Official Discussion Thread for "Update 11 Guide: Text Chat on Consoles"

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official discussion thread for the blog article Update 11 Guide: Text Chat on Consoles. This has been a long-requested feature coming to consoles next week, and we're excited to give you some insight as to how it's going to work.

sluice

I'm glad keyboards are supported. I have mine ready and waiting!

@ZOS_GinaBruno, is there a list somewhere of all the keywords?
So far, from the article above, I have:

/say
/yell
/emotes
/zone
/whisper

NewBlacksmurf

This may seem like a dumb question or questions but:
1. How do you link an item in chat (is this done by selecting one item and hitting a button that shows enchant, destroy, etc?)
2. How does a player click an item that was linked as we don't have a cursor?
3. Does the recent voice chat interactions have a similar area for text chat in the social menu as well?

Takes-No-Prisoner

Do guilds get /guild text chat?

Neirymn

This is awesome! I like this:

Once you've enabled text chat, the window will appear when other players send messages, and will fade after a short time if nobody's talking.

Pepper8Jack

Since hitting the menu and window buttons simultaneously brings up the window when it is off, will doing the same while it's on turn the window off?

Paneross

Will you be able to filter which chats you want to see/text in? Like what if I only want to see zone chat or group chat?

Preyfar

I would totally suggest poking Microsoft and Sony and seeing if they'd be willing to offer a sale/discount on their keyboard attachments (e.g. creating an Elder Scrolls specific coupon).

Lord_Eomer

Much needed text chat finally comming to Console s

NewBlacksmurf

Preyfar wrote: »

I would totally suggest poking Microsoft and Sony and seeing if they'd be willing to offer a sale/discount on their keyboard attachments (e.g. creating an Elder Scrolls specific coupon).

Why...they're already cheaper than any back lit keyboard
Just buy them....if you want the convenience of both a keyboard and voice comms without any hassle of compliance

Jailbirdy

Is this replacing voice chat since voice chat is horribly broken on the Xbox?

sluice

Jailbirdy wrote: »

Is this replacing voice chat since voice chat is horribly broken on the Xbox?

No.. Voice chat is remaining in game.

Natetendo83

Why is it off by default? Why not have it on by default with profanity filters on? Most people probably won't even turn it on.

Legoless

sluice wrote: »

is there a list somewhere of all the keywords?

@sluice We have an article on it!

Enodoc

@ZOS_GinaBruno Does Console Text Chat support the special commands like /reloadui, /logout, /stuck, /invite, /traveltoplayer, etc?

Paneross

Will we be able to change the color and boldness of different chat areas?

Panth141

Thank you so much for giving us a keyboard quick access to chat.

It looks like everything we've been asking for has been packed into this - obviously we won't know for sure until we can try it out, but this looks fantastic and I'm sure the console community will be incredibly grateful.

sluice

Legoless wrote: »

sluice wrote: »

is there a list somewhere of all the keywords?

@sluice We have an article on it!

Thanks! But like @Enodoc, I'm wondering if any special commands will be supported or not.
Bookmarked nonetheless, great info and I'm sure you will update as soon as we have more information regarding console.

ZOS_GinaBruno

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

This may seem like a dumb question or questions but:
1. How do you link an item in chat (is this done by selecting one item and hitting a button that shows enchant, destroy, etc?)

Yep, your guess is correct!

2. How does a player click an item that was linked as we don't have a cursor?

In the text chat menu, you can scroll up through the history of messages. If one has an item linked, the tooltip appears on the right. If it has multiple items linked, you can cycle through them with right on the d-pad

3. Does the recent voice chat interactions have a similar area for text chat in the social menu as well?

It does not.

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

Do guilds get /guild text chat?

Yes, /g1-/g5 for the 5 guild chats (also /o1-/o5 for officer chat)

Pepper8Jack wrote: »

Since hitting the menu and window buttons simultaneously brings up the window when it is off, will doing the same while it's on turn the window off?

