Chat Bubble Feedback

[CidHeiral]

Now having had some hands-on time with the official chat bubbles I have some additional feedback.

1. As predicted, this feature is not very useful with the two line limit. Messages are cut off the majority of the time which forces you to look at the chat window which in turn defeats the entire point of having chat bubbles to begin with. Please add an option for unlimited text length. This is the most important issue to address.

2. In accordance with #1, please add options for how long the bubbles are displayed before they fade out.

3. This is a nitpick but it would be nice if you could choose your bubble shape and elect to have no bubble color at all for each chat type. Currently you're forced to always have a color on the left corner and use the different shapes and symbols for the other chat types. I would generally prefer to have all chat bubbles look plain to match how the bubbles look for NPCs if it were an option, like this:



Also while on the subject of bubble shape, I understand the intention behind the little symbols on the upper left of the chat bubbles but they really bring down the aesthetics of the bubbles in my opinion and they seem redundant with the option to match bubble colors to text color. If there were an option to remove them it would add some nice customization since people could then mix and match the bubble shapes however they want. I'd be more inclined to use the different shapes if they didn't all have a weird little growth sticking out of them. I actually like the yell and shout ones quite a bit, minus the symbol.

4. The chat bubble colors are much more limited than the text color options, so it's not always possible to match the two if you feel so inclined. I don't want colors at all, but for those who do they should have access to the same color options.

5. You should definitely be able to use them in all content including battles. Everything runs the risk of being abused by jerks, I don't think that's a good enough reason to hold off on the benefits.

Thanks!

[TheDustyOne]

I've already expressed my desire for extra lines/text (as has most others here), but another thing I'd like to see implemented is having emotes (both official and custom) be available for bubbles. It's very common for RPers to use /em with long paragraphs to describe how their character acts, and so it would allow for consistency in how we read actions and dialogue if it was all on the same part of the screen rather than dividing one for chat logs only and another for both logs and bubbles.

In addition, it'd be nice if I can see what I'm typing in a bubble above my character, but I can live without that.

Also the option to keep the bubbles for combat should be available. I do like that I can have them off when fighting since it prevents screen clutter, but people should be able to have them on if they wish. I really don't see what kind of advantage they would offer in PvE (or PvP for that matter, but I'll let that be an exception since I'm not as familiar with it) by having bubbles enabled during battle.

More text colour and background colour options would be a bonus; we especially need more darker colours for text to contrast with the bright background. For the bubbles, I would prefer if /say has no colour assigned whatsoever to the edge, but I quite like the colouring to the rest of the chat channels.

[CidHeiral]

another thing I'd like to see implemented is having emotes (both official and custom) be available for bubbles. It's very common for RPers to use /em with long paragraphs to describe how their character acts, and so it would allow for consistency in how we read actions and dialogue if it was all on the same part of the screen rather than dividing one for chat logs only and another for both logs and bubbles.

Oh I wasn't aware /em wasn't working with the bubbles since I haven't been in an RP situation since they came out. I agree that is absolutely essential.

[MediArgentum]

I was going to make a thread about this but since this already exists, I suppose the correct way to do it is to add my comment here rather than starting a new thread, right? I don't actually know, but for now, I'll just add my comment here.

Chat Bubbles.
This is a new feature that we have just received in the latest (7.3) patch and I'm glad that it's finally here! I immediately turned this feature on and I don't think I'll ever turn it off.
I did notice several things about the functionality of chat bubbles that I think could be expanded:


- Maximum line limit of 2.

Please allow us to increase the line limit to up to 5 lines from the settings menu. It's fine if the default value remains at 2 lines, but I would like to increase the limit.
The English language is nowhere near as "dense" as Japanese language, and ends up taking many more characters to spell out the same words and sentences.

Fun fact! Coincidentally, this is one of the reasons that supported Twitter's popularity in Japan back in the day when it was not only just called "Twitter" but still had 160 character limit per tweet. Because this limit wasn't so bad for the Japanese language comparatively!

By the same token, I think the limit of 2 lines is insufficient for us - the English speakers. Please allow us to increase this limit to up to 5 lines.

- Fading out in 4 seconds.

This is pretty self-explanatory. It would be nice if we could adjust this duration anywhere between 1 to 10 seconds from the settings menu. Better yet: dynamic duration based on the amount of lines!
1 line = 4 seconds.
2 lines = 6 seconds.
5 lines = 12 seconds.
The numbers are arbitrary of course, but you get the point!

- Chat bubbles rendering only in the current field of view.

