I won't waste time, numbered points.

1. Emotes still repeat over and over. They fixed one a few patches ago, MANY MORE stil do this and given how long this has been the case, it's appalling.

2. Text reading distance is sooo over the top, my toon can "hear" (read) the words of people in whole other rooms, or across massive cantina spaces. This also makes large roleplay events a speed reading contest. An option to limit it would be super.

3. No player biographies people can inspect and read (in the same way we inspect gear). This is a huge let down, and something I've seen in virtually every other MMO that does support roleplay. I want people to know certain things about my character, like tone of voice etc etc.

4. Custom emotes can't be seen by opposing faction players. No reason for this at all. If you are close enough to read an emote, you're close enough to read their /say chat so any suggestion it could be used to insult people is moot.

5. Lack of emotes that support being social outside of battle situations. Things like /drink or /handshake or /smoke or /read, along with actual animations. It is always the little things that add to atmosphere.

6. Lack of /mood commands to alter how our characters say things. Even a simple emotion like /mood angry , which would change a sentence like "Jen'doon says : I'll see you later, buddy" into "Jen'doon says angrily : I'll see you later, buddy". Again, these are small points that add up to greater immersion.

I am honestly at a loss as to why Bioware even bothered to give us roleplay servers when very little in their game actively supports roleplay. It is very clear from the changes that HAVEN'T been made since the game went live that the wishes of the roleplaying community is right at the bottom of the pile for them, importance wise. I get bugs and content updates are important for everyone, and I also understand the roleplaying community is a minority in SWTOR, but still many of these ideas have been requested since before launch.

They are adding tons of new emotes in 1.2 for companions, players ect. Such as kissing and other emotes.

I don't know anyone who roleplays with their companions. Most serious roleplayers I know actually always put their companions away to roleplay, because they can't speak or contribute.

I'd rather they add new emotes for players to use with players.

I love Bioware but long ago they moved away from things that helped free form roleplay and moved heavily in the direction of railroaded "choose your own adventure" as a definition of roleplay. RP with your companion? ***?

I can only hope they one day see the error of their ways.

1. Emotes still repeat over and over. They fixed one a few patches ago, MANY MORE stil do this and given how long this has been the case, it's appalling.

Such strong words used over such a small issue. Yes, it's annoying, but all you have to do is tap one of the WSDA keys after the first loop...

2. Text reading distance is sooo over the top, my toon can "hear" (read) the words of people in whole other rooms, or across massive cantina spaces. This also makes large roleplay events a speed reading contest. An option to limit it would be super.

Agreed.

3. No player biographies people can inspect and read (in the same way we inspect gear). This is a huge let down, and something I've seen in virtually every other MMO that does support roleplay. I want people to know certain things about my character, like tone of voice etc etc.

Sure, it'd be nice, but not totally necessary. It's just extra details to add to your emotes.

4. Custom emotes can't be seen by opposing faction players. No reason for this at all. If you are close enough to read an emote, you're close enough to read their /say chat so any suggestion it could be used to insult people is moot.

It's a silly oversight on Bioware's part, and it is frustrating for cross-faction RP. I have just decided to just use *blah blah blah* until this is fixed.

5. Lack of emotes that support being social outside of battle situations. Things like /drink or /handshake or /smoke or /read, along with actual animations. It is always the little things that add to atmosphere.

Really? I feel like this game has more of those social animations than most other ones. Sure, /read and /smoke and /handshake would be cool, but really, are they entirely necessary when a /e (or a * *) could be equally effective?

6. Lack of /mood commands to alter how our characters say things. Even a simple emotion like /mood angry , which would change a sentence like "Jen'doon says : I'll see you later, buddy" into "Jen'doon says angrily : I'll see you later, buddy". Again, these are small points that add up to greater immersion.

Never actually heard of this in any game. It would be cool to use, but as I said before, a /e or a * * could work just as well.

I don't know anyone who roleplays with their companions. Most serious roleplayers I know actually always put their companions away to roleplay, because they can't speak or contribute.

 

I'd rather they add new emotes for players to use with players.

Companions are good for occasional use, for example, I can put Corso Riggs in a lot of armor and a little-used customization, and he can be used to give some sort of a military debrief that my Smuggler would be otherwise unable to give. Sure, I don't carry them along to cantina RPs except for specific events, but they can be useful.

I miss chat bubbles, player biographies and the sheer variety of emotes found in some other games.

Chat bubbles combined with a less intrusive /say radius would make it much easier for me to manage chatscroll during large events or in crowded spaces.

