CitizenCon 2016 Reactions

[supitza]

Nothing really that new, it felt like a 2 hour around the verse imo.

I was hoping for a lot more.

 

[Beerjerker]

No one is going to use the spectrum for this reason. It was decided log ago that the whole in game voice with delay and hacking and all those other features were simply trumped by having a dedicated out of game voice client. Unless CR wants to lock your computer, which would cause massive backlash, the spectrum will be mostly dead on arrival. Reddit already beat this horse dead revived it and veat it dead again and each time it has been concluded "rather they spend more time on game than iin game voice/IM".

Yeah, you're right. I just think it would be funny to have a Sentinel launch a e-war meme attack and turn your HUD into dancing Pepes or something along those lines.

 

[AstroSam]

Yeah man, I can't wait for 3.0. I have an Aquila. Dunno if I'll keep her ot the Carrack.

Same here. Will keep both for having more gameplay options, because the DUR, Aquila and Carrack will all have a different, specialized focus within the topic "exploration". Plus, the Aquila presumably can be operated as a SP whereas the Carrack can't. So IF you are into exploration, and you can afford it, I would advise to keep both of them.

@ topic: couldn't watch the presentation, but reading the reactions, I'm becoming a little bit disappointed because I was totally sure to see SQ42-related stuff...

 

[Blind Owl]

Same here. Will keep both for having more gameplay options, because the DUR, Aquila and Carrack will all have a different, specialized focus within the topic "exploration". Plus, the Aquila presumably can be operated as a SP whereas the Carrack can't. So IF you are into exploration, and you can afford it, I would advise to keep both of them.

@ topic: couldn't watch the presentation, but reading the reactions, I'm becoming a little bit disappointed because I was totally sure to see SQ42-related stuff...

Good point Sam. However, that leaves me heavily into exploration. I have the Terrapin, DUR, Aquila and Carrack. I most certainly don't need them all. Something will get upgraded. Haha. But what...

 

[RogueIce]

No one is going to use the spectrum for this reason. It was decided log ago that the whole in game voice with delay and hacking and all those other features were simply trumped by having a dedicated out of game voice client. Unless CR wants to lock your computer, which would cause massive backlash, the spectrum will be mostly dead on arrival. Reddit already beat this horse dead revived it and veat it dead again and each time it has been concluded "rather they spend more time on game than iin game voice/IM".

Actually, I think Spectrum will be quite useful as the game goes on.

For me, why most in-game voice chat fails is because a) it ends to suck and b) it's not useful for the whole "well my game crashed let me log back on" and such (as they mentioned in the presentation). Spectrum, AFAIK, is the first time a game is actually covering both realms of gaming voice communication, which I think is brilliant.

As the universe expands, with 4.0 and beyond, and the number of players on a given server increases, it will be reality that one's circle of friends and/or guildmates will wind up scattered to the four winds, and may not be handy or convenient when you need somebody to run escort, man your guns, etc. Also, in a game like this with a player-driven focus, you'll be meeting up with randoms to be given bounty contracts, haul cargo, and so on. Typing those communications through the in-game chat would be annoying, and none of the external Voice Chat Apps are especially convenient to use with these kinds of ephemeral contacts between players.

So for that reason alone, a decently designed in-game voice chat makes sense and will certainly see use. Where Spectrum's beauty is, then, is that it also covers the out-of-game communication needs: "my game dropped", "hey guys I'm logging on where you at?" and so on. Assuming it all works as advertised, I can see Spectrum getting wide use as the Verse gets bigger (and players/guilds more spread out) simply because of the convenience factor of 'always available' in-game comms, out-of-game comms also being available, and you're using one already so why not the other?

Sure, there will be situations where you'll just switch it off. As @Bruttle mentions, when you're doing high risk or sensitive ops it'll be natural to go with the "unhackable" (in game terms) Discord/Mumble/TeamSpeak. But for day-to-day in-game voice chat, particularly with a game that relies on player interaction as this will - and since the aforementioned Discord/Mumble/TeamSpeak are not at all convenient for the one-off talking to a new contact, arranging a pick up crew and similar tasks - Spectrum will be ideal, while also handling the 'normal' outside game communication tasks as well.

Discord and the like will never go unused, of course. And yeah, I doubt anyone will be leaving the current forums for TEST to go all-in on the Spectrum Org Forum, but as far as voice chat goes I think it has a lot more potential than you're giving it credit for.

