VOIP

Is the game gonna have any voip?

At first I was going to say, "yes, I hope there will be" but then I wondered what the actual need would be.

You need VOIP when you need to communicate quicker than what you could type (and at the risk of exposing myself to innuendo; when you need to keep your hands busy). The only times that I can think of that happening is in competitive/clam matches - which are going to have a dedicated VOIP solution in the form of TeamSpeak, Vent, or Mumble.

It would be nice if there was some built-in functionality, even if it's just a button that connects you to a TeamSpeak server. By standardising it in this way, I think more people would use it.

I think typing in strategy games is a thing of the past. Most people just play on team speak if they have a channel. I think people would use VOIP if it was there.

Removing the hassle of setting up Teamspeak (yes, even going to a website and downloading a program that works out of the box is a hassle) will increase the number of people who use voice communication. Which is a good thing; communication is kinda important.

(In fact it would probably be a good idea to try and find a way to reward players for proper communication (beyond winning more easily) to encourage them to do it)

(Also the ability to draw on the map but I'm pretty sure that'll make it into the game)

There shouldent be much of a need for it to be part of PA. Since theres plenty of easy to use voice chat applications allredy.

I dont know how hard voip is to implement in a game, but the time of the devs should (in my opinion) be spent elsewhere instead.

Experience teaches me that anything beyond "click a button and it works" means that the number of people using it drops to near zero. Especially when you need to join a teamspeak server where you can't chat with the people who matter (ie; whoever you happen to be gaming with at that moment)

Teamspeak is nice for people in a clan, but ideally you want to be able to voice chat with the people in your game, as those are the ones you are playing with at the time. And communicating with the people in your current game is also the way new players join clans.

But going by personal experience the amount of people that use said voice chat (thats not in a clan/group allredy) is very small.

I wouldent mind if it was included, i just think the devs time could be better spent elsewhere.

This echoes my views on the matter. It'd be cool to have, but Uber should put it at the bottom of the list. There are more important things to spend resources on.

Id rather talk to some people on my teamspeak server and talk while playing a game (or doing something else) then using an ingame voip solution.

I was thinking about including this but you guys are changing my mind on priorities here.

We use fmod as the sound system and they are potentially adding voip support so it may just "fall out" of that, we'll see.

I would very much like to see this game have some kind of VOIP in game. I realize that the most dedicated users have their own preferred platforms, but the only way I can get my friends to talk during the game is if the option is right there built in.

fmod \o/

Neutrino said they have a xmpp backend. It should be possible to add the voice chat component without too much hassle.

It would be a definite bonus to have a built-in “click here to talk to teammates” button. It would increase the social side of things a lot IMO, which can only be a good thing for the long-term future.

Of course you could just use TS or Skype or whatever but that requires that you already know the people, and that you launch a separate app. People love integrated things, how else could you explain the popularity of Apple's silly shiny boxes?

I'm a big fan of Mumble lately. It's gained a lot of maturity in recent years, and can easily hold its own when compared to TS or Vent. I'm surprised it's not more commonly used, but I guess TS and Vent have a longer legacy.

That said, one solution that could be explored is running Mumble with the server as the commandline argument:
http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Mumble_URL
Even if VOIP isn't implemented in game, the nature of the UI interface means that it should be relatively simple to run Mumble in this manner through a Javascript command. This means that all the VOIP work is already done, and integration should be straightforward. Plus external VOIP programs tend to provide better quality and features than built-in VOIP (st the cost of convenience).

On the downside, it means that the player has to have Mumble installed in order for it to work. Also, the UI, or PA in general, would need to be able to run other executables, which could be a risk. Otherwise, if just a URL were sent, Mumble would already have to be running in the background, and your system would have to be set up to accept Mumble URLs.

In any case, this does provide an excellent solution for drop-in VOIP, so it's worth looking into.

Having a built in VOIP is a must for multiplayer games. Teamspeak and Mumble are only as good as all the people who went through the trouble of manually connecting to the VOIP server which is very, very low when you are teaming up with random people. Pings, drawing on the maps and worst off typing messages are secondary forms of communication when talking comes so natural.

The ability to just join a game and have the voip all connected and everyone able to chat to their respect team members is the best way to play team games, especially with random people.

If Teamspeak or Mumble had this ease of use then there will be no problems. I would rather have a lower quality voip that everyone has access to right away then a high quality one where you need to manually connect to a server (a different server for every game, no thanks).

Steam has the ability and the necessary tools, so just use that.

I strongly urge for a built-in voip or a solution that connects as easy. Teamspeak and mumble can already exist outside of games with or without a built in voip system. These cannot truly be substitutes for a built in system.

Yet to play a game with a built in voip system that is any good. I agree it would be a nice thing to have for team games, but not sure if the effort would be justified.

Then my vote is it is worth the effort and should be part of the final product.

In game VOIPs are only worth the effort if they're well done.

Anything less, and it'll be wasted resources.