I find the bio blurb especially helpful for letting others know something about a character that wouldn't necessarily come out in emotes (posture, vocal range, visual cues such as additional scars, wounds or birthmarks).

The *one* sit emote we get makes things a bit ridiculous when you have a group of people all sitting around, all in the same somewhat awkward-looking position - a few variations would be nice. Also, I so miss my wall lean.

Right now my biggest complaint is probably cross-faction communication. The inability to even send tells makes it impossible for shady business deals or plans for a sneaky double-cross to be discussed without *everyone* in the room (and probably some ways down the hall) hearing about it.

Most of the issues in the OP would be nice if they existed or worked right, but are easily worked around.

In my opinion, the major issues that make RP much harder than it ought to be are:

1. The ridiculous say range. I have never used chat bubbles because I found them distracting, and usually just move my small group out of say range of other groups so that we can converse among ourselves. Unless I deliberately want to be within say range (which was often the case too) to overhear them, or to allow them to overhear us. So cut down on the say range, have yell available for a "raised voice" larger range, and I think the chat bubble issues are reduced. (Not saying avoided, I can see how people have gotten used to them and they are useful - but their absence will be less painful.)

2. Standing around like statues for RP is a big killer issue for me. A few changes of position and posture would be HUGE. I type out most gestures in RP so the animated ones are cool, but less of a problem. But we need to change position or posture. We need to be able to sit ON rather than THROUGH a chair. It's fine with me if we jump on top of it and use a sit command. Give us a reasonable posture (or a couple of choices - an exhausted casual sprawl and a more normal sit, even with legs folded under or cross-legged). A lean would be outstanding! A back or side wall lean.

3. A few more enterable buildings so that we can RP private meetings and not be standing around silently (speaking in guild chat) in the market or cantina. Enterable buildings of a few different styles, combined with a more reasonable say range so that the people outside - or across the planet - don't hear our discussion, would go a long way to help RP.

Edit to add:

3a. I suggested this pre-launch after I got to check out beta and I'll suggest it again. It ought to be fairly easy to implement sometime between now and whenever they get around to working on guild ships. An instanced wing on each fleet station, that an operations group can enter. The area could contain rooms of various types, a lounge area, conference room, office, control room, lab, med center, storeroom, and even private quarters. Groups could use it - even multiple groups at the same time since it's instanced, each RPing the space as something specific to them.

I agree on some level with most of the points brought up in this thread, but especially I think we need more options for cross-faction communication and a wider range of posture emotes. Even something as simple as a /chairsit and /walllean emote would go a long way towards improving my level of immersion.

The issue of the /say range is a big one, too. Something like a /whisper or /mutter channel for a much reduced chat radius would be great.

Excellent idea there Sendra, to expand on the emotes we can use whilst typing that give our character's more life.

Things like

/pace

Which would make your character pace a few steps back and forward, always fun for speeches etc.

/crossarms

Good for listening to missions details or a "likely" story.

/atease

This would place your toon with their hands clasped behind their backs, legs sightly apart in a listening observant pose.

/wounded

doubled over, clutching a stomach wound.

/unconscious

sprawled out on the floor. Very useful for RP.

/researchdata

This would be different for each class. For Jedi and Sith, they'd pull a holocron out and study it, with little light effects and a tiny holographic image of a master. For bounty hunters and troopers, it would be a wrist mounted news feed, for smugglers and operatives a datapad.

/wounded

 

doubled over, clutching a stomach wound.

It will, of course, be in the left ribs. It is *always* in the left ribs.

I think even something as small as being able to sit in a cantina would go a long way. If you're on an RP server, and you walk up to the cantina and notice someone sitting on a stool, hunched over, drinking heavily, it's a good opportunity to strike up an IC convo with a potentially new RPer friend. As it stands now, unless someone is cycling a constant "/em is sitting at the bar drinking." every minute (which would QUICKLY be annoying on the fleet) it's hard to tell if someone in the cantina is just a non-RPer AFK/idle or an RPer IC as patron who's open to being approached for RP.

Something nice to add would be an RP flag, similar to the purple LFG flag that can appear next to someone's name when they have an LFG comment. Seeing an icon next to the nametags of players who are IC would help a lot with players who are more timid about seeking out RP. I like your idea of having a description box you can inspect too, for things like demeanor or nuanced RP things like if they're tattoo is of something specific.

I won't waste time, numbered points.

 

1. Emotes still repeat over and over. They fixed one a few patches ago, MANY MORE stil do this and given how long this has been the case, it's appalling.

 

2. Text reading distance is sooo over the top, my toon can "hear" (read) the words of people in whole other rooms, or across massive cantina spaces. This also makes large roleplay events a speed reading contest. An option to limit it would be super.

