Latest statement on chat bubbles:

"Those are things that have being pushed out quite abit due to the studio changes."

In another six months we will hear another BS nad still wont have chat bubbles. Its like SOE and their "smuggler love" over again. This game is RP dead.

Source?

Source?

 

Here's what he really said

 

"Earlier this year we did the guild summit, guild capitals, guild calenders, chat bubbles, ready check, were mentioned. When is all this coming? The studio has gone a lot of change since the guild summit, we are busy working on a lot of things. We changed some of the things we are working on. Some we are still working on, but some are on the backburner. I love the idea of guild capital ships but these things are abit further out. All of these features on the wall of crazy but it is a ordered by priority. Small things on that wall have a more chance to happen – i.e. inventory sorting that is coming soon. "

 

That's from the 1.6 f2p discussion with Jeff Hickman. That does NOT mean chat bubbles are dead. Just other things come first.

Here's what he really said

 

"Earlier this year we did the guild summit, guild capitals, guild calenders, chat bubbles, ready check, were mentioned. When is all this coming? The studio has gone a lot of change since the guild summit, we are busy working on a lot of things. We changed some of the things we are working on. Some we are still working on, but some are on the backburner. I love the idea of guild capital ships but these things are abit further out. All of these features on the wall of crazy but it is a ordered by priority. Small things on that wall have a more chance to happen – i.e. inventory sorting that is coming soon. "

 

That's from the 1.6 f2p discussion with Jeff Hickman. That does NOT mean chat bubbles are dead. Just other things come first.

Does anybody have a link to the original, by any chance?

 

Also, I see no reason why chat bubbles should be on the backburner. I somewhat understood them getting pushed back due to other essential features like the group finder being implemented or the GUI Editor. I also understand how the Cartel Market got priority because they wanted to enter the free to play market ASAP.

By now now, however, the GUI team's first priority should certainly be implementing chat bubbles, not some inventory sorting option that is far less important than a feature to improve communication and a huge amount of players want. Chat bubbles should be the top priority for the GUI team right now. If it isn't, then Bioware just doesn't have a clue what's important and what isn't and they will shoot themselves in the foot once again with their poor decision making if they don't deliver soon.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Glzmo

I do believe this was in the Live Stream Event.

 

I hope Chat Bubbles are something small that are being worked in... and not being put aside....

I haven't read more than the first page of this. Just to preface what I'm posting.

 

Part of why I rolled originally on a PvE server was because there weren't chat bubbles. I simply cannot have a cohesive role-play session without knowing who is talking and who isn't. Having to read the silly chat window, which I like to largely ignore, is a pain and reminds me of OLD days on Yahoo! chat or MUDs. This is 2012, have we not moved passed what 1990s technology allowed at this point? Seriously, Bioware, for being a company which has made a great number of stellar storyline games and it would seem that you put an emphasis on storyline, I do not understand how something like this wouldn't get implemented quicker as it allows the people themselves to develop the storyline further and thus have more invested in their character ... which means more subscription time potentially.

 

Please add togglable chat bubbles for the role-players.

I haven't read more than the first page of this. Just to preface what I'm posting.

 

Part of why I rolled originally on a PvE server was because there weren't chat bubbles. I simply cannot have a cohesive role-play session without knowing who is talking and who isn't. Having to read the silly chat window, which I like to largely ignore, is a pain and reminds me of OLD days on Yahoo! chat or MUDs. This is 2012, have we not moved passed what 1990s technology allowed at this point? Seriously, Bioware, for being a company which has made a great number of stellar storyline games and it would seem that you put an emphasis on storyline, I do not understand how something like this wouldn't get implemented quicker as it allows the people themselves to develop the storyline further and thus have more invested in their character ... which means more subscription time potentially.

 

Please add togglable chat bubbles for the role-players.

