Roll Call

[MissBiz]

I've been popping on here and there, but I think I've hit a game-fatigue-speed-bump...

And it is a bit of a vicious cycle: less people = less fun = less desire to log on = less people = LOOP

Also, it's time for Spring Cleaning, so I've been working on lots of projects around the apartment.  And with the weather turning warmer soon, I like walking around my neighborhood after I get home from work.

I'll try to be on more consistenly

[Serain]

I think the only way to keep people on consistently is to grow the community continuously with new members instead of relying on old members to consistently show up. People get busy, and we need a steady stream of new people to replace them and keep a high population count so it's fun for everyone. This doesn't mean invite people willy-nilly, but in the long run we need to think about growing the community with high-quality, fun players instead of just enticing the old guard back with treats.

Which means:

• Being extra friendly to new people in mumble (I have to admit I'm not really good at this myself)
  
• Going out of our way to make sure that newer people can participate in gunning with experienced drivers, etc
  
• Recruitment
  
• Consider doing away with mumble and using in-game chat. I've never used it before, but I'm told that planetside has a really good in-game voice chat . Mumble is a significant barrier to entry to new players.
  
• An open application thread/system posted here or on the planetside 2 public forums.
  
• Creating and enforcing rules on trash talk, "PC" etc (we're already very good about this, I don't think I've ever heard any trash talk/hate ever, but just something to think about)
  
• Squad management, so new people can be on alpha squad/we have more experienced people playing with less experienced people
  

The last one I found to be especially useful when I played Global Agenda. I was part of the best Agency in GA and the most experienced leader would ALWAYS lead 2nd Strikeforce (1st Strikeforce was led by the 2nd most experienced leader, but had higher caliber players on it).

Mumble can be an intimidating place for newer players/people that were just invited to join by their friends, and if you dont' really go out of your way to speak up (and you probably won't if you're brand new) then people won't even notice that you're there. If we can change that for the long-term, we can create a friendly and welcoming, and more importantly sustainable community.

[Didzo]

I think the only way to keep people on consistently is to grow the community continuously with new members instead of relying on old members to consistently show up. People get busy, and we need a steady stream of new people to replace them and keep a high population count so it's fun for everyone. This doesn't mean invite people willy-nilly, but in the long run we need to think about growing the community with high-quality, fun players instead of just enticing the old guard back with treats.

Which means:

• Being extra friendly to new people in mumble (I have to admit I'm not really good at this myself)
  
• Going out of our way to make sure that newer people can participate in gunning with experienced drivers, etc
  
• Recruitment
  
• Consider doing away with mumble and using in-game chat. I've never used it before, but I'm told that planetside has a really good in-game voice chat . Mumble is a significant barrier to entry to new players.
  
• An open application thread/system posted here or on the planetside 2 public forums.
  
• Creating and enforcing rules on trash talk, "PC" etc (we're already very good about this, I don't think I've ever heard any trash talk/hate ever, but just something to think about)
  
• Squad management, so new people can be on alpha squad/we have more experienced people playing with less experienced people
  

The last one I found to be especially useful when I played Global Agenda. I was part of the best Agency in GA and the most experienced leader would ALWAYS lead 2nd Strikeforce (1st Strikeforce was led by the 2nd most experienced leader, but had higher caliber players on it).

Mumble can be an intimidating place for newer players/people that were just invited to join by their friends, and if you dont' really go out of your way to speak up (and you probably won't if you're brand new) then people won't even notice that you're there. If we can change that for the long-term, we can create a friendly and welcoming, and more importantly sustainable community.

It's a challenge getting new people in, but we try pretty hard to do it.

In-game voice is really bad in this game. People spam in it and the sound quality is poor. Many of us have it disabled entirely. I'm not saying Mumble is ideal since many people don't use it, but we've had people install it just to hear our comms. We are pretty good about actively hunting down players that seem interested in following squad objectives and we've gained people in-game that way, though I don't think anyone other than Mizz Biz actually bothered to create a forum profile. As far as squad things go, we usually have platoon objectives and not squad objectives, with one or two people using in-game chat to make pubbies pay attention to big movements that we are about to do.

[Elder]

In-game voice is really bad in this game. People spam in it and the sound quality is poor. Many of us have it disabled entirely. I'm not saying Mumble is ideal since many people don't use it, but we've had people install it just to hear our comms. We are pretty good about actively hunting down players that seem interested in following squad objectives and we've gained people in-game that way, though I don't think anyone other than Mizz Biz actually bothered to create a forum profile. As far as squad things go, we usually have platoon objectives and not squad objectives, with one or two people using in-game chat to make pubbies pay attention to big movements that we are about to do.

i have heard the the Vanu are notably better at following squad wp and are a bit more attentive to where they should be at and should be going. At least in terms of being in the same hex as the wp (this is solely in terms of other experiences i have gotten from NC and TR platoon leaders)
Generally its easy to move a large number of people from one base to the next but getting them to play a more specific objective is like herding goddamn cats *coughkarrdecough*

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Hey I don't plastic bag that badly   I'm generally following the plan.

[A. Crow]

I've been playing diablo 3. 

