Voice Chat Defaults to Friends Only? Not Good.

(Bridger) #1

So I was watching this interview, and while I really like a lot of it, I am concerned by this part where they say that voice chat will default to only speaking/hearing your friends.

I have a big problem with this. I am worried that it will result in voice chat being useless (and thus not used) in pub matches. This is because as a player, if I want to warn my team about an ambush, or tell a medic to meet us at point X, or ask a question, I would like to talk to my whole team, not just my friends. Knowing that the default is “only friends,” I can be quite sure that at least 2-3 people on my team have not changed the default, and so now I MUST type out everything instead of speaking.

The default should be to hear everyone but have an easy and obvious method to mute/ignore any player who annoys you. This incentivise everyone to communicate via voice chat but also prevent people from abusing the voice chat.

At the very least it should be trivial to look at the scoreboard and figure out who is able to hear you. This will also let you know who is ignoring you, and maybe let you know to stop being annoying on the mic. In most games, if people mute you on their end, you have no idea that you were upsetting them or why. Maybe giving feedback to the annoying players will help them become less annoying :slight_smile:

(DarkangelUK) #2

I know you’re new to the forum and I don’t expect you to know every discussion that’s happened in the past, but just a little FYI… this has been discussed in great detail, with people that have your views on the subject and people that don’t. You should be able to find it in a search which should give you an indication of the overall feeling towards the choice of friends-only voip.

(Jess Alon) #3

I guess Splash Damage should ditch the huge intuitive autochatter system that they’ve poured so much into on your word then.

Think of all the screaming 12 year olds and offensive loudmouths and racists on voip. SD doesn’t want the people playing their game to ever have to hear these idiots. They want you to play the game and enjoy yourself. If it’s such a big deal to you you should hook up with some good people on here and make sure you have a reliable team to play with who can also communicate like mature adults. endrant.

(Bridger) #4

Ah, sorry, I’ll go take a look at that then. It was a recent interview and I didn’t know that info had been revealed already.

I don’t think it will change my opinion in the least though. I am going to be very frustrated if I’m trying to provide warning or direction knowing that only half my team is hearing it, and the result is that I’m going to have to type everything out. This is going to be VERY frustrating to me, as I’m much used to the open mic constant communication in L4D (though obviously PTT is much better with more players on a team).

(Bridger) #5

[QUOTE=Jess Alon;270199]I guess Splash Damage should ditch the huge intuitive autochatter system that they’ve poured so much into on your word then.

Think of all the screaming 12 year olds and offensive loudmouths and racists on voip. SD doesn’t want the people playing their game to ever have to hear these idiots. They want you to play the game and enjoy yourself. If it’s such a big deal to you you should hook up with some good people on here and make sure you have a reliable team to play with who can also communicate like mature adults. endrant.[/QUOTE]

I have played a LOT of games with VOIP. I have only had to mute maybe 20 people out of the 400+ hours playing TF2/L4D/NS. What screaming 12 year olds and offensive loudmouths are you talking about? Have I been incredibly lucky? Or are you talking about console and not PC?

It’s a non-issue on PC. If I ever do join a server where half the team is blasting music or screwing around on the mic instead of talking, I leave and find another one, but even those situations are very rare.

In addition, many of the people on my friends list wouldn’t be there if I hadn’t met them and communicated with them in a pub game. I add people to my friends list when we communicate well on voip. With the default set to friends only this interaction will never happen, and I will have fewer friends :frowning:

Do other people have such horrible experiences as the above poster that they would desire VOIP turned off (essentially) by default? Have I just been incredibly lucky?

(SockDog) #6

You realise there is PTT in L4D too? I really don’t need to constantly hear your TV in the background and your significant other asking if you want another beer. :slight_smile:

(Bridger) #7

I don’t have a TV in the background, and my Significant other is in the game with me so if you hear her it’s probably for the better :slight_smile:

I have always preferred open mic with the sensitivity properly set. I don’t talk unless I have something I want others to hear, so why should i use one of my fingers (which should be throwing grenades, jumping, moving the mouse, firing, etc.) to do it?

What’s most important with open mic is making sure you have a good microphone (I have a Shure SM57 (instrument mic with a cardioid pickup pattern which keeps background noise down), and making sure you set sensitivity correctly. I’d much rather keep my hands working franticly to keep the zombies back while I call out a warning than try to do finger gymnastics to perform the same functions while holding down another key. I find in games which force PTT I will have to delay my warning/instruction in many cases when I’m deep in a firefight.

But enough about open mic vs. PTT. I can deal with PTT (in fact it’s very likely better to enforce PTT with more than 4 players). That’s not the topic at hand.

(Jess Alon) #8

He’s probably talking about console. Voice off by default. Servers can be customized for whatever. But you know that.

(JeP) #9

People should really get a chance to try the game before complaining about all the changes from the random multiplayer shooter.

I’m not saying “don’t talk about the game before it’s released”, but can’t we discuss these features instead of assuming SD should do this or that ? Especially given the fact that for a lot of features there will be options to activate them or not.

For my experience, I only talk with friends, and usually not ingame but via Mumble. I had talk on occasion with strangers in L4D, but then you can’t be more than 4 in a team and communication is crucial, it’s almost not worth playing without a mic.

(Bridger) #10

Ah, just found info that suggests it’s a server setting, so you can join a server and know that everyone will be able to hear you. I’m satisfied :slight_smile:

(SockDog) #11

Agreed, if it’s set up right there is no problem. I’ll let you off. :slight_smile:

But enough about open mic vs. PTT. I can deal with PTT (in fact it’s very likely better to enforce PTT with more than 4 players). That’s not the topic at hand.

As DA said, the topic has been extensively argued about already. I’m totally with you on enabling it by default and making muting easy and accessible. Others feel it’s more important to protect against even a slight exposure to something annoying.

(MatthiasK75) #12

i have no want to talk to other people who are not my friends. sure i do meet some cool people but most of the time is just trash talk and annoying people, and theres people that are just having conversations and what not which i dont mind but it kind of interferes with me and my friends’ own conversations (lol hypocritical). Teamwork seems to be build into the game so if they want to get anywhere they will end up having to help me and im sure theres built in ways to warn of most things (like the operatives and mines) so i kind of like the system they hae, i get tired of having to go to the scoreboard to mute everyone

(JeP) #13

Plus, playing at Quake Wars these days, the autochatter was already quite well thought. I’ve got no worries that Brink’s one will be really useful and sufficient in most cases to play in team with strangers.

(Maca) #14

I would also point out, that even though VOIP may default off, if you join a fire team (that can have max 8 players, in other words your whole team can be in one fire team) the VOIP is on in that fire team.

(Jess Alon) #15

I thought fireteams was limited to two people.

(DarkangelUK) #16

As little as 2 people.

(Jess Alon) #17

Well… A one man fireteam would leave you talking to yourself. Which sometimes you find yourself doing anyway if you forget to turn your mic back on after yelling at your wife.

(H0RSE) #18

i have no want to talk to other people who are not my friends.

Same here. I never talk to people I don’t know.

(Jess Alon) #19

Horse you aren’t very vocal on chat really at all. I’m not surprised that you don’t like to play with people you don’t know. I hate playing with people I don’t know because sometimes they are ok at first and then they go all bipolar on me later.

(H0RSE) #20

Horse you aren’t very vocal on chat really at all. I’m not surprised that you don’t like to play with people you don’t know. I hate playing with people I don’t know because sometimes they are ok at first and then they go all bipolar on me later.

I’m not very vocal due to specific social anxiety. I also exhibit symptoms of Aspergers. This is why when I do talk, there isn’t much inflection in my voice.