Exactly. Speech bubbles are a must have feature in an MMORPG like this. I don't understand how Bioware, EA and LucasArts don't understand that. Edited December 2, 2012 by Cave

Exactly. Speech bubbles are a must have feature in an MMORPG like this. I don't understand how Bioware, EA and LucasArts don't understand that.

Agreed. chat bubbles are vital for socializing, roleplay and communication in general. Without communication, there is no community.

 

Chat bubbles should be worked on right now and brought live in the next patch in time for Life Day. If not, I don't undersand what BiowarEA is thinking. One year of waiting is long enough.

 

Rrrrrrrrooooaaaaarrrrrrrr, the grumpy Wookiee has spoken.

Edited December 5, 2012 by Stubacca

Support this 100% as a RPer. We're coming in on the year anniversary now and still no ETA of them if they even are.

Hey everyone - I asked Lead Designer Damion Schubert if there are any new updates on this topic. We still do not have an ETA for the implementation of this feature, but we're definitely aware it's something players want. We did attempt a version of chat bubbles once, but they introduced some severe performance issues, and we'll need to address that before they can be implemented. Thanks for your patience!

 

As much as I crave Chat Bubbles, I certainly wouldn't want them at the cost of a significant slow down in game performance.

 

Thanks for the input, it's reassuring to know that the developers are aware of the players' concerns.

I came back to the game after a long stint warring with guilds part deux. They lost me by insisting on use of account names vs. character names, and zero RP server designation. It totally killed the RP, and ultimately was boring without the sense of community.

 

Though I have multiple 50’s on a server, when returning to SWTOR I rerolled on a RP server to take advantage of what seems to be a very robust community despite this missing feature. The game is great, stories are fun, but it’s the community that keeps a MMO alive. The RP community, if engaged, can be a steady source of support for years and years.

 

No chat bubbles is just silly at this point. Other games have this as a basic function, and don’t even list it as a feature. It is shocking to see something that was clearly a value add to the sustained player base just get brushed over for so long.

 

Please, before you add more junk to the cartel market, add chat bubbles...

 

Give me the option to PAY FOR CHAT BUBBLES. I would be happy to.

 

Give us the option to turn it on or off for frame rate.

 

Give us an ETA.

Hey everyone - I asked Lead Designer Damion Schubert if there are any new updates on this topic.

Thank you for your reply, Allison. First Bioware reply in the thread, I just wish we would have finally gotten some news on some progress.

We still do not have an ETA for the implementation of this feature, but we're definitely aware it's something players want. We did attempt a version of chat bubbles once, but they introduced some severe performance issues, and we'll need to address that before they can be implemented. Thanks for your patience!

Same old company line. Do you even want to implement them or is it just a holdout tactic to keep the poor roleplayers and socializers paying for the PVPers and PVEers?

 

It's also odd that you mention the performance issues. At the Guild Summit in February 2012 we were told the performance issues with chat bubbles had been fixed. Could you follow up on this?

 

Also, insane performance issues didn't stop you from implementing the "new" dynamic shadows (which beta testers know you just took from an earlier, unoptimized beta version unchanged - you could do the same with chat bubbles no sweat, why don't you?) Game Update 1.4 - first it was unplayable for Nvidia SLI users but fixed a month later, but players with AMD/ATi video cards in CrossfireX as well as Intel onboard cards still can't play the game because of unplayable framerates since 1.4. So "performance issues" aren't really an excuse anymore, since you ignored them with other features as well.

Plus, if there is a way to turn the chat bubbles on or off, everyone can decide themselves to turn them on or off for performance reasons, just like they can turn other features like nameplates, flytext, graphics options, GUI Elements and more on and off for performance reasons the way they like it.

So please make Mr. Schubert and company stop citing a non-issue and talk the truth for once.

 

Also, why isn't this top priority at this point? PVPers, PVErs get huge updates all the time, but RP and social players never get any even though we pay the same amount of money to you. Why are roleplayers second rate players to you? Is it because all the RPers and socializers are gone from the Bioware team now (Daniel Erickson and company)? Don't you understand how important chat bubbles are for us?

