48 replies to this topic

[GrizzlyViking]

Recently, there have been a rash of posts lamenting the fact there there will be no in-game voice chat (Voice Over Internet Protocol - VOIP) at launch. This does not mean that there will be no VOIP ever, The Devs have said that VOIP is on their to-do list and they will likely have an option soon. So...what to do in the mean time?

Obviously it is a great benefit to have in-game VOIP for a game like MWO. See the simple solution below:

(NOTE: Portions are re-posted from a response I made in a previous post.)

Get your own VOIP. It's cheap and easy!

Go here: https://clients.shra...=69&product=636 and you can rent a 20 person server for about $60/year ($5/month) Most groups will not likely need more than 20 person capable, but if you need more you can get them. Most everyone should be able to handle $5 a month for a VOIP server and only one server is needed for every group/unit. (Disclaimer: I do not work for or know these people. They were just the first ones on the server rental list at the Ventrillo site.)

Then, go here: http://www.ventrilo.com/index.php

Ventrillo is a good quality VOIP and it is pretty user friendly for folks with gamer level computer skills. (Second Disclaimer: I don't work for them either, but used Vent before and it's great!)

This is really a cheap and easy solution to add VOIP to your MWO experience. It's a simple and easy solution to meet those VOIP needs.

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 28 May 2012 - 03:50 AM.

[CJDodo]

For anyone who didn't want to pay to rent a VOIP server, I'd say that Skype is a free alternative, and plenty good enough, although the largest conference on that I've made is 4 people playing, but that'd be a lance, and I'm sure it could go upto 12 if need be, but not being push button to talk it could get quite noisy with that many.

[GrizzlyViking]

CJDodo, on 28 May 2012 - 03:59 AM, said:

For anyone who didn't want to pay to rent a VOIP server, I'd say that Skype is a free alternative, and plenty good enough, although the largest conference on that I've made is 4 people playing, but that'd be a lance, and I'm sure it could go upto 12 if need be, but not being push button to talk it could get quite noisy with that many.

Very good point. I have used Skype for lots of things and it is a very good free alternative to a paid server.

[Barbaric Soul]

That's exactly what the majority wants. Atleast in my case, and from what I've read, the majority of the comunity feels the same. I would prefer to use my own comunications program as oposed to using a in-game VOIP. I'm a 40 year old man. I DO NOT WANT TO BE STUCK LISTENING TO SOME FOUL MOUTHED DISRESPECTFUL KIDS WHILE I PLAY. Using my teams comms, I have some control over who can talk to me.

Oh, and forget bringing up the mute player option. By the time I mute them, I've done heard them.

Edited by Barbaric Soul, 28 May 2012 - 04:03 AM.

[Raines]

I dont want to listen school guys too. With devs help, their damn speeches will be reduced to minimum, cause shool guys mostly cant understand how to use any other VOIP programmes.

[Gremlich Johns]

GrizzlyViking, on 28 May 2012 - 03:46 AM, said:

Obviously it is a great benefit to have in-game VOIP for a game like MWO. See the simple solution below:

Obvious to whom and why?

[Catamount]

Barbaric Soul, on 28 May 2012 - 04:02 AM, said:

That's exactly what the majority wants. Atleast in my case, and from what I've read, the majority of the comunity feels the same. I would prefer to use my own comunications program as oposed to using a in-game VOIP. I'm a 40 year old man. I DO NOT WANT TO BE STUCK LISTENING TO SOME FOUL MOUTHED DISRESPECTFUL KIDS WHILE I PLAY. Using my teams comms, I have some control over who can talk to me.

Oh, and forget bringing up the mute player option. By the time I mute them, I've done heard them.

I played Battlefield 2142 for a quite a number of years, basically constantly from release until last Christmas (BF3 was finally good enough to replace it), and it had built in VOIP that was very widely used. There was almost never immaturity. I think in about six years, I had one asshat appear in one game.

Generally, people kept chatter relevant and were very mature. Why? I can only guess, but BF2142 was the kind of game that drew a very... how should I put this... a very NOT Call of Duty crowd By its very nature, it drew team players looking to play a squad based game and compete for their team, rather than 13 year old loan wolfs running around boasting every 20 seconds about their K:D and amusing themselves by yelling the names of random body parts into VOIP repeatedly for 10 minutes straight (which was basically my entire experience in COD MW2). Even when those players were occasionally around, and not on the other team (oh how I loved the useless lonewolf "1337" snipers on the other team; one less useful player taking objectives for them), by their very nature, these people weren't the type to bother with the VOIP to begin with.

Having integrated VOIP was the greatest thing that ever happened to that game. It allowed a random group of strangers to come together and work almost as coherently as veteran clan mates, so if I wasn't running with personal friends, I didn't have to resign to not being able to do anything productive.

Gremlich Johns, on 28 May 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

Obvious to whom and why?

Obvious to anyone who's used such a system before, for the reasons outlined above

Edited by Catamount, 28 May 2012 - 03:08 PM.

