This was touched on a while ago but I think it's worth bringing up again

The recent alert message addition is very very cool, but there are many times when a more personal message is needed. This is a social network game, let's be social! I would LOVE to see a "message" or "wall" tab on a player info window, where we could type something for anyone viewing to see. (4 tabs instead of the 3 we have now, Stats/ship/actions/messages.) It opens up options for diplomacy, trade, apologies, and healthy trash-talk. Examples:
To an ally: "I disabled that ship you alerted, have a ball"
To an enemy: "That's what you get for hacking me"
To my own: "I need Exotic Matter, I'll send 2 Hydium for each one"
To an ally: "Thanks for helping guard my homeworld, which of these artifacts would you like as a reward?"
To an enemy: "Nothing personal, you were posted by my legion"
To my own: "I'm a proud member of the Fluff Nugget Overlords Clan"

The down side is the potential for verbal harassment and such, so an addition would need to be added to the game terms for harassment/obscenity. But still, in every game I've seen with public player walls, this has not really been a problem. Each player should be able to delete their own messages, as well as any message on their own wall. Many games have added a cost to post a message, to limit it - for example it might cost us 5 energy, or even put it on a timer, similar to alerts.

i partially agree.. some type of verbal communication with people that are actually playing the game at the same time as you would be nice... but as for alliance members.. they HAVE to be friends... and since this is a facebook game.. you allready have a way to talk with them

for msging enemys, yes. But for legion members i think you can just use FB

I have seen games with chat box. dunno if thats possible, especially when the game gets more and more popular it could just scroll like a madman ;P

You could do a chatango. Just saying.

I think its free too.

I play a lot of games, and tend to assume everyone knows what I'm talking about so I might not have been clear enough. I don't mean a live chat option, or even person to person messages. (although those are great too!) I mean more of a personal message board option. Facebook does have a live chat or instant message feature - I hate it, and keep it turned off. I generally prefer to use in-game message systems.

Several games do something like this, some better than others. A perfect example of what I'm talking about can be found in a game called Mobsters 2. There are two ways to communicate - a broadcast board where you can type a message to ALL of your game allies, and (much more useful) a player wall where messages can be left. People will type announcements, warnings, requests, thanks, etc that can be read by ALL players viewing their page. A couple other examples would be games like "War Metal" and "Crime Wave." For private messages you would still use facebook.

So in other words its like a wall, for the game thats excluded to the game?

Not excluded from the game, but exclusive to the game.

Ah, I likly.

Really though, a picture is worth a thousand words.
http://apps.facebook.com/mobsters-two/
Whip up a character, click the "my mobster" tab and then the "made men" sub tab. That's the leaderboard. Click on any name there and you'll see a thriving comments section. Then remove the app, or try it out.... Not a bad game at all by Facebook standards. It's no Galaxy Legion, though!

I will be working on the communication features this weekend. I still have not decided the 'best' way to handle the player wall feature and I am still considering other options.

There are some things to consider for a wall, like:

* There will need to be a limit on the number of posts that can be made
* Character length will be restricted
* A player should be able delete any messages on their own wall. They will be expected to self-moderate.
* New Messages added to the wall will also be visible in the player's ship log
* If a new message is delivered while the receiving player is online, an alert (red popup) will be shown to the player with the message as they are playing.

Note this will not yet allow the following:

* A way to send a custom message to each person in your legion. However, you can still post messages on your own wall for others to read. If 'alliances' are added, this would be something that would be a part of that.
* A permanent archive of these messages (likely show only last X days).

I nominate Dan for Best Person Ever.

(I'll also shut up about walls now.)

WootzorzX2