N.B. I have NOT thought this completely through. I do NOT know all the possible issues involved. I am NOT attempting to say that the following is a particularly "good" idea. I AM attempting to solicit feedback and constructive criticism for the idea. Replies in post are preferred.

The Proposal: That some version (obviously hide-able) of universal chat be instituted for the game. There are times that people are out of legion, and would like to have some conversation, there are times legions are quiet and people get bored, there are times when people need to reach each other but cannot select the other to utilize the com, and do not want to 'friend' the other on Facebook just to chat for a short time. And there are times when one person wants to get a message out to anyone who is listening (and not everyone knows about and/or checks the forum.)

Possible implementations:
* 10 energy per post requirement in order not to destroy all usefulness of the personal com and legion com systems.
* An Artifact Point item which would allow one to post.

Reminder- I'm looking for feedback on the idea, constructive criticism, and alternative implementations of similar features.
I apologize if this had been suggested and shot down before. I did not do the research to check if it came up earlier in the suggestions area.

Or there could be a tab that switches between legion com and universal comm. That way you wouldn't need an artifact or spent energy.

Well, the idea was that currently any communication out of legion costs something (energy, at this time). If Dan wants to keep it that way, there would need to be some sort of cost to speak in global. Although I personally would prefer it to be free, as one of the benefits is for bored people, and usually those have no energy left, or they'd be spending it.

Other thoughts: Perhaps a minimum rank to speak using it as a anti-spammer measure? Perhaps making the ship names clickable to give access to the target ship's COM only (to prevent people being able to look at the ships build, etc-this is for communication purposes only)?

Just throwing the ideas out there, though the response/feedback seems to be in limited supply at the moment.