MMORPG Organizing

[ReaperXx]

I was discussing this with a respected member of the 'MMORPG' Fighter Ace. The squads in that game use a highly complex command structure, in which senior officers direct the movements of individual fleets and squads. However, often it can be difficult to actually communicate clearly when there is other chatter in the channel, and since each squad has its own channel, the mission commander can't hop from channel to channel. Currently they have a system of muting or ordering silence before talking, however this costs them valuable time. What we were proposing is some kind of 'tournament' or 'match' option in channels in which, SA's or assigned 'officers' get voice priority on the server. This way, if they hit a special whisper to or talk key, they automatically mute everyone until they can issue their orders. Would this be a possibility in the future for TS3, for MMORPG's and highly structured groups/clans?

[RG_Lunatic]

That is correct.

We use a complex structure of channels and sub-channels something like:

Command (Airmarshal and Comms officer)
Black Group
...flight1 (4-16 players)
...flight2 (4-16 players)
...flight3 (4-16 players)
...etc...
Blue Group
...flight1 (4-16 players)
...flight2 (4-16 players)
...etc...
...

Each flight subchannel has a channel commander (or 2) in it, and we have a "whisper to all channel commanders" hotkey defined (normally only used by the Airmarshal and Comms officer). There is also a hotkey to "whisper to channel commanders in channel family" (used by the channel commanders within the channel family to coordinate their flights). There is also a hotkey to "whisper player list" to the Airmarshal and Comms Officer, genrally used by the channel commanders for more private comms with the Command staff. The Airmarshal and Comms officer also setup hotkeys (just before battle) to each of the Channel commanders to falilitate more private comms.

The problem is "stepping" on chat. If you're a channel commander in the Black/flight2 subchannel and you recieve a whisper, it is often very hard to hear whats being said as your flights members are chattering with each other. You have to say "silence in the channel", and then after it quiets down get the whisperer to repeat what they've said. This is very disruptive to the flight, and it is hard on the commanders who often have a lot to do.

Two things would greatly allieviate this:

1) when recieiving an incomming whisper it (optionally) should start with a short tone alerting the player that a whisper is being recieved, and also (perhaps as an optional setting) block the channel/sub-channel chatter so the reciever can hear the whisper (which is of higher priorty). The tone could be the same for all whispers, or even better a different pitch could be used (there are several schemes for defining different pitch assignments - the easiest is simply don't match the last pitch used for an incomming whisper from a different source).

2) provide a "block channel" keybind allowing a player to block the other members of his own channel/sub-channel so he cannot hear them, and also block him from speaking on it. This way he can conduct a longer conversation with other whisperers when needed.

Another keybind that would be useful would be a "reply to last whisper" whisper key. Often it is hard to tell who just whispered you, and confusing to have to look up the proper key to reply to them with even if you recognize the person's voice.

Also some kind of "whisper to all" key would be very useful, optionally limited to SA's only (the default). Some kind of "forced mute" like suggested by Reaper which commanders could use to mute a channel or channel family, or subchannel, or the entire server, before broadcasting a mass whisper or issuing commands (within a channel/subchannel not using a whisper key) would also be useful.

Finally, it would be nice to have some means of pumping music or other recorded audio to the channels. It would rock to be able to pipe 20 seconds of "Flight of the Valkyries" to the German team at the start of a battle as they are taking off in their Messershmitts and Folk-Wulfs to intercept an incomming flight of B-17's!

TS is great a great program, but I think these features would improve it. A C++ client interface (instead of delphi) so it can be more easily integrated into games would be good too.

Thank you,

=S=

Lunatic

[xCav8r]

I like the ideas that both of you have suggested. I especially like Lunatic's idea of preceding whispers with an indicative sound or tone. Even if greater support for hierarchical communications is dismissed, I hope this will be treated as a stand-alone suggestion.