Add VOIP

[SnuggleSnail]

Pros

• Viral Marketing
• Higher sense of empathy & trust
• Community building
• Angry eastern european teenagers screaming at each other in fights
• Funny
• Easily identify and worship gamer girls
• Shenanigans

Cons

• Loud spam bots
• Need to develop good UX for players to mute people

If you youtube "VOIP" + [popular game with VOIP] you'll see hundreds upon hundreds of videos with millions of views. Especially for a company with such an anti-advertising bias enabling people to make compilations/videos that are far more digestible/interesting for average viewers because of the relatable/funny aspect of actual communication seems like a no brainer. Given haven's high stakes, and eccentric/funny community I could see myself watching people's shenanigan compilations just for the reactions even if I didn't really understand what's going on.

In the modern generation of social games like rust/dayz it's been an absolute staple for years, and haven is very much a social game in a similar vain. People spent hours just sitting around and talking at Community Fair. This world some guy and his two friends walked up to our claim playing instruments and just sorta hung out for 10 minutes before going to the next claim. These sorts of interactions would be more a lot more enjoyable/interesting if enabled by VOIP.

I know Jorbtar is scared of having to deal with autistic 14 year olds mic spamming or whatever, but really, look at gameplay from other games with similar or worse communities. In my thousands of hours playing dayz/rust/hurtworld I can't remember a single instance of my experience being ruined by VOIP, only funny moments & making friends. If there is a /reasonable/ way to mute people it becomes a non-issue very quickly. Likewise, if you wanted to be extra strict it could be off by default, or require verification.

Adding VOIP is something I know Loftar could do fairly easily, it's not some huge 3 month project and I sincerely believe it's one of the two main "killer features" haven is missing. Please reconsider the admittedly understandable kneejerk reaction, and take a look at some youtube content for other games with VOIP. I think you'll change your mind.

[MadNomad]

would have to have an option to mute everyone with one click, and umute only a few people that you choose

you never know how someone is going to act, so it would be a good idea to only hear a few people that you know

screaming at each other

this is literally a disadvantage, would make the game unplayable

In my thousands of hours playing dayz/rust/hurtworld I can't remember a single instance of my experience being ruined by VOIP

your luck is unbelievable!

[strpk0]

+1, this is such a no brainer feature for haven, both for people who just like socializing/larping and for those looking for sheananigans or funny situations. Hanging out in a discord call with friends is easily the best way to enjoy the game, so there's no reason why it shouldn't be a built in game feature that doesn't rely on 3rd party software.

If babies being afraid of having to listen to other's voices is a concern, then there could be a setting to globally mute it or mute people in particular.

[SnuggleSnail]

For abuse cases some good parallels are allowing people to import custom images & area chat.

What can you say in voice chat that is more offensive or upsetting than something you can say in text? Plus, in reality most people are suddenly a lot more polite with more personal communications. Often people will bully each other pretty bad in the haven discord, then somehow end up in voice chat being fairly polite and amicable. Even in games with VOIP, I can say for sure 99% of the toxicity still comes from text chat.

In the case of importing custom images you'd expect people's nudes, RL pictures, illegal stuff, nazi symbols, etc everywhere... But in reality the vast, vast majority of people's custom art I've seen in haven has been completely kosher. It adds so much to the game, and I can't say its ever ruined the experience for me. The most extreme examples of it being abused for bullying are, if anything, funny:

The only major difference I can see between VOIP and these other aspects that allow higher freedom of expression for players is that it could be /far/ easier to self moderate by muting people. If the a player runs into 200 people across a 1 year world, and 5% of them are bad actors, he would only need to mute 10 people. Very minor downside, very big potential upside.

[MadNomad]

What can you say in voice chat that is more offensive or upsetting than something you can say in text?

we should also be able to choose which text/person to mute in text chat

the same for custom images and hats

with text it is less of an issue anyway, it's not like it takes the whole screen and it's not like you can't close chat, images and hats you also do not have to look at
but screaming sound takes whole ears, and is more disturbing

letters written with text do not scream into your ears

with all that being said, I don't mind it being added on condition the above key features are added with it

[sMartins]

Why not, give It a try at least ... More interactions Is Always good. I agree with the OP.
Same thing of proximity chat ... but with voice. Just add a Window with all the proximity guys you have, mute all, mute One by One, etc..

[axus]

Yes I would like to click on name in kingdom chat and mute text please

[DonVelD]

+1 i never thought about VOIP in haven but it seems like fun idea

[jordancoles]

Seatribe can barely get their own ingame sounds to play without stuttering

I would be surprised if it works but could be fun if it wasn't a lagfest

[sMartins]

I'm pretty close to the server .... No problems for me.
But yeah, talking with 300/500 ms wouldn't be that good, but oh well, Who cares? Just give It a try ...

EDIT

If only :audiobuf 4096 would save/Remember the setting like the camera does