First let's go over some of the problems with VoIP: Why is the VoIP experience often bad in other games? In a first-person shooter, there are more players and higher turnover. In an RTS there tend to be fewer players with no turnover, so there should be fewer players to mute. How to solve the annoying VoIP talkers problem: - Have an easy interface to mute players (click their name when they talk, or similar) - Apply muting to a player forever, so you don't have to re-mute them if you see them again - For each player, display how many other players have muted them, to discourage annoying behaviour - Have an option to automatically silence players above a certain mute threshold The potential benefits of integrated VoIP: Many people say that "the players who want to use VoIP will end up using it", which is true, but for everyone else it's really about the cost of setting up VoIP per game being too high. There's also the chicken-and-egg problem where it's not worth installing a VoIP program until it's ubiquitous enough. Integrating VoIP will reduce these costs to zero. With Planetary Annihilation reaching an unprecedented scale with multiple viewports, it's going to be make communicating with text that much harder than it used to be. The strategy in this game is going to be a lot more complex than what we've seen before, making collaboration much more necessary. If the game merely had hooks that made it really easy integrate an external VoIP program, and the game gently pushed players to use a single standard (like Mumble, for example), that would go a long way. Making communication as easy as possible is going to really enhance the quality of the multiplayer experience, and I believe that VoIP is one of the most fundamental parts of this goal. Markers and more sophisticated whiteboard features are also part of the picture. I don't think there has been an extremely popular RTS game with very polished integrated VoIP for us to compare to. I think it's worth trying to see what the benefits could be.
I approve of this message, integrated VOIP would be marvellous and I disagree with Mr Mavor on the ****-quotient. This is not Call Of Duty on XBL, it is relatively mature people with overactive brains with the aid of exploding galactic empires, and I think the abuse potential is therefore much lower. And tbh, even if somebody does call me a cock-juggling thundercunt, then as long as there's a mute button, what's the problem? EDIT @veta trivial =/= seamless If things aren't seamless, most people don't bother.
Imagine if this will be implemented ingame and everything that has been said will be recorded and could be played back with the chrono-cam and replays...
Good post, i have no problem with VOIP if people want it in, but for Gods sake put on a mute function, when i played XCOM:EU online, i had no way to mute chat, OR voice without muting sound and gimping myself, so i had to listen to heavy breathing, or some awful rap music, or someone chewing loudly...drove me nuts. Mute function, please, do NOT forget this.
... As a player of spring's balanced annihilation in combination with mumble I would like to note that you can help a player with giving valuable info (cheating) about their enemy via mumble (being a spectator of that game) You guys should also think about the implications of external vs internal voice chat systems this way. And... maybe even prohibit use of external voice chat software in any way. Because this way players can check for spec-cheating by watching replays and listening to whats been said.(if they speak the language) Another spec cheating way could be: As a player you could still try to hook up a 2nd pc connected as spectator (even via different internet connection, 3..4g, neighbors wifi, ect...) only way to stop this is not allowing any spectators (during tounaments/rated games) but that will kill the whole e-sport aspect..
I met a lot of solid people using the built-in VOIP in SupCom2 in random games. It actually really helped to weed good players (or at least serious gamers) out from the bunch. Some of these people that I met in random lobbies I still talk to and play with today, including some that have pre-ordered and even a couple that post here in the forums. It would be a shame for other people to not have the same opportunity to easily meet new high-quality 'friends' or 'frenemies' because of the lack of a feature that is both standard and key in today's games.
I hope nobody mind that I skip over most of what was said. I have nothing against integrated VoIP at all. I am unable to use VoIP myself because I am deaf. I would like to see a visible in-game chat so I can still communicate. By all means put in a decent VoIP support just not limiting it to VoIP only.
Valve realised this problem a while back and made a very elegant solution. In games like CSS and Dota, all spectators have a 2 minute delay, which means that even if someone is connected and watching while giving tips, they can not help very much as all the information they have is out of date. They also allow "broadcasters" who get no delay and can voice chat with every spectator, but they have to join the game at the start of the match and are "authorised" and all that (the players wont start the game if there is an unknown broadcaster trying to watch their game). Of course, with an RTS the delay would have to be much larger, like 10 minutes, but it would be better than invasive solutions like scanning all your running programs and banning you if it detects a voip program, or things like that.
It's probably brilliant once you get it up and running, but you have to disable it if you're playing 1v1, and I like to mostly play 1v1 then occasionally jump into team games if an interesting one catches my eye. I did try to use TS when FAF used it, but nobody else did. I found that Mumble's overlay was very intrusive, so I found out how to turn it off. But then the faff of turning it on/off between ranked and custom has meant that I haven't bothered using it. In summary, it's not seamless and so I don't use it.
I just want to add that mutebans and quit bans do not work. There are people who will mute automatically, that adds to your mute count whether you even had your mic on or not. So allowing anyone to be filtered based on this statistic will include a lot of false positives. And that's just not acceptable.
yup i didn't like the overlay either, there's a way to move it and resize it, mine is pretty small and in the bottom right of the screen so it's very unobtrusive. the few games i did play before that it obscured the scoreboard and was really annoying. i also don't like mumble's severe lack of individual volume control, i get that they have a system to make this unnecessary but if somebody doesn't set it up why should i suffer the consequences? otherwise it's very good.
It is always annoying to have to turn down everything and not be able to hear the game or others because of that one guy who is shouting into his overclipped mic.
