This is the first time I am posting in this forum Me and my wife (I am the programmer and she is the artist) had a big fight tonight about where should the chat text in our MMORPG be displayed. I want the game to be full screen (no interface, except for a few small buttons), and the text should be displayed at the top of the window, on 5 lines. She wants the text in some nice interface box, that would be at the bottom. Sacrificing, of course, some of the scene display space. I have some screenshots here , and I would like some suggestions. That is, how do you like it more? Thanks. Height Map Editor | Eternal lands

That is a very nice looking game.

Anyway, why fight about where to put the text? You could have it user definable. This could be a simple as options for top/bottom and transparent/opaque background. If you really wanted to get into it though, you could make it user customizable. For example, in Tribes the users could write small scripts to do things like display who has the flag, how many kills you''ve scored, etc.

Also, another way to do please both of you may be putting the text into a moveable window of its own. If you two have such a big disagreement about it, then the players will most likely have the same disagreement as well.

A compromise - a small ''box'' on the top that darkens the background a little (like 75% transparent), its 5 lines tall, and takes up maybe 1/3 or 1/2 the screen width. Have a key that will hide it, and make an option to auto-hide it when the text ''times out'' (has been displayed for X seconds depending on the length of the text).

The text auto hides (a line dissapears in about 3 seconds, so, if no one talks for 15 seconds, there is no text on screen).
I tried the opacity thing some time ago, but it looks REALLY ugly.
Implementing two ways (one with the text on top, and another with an interface at the bottom) will take some time and effort, which we don''t have right now (time, that is).

If we are going to make a fixed interface, then most likely we will put other things there too (like an inventory, etc. Possibly all sharing the same space, so you can have text, or inventory, or stas, etc.)

And letting the user choose would be a big pain in the ass, since if I added an interface, then some of the graphic engine has to be adjusted, etc.


Height Map Editor | Eternal lands