Friends/Suggestions

From Valve Developer Community

Jump to: navigation, search

This page contains suggestions for Steam Friends & Communities.

Image:messenger.gif Feature exists in MSN Messenger

Log chat to file Image:messenger.gif

  • Not much more to say. Log chat transcripts to text files by username.
  • TomEdwards
  • I would be interested in documenting a method of how this should be implemented if anyone at Valve wants some feedback.
  • DaFox

Steam account name, Friends profile name

  • Early users of Steam have an e-mail address as Steam account name. They may not wish to disclose an e-mail address, but may still want to be found via a (not necessarily unique) nick name.
  • The "Add friends" dialog should also search for Friends profile names.
  • Alternatively let users change their Steam account name.Pizzahut
  • It would be great if its possible to change the steam account name! --Andi
  • Maybe just allowing users who currently have e-mails for their name to change it to a non-email name ONCE. --Alph Tech STUART
  • Everyone should be able to change the account name and I'm sure that a lot of people wish this feature since years.
  • Every account as a unique FN#. They don't seem to be hooked up yet, though. --TomEdwards 10:43, 5 Feb 2006 (PST)
  • For us HL1 mappers that still use hammer 3.5, this is an issue too. The compiled Bsp cant get copied past the folder with the email address because of the @ in the folder name. So all the compiled files end up in the steamapps folder instead of the maps folder were it should be.--PlayEdUdE 21:01, 27 Mar 2006 (PST)

Selected list item appears white

  • Selecting a contact makes their name appear white, as if they are online. This can be disorienting for a short moment when you glance at the list
  • Colours should be different for selected and online friends
  • Select an offline friend and quickly look at the Friends window
  • TomEdwards

Make the "Add Friend" a one-page wizard

  • When adding multiple friends, the task of searching for a friend and hitting the "Back" button quickly becomes tedious. I suggest that the "<user> has been added to your friends list, under the name <username>" message appear under the search field on the same page.
  • Screenshot
  • Lunchtimemama
Seconded EAi
This would be appreciated. Mikeym88

Highlight friends in the Server Info window

Consider: I see a server in the Friends tab of the Server browser. I would like to know which friend is playing on that server. And consider: I see in the Friends window that my friend is in-game. I would like to know how they are scoring. At present: I must open the Game Info window of that server and hunt for a name I recognize. But what if: The Game Info window would list friends of mine in another color.

Doing this in in-game player lists would be good too.
I like this suggestion, but I don't think it would be a good idea to do on an in-game scoreboard, as some mods use scoreboard highlighting for other purposes - ReK_
Perhaps an icon, then.
If they use a variable to set the color any mod could easily change it. No problem. -Rotzi

Friends and My Games windows docking

  • The Friends and My Games (and maybe other) Steam windows dock to the task bar and window edge, but do not dock to the middle of a two screen set up. I'm sure many valve developers use two screens at once, so I doubt I'm the first to notice this (or maybe valve developers don't use steam!)
  • EAi

Renaming Friends Image:messenger.gif (Windows Live Messenger)

  • "View User Details" and "Remove Friend" are the only options available to users in your Offline list.
  • It would be nice to be able to rename these users (if only just in the list itself) so you don't have to keep track of multiple display names for one user.
  • Inimitable
    • I second this - it would keep people from switching 'display names' to confuse people! It would be best if this information was kept locally - Hampster
    • Yes, would be great to rename your friends. Quite annoying like is at the moment. --Snafu.c
    • I would appreciate this too. Mikeym88
    • Appreciated. We need possibility to rename friends in our list! -Rotzi
    • I would be interested in documenting a method of how this should be implemented if anyone at Valve wants some feedback. -DaFox

Minimizing the in-game vgui2 windows

  • Adding the action to minimize the child windows of the vgui2 interface while playing games would be a nice feature, that way the user can maintain a clean and organized view.
    • I assume this would be like minimizing windows in windows (in Windows (malkovich malkovich malkovich)) where it would just shrink it to a little titlebar-only window and move it to the corner? --Alph Tech STUART 08:35, 4 Feb 2006 (PST)
  • underplay