 

3. No player biographies people can inspect and read (in the same way we inspect gear). This is a huge let down, and something I've seen in virtually every other MMO that does support roleplay. I want people to know certain things about my character, like tone of voice etc etc.

 

4. Custom emotes can't be seen by opposing faction players. No reason for this at all. If you are close enough to read an emote, you're close enough to read their /say chat so any suggestion it could be used to insult people is moot.

 

5. Lack of emotes that support being social outside of battle situations. Things like /drink or /handshake or /smoke or /read, along with actual animations. It is always the little things that add to atmosphere.

 

6. Lack of /mood commands to alter how our characters say things. Even a simple emotion like /mood angry , which would change a sentence like "Jen'doon says : I'll see you later, buddy" into "Jen'doon says angrily : I'll see you later, buddy". Again, these are small points that add up to greater immersion.

 

 

I am honestly at a loss as to why Bioware even bothered to give us roleplay servers when very little in their game actively supports roleplay. It is very clear from the changes that HAVEN'T been made since the game went live that the wishes of the roleplaying community is right at the bottom of the pile for them, importance wise. I get bugs and content updates are important for everyone, and I also understand the roleplaying community is a minority in SWTOR, but still many of these ideas have been requested since before launch.

1. You are my hero for mentioning this. Nothing annoys me like my smuggler bowing for hours when he introduces himself. It is one thing to loop dance emotes and such but really infinite bowing...

2. I can kinda understand why they did this but then having such a huge say radius kinda defeats the purpose of yell. Normally not a huge deal but at large events makes me want to pull my hair out. I get so annoyed having to repeat myself because what I say gets missed by whoever I am talking to.

3. It would be helpful but don't know if I love the idea. I prefer to get to know someone by actually talking to them and probably wouldn't read many bios for that reason. What I tell someone often depends on who the person is, my trooper runs his mouth constantly but when I RP my smuggler in a lot of company I won't even admit that I am a smuggler because lets face it who would walk up to a stranger and be like "Hi I break the law for a living."

4. Another thing they need to fix. Can be a big problem especially when someone doesn't realize the other faction can't see them. Annoying to have to go OOC to let people know not to use the custom emotes.

5. The list is pretty decent already but I do hope they add more. You can't expect a game to have every single emote you could ever want, I get more annoyed the the silly and useless ones like the "These aren't the droids you're looking for" emote.

6. You can always just add /angry to the end of your sentence. It may not look overly pretty but people will understand it just fine.

I think you are expecting a little bit too much too soon from BioWare. RP is a minority on SWTOR and when look at at how much they are doing to fix problems that affect everyone it is no wonder they haven't gotten to the little stuff we have been asking for. Most people on the RP servers are also there to play the game so all these updates are not for everyone else, they're for us too. The gameplay does need to come first for BioWare because even for most people on the RP servers the game comes first.

EDIT: On a side note I just want to point out that /handshake emotes and things like them are always a horrible idea. It always ends up with you sticking out your hand shaking air and 3 seconds later the other person shaking air a foot away from your hand. If 2 people need to be in the exact perfect position with perfect timing then its a bad idea. Please don't suggest having the emote make the other person shake your hand either because people are not going to be happy if my emotes make them do things they don't want to do.

You guys don't read patch notes/listen to the Guild Summit do you? :3

1. is getting fixed. It's right there in 1.2 patch notes: The /bow emote no longer loops when used. Take a look under Social

2. Agree here. It does need to be lessened. This got brought up at the guild summit.

3. Would love biographies. But again this was addressed in the guild summit. The main issue is that storing unique text items for players takes up a huge amount of space and data and would possibly slow the game down. BUT they are looking at it and reception of the idea was generally positive.

4. Addressed in the Guild Summit. Devs said this would actually be an easy fix, so keep your eyes open on this one :3

5. /Drink is in the game, and there are so many awesome ANIMATED emotes within this game it makes me giddy (bearing in mind, I come from a background of 7 years RPing in WoW). /paranoia, /surprised, /facepalm - these are some of my favourite few. Read is going to be in legacy - sort of, there's going to be /datapad and /holocom, if I recall correctly.

6. I like the idea of the mood commands, I was thinking about this last night. These days I tend to do it with a prefixed/suffixed emote; something like:

"Yeah? Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

Sareth huffs angrily.

And chat bubbles, again explained in the Guild Summit. Their first iteration of chat bubbles caused crazy lag on the servers. They think they've managed to fix it too, it just won't be here in 1.2.

