Chat Text Bubbles over Player Characters?

[BrachyXIV]

Good evening, this is my first attempt at using forums at all so I'll be as clear as possible to not cause trouble.


I've found myself under the feeling that there's something lacking in the game as I walk around the streets of Limsa Lominsa or Ul'dah. I see groups of people sitting or standing and came to realize that the only talking I see is stuck in the corner of my screen inside the chat box where messages can be easily missed or create confusion as to who is talking.

You see a message that got your interest and you spend 10 minutes looking around to see if you can spot the name of who is saying it.

Lost messages between party members in a voice call because nobody is looking at the chat box, instead we are looking at our characters.

I feel like this game would benefit a lot from having Chat Bubbles over our characters heads to have a conversation between characters instead of feeling like you are trapped in a chat box hoping people can read your name and message following it without getting confused.

Would this be possible?

I know people say "it would get cluttered" it's as simple as making it distance based and a TOGGLE and size modifier. It's so simple, if you don't like it, you can just turn it off, names clutter the screen already so that's not an excuse to go against something that could improve immersion so much.

People keep saying I could just use a mod for it but I don't want to risk dealing with that in case developers don't approve it since I love streaming the game.

[Coletergeist]

Right click on the name in the chat box and you can 'target' the player if they are close enough.
Mouths move as you speak in game so it's not like they're *just* standing there.
Chat bubbles above the characters would litter the screen with unnecessary clutter. I know, you already said something about that, but still bringing it up.
As for the mod thing, they really don't care unless it gives you an advantage/cheat I believe. At least they don't really enforce action against folks that use mods like that from what I'm aware of.
Tbh also, I'd rather they use time and resources to fix or add other things than this.

Also, if folks be talking like, that much and constantly around you... wouldn't the chat bubbles like really get in the way/possibly overlap? You'd still not be able to read everything that fast if you can't read the chat box that fast, because the chat bubbles would have to disappear for whatever they say next.

This just doesn't seem like it'd be that much of a fix as you think it would, but perhaps I could be wrong.

[BrachyXIV]

Right click on the name in the chat box and you can 'target' the player if they are close enough.
Mouths move as you speak in game so it's not like they're *just* standing there.
Chat bubbles above the characters would litter the screen with unnecessary clutter. I know, you already said something about that, but still bringing it up.
As for the mod thing, they really don't care unless it gives you an advantage/cheat I believe. At least they don't really enforce action against folks that use mods like that from what I'm aware of.
Tbh also, I'd rather they use time and resources to fix or add other things than this.

Also, if folks be talking like, that much and constantly around you... wouldn't the chat bubbles like really get in the way/possibly overlap? You'd still not be able to read everything that fast if you can't read the chat box that fast, because the chat bubbles would have to disappear for whatever they say next.

This just doesn't seem like it'd be that much of a fix as you think it would, but perhaps I could be wrong.

What about names and titles? aren't they cluttering the screen at all times? especially at highly populated areas?
Wouldn't it be nice to walk by someone and see them say "Good Morning" and reply with a "Good morning to you too" as you make your way even starting a conversation instead of realizing they said anything at all 5 minutes later because their greeting was trapped in the corner of the screen alongside 20 more messages from the game and spam bots?

[ItMe]

This bubble idea might be a little awkward.
How would it work for people not talking in Say?
Would you see my one side of my private FC conversation?
My DM with my fiance?
I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that and I don't think it'll improve your experience being able to see half of so many conversations.

[BrachyXIV]

This bubble idea might be a little awkward.
How would it work for people not talking in Say?
Would you see my one side of my private FC conversation?
My DM with my fiance?
I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that and I don't think it'll improve your experience being able to see half of so many conversations.

It would only work with Say, Shout and Yell... why would it show private messages??

[ItMe]

It would only work with Say, Shout and Yell... why would it show private messages??

Good point.

I don't see why we couldn't have this.
We can turn off names.
Don't see why we could have this with a toggle too.

Would things in Say/Yell/Shout also show up in the text log too?
I suppose there'd be a setting for that too though huh : P

[Rongway]

What about names and titles? aren't they cluttering the screen at all times? especially at highly populated areas?

There is a finite limit to the number of entities they can draw on the screen at once, and the total number of all entities, optional or otherwise, needs to be less than this number. This is an actual reason they have cited in the past for not adding features like special indicators on hotbar button corners or item icons.

But they haven't even gotten draw priorities right for mobs and party members yet. I'd hope they spend time fixing that before adding even more drawables over the limit that might be wrongly prioritized over more important drawables.

[MicahZerrshia]

They already addressed this and said it was a no go iirc.

But I mean if your eyesight is not good and your peripheral vision cannot pick up text scroll so you know to look at your chat box, which is the only way I can process the chat box being in the corner as being an issue, one solution to this would be to create that 4th chat box we can use, set it to just show say yell tell etc. adjust the font size and color to how you want it, turn background transparency to 100% then just place it somewhere more central on your screen so you can see everything in real time without having to move your eyes. The ways in which we can change and adjust the UI in this game are almost endless.

And if it's hard to see 1 msg or name amongst what has to be a crazy amount of players and spam bots on your server compared to mine if it takes you more than a few seconds, much less 10 minutes to find 1 name in the mix, floating text is not going to help that, esp in super crowded areas where those spam bots are just going to create even more clutter even if you have distance turned on, esp considering how long their msgs can be. I mean if you are near anyone advertising their fc or an rmt pushing their wares, even on the smallest text setting their msg is going to take up a significant portion of your screen's real estate. Also considering how fast they would have to disappear to prevent your game from coming to a standstill in crowded areas, it would be difficult to read anything but a brief "hello how are you" anyway.

I have a separate box just for chat so I don't miss anything and it works beautifully. Although it keep it in the corner anyway since I can rely on my peripheral vision to see when a msg pops up and its easy to glance down to read. But if your eyesight is bad, this may help.

[Rubylite]

I find that using different colours for different chats helps a lot.
Purple for FC.
Blue for party.
Red for yelling.
Yellow for Alliance.
White for /say.

Etc etc etc.

[BrachyXIV]

There is a finite limit to the number of entities they can draw on the screen at once, and the total number of all entities, optional or otherwise, needs to be less than this number. This is an actual reason they have cited in the past for not adding features like special indicators on hotbar button corners or item icons.

But they haven't even gotten draw priorities right for mobs and party members yet. I'd hope they spend time fixing that before adding even more drawables over the limit that might be wrongly prioritized over more important drawables.

I want to see where they say this. Where is this limited number you speak of and how is it any different from an NPC speech bubble regarding what can be "drawn" if it is already in the game but for NPCs