No Voice Chat?

wtf?

from Sins Forums
So yet another multiplayer online PC game with no voice support. When will PC developers figure out that this is an important and almost necessary feature to play with people online?

Communicating online on xbox live is so much easier than communicating online in your average PC game. Voice communication isnt complicated and there are several easily available voice codec's out there. In todays age of online gaming, not having voice chat makes the online experience feel very archaic.

I would have put this in the 'what do you want in 1.03' thread except that that thread is already way to long and it would just get lost there. Please take a couple of days and put in at least basic voice chat. Im not even asking for complicated team/private messaging, just one chat room per game would help a ton.
24,116 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
seriously who needs voice chat really?

Also dont underestiminate the time the dev's would have to spent to include it.
There are free solutions out there so why bother for an ingame one that is often inferior.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
There are a few reasons why it was excluded.

1) Whether making our own or (more likely) licensing another system, it's not at all a cheap addition.

2) Many people already use Teamspeak and Ventrilo, both of which are free and easy to use. So it would be something of a waste to reproduce the same functionality as these when they can already be used by anyone with any game.

3) If voice chat is included in the base game, then it becomes expected of people to use it. Given the maturity level present in a lot of games (or the lack thereof, more specifically), this is actually undesirable to a lot of players.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
There are a few reasons why it was excluded.

1) Whether making our own or (more likely) licensing another system, it's not at all a cheap addition.
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This is a total cop out. I am a professional game developer and I know exactly what is involved in voice chat. You can pick up one of the easily available codecs for free (put their name in your credits). Most of the work is in the interface design and would probably take an artist and a programmer a week to implement.


2) Many people already use Teamspeak and Ventrilo, both of which are free and easy to use. So it would be something of a waste to reproduce the same functionality as these when they can already be used by anyone with any game.
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True there are 3rd party voice chat programs out there, but these are hardly viable options for any kind of matchmaking system. It would be an imense hassle to get people to use vent/teamspeak casually in a game like this. The game isnt persistant enough for this to be a viable solution. Each game needs to have its own internal voice server so as soon as you join a game, you are chatting with the people in the game. This is a huge benefit to online communication.



3) If voice chat is included in the base game, then it becomes expected of people to use it. Given the maturity level present in a lot of games (or the lack thereof, more specifically), this is actually undesirable to a lot of players.
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This argument really holds no weight at all. Yeah there are immature people online, a simple mute functionality fixes that problem very nicely. In this online community, I have yet to see anyone really act immaturely. Most everyone playing this game online appears to be much more mature than the halo crowd.

For the most part playing games online on xbox live, people are there to play the game not to be a nuisance. I higly suggest you spend at least an hour playing games on xbox live to see the massive difference voice chat makes. Play Undertow, Poker, Rockband, anything online with a serious community and you will see the value.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Honestly, we're not Sony or Rockstar. Nine people were involved at Ironclad to make Sins and voice chat was not high on the priority list since free clients that are widely used are available that will do the job. Odds are that if we'd put this in, other features would have been dropped to make room. I'd note that World of Warcraft just got voice chat recently and I didn't see anything about them "copping out" beforehand. :P  Even now when I play most people aren't using the built-in voice chat, they're still using TeamSpeak or Ventrilo.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Acid, what you may not be getting is that just about any PC gamer that is into multiplayer games *already* has Teamspeak or Ventrilo installed and using it for several games. This isn't the console world where that isn't available.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

There are a few reasons why it was excluded.

1) Whether making our own or (more likely) licensing another system, it's not at all a cheap addition.

2) Many people already use Teamspeak and Ventrilo, both of which are free and easy to use. So it would be something of a waste to reproduce the same functionality as these when they can already be used by anyone with any game.

3) If voice chat is included in the base game, then it becomes expected of people to use it. Given the maturity level present in a lot of games (or the lack thereof, more specifically), this is actually undesirable to a lot of players.



