Chat Bubbles: We need an option to enable them for say, yell and emote chat!

[Moroder]

Just imagine we had them and everybody used them, what kind of hell would that be

Well that’s not likely is it ,because probably over 90% would have the option turned off.

There are a lot more important things need fixing or adding before this.

 

524 replies and 53 pages disagree with you. Like you said the option to turn them off could be implemented. This is clearly a sticking point for a lot of subscribers, and a really big issue for me.

[Buddahchase]

Why would everyone have them turned off? Unless you're an RPer, i doubt you'd see them that much. /say isn't the most used channel. But when you did happen to use it, i think people would be grateful they were there. Edited February 16, 2012 by Buddahchase

[Frigidman]

I love when clueless hate-trolls come out of the woodwork (yes, you people make up 0.01% of the population), and say something entirely wrong and stir up the pot getting more supporters to say otherwise and prove that 'yes, the general population wants this'. Thanks for helping bump the issue towards full support!

 

 

 

[SawneyRath]

Bump.

 

 

I'm still waiting for the patch notes that say: "Chat Bubbles are introduced"

 

 

Hopefully the wait will not be to much longer.

[darkligihdelica]

I'm playing less and less mainly due to the lack of chat bubbles. It's anti-social, I might as well be playing a single player game

[Uruare]

Terribly sorry, but Chat Bubble Technology is still in its infancy. Please ignore all prior occurrences of Chat Bubble Technology you believe that you have ever seen/utilized/developed; it is fake. You have been swindled.

 

True Chat Bubble Technology will be brought to you just as soon as the heroic developers have cleared the Neptune raid to recover the rare components required for the final step in its construction.

 

They're doing it for you, you know.

 

You ingrate.

 

 

/Channeling GLaDOS

[Moroder]

Terribly sorry, but Chat Bubble Technology is still in its infancy. Please ignore all prior occurrences of Chat Bubble Technology you believe that you have ever seen/utilized/developed; it is fake. You have been swindled.

 

True Chat Bubble Technology will be brought to you just as soon as the heroic developers have cleared the Neptune raid to recover the rare components required for the final step in its construction.

 

They're doing it for you, you know.

 

You ingrate.

 

 

/Channeling GLaDOS

 

 

^^ The above post is brilliant. Oh needs MOAR chat bubblz!

[Varteras]

I most definitely want to see chat bubbles with an option to turn them off for people who don't want to see them.

[Moroder]

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8n3eqvSUU1qcsk1io1_500.png

 

true story

[Glzmo]

I guess we'll see if they'll finally answer one of the many, many questions about chat bubbles from the Official Q&A Thread in today's developer Q&A blog.

 

It's probably the most asked question in that thread, but we know form the last Q&A that the devs only answer questions they want to answer, not that the community wants answers to.

Perhaps this will change in today's Q&A blog. Hopefully we'll be positively surprised.

Edited February 17, 2012 by Glzmo

[Elfindreams]

Teh CHAT BUBBLES iz a lie...

 

In another reality where that cliche meme isn't regurgitated...

 

/sign.

 

I have seen some RPing going on in republic fleet but even though I am an avid RPer, I have not participated simply because I couldn't tell who was saying what. Esp over the incessant "LFG, why oh why won't anyone listen to me" messages (my own included).

 

It was actually a little disconcerting to wander around fleet and have says show up that I thought would be an interesting conversation to get in on ... but not be able to tell where in the heck they were coming from (I looked)... My best guess is they must have been in the VIP lounge or something. (I didn't bother going up to check).

[Frigidman]

I guess we'll see if they'll finally answer one of the many, many questions about chat bubbles from the Official Q&A Thread in today's developer Q&A blog.

 

It's probably the most asked question in that thread, but we know form the last Q&A that the devs only answer questions they want to answer, not that the community wants answers to.

Perhaps this will change in today's Q&A blog. Hopefully we'll be positively surprised.

 

They did.

And its a "YES".

Edited February 17, 2012 by Frigidman

[MajikMyst]

They did.

And its a "YES".

 

:D:D

 

Do you people ever post links to back your statement up??

 

Citation needed!!

[Varteras]

Do you people ever post links to back your statement up??

 

Citation needed!!

 

Are you trolling or did you not read the weekly Q&A they posted today?

[MajikMyst]

Are you trolling or did you not read the weekly Q&A they posted today?

 

Yes.. I have read it.. But it would be nice if someone is going to make the comment they not assume that everyone has read it.. I fail to see why it is so hard to simply post a link to the source of the statement.. If you are going to take the time to make the statement then you should take the time to source it.. Especially if you are talking about anything that Bioware has said or confirmed..

 

Now is that so hard??

 

It took all of about 10 seconds to put a link in there..

Edited February 17, 2012 by MajikMyst

[Glzmo]

For those that still haven't read the Community Q&A: Feb 17th 2012, here is the excerpt relevant to the topic of this thread:

HollowPoint: There has been a large push in the community for chat bubbles, especially with a toggle option for those who don't want them. Is a chat bubble system in the works? If so, when can we expect it to be implemented?

 

Damion Schubert: 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.

Now, it's wonderful news that chat bubbles are indeed going to be implemented. Thanks to all of you who have supported our quest to get them into the game so far. At least we know they are coming.

