Speech Bubbles - Thoughts?

[Sephr]

Hey all,

I was wondering what the general opinion of adding speech bubbles to the game is? I'd personally be for it (with a toggle option of course, there would be so much raaage if there wasn't!). I definitely think it makes the world feel more alive if you can see the comments NPCs and players might be making around you without consulting the chat log.

I also think as we move forward it would be nice if NPCs called out to you and such for quests, From the perspective of a new player, it would be much engaging if NPCs called over to you or ran up to you and asked for your help (to guide a player towards the next camp or whatever) if they could just read the text outside of the log.

As I said before, I think it would have to be optional, and also customisable in that perhaps you'd only see bubbles for party members/linkshell members etc.

Another thing to consider is how they'd look, I'd hope they were a bit nicer looking than the lame rift/wow bubbles, Rift's in particular seem to be lacking in quality, but i'd expect given the recent quality of small features added to FFXIV they'd probably end up being pretty nice with a good fade-in/out and font etc.

[Betelgeuzah]

Sounds too cartoony, doesn't fit the game.

A line of text at the bottom of the screen (with vo's even) aka XIII would be nice though, so the idea has merit.

[Zantetsuken]

nice concept, but not a good fit for this game.

Storyline cutscenes with NPCs are very cinematic and bubbles would just distract from the overall experience - especially when there are voice-overs for it.

The only place it would work ok is with quest NPCs, and that would look strange as no other part of the game would have them.

[Dreamer]

I've always liked speech bubbles, so I would certainly like to see them here if possible. However, they shouldn't show up in cutscenes, and they should be able to be toggled on/off.

[Atomsk]

Ruins immersion. I've never seen speech bubbles irl.

[Jinko]

especially when there are voice-overs for it.

Wait, What !

/laughs#

Ruins immersion. I've never seen speech bubbles irl.

I've never seen many things from FF14 in real life, did you have a point ?

[Leowilde]

I see your point, and I agree that more sense of chatter around you in the cities would be good, but I don't think chat bubbles is the way to go. It will look too childish and cartoony to fit with the rest of this game.

[Eldaena]

I'm not against the bubbles if they are toggleable. =D

[Zantetsuken]

They did work nicely with Vagrant Story though....

But (No Thanks) for bubbles in FFXIV.

[Delmontyb]

I'd be all for it, but only from players in game, it helps to see who said what sometime without having to take my eyes off what's going on in the world to look at the chat log.

I agree with the toggle option, and would like to see it for /say and /party chat.