EverQuest II Voice Chat!

Roybob wrote:

Two days of heavy gaming with EQII (about 10hrs a day) for me = about 31 megabytes of download without chatware. Now I played another FPS game that had inbuilt voice (which, thankfully wasn't used much, as hearing 10 years play isn't my cup of tea), and for about 2 weeks it was over 3GBs of data transfer. I played for about 5 hrs/day to level up quicker then, so YMMV.
The issue I have with voice chat isn't so much as bandwidth, but how badly it'll break immersion and how it'll kill slower computers. No matter what type of voice font is used, it's still be more artificial than the game world itself. Guess for immersion types, voice will be out of the question. So I hope it'll be an option (or hearing only available), not a requirement. With slower computers, it'll kill the fps further trying to pump more data through an already narrow I/O. This 2003 computer with a 7900 videocard that can pull around 40+ fps in other games, crawls to about 28fps in towns @ high performance settings with high speed broadband; RAID-0 Raptors; and disk optimized for easier reading of files. :/

Zorlok@Guk wrote:

That's fine so long as we don't start getting rejected from groups for choosing not to use voice chat, or start missing out on roleplay events for choosing not to use voice chat.


Powers &8^]

Powers wrote:

A little about being excluded from groups because you don't do voice chat, Would you really want to game a group that did that, would you have fun with them? People get excluded from things in the game for lots of resins, some guild only take your Main alt, others require that you spend a min amount of time on line and doing guild business. Is the bad, No, it is how that group want to run their guild. If you don't want to follow the guild rules are you missing any thing? Not much, maybe a lot to frustration .

Also, there is Teamspeak, Ventrilo, Skye, and a hole slue of other Voice Chat application out there, How many people are banned from groups because they use teamspeak in stead of Ventrilo or text chat, I do not think that there is the great mass of people waiting to ban you from a group because you don't currently use a Voice chat client, and if they do they are the one that are missing out on your assume and unique gaming style.

Now I also want to look at the flip side of this argument and give some food for though. How different is telling those players that enjoy Voice Chat that they can't do it because "I only want to do Text Chat". How banning people from voice chat, differ from banning someone from a group because they don't use voice chat? These are all free choices, If I get dropped from a group, I look for another group that appreciates me, but what if I don't have access to a teamspeak or ventrilo server, I can't run skype, because it crashes my computer when I play EQII. Aren't you telling me I can't have voice chat because some one might not let you into their group?

This applies to the role play events also. Although I can't imagined any roleplay event worth going to would ban you you only want to text chat, personally if it did I would not want to go, and would not worry a bit about missing anything.

Kathy@Antonia Bayle wrote:

If the voice chat would immediately say "blank has disconnected" that might be a clue that you went LD. When there is a LD from a computer lockup, vent is gone too so its the same situation now even when using vent that people are worried about. If the Raid channel gets "MT disconnected" I would assume that he/she is LD unless they first told us they were turning off voice chat which should never happen in a raid except for extenuating circumstances anyway unless its a very simple raid.

I run vent on a different computer than the one I play on mainly for the LD and crash reasons listed.
I also have game sounds on through the PC speakers and have chat through a head set (mainly since voice chat gets a little too colorful for the kids to walk in on).
I would sometimes let the kids play EQ2, but there is no way they are going to be allowed to use voice chat. Normal text chat is bad enough.

I agree with above statement.. Heres another question.. will there be any parental controls available for those who have younger kids playing the ga,e. I understand that It would be xtremely difficult to put a profanity filter on the voice chat, but I for one don't want a bunch of little kids running around on voice chat, nor would I want my lil bro who lives with me on voice chat either. Ventrilo is colorful enough hince the reason I wear a headset but Ventrilo does have password protect.
So parental controls on the voice chat.. anyone.. ??
Yes I would love for the " Connect to Voice Chat " to be located on the launcher, and the settings and stuff be in game.. It would be quite annoying to be changing toons and be disconnected from Voice Chat. Or hell, a seperate launcher all together like Vent.

Anyways I will probably continue using vent..

121 dirtybird wrote:

Considering the fact that you have to be 13+ years old to even play the game under the EULA, should your kids under that age even play it? Let alone listen to voice chat. It would be nice if there were a separate login for the voice chat feature, but that would only work if you didn't have it set to autosave the login.