 

Chat Bubbles aren't just something we want. It's something a great many roleplayers and social players need to be able to enjoy the game and be motivated to pay for it. Is it that hard to understand, Mr. Schubert? Do you realize many players came back to give the game another chance and as they see there is no progress with chat bubbles, they are going to leave again? I'm sure you'd have hundreds if not thousands of more posts in support of this topic if free to players/preferred players were able to post on the forum. Do you really want to loose your customers? Prioritize chat bubbles to the top of the list. And if it's really still a performance issue (which it wasn't in beta on high end systems at all from what I remember), at least give us the inofficial, unsupported chat bubbles option from beta where you could turn them on via .ini file so those that have computers with enough power can at least turn them on from themselves and enjoy the game!

 

Us roleplayers and socializers have been incredibly patient and waited (and many of us kept paying you) loyally for over a year in good faith and gotten nothing but broken promises. We accepted that the implemntation of GUI features like the group finder, the GUI Editor and the Cartel Market took precedence to that of chat bubbles as it was for the greater good. But now our patience is over. Chat bubbles simply must be the next GUI feature implemented or you will loose many roleplayers and social players for good. Get your fingers out of your behinds, schedule chat bubbles as top priority for 1.7 or 1.8 and finally start working on implementing them and the engine issues and give us a true ETA. I don't think that's too much to ask. Heck, I'm pretty sure I've invested more time in this thread than all people from Bioware combined have invested into implementing chat bubbles and fixing any issues with them so far. And I'm not even getting paid for it - I pay for the game and post to finally get heard. Perhaps you high-paid "Bioware" aka EA employees should grow a spine and finally work on them. If you don't want to, just hire some capable programmers from the community and we'll gladly implement chat bubbles for you.

 

Sorry for the rant, Allison. You know that I've been polite and constructive. But enough is enough. You're just the messenger, and I don't blame you at all.

But Mr. Schubert, Mr. Hickman and all the other developers on their high horses need to finally do something, as it's simply unacceptable how they have handled this issue so far.

Edited December 5, 2012 by Glzmo

For every player that says it should be a priority, there's at least one player (like myself) that literally couldn't care less.

 

It's pretty much a guarantee that within an hour of implementing these, there will be about a hundred posts on "how do I turn these chat bubbles off" on the forums.

 

Want does not equal need. You *want* chat bubbles. This game doesn't have them. Your option is to make do with the chat options as exist or to find a game that has them.

 

Sorry to be so blunt, but .. really, with the memory leak issues, CTD issues, and other various gamebreaking (or nearly so) bugs, chat bubbles are and should remain near the bottom of the list for the devs to implement.

For every player that says it should be a priority, there's at least one player (like myself) that literally couldn't care less.

 

It's pretty much a guarantee that within an hour of implementing these, there will be about a hundred posts on "how do I turn these chat bubbles off" on the forums.

Sure. But it gives people a choice.

 

Want does not equal need. You *want* chat bubbles. This game doesn't have them. Your option is to make do with the chat options as exist or to find a game that has them.

People with certain impairments like myself do need them. Unfortunately, Star Wars Galaxies is no longer around (thanks to EA insisting on an exclusive Star Wars MMORPG contract) so TOR is our only hope.

 

Sorry to be so blunt, but .. really, with the memory leak issues, CTD issues, and other various gamebreaking (or nearly so) bugs, chat bubbles are and should remain near the bottom of the list for the devs to implement.

None of the examples you provided are likely concern the GUI team at all. Chat bubbles do. Different teams work on different things. Chat bubbles should be the top priority for the GUI team, not some inventory sorting mechanism. Edited December 5, 2012 by Stubacca

Hey everyone - I asked Lead Designer Damion Schubert if there are any new updates on this topic. We still do not have an ETA for the implementation of this feature, but we're definitely aware it's something players want. We did attempt a version of chat bubbles once, but they introduced some severe performance issues, and we'll need to address that before they can be implemented. Thanks for your patience!

