Akmadan
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Posts posted by Akmadan
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Greetings,
Simple post to ask what was It that Bioware is planning for gearing and pvping? As a veteran of swtor since the beta I've been utterly baffled that they went with the idea to remove pvp gear entirely, expertise and all and just "Bolster" people, doing the exact same mistake World of Warcraft is doing (Of which I'm also a veteran player for 14 years now) of removing PvP gear and vendors entirely and just artificially pushing your numbers up in a PvP Instance.
And both games suffer terrible PvP loses because of It and both are surprised that nobody wants to PvP as much.
I'll say this much, SWTOR's classes at least have more buttons to use than WoW classes do, they've been butchered horrificly since the last three expansions (Aka 5 ish years) and swtor for now, keeps a good number of abilities around even though at this point It's becoming stale all of the classes.
But my point is, are they even CONSIDERING to bringing back the simple and very good way of doing PvP gearing by bringing back the Vendors, with normal pvp gear you can aquire within days and then ranked gear you can aquire within a few months? If not, I'd see barely any reason to do PvP in swtor. The one thing It has going for It than WoW doesn't have is Huttball personally speaking.
People and hardcore fans of swtor are likely going to ask, well why isn't bolstering better? Well no It's not, It's BIOWARE making it easier for THEMSELVES by bolstering us up in stats and leaving It at that. While we loose a sense of PvP progression, power growth, gear customization (Adding Item Modifications, augments etc) to suit your own playstyle.
Both games are loosing more than they're gaining by bolstering their PvP Players stats up artifificially and It hurts to see that happening as I enjoy PvPing in both games. What Is their stance on this currently?
PS: Are they even going to return the old talent system as well, maybe? Because just like WoW, the new linear talent system Is boring, bland and offers no customization that has meaning.
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Akmadan, what you are asking for is not feasible anymore.
It was the intention, but then things happened. Players skip the stories. It's a multiplayer game. You don't want to waste all your resources on it, like you have seen with the Knights of expansions. While i absolutely loved them while they lasted, they didn't help the game. This is an mmo. So, story while an important part of it cannot overshadow everything else.
There isn't going to be a huge storyline spanning like 8 planets or whatever it was at launch. There isn't the funding for that, and honestly replaying them today, the traveling distances are incredibly boring and annoying. I actually think the vanilla story and planet zones should be removed from the game and sold as a single player game separately. Because their quality just isn't comparable to the new stuff and makes the game look bad, and obviously replaced with new zones in the same planets that have better design, bringing them up to par.
You're right, but that's also the shame.
I'd feel the same way today about Vanilla WoW, I can't imagine asking the WoW Devs to make two giant continents with 15+ zones across It. The 5+ zones they release Is fine per expansion as each has nicely contained stories, although insignificant to the entire world and are contained In the island/isle that just happened to have appeared from a mist, or suddenly became relevant.
But at the same time, I feel SWTOR's lack of planets and zones like they did -before- doesn't help It. Lets look at the level 1-50 experience quickly.
We had 3 chapters, chapter 1 had us go through 4 planets, then chapter 2 had 3 planets with Chapter 3 having only 2 planets. And yet, all of those planets felt great to play through, as you got Into a hub area, got a bunch of quests + your main storyline quest + the per planet long-chain quest and so on. Feeling you really went through the entire zone, there usually being 3 large zones per planet to explore, not all explored or used immediatly through questing as some were elite zones.
Now, In the future I wouldn't have minded getting at least 2 planets, at minimum. And at best, 4 planets per expansion to explore and go through like that, with each of the 8 chars having a storyline that runs parallel with the others like It did before. But they instead focused too much on 1 char, and yes as you said this is an MMO but since they advertized this game as a Story Driven MMO, that's always been at the back of my head. Well I don't mind sacrificing the story In order to get more MMO-esk features, more dungeons, more skirmishes, raids and PvP features. But first, we have to either return to being Cypher 9, Darth Nox, Hero of Tython etc. again, part of the Republic/Empire respectively and basically do a story reset, returning to our roots.
And from there I believe they can give us more features that expand upon our chars, remove all of our companions. I really don't think we need 100 companions with only 5 or so mattering In the long run, and only 5 having any long-term dialoque.
I'd rather have 5 companions I can relate to, speak to and get to know (And romance potentially) than 100 useless ones that I meet or re-meet and never talk to again. Quality over quantity.
If Bioware don't do something close to this, I feel like we've lost the game.
