Daydreaming: If STO had functioning voice chat, would that improve PUGs?

ussultimatum

The other thread brought this to my mind.

Often times you might see a "premade" in the queues, and yeah sometimes this might actually be a team that a fleet would use in a premade vs. premade match.

For my own fleet, a lot of times it's just whoever happened to be online.


Aside from playing together regularly, and having build/mechanics discussions, and other gaming advice to draw on - I've always thought one of the biggest separators in the queues is probably the access to voice chat that most fleets (or even PUGmade regulars) have (TS or Vent) vs. most PUGs having none (usually).


Let's not sugar coat it, the voice chat in this game is so bad it might as well not exist.



So do you think if that were to suddenly be fixed, would that help a lot of the PUGs and PUGmade teams in situations like Arena?

decker03

No, I don't think so.

All the basic teamplay stuff doesn't require voice comm. Looking at buffs/debuffs, looking at what my teammates do or may need, seeing that my teams escorts running an alpha and the target could use a nuke. That's all pretty much common sense and can be done without voice or with simple chat keybinds.

The really bad pugs are those who simply refuse to apply those basics at all, with no interest in working together. Later they come to the forums and complain about things like that there are healers in queues. Functional in-game voice com won't be something such players will use.

Most likely you'll end in one team with people only speaking french, spanish or chinese anyway

rmy1081

At first I think it would be awful. While the average pug tends to be a nice person, some pugs are over the top when blaming others for any failure (even when winning). The other day there was a guy in a A2B cruiser yelling at me ( in all caps) for not healing him because I was in a science ship...well I only had 2 heals myself and Id'e be happy to heal him but he was constantly over 10 km away. I would hate for that person to actually yell at me. But hey, I guess I could yell back too lol.

But that aside, eventually, I believe, It would work out for the best. I play other games with working voice chat, and although sometimes you get people you don't want to hear on the other end, the community as a whole seems closer. Pvp is too fast in this game to read text other than >>TARGET<< so voice chat would help a lot.

I don't think it would change premades much..but for pugging I think it would help a lot.

antoniosalieri

You don't really need voice chat to do well in pvp to be honest. At least imo.

Yes of course you can't do high end pvp with out it.

Really though when I pug I heal team mates... I attack targets that are hammering and picking off the weak. I move to the guy 15k away cause hes being stupid so I can tac team him just in time.

The other pugs could do the same... however they either don't know how don't want to or are simply not capable.

I think really 2 of those things we can help them fix... and NO I am not saying hey lets all just point them to the boot camp section and tell them to L2P and get a team.

Honestly I think more of us need to start pugging... take some notes from guys like BobtheYak and Hale (not sure if hes still pvping or not... haven't had a target hale in awhile myself).

What I am saying though is those guys pug all the time... and guess what you see when you play against them... the pugs around them tend to do things smarter. Sure not always... but in general if lead the way they follow... and guess what they get better. I won't name names but there is a good handful of players that are still semi new... that are have gotten very very good. They have done it mostly by puging and paying attention.

I am sure many of them had moments where they wanted to quit... and I have no doubt 5x as many did quit.

We scare them off by playing aorund in the ques together... I know I know I like to team with my friends as well.

However I think we all need to start doing a lot less of the "Looking for a member for Opvp made prefer a sci" Stuff lol

We aren't helping things out at all... also in most cases it is 10x moire fun to throw together a quick 3v3 or 4v4 from the guys on in opvp then beating on farmers in the que... or the odd new guy that tries it out, gets hamered and watches half his team warp out in the process. Do we really thing those guys are sticking around or heading over to the boot camp section. Well ok a couple will... really though I have had plenty more constructive questions after I have gotten into a pug with myself and some greenies vs a few good guys on the other side and some greenies. When they see how good PvP can be there opinions change.

Anyway don't mean to take over the threads op with a soapbox rant.

Voice comms... would be nice but not the main issue imo.

ussultimatum

antoniosalieri wrote: »

Anyway don't mean to take over the threads op with a soapbox rant.

That's OK, I don't mind.

The OP is kind of an exploratory idea anyway. I think we're both looking at different slices of the same problem.

antoniosalieri wrote: »

Honestly I think more of us need to start pugging... take some notes from guys like BobtheYak and Hale (not sure if hes still pvping or not... haven't had a target hale in awhile myself).

What I am saying though is those guys pug all the time... and guess what you see when you play against them... the pugs around them tend to do things smarter. Sure not always... but in general if lead the way they follow... and guess what they get better. I won't name names but there is a good handful of players that are still semi new... that are have gotten very very good. They have done it mostly by puging and paying attention.

I am sure many of them had moments where they wanted to quit... and I have no doubt 5x as many did quit.

For myself, I'll admit I don't PUG very much.

TBH, when I did PUG I hated it (and not getting stomped either, that didn't really bother me).

I felt like I was playing with the Keystone Cops, it was about as fun and interesting as PUG STFs.

