Actually this is first a question about game play and then a suggestion for a change.

1) When I'm going through pages and pages of messages waiting to get to the prompt so I can delete, am I visable in the sector? For an example, I'm cloaked out in fed space, but while I'm waiting to get to the delete option can other's see me in the sector?

2) There are times I would like to study the messages before I delete them, but the parts I want to see are too far up to scroll. What do you think if we asked JP to allow us to save those messages to a file on our machines to study later and once the save is done delete them from the game?

This would probably be a pretty big change and I don't know if it's possible. Maybe we'd have to set-up in user settings the path to save the log file to, then when logging into the game have the options to read, delete or save computer messages. Or maybe the save to Path .... just once after you choose the save option.

I'm just brain storming here. I do realize this may cause some scripts to have to have minor edits, but will not effect game play one way or the other.. UNLESS I am visable in the sector while going through all these messages.

And I do know Sing has a script that clears msgs every hour.

When I log in a game that has a ton of messages I hit "a" that aborts the messages and will take you directly to the prompt. I believe there are a few scripts made public floating around that will capture your mail/messages and save them to a text file for offline reading. I am not sure about the cloaked part as I don't really trust it I prefer to end messages and read them later. I hope that helps a little.

Yes it does, thank you. I'd forgotten all about the "a" to abort.

Then maybe some mail options and a pause at this prompt

"Searching for messages received since your last time on:"

Abort, Read, Delete, Save

Less prone to error to just run a script to cap the messages and then delete them since this also allows flltering of messages. Deleting messages is quick and fairly simple anyway. I believe it is something like "cm q:y", but I never worry about messages as far a deleting all of them so it is usually just ":y"

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

To put your mind at ease, I ran a test on my local machine with two simultaneous sessions. One with player A logged out..the other with player B logged in the same sector as player A.

What I did on the test that I logged in Player A manually and then checked on Player B after each log-in step of Player A, (enter user ID, PW, etc). Every time Player A got past each step, he still did not show up as "enters the game" or show up on the # screen.

Only then did Player A either read all his messages or abort reading them did he actually enter the game.

So what this means is - you can take the time all you want reading messages when entering the game without worrying about being seen in sector. This would also apply for coming back from a #SD#. You can copy and paste important information to notepad or whatever. If entering a game quickly is a must, simply abort messages. They won't be deleted until you either read all the messages later or hit ":Y". Then you can read messages later from a comfort zone such as your base if you didn't use the ":Y" option first.

When coming back in, notice that you don't get the ship name prompt until after you
read messages. It isn't until after you enter the ship name and confirm that you'll
show up in the sector.

That's why you use a macro like this:
name^My l

That way you name and land in a burst. Prior to that, you can take whatever time
you want to read messages.

I didn't test the coming back from #SD# part, Sing. Thanks for bringing that up.