Communication Hotkeys
Xerond
Undefined Join Date: 2004-07-09 Member: 29817Members, Constellation
Undefined Join Date: 2004-07-09 Member: 29817Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">An Expansive And Intuitive System</div>Easy 3 Communication
I was thinking about how to increase simple and effective communication between marines without using a microphone. But here is a problem, you need a single microphone channel for the whole team, if you split it up it becomes less effective. Yet, not everyone can communicate with their close-by team-mates because then the mic channel will be flooded and no one can hear anything. Besides, not everyone has or wants to use a microphone. It is encouraged and it most certainly helps. But what about all the small-scale, intricate teamwork gestures that could be designed with a hotkey verbal system?
Current voice or sound macros are nice, but involve a lot of hotkeys.
Hit Z, and you get a list of 10 things to say then select 1-10.
Hit X, and you get another list of 10 things to say with the same laborous system
Hit C, and yet again MORE things to say.
This is kinda cool cause you have a variety. However at any certain time, you don't need to use all of them, and I bet you're not going to use all of them. So make them pertinent.
Instead, assign 3 groups of pre-recorded in-game verbal sayings. Basically your player model speaking in game.
Group 1 - Commands : These commands are orders to other team-mates to do a certain task.
Group 2 - Requests : Think of these like help requests from other team-mates.
Group 3 - Emotions : These can involve taunts, jokes, and sayings depending on how its used.
Now the way you use these verbal commands is what you look at, and then hit your group key.
If I'm in a room with a resource node that needs to be built, all you do is aim and point at the resource node and hit the Group 1 Key or lets say "Z".
Point at node, Hit "Z", and your character says outloud,"Build The Node, I'll Cover You."
These verbals are said in-game within a vincity. So if you'll only hear marines within a certain range, and as you get closer you can hear better. Aliens can also hear these commands, but not as loud as the marine vincity. This could also make room for an alien evolved trait, which allows the alien to hear the marines better.
Now, if you point at the node and hit the Group 2 Key, or lets say,"X". Then your player model says,"I'll build, you cover me." This is then asking rather than demanding for the other player to do this role. This encourages teamwork.
While staring or looking at the node, if you hit the Group 3 Key, or lets say,"C" you say a joke, or say a taunt like,"Well, I guess they're gone for now, weak" while building the node.
So, what determines what the person will say depends on what you're looking at. If its a weldable and you command, you'll say,"Weld that vent open!" or request,"I'll weld, cover me!", or emote,"Aliens can get through that weld spot!"
You could point at a dropped health-pake and emote,"There's a health-pack here."
You could emote on a skulk corpse,"What a dummy."
Or you could request while looking at a team-mate models,"Come follow me?"
Emote on an alien model,"Lerk here."
Command on a building,"Build that, I'll cover."
Command on an alien build,"Attack that node!"
Request on the node,"Don't hit it yet."
Emote on it,"Alien node here."
Get the picture?
You have a lot of variety, yet only 3 keys to hit. Its intuitive, and encourages short-range player interaction that is still detailed without flooding the mic channel. Its interactive and gives you a lot of possibilities which makes it a lot easier to have cordination without everyone having a mic. And all the player has to do it point at something and verbalise, so it is barely going to hassle a player or make him have to script to macro out all his sayings. Its short-range, and yet shouldn't be over used at the communication is a slight priviledge. Use it too much and aliens can hear you well. They have to be close though.
This could also be implemented on the alien, which could be even more interesting.
I was thinking about how to increase simple and effective communication between marines without using a microphone. But here is a problem, you need a single microphone channel for the whole team, if you split it up it becomes less effective. Yet, not everyone can communicate with their close-by team-mates because then the mic channel will be flooded and no one can hear anything. Besides, not everyone has or wants to use a microphone. It is encouraged and it most certainly helps. But what about all the small-scale, intricate teamwork gestures that could be designed with a hotkey verbal system?
Current voice or sound macros are nice, but involve a lot of hotkeys.
Hit Z, and you get a list of 10 things to say then select 1-10.
Hit X, and you get another list of 10 things to say with the same laborous system
Hit C, and yet again MORE things to say.
This is kinda cool cause you have a variety. However at any certain time, you don't need to use all of them, and I bet you're not going to use all of them. So make them pertinent.
Instead, assign 3 groups of pre-recorded in-game verbal sayings. Basically your player model speaking in game.
Group 1 - Commands : These commands are orders to other team-mates to do a certain task.
Group 2 - Requests : Think of these like help requests from other team-mates.
Group 3 - Emotions : These can involve taunts, jokes, and sayings depending on how its used.
Now the way you use these verbal commands is what you look at, and then hit your group key.
If I'm in a room with a resource node that needs to be built, all you do is aim and point at the resource node and hit the Group 1 Key or lets say "Z".
Point at node, Hit "Z", and your character says outloud,"Build The Node, I'll Cover You."
These verbals are said in-game within a vincity. So if you'll only hear marines within a certain range, and as you get closer you can hear better. Aliens can also hear these commands, but not as loud as the marine vincity. This could also make room for an alien evolved trait, which allows the alien to hear the marines better.
Now, if you point at the node and hit the Group 2 Key, or lets say,"X". Then your player model says,"I'll build, you cover me." This is then asking rather than demanding for the other player to do this role. This encourages teamwork.
While staring or looking at the node, if you hit the Group 3 Key, or lets say,"C" you say a joke, or say a taunt like,"Well, I guess they're gone for now, weak" while building the node.
So, what determines what the person will say depends on what you're looking at. If its a weldable and you command, you'll say,"Weld that vent open!" or request,"I'll weld, cover me!", or emote,"Aliens can get through that weld spot!"
You could point at a dropped health-pake and emote,"There's a health-pack here."
You could emote on a skulk corpse,"What a dummy."
Or you could request while looking at a team-mate models,"Come follow me?"
Emote on an alien model,"Lerk here."
Command on a building,"Build that, I'll cover."
Command on an alien build,"Attack that node!"
Request on the node,"Don't hit it yet."
Emote on it,"Alien node here."
Get the picture?
You have a lot of variety, yet only 3 keys to hit. Its intuitive, and encourages short-range player interaction that is still detailed without flooding the mic channel. Its interactive and gives you a lot of possibilities which makes it a lot easier to have cordination without everyone having a mic. And all the player has to do it point at something and verbalise, so it is barely going to hassle a player or make him have to script to macro out all his sayings. Its short-range, and yet shouldn't be over used at the communication is a slight priviledge. Use it too much and aliens can hear you well. They have to be close though.
This could also be implemented on the alien, which could be even more interesting.
Comments
A well-implemented menu system is always welcome. Especially when modders want to add a menu to the game with their plugin. Contextual commands are also awesome, although probably lower on the list the closer to L4D's random shouts you get.
This system would be hugely appreciated alongside an existing microphone system. It would encourage people to keep the mic channels clear, and only use them when they really need to.
I wonder how hard this kind of thing would be to implement?
Its based around only using three keys to control your phrase hotkeys. And each phrase changes based on what you're looking at. So you have to aim/look at an object/model and then hit one of the group keys and you'll say a phrase in that context. It would be a lot faster than current voice macros and would be a lot more useful.