Quality of Life Improvements in Game Update 1.4

[Glzmo]

Some really nice features. However, it would be even better if we finally got chat bubbles. I'm quite surprised that they aren't in 1.4, as some of the features that made it into Game Update 1.4 definitely feel like they should be lower priority features than chat bubbles to me.

 

Since they don't seem to be in 1.4, what's the status on chat bubbles, Damion? Which patch can we expect chat bubbles to be in? Game Update 1.4.x? 1.5? Please share your plans.

[Stubacca]

These quality of life features are okay. But where is the most important, must have quality of life feature of them all? I am talking about a toggle to turn on chat bubbles for /say, /yell, /emote chat. Where is it? We have been promised it to be a high priority feature since launch, and only in july it was mentioned it was top priority UI feature after group finder. When will we finally get it? Us Wookiees are getting mad and chances are we'll riot if we don't get them soon! Edited September 20, 2012 by Stubacca

[Khevar]

If that's the reasoning, then that's rather silly considering ragequits happen a LOT in lower level fps and people get shipped to Fleet anyway. It's not going to stop many of the ragequitters and it punishes those who got unlucky enough to get stuck with an awful group. This return to location is going to be excellent for my 50s who are doing dailies because it's pretty rare that a hm fp doesn't get in at least one boss kill, but my lower level toons are still going to run the risk of getting stranded on Fleet a galaxy away from where they were questing or sitting for hours, potentially, waiting for a group. (I'm not exaggerating, I've sat in queue as dps at low levels for hours.)

 

If they're concerned that people would use lfg, get into the fp, go to Fleet, go back to the fp, and then back to their questing location then give them a short (5-10 min) delay before they can transfer back to their questing location. I'd take a minor delay over having to haul a** back out to the middle of Hoth.

I might be misunderstanding your post, but I think you might have things backwards.

 

You will ALWAYS have the option to be returned to your original location, no matter what.

 

You will have a secondary option of being returned to the fleet if at least one boss (or major waypoint) has been reached.

 

The only thing you can't do is, queue for a FP, enter the instance and abandon it immediately for a free trip back to the fleet.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Khevar

[DarthOvertone]

Any improvement is nice...but what would really knock the socks off my toons, and be the best quality of life improvement possible, would be the ability to Dual Spec. Edited September 20, 2012 by DarthOvertone

[Talimar]

I'm really curious as to why this restriction on returning players to their starting locations is here at all. Is there a reason?

 

There are many times, especially at low levels, when the group can't kill the first boss for whatever reason, the group falls apart, and you're left stranded on Fleet. With this restriction still here, your only options are to 1) sit in queue forever waiting for a new group or 2) go through loading screen/speeder/run-to-wherever hell. It still leaves you with that moment when you're out in the middle of nowhere and the queue pops and you sit there and think, is it worth it? Nah. Decline.

 

Is there a reason? I'm at a loss to come up with one that makes sense, but perhaps I'm missing something.

 

Yeah this was exactly my concern too. What's wrong with just giving us both options all the time? Come on bioware, this is a great feature and you almost have it perfect.

[Xarlelso]

Small but great improvements! It seems they do read the forums as all these were requested in many many post.

[Styxx]

With the focus on rerolls, why is there not, to this day, all gear Bind on Legacy? Why can`t I send ANY gear freely among alts? THAT is quality of life, not a monkey face.

[ScarletBlaze]

All this is so great specially cause I give a rats butt about what my companion looks like... Let's be honest. During ops and fp we rarely see our companions. How about giving us the choice to recolor items the color we want them to have??? now that is something I'm sure everybody is looking forward to get.

 

This is something a lot of people have been requesting when they gave us the ability to have our armor all the same color. Whether or not you like it is your choice but there have been a lot of requests for this so I imagine a lot of people are glad to have this.

[SonOfMars]

I really love this game, and I'm excited about the QOL improvements!! But, where is the hood toggle?!!

[Deewe]

I'd say these changes are welcomed and a good start.