 

Note that they aren't highly prioritized at the moment, however. GUI scaling is being worked on now and that's great, but I hope chat bubbles will be the next top priority item for the GUI team to tackle.

 

Thus it would be a great idea to keep supporting this thread and keeping it afloat for the developers to remain fresh in their minds so they will implement chat bubbles sooner rather than later.

 

Anyhow, a big thank you to Damion Schubert for finally answering a question about the topic that's so dear to the heart of many a roleplayer and socializer. Go GUI team! Just note that we won't stop bugging you about chat bubbles until they're implemented.

Edited February 18, 2012 by Glzmo

[Buddahchase]

I suppose i'm just glad they're working on them.

 

I do hope they'll be in the game by 1.2. Sad that they don't consider them a priority, even though there has been such a huge outcry, that, up until now, they have been ignoring.

 

I shall likely renew my subscription when they're added. 1.2, or 1.3. Hopefully soon though.

 

I want to be able to start RPing in my MMORPG.

[Vikassi]

This is a very good post ... I miss chat bubbles ... Its way more emersive having them in game ... Swg had em ...

[CaedLucin]

I know some of you hated spams and whatnot from chat bubbles. But maybe bioWare can make it so that, the people you ignored, will not longer have their chat bubbles appear in your face?

 

And maybe the range in which chat bubbles can appear/heard will be dependent on the conversation type (i.e. /say, /yell, etc).

[Glzmo]

I know some of you hated spams and whatnot from chat bubbles. But maybe bioWare can make it so that, the people you ignored, will not longer have their chat bubbles appear in your face?

Chat bubbles would only show whatever text is shown for /say, /yell and /emote chat channels in the chat box. Since an ignored player's chat won't show up in a chat box, no chat bubbles would be generated for it either. That's exactly how it works in other MMORPGs with good chat bubble implementations.

 

And maybe the range in which chat bubbles can appear/heard will be dependent on the conversation type (i.e. /say, /yell, etc).

Of course. That's exactly how it works in other MMORPGs with good chat bubble implementations as well. Chat bubbles only show within the given range for each channel.

 

Ideally, we would get a slider where we could set a percentage of the maximum range for each chat channel from 0% tp 100% (100% of the chat channel's range being default) that chat bubbles appear for so everybody could tweak their chat bubble range individually according to their liking and/or their system's performance.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Glzmo

[skaidar]

So, how many months more do they need to do the simples things for a game?

[Moroder]

Ya see this this is all I wanted to know and I am relatively satisfied now that i know they are coming at some stage. will still continue to post here just in case

[Sky_walkerPL]

So, how many months more do they need to do the simples things for a game?

It's not a simple thing man

If you'd have some basic knowledge on game engine programming you'd know that displaying things like chat bubbles is huge resource hog.

Check Ilum in current state - big battle. What's the best way to improve performance? Turn off nameplates. FPS can jump 2-3 times higher than with nameplates on.

Now imagine you have people running and shouting stuff in bubbles. It'd kill performance for majority of MMO gamers, and probably few (non-mmo) gamers who play TOR.

 

They need to figure out an optimal way to display them. And choosing crappy engine at the beginning doesn't help them.

 

So be patient in either way - it's coming.

 

(and no matter what - I'm not going to turn it on. As if this game wouldn't look enough cartoonish already...)

Edited February 20, 2012 by Sky_walkerPL

[skaidar]

What you mean it's not simple? I DONT CARE MAN. That's not my frigin place to decide if it's simple or complicated, I as a customer say "I want this" and I expect to get it. It's not my job to know how it is programmed or something. It's THEIRS! And they haven't done it.

 

Like someone said, the game should NOT be competing with WoW from 2006, but from WoW in 2012 !!!

[Varteras]

What you mean it's not simple? I DONT CARE MAN. That's not my frigin place to decide if it's simple or complicated, I as a customer say "I want this" and I expect to get it. It's not my job to know how it is programmed or something. It's THEIRS! And they haven't done it.

 

Like someone said, the game should NOT be competing with WoW from 2006, but from WoW in 2012 !!!

 

They originally had chat bubbles during beta at one point but it was causing issues with performance. I would rather they released the game when they did minus a feature that is not gamebreaking in the least bit than delay it for months because they wanted to make sure that small UI features were in at launch.

 

I agree that the lack of certain UI features is headscratching. Was a /roll command really so hard to implement? A lot of the people who complain about TOR not competing with WoW today don't understand that the Earth wasn't really made in 7 days. Most of them complain about the current amount of end-game content. As if Bioware, doing everything they have done with cinematic dialogue and the leveling process, should have had 40 Flashpoints and 10 Operations at launch. These expectations are unrealistic for several different reasons not the least of which is the complexity of technology and methods increasing over time.

 

Cinematic dialogue with choices was and still is a massive undertaking. That very feature alone means Bioware has a lot more work on their table daily than Blizzard has or ever did have per day in the 7 years it's been around.

 

Yes, you are a paying customer. That does not mean you get everything how you want it, when you want it. You paid for the product as it was and pay the monthly fee for the product as it is. They are in no way obligated to bow to you save for ensuring that what you are currently paying for is working. Infact, they could cancel and ban your account at any time for no reason. Have you ever read the ToS agreements? When you look at the fine print it basically tells you that you do not actually own The Old Republic or any other game. You have simply purchased the privelage to play it.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Varteras