30 replies to this topic

[WarPig AU]

I just started playing MWO recently.
I think it's a good game and has great potential to realize the scope of the Battletech universe.

However I have been spoilt recently when I played the Battlefield 4 Beta.
Why?
Their integrated VOIP solution was awesome.

You join a server.
Get allocated to a squad (Lance in MWO terms).
Start talking to your squad.

If your squad changes you don't have to do anything but talk to your new squad mates.

From a usability point of view, the user didn't have to install anything or find a VOIP server.
There was NO interaction from the user what so ever besides joining the server.

I was very impressed.

I hope if the devs get some time, when BF4 is released, that they have a good hard look at the way the VOIP is set up.
MWO could sure use a solution like the one I experienced in the BF4 beta.

[Coldron]

Bump.
OP has all the questions i have too.
So where is Voip??

[AntharPrime]

Yeah the Battlefield series had this back in BF2 also but it went missing in BF3 and the fans complained about it to no end so it's back in BF4. Their system of in game VOIP and the commo-rose is by far the best in game communication I have seen in games ever. All games should be emulating BF's communication functionality.

As far as PGI is concerned it is not even on their radar.

Edited by AntharPrime, 23 March 2014 - 06:26 PM.

[Triordinant]

Integrated VOIP will probably improve the new player experience more than anything else.

[Jon Gotham]

OP, if you were already in a group would you be automatically assigned with your group?
Would the team chat butt in on lance chat? (BIG issue with that)
And what happens when you leave the match? Do you automatically join a clan server upon exit?
Could you still be in a clan server whilst in game? Or were you locked into voip for that game?
How easy was it to mute people?

I'm not sure I like the "automatic" part of this, I like to have a little bit of control of whom I speak with. If I'm forced to listen to random people talking over each other, I daresay mine and many other people's enjoyment of the game will plummet like a stone:(
I don't like voip being forced onto me with either use it or gimp yourself being the options.
Looking forward to your responses!

[AntharPrime]

kamiko kross, on 24 March 2014 - 08:12 AM, said:

OP, if you were already in a group would you be automatically assigned with your group?
Would the team chat butt in on lance chat? (BIG issue with that)
And what happens when you leave the match? Do you automatically join a clan server upon exit?
Could you still be in a clan server whilst in game? Or were you locked into voip for that game?
How easy was it to mute people?

I'm not sure I like the "automatic" part of this, I like to have a little bit of control of whom I speak with. If I'm forced to listen to random people talking over each other, I daresay mine and many other people's enjoyment of the game will plummet like a stone:(
I don't like voip being forced onto me with either use it or gimp yourself being the options.
Looking forward to your responses!

Well BF2 had all those options 10 years ago. When you dropped, you could only speak to your own squad, the squad leader could speak to the commander and the commander could speak to everyone on their own team.

If there was someone being annoying in chat you could just tab over to the player list and click on a mute box next to their name and you didn't have to listen to them anymore. If the annoying person is the commander you could instigate a mutiny vote and your team could kick the player from the commander role.

As an added feature, third party TS style programs were not allowed and kicked a player from the game if they were running it at the same time so players could not drop with the enemy and commit team treason buy leading his team to be ambushed by his TS friends. Something that is happening in MW right now.

[Jon Gotham]

What about when you came out of a match? Was there clan chat?

[AntharPrime]

kamiko kross, on 24 March 2014 - 01:40 PM, said:

What about when you came out of a match? Was there clan chat?

They didn't have that directly as part of the VOIP system, they had the servers hostied by different clans. You signed up on the clan's private website in order to access some servers while others either had full public or semi-private servers. My favorite servers were TBG (TrueBornGamers). They kept a close watch for hackers and were quick to ban them when they were found and they were a relaxed bunch of gamers that were very enjoyable to drop with.

[Jon Gotham]

Hmm sounds ok I guess. I'm just wary voip would be catered far too much to the solo crowd. A great many people have spent time and effort getting ts servers up (many their own money) and built small communities up.
If voip was put into the game the wrong way i.e forced chat in games-cutting out clan/unit chatter that would be a serious problem. This game and the premise of CW is built around units and teams-not solo casual players.

As long as there was clan/unit chat and this was not overiden by in game chat that sounds ok:)


*edit* thanks for the responses-appreciated

Edited by kamiko kross, 24 March 2014 - 03:11 PM.

[AntharPrime]

kamiko kross, on 24 March 2014 - 03:11 PM, said:

Hmm sounds ok I guess. I'm just wary voip would be catered far too much to the solo crowd. A great many people have spent time and effort getting ts servers up (many their own money) and built small communities up.
If voip was put into the game the wrong way i.e forced chat in games-cutting out clan/unit chatter that would be a serious problem. This game and the premise of CW is built around units and teams-not solo casual players.

