Long Standing Frequently Requested Features

There seems to be a lot of feature requests which have been around for quite some time, without any resolution or even a simple "no".

I'd like this thread to be regularly updated, and I welcome everyone else to post anything they have noticed has been requested for a long time. I'm going to go through a few pages of feature suggestions and try to include some common ones.

Here's the theme of this thread:

1. The feature request should have been around for about six months or more (give or take).
   
2. The feature should have been requested here at least a couple times, or it should seem obvious enough that it has probably been asked for by several people.
   
3. The feature should be practical to implement without making fundamental changes to SL which would require a major rewrite (ie introducing meshes).
   
4. The feature should not take away anything, or it should provide an option for backwards compatability if it does.
   
5. The feature should be minimaly controversial and have an obvious likely consensus to be imlemented.

Here are some things to start us off:

Leave my camera alone!
Give us an option to fix the camera to stay exactly where it already is when entering and exiting edit mode.

More Groups, Please
Raise the limit on the number of groups. I know this is the type of feature request that can snowball (ie we ask for 20 and then when we fill up we ask again), however 10 is unreasonably restrictive, especially since groups are the only way to manage certian resources. I think 32 groups would an be optimal amount of elbow room for the foreseeable future.

Self-Lit Textures
Make a texture behave as though it is a light, but it does not become a light source. This is very much needed. If there are reservations about implementing this feature for some reason, let's discuss them.

Attachments Grid Snapping
Remember the Snap To Grid option separately for editing attachments. Default to off if no value is remembered.

Multi-item Inventory Management
Multiple drag and drop to move items between inventory folders and to/from object contents.

Full Inventory Search
Let us search our whole inventory for a keyword, as a substring for any part of the object name. Bonus points if we can search by creator and description.

Logout to Grey Screen
When we logout, we should go to a grey screen like the one when a sim goes down, so we can read any chat or instant messages which we might have received in the last few seconds that we were logging out. Also any open offers of inventory items should be deferred , so that they are re-offered the next time you log in.

Mute individual Sounds
Please give us a separate mute list for sounds by object/person, just like the chat mute functionality.

Keyboard maps
I still see new people arriving at the welcome area who can't type certian characters because there's no support for non-US keyboards.

Specify Hollow Offset
Let us adjust the 2d offset of the hollow portion of a prim

Parcel Objects List by Owner
List all owners who have objects in your parcel. Allow you to return objects by owner.

Make Default Gestures Less Rude
Please change the default function-key-assigned gestures to be less "rude".

(AWAY) Autoresponder
Return a message to someone who sends you an IM to tell them that you are currently in (AWAY) mode.


Avatar Stuff:

Rib Cage Size
Small avatars have an oddly large rib cage. Please give us the ability to scale this down so that small avatars look more natural

Wet Shirt Syndrome
Please do something so that women who wear shirts don't look like they were painted on their chest.

Invisible Avatars
People are doing it with animation poses anyway, so why not just make it an outright option now to hide limbs/head or your whole body so you can be a "primatar" without worrying about stuff poking through?


Scripting stuff:

Local Persistent Storage
Any persistent storage. I don't care if it's a notecard or a database or whatever. Let me store at least 4096 characters per prim (preferably per script) that will always be preserved even when I reset the scripts in the prim.

Instant Object-Object Communication
Give us something like an llObjectMessage() which works like llLinkedMessage(), except the first parameter is a UUID.

Truncate llSay() at 255 characters
Don't cause a chat-overrun runtime error. Why crash the script for something so mundane?

Instant Message Owner Without Delay
Give us the ability to send a private message to the owner of the scripted object without incurring a delay.

llReturnObject(key)
Returns an object on land that you own

Rez For Sale
If an object is set For Sale, and is rezzed via script, leave the For Sale enabled. This would allow us to make vendors which show the actual object and let the built in system handle the transaction (so nothing is lost if you get disconnected between paying a vendor and accepting the item).

llPrompt()
Dialog box to prompt the user to enter a string (like javascript's)

More llDialog Buttons
At least give us six buttons, so we can make a lot of common games (such as card games).


Final Notes:

Keep in mind that I want to keep the requests in this thread fairly reasonable to implement in a short time. I have attempted to skip over features which seem like they would be difficult to imlement, would have a high cost/benefit ratio, or would be controversial.

Many of these ideas are good and valid ideas, but I want to stick to the most simple frequently requested feature suggestions for this thread.

These include:
- 3d meshes
- CSG
- Offline editors
- Major fundamental changes to LSL (oo, arrays, more memory, includes, etc)
- New ratings system
- New permissions system


*Please* post humble suggestions only. Please start a new thread if you have a new or big idea. =)

Build Allow/Deny List
Allow land owners more granularity on the Build/No-Build status of land. Add agents individually, or by group.

