Guild Wars 2

Merrik.6734:

You should be able to turn it off, and easily mute specific people. For PvP, I’d use it. For PvE I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t expect everybody to use it.

Voice emotes are helpful but robotic. They’d be a step in the right direction but in a PvP game I’d prefer to be able to illustrate ideas beyond the scope of what they’d likely implement via voice emotes. I don’t want voice emotes to become a restriction on game content, either.

There are two clear camps of those ‘for’ and ‘against’ GW2 VOIP.

I will agree that an optional VOIP system feature could never worsen the player experience, since you could easily mute or leave.

Here’s where the problem lies. In SoloQ, I see it being very unrealistic that there will be consistent use of such a VOIP system. Used sporadically at best. SoloQ in try-hard mode, with proper participation in VOIP, is simply not the reason why people do SoloQ.

A good percentage of people do SoloQ for general amusement, testing builds especially. It’s generally accepted that people in SoloQ aren’t always playing their main professions, or peak performance builds. The level of competition in GW2’s SoloQ makes GW2 supported VOIP a very ill-fitted tool, in my humble opinion.

After using a VGS (Voice Guided System) in a MOBA I currently play, I absolutely fell in love with the way that players communicated with each other in the SoloQ system. Some of the fully voiced emotes you can communicate to your team are hilariously awesome: IE: After winning a 1v2: /vvgb: “BYE.”, or /veg: “I’m the Greatest!”.

People may say that ‘typing’ during matches is just utterly unpleasant, and I have to say that once I memorized the commands, finding a quick lull in the action to direct SoloQ rotations would happen a lot, and I wouldn’t mind typing 4 characters in chat, lightning-fast style.

With a VGS, I feel it would be a viable feature in an MMO, but only when the player is in a Party or Team channel. My experience is that using this feature has made me care a lot more about supporting my teammates and being a team player. VGS could make players a lot more connected to your small party/PvP team whether you’re in a small party in PvE, PvP or WvW.

And of course, real, robust, VOIP applications are always available for peak levels of competition/coordination.

Dagins.5163:

2. I don’t know who my teammates are. Give me information about their stat distribution around their portraits in a ring, so I know what to expect from them. For example: red color means power, orange crit, green condi damage, blue healing power, purple vitality, some-other-blue toughness.
So, a player with dominating red color is a berserker, and another one with dominating blue color is a bunker.

This. We need exactly this or a right-click and “Check gear and traits” system in the party UI so that we can know what to expect from a team, both in PvE and PvP!

A smart Ping system similar to what Riot has done for LoL would go pretty far in improving basic communication.

Two or three different pings such as “[Player] needs help” or “Area clear”. One that I would really like, which incorporates the map drawing system, would be something like “[Player] headed to this location” with the drawn line on the map but with a blinking ping at the end.

But I think the first question asked should be “What do we want to communicate..?”

The pings mentioned above such as needing help at a certain area or the the area does not need help are pretty simple things to tell your team. I would also like to be able to tell my team that I can see an enemy headed towards an area (this could be another one using the map drawing system, with a red line drawn and a red ping at the end.)

Hopefully these are the kind of things that the Devs are talking about as far as communication.

2 things that would be HUGE for me.

#1. Been mentioned a lot, but that because it’s probably the most important in terms of communication, an in-game voice chat. Either a chat specifically designed for Gw2, or allow access in-game to other popular voice chat programs (e.g. A button that launches TS in game so you don’t have to tab out or anything)

I have to say no to in game voice chat. It is extra client overhead that breaks down when the servers take a dump.

External voip bypasses that by not being integrated with the client; not located on Anet servers, and not being bound by Anet ISP issues either.

So external voip will always by default be more reliable and efficient, and is such a complete waste of development focus and time for something most will not bother with due to the drawbacks.

Plus, external voip has private moderation. You are only stuck with whom you WANT to be stuck with, and can implement any policy you want instead of dealing with draconian company moderation.

Edit: A far better use of resources would be adding UI options that are not language specific to relay basic concepts, plus those options could be of benefit in other modes…..such as WvW and large open world PVE events.

Have a quick-voice system like tribes did – hit one button to open up a voice menu, that then gives subtrees on next key presses – for example.

