Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

whatsittoya wrote: ↑Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:25 am I'm behind this as a reason for the dots not breaking immersion but aiding in it.

I understand where you are coming from. From my perspective, however, floating dots over a character's head disjoints me from the setting, and it makes the "my character lives and interacts with other characters in Faerûn" notion feel more like a chatroom between the players themselves.

Hence why I would prefer the ability to opt out of it, at least for a player's local client. If other people can see your dots and others' dots from their screen, they can, but I do not want to. Perhaps this can be done with the override folder and a blank image?

This is the current method by which you can opt out:

Endelyon wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 10:01 pm If you switch to the "Whisper" channel (clicking the W on the left) it will suppress the speech dots. This way you can /w to whisper, or even /t to send tells. As long as you're in the W channel the dots won't show.

But Endelyon is looking into other options (particularly for disabling them automatically when a post starts with / for a whisper or tell).

Was it tested with Sneaking and Invisible characters?
Do those dots still appear?

didn't think you would 'talk' while in stealth anyway cuz then people know where you are anyway, follow the voice to the owner.

I rather like it, lets people know that you are talking in events to not just assume your following and miss on what you said, or even if someones even reacting to you and not sitting there for 20min for them to not reply cuz afk ninja'ed

I really like it. Being a bit of a spammer myself, it's a nice indication that some one is articulating a response and i should slow down a bit. Only problem i have is that any channel you type in will trigger it, meaning some one next to you reponding to tells will trigger it too and that does make me stop for no reason at times.

But overall its really nice and subtle enough that it doesnt effect immersion either.

Maybe if its possible to only make it effect say and whisper channels, it could be improved upon.

Edit: obviously didnt read through the topic prior to posting. I would still like to see what Maecius is refering to though, so that all the popular people around me in /tell hell dont make me feel so lonely

I can't say enough good things about it. I don't find it immersion-breaking at all, and instead find it more immersive. I agree with what Planehopper said:

Planehopper wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:27 am It may sort of make up for the loss of body language cues you'd have in real life.

This is the game feature I didn't know I was missing.

Its a nice feature that most are happy with. If there is a way to toggle it on/off then everyone would be happy. I d rather have it than not though

Im just curious here, if its intentional it shouldnt trigger from whisper chat?

Nitpicking obviously, but in an ideal world it would only be excluded from / commands and would serve as others have stated, like a compensation for body language. Im a big fan of people emoting they are whispering or engaged in a more private conversation, so you dont have to be the awkward third wheel or just stand there ignorantly. A minor detail perhaps, but is it intended to be displayed on whisper chat too eventually, or whats the thought process behind the extend of its application?

I like it, though now people can see how long I take to make up bad rhymes or hopefully clever replies. Jokes aside though, it is very helpful to know when people are busy typing and not just afk.

As a sidenote, it also appears when people are writing tells to other people. Not sure if that is intentional or not.

My honest opinion on this is that it seemed a grand idea thinking about it outside of game- to be able to know when someone is talking so you don’t keep writing over them.

Then I logged in last night, and found all the little dots everywhere so distracting and immersion shattering that I stayed on maybe twenty minutes tops. I suddenly felt like I was in a discord channel with graphics, and it completely kept me from being able to maintain my character, as well as added a certain level of anxiety for when I inevitably have to stop, rethink my post, self edit or change what I’ve said- there are now people standing there expecting me to say *something*.

I get why it’s, in thought, a nice little feature- but the reality of it just wasn’t something I could tolerate. Not only do I see mine, I see everyone’s, even from people halfway across the map I should have no idea are talking. That just turns BG into a giant chat room.

Sorry, after experiencing it, I’m just not a fan at all. It wrecked my experience last night.

Whenever I need time to compose a response, I utilize a Macro I have setup that, particular to the/my PC, chats: *he pauses for a moment, then responds...*. One click and it buys me time to respond.

99% of the time, that gives others the "clue" that more text is forthcoming from my PC.

I personally like the concept, but don't like seeing floating dots all over the place.

Speaking of the Macros, it would be GREAT if the pages for Macros could be fixed, so we're not limited to only 6 Macros per PC.

My 2 cents. Cheers (and thanks for the general "let's make the Server better" ideas).

from my 2 days experience its been great.

i tend to stay and wait for the floating dots rather than just leave someone not knowing they will reply.
it makes me having a little patience to wait(im a hasty person)
and use the W chat when i dont want people to see me send tell.

that wouldn't work... The people that don't like it will opt out, but be annoyed other folks have it popping up on their screen while the people that do like it will be annoyed they can't tell if the people that opt out are typing.

I haven't been in game so can't comment, but Fury brings up what would be my fear. That it sounds good in theory, but in practice can make for a worse overall gaming experience when in large groups. In addition, the reverse issue that this is trying to solve can happen. Someone might start typing, see the other person is typing and stop...the other person stops as well, awaiting the response from the other and it ends up delaying the overall RP progression of the conversation.

My statements shouldn't be considered as I haven't been in game to see it in practice, just theorizing here...

Yeah, unfortunately an opt-out to SEE the dots isn't possible. An opt-out for HAVING them above yourself is possible (though really, this already exists by using the W channel. We can make it a convenient button toggle or something like that though if people want it). You'll still see the dots on everyone who has them on, though. Like most things, some people will love it, some people will hate it, that's why I wanted everyone's feedback.

Judging from what I've heard so far this one will probably stay (in fact, speaking candidly based on the buzz I've seen among other server admins I doubt there will be a PW in all of NWN2 that doesn't utilize this feature now), but I'll give it a few more days (weeks?) for feedback to see if people don't discover unforeseen problems with it.

chambordini wrote: ↑Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:34 pmwhat is possible but not quite the point I think, is opting out of the vfx showing on your own character.

No, this is entirely the point. I want people to know that I've typed a message after I do so and hit enter, and not a moment before then. I'm 'manually' opting out right now by exclusively using the CE to type, but that's annoying and it would be nice if I didn't have to.

Having to see all sorts of floating dots is dumb, be the core of the issue is controlling the information being put forward about what you're doing.