[Surf314]

[quote author=Serain link=topic=7226.msg277124#msg277124 date=1395298864]
I think the only way to keep people on consistently is to grow the community continuously with new members instead of relying on old members to consistently show up. People get busy, and we need a steady stream of new people to replace them and keep a high population count so it's fun for everyone. This doesn't mean invite people willy-nilly, but in the long run we need to think about growing the community with high-quality, fun players instead of just enticing the old guard back with treats.

Which means:

• Being extra friendly to new people in mumble (I have to admit I'm not really good at this myself)
  
• Going out of our way to make sure that newer people can participate in gunning with experienced drivers, etc
  
• Recruitment
  
• Consider doing away with mumble and using in-game chat. I've never used it before, but I'm told that planetside has a really good in-game voice chat . Mumble is a significant barrier to entry to new players.
  
• An open application thread/system posted here or on the planetside 2 public forums.
  
• Creating and enforcing rules on trash talk, "PC" etc (we're already very good about this, I don't think I've ever heard any trash talk/hate ever, but just something to think about)
  
• Squad management, so new people can be on alpha squad/we have more experienced people playing with less experienced people
  

The last one I found to be especially useful when I played Global Agenda. I was part of the best Agency in GA and the most experienced leader would ALWAYS lead 2nd Strikeforce (1st Strikeforce was led by the 2nd most experienced leader, but had higher caliber players on it).

Mumble can be an intimidating place for newer players/people that were just invited to join by their friends, and if you dont' really go out of your way to speak up (and you probably won't if you're brand new) then people won't even notice that you're there. If we can change that for the long-term, we can create a friendly and welcoming, and more importantly sustainable community.

It's a challenge getting new people in, but we try pretty hard to do it.

In-game voice is really bad in this game. People spam in it and the sound quality is poor. Many of us have it disabled entirely. I'm not saying Mumble is ideal since many people don't use it, but we've had people install it just to hear our comms. We are pretty good about actively hunting down players that seem interested in following squad objectives and we've gained people in-game that way, though I don't think anyone other than Mizz Biz actually bothered to create a forum profile. As far as squad things go, we usually have platoon objectives and not squad objectives, with one or two people using in-game chat to make pubbies pay attention to big movements that we are about to do.
[/quote]

Is there any way when we have a huge group of people to group us into channels by squad and then somehow have squad leads in an extra channel with each other to coordinate? One of the biggest problems when we have 20+ people is that there is not much space to talk, even if it is important and game related.

[Elder]

i think at one point hek tried to make mumble do that for us but i dont think theres an option to set a squad channel (slave) and a platoon channel (main) where platoon can talk over squad but squad cant speak into platoon. Maybe theres a way to bind a PTT for 2 seperate channels within a tree in mumble.
We usually do pretty well in terms of comms discipline, when the fighting gets hectic. 

Best option though is to tell Caff and he'll relay/shut everyone up to get important info out, or as long as one person hears you like didzo, or myself, we'll make sure everyone else does too.

[FlyingMongoose]

Okay, I have said this a million freaking times, the IN-GAME VOICE COMM IS NOT THAT BAD.

Here's why it sounds bad to most people. By DEFAULT it is set to absolute full volume in game. That being the case it causes you to overdrive your speakers, and therefor creating a terrible crackly and unreliable and horrible sound. Turn it to 25-50% and it sounds as good as mumble, teamspeak or others. Seriously. It was absolutely horrible for me... UNTIL I did this. Plus you can set individual items of voice chat to diff volumes too.

So... master at 100% + secondary volume at 100%.

The same rule applies to when connecting to things like bluetooth speakers from other devices, for your optimum audio quality, run from your device at about 25-50%, and then do all other volume control from the speaker.

Same goes for in-line headphone controls.

And anything.

Excessive software volume creates horrible quality. You want in-game voice comms to sound better? TURN IT DOWN.

Anyway, should be back at desktop by second weekend in April.

[Chooly]

Okay, I have said this a million freaking times, the IN-GAME VOICE COMM IS NOT THAT BAD.

Here's why it sounds bad to most people. By DEFAULT it is set to absolute full volume in game. That being the case it causes you to overdrive your speakers, and therefor creating a terrible crackly and unreliable and horrible sound. Turn it to 25-50% and it sounds as good as mumble, teamspeak or others. Seriously. It was absolutely horrible for me... UNTIL I did this. Plus you can set individual items of voice chat to diff volumes too.

So... master at 100% + secondary volume at 100%.

The same rule applies to when connecting to things like bluetooth speakers from other devices, for your optimum audio quality, run from your device at about 25-50%, and then do all other volume control from the speaker.

Same goes for in-line headphone controls.

And anything.

Excessive software volume creates horrible quality. You want in-game voice comms to sound better? TURN IT DOWN.

Anyway, should be back at desktop by second weekend in April.

In all honesty, if mongooses suggestion works, and if we can come to an agreement on using in-game-voice, it can only help bolster our numbers.
I looked around, and I think that there are ways to disable proximity voice, so we'd at least be saved that annoyance.

