Atm I feel the chat interface is very un noob friendly and definaltly needs work on, here is a few suggestions :-

Atm there are variations of keys for channels *like 'G' and 'g', I feel that this isn't a great thong and should be altered (i looked in the controls interface, and not all the chat options were there to alter)

I'd suggest something similar to the buttons when you are docked at the stations, but have a button that scrolls though the buttons and then one that activates that channel. (like when you use windows without a mouse) :-)

There also needs to be a better definement of channel names, atm i feel the channels as numbers is a little to impersonal, maybe we could hae some named channels you can select, here are a few suggestions (I know some already exist):-

Local Chat
General Chat
Market Chat (for when a player-player economy is established)
Group Chat
Guild Chat
New Players Chat
Spanish, French, German etc..(non english channels for when people want to speak their primary language if it isn't english)

I feel having these channels fixed as standard and having the ability to join or leave these set channels would greatly enhance the way we do chat, also, since you may save keys having only 2 for this setup, maybe we could use a differnt key (instead of tab whilst in chat) for starting a chat with someone as a reply?

I feel players should also have the ability to create their own private passworded channels for when they are doing non public, cross guild activites, hope these ideas get some consideration :-)

We may be trying to se sugcompare to EnB a bit too much with all these suggestions. I wouldnt expect any game out there to transform itself to what EnB was.

I have thought the same thing about the chat channels....BUT I see what they are doing with this...treat the channels as frequencies and your chat interface as a radio ro communication device that can tune into different channel frequencies. I think a personal ability to rename a channel frequency with your own name for it might be a better feature. Map your display name with the channel frequency. Wouldnt affect others and they might want to continue the thought of frequencies or a different display name altogether. We can't expect everyone to have come from such a great community and game as EnB.

I'm definatly not trying to transform this game to EnB, cause it certainly isn't EnB, I'm just looking at all the games I've played Eve and enB MMORPG wise) and trying to suggest the things that worked in those games. I understand maybe the radio frquency theme, but i've noticed a fair bit of confusion to what channels are for what, for example, some one was typing in german on ch 100 and was told by some peeps that there was already a german ch setup on some other channel number.

I'm sure to the aplha players it all makes perfect sence, but I'm trying to look at it from a noob point of view to some one thats completly new to this genre of game, and i feel atm it is a pretty confusing system :-)

Typing /msg (players name)massage, to send a tell isn't that bad, but /t (players name)massage, would much faster when your in a battle to get info,same as just hitting r to reply.most games are setup that way

Although it should be *messages*... a massage would just be too... weird.. =P

I think the font size could be tweaked a little smaller to allow more info on the screen. Or at least configurable, so those of us who chose to have micro-font can.

Oh by the way, when you get a /msg from someone, just type /msg and hit tab and their name will show up automatically. (Tab-complete works elsewhere in the chat too)

actually if someone has just /msg'd you, just open a chat line, (the console, T, t etc) and press tab, it will autofill /msg <name>

<for example, some one was typing in german on ch 100 and was told by some peeps that there was already a german ch setup on some other channel number.>
I fail to see how your solution fixes this.

None of these chat channels are standardized. Ch. 100 is the de facto global chat. There is no rhyme or reason for it, we just picked a number. Pulled it right out of our asses and threw it out there.

As for Guild/group chat being G/g, I think this is a better idea. Mapping chat to too many different keys makes the communication confusing and cumbersome in the middle of a battle. I like them being localized to the T and G key. They're close enough to the WASD section to be quickly tapped when necessary.
The /join and the inability to quickly shuffle between channels has already been mentioned. Something is coming Soon™.

Additionally, that font is VERY unreadable. Many letters look very much the same. It looks cool, but it'll cause eyestrain - at least in my opinion. Remember, with some things, one letter's differene can make a huge difference.

Been thinking about this topic a little more, and had afew more idea's which I thought were cool.

since people seem to like the idea of a 'frequency' based chat channel, how about we have a chat menu where the channels are listed with the frequency number you need to join?

For example, of the top of my head. :-

Longe range (general) - 100 mhz (would be ready set)
Short range (Local) - 30 mhz (would be ready set)
Trading Consortium (market)-90 mhz (would require you typing /join 90, or pressing a select button in chat menu)
Guild - 101mhz (would be ready set)
Acadamy (new players) - 1 mhz (would be ready set)
Group - 20 mhz(would be ready set)
Spanish - 95 mhz (would require you typing /join 95, or pressing a select button in chat menu)
German - 96 mhz (would require you typing /join 96, or pressing a select button in chat menu)
French - 97 mhz (would require you typing /join 97, or pressing a select button in chat menu)
Danish - 98 mhz (would require you typing /join 98, or pressing a select button in chat menu)
Swedish - 99 mhz (would require you typing /join 99, or pressing a select button in chat menu)

You could add more launguages, but the idea is to give players an idea of what is discussed where, ch's like group and guild would get frequecies for the sake of just having a number.

My other idea, would be a 'nation' channel, this would be active on all players, however....you will only be able to monitor your own nations channel. This hopefully will add a little more to the roleplay community and hopefully splinter people of into their own races, which could come in handy in progressing any storylines.

also, and a rather exciting idea to add, would be live events organised in these nation channels. Lets say for example a new serco ship prototype is been transported to a new location, you could have an Itani race leader announce in the nation channel that he wants that ship destroyed and all capable itani should help out, meanwhile, in the serco ch (after an attack has begun, the serco leader will announce he requires backups, the leaders should have some kind of tag that can't be created by players to avoid forgories, they could be played by GM's or Dev's.

I feel the latter idea could definatly bring some exciting roleplay possibilites to the game, also, I know about the tab when returning private tells, but on severel occasions i've got carried away and forgot to press tab mt'ing in ch 100 or guild, with1 key to just open up a replay to ch it would mean private tells have more chance of staying as they were intended..private :-P

one suggestion I would like to make is : when on mission chat can guild chat be tagged on it, as when you are on general chat( which allows you to select sector, guild or mission tags) you can see all the chat channels. On the mission channel I(being a n00b)request information/help from guild and I have to go through a process which I think would be quicker for me to open a guild tag and type my request