[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#12099) Prune unnecessary server messages

["Per I. Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=12099 >

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005, Christian Knoke wrote:
> to address the problems of too many messages, you should not ripe out
> anything you don't find usefull.

It is the most obvious way of doing that. I believe all other ways are
ugly hacks. Convince me that I am wrong, please.

> Fx, I use that messages, by scrolling back the chat window, to check for
> things I missed.

Which of the ones I suggested to remove, do you actually use?

There is something totally wrong with the messages window, when you as an
experienced player say that you _scroll back_ to find _things you missed_.
Most players will not do that, and _will_ miss important messages. The
current chat/messages window distinction is a huge hack, and works poorly.

We have been discussing previous various other hacks so that players won't
miss the really important messages, but really - if there are messages
that it is not important that they read, why bother sending them? As a
policy, _we should never push information on a player unless it is
important_. Unimportant information the player should seek out (pull in)
on his own.

> Also, once they are gone it will we much work to create
> them anew (translations!).

The code and the translations will still be in cvs, if we one day change
our minds on a particular message. It will not have to be redone from
scratch.

> Also, whether you are interested in a message depends much of your level
> of expierience. Think of a newbie exploring the game, she will be glad
> to find descriptions of what is going on. Or the phase of the game is
> important.
>
> A better way to achieve this is by message options imho. You're right that
> this dialog is a bit hard right now. Think of regrouping the messages and
> reduce the number of groups. Importance can be a selector. And maybe create
> message levels: newbie, expierienced, veteran.

I believe the number of messages you can stomach is totally independent of
your level of experience with the game. I dispute your assertion that
newbies will be glad to see the current message spam. To the contrary, I
find that newbies are frightened silly by all these messages, and are
totally put off by the message options dialog and do not use it.

  - Per