Every game I’ve played in the last 10 years has had some sort of voice chat software that was either built into the game or was a 3rd party such as TeamSpeak, Skype or Ventrilo, and up until recently a major player has been chipping away at both or the aforementioned software and it’s called Mumble.
A good comparison chart: https://www.slant.co/topics/1607/versus/~mumble_vs_teamspeak-3_vs_discord
A few of the key items that Mumble has that is light years ahead of anyone else is:
The two coolest features for me are the In-Game Overlay and the Positional Audio. With the In-game Overlay you can see who is listening or talking to you or the group at any given time helps with communications. Positional Audio is the real deal when it comes to immersion: “Positional Audio is a feature of Mumble that places the people talking to you in a certain position relative to your own depending on their actual position in the game you are playing. This way you can hear the person like his actual avatar in-game would be talking to you” (Mumble Wiki, 2015). Take a look at these two locations to understand how it works: http://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Positional-Audio ; and http://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Games
I’m not sure if I saw it mentioned that Pantheon would have some sort of voice chat software included, but I would like to see them integrate Mumble into the system. The benefits are huge and the community is growing larger every day.
Update: 11/3/2016
A few months ago Brad did a Q&A on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/4y7sd0/i_am_brad_aradune_mcquaid_cco_for_pantheon_rise/
Near the bottom he was asked if there will there be a built-in voice chat system? and he responded with Yes.
Rint
Voice chat is a benefit only for those who want to use it. I do not want to voice chat in MMO's but I understand many others do. However, if you were to include it as a default feature then there may be times when a decision whether or not to join a group or guild based is based on VC requirements rather than in-game reasons. I would be miserable if I was in game and couldn't find non-VC groups.
Therefore, I think the best solution is to make VC part of alternate ruleset servers. I can choose not to play on that server and you can choose to play on it. That way everyone who joins understands that people on this server want to VC.
Yeah, I see what you’re saying and you're right it is a benefit for those of us who enjoy using them. I guess I've gotten spoiled with the VOIP software out there for those of us who game, but it does add another level of immersion to the game IMO. I will admit that back in the days of EQ, Asheron's Call, and Dark Age of Camelot that in the beginning my typing skills were really bad, but thanks to these games my typing is much improved and very fast (50 WAM). However, what I’m pushing for is adding features of a product like Mumble that has “Positional Audio & Overlays” as this adds lots of immersion IMHO.
Now whether or not Pantheon offers a built in VOIP or requires us to use a 3rd party product doesn’t really matter to me much, but if they were going to include one I was hoping they would integrate with Mumble since its open source and possible the best VOIP option available, or at the very least make it compatible with Mumble so if anyone chooses to use VOIP they could take advantage of “Positional Audio & Overlays”. I don’t think there is a need for alternative ruleset servers for VOIP; I just don’t see a need for it. If a guild requires VOIP then it’s up to the individual to decide if that guild is important enough to them to start using VOIP, if not then they can find a guild that still uses the texting…
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Hieromonk said:I would not mind Voice chat, if there was voice-box effects, such that when you spoke you sounded like a Halfling, or Orge, or Elf, etc..
Otherwise, voice ruins the whole immersion and fantasy for me.
Hi Hieromonk –
I like the idea of having a built in voice-box solution to change your voice in chat; I’ve used MorphVOX with great success with Mumble and it sounds awesome. Now it does take a bit of configuring in order to get it to sound like a Halfling, Orge, Elf, Female or male, but once its configured correctly you can sound as in character as possible with the software working through Mumble. https://www.screamingbee.com/News/MorphVOXProSupportsMumbleChatClient342011_95.aspx
I decided to use MorphVOX thru Mumble after seeing this guy use the different voices that are included with MorphVOX by default, but you can always tweak them to fit your needs. Is this perfect? Probably not but it adds immersion if you’re seeking it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13t69RVq1YY
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Dekaden said:I will not use voice chat for grouping unless I'm grouping with my close friends, and even then, it will be a 3rd party program (ventrillo server that I own) even if there is an in-game voice option.
As I was pointing out, I don't really care if they include VOIP or not because many players will prefer to use their own VOIP software for various reasons. However, what I'm hoping for is to point out some of the features of Mumble that can add a more immersive gaming environment with the inclusion of Positional Audio or Overlays. If you have not tried it yet and have access to the games that support it I would strongly encourage you to give it a whirl, it’s really a great addition to VOIP technology. Also, with Mumble using Opus as its codec there will be extremely low latency as compared to other VOIP products which will make the gaming experience much improved.