 

[maynard]

Spectrum will be heipful to smaller orgs that lack the talents of people like our Master of Hamsters

TEST will have robust communications regardless of what CGI does or doesn't build into the game

while more 'immersive' comms is cool, I would prefer to see developer resources put to work on the hard problems holding up the release of Sq42

 

[Han Burgundy]

I can see how folks would just choose to avoid the in-game voip out of fear of getting "Hacked", but dropping it alltogether dries up a whole lot of cool potential features. Positional audio and proximity sound would be cool, so you can yell at the bastard stowing away in your ship to put his hands up without having to stop to type or interact with any menus. That would be nice.

I can also imagine that Data such as Navigation Information has to be either hand delivered or sent through spectrum (with the added risk of interception.) How I'd do it: Each org can gather the funds to build and establish a network of secure relay satellites that can act as a "Hard line" for them to use when transmitting the most sensitive of data. The catch is that it has to be hand-delivered to an ORG-owned satellite in the relay if you want to be 100% secure. This adds interesting gameplay for inter-org squabbling, setting the stage for some cool cloak and dagger stuff.

(Scenario )
Tap Into an enemy relay and scoop as much Data as you can before blowing it up, effectively taking down a whole arm of your enemy's secure Comms network. Camp the busted array until they send someone out to repair it. Gank the engineers and keep at it until they send a taskforce from a nearby base to recapture their damaged relay. Leave a small scout force to lie in wait near the enemy base that can let you know when the bulk of their forces take off to come get you, leaving their ground base undefended and ripe for a raiding.

Ok, yes, the theorycraft cart went a bit off the rails there, but having an in-game "internet" adds a LOT of cool gameplay opportunities and tactics centered around data. So people opting to go around the in-game system for VOIP won't be crippling a complex and in-depth system like spectrum at all. They just won't be taking part.

(I can imagine that ALL usable in-game data (Jump points, nav points, scanner readings/detailed info, ect) will have to be transmitted/transported IN-game. I highly doubt they will make it possible to "hack" another org's private forums. Seems like a no-brainer to me.)

Holy crap I have been typing for a while. So, anyhoo, that's my $0.02

 

[NEWater]

I found it kind of underwhelming. Where's Star Marine? Where's the settlement thingy? Where's that next episode of Galactic Tour? Where's SQ42? I didn't mind being shown something at less than 100% to show for all the filming work which was underway over the past 12 months.

Sigh.

 

[Schattenjagger]

Great demo, however I got bored about 45 minutes in up until the demo. Great progress on planetside, however, I was disappointed with no demo/in depth progress report of SQ42 or Star Marine. Also, I thought we would have gotten a 2.6 release date. I know, Chris does not like to put dates out for expectation management, still doesn't make it any less frustrating. I honestly thought GamesCon was a better presentation than this one. All in all, not to bad and I eagerly await to see what the future brings for SC.

 

[Space Gargantua/Lupus Dei]

Good but nowhere ner as good as I expected, NO Star Marine footage , ( they showed a pictuer :( ) no S42 trailer? and like some one said Carrack still abour 1 year away :(, the planetary stuff was pretty cool thou, also the sale sorta stinks IMO but hte game looks sweeeeeeeet anways so I keep my faith!

 

[Liquor_and_ores]

I expected the caterpillar to be made hanger ready or at least have a new walk through

 

[Grimbli]

No one is going to use the spectrum for this reason. It was decided log ago that the whole in game voice with delay and hacking and all those other features were simply trumped by having a dedicated out of game voice client. Unless CR wants to lock your computer, which would cause massive backlash, the spectrum will be mostly dead on arrival. Reddit already beat this horse dead revived it and veat it dead again and each time it has been concluded "rather they spend more time on game than iin game voice/IM".

I think it'll be incredibly useful. While you can technically do everything they mentioned it can do with a variety of programs, (Discord, forums, chat rooms) they're bringing it all into one place. And I happen to like their setup. I'll probably use it myself unless there's zero interest from others and I'm the only one using it, as that defeats the purpose of using social programs.

Good point Sam. However, that leaves me heavily into exploration. I have the Terrapin, DUR, Aquila and Carrack. I most certainly don't need them all. Something will get upgraded. Haha. But what...

