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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Voice Chat Or Speech Bubble
Leviojima
Member, Alpha Two
So we know that players are going to be talking with their guilds / friends over voice chat because... it happens in every game. However Ashes is using a system to talk to each other with overhead text chat boxes. Do you think this will be something that the players will encourage using or discourage using. I mean if you are in a fight and having trouble seeing info from text boxes this can be a loss, but is just disabling something meant to make it easier on players to talk without poxy chat better?
Love to know your answers!
Love to know your answers!
1
Comments
Not something I want to see. I have no problem with names and a chat window.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
See I understand that choice. Players really enjoy their screen area after all! It just feels like a large number of players are going to miss out on sections of the game because of it.
What could Intrepid do to make the speech bubbles worth it to you V?
I mean this is an open world game where non-combat players and combat players can be overlapping. So there is not much control over what other players are saying while you are engaged in combat.
If I had to guess you mean in more end game content and I do agree that the issue SHOULD become lesser the higher level you are just because of the nature of the content you are participating in.
You said missing out on sections of the game.
What sections of the game?
If I can communicate via in-game chat window and discord I have everything I could ever need.
I can't think of anything that would make me want to try chat bobbles.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I mean to some degree I understand that, however it has never really been a part of the Mmo that I understood. It doesn't seem to fit any of the concepts that Mmo's seem to strive for. It doesn't make the world seem immersive, real, or connected. Honestly, the only time I have ever found bubbles useful personally is when I am trying to find 1 person in a crowd.
As Part of the game I just meant as in it was put in the game so it feels like a shame not to use it. I as a player feel bad when there are parts of games that I either dont know how to use or just dont find helpful in a game. So I thought I would see what everyone else thought and maybe find a reason to like a new/old mechanic.
There are plenty of things in MMOs I disable or skip. If am not interested in them, I don't use them.
I have skipped every cutscene in FFXIV and never once read a quest dialog in that game for example.
The first thing I do when I log on to a MMO is completely rebind every key and disable any help.
Then I mute all the music and put sound effects at like 10%. Disable cutscenes if that is an option.
After that, I go find a DPS meter, and reconfigure the UI because DEVs still don't know what a useful UI is.
I play these games to crack skulls with my friends and make new friends while cracking skulls. I am not interested in any of the extra bells or whistles. Struggling with a group in a persistent challenging environment is the draw of these games for me.
I don't feel bad at all about disabling anything that gets in my way of cracking skulls.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
You wrote: "If you are in a fight and having trouble seeing info from text boxes this can be a loss."
And I am trying to understand why I would be trying to see info from a speech bubble while I am fighting.
Or why it would be a problem if I couldn't see speech bubbles.
I can't think of any circumstances where I would be in a fight and trying to type info to other people or trying to read speech bubbles.
There could be some flavor RP going on, I suppose, but any meaningful info would be shared via Discord voice chat. During a fight, that is true for non-combatants as well as combatants.
The nature of content we participate in will be the same through all levels - by design.
So...what I'm asking for is a more concrete scenario, rather than a very vague abstraction.
Under what circumstances would I be fighting and need to see info in a speech bubble?
Sure it does.
Everything players do when they are at the level cap is the end game.
Ashes doesn't have the same type of end game as a game like WoW, but it still has an end game.
Chat bubbles are very useful to Roleplay. It helps in
* Clearing who speaks and when
* Assists in mic shy players
* Players that cannot afford a good quality mic
* People are playing in regions of another timezone and may need to be less vocal and loud
Personally, i would not be using text chat while in a Siege, but almost always for anything else.
What i would love to be able to control is
* Zone / Node of use
* Range before the bubble can be seen " heard "
* Some color and font options ( used as dialects and in order of rank )
The most important parts i feel is that other players can turn it entirely off, and while doing so, the chat is on auto placed in their general chat interface, but with an asterisk added to indicate it was a chat bubble in origin.
IF you find them annoying on big fights, because people talk too much, wich I doubt, turn them off.
IF you want to have better visibility at any stage of the game, turn them off.
IF you simply hate chat bubbles, and you want to turn them off forever, you turn them off forever.
For everything else:
DISCORD
In WoW mods like DBM pushed notifications for timers and the like to /say...it was actually pretty helpful to have one or two people keep that option on so that when you're in the middle of a fight you don't have to worry about constantly looking down at chat or something getting lost in the general noise of the battle.
Similar things could happen in AoC where people macro basic battle commands to pop up like flags so you don't have to stare at the chat box while in a fight that demands some coordination.