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Hello there,
I've been a player of SWTOR since the Beta, and have never posted on the forums other than the beta forums themselves back In the day and I felt I had to give my piece and opinion of a long-term experienced player of the game.
This'll come from the perspective of a mostly PvP focused player, with also heavy focus on Roleplaying as well going back to WoW (Which I also play for 14 years, and still do now) as well since Swtor's launch. And have done virtually no raiding on SWTOR bar Karagga's palace In the Lookingforrgroup tool.
That made clear, I'm worried yet hopeful seeing they've not given up on SWTOR, with the last three expansions we've had arguably destroyed the game. Not only did many Roleplayers just leave after we had a forced 5 year time skip on us with Knights of out of nowhere expansions, the Revan storyline didn't really make me happy for how the Revan story had an ending, canon or not.
But, we are going BACK to the whole Empire X Alliance which I'm glad for, and not just the usual "Oh look, a big galaxy wide threat, lets make peace for a year, deal with It and go back to fighting each other" kinda deal we've had since Revan. The small OPs here and there or dungeons that had such threats were fun, cause they weren't galaxy-wide and affected your faction, like the Mandalorian Clan of Varad going rogue and attacking republic ships, so we had to deal with that as the Empire's agents and so on.
So I'm happy for that, but to this day I am worried swtor devs don't understand that what made the leveling 1-50 experience amazing was how each of our character had a storyline going on, that also was running In parallel with the other canon characters around.
!!!!!! SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME'S STORY UNTIL HERALD'S OF VICTORY STORYLINES BELOW !!!!!!
Ever since the Hutt expansion you were either the Republic Hero or the Empire Hero, and ever since Revan expansion you were "The one guy" and ever since Knights of out of nowhere you were the generic "Commander" and not "Darth Nox" or "The Emperor's Wrath" or "The Captain" or "The Hero of Tython" (Yes I've played all of the 8 character storylines as well, so there might be spoilers!!!!).
And now we're just the Generic Commander, with the other 7 canon characters somehow vanishing. And I like how Swtor legit do the canon story, especially for Roleplayers that helps us kinda know what happened and what did the vague Hero of Tython did, essentially republic characters did light-side choices and empire chars did dark-side choices, ofcourse some scenarios had multiple dark/light choices so that's still being vague but at least we had a good Idea.
THAT Idea however, got sucked Into damn oblivion when Swtor did Patch 5.2 War for Iokath, where It split the canon In two, making that hard for the remaining Roleplayers (Yes we're a minority but still) AND It confused the rest of the people playing because that made It more singleplayer focused all of a sudden than before, and Swtor did make It kinda-sorta work alongside being an MMO but ever since their first expansion they've forgotten to focus the story on ALL 8 CHARACTERS, and not just the one. As well as on the MMO side of things, grouping up with friends, guildies and stuff.
The split In canon was so bad, I mean talk about not knowing who of the two sith died, Darth Blabla or Darth Klakla In some sith's storyline somewhere out there, but not knowing who your FACTION's LEADER Is Is insane. You either killed Acina, making Malcom the Republic Leader sitll (I think? Didn't do the republic storyline yet, the questing in the storylines Is so annoying, I'll get to that later) and then making Vowrawn the new Emperor. Or you kill Malcom and leave Acina to be the Empress, reducing the Dark Council to half of It's size (It's nice we got some clarification on that after YEARS of nothing especially for us Roleplayers). And because we're one generic character that hasn't been given canon choices as far as I'm aware that Swtor has mentioned to us (I think most Rpers go by the default Jedi Knight and him making light-sided decisions, as the trailer often has a male jedi knight as the usual hero architype In old republic games, but still that's what RPers must make up to put Inbetween the lines that aren't filled by the devs themselves) It doesn't help us to know who of the major characters, Acina or Malcom were killed in Iokath.
All It takes at this point, Is to repair that damage and tell us which is canon, Acina or Malcom. And please don't take this as just a Roleplayer rambling about his poor immersion and choices gone from the game and unable to RP properly from It. But as Bioware seemingly uncertain of their own storyline going forward It seems.
What I really and truly hope for In SWTOR: Onslaught, Is that we get to be returned Into positions within the Empire or the Republic as 8 Invididual unique chars, If not then you might as well just clean the slate and make SWTOR 2, and make It canon while at It. Because that is what made SWTOR unique for me In the level 1-50 experience, where the story was really good by the way, really well done Bioware. But every expansion after that? The story just felt... okay, and It wasn't more because It reduced the amount of amazing characters to play from 8 to 1.