As long as there was clan/unit chat and this was not overiden by in game chat that sounds ok:)


*edit* thanks for the responses-appreciated

It would work just as well for groups dropping together and the matchmaker could be geared to drop players together from the same faction.

[Dawnstealer]

kamiko kross, on 24 March 2014 - 08:12 AM, said:

OP, if you were already in a group would you be automatically assigned with your group?
Would the team chat butt in on lance chat? (BIG issue with that)
And what happens when you leave the match? Do you automatically join a clan server upon exit?
Could you still be in a clan server whilst in game? Or were you locked into voip for that game?
How easy was it to mute people?

I'm not sure I like the "automatic" part of this, I like to have a little bit of control of whom I speak with. If I'm forced to listen to random people talking over each other, I daresay mine and many other people's enjoyment of the game will plummet like a stone:(
I don't like voip being forced onto me with either use it or gimp yourself being the options.
Looking forward to your responses!

This is a good point - I can think of a few games where some horrible player got killed in the first two minutes and then spent the next 15 minutes of a tight game blasting out obscenities and calling everyone "n00bs" for the duration of the time (after doing zero damage....seriously). Could you imagine having that screaming in your ear for twelve minutes of a game?

If I group up with someone? Sure - VOIP's awesome because I know the people and like playing with them. With the aforementioned PUG drop? No thanks.

[AntharPrime]

Dawnstealer, on 28 March 2014 - 12:25 PM, said:

This is a good point - I can think of a few games where some horrible player got killed in the first two minutes and then spent the next 15 minutes of a tight game blasting out obscenities and calling everyone "n00bs" for the duration of the time (after doing zero damage....seriously). Could you imagine having that screaming in your ear for twelve minutes of a game?

If I group up with someone? Sure - VOIP's awesome because I know the people and like playing with them. With the aforementioned PUG drop? No thanks.

Just to show you that you didn't read this from a post a few posts up.

AntharPrime, on 24 March 2014 - 11:40 AM, said:

If there was someone being annoying in chat you could just tab over to the player list and click on a mute box next to their name and you didn't have to listen to them anymore. If the annoying person is the commander you could instigate a mutiny vote and your team could kick the player from the commander role.

[Jon Gotham]

AntharPrime, on 28 March 2014 - 12:21 PM, said:

It would work just as well for groups dropping together and the matchmaker could be geared to drop players together from the same faction.

Sounds ok, but I think I'd be wanting more control over it. I have had voip experiences before in games that had it built in and not one of them was a nice experience:(
any form of automatic would not really be welcome from me at least. I don't want Joe Random cutting my personal chatter off with my friends, or cutting through chatter in our clan channel. Trouble is, if you have to keep filtering this out so you can talk to your friends.....you then might miss out on something important that happens in match. So either use the built in voip so you don't gimp in match comms and lose out potentially on your social chatter, or cut out the in game chatter so you can chat socially and and gimp yourself in match.....
This is the crux of the issue for a lot of us. A lot of the casual players want voip so they can benefit from being in a group-but they do not or will not actually join a group like we did, yet they want the benefit of enhanced comms. But how they want it implemented could potentially mess up the social end of what voip users currently have if executed poorly.
But that seems to be ok with them.....
PGi have a choice either cater to those who can't or won't group and stuff people who have made the effort or cater to those who have grouped up and leave the solo casuals out in the cold.
Neither of those is acceptable. How to solve?

[Bobzilla]

It would just have a toggle, so if you wanted to only talk/hear your group on TS you could. Or if you wanted nothing to do with it, just turn it off. There is no reason to not have it, and lots of reasons to have it.

If they actually implement true faction loyalty in cw (only dropping with your faction), and not allow opposite sides to chat, VoIP would facilitate community building and deter bad behaviour, as you would see the same people more often.

They would also have to separate dead from alive.

I also find most, like kamico, are worried about losing their 'benifit of advanced comms'. As the biggest factor in premades success is comms, they could relax the group size restrictions especially with the 3/3/3/3. The only significant difference between a 12 man PM and 12 puggers with VoIP is preparation.

[Ryoken]

WarPig AU, on 18 October 2013 - 08:37 PM, said:

You join a server.
Get allocated to a squad (Lance in MWO terms).
Start talking to your squad.

1. Ask other Players to befriend you ingame
2. Form a platoon
3. Enter free Dropship TS on NGNG

ah wait... that is to complicated...

Edited by Ryoken, 30 March 2014 - 06:35 AM.

[Bobzilla]

Friending every player, at different times, across different elo's, then get ts, tell them to get ts, drop once. Some people only play short times here and there, so while 3rd party VoIP can be used, it's extremely inefficient to casual players, you know, the majority.