 

In all hoensty I'm happy this isn't even on the "To Do" list. There a a lot of other things that need attention first.

In all hoensty I'm happy this isn't even on the "To Do" list. There a a lot of other things that need attention first.

I beg to differ. I doubt anything else on the to do list for the UI team should have higher priority than speech bubbles. Everything else that was really important UI wise has been implemented already, after all. And there are countless people that agree.

I beg to differ. I doubt anything else on the to do list for the UI team should have higher priority than speech bubbles. Everything else that was really important UI wise has been implemented already, after all. And there are countless people that agree.

 

Your perception is not the reality.

I beg to differ. I doubt anything else on the to do list for the UI team should have higher priority than speech bubbles. Everything else that was really important UI wise has been implemented already, after all. And there are countless people that agree.

 

I'll bite.

 

So speech bubbles are more important than the following UI issues:

 

Major:

No target of focus target.

Disappearing mouse cursor bug (present since 1.0)

Random UI lockups.

Splash screen loading on top of content at random times or when vent/mumble is run while alt-tabbed.

Failure to render companions, players, and most interactive content when logging in during peak times or high server load.

Disappearing UI when zoning.

FPS issues in warzones, on fleet, or when there are more than 15 players in the same place, even on high-end machines.

FPS Issues on Nvidia graphics cards.

 

Minor:

Poor optimization of lighting effects causing graphics card temps to rise (and fans to spin up) when viewing starmaps or character select screen with starmap in the background.

 

Cosmetic:

Lightsaber glitches.

Toggle hood.

Toggle companion unify colors.

Toggle companion headgear.

Female Bounty Hunter/Smuggler legs animation glitch.

 

Just to name a dozen or so.

 

Good to know chat bubbles are more important than people's ability to play the game without knowing workarounds or constantly having to reset UI every twenty minutes.

I'll bite.

 

So speech bubbles are more important than the following UI issues:

 

Major:

No target of focus target.

Disappearing mouse cursor bug (present since 1.0)

Random UI lockups.

Splash screen loading on top of content at random times or when vent/mumble is run while alt-tabbed.

Failure to render companions, players, and most interactive content when logging in during peak times or high server load.

Disappearing UI when zoning.

FPS issues in warzones, on fleet, or when there are more than 15 players in the same place, even on high-end machines.

FPS Issues on Nvidia graphics cards.

 

Minor:

Poor optimization of lighting effects causing graphics card temps to rise (and fans to spin up) when viewing starmaps or character select screen with starmap in the background.

 

Cosmetic:

Lightsaber glitches.

Toggle hood.

Toggle companion unify colors.

Toggle companion headgear.

Female Bounty Hunter/Smuggler legs animation glitch.

 

Just to name a dozen or so.

 

Good to know chat bubbles are more important than people's ability to play the game without knowing workarounds or constantly having to reset UI every twenty minutes.

 

Yes.

 

Alot of what you mentioned are glitches, most have work arounds and as far as FPS issues, i dont see much of that anywhere outside of fleet.

 

Lack of chat Bubbles affects the community negativly. RP is a form of entertainment that will hold subs and does require constant content updates.

 

Think about three aspects that need to be address, RP, PVE and PvP.

 

If Bioware fails the RP community they are going to lose those subs.

Edited December 6, 2012 by kirorx

Hey everyone - I asked Lead Designer Damion Schubert if there are any new updates on this topic. We still do not have an ETA for the implementation of this feature, but we're definitely aware it's something players want. We did attempt a version of chat bubbles once, but they introduced some severe performance issues, and we'll need to address that before they can be implemented. Thanks for your patience!

 

 

Very disappointing. Especially considering we were once told that the performance issues had been solved?

