MWO Voip - How should it work?

In the latest NGNG podcast #108, Russ talks about implementing voip into MWO as some point.

Obviously there are many ways to add this feature into the game, some more complicated than others. How do you think it should work?

So far I have seen two attractive options:

Option 1
-Company wide voip only
-Everyone can talk
-no restrictions

Option 2
-Lance only voip
-Company wide voip (more difficult somehow, perhaps time-limit to speak with a cooldown time to re-use. Or this could be reserved to lance commanders and company commander only, but that opens up more issues)


Misc. features for general voip
-Push-to-talk only
-Individual players can be muted via the player list
-VOIP can be turned off vie setting toggle
-Dead players cannot use voip
-Icon above mech speaking
-Icon next to player speaking on the player list
-Icon on HUD indicating who is speaking (possibly the player's grid location as well)
-Team only, no communication with enemy team

Anything else you guys can think of?

I also have a thread open on the official forums:
http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/155666-voip-how-should-it-work/

 

Most units wouldn't use something like this I don't think. Why? Most serious places have their own TS3 servers anyways and they can have as many or as few people in a channel as they want.

Useless feature is useless.

 

I agree, most units wouldn't use the in-game voip, but we are talking about pugs here. Random players who solo-drop. This would be the "majority" according to PGI's statistics.

Of course units would opt to use their own TS to play with their other unit members. Anytime I do so, the in-game voip would get turned off. But why would this be useless for the solo-drop players?

 

Have you ever played XBox Live? If so that would be the last time you ever ask THAT particular thing.

As for the majority of players being PUGs? I have no doubt about it. A large majority of the team players no longer play this game or their units have fallen apart or any other myriad of other things.

I pug drop myself a lot and would never use this. Personally I invite people into my ears I don't allow myself to be assaulted by unwanted screams of 12 year old kids.

 

But all of those issues is immediately solved by disabling the in-game voip and/or muting troublesome players.

If you suffer an ear assault by a raging 12 year old then it would be your own fault. Either you never want to deal with even the possibility of that happening (turn off voip) or you find it unpleasant and you immediately mute the kid (perhaps persistent mute option that remembers who you muted)

Meanwhile those who do not abuse voip benefit from increased coordination and teamwork. Another reason why I am personally a fan of option 2 which hopefully would limit most voip communication to your lance only, with occasional team messages. (like we currently have with 4-man premade drops using TS)

 

I'm sure we've all been in PUG matches where vocal commands would be more than helpful.... simple commands like Push, concentrate fire on target Bravo, return to base, stop testfiring your AC20 in my back A$$ 370|-|, etc. would bring pug dropping into the realm of rudimentary teamwork, if used corectly.
That being said, the overall lack of discipline on the chat lines, as it is, makes me believe that in game voip will most likely devolve into shouting matches among obnoxious punks that think their excrement smells of fine wine.... a somewhat absurd situation that is already common on the chat lines in game.... if this is the way things run, I agree with Grimm.... more than useless.

Probably the best thing that could be done with this is to restrict this option to Company & Lance commanders. If no-one chooses these positions voluntarily they can be assigned to voip active players according to player record, and passed down to the next highest ranking player automatically in the event of the commanders death until there is noone left.
This seems like an obvious opton to me, which means they will probably not do it, but for what it is worth..... my op

 

I'm sorry Solahma but there are a million other things they should be working on right now. This isn't one of them.

 

I totally agree with Michael. Serious Players would have their team, Clan etc and would use TS3. In PUGs it would make sense if you play with reasonable people, but most times there will be at least one kiddo ruining it. Kiddos who flame at you for any idiotic reason. Never used such a Feature in any other game in the past and will never use. For PUGs some Chat commands usually suffice, since you don't really play in Formation or with tactical plans there. It's maybe a N2H-Feature, but there are much more important things in the Todo-List.

 

I can agree with that Michael

but in the end, if they decide to work on it, that's what they'll do. Mine as well contribute how you would like it added. If it's not for you then that's fine.

Although probably the most complicated of the options, I do agree with this. A voip that worked like Battlefield 2 would be great IMO. Forced lance only voip for all players. Lance commanders can speak to the Company commander. Company commander can speak to all Lance commanders. Of course, not only is this option complicated, but I doubt it would be used much or properly to justify all the work put into it. Not to mention trolls who get commander positions and neutralize the voip benefit entirely.

The more I think about it, the more Lance-only communication seems like the most reasonable option. Only speak with 3 other people at any point during the game. Team-wide messages still delivered via text chat.

 

I agree with Michael though..... this is the last thing they should be working on right now. Infact I would be happy with no updates at all till they finish CW. I have no faith that they will do the right thing and and less that that thing will be done correctly.... incompetence is the track record here. They have something to prove, and I don't think they even have a clue.

 

Damn, can't type fast enough with my wrist all F'd up.

 

I doubt there will be meaningful useage of such a thing as a team VOIP in MWO. Given how the main forums look and how the chat look ingame I really would hesitate to use such a thing.