Everyone treats you as the Commander, not Darth Nox. It's like, bi*ch I have ghosts of fallen Sith Lords Inside me, you don't just call me "Commander" I'll make you a damn slave If you call me commander one more time.... It's about Roleplaying. It's replayabiltiy, playing 8 unique chars and stories let you play as a Smuggler, a Jedi, a Sith, a Trooper. But ever since the Hutt expansion you only play as 1 character now. And your choices are limited that way, every future plathrough of the Knights of the Eternal Throne/Empire Isn't unique, because only very very few choices and dialoque are changed to remind you that you're "That one smuggler" and not just a generic commander dude.
I apologize if this is very ranty and rambly and whatever, but since launch I loved this game and still want to see It succed despite EA's involvement in It, I do want that. And frankly, If Bioware, guys. If you can't do more than what you've done since Launch, you should just splt away from EA, somehow. I dunno how, but you have to. If not for yourselves, than for the games you clearly love making and can do really well..
Lastly, before I this gets too large to read on the point mentioned above, going through the stories, the chapters of Knights of Eternal Empire/Throne Is also very weird... In the sense that, the spawning locations of mobs and the amounts of mobs you face is very off. Not only do the spawn In such annoying places and not In logical ways, but It gets boring and repetative quickly the more you do It. That also applies to the new Mini Flashpoints they made (i forgot their names, skirmishes?) also have horribly bad spawning locations, and not only that. For both them and the story quests, you are -forced- Into combat immediatly. Making It hard for stealth-characters for one, as well as planning out how you attack the group of mobs to begin with much harder. I play every role in the game, same as in WoW, I can tank, heal and DPS. I tank primarily on my Trooper and Sith Juggernaught and heal on my Mercenery and Sage and the rest are DPS ofcourse.
And as a tank and healer going into these stories AND skirmishes you get immediate aggro as a healer most of the time, and you can't blame your tank as the mobs spawn In such uncomfortable locations you can't get good agro on them. As a juggernaught, you taunt Target 1, saber throw the 2nd and leap the 3rd to hopefully aoe the 4th and 5th. But what about the other 5 that spanwed 20 meters from each other?
If you look at Flashpoints from the 1-50 experience, how mobs were placed allowed you to plan things out. I usually took 1-3 seconds to look at the mobs and their placement, decide who I charge, who I grenade, who I saber throw, who I taunt so that my healer doesn't take agro or damage, as well as the DPS. Because that's what Is my role, I protect my party. And if I can't get the most agro-value each time and plan out my moves alittle It's useless being a tank.
There's many more issues I have with the game and would love to tell you about them and to disuss them but I'll stop here and hope I can start a conversation with the people about this, do you see any of these things as issues, are the devs maybe reading this post wondering what more could be wrong or done good? I'd truly love to discuss these points, again sorry for the super long post but with the next expansion coming I can now be certain It'll be around for a while and not shut down yet (Thank fudge) and maybe convince a few devs to look at the game from a different perspective.
Thank you for reading, hope to talk soon,
Zentorus/Akmadan of Darth Malgus Server EU
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God I hate Huttball soooooooooooooooooooo much that I wanna punch a hole in my monitor everytime that stupid **** comes up!
:mad: :mad: Who came up with that stupid thing? Why spend time and money and make something so stupid like Huttball? And why place it in the PvP???? So my suggestion is REMOVE IT FROM PVP and place it in a special terminal for Huttball ONLY!
And make it even better, place the Robot from Robot Chicken next to the terminal and have it hump that terminal 24/7
And if possible fire the people that came up with Huttball!
And... why do you hate It? Other than rage, I see no rationality or explenation here, you won't convince the Devs to remove It If you don't give good reasons.
I personally love It, and consider It the best feature of SW:TOR's PvP, as It promotes team play, punishes solo players (Which you shouldn't be doing anyway In a PvP enviroment, you're not rambo, stop It) and If your team works and coordinates well you can win a lot. In SWTOR's PvP It's never the kills that mattered, It's the objectives. I loved swtor pvp for that reason.
If you don't prioritize aka Objectives > Kills, you won't win, simple as that. Unless you're doing Arena of course.
But I do agree with people when they say we need options.
Look, Bioware give us OPTIONS:
1. Able to choose Arena or regular Warzones
2. Able to choose specific Warzones without penalty to reward gain
3. Return guaranteed high end PvP gear that we can get, augment and decorate as we like without being forced to keep grinding and grinding PvE content In order to get gear for PvP, loot crate based system for high end pvping Is horrificly bad. You are copying WoW's Legion format for PvPing and It's not, working.
