Voice Chat

[Illysia]

Implementing voice chat flies in the face of a little thing along the lines of, "players don't want to be quite that close to other players they don't know well." Mind you, players become close all the time however, that usually happens over time after much typing based interaction. I think very few players want to talk directly to the other player if they just met. (without large scale raids on the line. ) No offense to anybody but I play the game to watch characters interact and stories unfold, not so much to interact directly with other players. Voice chat is almost like breaking the fourth wall to me. 

Looking at it from a RP standpoint, hearing another person's voice could really ruin the experience. In your mind, you have already have some expectation. Hearing a guy's falsetto when listening to a female character can be far more jarring than reading typos or waiting 5 mins for a wall of text.  True, laughing behind the curtain can be funny on both ends, but it can also break up the immersion. Sometimes less is more and a bit of uncertainty is good.

[LigH]

PlaneShift is a roleplaying (in character) game, not a 3D chat (out of character). Make a Habbo if you can't tell them apart.

[weltall]

get mumble it has also an opengl overlay.
oblivion style voice is already implemented just it's difficult to mantain in a continually changing game (while oblivion is that and nothing more, if you install patches, at least unofficial ones, you'll likely lose voice if they changed something)
and if someone starts talking with some weird modded english to make their char it will be trouble to get a word

[Vakachehk]

Ohh really? It doesn't seem to be that good. Well I guess it is because of all the changes.
I like it how on Oblivion when you start talking to someone the camera goes straight up to their face like first person view and you can hear them talking and their mouth actually opens and closes perfectly to what they are saying. I think only that to be added as a voice chat in PS nothing more.

[weltall]

lipsync technologies aren't so easy to implement without a good budget... then you have also real voice actors, good equipment (which is expensive), etc.

[Rigwyn]

How about making planeshift all bright and sparkely using nice primary and neon colors ... and everyone's hair could look like colorful nylon dolly hair. And sparkely gem-like eyes .. yah... And have nerf swords instead of metallic ones. And and and .. there could be pink clouds and rainbows!

You see, if the graphics looked like this, then at least it would not be quite so jarring when in the middle of RP you hear the hi pitched voices of fellow players and realize that they are like 8 years old.

While in kada's sipping liquor as you discuss your next hit job you hear playerX entering. Even though he has not spoken, you know its him because you can hear his little sister in the background trying to sing some stupid hannah montana song... Oh, here comes playerY .. I can hear his stupid dog in the background.. Wow, that really adds a lot to a world where dogs and hana mon-freakin-tana do not exist.  I hope he has learned since last time not to get too close to the microphone.. It sucks when he over-modulates....

---------=== Squeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll ==----------

"Oh sorry guys, I had my sp   *crackle*   eakers were turned up too high... EL OH  EL  Bang Bang Bang One  ha ha ha ... I hate it when that happens."
...
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaavey......... how many times do I have to tell you not to leave your dirty underwear on the floor!?"
"Shut up ma! Im on the interwebs!'
"Wash your hands after you pick it up baby!"
"Ma shut it! You're embarrassing me!"

[Overtherainbow]

"Oh sorry guys, I had my sp   *crackle*   eakers were turned up too high... EL OH  EL  Bang Bang Bang One  ha ha ha ... I hate it when that happens."
...
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaavey......... how many times do I have to tell you not to leave your dirty underwear on the floor!?"
"Shut up ma! Im on the interwebs!'
"Wash your hands after you pick it up baby!"
"Ma shut it! You're embarrassing me!"

... Are you stalking me?

[Nivm]

 Heh, Oblivion got Patrick Stewart to do voice acting, among many other notables; the sorts of people who do it for a profession. I haven't heard the plane-shift voice acting, and usually forget it exists, since I can't seem to find the option that turns it on.

 I doubt anyone would ever use such a system for role-playing, unless they've managed to make their voice just like they want. Even then, it would be incongruous and jarring when one player out of 40 randomly starts using it, when others can not or will not. It would also be a few steps harder to implement than the pre-recorded NPC chat.
 If you want to talk to people during the game, use one of the clients out there made for it. They'll probably work better than an integrated one ever would.

[Candy]

There are programs like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak if you wish to voice chat with some players. Personally, I get on TS once in a blue moon, but in general I don't want to interact with most players on such a personal level so fast.

But Vent/TS roleplay isn't entirely common, seeing as most players either can't/won't/think they can't do their character's voice, and/or as Roled pointed out, are playing the opposite gender. I know for sure I couldn't do the voice I imagine my menki character to have unless I'm playing a scene where he gets kicked in the naughty bits.

It'd probably be worse to have to deal with the people mistakenly thinking they can act, too. I've suffered one too many a junior high play; the last thing I need is to go through more of that in my adult life.

[DGMurdockIII]

i would support voice chat integrated into the game it would make working in groups easer and lots of other stuff

[Candy]

DG, third-party programs with a few people you trust is the best way to go. Look up 'Ventrilo Harassment' on YouTube if for some reason you dont' know why...

However, as has been stated, PlaneShift doesn't really require voice chat yet. It's a great tool for raids in WoW and such, but PS combat is still mostly hitting one hotkey and waiting.

[Timil Deeps]

Another point nobody seems to have brought up yet is that Voice chat would rob you of a wonderful resource that PS provides: Logs. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

One fun aspect of PS that dovetails nicely with this forum is the fact that people like to share logs of cool and interesting RPs, or sometimes even ongoing plots. It would require a lot of resources and time to record the voice chat and transcribe it to logs for posting and sharing.

[Candy]

It's entirely possible to record your voice chats, but I think the files would end up pretty big, especially if you're online for a long time.

[Timil Deeps]

It's entirely possible to record your voice chats, but I think the files would end up pretty big, especially if you're online for a long time.

True, on both counts... And then transcribing them for sharing and posting would be tedious. 

[Pakarro]

This is a really useless discussion. I like Rigwyn's post best.

Voice chat is ooc and limits non-native English speakers. It is for another type of games.
Forget it.