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You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Toggle speech bubbles - Why speech bubbles are amazing and needs to be implemented.
Sokken
Member
I tried to find out information on this subject and the only thing I could find was a transcript of the February stream Q&A.
Q: Are there any plans for speech bubbles or other instruments (best solution optional, because some love them as me, but also some doesn’t like it) to the the local (say channel) written text above (or near) the character.
A: Not right now. When there’s a lot of people in one area it gets really messy.
I believe the lack of speech bubbles is to the detriment of players engaging with each other in an immersive and personal way. A lot of modern MMO's relegate all communication to a box in the corner of the screen. A decision that I believe creates a disconnect between players and characters. At times it can be difficult to even realize that someone is talking to you or who is saying what or where player engagement is taking place. Communication no longer happens in the world, it happens in a cluttered, disconnected box in the corner. The world feels a lot more alive if you can actually see interactions in the world, real life communication isn't relegated to a box. It is a part of the world, it happens at certain places, at certain times, between certain people. It is pretty jarring, at least to me, that a lively conversation between random people in a town manifests it self as an awkward staring contest in the actual world.
Role-players especially tends to favor this, but you don't have to RP to appreciate a living, interactive world. I know some people don't like speech bubbles, so the best compromise would be to enable the possibility to toggle this on and off. So that people who don't like it or people who want to hide their UI for screenshots or other things don't have to see it. But for me personally, if there is a crazy man shouting in the town square then I want to be able to identify that there is a crazy man shouting in the town square.
Since the developers have been quite adamant about not allowing addons that would fix this, then asking here is really the only option. Please don't relegate all communication to a box in the corner. The world feels so much more alive when you can see the person who is typing and it all becomes a lot more personal.
Q: Are there any plans for speech bubbles or other instruments (best solution optional, because some love them as me, but also some doesn’t like it) to the the local (say channel) written text above (or near) the character.
A: Not right now. When there’s a lot of people in one area it gets really messy.
I believe the lack of speech bubbles is to the detriment of players engaging with each other in an immersive and personal way. A lot of modern MMO's relegate all communication to a box in the corner of the screen. A decision that I believe creates a disconnect between players and characters. At times it can be difficult to even realize that someone is talking to you or who is saying what or where player engagement is taking place. Communication no longer happens in the world, it happens in a cluttered, disconnected box in the corner. The world feels a lot more alive if you can actually see interactions in the world, real life communication isn't relegated to a box. It is a part of the world, it happens at certain places, at certain times, between certain people. It is pretty jarring, at least to me, that a lively conversation between random people in a town manifests it self as an awkward staring contest in the actual world.
Role-players especially tends to favor this, but you don't have to RP to appreciate a living, interactive world. I know some people don't like speech bubbles, so the best compromise would be to enable the possibility to toggle this on and off. So that people who don't like it or people who want to hide their UI for screenshots or other things don't have to see it. But for me personally, if there is a crazy man shouting in the town square then I want to be able to identify that there is a crazy man shouting in the town square.
Since the developers have been quite adamant about not allowing addons that would fix this, then asking here is really the only option. Please don't relegate all communication to a box in the corner. The world feels so much more alive when you can see the person who is typing and it all becomes a lot more personal.
14
Comments
A chatbox only keeps a full log of conversations
but speech bubbles make it really intuitive to see where who's talking (especially when conversing with strangers), and give you a better feel for the pace of a conversation compared to a time-stamped chatbox.
Even if the speech bubble only shows the first 5 or 6 words that the person said, it communicates an extra dimension that you use in conjunction with the chatbox.
I second this verbatim. And maybe add a duration timer for how long a speech bubble would remain on screen?
Duration timer is actually quite an excellent idea.
This is one of the most irrelevant comments I have seen on these forums yet.
Completely misinformed and illogical.
[ Off ] Enable chat bubbles
IMO it would be the opposite of immersive because IRL people don't use speech bubbles.
