Floating Text/Chat Bubble addon?

reagen_lionel

nalimoleb14_ESO wrote: »

Great idea, I'll definitely do the same! I also came across a very insightful quote recently:

You'll never know how much you shall miss speech bubbles in RP untill you don't have them.

It's what sank the RP in SWOTOR, it sounds like a small thing but when you are trying to interact in a group and find yourself having to watch the chatbox more then the actual scene it can quickly feel weird and disjointed.

No speech bubbles, no RP community. Heed my words.

Indeed. This is already proven to be true. Some Rpers are already talking about it. And I cant really justify it if my main reason to be here is to Roleplay while playing and I cant even do that efficiently.

And I can tell you now. You do NOT want to lose your roleplayers. Roleplayers are your long standing customers. Free to play games can afford to lose roleplayers a bit, because of the influx of casual players entering and leaving.

If this game is to remain pay to play. You will have to cater to your audience a bit better, especially your roleplayers. Where many will come and go. Your roleplayers will remain the longest and most loyal, guaranteed.

Anoteros

I WOULD LOVE THIS!
PLEASE MAKE IT SO
(or are the api limitations just that ***?)

reagen_lionel

Anoteros wrote: »

I WOULD LOVE THIS!
PLEASE MAKE IT SO
(or are the api limitations just that ***?)

Just that ****. Though I cant argue against them either. I rather have the limitations if Zenimax implements them, themselves.

Magischzwei

Lets be entirely frank here. Most of the target demographic and audience of this game gives no damns over lore, story or immersion. They want an enjoyable mmo experience. Zenimax needs to start acting on that.

DragonMother

Signed, Togglable chat bubbles would really improve social interactivity by giving us a clear direction of whom is speaking in game, and where to focus our attention. It's not easy to focus on the players we engage in game as it stands because of the "OH SHINEY" frame of mind currently in the new content and mysteries of the gameworld we are engaged in, but if someone speaks to you, wouldn't you want to have some kind of sign to point it out clearly to pull your attention to focus on them?

It would seem only right that this should be a toggle feature, allowing players to choose whether or not to use it, and give everyone their open decisions to add, or subject to the games features on their own. Add-on's do not have the ability to do the float feature as chat bubbles would need a whole new set of code to be able to float over the chatters avatars head.

Unless Zenimax opens a new line of code in the API to allow floating chat bubbles, or interface additions to float over a players head for better visablity, I feel that this game is going to have some major issues keeping roleplayers for as long as other RP games has kept us around. We understand that this is a ground breaking game, we've seen a lot of the wonderful work you've put into it Zeimax, but we ask that this one feature be given to us on a toggle so no one feels forced to use it.

Oops, typonese has struck, this is my calling sign to hit the hay. Good night folks, enjoy your game!

Nox_Aeterna

I really cant understand why this is even a discussion at all.

If this becomes an options , that is it , an option.

Those who want it can use it , those who dont can ignore it.

It is just a win/win , players who are waiting for this become happy , those who dont want it in their screen dont lose anything.

WarlordRurik

When I first started playing ESO I was shocked that I couldn't find the option to allow chat bubbles. I'm not a role-player, but when someone is talking in /say I like to know where the text is coming from, and who from, instead of searching around pointing my character at every player around me to see if their name matches the chat box!

I'm also finding people are hardly using /say in general compared to any other MMO I've played. Literally I'm hardly seeing any traffic in major cities with /say and when I'm out and about and I try to talk to someone via /say I rarely get a response. My guess is its literally just useless to use /say to talk because people can't tell were the message has come from easily, it removes some of the impact from the game .

I think the chat bubbles make a huge difference and I honestly don't understand why they weren't included as a customization option. ESO should let people play the game how THEY want to play it (after all they need to convince people to keep paying £8.99 or $14.99 a month) and not how they are forcing some users to play it.

