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msd
May 24th, 2005, 23:26
Has anyone tried not using the chat features at all and only using something like TeamSpeak/RogerWilco/Skype, etc.

I like the chat features and I generally think they work well, but I am interested if there are people out there who are solely using FG for the purposes of sharing maps/images and dice rolling.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

Aesir
May 25th, 2005, 02:40
Not I, though I've used teamspeak in other games. Reason I don't do so for FG is strictly because it's easier for me to RP in text... using emotes and other flavor text, for example.

It sounds odd when our war-forged fighter has a high-pitched girl voice...sort of ruins the immersion as it were.. ;)

Crusader
May 25th, 2005, 09:58
We use Skype, although when someone rolls the dice everyone has to be quiet because the sound really ****s up if you speak when the dies are rolling. I guess the 3D-animation is synchronised between all participants and consume a lot of bandwidth. I'm going to upgrade my connection to 8/1 Mbps (at the moment I have 512/128 Kbps) and I hope that this will solve the problem.

richvalle
May 25th, 2005, 11:55
I played a game last Wed where we used both... voice for out of character stuff and FG for in character stuff. Its a nice combo.

I think this way can save the dm a lot of time when creating content as he can now just read room desciptions and non-npc talking instead of putting it all into FG as text.

rv

nix4
May 25th, 2005, 19:44
Has anyone tried not using the chat features at all and only using something like TeamSpeak/RogerWilco/Skype, etc.

I like the chat features and I generally think they work well, but I am interested if there are people out there who are solely using FG for the purposes of sharing maps/images and dice rolling.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

The Spire of the Realms campaign is setup to support Ventrillo along with the FG software.

I currently feel this will be a supportive feature and not a requirement.

Sometimes its easier to just say someting rather than type it..and not everyone is a great typer. But I do not expect role playing to be done over voice..just inter-player communication and side conversations...chit chat.

Also, Ventrilo has a Push to Talk feature so you dont have to listen to background junk "Anyone want some cheetoes?" in the background..


What I'm looking into however, is a way to stream audio for background (theme) music and also use sound bites...(monsters and doors etc)..that would effectively turn me into a DJ as well as a DM (yes, I waited for that)...

gurney9999
May 25th, 2005, 21:16
What I'm looking into however, is a way to stream audio for background (theme) music and also use sound bites...(monsters and doors etc)..that would effectively turn me into a DJ as well as a DM (yes, I waited for that)... Hopefully a future enhancement for FG would be to add support for other media within the tool (like sound). Kloogeworks does a good job of this.

I was part of the game richvalle was talking about. I see voice as a supplement for ooc conversations, rules questions, etc. I want to have all the descriptions in FG, along with the in-game chat, because of the chat log and because (for me anyway) it is always easier to get into roleplaying when chatting vs. voice.

Dupre
May 25th, 2005, 22:38
We use Skype, although when someone rolls the dice everyone has to be quiet because the sound really ****s up if you speak when the dies are rolling. I guess the 3D-animation is synchronised between all participants and consume a lot of bandwidth. I'm going to upgrade my connection to 8/1 Mbps (at the moment I have 512/128 Kbps) and I hope that this will solve the problem.

As far as bandwidth goes, you should be able to throw dice even with older dial-up modems. There is, however, a fair amount of numbers being crunched when the dice are on the move, which could cause audio encoders to choke momentarily.

Dupre
May 25th, 2005, 22:43
About the audio support, we haven't decided what to do with it yet. We have the next two patches set to stone more or less and it's not in either one. It might find its way in eventually, but we have some pretty nifty features under works that precede it.

richvalle
May 26th, 2005, 03:03
I'm still not convinced its needed inside of FG. There are lots of options for the voice stuff as it is. Playing sounds... I don't know if any. If there was some program that you could use for voice comms AND play music and sound effects that would be perfect. Let it handle the sound stuff and FG do the game.

But... we've been over this ground before.

:)

rv

SteveG
May 26th, 2005, 03:22
I like the idea of being able to play a sound for the players when they get near an area or the monsters attack or any number of possiblities. But as far as a voice comms like Ventrillo or Gamespeak, they are already available, no need to remake the wheel.

SteveG

Crusader
May 26th, 2005, 05:45
As far as bandwidth goes, you should be able to throw dice even with older dial-up modems. There is, however, a fair amount of numbers being crunched when the dice are on the move, which could cause audio encoders to choke momentarily.

Oh, I see. Thanks for the clarification!

sunbeam60
June 5th, 2005, 19:23
We never use the chat for anything, but rely solely on Skype and it works amazingly. We're five people, dm included; one in Brazil, one in England, one in Scotland and two in Denmark and lag is hardly a problem.

However, we all knew each other as personal friends before gaming using FG so the decision to go voice only game naturally.

A note on software: We tried the five major chat programs and Skype came so far ahead (quality, lag, usability) it wasn't even funny.

Bjorn

NeoDante
June 11th, 2005, 15:44
My group has found that using the FG chat system really emphasis and enhances 'role-playing' for them. Let's face it, when you get past 15 or 16 'staying in character' sometimes feels a little awkward to say the least (for some). However, we like to use Voice chat (Teamspeak right now, though I'm looking at Skype based on the comments above) for all the 'Out of Character' comments and general 'goofing around' which makes up half our enjoyment of the game. :wink:

Also, I have taken to sending out 'weekly updates' to remind everyone what happened during the last game-And these are greatly enhanced by the lack of OoC chat clogging the flow of the narrative.

(As an aside, I've not seen it mentioned often, but I want to commend the Devs on the fantastic 'Chat Log' feature! It's a real boon!)

NeoDante

NeoDante
June 11th, 2005, 15:48
About the audio support, we haven't decided what to do with it yet. We have the next two patches set to stone more or less and it's not in either one. It might find its way in eventually, but we have some pretty nifty features under works that precede it.

I know this came up a long time ago, but I want to comment on it again, now that I've actually been using FG for awhile.

Personally, I think there should be no audio support built into FG. There are many '3rd party apps' available which allow for a wide range of audio support if desired by the users.

That said, if there is audio support, I hope it goes without saying that it should be a feature that can be turned on or off.

NeoDante

DM Greg
June 12th, 2005, 17:26
I am an aural person. I can follow more threads verbally than I can with chat and the game moves more quickly.

We use the /whisper function for note sending and sometimes I'll use some of the other chat functions to speak directly to one character only but that's about it.

I've run about 12 sessions and the group is spread out between Arkansas, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin and Australia. No lag, no fuss.

Later,

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

cogollo
July 21st, 2005, 14:27
I think that developing realtime audio support for FG would take away too many development resources from other, more useful and interesting features (specially since there are already 3rd party utilities that cope with this).


What I really would like to see related to audio (and I've read it in other threads) is the possibility of being able to make sounds in the PC computers. I don't think it would be too difficult. You just need to have a database of mp3 files and link them to the campaign file (as you do with images) and, either share the files with the other computers beforehand (as with the new rulesets) or send them to the players during the game (as you have to do with the images of a campaign).

That would be great! Imagine your players travelling through the woods and suddenly a wolf howl sounds in their computers! That would really make the people get in the game.

BRiM
July 22nd, 2005, 16:55
I've run about 12 sessions and the group is spread out between Arkansas, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin and Australia. No lag, no fuss.


I'm in Arkansas as well!!! Say hello for me.

BRiM