VGH – Hi! (voice, global, hi!)
VGS – Shazbot! (voice, global, shazbot!)
VSAF – I’ll go for the enemy flag! (Voice, Self, Attack, Flag)
VGTA – I’m the whirlwind baby! (Voice, Global, Taunt, something)

sound on ping just like u did in GW1 !

gesho.9468:

i’d like to be able to talk to everyone/selected player.

this would greatly improve game experience, gw2 sPVP is team game.

but, this only given some mechanism of verbal abuse control. if anet has manpower for it (to track complains) – would be great. if not – it will go wrong big time.

Most other games have a disclaimer in the ToS that voice chat is either subject to recording which they keep for X period of time, or that voice chat is not subject to moderation and that players are advised that while frowned upon, verbal abuse will not be taken actions against.

Given the current TS3/Mumble/vent/Xfire/skype system where arenanet has zero influence on player v player relations, i think the latter option (unmoderated) with a local mute function, either through a right click option on the player name or a /mute player command would be the best option.

Personally, I would like to see a communication tool similar to LoL’s radial ping menu.
Includes:
Retreat, Caution, On my way, Simple ping, Defend (on click at specific objective), Attack (on click at specific objective)

Each ping has an associated sound and color to differentiate them.

It’s pretty simple, quick and quite effective at communicating intentions/orders. I like the addition of being able to place different pings on the map and on the immediate screen. I can’t speak for other mobas but I know they have similar systems.

Concerns:

Obviously, gw2 is not an isometric view so there may need to be some adaptation. Thinking about it, a ping could work like a ground targeted ability where the player can maneuver and place a ping, whether this is view-able through terrain(maybe semi-transparent?) by other allied players might need some testing. Pings also appear on the mini-map with a unique identification.

Pings are not completely “new player friendly” while a ping is easy to understand for experienced players, they may be unclear to newer players. (I find this a little unavoidable. tutorials help, not a big concern. I think the learning curve on this will be fairly minimal.)

Limits must be in place to avoid people spamming, 5-10 should be sufficient within a 10-20 second cycle.

Implementation:

Like LoL, player holds a button to bring up a radial menu, from there, they can maneuver the mouse to select the ping they would like to use on mouse-click release. To do a general ping, they can simply click the key quickly and release. I know within LoL there are also hotkeys that can be bound to these. Pings would last 2-5 seconds unless it is appropriate to make them longer/shorter.

To apply a defend/attack, party members/commanders can press the general ping button on an ally(defend) objective or an enemy(attack) objective, this can be used in almost all game modes as long as objectives are pathed or given the ability to be targetable. I know these would be helpful as commander/party features. In spvp, objectives would include shrines, neutral npcs, keep lord, catapult (secondary objectives) and of course capture points.
In WvW objectives could include keeps, camps, towers, neutral npc camps. If further detail was needed, certain gates or walls could be included (such as outer wall, inner walls), but i think making it more general would be sufficient. PvE implementation can be used on large events which include multiple parts such as defend objectives, gather objectives, attack/destroy objectives(this includes bosses).

add voice chat like any triple A mmo

When playing I want to listen to the in game sounds and not someone shouting over voicecat, if such an option got added I’d just permanently mute it anyway.

I think people underestimate how bold people get when they are typing comparative to talking with their voice. I think people yelling/flaming wouldn’t be that common on voice chat compared to typing. Xbox live you say? Voice chat on Xbox live primarily goes down to fps’s that are random with a community of millions. Two completely different communities and game types and yes it does make a big difference. I used voice chat in Never winter PvP and honestly I never heard anyone flaming someone else. Its a lot different. And like I said previously, there’s always a mute button.

Allowing us to bind buttons for speech would be amazing. LIke I could bind a key for game voice to say ‘incoming to home point’ or whatever. This way you could relay some basic information without having to type.

People who want voice chat can get on voip. in game voip is probably a bit much.

Evan Lesh.3295:

I’d like to bring up one problem that always arises when we talk about these kinds of features. How would these systems work across different game modes? Either the functionality has to be generic enough for multiple game modes, or have specifics for each map type (which can be harder to learn).

Specifics for each map sound great

Blinking dots on top of teamates when they are in combat!! will make it easier to know when someone is capping a point or defending it (Maybe increase intensity depending on how many players there are)

Look at Games such as LoL or CS, LoL has a lot of Depths to the Map so that you can ping the enemy movement and inform your teammates about missing ones, etc.
The Enemy Dead/Alive from CS is there for quit a while so you are on the right way.
Missing:
a kittenING SUPPORT ME NOW Information would be nice and
a kittenING ONLY 1 PERSON CAPS THE kitten FLAG as well as a
GO AWAY YOU RE*ARD, I KILLED THE ENEMY, GO TO THE TEAMFIGHT Icon for the Map which draws attention from players so they know
Theres a lot of misscommunication in YoloQ right now.

