Reply to player messages by email
Currently if you receive an in game message from another player you also receive a notification by email. However it is currently not possible to reply to that email - instead you have to log into the game and use the in game message interface, which is frustrating.
There are several reasons why being able to reply by email is preferable:
1) You may be at work and your boss may not be happy with you playing games.
2) You may be out with your mobile phone, and loading the game takes 20MB of 3G/4G data, plus is slow to load on phones.
3) You may be on another computer that can't run Planets.Nu, but can run email.
4) You may prefer composing messages in your email client rather than in-game.
Issues:
1) We need to mask the player's real email address. Fortunately there is already an email server in place that can forward emails - hub.planets.nu.
2) We want to maintain the in-game diplomacy settings. So if a player has blocked communications, no email. If they have no ambassador, then delay the reply a turn.
3) We want the replies to show up in the correct game, and in the correct conversation thread. If the two players are in multiple games together this may be a bit more complicated. So maybe use player.gameid@hub.planets.nu or something instead.
4) Tie the private message system in with this.
I think these issues are solvable and will make game communication much easier to use.
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Singularity
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Anonymous commented
This was done at robomaster.ca years ago (a now defunct but excellent online planets host) .. you get your message in your mailbox and you could reply back within the mail and it just proxy'd it through their server.
It would definitely enhance the comms system and something planets.nu needs.