I concur with this sentiment and would disable speech bubbles if they existed.
Instead I would support built-in real time voice communication either for just my party or with selective mutability options.
And looking at the chat box in the bottom left corner is more immersive? Some of you people are just ridiculous.
Speech bubbles that can be disabled do not affect you in any way so why would you argue against them?
They have already confirmed that there will be VOIP for group parties.
@vmangman simmer down slayer.
Two people can have totally different opinions without either of the people being ridiculous. For example, I don't think the OP is ridiculous for thinking there should be speech bubbles.
I simply said why it would be distracting to me and that I will disable them if they existed, that is my opinion. Expressing that opinion is what makes a discussion which is what this forum is for.
Assuming "why would you argue against them?" is not a hypothetical question. The simple answer is, because I would not use the feature I think it would be a waste of time for the devs to delay the release to implement it when they are already not planning on it.
That's great news about VOIP, that's what I will be using.
Your first argument of chat bubbles breaking immersion is an argument against chat bubbles... which is why I asked you why you would argue against something that doesn’t affect you since you can just disable it, slayer.
I second this with the option to have a choice of who you disable.
for example i could Blacklist certain people or whitelist them and Blacklist every random player.
This way i don't get chat bubbles from randoms but i do get them from my group, family, friends and guild.
The monarchs and the majors should get special chat bubbles.
VoIP is nice too, as long as its easy to mute someone with 2 clicks in a second.
But why not have both? VoIP and chat bubbles?
VOIP only applies for parties, raids, guilds and apparently also taverns. It does however not account for meeting randoms and does not really work for people who either don't want to or just can't talk in voice chat all the time.
When communicating by text only, then speech bubbles is the easiest way to tell who is talking and is the most immersive alternative. It can be quite difficult to even realise that someone straight in front of you has said anything to you if all text only appears in a box in the corner.
Also as have been said, please try to remain civil and constructive.
At least a chatbox stuck in the corner is out of the main view of the screen, and feels decidedly less "comic book"y.
I don't mind very small speech bubbles for very short NPC text, but I don't want to see speech bubbles for Player text.
And looking at the chat box in the corner is more immersive? Not to mention that sometimes you might not even notice that someone is trying to talk to you because you didn’t check the chat box in the corner of your screen. Are you RPing a hard of hearing character or why are you not responding to the person typing to you? Oh it’s because you didn’t check the very immersive chat box in the corner of your screen. That makes sense.
Just turn off chat bubbles and stop arguing against a system that doesn’t affect you at all.
I do prefer being able to restrict whose chat bubbles pop up, which is usually just group, guild, and raid members in order to keep my screen clear.
Whoa whoa whoa, "simmer down slayer"...
Yes, having a chatbox at the corner of the screen where it's not affecting or impeding my vision is a lot more immersive than having bubbles of text shooting up in front of my face while I'm trying to look at the picture.
Just like when you attacked Geronimo before, I'm simply saying why I find speech bubbles to be less immersive. You're entitled to your opinion, just as I'm entitled to mine.
But why would you argue against something that doesn’t affect you at all since you can just disable it?
It’s one thing to have an opinion and another thing to push forward your opinion when it has no effect on your experience, but it has a negative effect on someone else’s experience. I do not understand why this concept is so difficult for some of you to understand, slayer.
I'll agree that speech bubbles aren't immersive from a purely visual standpoint. But it is in my opinion way more immersive for communication and gives sense of a living, active player base. MMO's are not single player games, speech bubbles in a realistic single player game would be ridiculous, but it is an amazing way of showing player interaction in a multiplayer game. Most MMO's I've played that don't feature speech bubbles, seem downright anti-social. Like ESO and SWTOR (though SWTOR is basically a single player game trapped in an MMO).
I'm not "arguing against it", slayer. I'm all for customisation. If you want it as a feature cos it'll improve your game experience, then I'm behind you all the way. I was simply providing an alternative view to your general assertion that speech bubbles were more immersive, as I find the opposite. As you say, you could have it toggled one way, and I could have it the other.