Based on questions I made about this around the 1.2 release I had assumed it was going in.

i second pretty much everything kex has mentioned, and as a large group landowner, i'd like to add in the ability to set noscript/nobuild so that they only affect people not in the land owning group. Currently a personal plot can be set noscript and nobuild, and the person who owns it can still do both... with group land this isn't the case, and it really should be.

i'd also like the ability to 'lock' group land so that things like 'release' buttons and sale options couldn't be accidentally hit till the lock checkbox was unchecked... its simply too dangerous a button to leave big and shiny where a stray mouse click could catch it.

finally.. for building purposes, i would like to see 'property' lines be extendable up into the sky as an option... many times we want to build something 100+ m up and its hard to do that and 'stay in the lines', also its hard to convince other people to stay within theirs. In conjunction with one'f kex's requests (view objects in a parcel by owner) i would like a 'return all objects' by a specific owner

Great list Kex, everything on there is something needed. Heres a few more thats been asked for for awhile...

Chat Features:

- Clickable URLs in Chat History... when I type http://www.secondlife.com or just www.secondlife.com it should be underlined and clickable, clicking it launches the default browser.

- Save chat logs to harddrive... can be plain .txt document, I don't care, this would make stuff like Town Halls so much easier to log, just click a check box to enable logging in Chat History and bam.

Calling Cards:

- Expanded features such as offline/online statuses to selected people and groups so they see you as offline/online.

Building/Scripting:

- TEXTures, the ability to have static text displayed directly on prims, like a built in XyText system on any prim face.

- NPC Models, "avatar objects" and such.

Personal:

- Change your title without being in a group. Custom avatar titles.

- Invisible/offline status.

Edit:

- Sandbox Islands, Four or more sims seperate from main grid, maybe with each sim specializing for different things, i.e. one build only, one script only, one build but no physical, etc.

I think "Rez for Sale" works... At least it did last time I tried it two weeks ago or so. I had a vendor rez a Buy Original object.

Havok 2 or 3, dammit.

LF

Yes multiple inventory item drag and drop move - the bane of my life in SL --- PLEASE !!!

- sell all items on parcel to (name AV) or highlight items on a land plot and effect sale price same for all... or even set any item for sale to (name) in same way you can set land.

Camera must NOT jump and move when u go in and out of edit - PLEASE yes

-repeat last texture hotkey
-repeat last colour hotkey
-more than one colour saveable under custom colours
at present only one seems to work and is replaced by the next.

-custom colour choices to persist between online sessions so your choices in that menu always there to choose from

-name custom colours

-merge two textures, linear, radial on a prim etc with editing controls
-merge two or three colours on a prim - as above

LOCK ITEMS command should PREVENT 'take' command or delete command in same way that move is locked no more accidental deleting my store even when locked!!

LOCK land sale buttons or release buttons !!

List all object on land with name and owner and allow return of each yes or no.

-allow planting of linden trees and bushes on land you don't own provided you have object modify permission. This is a nightmare for landscapers not being able to plant lindens or move lindens.

- Inventory folders within textures list should show within the texture choices pop up list NOT one great big list !! ( same as inventory)

-real mirror finish on prims, ( Moove has it why not SL)

- duplicate prim in reverse ( mirror twin or inverse copy)

- separate AVatar eyebrow color from hair color !!

- allow editing of textures patterns, repeats etc, on clothes made in appearance mode.

-increase range of AVatar body parts sliders smaller mins larger maxs.

-prims bigger than 10m even if only we go to 20m

-align commands for selected prims, align by edge, top, left right, bottom, centre/centre etc -create exact matching aligns

also have more complex wants but these are not within the thread brief

Heh, LF very true. But at least they've said that they're implementing Havok.

The kinds of things I'm looking for here are minor feature suggestions that have been asked for *repeatedly*, but have not even been acknowledged, especially little annoying things that seem like they shouldn't take long to implement.

I know they'll get to these eventually (they did get to a lot of minor things from a thread similar to this one), but I'm hoping for is maybe some of these things can be looked at for version 1.6 or an intermediate 1.5.x version.

Edit: Good suggestions everyone, thanks for helping out! Let's keep 'em coming =)

- Show SELLERS NAME AND SIM RATING IN LAND LISTINGS under Find - Land. This is so annoying, it shows everything but these two important factors. I want to know whos selling it and what the rating of the sim is directly from this window, and so do others.

- Improved Texture browser window has also been something thats been asked for that I forgot about, right now it is VERY basic, and VERY annoying especialy when you have alot of textures. It should be easy and quick to find the Texture you need.

- Improved Bulk Uploading processes. The current way, you have to wait untill all your downloads are finished to really do anything, even talking is hard when you keep having texture windows popup that stop you in mid sentance, and seeing anything with that thing in the center of your screen is annoying. I know this acts as a deturent to lower server load, but doesn't the 10L$ already do that? How about making it so we can select to A) not have images popup when done downloading, just show the inventory when its all finished with the uploaded images in the folder, and B) Have a progress bar screen, along with making it movable and not having it steal focus instead of the current thing in the center of our screen (mind you having the text is still good, but having a progress bar too would be really nice).

Thats a long one, but I've seen it mentioned alot before and it seems like something rather simple.

