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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Localized Speech, Bards, and World Enrichment
Bahlder
Member
Hi all,
Curiosity - Does anyone else think it'd be really cool to have localized voice chat? I was just thinking, it'd be really cool to be able to read RP poetry or just get up to ludicrous stage antics as a Bard in a tavern. Or I mean.. Actually have a legit conversation in a tavern in general. Even for non-RP folks, being able to roll in to a tavern and see somebody performing a (albeit potentially aweful) piece of written work.. it adds this level of world enrichment that really brings to life the world you're in.
It goes without saying that localized voice chat can create a lot of toxicity - But maybe this is an issue that can be designed around?
- Bahlder
Curiosity - Does anyone else think it'd be really cool to have localized voice chat? I was just thinking, it'd be really cool to be able to read RP poetry or just get up to ludicrous stage antics as a Bard in a tavern. Or I mean.. Actually have a legit conversation in a tavern in general. Even for non-RP folks, being able to roll in to a tavern and see somebody performing a (albeit potentially aweful) piece of written work.. it adds this level of world enrichment that really brings to life the world you're in.
It goes without saying that localized voice chat can create a lot of toxicity - But maybe this is an issue that can be designed around?
- Bahlder
0
Comments
Regarding your Tavern comment:
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Tavern_communications
"Taverns offer private chat and voice communications for all patrons within the building.[1]"
Using discord is mandatory if you want to be well coordinated, but if someone from your team runs back to town they will get stopped and bugged by some random person. Confusing the whole group who has to listen in on this random one side of a conversation. All because people can't get used to two push to talk keys.
When you are with people who can correctly use two push to talk keys. Some bozo on the street will walk up and start bugging you about some random crap at the exact moment someone on discord has something important to say. Juggling the audio levels is a nightmare for both programs and everyone's mic. If it was just discord it would be fine, but games give you so few options to raise or lower peoples volume. One person will walk up and start talking to you with a low voice. You turn the game up and have a conversation. Ten minutes later you are putting stuff in the bank and people walk up screaming in your ears.
The inclusion of local voice chat also seems to make people do everything they can to hide local text chat because most people seem to ignore anything that is not typed in /help. From a audio prospective It is a massive mess, but it is no fault of the game design. It is just what happens when you include local voice chat in a massive online world.
This has always been my experience with local voice chat in the past, but living with it again really makes me dislike it. In no way do I feel like my gaming experience is more immersive or enjoyable with local voice chat. It is just a minigame of trying to communicate with people without my ears bleeding.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I appreciate that - Will read.
I actually agree with both of your replies, and I appreciate the thoughts. I should've been more clear - I was thinking localized voice chat as more of a toggled aspect of gameplay. Either that, or something to be toggled only in certain locales, such as taverns. Or potentially have a white-list of folks who you allow to communicate with you locally regardless of locale.
I work in finance however, and not game design; I'd imagine that the above is harder to do than I properly understand.
I was a Localization Manager at Activision for 10 years, so...localized voice chat has a very different meaning to me than what you intended.
I typically hang out in Skype/Twitch/Discord voice chat anyways.
Seems like there would be too many logistics problems with the kind of proximity voice chat you suggest.
Trolling, background music, etc...
Seems like the people I would white list would probably already be available to me via Discord chat.
Curious to know how MMORPGs might handle this 5-10 years down the road.
@Vhaeyne this made me laugh "All because people can't get used to two push to talk keys.". I actually hated when I tried to use 2 push to talk keys but completely understand the need for clear coms. My solution on discord was to keep "always talk" on (most everyone will use push to talk but my all talk is on for callouts and because I am lazy) and when I need to deal with someone in game or at home my + key on the right will mute myself in discord and left alt will push to talk those in game coms.
Even if it's modern music.
A family member invited me to play ARK recently and when random people sprint at you and yell "Hey! Hello! You there! Hey buddy! What are you doing? Hey! Hi there!" regardless of their intention, want, or motive, it's always a little intrusive to be forced to listen and hear them.
On the other hand in another situation where the chat was being used as intended, it was so disorienting and weird to hear people having conversations about whatever in the middle of a city. Almost made me feel like I was peeping.
Plus, there's always those with volume control issues. Whether it comes from a poor quality mic (no problem there, outside sources like discord can easily adjust each person's volume) or from someone trying to troll (also easy on an outside source as they can just be banned from the chat channel).
Overall, while in-game chat would be cool in theory for things like performances, I generally find it never works as well in practice.
Hahaha - Yeah fair; I should've accounted for large aspects of this forum - given current game dev state - having that kind of background. Touche.
What I'm gathering from the replies is that open-channel localized comms is a big no, which I agree with. But it does also sound like whitelisted comms may have a place.
What I would also put forward is that in-game voice chat (assuming white-lists and personal control over such) is... really immersive to an atmosphere like the tavern. I just think it'd be really, really cool for those gaming sessions where you want to turn off discord and just get lost in the world. I normally am in Discord as well - Totally got you all there. But experiencing localized chat could change that whole dynamic. ESPECIALLY for RP.
Regardless, it sounds like locale dependency and whitelisting is a requirement, which makes sense to me the relatively ignorant geek. >=)