Say Chat (Text Bubble)

[Ildur]

-more snips-

I think you are the one not understanding. All those things you are thinking are issues are not issues. Let me repeat it to you: they are already in game, NPCs use it. It's not a design choice, it's an arbitrary restriction. If it was an art style or whatever then there would be no bubbles at all. Go ahead to some of the NPCs in Limsa Lominsa and stick your camera as close to their chat bubbles as you can and you will see how the game handles most of those things you are asking. What's more, you can go right now to other mainstream MMOs and see that they have solved all those questions you are throwing as if they proved how hard and time consuming it is. Even if they added it at a later date. It doesn't matter. They have them and it doesn't affect their performance at all. Just make it so we can deactivate in the options and make them deactivated by default, if you are so worried it's going to freak out the game.

For example, deciding how far you render the chat bubbles is NO different than deciding how far you render a BLM's AoE spell or how far you render the floating name above them. I would say it's even less, because the text flying on top of our heads or coming out of mobs that we are attacking is near constant, and AoE's and skills have a lot of MOVING textures and polygons. Have you ever chatted with someone in game? Unless they are using a program or spamming messages by using the arrow key or copy-pasting, there's no physical way they can type text as fast as my archer deals damage. And you can solve that with anti-spamming measures that hopefully the game already will have included.
All those things you are thinking are issues are not issues. Other games have solved it, Squee clearly has solved it (because their NPCs use them). There's no reason not to implement them unless Squee has an ancient vodoo curse that will crows to come and eat their eyeballs if they implement them for Player Characters.

[mythicrose]

I
It makes dungeons and similar stuff easier because watching the chat log as a hawk in case you don't miss something can be really distracting, but with chat bubbles you don't have to take your eyes off of encounter. It's not a cluster and servers have nothing to do with it, your PC/console renders it.

I'll disagree. Chat log can be moved and filtlered and is often useful when I'm tanking. Boss's especially can hide chat bubbles from casters and ranged dps or clip messages from melee.

Also just when you're sitting somewhere in game with someone and chatting, while trying to enjoy the scenery, but you can't because your eyes are peeled on the chat log, it gets annoying.

As opposed to enjoying the scenery being obscured by large chat bubbles? To each his/her own.

You have my vote. People who are against it are either deluded or haven't played any MMO prior to this.

I'm not deluded. I have a different opinion than yours that chat bubbles just aren't needed.

[Naunet]

I'm not deluded. I have a different opinion than yours that chat bubbles just aren't needed.

Then... don't use them? It kind of goes without saying that a function like this would have an on/off toggle.

[Alhanelem]

Urgh if only -.-

As others have said, memory limitations was the deployed excuse. Which is.. bizarre, to my mind, given the PC and PS3 clients are distinct from one another.

Now if they'd said they don't want to provide that option for one group and not the other..

Honestly I don't see how that'd .. bah I don't know. Still the lack of 'chat bubbles' for at least /say is a miserable flaw in the game, for me. Makes the world seem so much less alive and I'd give up a lot to see it implemented, for my part.

Well they do want to avoid implementing entire features in one client but not another, especially when it isn't a client-side only thing like chat isn't. focus target was initially absent for the ps3 version but they were planning to add it as soona s they made further optimizations.

[Dreamer]

This is about as bad as chat spam gets, in my experience:



Funny, Yoshi-P seems dead set on making the game as much like WoW as possible, but the one feature I'd LIKE him to bring over...he doesn't.

[Joven]

I don't know if it's my computer performance causing it, but every time I go into one of the markets during peak hours and there are dozens of characters loitering about, my computer starts to slow a bit. However, if I hold down X to remove names until I'm through the area there is little to no slowdown. If there were dozens of text bubbles on top of that, visiting the markets would be a nightmare.

[Haibel]

I'm seeing a running theme here. It appears that RP'ing is the main reason for the request.

Anyone want to take a stab at what the percentage of population of FFXIV are RP'ing?

2% would be generous.

[Karnyboy]

Memory limitations, not happening. This was suggested back in beta and that was the response.

PS3 could live without this, though, it's not like this couldn't be made an option for PC and PS4, but nope.

Another reason I hate consoles.

[Dreamer]

2% would be generous.

Yes, yes. Of course RPers are a small population. How silly of me to think otherwise....

[Quenn]

I agree with this thread. I keep missing messages from my friends because I am too busy looking on the main screen.