+1 to the OP, I actually came here to make the exact same suggestion.

In this idea, a chat window can be opened between any players who are friends or in a clan. During battle, the chat window would be closed but a little red icon could show when there is a message waiting, and the player receiving the message can access it if and when they wish. Players would have the option of 1) Disabling private messages entirely and 2) Disabling private messages for when they are in battle. The player sending a message would be informed, if either of these are the case. There could also be a "block friend" option, where you don't wish to speak to that person right now, but maintain friendly relationship with them. In this case, the blocked person would receive the "player has disabled private messages" message, and not be aware that they are specifically blocked. As an option, perhaps for the future, this could be expanded to groups of friends, similar to a clan chat. CERTAINLY I think players who are in a group for matchmaking but are not in the same clan, should have a chat window available to them while waiting for a battle.

Take friends into account when Match Making This is different than group-battle... Match Making should favour putting friends on the same team where possible. In fact, it would be even nicer to have a "join in battle" option in your friends-list, where the matchmaking system will take a little longer to try and get you with the highlighted friend. Sort of a reversed "invite to battle" where you invite yourself! The player waiting to join them will have to be patient of course, and if the wait is too long they will need to abandon it and go to ordinary match-making.

An Idea for Info in Tab: Someone's status as being chat-banned, using a small icon. This does nothing to ease the effects of the ban for the person who is banned, but it does assist those who may be trying to speak to the banned player and annoyed about getting no response etc. In fact, since plenty of other people will likely hit tab at some point, it has the effect of wearing a dunces cap.. THAT GUY is chat banned!!!

Seems to me like a reminder is needed periodically >:(

Missions idea to stop people leaving so easily.. Leavers are a big problem when they simply don't like the map, don't want to work hard, feel like the other side posses more drugs, or if their own side starts is losing. In some cases, leaving can be justified too (it's 5-0 down, and you have half as many players!) But in either case, it harms the other players and the overall gameplay. It should be worth people's time to stay. One suggestion for this is to make daily missions that reward a player for completing the next X number of battles entered. The number X should be calculated to be one where on-average, it will include some battles that are already in progress. It can be varied of course, giving larger or lesser prizes for completion.

Totally agree, and your suggestion on how to implement in your next post could work too. Actually I have wanted for some time to see people get a crystals bonus automatically for entering and completing a battle that is already in progress.

My suggestion for a daily mission is intended to prevent so many people from leaving a map they don't like, or as soon as the other team goes just 1-0 up. People leaving is a big problem and should be discouraged. To this end, how about missions that reward completing X number of matches consecutively, from the time of entering, to finish. This would include if you get inserted into a match that is already in progress. If you leave a match, your chain is broken and you start again.

Good shout, I've changed it.

Thanks man. It's entirely my own. I am doing an audio version also. Need to write the next part tho ;)

Chapter One Devoid of movement or light, the cockpit's only hint of life was the insistent hum and faint bio-chemical stink within. Temperatures, unbearable to complex life, continued to rise. Liquid helium coolant and blood were filtered, pumped over and over again, each cycle fractionally but inevitably hotter and dirtier than the last. Willfully oblivious to urgent glyphs which vied for his attention, Pallas sipped at the heavy morning fog as if it were a fine liqueur. He took time, such as it was for his enhanced neurons, to appreciate the various elements of recent violence which drifted on a lazy breeze like hot, sweet pepper and ozone. Seeking calm, he allowed his mind to also linger upon and gently trace the fractal patterns of his shifting cloak. Ferns of ice, a shimmering skirt of tentacles, and deep, claw-like roots. All around, frozen and tormented saplings looked little different than the cages of twisted steel through which they grew, among cracked and tumbling high-rise blocks. His own form all but invisible among them. Another, insistent glyph appeared at the fringes of his vision and he mentally swatted it away irritably; already he was like a swimmer whose lungs were screaming for air, and this reminder only served to disturb his very tenuous serenity. If he did not soon vent the toxins and heat from 30 intense hours of concentration in total stealth mode, one or all of his internal processes would certainly fail. If this did not kill him in slow, agonizing minutes, then the radiation of his own power-core might just do it first. Distant on the horizon was a virtual beacon, pinned from orbit. It flooded the battlefield with an eerie light and was, deliberately, a source of hypnotic attraction to all his clan. Yet, he knew too well that this would be nothing compared to the glorious and illuminating star that Pallas would be on every screen for a thousand square miles If he moved. If he breathed. He had noticed, scarcely in time, the unmistakable flash of a UV laser across the landscape dissecting it as neatly as a surgeon with a scalpel. So he knew that somewhere out there, as patient and invisible as he, was the wondering eye of a heavy titan-class sniper. Titans. Impossibly fast for their immense bulk, and in this case having the power to rip him cleanly in two with a single, expert stroke. Any detectable change in the landscape not predicted by his AI’s algorithms had to be analysed with extreme care in case it betrayed the waiting predator. He was constantly vigilant, combining all wavelengths with echolocation through the ground beneath, even as it heaved, buckled and liquefied. With each new round of orbital bombardment from The Elyrion above, he was pulled further into the dirt, panic rising just as surely as his armour sank. Soon, his prison would become a tomb. Meanwhile, and costing him dearly, digital enzymes birthed (or manufactured depending how one looked at it), several especially unpleasant semi-intelligent mines and an emergency recovery kit. This latter could eventually purge his system, providing neuro-stimulants for his wetware and a hard but safe emergency reboot. “Pallas!” it wasn’t a voice exactly. More like a very recent memory, planted directly into his cortex. “Pallas, do you intend to actually fight in this battle, or just sleep through it?” “Frag you!” he snarled with alarm, and then had to check whether he’d actually sent that. He was pretty sure the sniper was close enough that even Athena’s sub-space communication would bleed-through if the bandwidth was sufficiently wide. Perhaps, he thought, he could use her unsuspecting presence to break the deadlock. He almost felt guilty as the communications array dilated. But he was desperate and could afford no hesitation. With a thought, he set in motion the program which would bring about victory, or permanent death. Even as his neural net pinged hers, even as he sent urgent requests and rapidly navigated emergency protocols, he slammed his array shut, jamming his own signal. With Athena’s automatic responses unanswered, she had no time to clamp down the bandwidth before the volume rose, questing for him, attempting to break through the barrier. Hers was a lonely cry into the wilderness. Hungry, a Titan answered.

YYYYEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHH! Thanks :D and congrats to everyone else.

Good luck, I'm waiting too :)

Do you accept bribes?

Thought so, thanks Hexed. My entry comin' atcha now.