Give it time, and keep giving your feedback RP is never going to be the forefront of a game like this. And importantly we have Daniel Erikson, who is a hardcore RPer himself and greatly supportive of the RP community. They ARE listening. Reasons are out there.

Roleplaying in-game now harkens me back to the days of 1998 when I got my first internet connection and I role played in chat rooms. No fancy interfaces or emotes, just brackets to separate action from speech, and then later on, someone came up with the dice rolling emote.

Could SWTOR do better for the Role Playing groups? Absolutely.

But at the moment I can't hate on it too much, because of my rose colored sunglasses to the good old days.

EDIT: On a side note I just want to point out that /handshake emotes and things like them are always a horrible idea. It always ends up with you sticking out your hand shaking air and 3 seconds later the other person shaking air a foot away from your hand. If 2 people need to be in the exact perfect position with perfect timing then its a bad idea. Please don't suggest having the emote make the other person shake your hand either because people are not going to be happy if my emotes make them do things they don't want to do.

Maybe whenever someone does something like /handshake, you have 3 options...

1) Shake their hand

2) Ignore them

3) Slap them'

Maybe whenever someone does something like /handshake, you have 3 options...

 

1) Shake their hand

2) Ignore them

3) Slap them'

 

 

Don't forget:

4) Joybuzzer

Most of the issues in the OP would be nice if they existed or worked right, but are easily worked around.

 

In my opinion, the major issues that make RP much harder than it ought to be are:

 

1. The ridiculous say range. I have never used chat bubbles because I found them distracting, and usually just move my small group out of say range of other groups so that we can converse among ourselves. Unless I deliberately want to be within say range (which was often the case too) to overhear them, or to allow them to overhear us. So cut down on the say range, have yell available for a "raised voice" larger range, and I think the chat bubble issues are reduced. (Not saying avoided, I can see how people have gotten used to them and they are useful - but their absence will be less painful.)

 

2. Standing around like statues for RP is a big killer issue for me. A few changes of position and posture would be HUGE. I type out most gestures in RP so the animated ones are cool, but less of a problem. But we need to change position or posture. We need to be able to sit ON rather than THROUGH a chair. It's fine with me if we jump on top of it and use a sit command. Give us a reasonable posture (or a couple of choices - an exhausted casual sprawl and a more normal sit, even with legs folded under or cross-legged). A lean would be outstanding! A back or side wall lean.

 

3. A few more enterable buildings so that we can RP private meetings and not be standing around silently (speaking in guild chat) in the market or cantina. Enterable buildings of a few different styles, combined with a more reasonable say range so that the people outside - or across the planet - don't hear our discussion, would go a long way to help RP.

 

Edit to add:

3a. I suggested this pre-launch after I got to check out beta and I'll suggest it again. It ought to be fairly easy to implement sometime between now and whenever they get around to working on guild ships. An instanced wing on each fleet station, that an operations group can enter. The area could contain rooms of various types, a lounge area, conference room, office, control room, lab, med center, storeroom, and even private quarters. Groups could use it - even multiple groups at the same time since it's instanced, each RPing the space as something specific to them.

+1

I think this post really cuts the heart of the things we actually need.

Roleplaying in-game now harkens me back to the days of 1998 when I got my first internet connection and I role played in chat rooms. No fancy interfaces or emotes, just brackets to separate action from speech, and then later on, someone came up with the dice rolling emote.

 

Could SWTOR do better for the Role Playing groups? Absolutely.

But at the moment I can't hate on it too much, because of my rose colored sunglasses to the good old days.

I'm the same way. I started out in text based programs and even went to the low tech chatrooms from time to time.

I've never understood these complaints and I never will. If you're an RPer you use your imagination to compensate for any perceived flaw and that's the end of it.

That being said, we all know BW is working on improving things for us. Making complaints make even less sense to me than they already did.

Most of the issues in the OP would be nice if they existed or worked right, but are easily worked around.

 

In my opinion, the major issues that make RP much harder than it ought to be are:

 

1. The ridiculous say range. I have never used chat bubbles because I found them distracting, and usually just move my small group out of say range of other groups so that we can converse among ourselves. Unless I deliberately want to be within say range (which was often the case too) to overhear them, or to allow them to overhear us. So cut down on the say range, have yell available for a "raised voice" larger range, and I think the chat bubble issues are reduced. (Not saying avoided, I can see how people have gotten used to them and they are useful - but their absence will be less painful.)

