Illarion.org

For many things, we get text bubbles that give information about, what someone thinks, says or how they attack. all needed. But do they need to be given over our characters and in black background so we can't see though them? Please move them to the side, or make them opaque. Some menus already background so you can see though them, why not the ones that cover your character? The ones that will let you see if you or your foe lives or dies?

Very valid point. Please, someone should file a Mantis ticket on the opacity. Please give the desired value in %. I would prefer this to be a user setting with one value for all GUI elements.

There is already a ticket for this on Mantis.

edit: http://illarion.org/mantis/view.php?id=7471

But it is not about opacity .

Disregard that then.

I had assumed the last one I mentioned i.e. the "inform" text http://illarion.org/mantis/view.php?id=7471 was partially transparent since it is barely seen. If not, it is a good alternative for transparency.

http://i.imgur.com/er8FDkh.jpg

Obsydien wrote:http://i.imgur.com/er8FDkh.jpg

Exactly!!!
Trying to fight multiple monsters at once, being unable to see them to target the next. Wondering if they are being hurt fast enough to win or if I need to run.
It doesn't even have to be one large text to interfere. It can cover all the space with many small ones too.
If they could be moved to the side or made transparent, we could still enjoy the added "feel" they add without Ruining our gameplay.
Certain messages, like when I enter town, comes up. But these are just text, without the blacked out boxes. Why can't all messages be this way?

they are really unpleasant sometimes

may be:
due to the fact that the text of the bubbles can also be read in the chat box
the "lenght of time" of these bubbles should be reduced
so that they dont hinder any action

Möglichkeit (?)
da der Text der Sprechblasen auch in der Chatbox zu lesen ist
könnte man die Anzeigedauer der Textblasen vielleicht reduzieren
sodaß sie weitere Aktionen nicht behindern.

As I intent to tackle this problem with the next update, this needs some additional ideas.

The problem with the speech bubbles is basically the fact that they are there.
Now the easiest solution is actually to get rid of them all together and limit the chat and information output to the chat box. That would surely clean up the screen and actually no informations get missing by doing so. The chat box shows the text anyway. It shows it as long as required. It shows it along with the character who spoke it. There are no informations missing.

Is that actually a option? Or do we really require those speech bubbles. I know they have been around since the beginning of Illarion. But we changed that much, why not question those too?

Nitram

They do more harm than good. Get rid of them. Now that we have the naming back there is no need for them.

I agree with Jupiter.

Jupiter is right for a change. We can name people "rat stomper" and know them forever!

I vote to get rid of them.

Hi Nitram, why not just add an option, so that the player himself can decide, what he wants. E.g. something like "bubbleDisplayTime" in seconds. 0 = no bubbles.

option sounds good but if its easier to get rid of em...just get rid of them

Having never taken advantage of any chat bubble preferring to look at the chat screen I would say get rid of it totally or give an option if some wish. My theory is the chat bubbles are required for non-roleplay games since some people close out chat and don't use it however for a roleplay game that relies heavily on the chat screen to be part of the game, it seems an integral part of playing and the bubbles aren't necessary.

One advantage of the bubbles is, that one can recognize who has spoken what in case one does not know the other chars. Another point is, if the bubbles are displayed correctly, one could recognize the direction, from where the spoken (or shouted) statements come from. Adding an option is an easy thing. the effort can be minimized, if that option simply would be added to an illarion.options file.

I would really like to keep the amount of options as limited as possible.

So either the bubbles get changed or removed. Removing them as a option is imo not a option.

But Ragorn has a valid point. The direction information goes missing. Is it maybe a option to make the entries in the chat log sensetive to mouse over events and highlight the char or a direction marker the text originated from?

As for changing the bubbles. There is always the option to remove the background of the bubbles and use a font with a dark outline. This may improve things too.

Nitram

Hm with the new naming system it is possible to give all "Someones" a letter or whatever sign you like so you can see who spoke what. But if we need to keep the bubbles for that, maybe it would be possible to make em appear just a shorter amount of time (like a second or two) and the transparent bubble would be an improvement too. Or maybe no bubbles for Npcs, cause it is mainly annoying when ye deal with several monsters and they all spam their actions on the screen same problem when you stand near to an npc and talk to someone else, they keep spamming the chat and the screen.

Is it possible to have the bubbles only shown, and indicating the direction, if the character who said something is not in your seeing range?

The real problem with the text bubbles is that they conceal the character name and HP display. Maybe a solution would be to move that display onto the avatar body instead of over the head. Or maybe a mouse over on the character could be added for that information. Then the bubbles could remain and continue giving the information they give without interfering the way they do now though transparency would be good along with a shorter display time.

I think removing the bubbles entirely for the NPCs is a fantastic idea. Personally, I don't think we need the automated emotes displayed either. In the case of PvP, maybe those emotes could be the blue invisible ones displayed only for the combatants.

Why are options bad? We like options.

I like Nitram's suggestion of removing the background of speech bubbles and outlining the words. This might be a satisfying solution for us all!

As long as we can tell who is speaking without having huge speech bubbles, I'm game.

Okay so here is the first plan:

• I'll implement the speech bubbles without background and with a outlined font.
• I'll make the text fade out to near invisible on mouse over and have them be transparent to all mouse actions
• I'll shorten the display time of the emotes a little
• I'll try to have the emotes move relative to the map (so if you walk the text stays at the character who spoke the text)
• I'll prevent some of the overlapping by limiting the text of each character to one. So if a character says something new the old bubble is removed and a new one is placed.

Once I am done with this, I perform a client update. Than we try it like this, see if its better or not and what to do from there.

Nitram

Sounds good.

i agree with Evie -> sounds good

Sounds good to me also!

Nitram wrote:Okay so here is the first plan:

• I'll implement the speech bubbles without background and with a outlined font.
• I'll make the text fade out to near invisible on mouse over and have them be transparent to all mouse actions
• I'll shorten the display time of the emotes a little
• I'll try to have the emotes move relative to the map (so if you walk the text stays at the character who spoke the text)
• I'll prevent some of the overlapping by limiting the text of each character to one. So if a character says something new the old bubble is removed and a new one is placed.

Once I am done with this, I perform a client update. Than we try it like this, see if its better or not and what to do from there.

Nitram

This sounds PERFECT! Thank you Nitram.