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Anyone here got a server for any voice chat programs such as Vent that'd be capable of handling 5-15 people on it for communication during events and battles? Similarly, does anyone here have any particularly reservations about letting us hear their voices? Remember, it's for science and also coordination!

Studies show that coordination goes up 100,000,000% when those fighting are actually able to communicate hands-free during combat. Works wonders in League of Legends where I do a lot of 5v5 PvP with various people.

I'm a little apprehensive about using Skype as opposed to Vent due to the phone numbers being involved.

Yeah it kinda sucks also vent LoL is hilarious Keres: "udyrudyrudyr"

I have vent with my ooc guild. Works very well when pvping or such.

I'd be happy to use Ventrilo, but only for PvP battles and such. I can vouch for the fact, as I'm sure many people can, that it works wonders in terms of coordinating people on games like World of Warcraft and there is no reason to assume that wouldn't transfer well to UO. My only reservation is probably the thing that has kept it from being used before; the fear that it would detract from roleplaying. So as long as we just use it for battles and it doesn't end up as a place where everyone sits talking instead of getting some hard-line emoting on the go, s'kick it !

Oh and yes, I do have a rather deep Geordie accent, so consider yourselves forewarned. ;D

if its skype on the pc to pc you dont have phone numbers.... me kal and brenna use skype but the more people that are on the call the more it lags you. i believe that searchuo has a free vent server. i have not checked it out to see what it looks like

I know two servers owned by friends from college that host 20-30 rooms full of 5+ League of Legends players. I could check in with them to see if they'd be fine with us hijacking one of the underused rooms now and then. Just a matter of checking with them to see if they're fine with us accessing it, and making sure their server can handle the extra load.

I'll do some checking.

I have a vent channel we could use..

Another option is to use a server but only have it open for use during events and battles, and restrict the actual talking to Command and emergencies. If we want to do more with it and have individual rooms for teams during games and training, we can have one or two subchannels.

As a general rule, though, having the channel being general-use -does- distract people from the game and open up the potential for people to just be standing around and babbling in Vent. That said, Party, Guild Chat, and ICQ all do the same thing, and actually require the player to stop typing IG.

So I'd say that;
1. The channel should give Command members moderator powers if possible so that people that're abusing it can be muted, and if the channel is being abused before or during a battle, everyone except team leaders can be squelched temporarily.

2. The channel should have generically named utility subchannels that can be used to coordinate teams during games and battles. A way to divide up the chatter into, say, 'Archers', 'Stealthers', 'Mages', and a main group during combat.

3. The channels should maintain the same rules (and level of enforcement) as Guild Chat. If nothing much is going on, it could prove a useful vehicle for getting something going. But if there's an event on, or people are trying to RP, it should be silenced or the chatting parties should relocate to a subchannel.

S'my take on it. I think a voice chat program and server of some sort could definitely benefit us.

Unfortunately, it only takes a few people to spoil a good thing.  People who can't stop talking may be ones that are more likely to take things personally.

Skype is quite good but coms lower roleplay... we should try skype :)

Do many Guilds use voice chat? It seems a bit out of character; but I admit it improves performance. If other Guilds use it then I say its fair but.. mmm.

I'd be for it more for training than using it in an actual battle it's easier to convey what you mean out of character than it is trying to find an IC way. (ie: use mortal strike instead of finding some ridiculous way to try to get across stopping them from healing)

As for in actual combat and RP events I'd say no it will hurt everything, but training people with it would be fine unless someone just completely ignores etiquette and starts up conversations during the whole thing.

vent is great i use it in my cross shard adventurs with friends

Quite the opposite, it should be used during battles, but not during trainings. The purpose of it is to organize a group of people that're scattered across a large battle area, many of them totally unable to take a moment to type an emote or read what's said in party.

Hell, half the time we have to pry Ilyana off of someone after even calling cease thrice, because she, like many others, has a habit of getting very focused on the 'annihilate the enemy' bit. In a situation like that, being able to press a button and give a friendly verbal reminder would be ideal.

Similarly, it gives the scouts the ability to convey their positions and organize a proper ambush, or give the Grenadiers the kind of cohesion they need to survive as a group.

Ideally, all of this would be doable without the use of a VoIP Program. The simple fact, however, is that BoC is a guild that rarely has the same group of players active from year to year, and this severely impacts our ability to work as a team. It takes dozens of battles and skirmishes to develop the kind of coordination it'd take to work well as a team without using some hands-free method of communication.

As for the issue of it being an OOC method of coordinating in battle, and possibly detracting from any mid-battle RP that might happen; No one emotes in battles, and no one has for years, because standing still for even a few seconds to type an order -will- get you killed, as it did for me at last Sunday's battle. On that same note, consider that a great deal of our target calling and orders to rally somewhere or restrict the fighting to a certain zone is done via party or guild. Even the rules have to be given via party, since there's usually no IC basis for them.

Maybe Voicechat could be roleplayed?  :D

Last I checked a few guilds had issues with rp'ers using Vent/Skype during PvP. More or less because it does give the vent side a bit of an advantage over those who aren't using it.

I'd say if it's going to be used it should be more for casual chatting, a way of actually keeping GC clear for once.

no one wants to hear your voice.....

Last I checked it isn't against the rules to give orders and instructions in party or GC, so OOC coordination is perfectly acceptable. ;P

I 'dunno, the more I hear the pros and cons in this thread the more I think that using voice chat would blow up in our faces.  :(

Whether through distraction, babble or the possibility of disagreement in spoken form.

S'risky.

It maybe a risk but just like everything else, unless you try you will never know if it will work or not, I say just try it out and see how it does and if it doesnt work then drop it.

