Really wish there was voice

[Silas1066]

We tried to play again last night using Teamspeak. Yahoo didn't work -people were getting bounced out of the service, couldn't join, etc.

Teamspeak worked fine for everyone except one guy. If he connected, everyone got massive amounts of echo. We spent 1 1/2 hours trying to fix the problem.

needless to say, I'm not getting much RPG in, and I'm spending most of my time troubleshooting sound issues. Maybe table-top RPG games over the web just don't work.

[Cantstanzya]

If the devs would put voice in FG then they would have to be working on the issues that you mention. It would take away from the other content of the game. Teamspeak does just voice and you are having problem getting it going. I can only imagine the problems we would have if FG imbedded voice into their game. It would take a lot of development time away from the RPG functionality.
My group uses Ventrillo and it works okay but there is a delay from when you speak and when others hear it and that leads to people talking over each other. I personally like to use the text in FG and have Ventrillo for OOC chat or more detailed explaination of items. I don't thing FG should re-invent the wheel here. I'm not saying they should never do it, but I would think it would be one of the last things on the list. But that is only my opinion.

[heruca]

Try Skype if TS is giving you a hard time.

[richvalle]

Is the person causing the echo using a headset?

We've been using FG for about a year now playing just about once a week during that time and using voice while doing so.

It DOES work... you just have to work out your issues.

One thing I did was have a 'test run' before my campaign started. I had everyone connect, create their character, use voice, go over how FG works ect, ect before I tried to run the first 'real' game.

rv

[Sigurd]

Your fellow causing you grief is using a bad microphone or poor recording set up. Any voice chat will have to deal with acoustics - it requires a recording device. You say yourself it worked in every case but one.

I'd say you demonstrate fairly why the developers should not expand beyond their core goals. Sound and expanded chat will create more of a need for immediate real time help and hand holding -- simple is better for their level of support.

There are a dozen good messaging programs and a half dozen voice programs. They all have a head start on Smite Works and some (Skype) are gaining ground with speed and great offers. By the time FG would implement its own solution it would be a 'ho hum' feature or even inconvenient to many users. I don't think its worth the effort or expansion of skill-set.


Bo


Maybe table-top RPG games over the web just don't work.

That must be very particular to your efforts because its fine over here for 8 months.

[Griogre]

Teamspeak worked fine for everyone except one guy. If he connected, everyone got massive amounts of echo. We spent 1 1/2 hours trying to fix the problem.

Probably he had the mic right next to his speakers is my guess. Everyone should use a mic and headphones or a headset and cut off the speakers. The problem with RPGing over the web is that you are at the mercy of the lowest technology literate person. Frustrating, I know - especially if you are the DM.

I don't see how you can blame FG for a guy not able to setup and use teamspeak. That is the core of the problem. Pretty much all voice programs are setup the same way. Personally I don't want intergrated voice, because when FG went down so would voice. The odds are very high the guy would have the same problem if FG did have voice too.

I've also been playing online almost a year now, so I know it can work, and I have always used voice. I did use to use YM in my first campaign but found with more than 4 people there seemed to be problems. That is why I switched to Teamspeak when I started my current campaign. You might have more luck with YM if you have someone different from the FG DM setting up the YM conference call.

[Snikle]

needless to say, I'm not getting much RPG in, and I'm spending most of my time troubleshooting sound issues. Maybe table-top RPG games over the web just don't work.

Tabletop RPGs are definately not dead, I have been using FG for almost a year, without voice, and except for a few minor problems, it works perfectly everytime. I do not care if they add voice support because I will not use it, but if they do, they need to allow those of us that do not use it to turn it off.

And if one person is having sound issues, simply tell him to turn his mic off unless he needs to speak, killing your whole game because one person cannot set up their audio correctly seems silly.

