recruitment, etc. will flow through the XMPP service. Basically, anything that isn't absolutely timing critical will flow through the XMPP session.