Spoiler alert, but blizzard have NO idea how to make good PvP or PvE content anymore, Legion Is a grind upon a grind, and I advice you to stop copying WoW's formula and make your own.
The way SWTOR was before was amazing, I loved It cause It felt like old school wow, you had to PvP with smarts, you had lots of utility abilities to use, I'm mad Force Lighting was removed for my assassin, whyyy? You realize the utility you've removed there? Recklessness + Force lightning means I can use It on anyone 30m away, and It will slow them down, which connects to the point I made above, teamwork.
If I could slow down their ball carries In Hutt Ball for just a few seconds for my team mates to catch up and stop them, I've done my job. You've removed a lot of utility for no reason, please don't do that and return It to us.
As well as CCing droids for Smuggler/Agent characters, why remove that yet keep the CCing for Bounty Hunters/Troopers and Inquisitors/Jedi Consulars? People -were- using that.
/ rant over.
I'm sorry, but I've not posted on these forums In... ever, since launch really. But now I feel I must as the game Is going Into a wrong direction and the only thing even keeping me subbed Is the RPing and to some extend the PvP but even that Is getting repetative very quickly.
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That's a striking appearance, and the way they both think actually.
He trully believes In the sith's way of doing things, of how the Empire works as It's a Meritocrisy, merit, strenght Is what matters, anyone can climb the ladder to the top If they are strong and cunning enough. And he seemed genuanly Interested In giving the republics a chance for that...
Either that, or just gather them up nicely and kill them all so that he remains on top... which still goes along nicely with his character, I've loved Rakton's character despite the hate given to the Trooper story. And I'm not much of a military guy myself, or for military stories.
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Here are my reasons for liking Jaesa:
Crazy Sith lady who wants to bang you, and also kill you one day to become stronger
Did I mention crazy sith sex?
A jedi turned sith, the most Interesting character to see turn from jedi to sith and discover the lies of the jedi, the weakness of them and how sith are better, more free, more powerful.
Also WHERE IS SHE... I still can't find her In this new post-zakuul world. I still don't care about Lana, Shan or any of the new chars, I'd like Jaesa and my old crew back.
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I was in Beta and I knew then that there were no Chat Bubbles in the game, I however advocated for them thoroughly. Eventually we were told that Chat Bubbles were indeed going to be implemented for launch. Well, the time is here......I log in, No Chat Bubbles.
No Chat Bubbles, means that RP will have to be done in group chat where you are looking at your stupid chat box and trying to figure who said what instead of just looking at your screen.
I understand Bioware that you don't want your game to look like a cartoon, and I understand, but then again you guys are the ones that marketed this as an MMO. If you want to lie to us to get us to buy the damn thing, and then not implement something as common in MMO's as Chat Bubbles, then don't try to peddle this as a MMO.
It would be a Single Player RPG (With Multiplayer group Component).
I agree with all of this. Since the start I've been hating on Bioware due to them promising Chat Bubbles, in I believe 1.3 or so, and not having done so... it being 2.2.. or was it 2.3? Meh...
I've been pushing away RP on SWTOR due to this... I've RPed on WoW with chat bubbles forever, they are needed. ANd if someone doesn't like them - turn them off - just like in wow.
On another note... let our characters at least MOVE their hands when we /say something, for a game that has more animations then WoW (And wow characters actually do something when you use /say there) I'd expect SWTOR to be able to implement that, not just for RPers no. But for everyone, it just looks A LOT better then you standing there... very still and awkwardly as you talk.
Half of the time I don't know who's talking! I have to look at the chat box.. then find who talked, and etc..
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Being a sub doesn't entitle you deciding how the game should be developed.
Regardless though I don't think you're going to find people arguing against having class quests. Lots of people want more of them, but it's no longer something that's easy for them to do at this point.
You seem very focused on what TOR was designed to be when it was in development, but once the game lost a huge number of subscribers and wasn't the success they thought it was going to be it became impossible for TOR to continue on being "that" game.
TOR is never going to accomplish the things it set out to do, that's the reality of the situation. Some things will happen, but not everything.
Yes, I'm entitled to voice how I want to see the game go further.
I am focused on what SWTOR was designed to be, do you think Bioware said to themselves "People leave because our story is bad and they don't like it" - nope, not true. This game is generic, it's like wow basicly.
But WHAT redeems it is the amazing Voice Acting and Story Telling, this is how ToR differenciate themselves from other MMOs. And if they don't keep to that whole Voice Acting-Story Telling theme, they will fall into a endless pit that might not have an ending.