For somebody who dislikes the concept of having opinions pushed forward, you're very aggressive to those who have a different view to yours. Simmer down, now. There's a good slayer!
As with many others I like them because it helps me locate the speaker ON SCREEN and helps me feel like I'm speaking with the other avatar and not some text in a chat box.
I understand that you’re new here and might be getting a little confused, but when you come in with negative comments such as “I’d disagree that speech bubbles are immersive” and “I don’t want to see speech bubbles for Player text” then you are effectively arguing against speech bubbles.
Your comments are clearly speaking against speech bubbles. Why would you speak against something that has no effect on you (since you could disable the feature) even though it would greatly improve someone else’s experience?
You could have just said that you would want to be able to disable speech bubbles... that would be you bringing forward your feedback in a reasonable and kind manner. However, you speaking negatively on them is the same as you arguing against them and there is no reason for you to do that since you can just disable them. I’m really not sure why that’s so hard for you to understand.
Stop acting like a fool.
What does the length of time someone has been on a forum have to do with the perception of how a comment is read by somebody else?
If I was speaking against anything, it was your hyper-aggressive attack-heavy harrassment of anybody with a view different to your own. I've never liked bullies.
There have been three individual people in this thread alone asking you to dial it back a little. Treat people in a reasonable and kind manner, and you'll be treated in a reasonable and kind manner. You've called people irrelevant, misinformed, illogical, ridiculous, and now a fool. Please take a look at how you come across in your posts before lecturing others about reasonable and kind feedback.
Now, on to the actual topic.....
If you'd care to re-read my comment, I said that I was ok with short NPC bubbles, I just didn't want to see Player bubbles. In the MMOs I've played, the general Zone Chat of an area is usually filled with "WTS" or Guild Recuitment spam, players comparing hard game content to horrific illnesses such as cancer and aids, and players swearing at each other using txt-spk. I can do without that popping up on my screen.
The situation is simple. If you argue against something or bring negative feedback against a very simple aspect of the game that has no effect on you because you can just toggle it off, then you will be told to stop. That’s the whole point and the reason why comments like yours are upsetting. If it doesn’t affect you and it improves other people’s experience why do you need to speak against that aspect of the game.
Your feedback could sway the developers into not implementing the speech bubbles and that would suck because they’re important to many players and speech bubbles have no effect on you. It’s really very simple. Not sure why you’re struggling to understand this.
Some people don't like them - that's fine, toggle it off, if it's not off by default.
Yours truly went from playing SWG to SWTOR. The former had chat bubbles, and you could also scroll back on a chat-log to see anything you missed/wanted to read more-carefully.
HOWEVER!
The latter specifically doesn't have chat bubbles AT ALL - which really took me out of the game. Instead of seeing people chatting in the streets and in the open environment, the social environment in SWTOR feels quite dead - since you never know if someone saying something in chat is near or far, from you - even if they are standing next to you; You'd have to match the name in the chat screen with a specific name of a toon around you.
Yours truly would strongly support chat bubbles, as an option - a game feels far less-social, without them.
A toggle switch would be nice, but I'd also want it to auto turn off at certain points, like if you're actively in PvP. I'd probably have it on in the outerworld, but it could be used to distract me during a PvP fight or block me from seeing something which would be annoying.
And of course if there are speech bubbles there'd need to be a way to block people/block just their bubbles for spam or annoyance.
But the reason I like speech bubbles so much is because I have a hard time reading a chat box. I usually can't see the text going by all that well so if I'm in a guild I'll just park my text box in guild chat, but that means if someone is talking to me in general I won't see it. Speech bubbles usually at least give me an indication that someone is trying to get my attention.
(And I know I can just make the text box bigger, but I'd rather see the world around me for dangers/items than look at a box that is usually irrelevant to me. If I was smart enough to play with my HUD off I totally would).