Now you can have private text chat between team members while playing Scourge of war...I found a solution.

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Hello Everyone.

Since I only have dialup, and cannot use teamspeak, I started to look around for a way to text chat (little to no bandwidth is used) without others seeing what is being typed while in game, and I have found a solution since I don't know when private in-game chat will be added.

First I downloaded a small util called "Always-on-top" which will keep any window on top no matter what is running (start the On-Top-program, then select the program you wish to stay on top, and press CTRL-Spacebar). Now to have it stick on top of SOWgb, I have to make sowgb play in window mode (1280x1024 is good for me). So I started MSN chat since you can re-size the chat box so it won't take much of my game screen.

Now we have a private text chat ability for the game without the other team seeing your orders you are sending too your teammates. Just connect with any text chat program that you can re-size, and off you go.

When you place your mouse over the Chat box, and click, the sound for the game turns off until you go back to the game which is done by simply moving the mouse back over to the game, and clicking. Only the sound mutes, everything else works..like troop movements etc...I have tried this, and it works great.

Also, any game that you can play in window mode, and doesn't have text chat...well now you can!

Note: I always found it a pain in my behind when editing any of SOWgb files, and swapping between .csv's or swapping to take a look at the SDK help file, I now can have them both pinned, and can work without having to swap. I use XP allot which makes this util pretty cool. I am very sure that Windows 7 has this option (not sure because I am still new to win7) so there may be no need to use this program.

Here is an image.

The attachment textchat.JPG is no longer available

Hope this helps!

[garyknowz]

Bummer you can use Teamspeak (my headset is due to arrive today), but admire the fact you persevered and found a solution. Good job!

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Bummer you can use Teamspeak (my headset is due to arrive today), but admire the fact you persevered and found a solution. Good job!

Hi garyknowz.

Thanks, I was thinking that a very small percentage of people can actually use Teamspeak since ts itself is a monster for eating bandwidth. Just something that people can use which will not use much bandwidth (as long only text is used, not voice), and be able to speak to your teammates in private without giving away your orders to the enemy.

Anyway, I'm off to remap my mouse buttons to do some things in sowgb.

later!

[norb]

We'll make sure to add it to the feature patch. Our thought was to force you to use couriers to communicate, but enough people have asked, so we'll put it in.

I imagine that it will end up being a server option.

[Michael Slaunwhite]

We'll make sure to add it to the feature patch. Our thought was to force you to use couriers to communicate, but enough people have asked, so we'll put it in.

I imagine that it will end up being a server option.

Hello Sir.

Cool. I am wondering with this feature patch, and MP bugs appear to have been dealt with, will you be able to use modifications in MP?

later!

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Update.

I just finished testing the private text chat with a friend of mine, and it works perfectly. The thing that is really cool about this is that it does not require to maintain a constant stream, meaning with Teamspeak it allots itself a very large chunk of bandwidth, where the text does not (depending on the program/server requirements). Once you send a text message, the transfer is instant without any degradation in game, and bandwidth.

There is one thing about using any voice program while playing a game, and that is it lowers the amount of people who can actually play online at one given time. For SOWgb, if you can have a game of 15 people without voice, it's reasonable to think that you may only be able to play with up to 8 people before the voice program either dumps you (bandwidth limits), or the game itself locks.

I have had discussions with people who were using ALT-TAB to bounce themselves back, and forth between the game, and using a chat program during game play, which even though a game may support it, It's something I never recommend for anyone to do no matter what type of system you have, because there are just too many system configurations to say it will work for everyone, and it may affect those who are playing a multiplayer game (of course this is just my personal opinion). Note: I am not saying SOWgb supports alt-tabbing because I do not know, and really don't care about it because I personally never alt-tab out of any program unless it has locked.

I am quite sure that if using pvt text chat will not affect bandwidth, so having a game with 15 people can be maintained, but that will have to be tested by people who are willing to give it a go, I'm always willing to test it out with anyone who wants to give it a try.

If you do happen to use say "MSN messenger" (not many people use it anymore), I would suggest these settings, just take a look at the pic below.

The attachment msnmessenger.JPG is no longer available

Anyway, I just thought I would let everyone know about it. I'm off to get my next project working...

I hope this helps people, no point if it doesn't.

Cheers...

[Michael Slaunwhite]

We'll make sure to add it to the feature patch. Our thought was to force you to use couriers to communicate, but enough people have asked, so we'll put it in.

I imagine that it will end up being a server option.

Since the dev team are going to release in game private teamchat in the features patch, until then you can also use any program for chatting while playing to your teammates. Here is a program I rarely use if ever, but it just shows you that any text chat program can be used for private chatting between team members, as long as you play Scourge of War-Gettysburg in windowed mode. This program MIRC has an option to keep the program on-top which does not require to use the 'Always-on-Top' program to be active.

MIRC program.

The attachment MIRC_chat_text_Prog.JPG is no longer available

Later.