I honestly don't see the harm in having chat bubbles as a custom option in the Social Chat Settings which people can turn on and off as they please. I don't have much faith in Zenimax changing this or introducing it, but I can hope right? I suppose ultimately will it affect people continuing their subscription in a months time? If it does, maybe they will reconsider

Bruro

Without chatbubbles I realy will stop after the first free month.
This game does not have a mmo feeling. Neither it has a singleplayer feeling. It just feels unfinished and yeah, to bee honest: cheap. The only thing I see is realy good are the textures, normalmaps, character design, armor design and quests. But the gameplay itself, the netcode when it comes to fighting doesn't feel responsive. Lack of interface features and options is just the tip of the mountain.
Damn, I want to roleplay realy hard but I have no chance to find open world rp (megaservers, lol, worst idea ever) and no chance to see who is writing what. CHATBUBBLES ffs!

nalimoleb14_ESO

Check this out. I mean, come on - I can't think of a clearer indication that there is a strong demand for optional chat bubbles.

Optional Chat Bubble Polls

Tonturri

I support this as well - I've gone through a dungeon (public or instanced) with maybe....20? 30 people so far? And I've managed to get a response out of around two of them.

Chat bubbles! \o/

peechwurmnub18_ESO

When I speak to an NPC in ESO, the game forces a zoom in on that NPC, throws up text, and voices the NPC. Why? To pull me in, immerse me, and show me who I'm speaking with and how they're behaving and acting and speaking. Yet ultimately... I don't care about them. They're just mindless programs in an mmo. Do you know who I do care about in an MMO? Other players! The Massive Multiple players. Real people. Why aren't those real people given the same option to show they're speaking to those who are interested in hearing them. Why can't I be given a visual cue to pull my attention in to a fellow player who is interested in speaking and interacting with me outside of a glorified chat channel box. I'm not made to search randomly around my screen when an npc wants my attention, that's for sure. I'm given floating glowing arrows and a compass and I'm pretty sure some of the NPCs have actually follow me home... just trying to get me to talk to them. I'm constantly reminded that they are there. All we're asking for is that players be given the option to have a voice too, and given the option to say "Hey, I'm here! Talk to me!".

reagen_lionel

peechwurmnub18_ESO wrote: »

When I speak to an NPC in ESO, the game forces a zoom in on that NPC, throws up text, and voices the NPC. Why? To pull me in, immerse me, and show me who I'm speaking with and how they're behaving and acting and speaking. Yet ultimately... I don't care about them. They're just mindless programs in an mmo. Do you know who I do care about in an MMO? Other players! The Massive Multiple players. Real people. Why aren't those real people given the same option to show they're speaking to those who are interested in hearing them. Why can't I be given a visual cue to pull my attention in to a fellow player who is interested in speaking and interacting with me outside of a glorified chat channel box. I'm not made to search randomly around my screen when an npc wants my attention, that's for sure. I'm given floating glowing arrows and a compass and I'm pretty sure some of the NPCs have actually follow me home... just trying to get me to talk to them. I'm constantly reminded that they are there. All we're asking for is that players be given the option to have a voice too, and given the option to say "Hey, I'm here! Talk to me!".

Yes precisely. Very insightful. Thats what it really comes down to.

themfdrez

I'm voting yes to chat bubbles. With the rampant gold spam, I completely ignore the chat box. I have a second tab just for PM's that I click to if it lights up, but basically if someone is right next to me and trying to talk, I have no idea.

nalimoleb14_ESO

Exactly! At the end of the day, it's a win-win situation. Want chat bubbles? Turn them on. Don't want 'em? Leave them off, nothing changes for you. Everybody wins. I just can't understand the reasoning of people who are so hellbent against having options.

Skytrooper01

I support - Should be like headgear.. If you dont wanna look at it turn it off

the /say should certainly be in a bubble.

Skytrooper01

an

Stardakt

Bubbles we're pretty nice in star wars galaxy, it really fit in the world, but i'm not so sure in The Elder Scrolls, it never was a multiplayer game, and immersion was centered around voiced dialogues directly adressed to the player.

Immersion was about playing in first person and feel like npc's were actually talking to you.

It must be a subtle addition to prevent breaking the view and lore of the game, at least if a 12 years old kiddo start spamming stupidities in chat you won't see it blocking your view when entering towns ...