I see it as being nothing more than a hands-free version of Guild Chat, to be used for the same things and with the same rules as such. Anything that actually frees people up to type as their character rather than having long silences while they type out paragraphs in GC is worth it to me.

As far as I remember this was brought up several years ago. Agreed, it would add to tactical options, being able to coordinate on the battle field. It was ultimately shot down because it was thought that it would damage the RP in game while everyone was busy chit chatting on Vent, they wouldn't be paying attention to IG signals, and the RP side of the battle.

I still agree with that thought, and wouldn't like to see it.

People have and always will abuse GC, having Vent is only a quicker version of said communication. The advantages are obvious the disadvantages are equally obvious and the only new disavantage is that people can talk over each other. What vent also allows is multiple channels, if folks really need to chat it up then they can drop into another channel. We won't know until we try it, and admin can globaly mute people, and individuals can mute anyone they don't wish to hear.

However, in that light, the bonus of having Vent is that perhaps GC would be cleared up.

I'm still shifty on Vent use during battles, but I wouldn't mind seeing a Vent Channel so people can talk if they want to (if you don't want to, don't join the channel - simple) and GC could finally be given some reprieve.

But if Ventrilo use is based on a simple opt in or opt out principle then won't that lead to a crisis of Command...?

One lot becomes strategically tight and another lot is left in the dark...?

In response to the mute option, doesn't the use of that make using Ventrilo at all a moot point...?

(See what I did there, heh)

/Devil's Advocate

No because muted people can still listen.

S'true, why can't we just have that then...?

One person in command, the rest listening, that certainly rules out a lot of issues. If you use the program in this manner then you get exactly what you want from it (streamlined strategy) and rule out a lot of the negative aspects mentioned so far (babbling, argument, distraction, etc).

Kas makes a good point regarding that, though people cliqueing off already happens, the same people tend to liek to fight alongside the same, Cant verywel tell our members NOT to use vent, we can't even regualte or enforce that. The arcanists could have their own vent right nwo and none of us would know it (arcanist used as example only) SO really the only real way to gauge its faults is through use. I mean we can argue about it till oblivion take us and the fact that the same faults can already be pointed out in GC, Party Chat, ICQ makes those points moot. Vent also offers the ability to hear my gravely man voice, and Kas' omg is that a real english accent, and a chance to see if Keres really slurs all his words in the same manner as his characters  ;D

I make jokes but seriously give it a test run. What do we need to aquire a channel without burdening any one member? Its not Hoagie, nor Keres, Nor Ilyana, Nor Eason  or anyone else for that matters responsibility to shoulder the financial burden of setting up a channel. Unless we talk an aquaintance of some sort to let BoC use their Vent. . .
So how can we funnel some funds for channel set up?

Spoiler : Keres does not actually slur his word in vent.

Speaking as a member of, probably, the only guild you're ever likely to do any major PvP with ever again - I don't think I'd particularly be bothered about fairness if you started using Vent / TS (good luck having a lag-free UO experience with that many people in a Skype chat.)

There are certainly a few people in Grd that'd have a moan about it but they're the same people that moan that you have mages, moan that Orc! have a mystic, moaned that Rbl were always the attackers, moaned about Vesper's cheap tactics and whatever else. That's not a commentary on Grd alone, either, there's sour losers in every guild.

End of the day, BoC need all the advantages they can get eh?  ;)

Be even harder to stomp out the OOC chatter and get people to focus on their RP than it has been since GC was introduced, mind.

Well, Im not saying I totally agree with Su-mi, but his point is pretty clear. Ive never considered using vent in rp, but if there is a server for BoC and people start using it, I might listen in from time to time:)

And...I dont care about whiners, they are the problem usually, not what they whine about.

Fucking spot on.

Not that voice chat doesn't have obvious benefits, but is there any way we could try to improve rp-ing in normal battle? Pointers for that sort of thing might be useful to us less experienced schmucks >.>

I hear Octi was particularly eloquent in battle whilst in character? It's kind of something I'd aspire to.

Granted, voice chat would be easier, but I do agree that the consequences to the levels of roleplay versus guild/party chat might be a bit dire as Su-mi mentioned.

On yet another note, obviously, for people who tend to play UO in rooms containing... erm... well, people who aren't playing UO, this would obviously be not a viable option. This might mean that people who don't have the freedom of a microphone and a free space would be left in the dust of those who're able to speak their intentions, or at the very least there would be some waiting around if opinions are to be heard and fairly judged.

But yes. Erm... also, if the IC voice chat were to be attempted, I'm not sure my voice would be believable as Alfred's OTL

Sorry >.>

From playing WoW, I have to say that that almost certainly does happen.

Guild Chat starts to get ignored very quickly once everyone's laughing and giggling away on TS / Vent.


You're inevitably going to end up a little 'cliquey' with the people who will voice. You can't necessarily criticise people for that, it's much easier to be personal and have some good banter over mic - I'd go so far as to say it's great for team bonding. People often get at each other's throats a bit less when they can hear a human voice instead of just words on a screen.

But, yeah, you're going to end up leaving those who can't participate (or are too shy to participate) behind.

Eason and a few others are also known for mid-battle banter, but very few people manage to say much more than "Target ____!", what with the frantic, run-around-in-circles-screaming nature of PvP these days. If we could actually sit in a formation and slug it out things would be different, but as it is it's highly unlikely that anyone would actually still be on screen by the time you finished if you stopped to type something.

Last time I tried to type something mid-battle I ran into a pillar and the 12 Grd members behind me caught up. :P

On another note, whats the chances to make running through people a breach of roe?* It would make formations useful. hehe, oh I do wish warring guilds had felucca rules:P



*obv a joke.

Won't ever, ever happen.

Almost impossible to manage and will inevitably only lead to arguments about who ran through who. We've always asserted that issues like that should be enforces by individual guilds.