First of all, let me say that the requests for getting the old chat system back have not gone unnoticed. However, unless the devs tell me it's a possibility, I don't see any reason for me to spend time on the issue, posting polls and such.

About the new chat system...

Note: These lists are made as I gathered feedback. I will have another look at them during or just after Easter and might move things around a bit between the "usability" and "suggestions" lists.

If you have anything you feel should be added to the post, please send me a private message about it.



Bugs
Things that will be fixed.

Team and private channels
Team and private chat channels (temporary channels) don't disappear when closed, but the channel name turnes red. If you start a new channel of the same type (which will have a white name) you'll have to assign it to a chat window again. It's been reported that sometimes you need to mute and un-mute it to get it working.

A new team channel should go to the same window as the last team channel, and the private channels should work the same way.

For help on removing the unused team and private channels, please see Lynyah's guide.

/r not working correctly
Typing "/r text" only sends the first word of the text to the person you got a tell from last.

Pressing SHIFT + r without activating the chat input line works properly, and also makes sure you see who you're sending the message to, in case of new tells arriving while you type.

/afk not working
This is not actually a bug, but an unimplemented feature. We will add this when we get time, and the plans include having a customizable afk message.

% tags not working everywhere
%t, %m and %f don't work in pet commands (/pet).

Copying and pasting of text not working?
I've seen reports about copying and pasting text not working. I also saw a programmer do it (both ways between clipboard and chat) while working in the chat system, so it might be bugged in specific situations or simply not fully implemented. I'll look into this myself.

Trade window steals focus
Opening a player to player trade window conflicts with the chat focus, especially when closing a trade window without having completely typing a credits amount.



Main usability concerns
Things brought to the devs and requested that they consider giving some serious thought.

Logging
1. Logs seem to be written at intervals instead of constantly. Crashing can thus make you lose the last portion of a log.
2. The chat logs have a new format which makes the logs hard to read, and requires a log of editing before simple logs can be published.

Vicinity chat and system messages
Vicinity chat and system messages can't be separated, but always go into the same chat window.

/ch and /g requires full channel name
These two commands should only require the first part of a channel name, as long as the channel can be identified from that part.

Colors on channel tabs
With high levels of transparency on, it's hard to tell which tabbed chat windows have new information in them if the chat has faded out. The red text on the light blue background doesn't stand out very well when faded (actually doesn't stand out very well when fully opaque).

Moving chat windows by mistake
1. When right-clicking on a tabbed window and thus picking up one of the tabs, it's impossible to just put it down again. It has to be moved, then moved back. One suggestion is to require SHIFT + right click to pick up window tabs.
2. Clicking wrong and thus moving or resizing a non-borderless window can be prevented by making an option to lock any window in place. The option could include being unable to remove or add tabs to the window, or that could be a separate option.

Resizing of the Default Chat Window
The window is resizable in "normal" mode, but reverts to its original size if made borderless.

Scrolling with keyboard
It's currently not possible to scroll text with the keyboard. The use of PageUp and PageDown should be re-implemented.



Player suggestions
Things that will be handed to the devs and left entirely up to them to change / implement or not.

- Allow /say, /o and similar "chat-to-channel" commands work from any window, and without moving focus to the window containing the channel one's talking to.
- Make /g refer to the team channel again.
- Make some or all windows dockable (i.e. non-floating).
- Make it possible to rename the Default Chat Window
- Splitting system messages into groups, just like combat messages. Examples: nano execution / timeout, skill lock timers, item or nano use requirements, attack messages, loot messages.
- Make it possible to turn off a window's input bar entirely. E.g. clicking in a window with only combat messages gives a chat input in a window with no active channels.
- Add hotkeys for cycling through open chat windows and open chat tabs. A graphical indicator of which window is active (without activating the chat input line) would be nice too.
- Make holding the right mouse button not work as clicking the right mouse button. I.e. when I hold the right mouse button to look around, I don't want to do anything with the chat windows (or e.g. shops or people), even if I happened to point at one.
- Add checkboxes for assigning, muting and logging channels, instead of the right-click menu.
- When a channel is selected for a chat window, make it show more clearly in the list than is does currently. Changing color would help a lot.
- Add a way to change chat colors in-game, in the Options.
- Make it possible to scroll chat text with the mouse wheel with just hovering above it with the mouse, not requiring activating the window. (Note to self: This might only be lacking in borderless mode.)
- Make macros execute in the active window, thus not requiring a /ch or similar command in the macro itself.
- Make it possible to have tabs in borderless windows.
- Make is possible to resize borderless windows without having to switch to "normal" view.
- Allow for customizable transparency color, possibly per window.
- Make backpacks, inventory and shortcut bars be on top of chat windows, not below them. Better yet, make it an option setting.
- Re-implement the feature that makes text go invisible after some time, at least in borderless mode.
- Give an option to make tell windows borderless by default and / or tabbed (new tells open in tabs in a "tells" window).
- Add an option to sort by "Recent Messages" in the friens window.
- Allow switching active channel in a window by clicking the channel name in the existing text.
- Add a search feature to search for text in a chat window.



Reminders for myself

Add to an FAQ
- How to change chat colors.
- How to turn off channel names in window tabs and input lines.
- How to copy your chat setup from one character to another.
- Remind people about using channel indicators for chat macros.
- Remind people that "!cc" is discontunied and "/cc" has to be used.