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

[liradarc]

Yes please.

[Glzmo]

Thanks to my buddy (who had quit the game because of the lack of chat bubbles shortly after launch) I'm back for a couple of months. He's found some gametime cards he had bought back in the day and gifted them to me after hearing my subscription had expired so I can keep this thread up to date, which I'll do.

 

Let's convince the devs to add chat bubbles before those gametime cards expire, shall we?

Edited August 27, 2013 by Glzmo

[spac]

I've thought it over, and I agree that toggle options for the 9999 second recharge/chair/med table/whatever is great. Chat bubbles, however, I hope never show up in TOR. When I think chat bubbles, I think a dozen RPers/spammers typing into chat and flooding the area above their heads with text. This 1: Stops me from seeing enemies 2: fogs up the area so I can't see important posts, and 3: Is a great way for spammers and other bothersome peoples to annoy and spam. Chat is closable, as well. Unless they think up some (show no chat bubbles) thing....Yeah, I still strongly dislike that idea. But, hey, 9999 second think....Bingo!!

[TechbotAlpha]

This needs to happen. It still needs to happen. When recently deceased, seven year old MMOs did this, on an older engine, and with NO issues? Yeah, you have no excuse, Devs. No excuse whatsoever.

[SawneyRath]

I've thought it over, and I agree that toggle options for the 9999 second recharge/chair/med table/whatever is great. Chat bubbles, however, I hope never show up in TOR. When I think chat bubbles, I think a dozen RPers/spammers typing into chat and flooding the area above their heads with text. This 1: Stops me from seeing enemies 2: fogs up the area so I can't see important posts, and 3: Is a great way for spammers and other bothersome peoples to annoy and spam. Chat is closable, as well. Unless they think up some (show no chat bubbles) thing....Yeah, I still strongly dislike that idea. But, hey, 9999 second think....Bingo!!

 

Then, as suggested in this thread countless times, toggle the chat bubbles off. Problems solved and we get to keep our chat bubbles (for those who do want them.)

 

In other MMO's the chat that displays in the chat box is not turned off when you turn off Chat Bubbles. Why would it be any different here? No reason to not add chat bubbles to TOR.

[MajikMyst]

No reason to not add chat bubbles to TOR.

 

The reason chat bubbles have not been turned back on in SWTOR is because they cause performance issues.. It is the same reason that many folks have turned off name plates for ops or just walking around the fleet..

 

Blame the game engine or whatever you want.. But the reasons we do not have chat bubbles has remained the same..

 

We actually had them during the beta for a short time.. Which is when the issue was discovered..

 

I am sure Bioware will let us know if there are any developments on this issue.. It would sure be nice if people would stop bumping this thread.. After all bumping is against forum rules, and chat bubbles isn't the only issue on the block that needs to be addressed.. Nor is it the most important..

 

Just the fact that a major percentage of people will turn them off and never use them make chat bubbles one of the least important.. Only a few people actually want them..

 

I am not saying you all shouldn't have them either.. But some perspective and respect for others would be nice.. Just saying..

[TechbotAlpha]

The reason chat bubbles have not been turned back on in SWTOR is because they cause performance issues.. It is the same reason that many folks have turned off name plates for ops or just walking around the fleet..

 

Blame the game engine or whatever you want.. But the reasons we do not have chat bubbles has remained the same..

 

We actually had them during the beta for a short time.. Which is when the issue was discovered..

 

I am sure Bioware will let us know if there are any developments on this issue.. It would sure be nice if people would stop bumping this thread.. After all bumping is against forum rules, and chat bubbles isn't the only issue on the block that needs to be addressed.. Nor is it the most important..

 

Just the fact that a major percentage of people will turn them off and never use them make chat bubbles one of the least important.. Only a few people actually want them..

 

I am not saying you all shouldn't have them either.. But some perspective and respect for others would be nice.. Just saying..

 

Here's your 'perspective'.

 

City of Heroes (RIP) launched about eight years ago. With an eight year old engine, which the devs later commented about working on being like "playing Jenga with everything on fire."

CoH had chat-bubbles. From day one. There were never any performance issues. Later in life they overhauled the in-game graphics to 'Ultra mode', so the game looked a bit less dated in places. Still no issues.

 

TOR and its engine are not eight years old. They also have a LOT more money to piss about than Paragon ever had.

'Performance issues', yeah. That explains why the begged for chair-use took so long to show up as paid for emotes too, I bet? Proof, or ****, basically. EAware don't care about RPers and never have, from the looks of it, not here.

[SawneyRath]

The reason chat bubbles have not been turned back on in SWTOR is because they cause performance issues.. It is the same reason that many folks have turned off name plates for ops or just walking around the fleet..

 

Blame the game engine or whatever you want.. But the reasons we do not have chat bubbles has remained the same..