Because if there was bubbles, even with the option to turn it off, there will always be situations where you'll have to ignore someone ... So without it, problem is almost solved, and you can just ignore the chat if nothing interesting goes by.

Still, i'd like to see a more lore friendly and rp way of chatting between players that's for sure.

reagen_lionel

Stardakt wrote: »

Bubbles we're pretty nice in star wars galaxy, it really fit in the world, but i'm not so sure in The Elder Scrolls, it never was a multiplayer game, and immersion was centered around voiced dialogues directly adressed to the player.

Immersion was about playing in first person and feel like npc's were actually talking to you.

It must be a subtle addition to prevent breaking the view and lore of the game, at least if a 12 years old kiddo start spamming stupidities in chat you won't see it blocking your view when entering towns ...

Because if there was bubbles, even with the option to turn it off, there will always be situations where you'll have to ignore someone ... So without it, problem is almost solved, and you can just ignore the chat if nothing interesting goes by.

Still, i'd like to see a more lore friendly and rp way of chatting between players that's for sure.

The thing though that, anyone can spam any sort of nonsense in chat, with or without chat bubbles and it would do the exact same thing. That would not be just specific to chat bubbles. And thats what the /ignore feature is for.

if someone spams like that, that punishes thier whole account with a personal block.
And ignoring the chat as a whole just defeats the purpose of said chat, when few people actually use it to begin with because of the lack of feedback with the exception of zone chat.

having the option to have it would make no difference than not having it, except benefiting the people that will use it.

Elvent

Just found out about this thread...we NEED chat bubbles, I already made huge post why here...

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/640798#Comment_640798

Didn't know about this thread until somebody told me in my thread, you have my support, this should be an optional feature, there is no reason to not have chat bubbles as an option.

dormax

Nine pages and still going. Can we get a clue yet? Do we really want this?

Figure that only one in 1000 people read forums and one in 100 of those ever post (at best). Then figure 30 posts per page times 9 pages. Lets see - the simple math means that. . . well hell. . . let's just say that a lot of people agree and haven't posted approval on this topic.

Be my hero - make chat bubbles!

bythepowercosmic

Do the devs respond to the players beyond tech support in this community?

reagen_lionel

bythepowercosmic wrote: »

Do the devs respond to the players beyond tech support in this community?

Not from what I've seen yet, and only half the time I've seen them respond in customer support.

murklor007neb18_ESO

Stardakt wrote: »

Bubbles we're pretty nice in star wars galaxy, it really fit in the world, but i'm not so sure in The Elder Scrolls, it never was a multiplayer game, and immersion was centered around voiced dialogues directly adressed to the player.

if you think about it, that is a rather strange thing to say considering the many story driven singleplayer Star Wars games that where never designed for multiplayer and didnt have speech bubbles. Yet you still see how its nice in SWG? Its the exact same situation!

ESO is an MMO. It require the basics of communication between players. Whether previous ES games where singleplayer or not is completely irrelevant.

Emperor

No chat bubbles completely destroys any possibility of social interaction in the game. I played A LOT in the beta and since the game officially came out and I haven't even had a full conversation with a single person because it is IMPOSSIBLE. Trying to play while staring at a box of chat full of hundreds of people is just ridiculous.

nalimoleb14_ESO

What is mindblowing to me is that these pleas and complaints about the lack of chat bubbles in ESO have literally been going on since last July, and all of it was ignored by Zenimax. It's not that they just happened to overlook every single pro-optional chat bubbles thread since last year - they are well aware that a solid number of their players are pleading for chat bubbles for several months now, if it isn't evidenced by the number of /feedbacks they've been getting.

This isn't just an RP issue; there are players who don't even know what RP stands for, who also agree that the lack of optional chat bubbles in ESO is a problem. Zenimax doesn't want to compromise the 'simplistic vision' of ESO? Well, who are the ones playing here? Who are the ones paying to play, here? The fact that they have not even at least acknowledged the countless please/demands/requests for optional chat bubbles is outrageous and insulting.

And for such a simple feature, too.

