Mute checkbox

[Bino]

When you pull up the radio to be able to hit a checkbox under either channel or range for mute...

+1   

[Chilli]

That wouldn't solve the problem of not being able to hear one person over another. ¹

If you ever notice, nobody's voice is ever played over somebody else's. You can't interrupt someone on VOX. All transmissions are recorded in their entirety and then sent to the other players on channel. On the receiving end all the transmissions "wait in line" in the order they were received and play one after the other. In a busy environment a bunch of rowdy chatters can literally clog up the comms. A buddy can give you a check call and you might not hear it until 10 seconds after you've already been shot down. It can get so bad that you might hear a transmission that's several minutes old, or they can back up so far as to crash the program. I've never experienced the last two scenarios myself, thank God.

If we could have a hot-key to de-tune range when things things get too hectic the squads that depend on good communications would be much happier. ² We can't have every player in the came learn brevity and syntax and exercise better voice-comm discipline, but we can't turn them off either. Unless you want to ".mute twerp1 .mute twerp2 .mute twerp3 etc." in the middle of dogfight. Have a purple M or something in the top left of the screen when Range is muted like the red R that's up there when you're recording.

Most squads, or at least every squad that I've met, have given up on VOX and have their own private Vent and TS servers (including my squad), and I think that's telling. Now let's give the players that don't have the resources (or know how) to run their own servers the same capabilities (or close to it) as those who do. Maybe in these times some players will decide to save some money and let their servers go if VOX's most agonizing moments can be stopped with a simple button press.

I brought up the volume option, for those tankers who may still want to receive valuable information from range without having vox overpower the environment. 

From my experience, vox has been "stepped on" (cut short) by another player, but not to the extremes that you state.  I have however, had to ask several times for a "break" in chat to get orders across.  So, GNucks, if you will allow a "slight" difference in opinion, I agree that sometimes it is hard to get a word in edge wise, but I fear it would be more damaging to the tactical component of game play to have a third of your forces ignoring your requests simply because they cannot hear them. ^*2


I do whole heartily agree with GNucks and TnDep, that range chat has it downfalls.  I will go a step further and say that for a more realistic feel there would only be folks on vox that were tuned in.  But this is where realism hits the door and a more practical sense of what works best to keep the game play solid ^*1 takes precedence. 

[GNucks]

I brought up the volume option, for those tankers who may still want to receive valuable information from range without having vox overpower the environment.  

From my experience, vox has been "stepped on" (cut short) by another player, but not to the extremes that you state.

When you think you're hearing somebody being interrupted or cut short on VOX what's really happening is they're releasing their chat button when they hear someone else's voice. They think they're being interrupted but that's not the reality. When you're hearing one person after another on your headset you don't have to wait for a moment of silence to send a transmission, you just record what you have to say and your message will "wait in line" like I said earlier on everybody else's end.

Now I believe I was mistaken when I said "All transmissions are recorded in their entirety and then sent to the other players on channel." I think your voice might be played on the other ends while you are speaking, but only if the "queue" is open. I'd need two computers to test that. But it behaves exactly as I described if somebody else is talking while you try to say something. The "queue" is not open, but you can still record a transmission and it will be played immediately after the current one playing is finished.

I've heard the results of people on VOX who don't understand that it doesn't work like a telephone. This is what it sounds like:

Player A: (Talking about something at length, taking all four seconds allotted in one transmission)
Player B: I-
Player B: Well-
Player B: But-
Player B: Yeah-
Player B: Okay, what I was going to say was etc...

Player B kept trying to send a transmission while Player A was talking. He kept stuttering, repeatedly releasing and depressing his chat button, thinking he was interrupting Player A. Instead, he sent four very short transmissions of no content to wait in line and waste air-time.

Here's another example:

Player A: (Another lengthy transmission that takes four seconds)
Player B: Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait hold on hold on okay shut up shut up shut up
Player B: No that's completely wrong etc...

In this instance Player B was intentionally trying to interrupt Player A, but that's not how VOX works. Instead, he just wasted a ton of air-time sounding like a broken record when he could've just said what he wanted to say or let someone else's transmission come through.

[Chilli]

I do agree with you, the current vox allows for abuse (for lack of a better word).  I am probably a guilty party.  I have come so accustomed to the chat button that I often press the chat button simply to express a chuckle (I know, sad  isn't it).   But for the most part, I have been able to keep an entire paragraph (giving instructions) going by just pausing the chat button, and pressing again.  I don't know too many veterans that are not able to do the same.

However TnDep or anyone else really should not "have to be" subjected to excessive chat in an area of combat.  Tower chat is another thing.  In all cases, if someone asks to break channel chat, it is just common courtesy to shut up. 

Possibly another alternative would be to extend the tower chat to a separate new channel that could be heard on range.  This would work like a mission channel, with the exception that it would be limited by range and anyone who chose the channel button would auto tune in (not like Justin Bieber though).  This would be an option for those who wished to continue "tower chat" and would free up range channel for combat information.

[Tigger29]

When you pull up the radio to be able to hit a checkbox under either channel or range for mute.  If you checked them both, both channels would be muted, if you just checked range ( you would hear no range vox ).  So many annoying people these days, would be a great addition. 

Discuss...

I'm all for this idea so a BIG +1 for me, but I have a HUGE issue with people who put "Discuss" at the end of their posts.  I don't like being ordered around and the redundancy of it is a little ridiculous, don't you think?

[TnDep]

I'm all for this idea so a BIG +1 for me, but I have a HUGE issue with people who put "Discuss" at the end of their posts.  I don't like being ordered around and the redundancy of it is a little ridiculous, don't you think?

 

[Chilli]

I'm all for this idea so a BIG +1 for me, but I have a HUGE issue with people who put "Discuss" at the end of their posts.  I don't like being ordered around and the redundancy of it is a little ridiculous, don't you think?

   You missed that there were 3 dots after Discuss ie (...)  Taken in context, this is not so much a demand as it is an order to hold fire until the poster is allowed to at least get one leg into his flame pants...   
discuss...