Were not in the minority here, some people wish to skip the game? Fine, It's their loss! They miss out on an amazing storyline, I personally skip most of the side quests because I know what they'll say, but I "NEVER" skip the Class Story, It's the center of the game.
I believe people came into this game to not just have an MMO experience where they get to PvP and PvE in an amazing Star Wars Universe with Lightsabers and Blasters, but to above all experience the story Bioware made for us. BIoware are -good- at making a story, if you look at some of their previous games.
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Saddly, I'd wager those of us who want/care about the class stories are in the minority. For most, I'd bet it's skipped or nothing more than a little interresting but irrelevant part of their game play.
But that's unimaginable, the story was the main goal of the game and they want to put it into the "Irrelevant part of our game" folder?
Madness I tell you.
I don't care how fancy Makeb or other planets were, for me there are 3 kinds of quests
Class Quest
Planet Quest
Side Quests
Take out one of the three and the game falls apart. I coulden't even imagen the Planet Quests being gone, because I want to see whats happening on the Planet as well as continue my storyline.
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in my point of view we should ALL count ourselves lucky to have such a great starwars online game
for me all the stories are good and I think makeb is the beginning of a much bigger plot for the next expansion
especially for us empire players considering we are losing the war and makeb is what we need to help strike back at the republic.
a lot of hard work goes into this game and because its not what some of you thought it was or things don't go your way you have a little moan (well if you don't like it, don't play)
And if they don't divert their work to the actual goal they set out to make when they started this game, people will not play it. If you're F2P you wont care, I'm a subscriber and I want a story-driven game with my character in the middle of it... where my story continues.
if the next expansion doesn't bring a storyline for my class Bioware should beware... I'm sure Makeb will be fun and stuff, but not as much as I had fighting my way through tombs in Korriban and eventually rising up in the Sith Hierarchy to <Somewhere>
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When they said "continue your storyline" they were talking about you the player and the storyline you create with your character. Makeb feels/plays like a class quest. It's on that same level of quality if not better. Infact if you played through Makeb with only 1 Empire character and/or 1 Republic character it would seem like an extension of your class quest.
It had already been mentioned quite awhile ago that they weren't continuing the class quests. After the game went F2P the idea of them continuing the class quests basically went out the window since they were basically the most expensive content to produce.
Think of it like this. Let's say they had 10 million dollars to produce 8 hours of content. Would you rather they a planet with 8 hours worth of content, or 8 different class quests with only 1 hour of content each? That's how it would work out. When it comes to game development you can't have both. You always have to sacrifice something in favor of something else. Doing both of those things, ie new class quests and planet quests along with a new planet is no longer and option for them at this point. They don't have the resources anymore to create the equivalent of the vanilla game.
Then that's an illusion they created to make you feel you're playing a class storyline, It's false because you simply will NOT play one empire character and one republic char they cant expect us to do that. We will want to play all chars to see all the stories, I've done 4 class storylines out of 8. And I want to see them all eventually.
What Darth Wicked (Good name bro) said, the class stories SHOULD be the center of this all, it's the pillar that this game was built upon, a pillar held by an amazing storyline that ended at lvl 50 for us... and we expect to still continue.
Very soon I expect to start Makeb, and find repetative dailies that I have to grind in order to get reputation. Because I just noticed, you need reputation with Makeb to get high end-ish gear? That's ********, this isnt wow (not totally anyway), don't go down that Daily routine Bioware, comeone...
I've played WoW for all my life now, since the start. Blizzard kept putting dailies into everything, EVERYTHING. I don't want to see this amazing story-driven game get taken into that same damned path. Being F2P Is not an excuse I feel.
EDIT: Not to say dailies are bad, but the way they've been done by wow and bioware so farr is repetative. Perhaps the way the Thunder King Patch is being done now is kinda okay-ish, with the stages and such. Just like the Quel'-something island back in The Burning Crusade in wow had stages, and okay-ish dailies that didnt take you HOURS to complete all of them. Dailies that take me like an half hour to finish... those are okay!
You based this game on an epic story line for the character you created... stay true to what you made this game at the core and at the beginning, and people will keep coming to play your game.
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The Smuggler's main enemy was mentioned quite a few times.
It is another planet storyline, but it's a good one (republic side anyways). I think a lot of people wish they continued the class storylines, but I get the feeling it's not the majority.
Unlike other planets, there seems to be a lack of side quests, but a lot of dailies.
What else do we want then the story of our characters? This is a story-basen game, and I like the planet-stories too. But the main thing that drove me further was my class' storyline, if it was just the quests, and the planet stuff... I'd be bored to hell personally.
