Community Question: V-Says and Automated Communication

(badman) #1

Community, communication has been an important part of all of our games. We’ve used different approaches over the years, including manual v-says (pre-recorded voice clips you can play via keyboard shortcuts) and fully automated systems that let your team know what you’re up to based on your actions and your character’s status. With these systems having such a fundamental effect on the way you play the game, and what kind of information is passed along and when, we’d like to know the following from you this week:

Which in-game communication/v-say system is your favourite?

Is full control absolutely vital to you? Can you not be bothered to use voice messages at all in the midst of battle? Do you prefer partial automation?

Cast your vote in the poll up top and let us know the reasons behind your choice in the comments.

(Faerie) #2

Hybrid. I’m completely worthless at remembering to let people know what I’m doing, and half the time I forget what keys do what, or I’m concentrating so hard on not dying in 6 seconds that I can’t push more buttons.

Sometimes, however, I like to be a giant child with v-says (like in ET, for example, running around going “Jahaha”) so it’s nice to have that available too :slight_smile:

(DarkangelUK) #3

I’d rather handle it all myself, and If I really need something automated then I can add it to a script. I don’t need every reload, grenade throw, spotted enemy to be shouted out in public.

(MoonOnAStick) #4

QW got this spot-on in my opinion (not just the v-says system but the large number of clips to keep things fresh and the tongue-in-cheek tone.) An elegant quick-chat dial, mouse-wheel-scrollable nested menus and the freedom to map shortcuts to any key.

One way to improve the dial might be to include more context sensitive options and a slightly more generous snap to targets/objectives. Oh, and maybe show the keyboard shortcut path like Tribes:A.

(Humate) #5

Something ive bitched about since pre-alpha of brink. Good to see you guys considering other options :wink:

QW method was perfect, as already stated.
When you hear someone ask for something, you can take it seriously. You know they will go out of their way to make your job easier, either by stopping what they originally planned on doing, waiting for you… or by taking the initiative and actually coming to you. Manual v-says essentially indicate intent, which is the bread and butter of pub play comms. Players shouldnt need to go into text chat, nor should they feel the need to use voip, which is basically what was required to play Brink.

It also adds personality to the game. It feels alive. You want the game to reflect the fact that you are playing against actual people, which is the point of MP. And by MP i mean multiplayer, not mingleplayer :wink:

(tokamak) #6

Now I get that Vsays are impossible for console players. So this is one of the many questions that needs to be answered seperately for each platform.

Automated voices aren’t selective, ‘enemy spotted’ doesn’t mean anything when the enemies are already all over the place. In QW the vsays meant something because an actual human considered it worth going through the effort of saying it. If someone shouts ‘medic!’ in QW then the actual player wants a medic rather, this is way more valuable for the medic than hearing ‘medic!’ whenever someone goes down.

SD needs to understand that when it comes to the tiny details that make PC-shooters worthwhile, they nailed pretty much everything in QW. Please just give the PC-gamers whatever QW did because it did it right. These little things aren’t always possible for the console (and Brink did a good job at finding a compromise for that platform) and should be adjusted for that platform specifically (and not be translated back to the PC again).

(Dthy) #7

All these Community Questions keep turning into a “ETQW did it best” :smiley:

(Snotling) #8

Haha true Deathwish, personnaly I always vote the ETQW-like option! :wink:

(tokamak) #9

There simply isn’t another game like it, and that includes SD games.

(MoonOnAStick) #10

I’m always wary of simply answering each of these questions with “just do it like QW” because I don’t think FPS design has totally stagnated over the last 5 years. But for communication QW really did have the best of all worlds.

(tokamak) #11

I do think FPS design has stagnated since ETQW. Brink employed a few concepts that should definitely be integrated (and I can think of a few hundred more) but the mechanics are all there and they’re top notch.

(DarkangelUK) #12

Really? I got sick of hearing “GRENAADDDEE!” all the time. Simple vsays do it for me.

(light_sh4v0r) #13

I voted hybrid. Unlike DAUK I thought it was very useful to have players automatically shout grenade, never bothered me. Pretty much everything else needs to be manual though. The biggest reason for that has been posted already: If someone goes through the effort of saying it, it must be important. If everyone is automatically screaming for a medic all the time, you just start filtering that out after a while.

(tokamak) #14

Grenade was a functional one as it warned the opponents as well. Way better than any visual cue.

(Humate) #15

Grenade shouting?
lol *** its been a while since ive played, but i remember that to be more of a balance / mechanic thing.
Like you give your position away, and it gives the enemy a chance to get out of the way.
I guess it could have been useful for warning team-mates, but I never really saw it designed for that.
But like I said, its been a while - memory is rooted

(tokamak) #16

Yeah it’s a balance choice.

(tokamak) #17

Also I like how ETQW didn’t have this problem:

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Saw it on the Reddit frontpage (and you don’t get on the frontpage that easily). Really well thought out SD.

(Boktor) #18

Too much automation tends to wash things out. I’m fine with little things being automated (spotting enemies, shouting grenade), but manually activating most everything works the best for tactics.

What I really love about vsays is how well they can work in pubs. It’s a great feeling when you do some on-the-fly coordination with a player you’ve never met.

(DarkangelUK) #19

I found it extremely annoying, I couldn’t a flying fu… helicopter if it was a balance/mechanic thing. And really, who alerts the enemy that they’re throwing a grenade at them?

(CaRe) #20

Some automatic reactions are nice and create a good atmosphere. But they should be able to be muted and not effect gameplay in general as they can annoy the player if he hears 5 times “grenade” per minute.

I missed direct commands for team members (follow, protect, defend objective, repair, escort, need a medic, need ammo, need class x, I am class x, need weapon buff, need flak jacket, …) and reactions for the global chat (great shot, thanks, sorry, yes, no, cheering, good game…) in brink.
I hate running around without ammo and no way to notify all soldiers that I need ammo. Running back to the CP to resupply was the result of that.

It’s something that was great in ET.
In the end it’s just a shortcut for writing in the chat, but it’s faster and if it creates symbols for the classes, it’s just great because most beginners do not give ammo to the people around them by themselves.

It’s important that these are mutable because they are exploitable to annoy the enemy or to create lag.
Oh and make sure that these notices aren’t drawn where your crosshair wants to aim. it should be made impossible for them to cover the enemy with these symbols. That’s something that bothered me with brink and led to some deaths because a teammate who was in need of a revive lay in front of an enemy and I couldn’t see that enemy because of the symbol on the HUD.
The possibility to scale these icons would be wonderful to avoid this scenario.