I am the same way. First thing I do when logging into any game for the first time is going through ALL the options. I turn off everything I don't need and rearrange things to my liking. Hopfully we get a good fully optimizable UI. Playing TBC classic right(off and on) I use EVLui and another addon to further minimize everything. I know some people really enjoy the in game music I have never heard any in game music in any MMO. I find it annoying. If I want to listen to music I start up Spotify and listen to what I want to hear.
Chat bubbles are the same for me. Never seen them. I want to see the world and the chat panel works just fine for me. I get that role players like it and am ok with it. Long as we get to turn that stuff off. Same for proximity chat. I am ok with it BUT if I want to hear you speak we can jump in Discord.
Is that like the giant "global texts" Steven sends out to give directions for sieges and boss fights?
This is Steven talking to a single group that's following a single set of instructions.
However, in a battle w/ multiple groups/guilds a formation could use chat bubbles kind of like how flags were used in real world battles.
I don't think I would be paying attention to chat bubbles during a fight, but...maybe you can post a link that shows what you mean.
I think he means like this:
Edit:Around 12:50 you can see it clearly. Time link did not work for me.
You can see that DBM injects the mechanics timer into chat, so the raid can see when it via the chat bubble.
Something I don't think we will have to worry about with Ashes. Not because we won't have meters, but because it is easier to prevent third-party programs from doing things like this.
Instead of injecting numbers you could just have the text like "Stack on me" or "Spread".
We also won't have macros. So, tanks could not make a macro for skills like ones that I have seen FFXIV paladins use. They have a CD called "Passage of Arms" that creates a cone of protection around them while they hold out their shield. It is a very cool and useful positional if people stand in it, but they need to be reminded. The macro makes it so the tank types "Stand behind me!" or something in party chat when he casts the skill.
I think the best solution for Ashes is to keep not having macros and not supporting third-party programs, but to instead have a system of easy to identify raid mechanics like this:
I always have to remind people that these easy mechanics are the skill floor for FFXIVs PvE mechanics. FFXIV does this because it is also a game that is very against add-ons. An add-on called "Paisley park" surfaced for ACT about a year ago. It would automatically place markers on the battlefield. Square was so mad about the destructiveness of this add-on that they completely rewrote the way markers are placed and made it so markers cannot be placed in combat. They did this in a single patch and made it bannable.
Personally, I really like FFXIV's built in system of common mechanics because it is a happy medium between DBM and nothing.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Ironically there was recently a chat in the Discord about bosses and how they'll telegraph attacks and what you see in FF isn't anything near what they want in AoC...Steven doesn't want telegraphed shapes on the ground, only animations. Which is frustrating to me b/c there's plenty of examples where what you know to be outside the SFX of an ability isn't actually out of it's range and you'll still take damage. On top of the fact of trying to play Dark Souls in the middle of a PvP battle.
As for your take on macros I don't agree. There's a huge divide between automating your rotation like in some expansions in WoW and being able to click a button to bark your guild recruitment. A basic macro system wouldn't break the game in any way.
Not my take on macros. They just are not expected to be in the game. I think there are other instances of Intrepid saying there will not be macro support, but this is the one on the wiki:
I worded my response above as if that is common knowledge because I have seen a few threads this last year complaining about no macros. Specifically, old and disabled people really want macros.
Personally, I see macros as a tool. If a situation calls for that tool, I would use them.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Seems likely raid leaders will have access to that.
You asked how something works:
"maybe you can post a link that shows what you mean."
All I was doing was showing you...
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
That's fair, sorry for jumping to it being your personal opinion. There's been a few odd decisions like this that tend to stick out and mix that in w/ the endless suggestions/opinions it's not always easy to tell what exactly is Intrepid and what's the players.
Giant global text is limited to being right in the middle of your screen so directions have to take that into account.
However, a speech bubble from an officer simply saying Follow Me will pop up right in their location same for people fighting a boss, having a speech bubble right next to you say "Go Left" can be followed, whereas if it pops up for the group on the other side of the boss you can quickly know to ignore it.
This is why I keep equating it to formation flags from ancient militaries.
I feel the same way. I only remember the macro thing because of the number of times handicapped, and older people have brought it up in the last year. It is a fair argument. Macros can help people with limited movement do a lot more.
I also get that any game with tabbed targeting is going to be extremely vulnerable to bots. I guess the idea is that it is easier to have bot detection when macros don't exist because bots use repetitive keystrokes and key press timings the same way macros do.
If I was a botter I would just add some randomized input lag between each key stoke to mimic humans inprefection. Just like DPS meters, it will be an endless game of cat and mouse. I guess Intrepid thinks no macros is more helpful than hurtful.
I could never play a game like FFXI without macros, but I rarely use macros in most modern MMOs other than for raid call outs or mouse over macros.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.