I for one want the class storylines, in a game where your character you make is the center of your gameplay I feel it's important to continue that story, even if its the simplest thing ever. Like helping to conquer the planet as your sith warrior or inquisitor, get a few jobs of high value targets as a Bounty Hunter. Aslong as it ties into your classes story.
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Good Day,
I've a few days until I go into Makeb and see the story for myself, but my friend have been saying it's only the Planet-Story available. No continucation of your Class-Storyline which is a great disapointment for me, considering Bioware promised us our story would continue with expansions coming.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the planet will look amazing and so will the story. But out of all things in The Old Republic, I enjoyed my Class Story (Starting with the Sith Inquisitor),
What do you think, should've there been a Class Story in Makeb?
PS: I was told the NPCs in Makeb recognize you for what you are (no spoilers) which is good, but still not good enough I feel!
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Good Day,
Since day one (and the Beta of SWTOR) I had concerns that Chat Bubbles wont be in the game, I've heared that they were in but they caused lag issues or such and they removed them. Around the times of 1.2 an FAQ from the Devs said they would implement Chat Bubbles in the not so distant future. Well, I believe it's been 6 months now or even more perhaps and I'm worried Chat Bubbles wont ever come to the game.
I gave my concerns on these forums before, like the very first month the game came out.
Chat Bubbles are a good way of keeping track of who speaks Ingame, so instead of going like:
Look at chat - find char who spoke - look back at that
with Chat Bubbles you can go like:
Look at char who spoke - read the text in the chatbox if you didn't catch it.
That is how I mostly do it in RP. I'd like Bioware to add them as soon as possible. They are very useful for flashpoints as well or just useful in general, you can be at your fleet station and talking to someone, and its sometimes hard to follow the chat! I'm sorry I made this so long, but in the end the reason for my post is this:
I'd like Bioware to put in chat bubbles as they wanted to back in beta. And make it optional if people don't like them!
Thank you for reading!
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Dear developers and other employees of Bioware, Lucas Arts and Electronic Arts!
A large part of the player base cannot enjoy the game properly because of the lack of chat bubbles. Therefore, on behalf of the affected players, we are hereby suggesting and formally requesting an option to toggle chat bubbles for spatial chat (/say, /yell, /emote). This thread has started in beta, reposted after the forum wipe and run a long time and has garnered a lot of support ever since. The community has come up with a lot of ideas on how to improve the situation. The following is what we propose:
Here are bullet points of what'sbeen suggested/proposed by the players:
- Add chat bubbles for /say, /yell and /emote chat that display whatever is said in these chat channels in addition to the chat window over the head of the player character that is saying it (both over your own as well as characters around yours).
Preferably have them enabled by default. - Add a client-side option to toggle chat bubbles on/off for any text players type in /say, /yell and /emote chat to Preferences->Chat.
This allows every player to decide for themselves whether they would like to see chat bubbles or not for whatever reason. - Add talking animations that triggers when typing into /say and /yell to visualize that the character is currently talking or shouting.
Existing character animations may be reused for this, like the one used by the /talk emote. - Lower the range of /say to 25 meters (currently 40 meters) and keep the range of /yell at 50 meters.
This has proven a good range for spatial chat in other MMOs to prevent clutter. - Add a slider to allow people to freely and indivudally adjust the range at which chat bubbles disappear from maximum range for each chat channel down to a couple of meters.
This will allow players to find a good compromise between the amount of chat bubbles, clutter and performance for their individual taste and computer. - Chat bubbles for each chat channel/type should have a different appearance style
Take a look what other MMORPGs like Star Wars Galaxies (still one of the best implementations of chat bubbles in MMORPGs to date) and/or comics typically use for what people say (bubble with rounded edges and tail that points to the character that says it), yell/shout/scream (jagged bubble with longer tail) and "emotes" (square bubble, maybe even without a tail) to distinguish between the various chat channels.
Chat bubbles could also be sporting the same hue/color (be it border or background, depends on the style you choose) each chat channel is assigned to on your client.
Here is a short summary of the reasons why chat bubbles should be implemented:
- Chat bubbles encourage face to face interactions with other players.
- They encourage multiplay instead of solo-play - most desirable in a MMO.
- Chat bubbles improve communication and group/Ops group coordination between players.
- They help to build and strengthen community, which is the main reason that keeps people playing and stay loyal to a MMO(RP)G for many years and even decades, even when the PVE and PVP content has run it's course.