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Acid, what you may not be getting is that just about any PC gamer that is into multiplayer games *already* has Teamspeak or Ventrilo installed and using it for several games. This isn't the console world where that isn't available.
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I use TS and Vent(I am very rarely not using it(so much more efficient than text its scarey).
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Acid, what you may not be getting is that just about any PC gamer that is into multiplayer games *already* has Teamspeak or Ventrilo installed and using it for several games. This isn't the console world where that isn't available.
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I definately understand this and thats great for playing with friends. But vent/ts is largely ineffective when playing with random people. It is far to much of a hassle to try to find out if someone in your game has a voice server and then trying to connect to it all while playing.

Now imagine the power of ts/vent you are used to. Then imagine that anyone that joins your game is in your channel that only consists of other players in that specific game. All of this is automatic and transparent, thats what xbox live and other games for windows live offer. Anything less is... last gen.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
This is a total cop out. I am a professional game developer and I know exactly what is involved in voice chat
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Time ot build your own game then and post back with links so we can see what you've done.   ;p 
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top


This argument really holds no weight at all. Yeah there are immature people online, a simple mute functionality fixes that problem very nicely.
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I think the argument is perfect. Does each player come with a maturity rating beside their name (can we add that to 1.03)? So you get stuck with them on your team and have to listen to them spew insults and garbage, or put them on mute and watch them ignore you when you need help.

Sometimes I like to watch Family Guy when playing Sins... I like to be able to say "sorry, don't have voice chat installed" then be forced to listen to nonsense instead of Peter!

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?forumid=402&aid=167279#1450101

In game chat would of been nice, but since SD made a dedicated teamspeak server i'm happy.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
That's not a Stardock server :P That's a user server, but it's dedicated nonetheless - anyone playing Sins is free to use it :P
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
Time ot build your own game then and post back with links so we can see what you've done.
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I dont really see how my resume has much to do with this discussion other than the fact that I know what it takes to implement a feature like this. But here it is anyway.

Legends of Wrestling
Legends of Wrestling II
RTX Red Rock
Gladius
Rockstar Table Tennis
Cash Guns Chaos
Everquest II: Rise of Kunark
Undertow

These are just the games I had a major contribution in. I have also done alot of techncal direction and support features for games not on this list.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Acid, what you may not be getting is that just about any PC gamer that is into multiplayer games *already* has Teamspeak or Ventrilo installed and using it for several games. This isn't the console world where that isn't available.


I definately understand this and thats great for playing with friends. But vent/ts is largely ineffective when playing with random people. It is far to much of a hassle to try to find out if someone in your game has a voice server and then trying to connect to it all while playing.

Now imagine the power of ts/vent you are used to. Then imagine that anyone that joins your game is in your channel that only consists of other players in that specific game. All of this is automatic and transparent, thats what xbox live and other games for windows live offer. Anything less is... last gen.


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Did you actually just use "last gen" as an insult? o.O PC games have had integrated voice chat for longer than the original Xbox has been around, so no voice chat would be two or THREE gens back, sorry. :P

Here's a hint: The windows version of Live! sucks quite badly. The Xbox one only looks good because there's nothing else available.

Here's another hint: None of that matters. The question is if public voice benefits the game, and IMO for Sins it doesn't. The game is slow enough you generally have time to type, for one, and for two including it would have diverted effort from other more important features. Especially, as said, its REALLY easy to use Vent/TS if you want. Doing so in a public game takes a bit more effort, but not all that much more.

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Most games that I've played that have voice chat are either not used, or abused.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

Did you actually just use "last gen" as an insult? o.O PC games have had integrated voice chat for longer than the original Xbox has been around, so no voice chat would be two or THREE gens back, sorry.
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You are right, and this is exactly my point. Voice chat IS the standard in online games now. And by 'last gen' I simply mean lacking features that put it on par with current gen online games.


Here's a hint: The windows version of Live! sucks quite badly. The Xbox one only looks good because there's nothing else available.
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I very much disagree. The matchmaking of Live (both windows & xbox) is top notch. Also Live as a standard provides many features (such as voice chat, profiles, rankings, common settings, etc) that make online gaming so much easier and convenient. I dont see how you can say it sucks when it is leaps and bounds above every other matchmaking service out there.


Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Cobalt, I would agree. COD4, BF2, Planetside, those voice systems go largely unused, and instead you see banners with a useable TS/Vent address for that server (if you are not on one already with friends).
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

I don't mean to be a prat, but this may be the first time I've ever seen someone defend Games for Windows Live...