Team Speak?

[Leafshadoe]

Hi, just wondering if anyone uses the program Team Speak to voice chat with their guild/group members?

Cheers,
Leaf

[lonewylfe]

I don't, but I've heard some do, with good success. Think it was updated fairly recently to work a lot better with EQ

[Leafshadoe]

In my 'other' games life we use it all the time for 'squad' cohesion. We run a small TS (teamspeak) server as well. I find it useful, especially once you get to know whose voice belongs to which character , for FPS type games so imagine it would be useful for guilds in EQ.

[Aoladari Raveynfyre]

Officers in our Guild have been advised to keep an eye out for GameVoice.

CompUSA just pulled the product tho =(

[KyrosKrane]

Some of the folks in our guild have been discussing whether we should try group voice chat software to run alongside EQ. I'd appreciate any advice from those who have tried such things, in EQ and in other games.

Which programs have you used? How useful were they? Can they coexist with EQ in terms of system resources (CPU time and memory usage) and network bandwidth? What about keyboard usability -- do the programs interfere with EQ?

If you used such software in EQ for, say, a raid, would you limit it to officers only? Make it so everyone can listen but only officers speak? (Can you even do that?) Or would you make it open to all?

Thanks for your feedback.

[Leafshadoe]

'Teamspeak' has been used by our FPS group with great success over the past year. We use it to control our tactics in-game, as well as laugh like mad buggers at each other when one of us messes up (we are a relaxed and fun group).

The program seems to use very little bandwidth (exact numbers/ping etc I can't tell you - sorry). Best of all it runs in the background and does not interfere with game play. You can set it to 'voice activation' or push button activation (mapped to unused keys). There are a few neat filtering methods which allows only certain people to talk with others (cuts down on the leader having to hear all the chatter allowing them to think :P ). Oh, and sound quality is very good. For example, I live here in Canada and most of my mates live in the UK and the sound is still very clear. Set up is easy peasey as well. The people that developed TS also run free public servers too that you can access and set up channels (chats). TS is a free down load. Can check it out at teamspeak.org.

[astianax]

many of my guildmates use teamspeak as well, although i currently don't. they enjoy it immensely, and i've seen a ranger/warrior pair do some amazing things while pulling. and, yes, it very frequently gets used for joking around when someone screws up, but in a fun, lighthearted manner. unfortunately, it doesn't get used much on our raids, because our allied guild (and dozens of invited friends) don't have it.
and, one of our guildmates runs a teamspeak server

also, yes, it seems to be very clear, since my guild is multinational and the pulling duo tends to be from west coast usa and england or australia (depending on which ranger's around)

[Idara]

The guild I used to be in used it quite a bit. It seemed to work really well for those who were able to use it. Unfortunately there were times when everyone but one person in a group was on it, and boy did that one person feel left out in the cold.

[Dunthor Warsmith]

I used "Roger Wilco" a bit many years ago for FPS games. It was immensely helpful in organizing tactics and groups. The sound quality was pretty good (so long as there wasn't too much background noise in the environment), and the bandwidth usage was minimal (I was using a 28.8 modem at the time and didn't really notice a change in lag with RW versus without). It was just hard to get organized and everyone talking, but with a set group of people (like an EQ guild) that wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue (just standarize).

It seems to me like it would be quite handy for EQ, but I haven't tried it.

[KyrosKrane]

Based in large part on the feedback of folks here (and elsewhere where I posted the question), the guild officers gave TeamSpeak a chance the other day. We weren't actively raiding at the time, but it did serve as an introduction on how to set up and use TS.

We determined that TS has some very valuable applications in coordinating large raids. The ability to issue instructions and responses without taking your hands off your character's controls (to type) is a great boon for us.

For now, we plan to limit the use of TS to guild raids, and only for the guild officers. If we have 30+ people actively chatting, even providing essential game info, it would be an absolute nightmare to figure out who said what.

On that note, we're considering making it so that any guildie can listen, but only officers can speak. This gives us a chance to get much more info out, faster, and with less hassle, than typing it.

I'd recommend that guilds give it a shot and determine if it suits their needs. It might have a niche role within our raiding and grouping system, but it's not suited for general guild chatter.

Once again, thanks to all for the suggestions and feedback.