The main limit to voice chat is parental responsibility. Sony only has so much control on the access to the game, the rest is on the parent's head. Tell your kids to never use the voice chat feature unless you are there to ok it.

The Test Server has just been brought up with voice chat enabled.

Hop on and give it a try!

Purrfect wrote:

Yeh that's why i always refused to use it. It's not only about the voices textures
but also about what people say. Hearing Beavis orgasm when a Boss hit the ground or when his cherished
sword drops is something i cannot stand. And this even when Beavis is a rather nice guy ....

another feature request: we need any symbol in the raidwindow so we can see who already joined voicechat and who still needs an invite, but please dont use colors because thats not working well now, if you have 2 jobs (eg. leader/looter) your name can have only 1 color applied

walaruss wrote:

Hmm...

If everyone uses Raid chat (hit the Select Channel button on the Voice Bar) then the voice chat bubbles in the raid window will show up for the people currently in your channel. If someone has a voice chat bubble absent, they're not in the Raid channel.

Amaazing jobs, folks, and so seamless too. I especially like that the game screen no longer needs to be minimized to 'see' who is chatting as it is now INGAME voice as opposed to the old ' add-on' [ vent, ts ].
Huggs all around for giving us yet one more reason to keep our eq2 addiction alive and strong

Oh! and the ' extra bonus ' .... NO LAAAAAGGGGG Woooo Hoooo Thank you!!!!

Zorlok@Guk wrote:

I specifically excluded guilds, because they should indeed be allowed to set up their own rules. Groups are a different thing entirely. Groups are hard enough to find as it is without excluding those groups that are using voice chat and expect me to at least turn it on to hear instructions.

But they aren't the same thing. Text is the default mode of communication for this game. There are some voiceovers, but without text you'd be really flying blind the majority of the time. Voice, on the other hand, is (at least theoretically) optional and an added bonus; it's entirely possible to play the game with the sound muted.

Regardless of that, though, I would never tell anyone they can't use voice chat. But any vital communication I do in-group is going to be in text so that everyone can see it; I just consider that to be basic courtesy.


Powers &8^]

Maloc@Crushbone wrote:

I still haven't seen an answer to this question. I know our raid force uses this for certain fights. If this is not added or available, it will be better to still use TS or vent.

When/if proximity chat is implemented, how will this work on PVP servers?

LoL... PVP and Proximity chat...

I see you, haha, your dead...

That would be funny as hell.. IMO

Purrfect wrote:

I'd suggest you learn how to roleplay. I've played deeply immersive tabletop RPGs for years with only a handful of players along the way whose voice sounded like their characters voice. I really have played with guys with baritone voices who played delicate little female elf characters, petite gals with wispy voices who played burly male characters, and on the rare treat I've played with a few people who were so good at doing various accents and character voices that they should have been in show business. We roleplayers can get so deeply immersed in the story and the playing experience that the players' real voice qualities just don't matter.
So cringe away, Miss Anti-roleplayer.

I'm wondering a bit how harassment reports will work with VC. Yes, you can mute every Cartman that pops into a channel and spouts off, but how will you deal with those who can't control their vocabularies at all? Is there a saved recording of channels to consult, or is it going to end up word against word?

ZachSpastic wrote:

And I'd suggest that there are more than a few people who *do* find voice chat more than a bit creepy. While I, personally, will get over it (I've been in a raid guild that used VC before) it is not a simple matter of a lack of role-playing skills. I've known people who have quit playing rather than be forced to use VC in games in the past.

The quicker they add the voice fonts, the quicker there is a solution that makes the maximum amount of people happy.

And Purrfect has a killer accent that goes purrfectly with her character - so you missed the target anyway!

Grats guys nice work!

feedback:

1. Personally I would prefer default push to talk keys , one on the left side of keyboard and one on the right (right or left handed user friendly). This would make it easier to chose something that is not already in conflict with already used keys ingame.

2. Testing mic before joining chat may seem user friendly to those of us used to playing with the options, but it doesn't seem to be so intuitive for everyone. Instructions might read : Click record, talk for up to 10 seconds and then click play to hear yourself so that you can adjust accordingly. to hear yourself so that you can adjust accordingly.

Cloudrat

Here is a nice mic earset http://shop1.frys.com/product/29750...CH:MAIN_RSLT_PG