If that was all there was to PvP in STO, I really would have quit a long time ago.


Horizon PUGs a hell of a lot though, and he has some good times and some really really headdesk times. Where calling targets or trying to do any coordinating of his "team" is a completely hopeless endeavor.



I respect where you're coming from though.

I just really don't have enough time or patience to play in this manner.

masterkeychnk5

antoniosalieri wrote: »

You don't really need voice chat to do well in pvp to be honest. At least imo.
.

Agreed here, again. -.-

But yes you can be a very decent team without even needing to communicate often.
Sure helps, prerequisite to beat another premade, no.


Tbh i never bothered with the in-game voice system, hell i dont even know if its functioning or not. The only thing I know it was a failed Season 4 functionality which brought more bugs then good. Oh a revamped ground ;O

mancom

I remember a pvp match, back in the day shortly after the introduction of voice chat in STO before everyone deactivated it because of the massive bugs (I guess these bugs are still there?), when someone actually used the voice chat to coordinate the team.

I also remember that there was a player in pre-S1.2 times who regularly invited the random queue group to his public ventrilo server (K in FvK, so there was enough time to make a plan because everyone had a cloak).

Back then, everything was better! And I was younger, too!

masterkeychnk5

mancom wrote: »

I remember a pvp match, back in the day shortly after the introduction of voice chat in STO before everyone deactivated it because of the massive bugs (I guess these bugs are still there?), when someone actually used the voice chat to coordinate the team.

I also remember that there was a player in pre-S1.2 times who regularly invited the random queue group to his public ventrilo server (K in FvK, so there was enough time to make a plan because everyone had a cloak).

Back then, everything was better! And I was younger, too!

Yes my boy, bring out the positive stuff!!!!

virusdancer

1) Lack of comm discipline could be problematic.
2) Welcome to ESD Talk Radio...could be problematic.

It could help with PUGmades, ye olde /trade PUGs...etc, etc, etc.

For the general PUG though, not always - but yeah - it could go bad...

johnny111971

i think it would go under utilized, and oyu'd end up with maybe 1 person joining. Several fleets have open/public TS3 servers... its sometimes a challenge to get people to join a ts session.

Notable exceptions: NWS, and high end PvP teams.

canisanubis

Answer: No. If you want voice chat, get on vent with your friends.

virusdancer

canisanubis wrote: »

Answer: No. If you want voice chat, get on vent with your friends.

I don't have any friends.

I'd like to tell everybody during a match about that and my other problems if STO had working voice...

...lol, yeah - like I said - it could go very bad. One of the first things I do in any game with a built-in voice chat is to turn it off. It's usually a case of going on somebody's voice chat if needed or if in a controlled environment, I'll turn the in-game voice back on for that event.

webdeath

Personally, I don't think that if STO's voice chat was of better quality that it would make a difference. (It's especially bad for F2Pers.. I learned that while on Champions.. having recorded commercials come on in the middle of a conversation with nearly no warning sucks)

Though I will admit some times I wish that there was a more Open Voice chat, where everyone in match could chat with each other for some smack talk. :P

aquitaine985

It would help up to a point, but it'd quickly end with people shouting and insulting each other lol.

virusdancer

aquitaine985 wrote: »

It would help up to a point, but it'd quickly end with people shouting and insulting each other lol.

Yep. In OPvP - sometimes things slip. On the forums, sometimes it's a case of stopping to read before posting or realizing after posting and doing a quick edit.

Voice chat though...nope, very detailed instructions would be offered for just what somebody, their family, the family dog, and the neighbor's cat could all go do with themselves.

aquitaine985

virusdancer wrote: »

Yep. In OPvP - sometimes things slip. On the forums, sometimes it's a case of stopping to read before posting or realizing after posting and doing a quick edit.

Voice chat though...nope, very detailed instructions would be offered for just what somebody, their family, the family dog, and the neighbor's cat could all go do with themselves.

I've noticed quite a few of the same people trying to make OPvP pugmades. When i get a seat i've started offering out our TS IP incase anyone wanted to hop on, mixed results so far.

I don't let Mimey on TS anymore though, we can't keep replacing the fleet's silver.

ussultimatum

webdeath wrote: »

(It's especially bad for F2Pers.. I learned that while on Champions.. having recorded commercials come on in the middle of a conversation with nearly no warning sucks)

Does that really happen?! :eek:

smokeybacon90

Ingame VOIPs are widely abused by both players (verbal abuse) and publishers (shameless advertising). Even in games with such systems, clans/guilds/whatever almost exclusively use third party programs like mumble, and public players rarely enable the options.

orondis

ussultimatum wrote: »

So do you think if that were to suddenly be fixed, would that help a lot of the PUGs and PUGmade teams in situations like Arena?

Not really.

Not everyone speaks English, those that do have different accents that are hard to understand by those who have no experience with them (see Doctor Who getting subtitled in the US).

The target call key bind is enough.