Having a chat client without the game is a bad idea. I have friends all over the net and where i hang out, etc. Several people are not. All I can imagine is extra lag from people who aren't even playing. Of course this may be an extreme example, but I just want to illustrate that not all good ideas will remain good ideas.
Subspace is first and foremost a game with a very nice chat interface.
Subspace is a continuum that exist in conjunction with our own space-time continuum. Perhaps this is just my problem, but whenever I would try to use the message hot keys to play a sound in the current subspace, they would never work. I think it would be cool if that could be a working feature in Continuum. I just have one thing to ask. If they could give us permission that could get around all that trademark legal stuff.