Notification of Friend playing in chat window

  • When having a chat window open with a friend and they are in-game, there is currently no quick way to join the game that they are playing directly from the chat window. Perhaps some quick button here (or subsequent simple hyperlink after the [playing 'Game'] statement) would work well.
    • Perhaps something like a shift-double click? --Alph Tech STUART 08:35, 4 Feb 2006 (PST)
  • Hampster

Friends count Image:messenger.gif

  • Simply put, the friends list should be able to count up how many users are in each group (current game, online, offline) and display them in the headers
  • ts2do
See User:Alph Tech STUART/Friends Design --Alph Tech STUART 08:35, 4 Feb 2006 (PST)
Seconded Mikeym88
Appreciated. -Rotzi
I love Alph Tech STUART's example -DaFox

Windowshare Image:messenger.gif

  • I should be able to quickly reallocate the amount of the window taken up by the chat pane vs. the text entry.
  • Alph Tech STUART

Offline Messages Image:messenger.gif (Windows Live Messenger)

  • I think it would be useful to leave offline messages to our friends, and when the user signs in, a sound would tell him that he has an 'offline message'
  • Mikeym88
    • Or just display them to him. Question of performance I think, Valve will know :) -Rotzi

Open Protocol for 3rd party clients

  • I think a second open protocol should be published so that clients like http://www.pidgin.im could implement a version. I think whenever Steam is loaded, it should not disconnect the 3rd party, but instead pretend it doesn't exist till Steam logs off. While I know Linux isn't supported, this is nice for Linux users, as wine eats up a bit of ram to leave Steam open all of the time.
    • +1. Actually, this page seems to imply that it's MSN/Windows Live Messenger, which Pidgin already supports. If it uses the standard wire protocol and auth, all we'd need to know is the server address. --Ryanb 01:09, 16 Nov 2007 (PST)
      • A second protocol isn't necessary. Valve just needs to document the one they have. I wonder why they don't just use an extensible, compatible, and well proven protocol like XMPP? There has been some work on reverse engineering the protocol however it doesn't look very promising. Cheers --StevenAshley 03:23, 16 Dec 2008 (PST)

Friends List Sorter

Possibly create a method for users to sort and arrange their friends list based on clans, scrim teams, servers they play on, etc. Allow the users to pick subcategories and name them according to what relationship they have to the friends in the particular group. It would make finding which friends were online easier based upon your relation to them. I picture something similar to Window's Live Messenger's friend categorization or AIM's friend list where you can name the catergory, click the friend, and drag/drop them into a group. With many Steam users having several hundred friends, it would make the Steam Friends platform considerably more user-friendly.

Thanks! --Slazenger 07:49, 2 Jan 2009 (PST)

  • I would be interested in documenting a method of how this should be implemented if anyone at Valve wants some feedback. --DaFox

Merged:

  • It will be useful if there will be the possibility to create personalized groups of the collected users/friends.
  • hostfat

Popup Notifications

  • Status: Currently, I don't believe the "Busy" status in Steam actually does anything? It would be a good idea so that it behaved in a similar way to MSN/Windows Live Messenger where it will block pop-up notifications, but you'll still recieve the messages.
  • Selective Notifications: It would be a good idea if there was a setting where a user can opt to block popup notifications unless they are from people who are currently in the same server as you. I personally hate playing on servers and being flooded with message notifications from other friends asking me stupid questions or asking me to join their game!

--Matt 10:36, 30 Oct 2008 (PDT)

Online steam Friends List access

  • It would be nice to have the steam "Friends List" online. Maybe integrate with an existing IM? Per say, Image:messenger.gif MSN would be able to sync with your friends list via a login. Instead of the login that is registered by a user, the login will be automatically imported from the Steam login.

--Odahilys 18:36, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Friends/Suggestions"
Personal tools