I got enough ships you can do whatever you want to do at any time. I'm hoping we can give permissions to other players, cause I'll just give you perma access brother. I trust ya ;)

Actually, I think Spectrum will be quite useful as the game goes on.

For me, why most in-game voice chat fails is because a) it ends to suck and b) it's not useful for the whole "well my game crashed let me log back on" and such (as they mentioned in the presentation). Spectrum, AFAIK, is the first time a game is actually covering both realms of gaming voice communication, which I think is brilliant.

As the universe expands, with 4.0 and beyond, and the number of players on a given server increases, it will be reality that one's circle of friends and/or guildmates will wind up scattered to the four winds, and may not be handy or convenient when you need somebody to run escort, man your guns, etc. Also, in a game like this with a player-driven focus, you'll be meeting up with randoms to be given bounty contracts, haul cargo, and so on. Typing those communications through the in-game chat would be annoying, and none of the external Voice Chat Apps are especially convenient to use with these kinds of ephemeral contacts between players.

So for that reason alone, a decently designed in-game voice chat makes sense and will certainly see use. Where Spectrum's beauty is, then, is that it also covers the out-of-game communication needs: "my game dropped", "hey guys I'm logging on where you at?" and so on. Assuming it all works as advertised, I can see Spectrum getting wide use as the Verse gets bigger (and players/guilds more spread out) simply because of the convenience factor of 'always available' in-game comms, out-of-game comms also being available, and you're using one already so why not the other?

Sure, there will be situations where you'll just switch it off. As @Bruttle mentions, when you're doing high risk or sensitive ops it'll be natural to go with the "unhackable" (in game terms) Discord/Mumble/TeamSpeak. But for day-to-day in-game voice chat, particularly with a game that relies on player interaction as this will - and since the aforementioned Discord/Mumble/TeamSpeak are not at all convenient for the one-off talking to a new contact, arranging a pick up crew and similar tasks - Spectrum will be ideal, while also handling the 'normal' outside game communication tasks as well.

Discord and the like will never go unused, of course. And yeah, I doubt anyone will be leaving the current forums for TEST to go all-in on the Spectrum Org Forum, but as far as voice chat goes I think it has a lot more potential than you're giving it credit for.

This is my sentiment exactly. I think it'll have its uses. But it won't replace everything.

 

[Wolf Lord Caldersson]

I think it'll be incredibly useful. While you can technically do everything they mentioned it can do with a variety of programs, (Discord, forums, chat rooms) they're bringing it all into one place. And I happen to like their setup. I'll probably use it myself unless there's zero interest from others and I'm the only one using it, as that defeats the purpose of using social programs.


I got enough ships you can do whatever you want to do at any time. I'm hoping we can give permissions to other players, cause I'll just give you perma access brother. I trust ya ;)



This is my sentiment exactly. I think it'll have its uses. But it won't replace everything.

I can guarantee 100% that test will not use spectrum. Especially if it is hackable and has time delay and interception.

Think about it. Middle of doing a exploration, mining ops, logistics move. A herald comes in and shuts down your comms and you get attacked. You then have to organize a defense without comms. Or lets say Sethious declares a call to arms. You are several jumps away and due to time delay on messages ot takes 15 minutes to get to you. Battle is already concluding as test is in shambles because people used spectrum and the time delay didnt reach people in time.

Now take it too discord. Your on your ops and get attacked. You still maintain comms. Someone sends out a mail to all, you message cant be intercepted. Sethious does a call to arms. You are notified immediately.

Other than running with a random person, I can not see a single reason why you would use spectrum. It fails at every single point compared to discord and others. Let me take that back. It is a program that all SC will be forced to have and playing with random people will be easier. Once you leave SC though your comms are down. So you cant be playing a different game and maintain comms... like discord or every other VOIP service.

 

[Grimbli]

I can guarantee 100% that test will not use spectrum. Especially if it is hackable and has time delay and interception.

I wasn't paying attention if they mentioned it'd be hackable by e-warfare or have the time delay or interception like the Verse's realistic communication. I thought it worked just like Discord and it was real time chat with separate channels where you didn't even need to be in the game to use?

Now take it too discord. Your on your ops and get attacked. You still maintain comms. Someone sends out a mail to all, you message cant be intercepted. Sethious does a call to arms. You are notified immediately.