And that comes from a player who loves the teamwork in BF2 Project Reality. There they have coded a Mumble mod for 3D positioning ingame (your voice is coming from your avatar and will sound weaker if further away, to the left of the listener, etc) complete with the following features:

Local speech (as if you were simply talking, closeby enemies will hear you)
Radio speech (within the 8 man squad)
Squad leader to squad leader (9 different channels)
Squad leader shared radio
Squad leader to CO

The entire numpad is mapped for coms. There are protocols for map coordinates, requesting CAS, com discipline, etc.

 

Lan, it would be awesome to see that level of depth, but we all know it would never get used properly

Also, you have to consider that the people on the forums aren't the same people you play with frequently and do not represent the majority of players in MWO. Also, it seems like most players who type in chat are dead. I would suggest that voip isn't available for dead players (as suggested in the OP).

 

Personally, I would like to see a Battlefield-like squad VOIP (or company VOIP)...will you get idiots who spend the match going "wa wa wa wa wa wa"? Yeah...but you'll also have people who use it to relay good info when they're solo dropping, and those people are golden to find

 

Meet new people and invite them to play with your unit and apply if they have potential.

 

But I have no friends...

I see the benefits of Voip in game, but I also don't think it would be used by many (at least in a constructive way), which would make it feel like a waste of resources for PGI.

I used to play a lot of Americas Army (from pretty much their first release up until AA3ish), and one thing I liked about that game was the ease of certain commands, such as "Covering Fire" or "Sniper". My favorite, was the ability to press "z" (by default) and a marker would show up on the minimap where your cursor was pointed while your character (and in game chat) said "enemy spotted". That easy access to an "enemy spotted" button/map marker was VERY useful. Yes, it's a static marker, but it was wonderful when I wanted to relay to my squad that there were 2 enemies hiding on the edge of a bridge. It allowed for better tactics, and it wasn't super hard for us PUGs to be helpful.

One thing to keep in mind, however, I think the Americas Army crowd was a little more team oriented/mature than the usual game base, or at least on the servers I played, so I may have had an unusually good experience with that particular game.

In summation, VIOP would be nice, but I don't think enough people would use it. "Command Buttons" or some better sounding name, would work better (in my opinion) because it requires less effort, and we don't have to listen to your lance leader's mother telling him it's bedtime.

 

That's not my mother, that's my wife you're talking about.

I have mixed feelings about VOIP for the obvious trolling it would invite.

Non-Verbal communication can be done via the command functions for Lance/Company Commanders (Attack, move, defend...).

Is anyone actually paying attention to them, or even following?

I think a set of "Comm buttons" for all players would be useful, with marks on the map (need assistance, enemy spotted, being flanked, gimme those damn LRMs, for what am I TAGging that Assault Mech behind cover you idiots) maybe a set of 10 items that are needed often.

 

Yeah, this post pretty much sums up the most viable suggestion. I made something similar to this waaay back in some other thread, basically the com rose from BF2. Point somewhere and you get "Move here" or "Attack my target/Alpha", can do fall back or advance, advance countdowns, etc...

Teamwork just needs a little bit of signals.

Even the old games had the F keys setup to give individual lancemembers orders, remember those? Hit F4 once to open the command keys for lancemate four, hit 1 to make him attack your current target. Hit F3 to open command keys for lancemate three, cycle a new target, hit 1 to make him attack that target.

Etc.

 

What about Tribes voice commands?

VGTB - Is that the best you can do?
VGS - Shazbot...

 

Oh mixed minds on this issue - 95% of players I'd love to be able to communicate with when pugging, 5% are retards but the educational value would be huge.

Most matches I'd like it and in fact I often type enemy moving style intel in company as it is.

There are three (imo) bad ideas in there.

- Dead players cannot use voip

This isn't real life and arguably you ejected when your mech was destroyed. In addition ... why have that restriction on in game voip when you don't have it on TS3/Mumble. You think I stop passing pertinent information on mumble and TS3 in 12 man as I can keep an eye out for hiding and ambushing mechs or warn what killed me? I'm a primary/secondary drop caller and I want to win. I'm not going to handicap myself to play the way someone else wants me to. In game VOIP should be putting me on a similar footing to out of game or its pointless.

- Lance/Company commander only

This brings back memories when the first person in our lance to log in would grab company comamnd for the simple purpose of stopping anyone else re-arranging our lance. Thankfully it doesn't seem to happen much nowadays so we don't bother. We never gave attack etc commands as usually we wanted to see what the pugs would do - waste of a command utility! I want anyone in my company to be able to call in enemy contacts etc....

- locational sounds

I know its authentic in foot soldier games but I'm not young and I have bad tinitus from a much mispent youth. The last thing I want is to barely be able to hear you. Its also totally unrealistic when you're in a 100 ton mech full of electronic suites, sensors feeding you intel, my sensors locating enemies and pinpointing them for indirect targetting... yes I WILL have methods to contact other people using real time encryption clearly within 3km that don't involve me shouting out the window!