AAR - Dec 21 - first 1.09beta day

Taxi · 12-22-2007, 12:26 PM

Played for the first time for a long while. I have to say there was lots of action. Things were a bit messy from time to time, since the VON was unreliable and with no password, lot's of people weren't on TS. Therefore communication was a pain and which made leading the squad and fireteams pretty difficult, but Razer was doing an excellent job making the best of the situation. Veteran mode was too much on top off no password, only half the players on TS and VON problems.

No password sessions does attract lot's of players, think it was the busiest server all night always more than 16 players on. Should be fun when the VON is made bulletproof, but think current veteran is too much for a no password server.

Also we played my TVT mission twice, no real problems, with the mission it seemed. Everyone on TS grouped on one side, which was good idea, but with the VON problems might have hampered the other team. SF Barnacle blew up a good chunk of their regular infantry (their VON must've been fun to hear at that point: WTF, OMG *%#@*

However it does require good comms and organization, otherwise people are just travelling on the map not sure what they're doing, then get shot or blown up and then have to start all over again and that's no fun.

Some revisions needed:

1 Chopper and vehicle respawn should be explained and unmissable in the briefing
2 Should be pointed out in the briefing that people should not expect to reach their target unchallenged, perhaps people are too much used to driving towards their objective carelessly.
3 Mission end should be less abrupt, so explicitly show that the 2nd town is captured, few seconds later which team won and again a few seconds later the mission debriefing. The way it is now the mission is suddenly over and people don't easily understand why.

**GinSoakedBoy** · 12-22-2007, 12:37 PM

I was on briefly to check out the beta patch before going to bed (it was 3-4am). The organisation seemed good, and VOIP meant we didn't even need TS.

One thing that annoyed me though, was that a few people used TS instead of the group or direct comms, which lessened the immersion and just meant I heard random chatter, such as 'good shot'.

I really think we should set up a SOP for use of VOIP.

Taxi · 12-22-2007, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GinSoakedBoy

I was on briefly to check out the beta patch before going to bed (it was 3-4am). The organisation seemed good, and VOIP meant we didn't even need TS.

One thing that annoyed me though, was that a few people used TS instead of the group or direct comms, which lessened the immersion and just meant I heard random chatter, such as 'good shot'.

Well, earlier we had to use TS because VON was proving unreliable, also we were using it for SL - FTL comms, which group doesn't cover if I'm not mistaken??

Quote:

Originally Posted by GinSoakedBoy

I really think we should set up a SOP for use of VOIP.

Yeah, I agree. I think it would be useful for instance if everyone playing on the server when passworded would have to have keys set up to speak directly to each VOIP channel.

**GinSoakedBoy** · 12-22-2007, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taxi

also we were using it for SL - FTL comms, which group doesn't cover if I'm not mistaken??

SL and FTL can use side. But you could use command chat on TS. This was not what I had issue with, there were some people talking within squad over TS.

loyalguard · 12-22-2007, 08:14 PM

Nice report guys!

FYI, we are working on a new VON/Commo SOP.

Dslyecxi · 12-26-2007, 05:43 PM

The method described here (at the end) works great for VOIP/TS integration:
http://dslyecxi.com/articles/arma_109_voip.html

Quoting:

Quote:

Here's how ShackTac will be running TS/ArmA VOIP integration. We do things at the platoon level, but it applies to squad-level procedures as well.

We will utilize TS for the following:

- Command chat, using the "Channel Commander" functionality. This will include:
x. Platoon Commander
x. Squad Leaders
x. Leaders of any special elements (ie air, armor, etc)

- Squad chat. This will be where the entire squad is in the same TS channel. This is to be used for the Squad Leader to communicate to his squad members, or for a squad member to talk to the entire squad. There will be an emphasis on not using this unless you're a squad leader or fireteam leader.

We will utilize ArmA VOIP for the following:

- Fireteam chat. Because of how our organization breaks down in mission terms, each "group" is actually a fireteam. Because of this, speaking on the "Group" VOIP channel means that you're talking to just the members of your fireteam. I believe that the SimHQ template you guys use is very similar to this. "Group" chat can be potentially used to maintain control over your fireteam when you're spread particularly thin for whatever reason, or when things are loud enough that you can't rely on the direct-speaking channel. We will be experimenting with this channel a lot to see how best to utilize it in the future.

- Vehicle chat. The "Vehicle" channel will be used for, you guessed it, vehicle-based chat. This will allow vehicle crews to be much more communicative than they have been able to be in the past, and should really help us out and make certain types of missions a lot more feasible (ie a mission where there are 10+ vehicles on our side) and less of a headache in terms of TS.

- Direct Speaking. This is the big one. Direct Speaking is used to communicate verbally with anyone around you. This is where we have been restricted with TS - there are only a few ways to organize TS, and we basically have the best compromise possible, with things broken down to the squad level. However, that means you have 14 people in the TS channel for a squad, and since a squad can be distributed over a several hundred meter area in some situations, it can make for confusing communications if everyone is trying to talk (even in moderation). We have restricted a squad TS channel to mostly the SL and FTLs in 1.08, and 1.09 will open it up and allow us to have fireteam members talking as much as they want to anyone around them. This is huge - the significance cannot be emphasized enough.