Hybrid or manual, I’ll take either - but please please let us have the possibility to trigger manual vsays in your next game, this was one of the biggest disappointments in brink IMO. v56 ftw, I can still not understand how this feature which worked so great both in ET and QW was left out.
As an alternative to hybrid, it would be cool if the recipient of the message could control which ones to hear automatically.
+1
Edit:Tribes Ascend got voicechats, with a really nice addition - you can see which keycombination was used for a vsay whenever someone sends a message, so you learn them a lot quicker!
The same people who put a loud chargeup sound on their rocket launchers and a arming sound on their shrapnel grenades. I wouldn’t mind if the nade throw was a mechanical sound as long as it remained very distinctive audio cue.
Anything automated should be a locally broadcast sound.
Sorry dude I disagree, those examples you mentioned are programmed, shouting ‘GRENADE!’ is optional and I doubt every soldier shouts it in every single situation.
The Tribes Ascend community will find a lot of things to complain about, but everyone will agree that the game wouldn’t be complete without the vsays. It’s been pretty much unchanged since the first Tribes - because it works so well!
I doubt any soldier pulls out a pair of pliers and starts brandishing them at a supply dump when they are ordered to build a bridge. Certainly no medic is going to pull out his (and not her) AR and mow down his wounded comrades so he can pop them back to good health a second later. Only the devoutly religious believe they can heroically rush to their death with the certainty that they will be resurrected, seconds later. That doesn’t mean these mechanics are bad, it means the game has mechanics that differ from real life.
Dude, you’re the one that brought real life scenarios into the mix, only yourself to blame for that one (ok I kinda did, but mine was tongue in cheek). I’d rather have control of when I can shout it, which we know is perfectly plausable and a far better options than voice spam to a point where it’s usefulness is completely overridden.
Apart from ETQW being a great game, it could also have something to do with the splashdamages forums being the only “big” place where the etqw community comes together. I am pretty sure if you would hold the community questions on crossfire WOLF:ET would win all the time.
Anyway I was amazed when I found out that the v-says where missing from Brink. Hopefully we will see them back in their next game because the results from this vote clearly show that the fanbase wants them.
I voted for a hybrid system, but leaning heavily towards context based vsays for as much as possible. The obvious one being incapped players pressing fire to call out a medic nearby. It’s a lot more effective than hearing this automated “need medic” you tend to ignore easily because of the action.
Perhaps even a vsay key bind you can use to easily play a context based “need ammo”, “need health”, “need medic”, et cetera. You’d still have the vsay menu as a separate bind.
A hybrid. An extensive V-say list, as well as automatic communication that can be disabled. It needs to be more extensive than QW if possible.
V-Says are awesome. They tend to get over-rated sometimes, and teams still need voice chat for any serious match, but they are great for pubs. Also, QW vsays worked fine on consoles. I don’t know why people think it wouldn’t work. Its just a little slower…just like aiming on consoles.
At the same time, I actually liked the automatic chatter in Brink…such as the “thank you” messages. It made the game feel very alive and colorful. But it is an aesthetic thing for adding color to the experience, not something to improve coordination. There should be an option for people to disable the automatic stuff, especially for comp games. Similar to graphical options… a lot of players will want turn everything off.
I went ahead and bound chat phrases in Brink because the automated chatter just became meaningless background noise that was better muted (I don’t play competition btw). This was essentially the same problem as with the HUD. Overusing cues, both auditory and visual, means the important ones have to shout to not get ignored. Enemies and grenades literally need to glow and the speakers need to blow out when taking fire to show up over the other cues.
Also, automating “thanks” seems like a horrible term devaluation to me.
Imo the only vsays that have some teamplay value in etqw are “enemy disguised as me” and “medic,” then as much because it flashes a minimap icon. The rest don’t add much to coordination in a public game that would not be more easily and convincingly typed or spoken. Some, like inc arty or armor spotted, would be somewhat useful if the audio portion was location limited rather than global. Coordination is not why they are fun.
As you correctly note, I was following your reasoning when you introduced realism to argue against the game mechanic (when I pointed to similar cues), and, as I and others have already said, this is an audio cue that reduces the effectiveness of what is a one-hit-kill splash weapon.
We could introduce a context vsay button that, depending on the situation, says “Medic!”, “Need ammo!”, or, if we were holding a grenade, “Grenade!”. The launch audio cue could then, as I already suggested, be changed to a distinctive mechanical sound effect. Obviously, if “Grenade!” could be heard by both teams as in etqw, it would mainly be used as a feint.
About the “Thanks” thing…we should be able to disable it. But it does add a lot of color to a casual pub match. I like it in Brink, especially with the different accents.
Its the same as high-end graphical options, or things like lens flare. A lot of times, they probably just get in the way. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be offered… but just that we should be able to disable them.
As for using vsays for coordination…I find them very helpful in Tribes: Ascend. Asking people to defend the flag, or get the flag, or repair the generator, or chase the flag carrier, etc, helps a lot in making sure that someone is doing each of the important roles.