At first, I thought the bubbles would simply fade away before I could spin my camera around to see who said the thing that I saw appearing in my chat box, but I found out that the chat bubbles will not render at all if the player saying it isn't already on my screen when that players sends their chat message.
If there's a player behind me, or just outside my screen's field of view, and they say something in chat, I want to be able to still see their chat bubble with its remaining duration before it fades, if I spin my camera around to quickly locate where they are stood. I think it would feel better this way, more immersive and intuitive.

[LuciaGreene]

I don't use the chat bubble but for those people who use it, would you like it if for those messages that reach the text limit, they scroll after a few seconds to the next part of the message? I'm a slow reader so having the option to adjust the scroll timing would be nice. It wouldn't have much application in combat since that last concern is typing mid combat. I think it would create a better experience for those involved in RP.

I didn't see Medi's post. They listed the example well.

[Crafoutis]

I love them! Allow me to enable them in-combat, and allow me to set my own line-limit!

[Liyinabi]

Totally agree with the OP. The character limit is far too restrictive as I can barely fit a basic sentence in two lines, and being able to use them in combat would help with my dyslexia trying to parse a crowded chat log in combat. (also would let me meme around with friends during low stress combat like fates and hunts)

Otherwise they're looking great.

From what I can tell they've disabled them in combat because they could provide raiders with some sort of strategic advantage or change the way encounters are solved. I think a pretty easy solution to this is to just disable them for high-end duties but keep them active in normals/dungeons/the overworld since it literally doesn't matter in these cases. The funniest chat box moments would probably happen in alliance raids anyways.

[CidHeiral]

- Chat bubbles rendering only in the current field of view.

At first, I thought the bubbles would simply fade away before I could spin my camera around to see who said the thing that I saw appearing in my chat box, but I found out that the chat bubbles will not render at all if the player saying it isn't already on my screen when that players sends their chat message.
If there's a player behind me, or just outside my screen's field of view, and they say something in chat, I want to be able to still see their chat bubble with its remaining duration before it fades, if I spin my camera around to quickly locate where they are stood. I think it would feel better this way, more immersive and intuitive.

I've run into this issue a lot as well. If someone is even partly off of your screen their chat bubble will not display, so it's easy to miss messages. Chat bubbles should render everywhere around you at all times so you can move your camera briefly without fear of missing anything, or to catch someone who said something behind you. I'm frankly astonished that this isn't already the case since it's not an issue in other MMOs with chat bubbles.

[Roda]

I don't use the chat bubble but for those people who use it, would you like it if for those messages that reach the text limit, they scroll after a few seconds to the next part of the message? I'm a slow reader so having the option to adjust the scroll timing would be nice. It wouldn't have much application in combat since that last concern is typing mid combat. I think it would create a better experience for those involved in RP.

I didn't see Medi's post. They listed the example well.

Most games let us just go for the max chat limit and it's never caused a problem for me in my (way too many) years of mmo gaming.

From what I can tell they've disabled them in combat because they could provide raiders with some sort of strategic advantage or change the way encounters are solved. I think a pretty easy solution to this is to just disable them for high-end duties but keep them active in normals/dungeons/the overworld since it literally doesn't matter in these cases. The funniest chat box moments would probably happen in alliance raids anyways.

Honestly I just don't think it's as big of a deal as they're fretting. This literally isn't a problem in any other mmo that uses chat bubbles. I've never once heard of someone being harassed or encounters needing to be changed because of any kind of combat use for speech bubbles. It stinks of SE making a big hullabaloo out of nothing just for the sake of looking like they're being careful. Like, should we not be able to use the sound visualizer in combat 'cause it might help with sound cue redundancy? Are people being harassed because they can turn off/hide other UI elements, even important ones, like buffs and HP bars? What makes speech bubbles so special in XIV specifically?

[CidHeiral]

I've run into this issue a lot as well. If someone is even partly off of your screen their chat bubble will not display, so it's easy to miss messages. Chat bubbles should render everywhere around you at all times so you can move your camera briefly without fear of missing anything, or to catch someone who said something behind you. I'm frankly astonished that this isn't already the case since it's not an issue in other MMOs with chat bubbles.

To add to this, today I noticed that even if a bubble appears on your screen, if you move the camera in such a way that the bubble is off-screen it will immediately delete the bubble. So if someone says something in view and you just happen to swing the camera to glance at something else in that moment, that bubble is gone even if you look back toward where it was. Again this isn't a problem in other MMOs with chat bubbles. They need to render independent of where your camera is pointed.