Rint
i always use chat for anything that requires coordination, leading raids = so much easier. I also enjoy voice chat with my close friends guildmates as i enjoy the chat. having said that i recently led a guild atht had a deaf guildie and we utilised typed communication a lot more. We coordinated our raids through froum discussion and if there were plans i would draw them up and post them. She was so damn good she left us for dead most of the time in how she prepared anyway !!
having said that, i will often move myself to an epty channel for some 'me time' where i can enjoy in game musoc/sounds and just zone in
Rint said:Dekaden said:I will not use voice chat for grouping unless I'm grouping with my close friends, and even then, it will be a 3rd party program (ventrillo server that I own) even if there is an in-game voice option.
As I was pointing out, I don't really care if they include VOIP or not because many players will prefer to use their own VOIP software for various reasons. However, what I'm hoping for is to point out some of the features of Mumble that can add a more immersive gaming environment with the inclusion of Positional Audio or Overlays. If you have not tried it yet and have access to the games that support it I would strongly encourage you to give it a whirl, it’s really a great addition to VOIP technology. Also, with Mumble using Opus as its codec there will be extremely low latency as compared to other VOIP products which will make the gaming experience much improved.
Rint
The positional audio sounds interesting. I'll be attempting to setup a Mumble server tonight to test this out. I'll let you know how it goes!
Building one from scratch may be a waste of time, and I can see that as a valid argument. However, incorporating an open source one such as Mumble should take no time at all. As I mentioned previously, I’m just suggesting that Pantheon be compatible with Mumble so players who use Mumble as their VOIP will be able to use Positional Audio and Overlays. If Pantheon integrated Mumble as their VOIP that would just be icing on the cake J
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I actually hate voice coms in an MMO. I like them for talking to people I know and think of as friends (either in game friends or real friends) - but beyond that, voice coms end up being much more of a negative for me than a positive - or they SEEM to be... because I definitely remember the bad experiences more than the ones that are not bad.
For example, there was a guy in a guild I was in for quite a while - and he played drunk quite a bit... and his house always seemed to be full of other people who were drunk. Now, I know I had some good experiences with voice coms and other people in that guild... but my predominant recollection is that guy being drunk all the time in voice coms. If I was on, and he joined voice, I gave serious thought to finding a reason NOT to be on voice... even if I had been enjoying myself talking to the other people before he got on.
Here's the interesting thing: Before I ever dealt with him on voice, I dealt with him in text chatter (guild chat, tells, etc...) and liked those interactions. Add voice, I ended up dreading dealing with him.
NOW - if that were a one time thing, fine. But voice, to me, if it's not a session where I know and want to be on voice with everyone there - too often turns into "Barrens chat" - if you know what I mean.
I will admit though, that some of that feeling on my part - maybe MOST of that feeling on my part, is that I'm 48 years old... playing a type of game that has a lot of teen to 20 something's playing - and what they find "fun and appropriate" - I'm stodgy enough to find "grating and annoying"
Wandidar said:I actually hate voice coms in an MMO. I like them for talking to people I know and think of as friends (either in game friends or real friends) - but beyond that, voice coms end up being much more of a negative for me than a positive - or they SEEM to be... because I definitely remember the bad experiences more than the ones that are not bad.
For example, there was a guy in a guild I was in for quite a while - and he played drunk quite a bit... and his house always seemed to be full of other people who were drunk. Now, I know I had some good experiences with voice coms and other people in that guild... but my predominant recollection is that guy being drunk all the time in voice coms. If I was on, and he joined voice, I gave serious thought to finding a reason NOT to be on voice... even if I had been enjoying myself talking to the other people before he got on.
Here's the interesting thing: Before I ever dealt with him on voice, I dealt with him in text chatter (guild chat, tells, etc...) and liked those interactions. Add voice, I ended up dreading dealing with him.
NOW - if that were a one time thing, fine. But voice, to me, if it's not a session where I know and want to be on voice with everyone there - too often turns into "Barrens chat" - if you know what I mean.
I will admit though, that some of that feeling on my part - maybe MOST of that feeling on my part, is that I'm 48 years old... playing a type of game that has a lot of teen to 20 something's playing - and what they find "fun and appropriate" - I'm stodgy enough to find "grating and annoying"
Luckily for you voice communications literally never work like this. It's always opt-in. I've never played an MMO with voice chat like "Barrens Chat".
Well - if I said I experienced it more than once, that more or less blows away "It never works like this."
