68 replies to this topic

[Solahma]

As many of you have heard, Voip Is Coming

As a more direct response thread to Russ's request: He asks for community opinions on how VOIP should work.

Quote

15:10 Russ likes the idea that VOIP would only work between people who dropped together (the 1-4 people who drop together), might be a good idea though to have a lance channel and a company channel. But what works in other games, might not work for mechwarrior. He asks for community opinions on how VOIP should work.
-taken from Peiper's Podcast #108 Summary

Let's try to limit this thread to suggestions only instead of general discussion and opinions about voip.

I'll attempt to add everyone's unique ideas to this OP for easy visibility.

Again, please limit your posts to: Suggestions and constructive critisism of eachother's ideas.
The "Voip Is Coming" thread is the best for other comments regarding VOIP in MWO.

SUGGESTION #1
-Seperate channels to speak to Lance only and Company only.
-Option to mute individual players.
-Option to completely turn off VOIP via settings persistent toggle

SUGGESTION #2
-Push to talk only, no open mics.
-Icon next to player on team list when speaking
-Icon above mech when player is speaking
-No ability to speak to enemy team

SUGGESTION #3
-Single voip channel for each team
-Everyone can speak
-Everyone can be muted individually

SUGGESTION #4
-Dead players cannot use voip. They can text chat only.
-Icon on HUD that indicates what player is speaking and what coordinate they are located.

SUGGESTION #5
-Start with a single voip for each team. If necessary, add a lance-only option at a later time.

SUGGESTION #6
-Increase immersion by adding a mechanic that allows ECM and PPCs to disable voip
-add a transmission range to voip between players with added range for light mechs

Edited by Solahma, 15 April 2014 - 08:11 PM.

[Flying Blind]

if they don't make it so you can talk to your whole team no matter what the grouping is then what is the point of having it? I would like there to be lance, company and group channels but so long as I can talk to everyone on the team and have the ability to mute anyone who decides to sing at me or be otherwise obnoxious I'm happy.

the mute option should be by individual so I don't have to turn off all voip just to shut up one guy. if I want to turn it all off then that should be an option too.

Edited by Flying Blind, 15 April 2014 - 10:42 AM.

[Joseph Mallan]

It should work like TS so we don't have to muck around with it!

[Solahma]

I'm a supporter of seperate VOIP channels for Lance and Company as well, but I would take it a step farther and default players to Lance Only VOIP. Lance Commander would have another channel and key to speak with the rest of the team.

Another option is to include a more detailed Chain of Cammand (CoC) that would have the following restrictions:
-Regular player: Lance voip only (BLUE INDICATOR)
-Lance commander: Lance voip, and voip between the other two lance commanders (GREEN INDICATOR)
-Company commander: Lance voip, voip between the other two lance commanders, and company-wide voip. (YELLOW INDICATOR)

This would add a lot of incentive to take up the leadership possitions as keep the airwaves from getting too cluttered with mic-spam. Communication would be very controls and limited.

I also agree that there should be a mute option for individual players as well as a setting toggle to switch voip off completely.

Dead players should have voip deactivated as soon as their mech is destroyed (to avoid potential whining as well as general commentary) there is not reason to have dead players talking, they can type what they want at that point. I understand it could be an aid to the team if they are contributing help, but it would clutter the airwaves with their "usefull input"

Joseph Mallan, on 15 April 2014 - 10:54 AM, said:

It should work like TS so we don't have to muck around with it!

could you ellaborate?

[Mechteric]

- Push to talk should be required (no voice activated comms)
- When talking, an icon should be visible not only in the pilot list in the HUD but also above their mech in the field
- Players should not have the ability to voice chat with their enemy

[Solahma]

CapperDeluxe, on 15 April 2014 - 10:58 AM, said:

- Push to talk should be required (no voice activated comms)
- When talking, an icon should be visible not only in the pilot list in the HUD but also above their mech in the field
- Players should not have the ability to voice chat with their enemy

Great points.

[Joseph Mallan]

Solahma have you used TS Comms?

[Adiuvo]

Limiting voice comms to whoever manages to click the commander button first is a horrid idea. If some idiot takes company command, then what? A drop commander structure isn't necessarily the best either.

VOIP needs to be available to all members of a team and come with an easy to use mute function, such as pressing tab and then clicking a person name. Mute cannot be buried in menus, first and foremost.

[Effectz]

Select names in the tab scoreboard,right-click name to mute a player who's using the Mic to grief,and have an icon somewhere on the Hud showing who is talking,push to talk button.

Edited by Effectz, 15 April 2014 - 11:02 AM.

[Creovex]

Simple: Team and/or Lance only

This isn't some game where we need to VOIP the other team. Yeah it's cool in Planetside 2 to hear people near you but at the same time, this is 12 people (per side), all in cockpits.

Edited by Creovex, 15 April 2014 - 11:02 AM.

[Solahma]

Joseph Mallan, on 15 April 2014 - 10:59 AM, said:

Solahma have you used TS Comms?

I use TS every time I play. I'm just confused by how you want it to work. Please explain and don't assume everyone knows what your idea is.

I can assume many things from your idea:
-There could be an in-game channel network. Exactly like TS, but in-game.
-It could be a completely open voip where anyone can say anything anywhere with individual contorling options, channels, and admins

I just don't know what you are suggesting.