The voice I get...but as far as messages, I run a single monitor and play in full screen. I can't read the chat anyways. With Spectrum it'll all be available either in mobi-glass, or possibly connectable to a chat window.

 

[Black Sunder]

I can guarantee 100% that test will not use spectrum. Especially if it is hackable and has time delay and interception.

Think about it. Middle of doing a exploration, mining ops, logistics move. A herald comes in and shuts down your comms and you get attacked. You then have to organize a defense without comms. Or lets say Sethious declares a call to arms. You are several jumps away and due to time delay on messages ot takes 15 minutes to get to you. Battle is already concluding as test is in shambles because people used spectrum and the time delay didnt reach people in time.

Now take it too discord. Your on your ops and get attacked. You still maintain comms. Someone sends out a mail to all, you message cant be intercepted. Sethious does a call to arms. You are notified immediately.

Other than running with a random person, I can not see a single reason why you would use spectrum. It fails at every single point compared to discord and others. Let me take that back. It is a program that all SC will be forced to have and playing with random people will be easier. Once you leave SC though your comms are down. So you cant be playing a different game and maintain comms... like discord or every other VOIP service.

I agree with this. It is not in our best interest to use 'in-verse' voice comms if there is the possibility of 'in-verse' interference or delay. It may be more chaotic but Discord is always evolving in good ways and I think in the end the comm discipline needed will work itself out. And moving everyone over to the Spectrum forum would be more of a hassle than anything. We're set up here so well already and our admins do a great job AND have total control.

I see Spectrum helping those orgs that don't have the infrastructure set up already or can't do it. But we have all that already. I put a vote in sticking to our forum and Discord until it can be positively beyond a reasonable doubt be shown Spectrum is better than both as we use them now.

 

[Naruw]

I think the trick with SC is managing realistic expectations / disappointment and Excitement.
Its a complex formula that is always teetering back in forth from month to month. While I'm super excited about this game and the development process I don't want a Turd like No man sky. So waiting until it's done is a fair ask.

I fear that CR goes 5% further than needed and that slows things down considerably. To be fair, he's made millions of dollars and created games and movies that have been successful so, he has my trust and financial support but not my patience

 

[Cyril]

I agree with this. It is not in our best interest to use 'in-verse' voice comms if there is the possibility of 'in-verse' interference or delay. It may be more chaotic but Discord is always evolving in good ways and I think in the end the comm discipline needed will work itself out. And moving everyone over to the Spectrum forum would be more of a hassle than anything. We're set up here so well already and our admins do a great job AND have total control.

I see Spectrum helping those orgs that don't have the infrastructure set up already or can't do it. But we have all that already. I put a vote in sticking to our forum and Discord until it can be positively beyond a reasonable doubt be shown Spectrum is better than both as we use them now.

I'm thinking Spectrum could be a lot more useful that everyone seems to think, if they do it correctly. If there is the ability to have varied settings based on fleet layout it could be much better, for in system comms, than discord. Probably keep that as a backup but the integration might bring more pros than cons.

Thinking back to how we ran comms on convoys you want everyone in the same vehicle on VOX, one push to talk for everyone else in the escort, and one for theater convoy net. Select vehicles didn't have theater convoy because they were on other nets like local battle space etc.

The big issue is like so many other things at this point in development we just don't know enough. And as has been mentioned we have the talent base in TEST that we can probably roll our own and have it more functional.

 

[Sethious]

So for me, when I saw it, all I saw was CIG copying everything that TEST currently uses and mashing it together while trying to make integration into the game at the same time.

The nitty gritty details of this, is basically, this is CIG launch into VOIP platform market. They will build this and then sell it to other games, thus making them money.

Texas and I discussed this at length in the penthouse last night. I think it will be perfect for smaller ORGs, but it's not TEST quality yet.

 

[Beerjerker]

I'm in the wait and see camp. Spectrum seems to be filling a void that we TESTies don't have, fixing something that isn't broke for us. I guess it would be nice to not alt-tab to interact with forums and such, but not really something I had any complaints about.
Of course, maybe it will be better than I can imagine. After all, this is how we used to teamspeak way back when...

 

[Michael]

@the whole spectrum discussion
No matter what system we are using in the end, i hope it has some features like Arma's TFAR or acre 3 Mod.
http://radio.task-force.ru/en/
http://gitlab.idi-systems.com/idi-systems/acre2-public.git