Being able to say that we need an engineer, or or asking someone to capture a forward spawn, is very helpful in pubs. Especially since the team that “guides their beginner players” the best in a pub usually wins. A lot of times in casual pub matches in Brink, I find myself typing “Focus on the objective”…“Stay with the bot”…“Grenade the objective”…etc.
Yea, vsays have fun uses as well…but if they aren’t improving general coordination then either the game doesn’t need coordination, or the vsay system isn’t extensive enough.
I think RtCW had the right amount of vsays split into the likes of requests, statements, info and replies. Too many and you run the risk of turning finding the right vsay into a game itself. In all honesty I really don’t like automated voice overs, anything important that the team need to know about the commander handled in ET such as ‘Dynamite planted’ and ‘Command post lost’… quick, snappy VO’s and not being reminded every 10 secs by someone that sounds completely pissed off at you what the objective is while the HUD is also flooded with the same info like in Brink.
This is the most important questions asked in this string of polls so far. Communication makes these team based shooters. And of course you need VOIP for proper matches, but for pub play, VSAYS make a huge, important difference.
I voted “let me trigger them myself”. Here ETQW really shined. The commands were tactically and strategically useful, but also good for some comeraderie, teasing and joking around after / during a match. I switched my vsays to letters rather than numbers (“VTE” rather than “451”) and found them much easier to learn and remember that way. I’d recommend that be the default.
In short, my opinion: no-vsay, no fun.
I simply couldn’t believe it when Brink didn’t have vsays – even after patches!! HOW? WHY? Such a fundamental error IMO. Did Bethesda say “NO VSAYS”?
The automated chatter in brink quickly fell into the background – it just didn’t seem like part of the game I was playing. As already said, “enemy spotted” don’t mean s*** when there are enemies everywhere.
One other communication idea that I think would be great in ETQW2 would be for every character to have a laser pointer indicator thingermabobbie. So you can communicated destinations / objectives visually to your team mates. “You got that way, and I’ll flank them from over there!” You could also include an upgrade your laser pointer / indicator thingy to be a kind that the enemy cannot see. etc etc.
The more there is to learn in a game, the longer its playability – no? Brink just removed so much, reducing the learning time to such a short period compared to ETQW.
I voted self triggered V-says but wouldn’t mind a few automated sounds or voices for certain things.
I didn’t really mind the automated “Grenaaaadeee” in QW when throwing one, but wouldn’t be opposed to not having it, or replacing it with a sound of maybe the pin being sprung out (or charged in stroggs case) and also making the sound of them hitting walls or the ground being more profound etc.
I loved the atmosphere in games where people would be using the “extra” v-says a lot. Especially after doing something silly or after a good shot etc etc, it added a lot to have all of those “extra” v-says. ( Strogg strogg strogg!, Oohh ohhh yeaaa yeaaa uhhh nooooooo. etc etc )
“Grenade” was a balancer, not a vsay.
It replaces the grenade icons you see in console games, that blatantly tell you a grenade is coming.
That said, Bc2 / BF3 use that ‘grenaaaade’ yelling thing for everything, where you dont even know if youre the one thats yelling stuff out. And then enemy finds you and youre wondering how the ****, they knew you were there.
So its important to point out, while I find the grenade thing ok - its only in the etqw single instance that its ok.
[QUOTE=AO;393464]I voted for a hybrid system, but leaning heavily towards context based vsays for as much as possible. The obvious one being incapped players pressing fire to call out a medic nearby. It’s a lot more effective than hearing this automated “need medic” you tend to ignore easily because of the action.
Perhaps even a vsay key bind you can use to easily play a context based “need ammo”, “need health”, “need medic”, et cetera. You’d still have the vsay menu as a separate bind.[/QUOTE]
Yeah that’s exactly it. I don’t want to vote for hybrid as it kind of suggest a 50/50 thing. But I rather see it have a 80/20 ratio.
The automated ones should then be limited to really broad things like for objectives and command posts “I’m arming the charge” “I’m capturing a command post” or whenever the team lacks an essential class “We need x class”. Everything else should be a vSay, people are rarely interested in whether or not you’re planting mines.
[QUOTE=Humate;393491]“Grenade” was a balancer, not a vsay.
It replaces the grenade icons you see in console games, that blatantly tell you a grenade is coming.
That said, Bc2 / BF3 use that ‘grenaaaade’ yelling thing for everything, where you dont even know if youre the one thats yelling stuff out. And then enemy finds you and youre wondering how the ****, they knew you were there.
So its important to point out, while I find the grenade thing ok - its only in the etqw single instance that its ok.
tldr: ETQW did it best kthxbi[/QUOTE]
No it didn’t, it replaced the bouncing metal noise the grenade made when hitting the ground in Rtcw/W:ET.
[QUOTE=tokamak;393493]Yeah that’s exactly it. I don’t want to vote for hybrid as it kind of suggest a 50/50 thing. But I rather see it have a 80/20 ratio.
The automated ones should then be limited to really broad things like for objectives and command posts “I’m arming the charge” “I’m capturing a command post” or whenever the team lacks an essential class “We need x class”. Everything else should be a vSay, people are rarely interested in whether or not you’re planting mines.[/QUOTE]
^^^ I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.
No thanks - either you get the benefit of using the vsays or you dont.