 

We actually had them during the beta for a short time.. Which is when the issue was discovered..

 

I am sure Bioware will let us know if there are any developments on this issue.. It would sure be nice if people would stop bumping this thread.. After all bumping is against forum rules, and chat bubbles isn't the only issue on the block that needs to be addressed.. Nor is it the most important..

 

Just the fact that a major percentage of people will turn them off and never use them make chat bubbles one of the least important.. Only a few people actually want them..

 

I am not saying you all shouldn't have them either.. But some perspective and respect for others would be nice.. Just saying..

 

The performance issue is a lame excuse. We know about it. We heard what it is exactly. They told us it was the same as Nameplates. Nameplates were fixed. Bubbles are not. It looks more like priorities than "The engine can't handle it".

 

So for me to keep hearing "It causes la/engine trouble/performance issues" doesn't make me think that it isn't going to happen. Its 2013, they sent rovers to Mars. They can make a feature like Chat Bubbles work, I'm sure.

[MajikMyst]

The performance issue is a lame excuse. We know about it. We heard what it is exactly. They told us it was the same as Nameplates. Nameplates were fixed. Bubbles are not. It looks more like priorities than "The engine can't handle it".

 

Name plates are not fixed.. They never were fixed..

 

If bubbles aren't fixed then neither are name plates.. They do exactly the same thing..

[MajikMyst]

I also understand that some people do not wish to have chat bubbles in the game.

 

Actually, you are not understanding much.. Nobody cares if chat bubbles are added to the game.. As long as there is a switch to turn them off..

 

The issues here have not changed.. You do not need to call people haters.. All it shows is that you really don't understand the issue..

 

Bioware has said nothing because there is nothing to say.. Name plates are still an issue and they can be turned off.. There is simply no reason to add chat bubbles until there is a fix for them.. Why give people another reason to complain about performance on the forums??

 

These threads are bad enough.. How about some common sense around here??

[Glzmo]

Bioware has said nothing because there is nothing to say.. Name plates are still an issue and they can be turned off.. There is simply no reason to add chat bubbles until there is a fix for them.. Why give people another reason to complain about performance on the forums??

On the same token, there is no reason not to add chat bubbles that can be turned on or off just like nameplates, as nameplates are already in the game and weren't removed.

 

Also, TOR's UI programmer Corey Kolek already says fixing the performance issues isn't such a problem, the problem is that they didn't have the time to do it before launch. But instead of alloting some time after launch to fix the problem as they had originally promised when they didn't finish them for launch (and it was said it was a high priority issue, too), they just kept pushing it back continuously. After 20+ months, there is no excuse whatsoever for that anymore. It needs to be finally dealt with, simple as that.

 

Name plates are not fixed.. They never were fixed..

If you remember Beta, you'd know that nameplates are in fact fixed. Thy don't eat anywhere as much video memory than they have during beta before the fix.

Yes, on slow, low-end hardware with little dedicated video memory they may still pose a problem (and 2D objects in a 3D enviroment likely always will, everything in computing has to have some sort of performance impact), but those systems need to turn down performance hungry options anyway. That's the beauty of PC gaming. If your PC can't handle acceptable performance with all the eyecandy, you can turn it down or off to regain performance - or upgrade your hardware if you really want to use one feature or another.

That said, I'm sure it could be further optimized and performance increased a good chunk still, but they'd have to dedicate themselves to finally do it. Just imagine one whole patch that's dedicated to performance improvements and that also introduces chat bubbles due to the performance issues with them and other things being finally resolved. The content team could concurrently work on more content patches, but a team dedicated to Engine/GUI/perfromance issues could work on a separate patch with performance fixes and chat bubbles.

I think that they should add chat bubbles as a toggle option just as it is with nameplates even when not fixed yet so at least those with computers that can handle them or the people that will accept a performance hit can enjoy them until there are performance improvements for them so people with lower end hardware can enjoy them as well. And think about it, if they are added and cause a performance issue, more people would start complaining about the performance issue and Bioware might just put fixing that on a higher priority and finally do it.

Edited September 2, 2013 by Glzmo

[Halaek]

Hmm seems there is a thread for my concerns, nice

[MajikMyst]

If you remember Beta, you'd know that nameplates are in fact fixed. Thy don't eat anywhere as much video memory than they have during beta before the fix.

Yes, on slow, low-end hardware with little dedicated video memory they may still pose a problem (and 2D objects in a 3D enviroment always will), but those systems need to turn down performance hungry options anyway. That's the beauty of PC gaming. If your PC can't handle acceptable performance with all the eyecandy, you can turn it down or off to regain performance.

 

So they are not fixed.. Thanks for clarifying that..

[Kamansus]

Just letting you all know, ESO is confirmed for not having chat bubbles either.

 

I think it's safe to say current MMO developers don't care. Neither do I now that it comes down to it.

