A suggesiton for multiplay Comms for LOMAC

[GGTharos]

Most people use software such as TeamSpeak or Ventrillo while playing within a squad environemnt to communicate with each other.

 

A problem however exists with too many people speaking at once - something that the 44th tackled using channel whispers and whatnot.

 

This however, isn't really ideal. The best thing to do would be for LOMAC to handle channels - ie. one would set up the 'radio' in LOMAC, perhaps through LUA, or whatever, and it would work as such (for example):

 

LOMAC would hold a list of 'channels', bu nymber or name, possibly set up in an LUA file. How these channels work uotside of LOMAC isn't LOMAC's problem for the most part but ... there should be a button to cycle between channels, and the 'active' channel should be displayed somewhere in the cockpit (wether a freq numebr on the radio in cockpit for example, or whatever) and there should be a 'push to talk' keypress as well.

 

So, we have a file contianing....

 

ChannelNum ChannelName Keypress

1 Flight 1 X

2 Flight 2 Y

3 Flight 3 Z

4 All Flights A

5 AWACS B

 

Channelnum is internal (For LOMAC) and could actually be a 'frequency number' to be displayed in cockpit or on the HUD somehow.

 

Channel Name is *external* and refers to a channel name in ventrillo or TS

 

Keypress is the keypress assigned to that channel within the comm program, and LOMAC would send that keypress to the program depending on the selected channel.

 

HOWEVER ... there is, I believe, a better way of doing this. For example, TS provides the ability for external programs to control it through a dll, and so it could be possible for the LUA script to instead of sending keypresses, to just directly control TS when the PTT is pushed.

 

For example, instead of keypress we could have,

 

whisperto("ChannelName") where channelname depends on the channel selected.

 

It would be absolutely *GREAT* to have an interface like this for our comms!

[169th_Cobra]

having a comms panel in-cockpit showing what teamspeak channel you were on would be absolutely amazing!

 

:D

[GGTharos]

Yuo can already do that with TSO

 

http://www.teamspeakoverlay.com/

 

I'm asking for a lot more than that.

[Drako_MDx]

Who cares about Comms being supported in LockON. I rather them use there developement time making the Online gaming more stable and also giving us a Server App. Hell I would rather them not even come out with any more plane addons or helicopter and just improve the online experience. I would even pay for a Server App Addon. Just my "Opinion". :roll:

[GGTharos]

Everyone who -uses- comms cares about them. I'm not asknig for built-in comms, but the capability to handle comms from within the game. It's all /part/ of the whole sim expereince. Yeesh.

[169th_Cobra]

you imply that we were saying we wanted this to be the dev's number one priority Drako?Who ever gave you this idea??

I'm right there with you on the dedicated server app and upgrading the US aircraft to the same level as the russian ones will be post 1.1, however please dont have a go at us for showing some enthusiasm for something slightly different to your idea of what should happen next.

 

I'm sure you've heard the saying ... "Opinions are like arseholes ... everyone has one."

[Dmut]

169th_Cobra, chill out, it wasn't necessary for such comments.

[169th_Cobra]

my bad.

 

:?

[sickboy]

was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction regarding ventrilo or teamspeak.

is there anywhere i have to sign up so i can atleast listen in to comms or understand how this process works, for at present this is completely new to me.

 

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

sickboy

[Vati]

I'm asking for a lot more than that.

It's unrealistic wish... the benefit vs time required to have this renders it waste of time.

You already have all functions you need to manipulate ch in voice comm software. For seeing who is in what ch, you can use 3rd party software which is also already available. Ergo, you have it all...

 

Sickboy, visit ventrilo.com and goteamspeak.com to DL and read about the given software. As goes for LOMAC and such tools.. usually it's hosted & used by closed group of poeple (squad). However there may be public servers available, tho I do not know any. Hope it helps you for a starter.

[GGTharos]

It's neither unrealistic nor is it majorly time-consuming. And it works much better than just TS/Vent alone in the background which you actually *cannot* manipulate very well from within the game at all.

 

The benefit in organizing online flights is -huge-

[Dmut]

Well, priority number one is stable multiplay itself, otherwise we will get good comms with buggy MP, and comms will be almost useless in such case.

So I have to agree with 169th_Cobra, that amending flyables and fixing MP should have a higher priority for devs. And, speaking of LO, I don't think they gonna change anything in communications in following two add-ons, but they will save it for a next project.

 

btw, Chizh have told us a wonderfull info a few days ago on russian forum - next ED's project shall be as much "hardcore" as F4 and you'll get a "clickable" cockpits.

[Vati]

It's neither unrealistic nor is it majorly time-consuming. And it works much better than just TS/Vent alone in the background which you actually *cannot* manipulate very well from within the game at all.

 

The benefit in organizing online flights is -huge-

Sorry GGTharos, I do not agree with your arguments...

First, this is not an ED issue... if you are not satisfied w/ voice app contact its developer. And second, if this is as easy as you think it is, you can do it yourself. All tools are available to you for drawing an overlay in lomac and hooking the keys. Last but not least, organizing online fights does not suffer because of the given situation...

 

In my online flying I never experienced any trouble w/ using ventrilo or ts in multi ch configuration. It's all the metter of RTFM. ;)

[GGTharos]

Don't get me wrong, I know what you're saying, but I think you completely missed the point. ;)

[Vati]

No, I know what you mean, but to get to that it should be done from scratch and not relying on 3rd party standalone... and that is not feasible until next major ED title... and I added to that, that you have all the power to make it yourself a better way to manage the voice apps. It wont be seamless integration indeed, but still closer to your dream than what is possible now...