It's also not alway opt-in... especially for raiding. But I have been in guilds where they more or less HEAVILY "encouraged" you to be in voice coms if you were online. It DOES happen... and again, I said much of it comes down (likely) to my age and my tolerence level for listening to inane conversations during my free time / play time.
Wandidar said:Well - if I said I experienced it more than once, that more or less blows away "It never works like this."
It's also not alway opt-in... especially for raiding. But I have been in guilds where they more or less HEAVILY "encouraged" you to be in voice coms if you were online. It DOES happen... and again, I said much of it comes down (likely) to my age and my tolerence level for listening to inane conversations during my free time / play time.
I guess what I'm saying is that regardless of whether or not it's integrated into the game, it still doesn't fix the problem.
People are dumb and they'll be dumb in voice comms or text. I'm not denying that I've had poor experiences with people in voice comms, I'm just saying that at the end of the day, I chose to be in voice comms and would have experienced it regardless of if it was in-game voice or third-party.
Pretty much every single serious raiding guild is going to require voice comms, and there are already well-established avenues of third party voice comms. That's the only reason I think it's a waste of time/money/effort to integrate into the game.
Wandidar said:For sure there is absolutely zero reason for integrated coms. I funded a server for a guild a while back. I think it was like $350 for a year for a 100 person server. Odds are, someone in a guild would front a server (or they would collect for one)
I respectfully disagree with you about integrated coms having a reason to be there or not. I guess I’m viewing it from different angles than you, or more specifically I’m viewing it from the angle of players who are not in guilds (large or small) but rather prefer to either solo or have a small group that they play with regularly. Having integrated coms adds value to players who want to use a VOIP coms and don’t otherwise have access to coms outside of the game; I don’t see everyone wanting to pony up $350yr for a Vent or TS server just so they can play with a few folks. However, if the coms was integrated then at least the players have a viable option to use coms for their small pickup group or small guild; I believe it’s important to have as much value add in a product as possible and this would definitely be a value add.
Now, as I stated before I don’t think it makes sense to build one from scratch, but instead take advantage of the open source scene and leverage Mumble which can quite easily be integrated into Pantheon due to Pantheon being built with Unity. There are 3rd party developers who are building plugins for Mumble or other VOIP solutions so they can be integrated into Unity, so I don’t think it would be pushing it too far to ask for VOIP integration.
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Rint said:Wandidar said:For sure there is absolutely zero reason for integrated coms. I funded a server for a guild a while back. I think it was like $350 for a year for a 100 person server. Odds are, someone in a guild would front a server (or they would collect for one)
I respectfully disagree with you about integrated coms having a reason to be there or not. I guess I’m viewing it from different angles than you, or more specifically I’m viewing it from the angle of players who are not in guilds (large or small) but rather prefer to either solo or have a small group that they play with regularly. Having integrated coms adds value to players who want to use a VOIP coms and don’t otherwise have access to coms outside of the game; I don’t see everyone wanting to pony up $350yr for a Vent or TS server just so they can play with a few folks. However, if the coms was integrated then at least the players have a viable option to use coms for their small pickup group or small guild; I believe it’s important to have as much value add in a product as possible and this would definitely be a value add.
Now, as I stated before I don’t think it makes sense to build one from scratch, but instead take advantage of the open source scene and leverage Mumble which can quite easily be integrated into Pantheon due to Pantheon being built with Unity. There are 3rd party developers who are building plugins for Mumble or other VOIP solutions so they can be integrated into Unity, so I don’t think it would be pushing it too far to ask for VOIP integration.
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Rint,
The money I paid was to run a server so that people using voice coms (in my case Vent back when I had the server) had a "place of our own." There are, of course, a lot of options out there for jumping on somene else's server - and you can always run a private server on your own system for a group, etc...
I'm really not sure what your disagreement is... as we both said "don't build one, use an existing solution."
I do not want to experience or hear voice in the game... My recent play in EQ Phinny server with the Pantheon folks has made this decision even clearer. I really enjoy the texting via groups, sales, private tells etc. and you do not have to hear immature idiots who can ruin an in-game moment.
Now, if we get to harder raiding, I can see the need for at least "listening" to the raid leader in order to all be on same page.
Krixus said:I don't like voice chat. Maybe for raids, but not for every day gameplay.
Pyye said:I do not want to experience or hear voice in the game... My recent play in EQ Phinny server with the Pantheon folks has made this decision even clearer. I really enjoy the texting via groups, sales, private tells etc. and you do not have to hear immature idiots who can ruin an in-game moment.
Now, if we get to harder raiding, I can see the need for at least "listening" to the raid leader in order to all be on same page.
/agree