In a game that boasts role warfare and community warfare, the 20 year old friend list with no other social aspects is a joke. They should be proud of things in this game, but should be completely ashamed in regards to the void of anything social.

[Jon Gotham]

Bobzilla, on 29 March 2014 - 03:05 PM, said:

It would just have a toggle, so if you wanted to only talk/hear your group on TS you could. Or if you wanted nothing to do with it, just turn it off. There is no reason to not have it, and lots of reasons to have it.

If they actually implement true faction loyalty in cw (only dropping with your faction), and not allow opposite sides to chat, VoIP would facilitate community building and deter bad behaviour, as you would see the same people more often.

They would also have to separate dead from alive.

I also find most, like kamico, are worried about losing their 'benifit of advanced comms'. As the biggest factor in premades success is comms, they could relax the group size restrictions especially with the 3/3/3/3. The only significant difference between a 12 man PM and 12 puggers with VoIP is preparation.

Actually Bobzilla, I do not fear losing my "edge" at all. I'd like it to be fair across the board. However, in game voip "could" screw up MY social chatter with my friends if implemented incorrectly. What was originally put up on this thread would allow joe random to talk over my PRIVATE chatter with my friends.
It also has the potential to chip away at established groups ability to stay as a group-if you are forced to "mingle" with solo casuals and your group's chatter can be overidden with built in voip.
Also would in game voip actually help that much when half the people screaming for it find the idea of using TS (a VOIP client...) and joining a clan (a group of people on voip usually....) so abhorrent?
They want to have the benefits of talking over voice comms, being organised and being more social yet don't want to join a unit and be more organised and more social.....

No difference except one requires less effort on the part of the player. I'm sorry to be so inflammatory, but I did take some umbridge to parts of your two posts subtly stating that solos are the majority so they should get what they want over anyone else.
I would like to see a level and even playing field as to voice comms but it simply CANNOT give preference to one group over another, that simple. It may be self righteous to say, and I apologise if my next statement offends anyone but.....
One of these groups has actually taken steps to alleviate the lack of voip issue-why should they play second fiddle?

[Morang]

kamiko kross, on 30 March 2014 - 11:57 AM, said:

However, in game voip "could" screw up MY social chatter with my friends if implemented incorrectly. What was originally put up on this thread would allow joe random to talk over my PRIVATE chatter with my friends. It also has the potential to chip away at established groups ability to stay as a group-if you are forced to "mingle" with solo casuals and your group's chatter can be overidden with built in voip.

If you don't want to use in-game voice chat, nothing must change for you. I'm all for built-in voice chat - but only if it can be muted. PGI should make separate volume control for Voice in options. So if you have a premade lance and don't want to hear PUGs - mute in-game voice and keep using TS. Nothing changes for you.

Ideally, you should also be able to do this in-game (allow built-in "group voice only" when running in a group), but PGI is far from ideal game designer. A single slider for additional volume control, however, they can do, like they did for Music.

Quote

Also would in game voip actually help that much when half the people screaming for it find the idea of using TS (a VOIP client...) and joining a clan (a group of people on voip usually....) so abhorrent?
They want to have the benefits of talking over voice comms, being organised and being more social yet don't want to join a unit and be more organised and more social.....

Being a member of established group and dropping with them and being able to communicate with random people with whom you are grouped by the matchmaker is different things.

Quote

No difference except one requires less effort on the part of the player.

There is a difference. Voice chat with random players allows to communicate with unknown people on equal grounds, to communicate just for gaming purposes without bonding and being social if you don't want to (yes, there no mistake: I just said "to communicate without being social"). Also it is well known that solutions requiring less effort are more popular. You shouldn't blame people for their nature, especially when there's only video game in question.

[Bobzilla]

Sorry to upset you, but in your own post you state it should be level and even playing field, but it isn't, and you know it. Then go on to say you shouldn't have to play second fiddle, while currently the majority is. And yes, they should give the majority what they want, it's a no-brainer. How they do it should be a compromise, in this case having an off option. I'm not able to play currently more than one or two quick matches at very random times. I don't want to waste time waiting for other people to organize before I play, I just want to drop. I will have time in the future to join a social community, and would very much like to, but currently I don't even have time to dedicate drops with RL friends.

[Jon Gotham]

I think then the previous two posters, we'll have to agree to disagree.
Give the majority what they want, spoil the chat options for groups and watch them walk over time.
Or face 12 man premades ALL DAY LONG.
If you genuinely can't group up then ok fine, but if it's because you can't be bothered I do have big problems with you being "catered to."

As long as voip inclusion does not erode established groups away then it's all good. single player forced voip drops are many people's idea of utter hell. My own gaming history reinforces this idea for me. In EVERY online game I have played where in built voip is present, it has NEVER been used......communities have always used ventrilo, ts, mumble etc....

Force people to listen to joe random and watch em walk-along with their wallets.