This is probably impossible for us to mod, so its up to you devs

In the patch, can you make the replay engine create a text file alongside the replay file?

The text file would have header info such as the players in the game, the mods active at the time, kill stats.
But most importantly....
CHAT HISTORY with timestamps!!!

Then when you replay, it would automatically show chat AS IT HAPPENS in the game.
Many people have asked for this but I think it could really be possible if you put the info in an external file. That way it doesn't mess up your file format.

Of course this means we should put a UID in the filename now, instead of just "lastgame" as the name. Match the UID between the replay file and the text file and the engine knows which ones go together.
Plus if people want to replay w/o chat - say if someone's being obscene, but its a good replay, they just delete the text file and it replays like normal.

From DOS you can 'type replay.screplay' and it'll print a small header for you. I'll look into putting more info there.

In the patch chat is recorded and played back in replays.
EDIT: I lied. I just checked with the guy who does replay stuff and this isn't in for the patch.

dang! You had me rejoicing for a second there..

Is it going in *ever* ?
Can you check?
If not, what's the difficulty?

Getting chat in there is actually a lot of work. It's doable, but really low on the list priority wise. I don't see it going in anytime soon.