[Ilithi Dragon]

Exactly what Catamount said. I played BF2142 for about the same amount of time, and the in-game VOIP system was great, exactly because it allowed players to communicate and coordinate their actions as a squad. Like Catamount, I saw a minimum of the COD-style VOIP spamming; I'm pretty sure it happened once or twice, but very rarely, and the way the BF2142 VOIP system was set up, it very easily allowed squad leaders to kick offensive players from the channel.

Which is probably a huge part of why the VOIP spam never caught on (in addition to the different player type the game attracted): In BF2142, VOIP was set up by squads. You could only get into a VOIP channel if you joined a squad, and then you would only have access to that squad's VOIP channel. You couldn't broadcast to the entire team, just the 6-man squad you were in, and the squad leader had a set of tools to very easily kick and block you from the squad if you tried to troll.

If MWO employs VOIP in a similar manner, with separate channels for each Lance (and an additional 'command' channel exclusive to Lance leaders and the team commander), VOIP-spamming would be very limited, and we would have a very effective tool for communication and coordination with people who aren't already our friends in prearranged play groups.

Personally, I would also like to see MWO take that a step or two further. VOIP could also be incorporated into their command and control and electronics warfare mechanics, with in-game VOIP broadcasts putting out information that can be used by enemy sensors to track a mech, and with some EW equipment including jammers that could interfere with or even completely block enemy communications under the right circumstances.

[GrizzlyViking]

Gremlich Johns, on 28 May 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

Obvious to whom and why?

Before I can answer your question effectively I will need some backgorund information to keep from going over things you may already know. Have you played any PC based MechWarrior games or other PvP (player vs player) team vs. team games and which ones have you played?

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 28 May 2012 - 03:05 PM.

[Ilithi Dragon]

GrizzlyViking, on 28 May 2012 - 03:04 PM, said:

Before I can answer your question effectively I will need some backgorund information to keep from going over things you may already know. Have you played any PC based MechWarrior multiplayer games or other PvP (player vs player) team vs. team games and which ones have you played at all?

Fixed.

[GrizzlyViking]

Ilithi Dragon, on 28 May 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

Fixed.

Well that helps... Excelling in MechWarrior is similar to real combat in that you have to communicate to coordinate your attack and share other intel. While there are some other methods besides voice chat that can accomplish this, none of them are nearly as effective and timely. Without good communications a Mech Company of 3 Lances made up of 4 Mechs each would have a severe problem coordinating their operations. Recon would be especially difficult if the Scout(s) has no good way to send intel to his teammates. I can tell you from having many years of PC based MechWarrior experiences that any team not using voice chat will not be likely win against any team that is using it. Put simply, voice chat just makes your team better. The only way a person can function well without voice is to be solo and it's nearly impossible to play MechWarrior solo.

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 28 May 2012 - 06:04 PM.

[Vulpesveritas]

VOIP is important because let's face it, should this game ever become popular, then the majority of players will not have VIOP, not to mention any 'random' matches someone may hop for will have definite issues with communication. I know for example, it bugs the heck out of me that Combat Arms' VOIP servers are currently down, as It's a great thing to have when playing Quarantine mode as it let's you work as a team much more effectively, instead of it being a major lone wolf match... plus, it let's you keep up your guard while you're talking, typing is often an opening saying "hey kill me I'm typing."

[GrizzlyViking]

Vulpesveritas, on 28 May 2012 - 06:05 PM, said:

VOIP is important because let's face it, should this game ever become popular, then the majority of players will not have VIOP, not to mention any 'random' matches someone may hop for will have definite issues with communication. I know for example, it bugs the heck out of me that Combat Arms' VOIP servers are currently down, as It's a great thing to have when playing Quarantine mode as it let's you work as a team much more effectively, instead of it being a major lone wolf match... plus, it let's you keep up your guard while you're talking, typing is often an opening saying "hey kill me I'm typing."

The way I have used Ventrillo in the past is to set it up with one open room that anyone with the details can join and several locked rooms. Whenever we had matches that required having to pick up an extra non-unit person we'd just give them our Vent info and have them log on to our Vent server. If they didn't have Vent, then we'd give them the web address and tell them to go DL it. If they didn't want to do that we'd tell them to go find another match.

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 28 May 2012 - 06:17 PM.

[Ilithi Dragon]

GrizzlyViking, on 28 May 2012 - 06:01 PM, said:

Well that helps... Excelling in MechWarrior is similar to real combat in that you have to communicate to coordinate your attack and share other intel. While there are some other methods besides voice chat that can accomplish this, none of them are nearly as effective and timely. Without good communications a Mech Company of 3 Lances made up of 4 Mechs each would have a severe problem coordinating their operations. Recon would be especially difficult if the Scout(s) has no good way to send intel to his teammates. I can tell you from having many years of PC based MechWarrior experiences that any team not using voice chat will not be likely to win against any team that is using it. Put simply, voice chat just makes your team better. The only way a person can function well without voice is solo.