 

Deal. With. It. This is probably the second most trivial thing you could possibly waste energy complaining about, the first being the slight perceived brightness tweak of a certain chest piece.

 

Anybody saying performance issues are the reason chat bubbles aren't in the game needs to stop providing opinions on software development altogether.

[MajikMyst]

Anybody saying performance issues are the reason chat bubbles aren't in the game needs to stop providing opinions on software development altogether.

 

That would include Bioware.. Since they are the ones saying it.. Just saying..

[TechbotAlpha]

So they are not fixed.. Thanks for clarifying that..

 

Terrible old computers struggling to run MMOs=!Nameplates not fixed. Nice try, though.

[TechbotAlpha]

Just letting you all know, ESO is confirmed for not having chat bubbles either.

 

I think it's safe to say current MMO developers don't care. Neither do I now that it comes down to it.

 

Deal. With. It. This is probably the second most trivial thing you could possibly waste energy complaining about, the first being the slight perceived brightness tweak of a certain chest piece.

 

 

What's more trivial; requesting something you want and like for a game, or claiming 'not to care' and then making a post about how 'trivial' it is anyway?

[SawneyRath]

What's more trivial; requesting something you want and like for a game, or claiming 'not to care' and then making a post about how 'trivial' it is anyway?

 

Some people just think that "Their" wants are more important than others. Not saying that Chat Bubbles are the most important thing, but they certainly are NOT trivial. People want them. People also wanted to sit in chairs, and off the rails space. People want stuff, and if you want to get down to it, its all trivial since this has 0 bearing in Real Life.

 

Chat Bubbles are wanted. Look at this thread for proof. Don't want them? Deal. With. It.

[Glzmo]

I've corrected a couple of typos in the main post.

 

I'm still hoping chat bubbles will be implemented soon. Any news on it, Bioware?

Edited September 18, 2013 by Glzmo

[SawneyRath]

Hey everyone - I asked Lead Designer Damion Schubert if there are any new updates on this topic. We still do not have an ETA for the implementation of this feature, but we're definitely aware it's something players want. We did attempt a version of chat bubbles once, but they introduced some severe performance issues, and we'll need to address that before they can be implemented. Thanks for your patience!

 

I don't have much else to say on the topic than what was already said in that thread.

 

I can get a bit more technical on the topic though. As it was said before chat bubbles were a huge performance hit on the game when we had initially implemented them in beta. We're talking upwards of 400Mbs of video memory used on chat bubbles alone. Nameplates had the same issue. We fixed nameplates but have not had time to do the same with chat bubbles. If you played in beta and saw our initial implementation of them they weren't very pretty or as fully featured as we'd like them to be. So, yes, we would like to implement them again, but when we do we want to do it right.

 

 

Can we get an update on this please? I'd love to know if the team made progress at all.

Edited September 20, 2013 by SawneyRath

[Lenlo]

Can we at the very least get them and have a "Toggle Chat Bubbles" option in case anyone wants to whine about lag?

[MoskitoMando]

I'd absolutely love chat bubbles.

[Krull-]

I cannot believe BioWare lied to us...

They said there working on chat bubbles.........but not a single peep.

2 years already.

 

Whats going on with this basic MMO feature.

You guys even read the forum discussion???

 

This is getting lame....

 

No response for the #1 Suggestion Box discussion.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Krull-

[MajikMyst]

I cannot believe BioWare lied to us...

They said there working on chat bubbles.........but not a single peep.

2 years already.

 

Whats going on with this basic MMO feature.

You guys even read the forum discussion???

 

This is getting lame....

 

No response for the #1 Suggestion Box discussion.

 

First off, it isn't the #1 suggestion.. Most annoying to the community yes.. But certainly not the number #1..

 

What is lame is starting a new thread with the idea that since they haven't responded to this one, they will for some reason respond to another one.. I don't know, does it being started by you make it special or something?? Just trying to follow the logic here..

 

They have already told us what the issue is, and it hasn't been fixed.. To a lesser extent, name plates is having the same issues.. I currently play with them turned off.. So any claim that it has been fixed or implication is both lame and stupid..

 

Chat bubbles are in no way a basic MMO feature.. To many they are one of the most useless.. It really baffles me why some people are so obsessed with them.. They really do absolutely nothing.. People can chat right now as it is.. You can even have a private conversation.. You can also create your own chat channels.. Does the chat really have to be over someone's head for everyone else to see for you to be happy?? Is this like some withdrawals thing from SWG?? Seriously??

 

I don't care one way or the other.. Just as long as there is a switch to turn them off, and they don't effect my performance in the slightest..

 

I am sure Bioware will let us know something when they have something to say on the issue.. They do not owe you or anyone else an explanation.. When they have something to report, they will report.. So all you have to do is be patient..

[BrianAC]

Let these *****s do what they gotta do