 

2. Standing around like statues for RP is a big killer issue for me. A few changes of position and posture would be HUGE. I type out most gestures in RP so the animated ones are cool, but less of a problem. But we need to change position or posture. We need to be able to sit ON rather than THROUGH a chair. It's fine with me if we jump on top of it and use a sit command. Give us a reasonable posture (or a couple of choices - an exhausted casual sprawl and a more normal sit, even with legs folded under or cross-legged). A lean would be outstanding! A back or side wall lean.

 

3. A few more enterable buildings so that we can RP private meetings and not be standing around silently (speaking in guild chat) in the market or cantina. Enterable buildings of a few different styles, combined with a more reasonable say range so that the people outside - or across the planet - don't hear our discussion, would go a long way to help RP.

 

Edit to add:

3a. I suggested this pre-launch after I got to check out beta and I'll suggest it again. It ought to be fairly easy to implement sometime between now and whenever they get around to working on guild ships. An instanced wing on each fleet station, that an operations group can enter. The area could contain rooms of various types, a lounge area, conference room, office, control room, lab, med center, storeroom, and even private quarters. Groups could use it - even multiple groups at the same time since it's instanced, each RPing the space as something specific to them.

I'll agree with all of that too, but they've alluded to some of it already. Keep making suggestions and be patient and it'll all work out. =)

Roleplaying in-game now harkens me back to the days of 1998 when I got my first internet connection and I role played in chat rooms. No fancy interfaces or emotes, just brackets to separate action from speech, and then later on, someone came up with the dice rolling emote.

 

Could SWTOR do better for the Role Playing groups? Absolutely.

But at the moment I can't hate on it too much, because of my rose colored sunglasses to the good old days.

I agree.

However they have messed up some obvious things that just shouldn't happen in 2012. No chair sitting? A /say range that is at least double the range of any other MMO I've played? A UI that I can't move around?

A lot of the 'issues' with RP are issues with everyone and they do seem to be a lot more easy to fix or tweak than some of the major things they are implementing.

How long could it possibly take a programmer to halve or quarter the /say range? It would make a huge difference for RPers, or anyone else who doesn't want to be bombarded by the text from half the space station.

I agree.

 

However they have messed up some obvious things that just shouldn't happen in 2012. No chair sitting? A /say range that is at least double the range of any other MMO I've played? A UI that I can't move around?

 

A lot of the 'issues' with RP are issues with everyone and they do seem to be a lot more easy to fix or tweak than some of the major things they are implementing.

 

How long could it possibly take a programmer to halve or quarter the /say range? It would make a huge difference for RPers, or anyone else who doesn't want to be bombarded by the text from half the space station.

The say range is the same as Rift. Otherwise the game is massive and has growing pains, things they are already working on. It's easy to complain and wonder why things are taking so long when you aren't actually doing any of the work. Give them time. They'll come through. =)

If you're an RPer you use your imagination to compensate for any perceived flaw and that's the end of it.

 

No amount of imagination will make the truly epic /say distance any less annoying or frustrating.

No amount of imagination will make the truly epic /say distance any less annoying or frustrating.

Yes, but it can still be ignored. Learning to ignore things you do not want to hear is probably one of the most useful things in the world. I really do think people are making a mountain out of a molehill in this instance.

I agree.

 

However they have messed up some obvious things that just shouldn't happen in 2012. No chair sitting? A /say range that is at least double the range of any other MMO I've played? A UI that I can't move around?

 

A lot of the 'issues' with RP are issues with everyone and they do seem to be a lot more easy to fix or tweak than some of the major things they are implementing.

 

How long could it possibly take a programmer to halve or quarter the /say range? It would make a huge difference for RPers, or anyone else who doesn't want to be bombarded by the text from half the space station.

I can't disagree with you on that. It's the primary flaws...

Sitting is a joke...

You can hear people from the far corner, which makes crowded areas hell to keep up with...

And heaven forbid my crew skill window gets in the way of the chatbox and won't let me type till I get rid of it.

These can be simple fixes, for sure, but I understand a developer can't do so if he's expected to be working on other things. A job is a job.

For the time being, the system is functional, if not inelegant. But I am patient enough to watch as things evolve and get perfected. Even a game like World of Warcraft didn't spring forward fully formed as it is now. And perfection is a thing that does not exist in video games.

Yes, but it can still be ignored. Learning to ignore things you do not want to hear is probably one of the most useful things in the world. I really do think people are making a mountain out of a molehill in this instance.

You know what else gets ignored with the massive amounts of text the /say distance can "gift" us all? Our friends typing.

I can ignore features I don't approve of, like mini pets and Jedi in Slave outfits (looks good, doesn't make sense) but if I want to pay attention to a roleplay situation how can I then ignore the very text being used to roleplay?

They need to put a sliding bar in chat options to fix this.