[mr_h]

I just wish I could find a voice comm system that'd let me play wav/mp3 files over it. Sound effects would be fun :D

[richvalle]

I just wish I could find a voice comm system that'd let me play wav/mp3 files over it. Sound effects would be fun :D

I thought someone mentioned software that would do this? I'll have to find the post.

rv

[Jozan]

In reference to the echo problem, my group uses teamspeak, and yes! we have had echo problems that we have spent alot of time solving. In most cases, it was in fact someone with their mic too close to their headset, but we also had a guy echoing due to some setting on his sound mixer.

Tell the person with the echo to go into Volume Control on his computer, click advanced controls and see if there is a box to check for his mic. Click that box and play with the volume until the echo is gone. Also had a player have to due that because it sounded like he was whispering into the mic, even when he was screaming into it.

Hope that helps, sorry not too detailed but ya should be able to adjusting settings there until one of em work....

[richvalle]

I thought someone mentioned software that would do this? I'll have to find the post.

rv

Found it!

rv


Ventrilo has sound queing. You should investigate this software. You can map mp3 files to hot keys in the software which then plays to the entire channel.

[mr_h]

Huh, I had Vent, and I completly forgot it had that ability.
*goes to check it* Thanks

[Moebius]

Hi Im completely new to FG (and absolutely old in D&D roleplaying) I just thiscovered this wonderful program and wanted to contribute. Maybe what I am proposing here is already done, maybe not, I just wanted to do something useful for FG.


I have a dedicated server with good connection and I runTS2 (Teamspeak 2) among other programs there. I have created a server to be ised in games, it has capacity for 36 people playing 4 different games. I can put more capacity in if i see that people uses it.

The link for downloading it is:

https://www.goteamspeak.com/index.php?page=downloads

The connection settings are:

IP: 193.146.56.253:8769
Usr: (any user can do just putyour character name here)
Pass: fantasygrounds

The server is 90% uptime and located in Spain.

[richvalle]

Hey, thanks!!! Very nice.

rv

[Moebius]

I have a ventrilo server there too but thought that ts2 is easier to use... if anybody needs ventri srvr pm me.

[festivus]

My advice for anyone using these voice chat programs is to go out and buy a quality headset (Plantronics makes a nice one for about $40). I used to try with the cheap headsets but they just don't cut it in terms of comfort, feedback and echo, as well as noise cancellation (for the baby crying in the background at my house).

We use Ventrilo, and while we do have some issues, it's usually a matter of someones volume being too high or too soft, or not using a keyboard activation key. Push to talk is the only way to go, the sound switch method usually only nets sentance fragments due to the mic cutting out.

[Moebius]

Ive used both ventri and ts for FPS gaming and both work well.

I agree qith the push to talk button, working with FG you have plenty of time and free hands for pushing the button unlike when you are playing a FPS when you cant spare even a finger sometimes.

[Griogre]

My advice for anyone using these voice chat programs is to go out and buy a quality headset (Plantronics makes a nice one for about $40). I used to try with the cheap headsets but they just don't cut it in terms of comfort, feedback and echo, as well as noise cancellation (for the baby crying in the background at my house).
I don't know about quality, but cheap gaming headsets do suck. Frankly I use a cell phone headset as being far more comfortable than any gaming headset I've ever had and I went through a bunch of them. A trip to Radio Shack will net you a splitter so you can use the Cell Phone headset with your computer.

We use Ventrilo, and while we do have some issues, it's usually a matter of someones volume being too high or too soft, or not using a keyboard activation key. Push to talk is the only way to go, the sound switch method usually only nets sentance fragments due to the mic cutting out.
Usually for players, I find push to talk is better. For the DM voice activation works well as he is usually doing more things than a player. Voice activation is probably optimum for everyone - if you could only get everyone to set their activation levels correctly and game in a quiet place - until then push to talk is better for players.

[ChrisGormley]

Echo issues...

I ahd echo issues with my PC until I up'd my memory. The built in sound on the motherboard, I believe, needed more memory to handle the bandwidth for voice. Once I increased my memory, my echo issues went away. I now run a Dell 1.6Ghz with 756Megs of memory and have no echo issues now. And that was running with a cheap $7 dollar mic and speakers.