How do u ping btw…

I have been playing pvp for 12 months+ but have no idea how to ping a portion of the map…also how do you know when to go to the ping…I have sometimes gone to ping and been firmly told by my teammates to go back to bunkering a point…

I have also seen players pinging a map area, everyone rushes to help and it results in us losing the game…

For those suggesting getting on a seperate VOIP,

Please understand the difficulty in being able to reliably do this in certain parts of this game.

Personal Observations

PvE Guilds I have been in have all had some form of VoiP for
-Guild Missions and associated events (Bounty, Puzzle, Mission, etc.)
-Dungeon (Speed Clearing, Casual, Roleplay)
-Open World Events (Mostly coordinating larger events like Teq and Wurms)

PvP Teams I have been watching on streams use it for
-Team Queue
- Sync Queueing
- When someone already knows the server info of someone else they may join up for solo queue as well (highly unlikely with pugs)

WvW
-Every guild I have been a part of has had a personal VoiP Server
-Every Server I have been a part of has had a personal VoiP Server

If you have type, your be prepared to get typefragged

Type Frag-
Getting killed in an online multiplayer game while you were texting your message to other gamers on the server.
Source – http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=type%20frag
Example “I was type fragged while trying to let my team know where the enemy is.”

Last Thoughts
*I hope this can give some perspective on how all game modes currently have people using VoiP, and thus show it’s a wanted/needed. *

Jivetrky.4697:

tl;dr: In-game voice-chat feature would split the community and is not needed, for our Teamspeak network is vast.

Not really, having people talk won’t split up a community… it’ll probly just end up like DOTAs was for a bit, the occasional guy constantly calling out kitten and whatnot, no harm no foul. But for GW2… something like that is entirely unnecessary.
People already don’t communicate, the game just isn’t competitive enough and the tactics and strategy aren’t fun enough for people to take what little there is seriously.

There really isn’t a use for in game chat short of ‘rez me’ or ‘inc back’ or ‘ignore X point’. The combat itself doesn’t have any of the team-timing based combos that other games’ with in game voice chat have. Look at MOBAs, being a support and calling out an initiation off an ult… that’s kitten necessary.
In GW2… calling out an elite… that’s utterly unnecessary most of the time.

Commander should be able to draw and ping the map for the entire squad. Just add it in with that big commander/squad update you said you were going to do…

lol.

garethh.3518:

There really isn’t a use for in game chat short of ‘rez me’ or ‘inc back’ or ‘ignore X point’.

Guardian Stability Ressing
Spirit Ranger Elite is up prepare to interrupt it when Enermy Y goes down
Coordinating Combo Fields (Ex Stealth Opener + Might stacking)
Taking and controlling secondary objectives (Skyhammer, Treb, or Cannon)

All of these things greatly benefit from having instant communication over VoiP.

I can’t agree with your statement. Communication is needed in this game and VoiP seems to me to to be the best way to communicate.

OIIIIIO.7825:

garethh.3518:

There really isn’t a use for in game chat short of ‘rez me’ or ‘inc back’ or ‘ignore X point’.

Guardian Stability Ressing
Spirit Ranger Elite is up prepare to interrupt it when Enermy Y goes down
Coordinating Combo Fields (Ex Stealth Opener + Might stacking)
Taking and controlling secondary objectives (Skyhammer, Treb, or Cannon)

All of these things greatly benefit from having instant communication over VoiP.

I can’t agree with your statement. Communication is needed in this game and VoiP seems to me to to be the best way to communicate.

Sigh…
Yes there are percs.
It isn’t a matter of ‘there is nothing good that can come from this’.
It is a matter of ‘this is another competitive feature that a slow-to-patch, broken, casual game does not need.’

Talking with team-mates can help,
But the other games with built in voice chat make far better use of it than GW2, but the other games with voice chat have far more competitive communities that actually care to talk with team-mates about tactics and strategy, about what to do to win… that all means that this feature in this game is a mild perc at best for a small portion of the population…

Sure Anet can spend months putting in voice chat so the occasional guy unsure if he should stomp or not next to a guardian will know… they could throw away months so that the occasional player will not waste an interrupt on a spirit of nature… but those are quite literally the last things this game needs.

I would like an option to ping the map and let people know I will be there soon.

Hohohoho, and when I get there… ohhh, when I get there! Heads. Will. Roll!!