It’s actually not a toggle - this is how you can start typing with a gamepad, so hitting it again will allow you to start typing. It is the equivalent of hitting enter on a keyboard.

Paneross wrote: »

Will you be able to filter which chats you want to see/text in? Like what if I only want to see zone chat or group chat?

Not at this time, no.

Ser Lobo

Natetendo83 wrote: »

Why is it off by default? Why not have it on by default with profanity filters on? Most people probably won't even turn it on.

Many, like myself, were concerned that players would stop using guild traders, group finders and other provided tools in lieu of spamming text chat. This may seem like an okay solution for those looking only for their own interests, but this further reduces the usefullness of those services (and I think most of us can agree, they are already limited), while also simultaneously disrupting legitimate chat.

A 'off by default' approach *might* discourage a large portion of /lfg and /lft spam, as well as prevent the obvious abuse of false trades and trolls.

As well, zone chat helps reinforce the zerg-like nature of Cyrodiil by coordinating large amounts of players into smaller areas, which of course increases lag and reduces the purpose of having such a large play area when 90% of the players on one team area ll in the same keep. The lack of text chat is arguably a form of 'fog of war' on consoles, and the lack of always-on text chat may help encourage newer players to 'do their own thing' instead of 'zerg up, newbs'.

Of course this is all social dynamics, but in my opinion, this looks to be the best of all requests for text chat. I'm very happy with what they are showing us, and I can't wait to see what it will look like in it's final form.

This 'well done' may be premature, ZOS, but so far so good!

Ser Lobo

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Pepper8Jack wrote: »

Since hitting the menu and window buttons simultaneously brings up the window when it is off, will doing the same while it's on turn the window off?

It’s actually not a toggle - this is how you can start typing with a gamepad, so hitting it again will allow you to start typing. It is the equivalent of hitting enter on a keyboard.

Paneross wrote: »

Will you be able to filter which chats you want to see/text in? Like what if I only want to see zone chat or group chat?

Not at this time, no.

Hmm. Is there no quick way to hide the chat window?

And an option to create or manage 'tabs' would be ideal. Sometimes, you've just got to focus on a chat channel. Without the ability to sort what you view, this feature will probably make it near impossible to use if you enter a starter zone.

Also, what's the chances of addinga dedicated 'looking for group' channel so that we can filter (in the future, obviously) those?

Takes-No-Prisoner

Guild text chat ! Now I can remind a certain guildie every day he owes me 5 flaming oil pots

Father_X_Zombie

Can we talk to other alliances in Cyrodiil? This would be a great feature to plan duels.

ManDraKE

Ser Lobo wrote: »

Many, like myself, were concerned that players would stop using guild traders, group finders and other provided tools in lieu of spamming text chat.

We have text chat in PC since day 1, and things in guild traders sell like hot cake. You will always see a few guys spamming WTS/WTB in zone chat, but is kinda pointless, they don't even represent a 1% of the sales. Advertising in zone chat is a waste of time and gold, because all the time you are sitting there spamming the chat, you are not farming mats/trials or doing something you like. The extra cents that you can save by bypassing the trader's fee, don't make it for the loss of wasting hours in a city not doing or farming anything.

About the group finder...well, it works like *** so people is used to use zone chat to form groups. On pc, group finder is broken again, so even if you want to use it, it dosn't work. Also group finder is not good for harder dungeons like vICP or vCoS, in those cases a premade group formed by handpicking people in zone chat is way better.

sluice

Father_X_Zombie wrote: »

Can we talk to other alliances in Cyrodiil? This would be a great feature to plan duels.

Just like on PC, I suppose that you can whisper to someone careless of their faction.
Not sure if you can talk to a whole alliance though. I wouldn't think so.

Enodoc

sluice wrote: »

Father_X_Zombie wrote: »

Can we talk to other alliances in Cyrodiil? This would be a great feature to plan duels.