[sickboy]

thanks Vati!

[Guest Cali]

You can set up different channels in teamspeak and switch channels in the middle of flight. We have been doing this for some time now. This is how we have ours set up

 

right Ctrl + 1 on the keypad is THE READY ROOM

right Ctrl + 2 BLUE TEAM

right Ctrl + 3 RED TEAM

 

I can't get into teamspeak right now, but I can help someone out if they want to set it up like this. This comes in very very handy :D

[GGTharos]

I don't WANT to change channels.

 

I want ot know which channel I'm speaking to, but I want to stay in my own.

 

I want to stay in the channel of my flight, and then be able to talk to all the other flights when necessary and AWACS (so a whisper to all those channels simultaneously)

 

Possibly switch channels or whisper to an ATC channel as well. It's more complicated than which side you're on and so on ;)

[Vati]

My squad uses the following ventrilo settings:

The ventrilo has ch AWACS and in this ch we have subchs which donate the flights... So when you connect to ventrilo server you get into your flight ch where you use normal PTT to talk to this ch only. Then you can setup PTT to AWACS which is set so that its logic is set to transmit to the AWACS ch and all its subchs -> everyone can hear you regardless in what flight ch they are in. If you need to switch ch, you set extra button for walking thru the ch list. It works really well...

[Guest Cali]

I don't WANT to change channels.

 

I want ot know which channel I'm speaking to, but I want to stay in my own.

 

I want to stay in the channel of my flight, and then be able to talk to all the other flights when necessary and AWACS (so a whisper to all those channels simultaneously)

 

Possibly switch channels or whisper to an ATC channel as well. It's more complicated than which side you're on and so on ;)

 

Ok you can set the whisper mode on, this is as good as it's going to get for now.

[Drako_MDx]

I guess this is what I get for not being around for a bit... Hmmm let's answer some of these problems with Comms. Like Cali stated if you want to change channels in game it's called a "HOT KEY" use it. If you want to know who you're talking to then get the overlay for TS. Not sure if they have one for Ventrilo. And about the Opinion remark well what the hell is a forum for if not to chat about stuff, help others with problems and every now and then give an opinion. RELAX and take a pill and run a search on yourself here and at the UBI forum. I'm sure you as well as all of us here have posted many OPINIONS. :wink:

 

I understand what you want but still really think that the time they would spend on trying to make LOCKON work with 3rd party Comm software would be better spent on making this game run better online and givin us that much needed SERVER APP.

[GGTharos]

I think none of you really know what you're talking about. 'Hot Keys' take away from the vailable keys for the game itself, if you have many. The goal here is to create a 'comms management' system which will use no more than 2 or 3 keys altogether.

 

Aside from the art required to make it -visually- pleasant within LOMAC, the code itself probably wouldn't take more than an hour or two of effort. LOMAC itself doesn't need to be 'compatible' with external comm systems, it just needs to provide a couple hooks which upon setup by the player can be used to control vioce comms nicely using that comm suite's own APIs ... this way only the 'management' function is part of LOMAC which only internally manages the comm 'choices' you make, while the LUA interface allows you to program exactly what those 'choices' make the comms system to do.

 

The only problem -right- now is that unfortuantely none of the comm software I mentioned supports what I want (yet) so this whole thread is unfortunately moot - it can't be done without some very serious trickery in terms of keyboard overrides etc.

 

Besides...for cryin' outloud, you're jumping on me for this (which I consider rather useful) and you go around whining about things like repairs on a carrier?

[169th_Cobra]

to make it -visually- pleasant within LOMAC

 

I'm with you GGTharos. i think the others have lost the translation of what we were visioning for the comms panel. I had a picture of a real comms panel in which you could see the channel you were talking on and be able to change channels (as per Cali's and others suggestions) ad see that change in the comms panel. I wasn't talking about some crappy overlay but a real-life looking comms panel to add to the immersion factor.

 

As for your comments Drako, i made my comment to you because all you did was come into this thread and shoot it down with your opinion of what YOU feel is the number one piority for the devs to add. Everyone has there own idea of what should be the devs priority to develop for this game. So rather than jumping on others in a thread they started about what they would like to see improved, go and start a thread of your own about what you would like to see improved. As the only thing the added to this thread was negativity.

 

PS i do recommend you do what you suggested and do a search on my name and see all the posts i have made. You might just find that my first post was about a dedicated server.

[Drako_MDx]

Notice how I have yet to mention your name or directly BASH you until now 169th Cobra. You continue to take this in a personal manner and you are turning this thread into a personal issue. I have not bashed the idea and not everything I wrote is negative. Learn how to READ first instead of writing nonsense. Hell I even mentioned a few work around as temporary fixes. Would having a control panel in the cockpit where you could control your comms be a cool idea, well "HELL YEAH". Is it ever going to happen... more than likely NO :cry: .

 

PS: So what you are telling me is that only people who agree with a topic should post a reply? There wouldn't be any point to having a forum. Don't waste your breath or finger smashing answering this question as it's only rhetorical 169th Cobra.

[Dmut]

both of you - cool down and stop posting it with such treatment manner, we don't need a personal enemies here on forums.