This has been in development for a very, very long time. Today, we reveal the preview of our new message system. Here are the most important changes in a nutshell:
It has a more modern interface with fewer pages and clicks. There are some nice AJAX features and filters update client-side in real time.
It follows a a strict threading approach - all messages belong to persistent channels. This is more than just an ordering system, it also means that, for example, a new ruler can access the ruler channel history after his election, reading messages that rulers exchanged between them before he took office. Characters joining a realm can read the history of the "all members of the realm" channel.
This should allow people to get up to speed much faster, especially players new to the game who will no longer face silence for their first few hours, but can already access the rich history.
It also makes conversations between characters (two or more) into a persistent conversation. One expansion planned is the ability to later invite more people to an existing conversation.
One new thing are a few global channels. The most important one is the global mentoring channel where everyone can read and write. This makes new players less dependent on their realm having good mentors and allows a more widespread exchange of OOC information.
The new and old message system overlap partially. Most messages generated by the game will be posted to both the old and the new system, so when you access the new message system for the first time, there should be plenty of messages already. However, messages you write will not automatically span the division between the two systems. So do not rely on other players reading messages you write them in the new system.
This is a limited preview period. Please post your feedback below. In one or two weeks, we will take the new message system down again to incorporate your feedback and fix any bugs. After that, there will be two more transition steps before it replaces the old system.