I want a Bulk DOWNLOAD feature, to save all my snapshots, textures, scripts and notecards to files!

Disable avatar sway and return to unswayed position upon entering any edit mode.

Ever tried to make a primitar or even design an earring/collar/anything around your avatar?

Search & replace ability in text editors (notecards and LSL script windows.)

edit: Removed "save textures to disk". Eggy learned me how to do it the newfangled way.

Lindens!

I believe that allowing more groups would help the spread of politics in SL. As it is, groups fill up rather quickly and it becomes difficult to convince people to forgo social groups for fledgling political groups.

I believe as the size and thus complexity of the society grows, we will require more groups and group tools to support complex interactions. The first step is to increase the number of groups.

Thanks.

~Ulrika~

I'm glad you made that your first item. as it's an absolutely infuriating effect. Yes, yes!!

You mention key bindings as being really important, let me add a related item, mouse button binding:

Bind middle mouse button to forward key, as option

What this is about is to allow mouse-only movement in SL under mouselook, just like in a lot of other modern persistent worlds. Just point in the direction you want to go, and press middle button to move in that direction ... it couldn't be simpler. And the cream on the cake is that this is trivial to implement, since it's just a binding.

And another item on mouse-related issues:

Allow pointing/clicking in mouselook!

Mouselook currently does "too much", by removing the mouse pointer and various windows from the visual, so that you have to switch out of mouselook again to do anything useful. It's pretty unusable except for pure travelling, and even then you need two hands since you can't bind middle mouse to forward. I guess their original idea is that mouselook is only for looking around, but that massively limits its potential.

The implementations of mouselook in EverQuest and Anarchy Online are especially good, despite not being identical --- you can move yourself in all directions with mouse alone, and you're always ready to click on an object in the view since mouselook doesn't remove the pointer. And one of the mouse buttons always carries a mouselook binding, so merely releasing that button means you can instantly move your pointer onto an object. It's so intuitive that you don't even realize that mouselook is a mode, since it disappears as soon as you release.

Even the comparatively primitive ActiveWorlds has a better mouselook than SL, since forward movement is on a mouse button. This is a real shame.

It shouldn't be too hard to make our SL mouselook more powerful in this way, since it requires only putting back the capabilities that are currently being removed on entry into mouselook mode.

[/B]


not sure if you saw this, or if it's what you're talking about. but it seems to enable a fix to this.

from the 1.5.0 release notes:

- Users can create a custom_keys.ini file in the SecondLife/app_settings directory with their own custom keyboard mappings. This file overrides any settings in keys.ini and will not be overwritten by new releases or updates.

Please - more groups! I know this topic has been brought up over and over, but I have yet to see a response as to why the limit has not been raised. Retailers are especially restricted due to the 10 group limit, since we have to join groups to sell at different places.

As a new player I can tell you that this has been the most aggravating thing that I've encountered here in Second Life. In every other 3D MMO game I've played the camera would stay put when you swung it around and only return to it's default position when you pressed a certain key to reset it. In Second Life this is extra important because you are constantly needing to view your avatar from different angles to see how clothing looks or trying animations, etc. If you try to move your avatar a bit or something the camera resets and you have to reposition it all over again. It's absolutely maddening.

I've also found controlling the camera with the mouse to be hard to get used to. Other games allow you to use the keyboard to move and zoom the mouse. Usually with the number pad keys.

Really, the more the default control could be made to be like the controls people are used to from other MMOs the better. If people start a free trial and have trouble with the controls, many won't stick around.

No, that's not what this does. keys.ini and custom_keys.ini control the behavior of the movement controls, things like that. It doesn't help at all for typing.

I know keys.ini is about keys, but depending how it's implemented, the mouse buttons might generate key events. If so, I wish they'd allow Mouse[123] to be bound in the same way ... well, the spare Mouse2 button anyway. I want to bind middle-mouse to forward movement desperately, to be able to travel in mouselook using the mouse alone.

I have 2 things i am dieing for.

1)Havok 2 (Or 3)

2)Hierarchal Linking!!

Everything else is just gravy. Damn good gravy though.

I like all the suggestions except these three, and here's why:

-real mirror finish on prims, ( Moove has it why not SL)

Mirror finish takes a lot of processing power, if people can make anything reflective, that means that someone will make EVERYTHING reflective, imagine your viewer trying to render reflections on a 300 prim primitar?


- allow editing of textures patterns, repeats etc, on clothes made in appearance mode.

Clothes don't repeat, they have absolute textures, there's no need to have a seperate system for repeating textures on clothes.


-prims bigger than 10m even if only we go to 20m

While nice for buildings, this means that rotating cube signs will now be 20 meters big, instead of the already rather large 10m. Attachments will be twice as large, etc. 10m is very large, I think the limit is about right.

I won't list the entries in this thread that I agree with, because I agree with all of them

Hold down ALT and use the arrow keys - it is easier for new players than the mouse. Left/right rotates, up/down zooms in and out. Hope that helps.

http://www.sluniverse.com/kb/article.aspx?id=10126