Vantor

I can understand why you're doing such a big fuss over this. Really i can. But, since you want it as an option anyway you might as well use an addon like Simple Chat Bubbles. I know it might be just a bit crude but it does the job just fine. Now you will tell me "But this is an addon! Not everyone will have it installed!". Well, people that don't care about chat bubbles wouldn't have them enabled anyway, even if given the option from the game itself. Personally I wouldn't like chat bubbles as they are in other games (like the "what could have been" screenshot i saw a couple of pages back), cause it gives the game a more comic art style that imho doesn't suit it. Still, i find this addon useful enough to have it enabled.

Just my 2 cents.

Haltus_Kain

Vantor wrote: »

I can understand why you're doing such a big fuss over this. Really i can. But, since you want it as an option anyway you might as well use an addon like Simple Chat Bubbles. I know it might be just a bit crude but it does the job just fine. Now you will tell me "But this is an addon! Not everyone will have it installed!". Well, people that don't care about chat bubbles wouldn't have them enabled anyway, even if given the option from the game itself. Personally I wouldn't like chat bubbles as they are in other games (like the "what could have been" screenshot i saw a couple of pages back), cause it gives the game a more comic art style that imho doesn't suit it. Still, i find this addon useful enough to have it enabled.

Just my 2 cents.

For social interaction, using that add-on instead speech bubbles is a bit like driving nails into wood by pounding them down with your fists instead of using a hammer.

Not that it's a bad add-on, it's just the wrong tool for the job. If Zmax decides to loosen the API restrictions in a way that allows a speech bubble add-on to be made, then we can talk about using an add-on instead of fixing this hole in the vanilla game. Until then, the vanilla game should be fixed so that it's a more desirable product, and as many players as possible can enjoy the game to the fullest extent.

nalimoleb14_ESO

Look at it this way: imagine if Elder Scrolls Online was released with mandatory chat bubbles, and Zenimax said, Currently, we have no plans to remove the chat bubbles, however feel free to create an add-on to do so. But the best attempt at creating the add-on could only minimize them, or make them semi-transparent, because of API restrictions. Yeah it's better than nothing, maybe serves as a temporary fix, but it doesn't solve the problem of completely removing them, which is what you'd want. So for us to use an add-on that doesn't actually accomplish what we need it to as a permanent fix is pretty unfair, because if it were the other way, people would be equally as upset.

Exactly as Haltus_Kain said. If Zenimax wants the players to create their own speech bubble add-on, then perfect! Solving the issue ourselves sure sounds better than waiting for them to do it. But we can't due to the current API restrictions. So, since they won't be letting up on the API restrictions any time soon for obvious reasons, then the only other solution would be for Zenimax to officially implement optional chat bubbles. Regardless of whether you think chat bubbles fit the MMO or not, or make it look more comic/cartoony, that is the beauty of having the freedom to turn it on/off.

reagen_lionel

Haltus_Kain wrote: »

Vantor wrote: »

I can understand why you're doing such a big fuss over this. Really i can. But, since you want it as an option anyway you might as well use an addon like Simple Chat Bubbles. I know it might be just a bit crude but it does the job just fine. Now you will tell me "But this is an addon! Not everyone will have it installed!". Well, people that don't care about chat bubbles wouldn't have them enabled anyway, even if given the option from the game itself. Personally I wouldn't like chat bubbles as they are in other games (like the "what could have been" screenshot i saw a couple of pages back), cause it gives the game a more comic art style that imho doesn't suit it. Still, i find this addon useful enough to have it enabled.

Just my 2 cents.

For social interaction, using that add-on instead speech bubbles is a bit like driving nails into wood by pounding them down with your fists instead of using a hammer.

Not that it's a bad add-on, it's just the wrong tool for the job. If Zmax decides to loosen the API restrictions in a way that allows a speech bubble add-on to be made, then we can talk about using an add-on instead of fixing this hole in the vanilla game. Until then, fix the ******* hole in the vanilla game!

This is pretty much what I was going to reply and almost do to everyone that suggests this as a fix.

Haltus_Kain

*modified my last post a bit. The tone was unnecessarily hostile - some RL stuff going on, but that's no excuse to take it out on the web. Sorry, all.