Edited December 6, 2012 by Strife

Very disappointing. Especially considering we were once told that the performance issues had been solved?

 

That never happened.

That never happened.

 

 

The original post alludes to it: (kinda sorta, in Bioware's double speak don't hold it to us sort of way)

 

March 5th 2012: STAR WARS: The Old Republic - Guild Summit 2012 Roleplaying Panel

Bioware's new Lead Designer Daniel Erickson confirmed on the topic "The future of roleplaying" that chat bubbles are indeed coming and issues with chat bubbles having a negative effect on performance have been resolved: "Chat bubbles...yeah, chat bubbles. *bows his head in shame while applause roars through the room* So...this is...this is one of those weird...like... *sigh* ... there are things that you can always tell from our faces when we talk about it. There are things that are just kind of embarassing. Like we had chat bubbles in the game and for whatever reason there was a really strange technical... thing... with the chat bubbles that they totally dragged the performance of the game down. [takes a deep breath] We were like "chat bubbles...really? That's what's doing it?!" And you know, a tech came over and turned off the chat bubbles and framerate went way up and we were like "Oh god, okay." So...uh. [b]We think we've got that worked out though. So chat bubbles: YES!"[/b]

 

 

Of course that guy is now gone, along with most of the dev team it seems. Are chat bubbles the most important thing this game needs, lol no. The list of what this game needs is longer than Paris Hiltons sexual partners. But they are a very, very basic part of every single MMO I've ever played, and to not have them a year after lauch seems rather, well lazy on Biowares part. But then again, the only company that is slower at putting out new updates is Blizzard. We knew ToR was a WoW clone, but they didn't have to copy it in that aspect as well.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Strife

As a representative for a small portion of the community (you don't have to admit that I'm speaking for you, in fact I invite you to denounce my opinion for disagreeing with you) , I do have a responsibility to let others know that the whole idea of speech bubble is pretty "meh"

For every player that says it should be a priority, there's at least one player (like myself) that literally couldn't care less.

 

It's pretty much a guarantee that within an hour of implementing these, there will be about a hundred posts on "how do I turn these chat bubbles off" on the forums.

 

Want does not equal need. You *want* chat bubbles. This game doesn't have them. Your option is to make do with the chat options as exist or to find a game that has them.

 

Sorry to be so blunt, but .. really, with the memory leak issues, CTD issues, and other various gamebreaking (or nearly so) bugs, chat bubbles are and should remain near the bottom of the list for the devs to implement.

 

I feel exactly the same about warzones. I have no interest in pvp, I have never done a warzone and I could not care less whether pvp is in the game or not.

 

However, I do appreciate that many, many players want them. They don't NEED new warzones, but they WANT them, so I fully support the fact that developers spend time working on things which those players will appreciate.

I feel exactly the same about warzones. I have no interest in pvp, I have never done a warzone and I could not care less whether pvp is in the game or not.

 

However, I do appreciate that many, many players want them. They don't NEED new warzones, but they WANT them, so I fully support the fact that developers spend time working on things which those players will appreciate.

Indeed. At least PVPers have their basics there and some warzones already. Not having chat bubbles for roleplayers and socializers is as if there were no warzones in this game for PVPers. RP/Socializing tools are lagging far behind compared to PVE and PVP tools in this game. They need to be brought up to par so all three aspects, RP, socializing, PVE and PVP are on the same level. Chat bubbles are a good stride to close that gap, and they are useful for PVEers and PVPers as well. Just imagine if you could actually see your groupmate asking for a heal in an Operation or Warzone via overhead chat bubble while you could keep focusing on the action on the screen and don't have time to look at the chat window...it would make things so much easier and more fun for us healers. Chat bubbles are an incredibly useful tool and they should be a top priority feature to implement, as all aspects will benefit (and those that don't like them could still turn them off while benefitting from the better comfort their groupmates that like to use them have when playing the game and thus be more efficient). Edited December 6, 2012 by Stubacca