Chat Text Bubbles over Player Characters?

[Zfz]

I don't mind the OPTION of having chat bubbles that can be enabled per channel (not per Log, but per Channel). But honestly I don't find it to be anything compelling.

Phantasy Star Online 2 had chat bubbles and it was a pain when people would spam auto-text (pre-configured chat messages that are triggered by certain actions like healing people, receiving a heal, low health etc). Just imagine people who macro every single weapon skill into Party Chat in FFXIV, and now put all those spam messages in chat bubbles.

In PSO2, RMT vendors also spammed chat bubbles for their RMT adverts. It was a pain. While FFXIV doesn't have the problem nowadays, imagine people spamming FC adverts, RP adverts, selling runs, selling gear, selling melding services, etc. It's going to be so bad most people are going to turn it off anyways.

So I'm all for chat bubbles, if and only if it is very customizable.

But knowing FFXIV's design philosophy, they probably consider chat bubbles to have the potential to do more harm than good and write it off.

[einschwartz]

I remember when I first time playing the game to notice there are no chat bubbles.
It felt very weird and found myself not able to tell if someone is talking to me or otherwise.
I felt even worse when I did not notice what the party is saying whenever I run dungeons until at the very end of the run (because the chatbox is in the corner).

Which is why I set sound effects for party chat so I will never miss anything important during a duty.

I'm used to it now so i don't mind if it stays this way. I would support if it is added as an option for those who prefer it.

[Metalface_Villain]

bro wtf are you saying xD stop shilling dude, you are wrong, this is 100% possible and should have been in the game already

[Strix64]

I would love to see the chat bubbles! It would bring immersion to whole another level, also I wouldn't miss when someone is talking to me.

But the basic requirement is for it to be A - optional and B - customizable.

I could see the chat bubble settings contain:

• global show chat bubbles (checkbox)
• show my own bubble (checkbox) (for extra immersion. or could be used by streamers for example)
• font size
• show bubbles per channel (list of channels with checkboxes)
• show bubbles in instances (list of small/medium/full party/pvp whatever makes sense in this context unless it is covered in channel part) (checkboxes)
• show bubbles in combat (checkbox)
• only show bubbles from people I know (FC, Party, contact list, whatever makes sense)

I think this would be pretty good start.

Yes I know like any feature it takes time to develop, but this one wouldn't be super difficult, considering NPCs already have chat bubbles (for small talk), so they can iterate on that. And for customization - we already have many of these settings for name plates, it's another setting for the same condition system.

There are some challenges, like fleshing out duration of chat bubble, how many to (not) display per character if they spam stuff, and so on. But I think it's worth it.

(P.S. This feature is not for everyone, that's fine. I couldn't care less about endgame raiding, but I still believe they should take their time fleshing this out so people can have fun.)

[Astrahime]

I would love to see the chat bubbles! It would bring immersion to whole another level, also I wouldn't miss when someone is talking to me.

But the basic requirement is for it to be A - optional and B - customizable.

I could see the chat bubble settings contain:

• global show chat bubbles (checkbox)
• show my own bubble (checkbox) (for extra immersion. or could be used by streamers for example)
• font size
• show bubbles per channel (list of channels with checkboxes)
• show bubbles in instances (list of small/medium/full party/pvp whatever makes sense in this context unless it is covered in channel part) (checkboxes)
• show bubbles in combat (checkbox)
• only show bubbles from people I know (FC, Party, contact list, whatever makes sense)

I think this would be pretty good start.

Yes I know like any feature it takes time to develop, but this one wouldn't be super difficult, considering NPCs already have chat bubbles (for small talk), so they can iterate on that. And for customization - we already have many of these settings for name plates, it's another setting for the same condition system.

There are some challenges, like fleshing out duration of chat bubble, how many to (not) display per character if they spam stuff, and so on. But I think it's worth it.

(P.S. This feature is not for everyone, that's fine. I couldn't care less about endgame raiding, but I still believe they should take their time fleshing this out so people can have fun.)

I've seen a plugin that's capable of doing this, and it's... Both good and bad.
Due to the "center" of the player's hitbox changing as you move, the chat bubble jitters around if you're moving.

It also only has the Font Size, Own Bubble, and per-channel options, but i'm pretty sure that if SE were to officially implement this, they'd be able to allow customization.
SE should be able to add actual filtering to the bubbles if they decide to add this feature that's in basically every other MMO that exists.

[Vazdan]

Support. It's such a basic thing that every other MMO has it's kind of jarring to not see it in FFXIV. Heck even bloody RUNESCAPE has chat bubbles.

[DPZ2]

Support. It's such a basic thing that every other MMO has it's kind of jarring to not see it in FFXIV. Heck even bloody RUNESCAPE has chat bubbles.

And they're the first thing I ensure are turned off. Nothing quite like hitting a major player hotspot to get lost in bubbles.

[Arohk]

And they're the first thing I ensure are turned off. Nothing quite like hitting a major player hotspot to get lost in bubbles.

You are the first person i ever heard of doing that.

Chat Bubble has 0 downsides, it makes it easier to read what the other person is saying, it makes it actually possible to locate a player when he says something.
It looks simply better from an RP standpoint.

[Payadopa]

And they're the first thing I ensure are turned off. Nothing quite like hitting a major player hotspot to get lost in bubbles.

And more power to you. But since I'm assuming it would be a toggle why would have anyone anything against it. I don't see petitions for removing chat bubbles over NPCs. It's just the usual 'it's new/not in the game so therefore it's not welcome - purist attitude'. It wouldn't affect anyone who doesn't want it and it can't be used for cheating so who cares.

[kevin_satron]

what about people that use macro? especially raid macro (if you're an NA players, u wont get this)