Chat Channels

If we're going that route then I suggest a more 'Wurm' way to do things. Have regional/local (current, yet limited in area), World (once you have technology), or even delayed messages [snail mail] (if you hired NPCs as messangers & mailbox) as ways of communication.

1) Regional/Local: You can talk to anybody in a rough 1000x1000 radius making things more immersive.

2) World: This could become available once people get attached to electronic technology, something they can upgrade after snail mail. This could also be used to silence trolls & greifers by making them work to annoy people while having people immerse themselves in the world around them. The chat they would see could depend on device type, yet mobile devices should prompt open the current chat we have.

3) Snail Mail: You know how Romans used to keep their vast Empire in the know without technology? Do it yourself via snail mail, or have NPCs transfer mail around from place to place in both the open & covertly to get people in the know. To acquire NPCs you may have to rescue them & train them a bit, yet once taught & equipped they would be your important asset keeping you & your friends in the know making sure your NPC buddies had horses to do the tedious communication tasks. The further the settlements then the longer these snail mails would take (bonus: objects they carry would also transport). Your hired NPC should know how to get from you to the other player, even if it has to cheat by covertly loading into the chunk to get there & back (unless an ocean or lake blocks them, yet if bridge or tunnel they should keep going]. (Think of various types of mail boxes, scrolls, books, journal & such opening up into the journal type manner)

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The further away people would be the slower things should be. Modern era be the exception, yet for Medieval type era communication it be amusing. I would be amused if Red51 even did consider & add this in for immersive sake. If not, then that's a shame. Imagine the effort people would take to get communication networks built up though. Communication towers, cell phone antennas, snail mail networks, and etc. It would be all amusing. The amount of effort to go into it, just like their builds.

I guess people would have issues with this, yet it would give reason to have more chat types, even guild ones. I bet there'd be those not liking the idea, yet that's for everything from my experience. There's people that hate everything, and those that genuinely hate the thought for various reason. It's hard to tell which is which, yet hope there's people who can justify & justify why they dislike the thought.

I'd be amused struggling to talk to my friend, yet there's things like Discord & steam chat to cheat a bit

Quote from ArcticuKitsu

3) Snail Mail: You know how Romans used to keep their vast Empire in the know without technology? Do it yourself via snail mail[...]

I like the idea of snail mail; user-wise is relatively simple to implement in a rather meaningful way. A "post box"-like craftable item, which only certain players (admins?) can craft to simulate the fact that a post box by itself does nothing and requires a complex back-end network in order to work.

Any user can go to the post box and "post" a message / letter. After a time proportional to the distance, the 'letter' would be 'dropped' in the recipient chat window. While potentially amusing, it is not strictly necessary to simulate the details of what happens in between.

Variations:

- 'letters' may be dropped in a specific user mail box, rather than in the chat, with a history / log of received letters.
- sending may have a cost ("stamp"); as long as the game does not have a built-in currency, it may be in resources
- there might be a 'broadcast' mode, toward a specific post box and the 'letter' would be received by all users within a certain radius of the destination post box (possibly with a higher cost).
- it might totally supersede any world-wide chat; the today chat would only be 'local', i.e. within a certain radius from the speaker.

As I have already said in several occasions, I do not like the idea of implementing a technology progress in the user play flow (including techniques for communication). The idea might be appealing on paper, but I am convinced that it does not suits the mechanics of the current MP model (and, of course, mail and communication in general does not make sense in single player).

P.S.: The Roman Empire relied on the same communication means used by any other empire or largish country since early antiquity up to XIX century. They 'simply' organised and managed those means somehow better (and not always neither anywhere).

Seeing as how Rising World is still being fleshed out everything and anything is possible. The stuff we see now isn't 100% that will stay in the end product. Maybe it shall, yet we would have to see.

The thing with this idea (as much as people deny things in fear) is that it would work well, as it would in 7 Days to Die in other forms. Maybe not the 7th Day survival swarm, yet everything else being nitty gritty worked with that game that I can see it crossing over nicely into Rising World, but only if NPCs are taken full advantage of to travel on horse back, boats, among others, even if it has to be simulated. Even mark out pathways on maps, or have them figure out a pathway within a certain chunk range when stuck as they wander the map, or have them set to follow your pathways.They would go to the various messenger/post office boxes then deliver them where you suggested it, yet having to consider inventory space & such.

Granted, if people hate this idea so much they can simply filter it to the standard Minecraft stuff, yet talking via scrolls at first would be an interesting struggling idea as you would nudge your way up to morse code, telephones, and etc. Red51 did say he wanted to get electricity up so it would be interesting to see internet cables of various sorts set up, as well as cellphone towers, among others. Even being able to broadcast stuff across the map, such as a Google Maps type map, among other things.

This could tie in with both chat channel tabs, yet it can also go into so much more.

Also, about 'stamps' and such for a post office of both a Medieval & modern era would be interesting (as Miiware noted). I guess paying with resources to stamp stuff, something merchants could provide in whatever era & service type. Something you could eventually work around, probably trying to have wandering merchants keep up with supply and demand. There's lots to this that I could also note.