Invoice chat where ingame distance matters (Idea from Jared)

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

Jared:

Many games have a talk key that only allows your voice to be heard when it is held down. I find that method cumbersome especially in games that require a lot of your focus. As an idea, I have always wanted a game with true voice mechanics so that if your talking your voice only carries so far and if your yelling it can be heard farther away. I don’t know how this might be accomplished or if it is even feasible for a game, but I think it would fit in well with a game designed around immersion and a real world feel.

 

 

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

The Novaquark Team:

This is definitively an interesting idea! You’re 100% right on the fact it would improve immersion.

We will discuss about it in the team to see if this can be developed in some ways.

If this seems achievable, it will most likely be a stretch goal for the crowdfunding campaign!

 

[jrhod99]

I've been thinking some more about this and realized that the issue of not being able to communicate because there are to many people around could possible be solved, what if instead of having everyone in an area all talking and interrupting others conversations, you could have it set to where only a group of friends would be able to talk like they would in real life giving you the immersive feeling between friends while still allowing you to have meaningful conversations that everyone understands. Also this would help because I assume that having a dynamic voice chat system like I suggested between hundreds of people would be very resource intensive on your computer so by limiting it to groups instead of everyone you would be able to save a lot of processing powers for other parts of the game. Just an idea that might make it more feasible please tell me what you think of it.

[spacelike]

Doesn't it defeat some of the purpose of its use for immersion if it has to be limited to a certain group of your choosing?

and as someone else pointed out, people would just resort to alternative means of voice communication, like mumble or teamspeak, if they were already going to group together in-game they might as well just do that and not have to worry about distance between each other

[jrhod99]

I understand that not everyone would use the system. I feel that a system like that would be available to those of use who just want to make the game as immersive as possible. I do get that it would lose some of the immersive quality of it and I had hoped there would be another solution besides the one mentioned, all I was saying that if you can't find a way to implement it where everyone can talk with real time distance then you might have it only within a small group so that it would save on CPU power and noise confusion. Also I was thinking that there would be an in-game radio like system that would eliminate the need for using team speak in addition to the distance based voice chatting(a.k.a Dynamic Voice Chat System). The ideal system for me has both the radio like system for communication between people where understanding each other and quick communication are key and a Dynamic Voice Chat System that gives an immersive feel when you are in a city or around other people. So have a communicator that you talk through which will sound the same distance from you at all times and can communicate with others over long distances, but the when the communicator is not active get the conversations that are going on all around you.

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

The main problem here is the following: 

As long as any ingame voice chat system will have higher restrictions than a classic TeamSpeak or Mumble Server, a big part (if not a majority) of the players will use an external communication software/application. Even if it's for immersion, players will prioritize efficiency over immersion, especially during combat/PvP phases. The idea of having a "realistic" ingame voice chat system where ingame distance matters is attractive for immersion, but this is generally a lost battle when it also involves efficiency in a game where PvP exists. 

[jrhod99]

I totally agree and that is why I suggested having two separate systems one for direct communication such as during combat that would work just like a phone call no dynamic voice needed there, but then also have the dynamic voice system during normal interaction betweenplayers.

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

Implementing two separate systems of voice chat would be very low in terms of game development priority: There so many things to develop to make the game complete before implementing this feature. We keep this in the suggestion list, but I can't promise this will be a feature accepted by the dev team. Even if it is, this won't be developed before a long time.

[MisterRD]

If we were to implement an in-game VOIP system, I'd like to advise taking the route that Arma takes. Arma's VOIP system is very excellent and highly efficient for immersion.

 

- Vehicles have their own VOIP channel so people within vehicle can only speak to each other. Voices can be heard from outside of the vehicle as long as the person speaking is standing right next to the vehicle.

- Voices are restricted to the rooms. So people within a room can communicate without being interrupted with voices from outside the room or building.

- Voice distancing. People talking to you in front of you have a much more dominant volume while people speaking far have a much lower volume. Those speaking very far have either their voices at the very minimum (think murmuring) or non-existent.

 

Voice distancing is a very important feature to implement. I think VOIP could be a very great feature as long as the right mechanics are implemented. With excellent VOIP system and Oculus Rift, you can truly achieve the level of immersion unparalleled in current gaming industry.

 

But I do agree, using out of game VOIP systems will still be considered the best in terms of warfare. But no one is saying they can't co-exist to create the perfect balance.

[Astrophil]

If we were to implement an in-game VOIP system, I'd like to advise taking the route that Arma takes. Arma's VOIP system is very excellent and highly efficient for immersion.

 

- Vehicles have their own VOIP channel so people within vehicle can only speak to each other. Voices can be heard from outside of the vehicle as long as the person speaking is standing right next to the vehicle.

- Voices are restricted to the rooms. So people within a room can communicate without being interrupted with voices from outside the room or building.

- Voice distancing. People talking to you in front of you have a much more dominant volume while people speaking far have a much lower volume. Those speaking very far have either their voices at the very minimum (think murmuring) or non-existent.

 

Voice distancing is a very important feature to implement. I think VOIP could be a very great feature as long as the right mechanics are implemented. With excellent VOIP system and Oculus Rift, you can truly achieve the level of immersion unparalleled in current gaming industry.

 

But I do agree, using out of game VOIP systems will still be considered the best in terms of warfare. But no one is saying they can't co-exist to create the perfect balance.

 

Definitely so. Great idea - simple concept, but it would add so much more to the immersion. Maybe it can surpass TeamSpeak and Overwold. It is a next generation game after all. DU-specific design and exclusive integration for convenience are DU's in-game VOIP's advantages.