- They allow people to focus on the world in front of them, and not a tiny chat window in a corner or anywhere else but near the center of the screen.
- The fast scrolling chat window is impossible to follow conversations while in an area with a large amount of people.
- Chat bubbles greatly improve immersion into the game world (click here to read a post explaining how if you don't understand).
- The game world seems to be less sterile and more alive when you can actually see player characters talking.
- Making new chat channels is not a useful alternative.
- People with various visual impairments rely on chat bubbles in MMOs to be able to communicate and play with other players.
- Without chat bubbles, roleplay and socializing is nearly impossible especially in crowded areas, it's tedious and simply is not fun - especially in areas where there are many people or during questing and other parts of the game.
- Chat bubbles help to pinpoint and find people that are talking in spatial chat in large and crowded areas.
- Chat bubbles benefits many players with all kinds of playstyles - be it socializers, roleplayers, Group/Flashpoint/Operations PVE players and PVP combatants (that don't rely on voice chat) among others.
- A large amount of the player base want chat bubbles as an option. Bioware said they are implementing player's wishes - this is a top priority wish/issue for a large part of the player base.
- Chat bubbles have been a standard feature in almost every mainstream, premium priced MMO released during the past decade that a whole lot of players are used to. There also hasn't been anything invented that's remotely capable of fully replacing chat bubbles for communication between players in MMO(RP)Gs yet (text to speech technology combined with positional audio is still far off from sounding natural).
- People have started to cancel their subscriptions due to the lack of chat bubbles and missing official assurance by Bioware that they are being implemented soon.
- /say and /yell chat channels are practically useless without chat bubbles. They are like /general with lower range.
- Having a client side option to freely turn chat bubbles on or off to each player's liking will allow every player to enjoy the game, whether they need chat bubbles or not.
Everyone has fun, everyone is happy, everyone wins!
Related Links:
German discussion of this thread / Deutsche Diskussion dieses ThreadsSuggestions of features roleplayers want to have added in this game. Includes chat bubbles and many other items.Thread to post questions that will be answered to the devs in a blog post. Make sure to ask about chat bubbles in that thread if you want them in the game and/or want to know what their status is. The more people ask about chat bubbles, the better the chance the developers will finally take notice and give us an update on them.Article about missing chat bubbles in The Old Republic.Articles about the Fansite Summits from November 2011, where Bioware's Studio creative directorJames Ohlenpromised chat bubbles to be a"high priority in BioWare's list of things to do". On a side note,confirmed this on the beta forums as well by posting"chat bubbles are a high-priority feature for launch or shortly thereafter" around the same timeframe.An interview with Bioware'sCory Butlerfrom January 2012 which has the first official mention of chat bubbles sinceJames Ohlentalking about them at the Fansite Summit andGeorg Zöllerconfirming it on the beta forums in November 2011.When asked about chat bubbles in the interview,Butlerawkwardly avoids the topic by simply saying"I can’t really go into the specifics about chat bubbles just yet.".Bioware's Damion Schubert confirmed that chat bubbles will be implemented in the February 17th 2012 Community Q&A post:"They're definitely on the list. We’ve got many active roleplayers in the dev team and chat bubbles have always been important to us. We actually had chat bubbles in beta, but there was unfortunately some serious performance issues that our implementation caused that, for example, made things really suck in warzones and the fleet. They’ll be coming soon, but in priority, the GUI team is focused first on GUI customization. I'll have a better idea of timing once we get past that. And yes, for people who hate them, whenever we do them, they'll be toggleable."The old, prose version for those that like to read:
What he said! Mostly..
Talking Animations, Chat Bubbles for /say and /yell mostly, I'm sure BioWare are aware of how important these things are, in the last 4 months they've seen many people want that and have replied to chat bubbles directly in one of their Q&A, lets hope all the other stuff gets in too!
- Add chat bubbles for /say, /yell and /emote chat that display whatever is said in these chat channels in addition to the chat window over the head of the player character that is saying it (both over your own as well as characters around yours).
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People seem to forget a lot on the RP servers that those of us that do RP are a minority. BioWare has done things for us which people have already mentioned so be thankful for everything they give us. Besides I've heard nothing what so ever about chat bubbles being planned at any time and BioWare has said that all new chairs will be sittable but nothing about old chairs being converted so you really shouldn't have expected either with 1.2
Chat Bubbles are planned infact, they said it's one of the things they will put in after 1.2. They were in the Beta they said, but it caused many bugs and/or latency issues so they removed them for the time being.
They've said so in one of their Q&A
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Well, seems in the last Q&A they mentioned Chat Bubbles.