It will be E P I C

So, I need a ping option for that please.

I personnaly don’t wanna talk directly to my team mates in soloQ.

Give us ping abilties like in League. Ennemy missing, signal to be cautious, X player is on the way, etc, with SOUNDS. Very needed imo. Esp for soloQ.

Chaith.8256:

Merrik.6734:

You should be able to turn it off, and easily mute specific people. For PvP, I’d use it. For PvE I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t expect everybody to use it.

Voice emotes are helpful but robotic. They’d be a step in the right direction but in a PvP game I’d prefer to be able to illustrate ideas beyond the scope of what they’d likely implement via voice emotes. I don’t want voice emotes to become a restriction on game content, either.

There are two clear camps of those ‘for’ and ‘against’ GW2 VOIP.

I will agree that an optional VOIP system feature could never worsen the player experience, since you could easily mute or leave.

Here’s where the problem lies. In SoloQ, I see it being very unrealistic that there will be consistent use of such a VOIP system. Used sporadically at best. SoloQ in try-hard mode, with proper participation in VOIP, is simply not the reason why people do SoloQ.

A good percentage of people do SoloQ for general amusement, testing builds especially. It’s generally accepted that people in SoloQ aren’t always playing their main professions, or peak performance builds. The level of competition in GW2’s SoloQ makes GW2 supported VOIP a very ill-fitted tool, in my humble opinion.

After using a VGS (Voice Guided System) in a MOBA I currently play, I absolutely fell in love with the way that players communicated with each other in the SoloQ system. Some of the fully voiced emotes you can communicate to your team are hilariously awesome: IE: After winning a 1v2: /vvgb: “BYE.”, or /veg: “I’m the Greatest!”.

People may say that ‘typing’ during matches is just utterly unpleasant, and I have to say that once I memorized the commands, finding a quick lull in the action to direct SoloQ rotations would happen a lot, and I wouldn’t mind typing 4 characters in chat, lightning-fast style.

With a VGS, I feel it would be a viable feature in an MMO, but only when the player is in a Party or Team channel. My experience is that using this feature has made me care a lot more about supporting my teammates and being a team player. VGS could make players a lot more connected to your small party/PvP team whether you’re in a small party in PvE, PvP or WvW.

And of course, real, robust, VOIP applications are always available for peak levels of competition/coordination.

In my humble opinion, you sir are wrong…. I click my spells and I try to avoid all contact with my keyboard, Having to type wud be a real let down…. And anyways I am the best team pvper ever and i have people who might vouch for me so i know what im talkin bout, who are u !?!? VOIP in game is the only way for this game to procceddd

Apart from minor improvements to the minimap pinging/drawing system, I can’t imagine getting on with anything more complicated in terms of systems that have menus, additional skills, or typing. It’s too fast-paced a game. Some thief will pop out of stealth and burst you down while you’re typing.

Voice is the way to go, but the expense associated with it would mean it’d probably have to be a subscription feature. And then what happens when someone who doesn’t have it joins your team? Also, would anyone even buy it considering most guilds already rent VOIP servers, and it probably isn’t costing them very much since it’s split between all their members?

Mike.4830:

In my humble opinion, you sir are wrong…. I click my spells and I try to avoid all contact with my keyboard, Having to type wud be a real let down…. And anyways I am the best team pvper ever and i have people who might vouch for me so i know what im talkin bout, who are u !?!? VOIP in game is the only way for this game to procceddd

Really?
VoiP in game is what the game needs to proceed??
Seriously?

Out of all the issues in GW2, the lack of teamwork between classes, bad maps, bad queue system, bad particle effects, bad UI, bad leaderboards, bad custom arenas, bad meta, bad patch speed…. VoiP… something most people have been using since launch…

>.<

garethh.3518:

Mike.4830:

In my humble opinion, you sir are wrong…. I click my spells and I try to avoid all contact with my keyboard, Having to type wud be a real let down…. And anyways I am the best team pvper ever and i have people who might vouch for me so i know what im talkin bout, who are u !?!? VOIP in game is the only way for this game to procceddd

Really?
VoiP in game is what the game needs to proceed??
Seriously?

Out of all the issues in GW2, the lack of teamwork between classes, bad maps, bad queue system, bad particle effects, bad UI, bad leaderboards, bad custom arenas, bad meta, bad patch speed…. you chose VoiP… something a large portion of the playerbase has been using since launch…

>.<

I hate to be the one to have to tell you, but you just got baited and trolled.