[Kiklix]

I no longer play landmark, but they have a proximity based chat and frankly it's nothing more  than a pain in the butt. If someone is working on something and you come over to see it and chat etc, you have to constantly follow them around. In that game, the builders can fly on their claims the visitors can not so have to constantly use a grappling hook to stick to the side of buildings etc.

 

I am all for immersion. I still miss feeding pets and crafting and using ammunition in world of warcraft but actually using a proximity based chat in game is cumbersome and not very fun to use. 

[Sherin]

Anarchy Online way back when had a "local chat" (I forget what it was called) where who saw what you typed depended on the physical distance between players. It worked *wonders* for immersion. 

People still used out-of-game voice systems for technical communications, obviously, but for reasons stated above, but for immersion and roleplay purposes that chat thingy was great. In cities you could hear people talking in the square and then lose some strands of the conversation when you moved out. Or you could actually go into a corner and whisper things and someone might overhear (or eavesdrop).

It was not really cumbersome because you always had other chat lines and oog voice to use if you wanted to get things across.

[norab7]

I'm going to throw my 2 cents in here and say any in-game VOIP should be at the lowest of the low priority over anything.

 

As a player who's played many many games that have Voip i've always chosen TS over them. Don't get me wrong, i don't dislike in-game voip it's just that it doesn't beat TS at all in anything other than immersion and talking to people who you don't know.

 

Local chatting between friends is not the priority i would put on voip but talking to strangers is, people who know each other will generally always have a method of communicating outside of the game and will prefer that, but strangers you meet will have nothing.

 

A system i would like for voip would be a 'sizeable' area around the player (that can be totally muted too) that allows listen and chat, so the player chooses both the distance they can hear and speak.

If players are outside this area then they could have a form of notification or speech bubble above their head indicating that they are speaking within your hearing range but you have selected to not hear that distance. People speaking within your range could maybe have a notification too so you know who's talking to you.

 

Improvements to equipment could possibly increase the range you can talk hear at.

 

I personally won't use any in-game voip other than to talk to strangers on the odd occasion as i'm a voice-activated TS user and muting one to talk on the is bother to me.

[Allammo]

I'd like to see or rather hear voice through game system. Usually I'm using TS cause I haven't found good voice communication system in game. I believe competitive to TS chat system can be done in DU, even more, should be done as one of main feature! DU is going to be placed in distanced future so it's gonna be sci-fi game allowing players to move forward in time just to feel wonders of coming future. In this days you can talk to friend next to you and one in other country, continent even, and you don't need TS to start long distance conversation. So I suggest add cell-phone... Well not the one we know now, highly advanced sci-fi future, interstellar version of device people currently carry in pocket or purse. This way you could talk to strangers in a cities, on a markets, and call friends, or group of friends. Maybe even text to them, send picture or short video, possibilities are limitless. There might be redlines for warfare communication in guild/company/corporations bounds and other features TS doesn't have. Immersion is something that makes DU very special so this should be priority.

 

Loose thought: I wouldn't mind to see such device with trend mark of one our current cell phone producer. In other words I haven't got anything against product localization to boost up game development, and I believe many companies would like to be seen in really successful game.

[guttertrash]

I agree with and quite like what nora suggested. 

 

Making an in game comms system for open communication with general population in range, with frequency channels so you can avoid the annoying people could be a great addition

 

 

and i also agree in game voice should be a pretty low priority given the limited use it will see. 

 

perhaps what jankaw mentioned is an even better implementation like a local chat that players in range can use to type to each other, that would see substantial use 

[Vulpin]

The whole local chat system should defiantly be a low priority, but once the game is really going its importance is going to escalate, so I'm of the opinion that we should continue to refine this idea so that it is fully flushed out when it actually gets implemented.

 

Following that line of thought, the local chat concept is really cool for an immersion player like me, but for the average person who just wants to play a fun and unique game, someone who isn't actually used to these kinds of systems may be intimidated by the local chat system vs. TS systems. For DU to grow it will constantly need to be friendly to new players as well as complex enough for the hard-core gamers, immersion seekers and casual gamers alike. I'm just trying to be devil's advocate here. If you want to grow a community, you need new blood, but to keep a community strong we need the long time followers, so it is a delicate balance. Personally, I like the local chat option, since I am more of a fan of immersion game play rather than casual gaming. 

 

Everyone so far has brought up excelent points, but a; we're not even close to any kind of implementation, b; we've barely discussed this so far, c; the more we discuss the better it will become! The need to discuss discussions ( ) is really important in this kind of game, and doing so will improve the game in the future.

[Allammo]

We will see what kind of solution developer team will implement. I'm surprised most people place voice system so low in priority. I understand some people might be intimidated by vocal communication, but no one suggesting forced opened microphone. Voice system, especially close range is required for having fun with interactions between players or group of players that are stranger to each other. I can't imagine such wonderful universe totally muted, vocally enclosed to sterile group of closest friends connected to some TS server, alt tabbing (or control tabbing) whenever they would like to speak with someone else, or even writing like hell trying to chase up text lines prompting really quickly. So my question to all 'low priority' fallowers is, how do you imagine communication in such game without decent voice chat system? How do you imagine conducting business with strangers? How do you imagine political discussions without it? If NQ want to succeed with all of their amazing ideas and plans it can't be done without immersive communication. That is my opinion, I've played a lot different titles and communication was always issue, just another limitation to feel endless fun of immersive gameplay.