They will be, we just have to be patient. Three yeys?
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I know you're not, just making conversation well, lets hope we do get a answer from the summit.
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Looking at your colorful and stylish text, I'm sure it was funny for you.
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I'm not asking anything, just stating a curious fact that I find interesting and funny... *Nerd look*
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I'd like to point out, Minecraft has those bubbles we RPers long requested... beat ya, ToR! Give us them too
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Give us Bubbles, or give us death!..
Anyway
I'm not feeling immersed into the game in a RP way, with my character just... standing there, talking via /say and not even doing any animation + no bubbles above him, ofcourse for people to even notice that -I- am talking.
In wow, you talk and make a talk animation so you just dont stand there like a idiot looking at eachother. And the only RP you have is basicly some test in the chat box that you can barely even keep track of in a large-group where you are trying to have a big event. Or medium event... or in betwenn... you get my point, Bioware!
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So now I have to ask you, Mr. Ohlen, by "listening to the community," did you just mean the PvP and PvE community? I ask this because since the beginning of beta, we the RP community have been asking for:
1. Chat Bubbles
2. Furniture you can sit in, and not just 1 chair on your starship
3. Color matching for gear
4. Better face/body customization
5. Player housing
6. RP events/content
7. More social gear
8. Craftable social gear
9. Story vendors ala SWG
10. More accessable RP areas for cross-faction RP
11. Cross-faction communication across /yell /whisper and custom chat channels
12. Name Enforcement on RP servers, if anything at least enforce your own naming policy outlined in the EULA, which you have not been doing
13. More ways to obtain social points, specifically via actual role-play content
14. Choices actually affection our story
15. A barber shop/plastic surgeon to recustomize our appearances with added content
16. Furniture and trophies to decorate at least our ship
17. Allow more than 4 players into a ship instance
I agree with 1 & 7. Chat bubbles for easier communication, not only for RPers mind you. And more RP stuff, good clothes like.. Swashbuckler back in wow? Just not ****-ish looking. You know, normal rags and clothes, robes and/or dresses.
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So, one night I was goofing off with my newly-made Jedi Consular (all my serious characters at this point are Empire). I was running through the early missions on Tython, burning the last few minutes before I decided to head to bed.
While I was running towards my next objective, I ran across two people who were roleplaying, in /say. As I usually do, I glanced over the chat and kept on going.
Later, while making my way through the Jedi Temple (the last few minutes before bed had turned into almost an hour), I came across these same two people, still roleplaying inside the temple.
Glancing over the chat, I realized something that made me roll my eyes. This same person was still roleplaying some deeply-troubled, inner-tormented, dark-and-emo Jedi.
Why is it, whenever I happen to run by players roleplaying, do I see people with the need to play some overly emotional, deeply troubled, highly reluctant character? Can a roleplayer answer this for me?
While I don't have a problem with other people roleplaying (after all, it's their money, their free time. Who am I to dictate how someone else should or shouldn't spend their time?), why are most roleplayed characters some Twilight ripoff?
I get the fact that good character development usually requires conflict and contrast to some extent, but why can't roleplaying also be light hearted, adventure seeking, or prank playing? Why do I never see a fun-seeking roleplayed character?
Why is overly-emotional drama the theme of choice for most roleplayers?
Anakin-wannabes, easy as that.
:mad: 
well, lets hope we do get a answer from the summit.
PvP Gear Vendors and real gearing progression for PvP in 6.0
in PvP
Posted
Exactly, yes we do need one gear line for each path.
PvP gear - 2 tiers
PvE gear - 2 years (Or 3 like we had before)
Sounds simple, right? Now they did do that before and that worked perfectly well, you had 3 tiers for PvE from weakest to strongest and from easily aquirable to hardest to get:
Tionese - Columi - Rakata
Not only named after lore related things but they looked pretty neat. To this day I wear the Tionese Chestpiece on my Assassin who is my main because we all know, bigger shoulderspads = stronger In the force.
But anyway, then we had PvP gear which had 2 simple tiers:
Unranked Gear Blue
Ranekd Gear Purple
I don't remember if they had any names, but It was just that, two simple gear sets with unique set bonuses to help you fight as well as Expertise which was PvP specific (Or was It Resiliense back in 1.0? Or was that WoW... confusing the two now)
That's all It has to be, nothing more, nothing less. Get currency from matches, buy gear pieces you need, keep pvping to get stronger one + decorations, titles, mounts and so on. It's so god damn easy yet they mess It up so badly.