Oh, definitely, but this applies to just about any team-based pvp game, and especially to shooter-type games. As Catamount and I noted, the VOIP system in Battlefield 2142 greatly facilitates teamplay and squad coordination, and squad function. It also greatly facilitates squads actually operating as squads. More recent BF incarnations lack this, and are a perfect example of why having VOIP is such a huge advantage and how it greatly benefits gameplay. In BF:BC2 and BF3, if you're not in a group of friends with an outside VOIP, joining a squad gives you little more than a group of mobile spawn points. There is very little that allows you to coordinate with your squadmates beyond the squadleader attack/defend order, which squads have little incentive to follow (and is used very infrequently). I made many friends in BF2142 and maintained semi-regular contact, but in BF3 I have made only a handful of friends, mostly on random flukes, that I've rarely had any contact with, because I have no real interaction with them.


Now, VOIP can be done poorly or improperly, like COD games typically do, where there is one VOIP channel for the entire team (or the entire server!). That facilitates trolls, who then have the entire team as an audience, and there are no tools to easily kick offending players from the VOIP channel. It also causes serious communications problems, because then you have 20-30 people in 40 different situations dealing with 80 different things trying to talk over each other, and you run into a confusing communications nightmare. That's why the real military has different channels set up for different units and different levels of command, instead of having everyone on just one channel.

[Vulpesveritas]

GrizzlyViking, on 28 May 2012 - 06:15 PM, said:

The way I have used Ventrillo in the past is to set it up with one open room that anyone with the details can join and several locked rooms. Whenever we had matches that required having to pick up an extra non-unit person we'd just give them our Vent info and have them log on to our Vent server. If they didn't have Vent, then we'd give them the web address and tell them to go DL it. If they didn't want to do that we'd tell them to go find another match.

The problem with that being is many players will not want to close the game or even minimize it just to join a VOIP room, and that is if they even have a program for VOIP in the first place.

[Ilithi Dragon]

GrizzlyViking, on 28 May 2012 - 06:15 PM, said:

The way I have used Ventrillo in the past is to set it up with one open room that anyone with the details can join and several locked rooms. Whenever we had matches that required having to pick up an extra non-unit person we'd just give them our Vent info and have them log on to our Vent server. If they didn't have Vent, then we'd give them the web address and tell them to go DL it. If they didn't want to do that we'd tell them to go find another match.

Yeah, back when I was running with the Sarmatian Knights in MW4: Mercs, I operated the clan teamspeak server, and we had a similar policy. We had a public area that everyone was welcome to join and where we generally hung out, and we had restricted access rooms set up for clan matches or private discussions, etc. We didn't insist that people in our matches join TS, but we encouraged them to, or we'd join other clans' public TS servers, depending on the occasion. It worked pretty well, all things considered.

Vulpesveritas, on 28 May 2012 - 06:19 PM, said:

The problem with that being is many players will not want to close the game or even minimize it just to join a VOIP room, and that is if they even have a program for VOIP in the first place.

Yeah, and then you have the issues of some players using one VOIP client and other players using another VOIP client. There were 3 different clients that some players I knew ran back in the Mercs heyday, and now there's Skype, Google chat, etc. In-game VOIP eliminates that problem.

Edited by Ilithi Dragon, 28 May 2012 - 06:23 PM.

[GrizzlyViking]

Ilithi Dragon, on 28 May 2012 - 06:17 PM, said:

That's why the real military has different channels set up for different units and different levels of command, instead of having everyone on just one channel.

I think you'd really like Ventrillo for this very reason. Vent allows set up of separate rooms and those rooms can be ghost monitored so the leader can keep up with everything that is going on with all 3 Lances. It is a lot more customizable than any in-game voice I have experience with.

[Vulpesveritas]

GrizzlyViking, on 28 May 2012 - 06:23 PM, said:

I think you'd really like Ventrillo for this very reason. Vent allows set up of separate rooms and those rooms can be ghost monitored so the leader can keep up with everything that is going on with all 3 Lances. It is a lot more customizable than any in-game voice I have experience with.

But once again, the problem is with different users using different VOIP programs or having none installed in the first place.

[GrizzlyViking]

Vulpesveritas, on 28 May 2012 - 06:27 PM, said:

But once again, the problem is with different users using different VOIP programs or having none installed in the first place.

That is pretty much how we used to weed out the inexperienced. If they siad something like "What is TeamSpeak?" then we knew it was time to find someone else. heheheheh

As for me, I will likely DL both clients and anything else people decide to use so I can jump in to any VOIP as needed. I have plenty of HD space and the clients do not take up much,

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 28 May 2012 - 06:32 PM.

[Daiichidoku]

Vulpesveritas, on 28 May 2012 - 06:27 PM, said:

But once again, the problem is with different users using different VOIP programs or having none installed in the first place.

huge problem, the devs should drop everything for this vital issue

Edited by Daiichidoku, 28 May 2012 - 06:34 PM.