Dumb question: do we has VOIP?

I had a quick look at the Confirmed Features List 2.0 and coudn't see anything regarding in-game chat, specifically in-game voice chat. For my sins, I've played a lot of XBox, and the built-in voice support does make quite a difference to the teamwork and immersion parts of a co-op (team based) multiplayer game, even if it does open you up to a startling amount of trash talk in certain titles.

Playing the SupCom series (and other games) with friends via Steam, we use the built-in Steam voice chat to do basically the same thing. Again, in co-op situations it makes a world of difference to reaction times when you can just talk over your current actions, rather than stopping to type.

Are there any plans to add VOIP options in to PA? If/when it hits the Steam platform you can obviously use the Steam one, and I'd understand if it was out of scope (making the engine comes first, after all ). I do think voice chat integration is one of the better changes to gaming over the last couple of decades though, and it would be pretty awesome if the game offered it on platforms that don't necessarily have an easy alternative.

If I'm concerned over nothing, and the intent has always been tight integration to an existing Ubernet / Steam VOIP solution, then apologies for wasting your time having to read this

I'm not particularly bothered for the inclusion of voice over IP. If I want to talk in an RTS I find the chatbox and "pings" more than suffice for anything I need to say to my allies or opponents.

If I want a running dialogue I'll use Skype, Ventrilo or some other external program where I can decide whom I'm listening to ahead of time.

What I don't want is some random shmuck shouting, playing music or otherwise harassing other players or myself with VOIP. Yes I know there's a mute button in most cases, but honestly I just dislike VOIP... it means I have to mute people individually each time they act out in dumb ways.

That's my personal opinion anyway.

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Edit: Why is this in the Backer's Lounge? Is VOIP a sensitive "Backer Only" conversation or something numptyscrub?
Are the general public not allowed to know about Uber's potential tip-top secret VOIP plans?

Such sensitive information could not be shared with the masses, eh?

Fair enough. I have to admit to getting a little distracted by having to create new accounts for VOIP-service-X when it becomes 3rd party flavour du jour, having got used to built-in options e.g. XBox Live. It's also surprisingly easy to get used to potty-mouthed 12yo trash talkers after a while, especially if your usual group of friends find it amusing to goad them into a rabid frenzy

Doh! I generally restrict myself into replying in the Backers Lounge so I can't drunk-post info in the wrong place, and the trigger for this was me thinking about the (hopefully) upcoming alpha. You are absolutely correct that this is neither sensitive nor secret information; I have posted this in the wrong forum

Having said that, I'm not even sure it warrants a repost in the General forum. I'm likely in a small minority to want it, and like you say there are various 3rd party alternatives already, so it is pretty moot.

Have some confidence in yourself bro. Being respectful and being hard on yourself are two different things. Let other people decide your questions are dumb; don't decide for them.

On topic: In-game VOIP can be a big help in PUG scenarios. In the context of PA I see it as a bonus feature that could be added in continuing support or something. As nanolathe said, typing and pinging is generally enough for me unless I'm playing with friends (in which case I'll have vent or Steam voice chat going). In fact, I think I'd rather see a semi-robust ping/marking system before VOIP. With a belt of asteroids I might want to mark which asteroids I'll be expanding to, and which enemy base I'm going to crash something into.

Sort of like SupCom's "Label" Ping that nobody used?

By all accounts (by which I mean Jon), Uber is going to automate that "labelling" by adding notation in the strategic view that marks your bases and enemy bases too.

Hm, i hope the auto labeling can keep some info in a table, such as last number of factories by type seen, and number of engineers/units seen.

... yea... spreadsheet gaming...

....

... I'm so hyped ...

:?

whooooooooooooooo

don't mean something big, i meant like F:2, E:45

I have a difficult time coordinating without VOIP. Trying to type while commanding an army is a pretty difficult skill.

This. Any tool which makes it easier for drop-in gamers to coordinate is a good tool, in my opinion.

I believe that voip is currently unknown at this stage, unless neutrino wants to correct me. It we discussed a while ago on the general forums and uber were taking it into consideration. I believe neutrino initially thought it wasn't necessary because there are third party products that do it better, but was willing to change his mind if there was enough community support.

Double post due to phone

Integrated VOIP would be great. It's really useful in StarCraft 2. There's no need to remember to launch another app before playing or if a friend comes on, now you need to alt tab out of game, start TS/Vent, then someone has to pay for a server or you end up with someone hosting it themselves whose IP keeps changing since ISP don't issue static IPs to households, then hope you can alt tab back in (I personally don't have an issue alt tabbing, but many do).

Plus, not everyone's big enough into tech to even install something like TS/Vent to use along side a game.

Having everything integrated just makes for a nicer experience since you know it will work correctly without having to configure anything. I wouldn't consider it a deal breaker feature, but it is something that can set a game apart from others and it's a really nice additional feature to have. Especially in an RTS when you're already hammering away at the keyboard for hot keys to make units, build new buildings, issue orders, and move around the map. Adding in a typing requirement to communicate adds a lot of extra unneeded difficulty when VOIP is an option.

Remember, since the UI will be fairly powerful, it can be used to coordinate connections for third party VOIP clients. An example I gave a while back was that the game server can provide the location of the Mumble server to the game client, which would then connect the player's instance of Mumble to that server via a command. This way, Uber can use a premade solution that would run better than anything they could make in the short time they have. On the player's end, the system is nearly as transparent as a built in VOIP system, and far more powerful.

Will it also launch the VOIP app discretely and host the server? I honestly think the server hosting is probably the biggest issue with using a 3rd party solution.

Uber already has one Mumble server for SMNC. It wouldn't be a stretch for them to go a similar route with PA.

You could integrate the teamspeak 3 API.

It's usually free to be included in any project as it boosts their popularity.

See here: http://www.teamspeak.com/?page=teamspeak3sdk

I prefer using a third party VoIP application when playing with friends. Most built-in voice features so far have seemed pretty bad to me, with the Steam voice chat being the worst.

An official Mumble server would be cool, otherwise I don't see the problem with using Skype or similar programs.

The SMNC Mumble server is a community project, started and managed by Polynomial btw.

Agreed. The big advantage of 3rd party VoIP is that you can use it to organize your games, e.g. "I'm hosting the game now, pw is 123", "damn PA crashed again" (hope we don't have to use that). That is assuming a regular group of people to play with.

So if you make a ingame VoIP please
1) Don't put too much of your valuable time in it
2) Make it easy to completely disable it.