[FelixBlucher]

A blacklist would be great, maybe a thumb up or down button for each player. If a person is well liked, then one person down voting them should not affect them very much. If a person is regularly down voted, then they could have the following happen:
1. Have an automated time out based on their negative votes. Like 13 negative votes equals 3 days on the blacklist. Their reputation indicator would be turned yellow.
2. If they get another 13 votes, then they will be given 7 days of being on the blacklist, and their indicator would be turned orange.
3. If they still kept at it, then they would be blacklisted for a month, and have their indicator turned red.
4. If a player kept at it after that, then they would be permanently added to the blacklist, unless they ask PGI for another chance.
5. Each indicator level would require a timeframe equal to the punishment in order t get their indicator back to a lower level. So, a red player would have to go 30 days without being blacklisted in order to go orange again.
Instead of a thumb up or down, a person being blacklisted could be used as part of a rating system.

[Solahma]

Adiuvo, on 15 April 2014 - 11:01 AM, said:

Limiting voice comms to whoever manages to click the commander button first is a horrid idea. If some idiot takes company command, then what? A drop commander structure isn't necessarily the best either.

VOIP needs to be available to all members of a team and come with an easy to use mute function, such as pressing tab and then clicking a person name. Mute cannot be buried in menus, first and foremost.

Definitely the downside to that idea. It would require a vote-demote option or more complexity which is asking too much tbh. Thanks for pointing out the flaw. How could you solve the issue you point out and still retain a CoC voip system? Perhaps there is an apply option and allows the highest ELO player to take a possition?

[DEN_Ninja]

Solahma, on 15 April 2014 - 10:35 AM, said:

SUGGESTION #1
-Seperate channels to speak to Lance only and Company only.
-Option to mute individual players.
-Option to completely turn off VOIP via settings persistent toggle

SUGGESTION #2
-Push to talk only, no open mics.
-Icon next to player on team list when speaking
-Icon above mech when player is speaking
-No ability to speak to enemy team

This is the best system for it.

Having a singular channel for a match would be lousy. You would have 12 people attempting to have conversations at the same time. Bravo lance and Alpha lance could be separated and would not have the same targets. Lance for Lance and Company for Company.

Imagine a 12 man team but with no Company leader calling targets but rather up to 12 people all trying to call targets at the same time.

Simplest methods are best methods.

Edited by Tichorius Davion, 15 April 2014 - 11:11 AM.

[Effectz]

FelixBlucher, on 15 April 2014 - 11:06 AM, said:

A blacklist would be great, maybe a thumb up or down button for each player. If a person is well liked, then one person down voting them should not affect them very much. If a person is regularly down voted, then they could have the following happen:
1. Have an automated time out based on their negative votes. Like 13 negative votes equals 3 days on the blacklist. Their reputation indicator would be turned yellow.
2. If they get another 13 votes, then they will be given 7 days of being on the blacklist, and their indicator would be turned orange.
3. If they still kept at it, then they would be blacklisted for a month, and have their indicator turned red.
4. If a player kept at it after that, then they would be permanently added to the blacklist, unless they ask PGI for another chance.
5. Each indicator level would require a timeframe equal to the punishment in order t get their indicator back to a lower level. So, a red player would have to go 30 days without being blacklisted in order to go orange again.
Instead of a thumb up or down, a person being blacklisted could be used as part of a rating system.

This is a bad idea,people will use it to grief just look at reddit and buddah lol.

[Solahma]

FelixBlucher, on 15 April 2014 - 11:06 AM, said:

I would be very happy to see a system like this added, and A LOT more games and communities should adopt this.

Reminds me of this extra credit video concerning harassment, they make some excellent points and suggestions for community communications.

[Joseph Mallan]

Solahma, on 15 April 2014 - 11:04 AM, said:

I use TS every time I play. I'm just confused by how you want it to work. Please explain and don't assume everyone knows what your idea is.

I can assume many things from your idea:
-There could be an in-game channel network. Exactly like TS, but in-game.
-It could be a completely open voip where anyone can say anything anywhere with individual contorling options, channels, and admins

I just don't know what you are suggesting.

I asked cause I needed your point of reference. I am not always good at explaining techy stuff.
Simply put, 12 players one channel.

Having a sub channel for each lance would be nice, but I am Meh on PGIs ability to give us a good working Comm like that. TS was a bit cumbersome as far as I could tell.

Having Icons light up over the player on comm is nice but unneeded I'd think.

Thanks for the Extra credit. Those guys are fantastic!

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 15 April 2014 - 11:18 AM.

[FelixBlucher]

I like the idea of push to talk, perhaps players who are set to voice coms could press the "T" "Y" "U" buttons to talk to everyone, the team, and their lance.

Part of me agrees that there should be separated voice coms between the teams. Or perhaps we could only have the company commanders be able to communicate with each other. That way we don't have the airwaves filled with chaotic chatting. What if there was some way for players to enable and disable listening to the different channels? Like pressing Tab and selecting checkboxes.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Do people really see much "lance" play in this game?

I mean I guess Conquest...but for the most part, like 99% of the time, everyone is in the same general area.

The maps and objectives really aren't there for having us split up.

I'm going to say use the KISS method.

One channel for the team, everyone can talk, mute options are available for twits.

No talking to the opposing team.

Done.

Maybe PGI can evaluate that again 3 months later and see if we need more options.

[Solahma]

Agreed Joseph, a singular channel would definitely be the easiest to implement and manage. It definitely has its advantages, but with a little added effort, we could get a much more beneficial system.

I'll build upon and update the OP later, bit busy atm.

Edited by Solahma, 15 April 2014 - 11:17 AM.