OTOH - I'd think that those willing to go through the effort of logging into Mumble for Platoon ops are more committed / willing to perform in a cohesive unit. A pubby will still act like a pubby even if they have voice comms.

I say we try it out for a while at the very least..

[FlyingMongoose]

Well, my suggestion is this:
Set in game master voice volume to 50%, lets say you have in-line volume control for your headset too.

So then you have 3 sets of volumes. OS Volume, Software Volume, and In-Line Volume, all of these turned all the way up overdrives speakers and creates a "crunchy" (bad) sound quality for voice.

Planetside itself also has it's own volume controls for damn near everything.

So, with planetside you actually have 4 volume layers for In-Game Voice (if you have in-line control).
In Line
Operating System
Master Volume
Voice Volume.

Take into consideration your speakers themselves are built to operate the in-line up to it's 100% capacity, now tack on another 100% from the OS, then another 100% from the software, then another from voice, your speakers are now trying to output at 300% over what they were originally rated for.

If you intend to operate using your in-line as your primary volume, your OS Volume should remain at 50% at most, software volume can be adjusted somewhat (but for the voice in game should be reduced), as I said, 50% is sweet spot for me, may be diff for others. Then all other volume control handled by your in-line.

Note, I do not I have in-line volume control. So 50% for in game voice, is actually solid for me. I use Razer Kraken (Stereo) headset, in combination with the Razer Surround software.

Just adjust your volumes until in-game-voice actually starts to sound good (because it can, I've heard it and I'm not crazy).

Also I've never actually heard "area voice"... not once... not even in massive biolab fights...

[Duck, Duck, Goose]

Uh, the issue is that Mumble has all kinds of fancy algorithms for transmitting voice at variable quality. Using a shit mic on Mumble isn't half bad. Using a shit mic in Planetside's in-game voice comes out distorted and incomprehensible. And fuck y'all, I ain't buying a better mic.

Also by that logic, Mumble should be cackling too, since my Line volume is 100% and my OS volume and Mumble volume stack onto that... except Mumble once again has nice pieces of programming to prevent that.

[FlyingMongoose]

Uh, the issue is that Mumble has all kinds of fancy algorithms for transmitting voice at variable quality. Using a shit mic on Mumble isn't half bad. Using a shit mic in Planetside's in-game voice comes out distorted and incomprehensible. And fuck y'all, I ain't buying a better mic.

Also by that logic, Mumble should be cackling too, since my Line volume is 100% and my OS volume and Mumble volume stack onto that... except Mumble once again has nice pieces of programming to prevent that.

You're right, Mumble does do that, planetside doesn't (which is why you need to adjust it in planetside), and I'm not saying modify transmit volume, I'm saying modify your voice output volumes in game (Honestly ever since I did that everyone, no matter how crappy their mic has sounded just fine).

Seriously, Planetside's Voice Chat is just fine if you modify the in game voice output (not transmit) volume.

[Luinbariel]

So either we're asking new folks to try mumble or we're asking them (and everyone else) to modify their Planetside settings to some standard we are requesting.

It seems to me that either way we're asking them to do something, and a number of them will choose not to. We may as well ask them to do the quality option, such as mumble.

[StolenToast]

Let me just dig this out of the bottom of my pocket...

Or we could use Teamspeak 3.  It's got better default settings than Planetside and everyone already has it.  Since it seems the focus is shifting from quality to quantity I think it should be considered. Hell I'll even host the server, if it doesn't get too massive.

[rumbot]

this thread needs mo4r



Arnold Schwarzenegger on QVC: "Get to the Chopper!"

[StolenToast]

Teamspeak server is up: 162.252.240.223

Try it out, and if we like it I can get a hostname for easier access.

[Duck, Duck, Goose]

I dunno, I mean we had 20 people on tonight... and someone new got Mumble and joined in... seems to me there's no real issue. :-\

The way I see it, it's kind of a test. If you're competent enough to figure out what Mumble is, get it, and connect to our server, odds are you're good enough to follow orders in game and not need babysitting and whatnot... we don't want to become like DaPP or something, do we?

[Versus]

no one i know uses teamspeak

[StolenToast]

We don't have to recruit everyone who joins in, and people who take the time to join a teamspeak at all are the very people who are looking for coordination anyway.  I know this because I've played in a couple large-outfit teamspeaks.  Dapp uses in-game.  And there's still a test, it's just a test more people chose to take.  It's not like googling "mumble" is so difficult, but some people just want to play and won't bother, and even a lazy pubbie is useful if they're willing to join chat to follow orders.

And I think you all have an exaggerated opinion of the general Mattherson Vanu.  It's really not that bad.  I keep in-game comms on because it benefits me way more than it annoys me, and I lead successful pushes because I yell at the people around me what to do.  Here are my audio and voice settings:



And in-game voice sounds fine.  I'm pretty sure these are going to be different for everyone, you have to experiment.  Which is why people say it's bad, because you have to spend time getting it to work.

Outfits that use teamspeak: GWW, NNG, RGQT, RBLE, and GOKU.
The only mumble outfits I know are us and GOKU(they use several programs).

If you want more people to join, I think teamspeak would do that.