Just like on PC, I suppose that you can whisper to someone careless of their faction.
Not sure if you can talk to a whole alliance though. I wouldn't think so.

Yeah, assuming it's like PC, you can talk to other alliances in /guild or /whisper, but not in /say or /zone.

Ser Lobo

ManDraKE wrote: »

Ser Lobo wrote: »

Many, like myself, were concerned that players would stop using guild traders, group finders and other provided tools in lieu of spamming text chat.

We have text chat in PC since day 1, and things in guild traders sell like hot cake. You will always see a few guys spamming WTS/WTB in zone chat, but is kinda pointless, they don't even represent a 1% of the sales. Advertising in zone chat is a waste of time and gold, because all the time you are sitting there spamming the chat, you are not farming mats/trials or doing something you like. The extra cents that you can save by bypassing the trader's fee, don't make it for the loss of wasting hours in a city not doing or farming anything.

About the group finder...well, it works like *** so people is used to use zone chat to form groups. On pc, group finder is broken again, so even if you want to use it, it dosn't work. Also group finder is not good for harder dungeons like vICP or vCoS, in those cases a premade group formed by handpicking people in zone chat is way better.

On Xbox, group finder is even more limited. Xbox is supposedly going to launch a console-based '/lfg' tool that may or may not resolve a lot of grouping issues in any number of games. We'll just have to see how it's actually implemented. But I'd agree on ESO's current 'activity finder' being extremely limited.

I admit that I'll probably use zone chat to find a few groups, myself.

As far as trade advertisements, they were a major thing on PC before I switched over. Can't say what they are now, cause I haven't played PC ESO is a while. But at one point it was pretty much the only thing going on in zone chat. I definitely worry that consoles are about to face a similiar issue.

SwaminoNowlino

This is more for Xbox One that has limited peripheral support unlike PS4, but my understanding from reading around the interwebs is that you'll be able to connect a plain old wired keyboard to the USB port on the Xbox and use it to interface with chat. You can't use the keyboard yet for game functionality, so no impact there.

Can anyone confirm or deny this? I guess it would have to come from Zenimax who have (I assume) tested it on xboxs on their end. Can you speak to the functionality on Xbox One? (If this works poorly, it'll be less on ZOS and more on Microsoft for their crappy support of keyboards). Do people need to be looking for controller based keyboards, rely on the smartglass app, or can everyone use a basic wired keyboard?

Less of a question for ZOS but since you all are the one's testing it I'll take a shot and the dark and see if you know. Everything on Microsoft's side says you need a wired keyboard. Does a keyboard with a USB dongle work? If so, does it seem to work as well as the straight up wired ones?

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom These are just some questions that folks have already been asking me and I assume you are likely to get on the General Discussion section?

Thanks!

Father_X_Zombie

sluice wrote: »

Father_X_Zombie wrote: »

Can we talk to other alliances in Cyrodiil? This would be a great feature to plan duels.

Just like on PC, I suppose that you can whisper to someone careless of their faction.
Not sure if you can talk to a whole alliance though. I wouldn't think so.

Thanks!

Snowstrider

I do not understand why its off by default. Thats my only complaint,less People Will use it and People wont know it exists.
Put it on by default please,If people dont like it they can just turn it off,also Will chatbubbles be in this update too?
Anyway thanks for finally bringing text chat to console,i was one of the people that requested it since console beta

NewBlacksmurf

Snowstrider wrote: »

I do not understand why its off by default. Thats my only complaint,less People Will use it and People wont know it exists.
Put it on by default please,If people dont like it they can just turn it off,also Will chatbubbles be in this update too?
Anyway thanks for finally bringing text chat to console,i was one of the people that requested it since console beta

Anytime you add something to a game that's optional, it should be off by default because why would you require ppl who like their experience to fumble through settings to get back to what they like.

In comparison, those looking for new features will go turn things on.
Also because voice chat is simple enough, ppl will hear about text chat literally.

I think it'll be fine.