Teamspeak & VOIP Questions

[EnglishRebel]

Okat I did a search for this and didn't find what I wanted. I just purchased a Logitech USB headphones/mike combo as my first step toward Tactical Gaming (next step will be to become a supporting member).
I was cruising the servers last night and my mike didn't work in any of them. What icon should be displayed to show VOIP in use?
Secondly do I need Teamspeak to be able to participate in TG servers? If I only use VOIP what do I miss out on - can I still here SL commands and squad member chatter and can I still give info back to the SL? Do I need TS Overlay as well as TS
I've read here that using TS and VOIP causes issues. Is this widespread or just computer specific? What can I do to avoid problems?
Thanks in advance
Alan

[perry]

I think the icon in the server browser is a headphone looking thing? I know it's called "BattleCommo" in the filter list. But, you'll discover a bunch of servers that have that icon but don't actually have VOIP working properly.. Your best bet to test it out is to get on our server since we know it works. Default key to talk to your squad is "B", and "V" talks to the commander if you are the squad leader.

Teamspeak's number one use during BF2 games is for contacting an admin. It's also used for chatter between maps and taunting people you just knifed

If you participate in any organized scrims, Teamspeak is pretty much a requirement for organizational purposes. The server IP and password is given up, the roster is checked, the call to populate squads is made...

TS Overlay is quite helpful in figuring out who is talking.. There can be 15 - 20 people in the channel during primetime with folks constantly coming in and out.. Knowing who is talking comes in pretty handy.

The TS and VOIP issues seem to be widespread computer specific problems. I'm not familiar with USB headsets, so I don't know what kinds of problems there are and how to solve them.

[BHack]

You'll know VOIP is working in game if you press B (while in a squad) and see the little green speaker icon pop up on the right of your screen.

This is only GUARANTEED to work on the TG servers though. As many public servers show VOIP being turned on in the server browser, but in-game it does not work.

Team speak is only really needed to ask an admin to warn/kick someone in the server. I find the banter to be distracting and since i'm usually a SL, the extra voice channel just makes things even more confusing. I've sinced stopped using it. However, it is required for scrimmages and training stuff, etc.

[EnglishRebel]

Thanks Bhack. I will try VOIP for now. BTW by pressing B to speak to your squad I assume that no other squad listens in i.e. the transmission is restricted to your squad only. I also assume that if you need to give intel to another squad then your SL can pass that on.
Alan

[perry]

Right, B talks to your squad only. Communicating with other squads is rather tough.. During normal games, it's best to probably have the SL pass the message up to the CO then to the other SL. During scrims, we setup a "War Room" on TeamSpeak that has all the SL's and pilots in it, so they can communicate directly.