 

Now, the mood could have absorbed a delay and a focus on others QoL improvements like:

• Dual Specs
  
• Recall to space ship
  
• More quickslot bars
  
• Mouse loot toogle
  
• Shared storage between atls
  
• Access to emails from our datapad
  
• Save/load key bindings
  
• Chat Bubbles
  
• Improved Mods management UI
  
• Remove costs to pull mods from gear (after the first time)
  
• Reduction of CC in PvP (yup a quality of life feature)
  
• Auto-requeue WZ (was removed)
  
• Auto-skip WZ cutscene
  

Edited September 21, 2012 by Deewe

[BlueDestiny]

The top complaint about the Group Finder when we shipped it was that it did not send you back to where you were originally adventuring when you completed the content.

 

After much discussion, design came up with a compromise that we think will work pretty well.

 

*LOL* Compromise?

 

Why did we need compromise? Teleporting back to where we started from is a common MMO feature. You make it sound like we're being naughty and need to EARN a perk? Really? Why so condescending? Why so arrogant? I don't need your approval for wanting "quality of life."

 

What on earth are you people thinking? Compromise? For what, based on what? Just give us the ####ed feature, no irrational or judgmental strings attached. Why do you need to irk adults needlessly? This isn't Lord of the Flies, or maybe it is on the devs side of the fence.

 

The continued application of some few's sacred cows continue to be appalling to adult players. I haven't reported to mommy and daddy for 30 years now.

 

Leadership here continues to try to be laughable, if it wasn't first insulting and maddening (needlessly).

 

signed,

Still waiting to be able to unite my Rep and Emp toons to a common server, since you post-launch created Legacy and other features, including HK story lines that require cross-faction avatars, to make same server desired. Sacred cows on server matters, confounding prior sacred cows on faction treatment, to needlessly impact player experiences.

Edited September 21, 2012 by BlueDestiny

[Evgen]

I'm curious, does this mean I'd be able to mail a bind on pickup recipe bought with daily comms to my crafting alt? or does just trying to mail it bind it to me?

[Jarlgon]

I'm curious, does this mean I'd be able to mail a bind on pickup recipe bought with daily comms to my crafting alt? or does just trying to mail it bind it to me?

 

it binds it to you, imo.

[Strife]

Throwing in yet another vote for Chat Bubbles.

 

 

The new stuff is great, but you can't tell me that "facial moods" was requested more than chat bubbles in regards to QoL additions.

[Jarlgon]

i don't think all of these are true QoL improvements. Merging of the APAC servers will be.

[Viraxis]

These little things are certainly nice, I especially like the return of animated moods to the game. Too bad you haven't added animations to all the emotes that lack animations still - but it's a start.

I have to say that I honestly don't understand how any of the UI features listed in the article were a higher priority than must-have features like speech bubbles for the UI team.

 

Speech bubbles are a necessary, basic and industry-standard MMO feature for a great number of players, including but not limited to socializers and RPers and have been promised to be a high priority feature for launch and shortly thereafter and been promised that they were coming soon over and over again, the last time at the end of July. Yet we still don't get those and get puny little improvements for things that could be worked around already instead, without a real workaround for the lack of speech bubbles.

 

What's just as sad is that a wonderful, constructive thread about chat bubbles that has been around since launch hasn't gotten a single Bioware reply in all these months:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=41864

 

Doesn't Bioware understand how important a social feature like speech bubbles is in a MMO and has been for over 10 years? It really boggles my mind that a studio that prides themselves in creating the best RPGs doesn't grasp the concept of social roleplay in MMORPGs like the Old Republic. And then they wonder why they have been loosing subscriptions in masses since launch. Social interaction between players is the staple of MMORPGs, and Old Republic is sorely lacking those. It feels like a single player game with an optional multiplayer component slapped on it. A solid and robust chat system is the most important key to social interaction. Speech bubbles that can be toggled on and off are a huge part of it. Without it, MMOs feel lonely. It's like you're playing single player games with an IRC client running in the background. There is no way to feel truly immersed into the game with other players when you have to stare at the chat window instead of being able to keep your eyes on the world you try to immerse yourself in to communicate with other players. Especially the more casual players as well as socializers ande role-players are being repelled by the game because of the lack of this feature. Socializers and RPers are also the core group of any MMOs that keeps playing a game for many, many years, far longer than any PVPer or PVEer who will jump to the next big game in a heartbeat, no matter how much you cather to them. Socializers and RPers a more satisfyable bunch, provided the bare minimum of basic, industry standard tools and features are available to them - which TOR still hasn't provided after almost a year.

 

I advise that speech bubbles should be in the game in time for it to go free to play, otherwise you will never reach the audience you likely wish to reach by going free to play.

