I was trying out some multiplayer games over the last few days, and sometimes I would miss out on chat messages typed by the other human players. Especially if you're in the city screen or have some other advisor screen open, a message may come and go without you ever knowing about it.

So, the question:

Is there a way to prolong the duration of the messages (chat and/or log) on the screen?


And why is this simple functionality not included?

* Chat messages are not logged in the messages chat... why? It is really difficult to maintain a conversation and organise a blossomming empire, and it would help to be able to go back and read on what was said.

* A sound message notifying that a new chat message appears would be most welcome. A simple, subtle ping is all that would be needed, so you can know someone is talking even when you are not on the main screen.


If you could offer me any solutions, I would most appreciate it.

* Chat messages are not logged in the messages chat... why?

Hit [Shift-Tab] instead of Tab. Chatting to everyone gets saved in the chat log (at least for the duration of the online session), chats to the team do not.

As for a mod, I agree and think that would be a great thing. But I'm no programmer.

Hit [Shift-Tab] instead of Tab. Chatting to everyone gets saved in the chat log (at least for the duration of the online session), chats to the team do not.

Aha, that is a most interesting observation Herandar. Thanks! While the enemy AI would also hear what we´re saying, I doubt they have the natural language processing capacity to understand us, hehe... :)

Anyone else to shed some light on where the elusive "PopUpTextDissapearsAfterSecs=5" (or similar) is located?

The AI only understands L33t5pe@k.

Hit [Shift-Tab] instead of Tab. Chatting to everyone gets saved in the chat log (at least for the duration of the online session), chats to the team do not.

This is incorrect. ALL chat messages get logged to the chat log. You just have to know how to see it.

When you hit SHIFT-TAB to get to the chat history, you will only see the chat history for the type of chat you have selected. So if you have "Send to All" selected, you will only see messages sent to everyone. If you change it to "Send to Team" then you will see all team messages.

It's klunky, but it does work.

Is there any way to set the default to ALL? I HATE that it defaults to team. I like to banter.

Also, its an incredible pain in the keester how the chat box gets over-ridden by popups. Ill be typing away and suddenly my screen is freaking out cause the turn ended and SPACE and ENTER revert to their game usage. Are you kidding me with this?!?

I suppose you must have had silent, ultra-serious, elite Civ players for your beta and no regular old Joe Schmoes....

Indeed, for a game that was built "to allow for multiplayer since day 1", these issues seem incredible! Well, we can only hope that the public beta they call release will allow for these issues to be noticed.

And I´m surprised that for a game that was advertised as one of the most customizable in history, it´s lacking the option to set your hotkeys or adjust these silly little communication parameters.