 

Here is some news for you. Not everyone wants or thinks we need chat bubbles. In fact, there better be a way to turn themoff when they do finally come around. This is the constant balancing act for any game developer. A must-have for 1 person very well might be a dont-want-to-have for another.

[EDfromRED]

Love the changes being included in this update. The mood adjuster is one I'm looking forward useing, to add personality to my characters. And the time limit until some items bind is a fantastic one as well.

[Evgen]

Throwing in yet another vote for Chat Bubbles.

 

 

The new stuff is great, but you can't tell me that "facial moods" was requested more than chat bubbles in regards to QoL additions.

The thing is this is merely an interface to something already in game. Chat bubbles are something new, and therefore would require more development, and as has been mentioned, something others may be against.

I for one can't fathom the strong desire for these.

Appropriate use of Say or whispers would seem to get the job done better.

[Venomback]

Hello everyone,

 

Please discuss this week's Quality of Life Improvements in Game Update 1.4 blog in this thread!

 

Do people really care what your face in game looks like? I mean come on, there are so many more things about this game that you developers can spend your time on other than looks on a face. WHich, by the way, I will never see as a pvp'er since player actions and movements are so fast. Even if I could see expressions on a character face, why would anyone want to stand there and look at the face...what was that game called where this kind of thing I could understand?

 

Total waste of time in my opinion. Fix world PVP please...PVP servers have nothing fun or unique in world pvp.

[cool-dude]

These are probably the best add-ons that I have read about thus far.

[BaronV]

Thank you Bioware. AT LAST something positive coming from you after a LONG line of negatives... You helped pick up my mood for a bit:)

 

Added 2 points to my staying subbed. My Stay Subbed:Unsub ratio is now 52:48.

 

Now all you need to do is roll back the 1.4 sorc nerfs and reconsider the non-unique legacy name change and I will be happy again

[BlueDestiny]

Here is some news for you. Not everyone wants or thinks we need chat bubbles. In fact, there better be a way to turn themoff when they do finally come around. This is the constant balancing act for any game developer. A must-have for 1 person very well might be a dont-want-to-have for another.

 

LOL, here's some news for you. Turn off chat bubbles if you don't like to see people talking or talking to you. Solved.

[MorgonKara]

"Quality of life improvements" are my favorite kind aside from performance improvements.

[LogicalPremise]

Nice to see them doing some QOL changes.

 

Of course, there are people screaming about implementing features they want, bleh bleh bleh. People have been asking for changes to how loot is handled since launch. There were a ton of huge flamewar threads suggesting this very feature. People have been complaining about helmet toggle and match to chest for companions for a long time too.

 

I , personally, don't want time wasted on chat bubbles or hood toggles. There's not a single hooded armor out there that I don't want to see my hood on, and frankly, I'm sorry, but Chat Bubbles are a solely RP thing. If we're going to have people bashing Bioware for paying attention to people who PVP or people who like Space Missions, then let's not turn right around and say that Bioware is totally clueless because they don't cater to this small group of players.

 

I'd rather see lots of small improvements that make the game better for everyone than have them waste time on two features that , if implemented, would simply result in the community complaining about something ELSE. "Great, we wasted time on hood down when they need to work on FPS/instancing limits/Jawa Balloon/God knows what".

 

I'm certainly no fan of BWEA but I can at least allow people who are pleased with this sort of improvement --- which seems to be based off of many older player feedback requests -- a thread not filled with people demanding OTHER trivial enhancements.

[LogicalPremise]

Do people really care what your face in game looks like? I mean come on, there are so many more things about this game that you developers can spend your time on other than looks on a face. WHich, by the way, I will never see as a pvp'er since player actions and movements are so fast. Even if I could see expressions on a character face, why would anyone want to stand there and look at the face...what was that game called where this kind of thing I could understand?

 

Total waste of time in my opinion. Fix world PVP please...PVP servers have nothing fun or unique in world pvp.

 

So, developer can :

 

a) Work on small things that are simply changing existing things already in the engine using the coders for that or

b) work on world PVP which they have already proven defintively they can't do worth spit.

 

I really don't want them touching World PVP. Just make everyone flag for PVP in the BH area and done. After the incompetancy that was the Ilum update, I want them working on things they can at least , you know, not make WORSE every time they touch it.