In Development - Guild Banks and Voice Chat - Page 6

panny · 05/16/07, 11:43 PM

Originally Posted by Celenia

One way around this is to use two monitors and run Ventrilo in the monitor that WoW isn't using. Then you can glance over to see who's talking and who's in the channel. Although it's still impractical for people saying "heal me!" during a tense fight, unfortunately.

That's fortunate, not unfortunate.

Andrise · 05/17/07, 1:38 AM

Yeah, I've been using VoiceOverlay for over a year, works great.

• Snowy · 05/17/07, 1:54 AM

Originally Posted by Malan

Has that changed then ? Right after the 2.0 patch hit pre-xpack during the pvp rush we found that the BG leader would just jump to random people as they joined, and our HWL shaman said it had to do with your pvp ranking. I had leader a number of times and was arranging groups in AV for our guild honor grinding only to have some afk guy in the cave suddenly get it when they joined.

Yes, it definitely changed after TBC came out -- if you remember how the scoreboards looked pre-TBC, it still showed the legacy rank on the left side, whereas now it just shows the class symbol.

I'm still not sure exactly how the mechanics worked, sometimes I'd join and would immediately get leader from whoever had it, other times some rank 9 would still be holding it.

Randor · 05/17/07, 2:06 AM

Voiceoverlay still works??

Guild bank: As long as some checks and balances were there otherwise could cause problems.

Built-in voice chat? Cool, as long as it doesn't impact latency in a negative manner. And it needs to be Mac-compatible.

Annariu · 05/17/07, 2:18 AM

As far as guildbank goes, it's great that it's finally on the way, should have been implemented ages ago.

Built-in- voicecom is a nice idea at first glance, but one also has to bear in mind how "new exciting features" usually work in WoW. It's a good idea, but before it's good enough and updated to provide the same sort of quality and versatility as Ventrilo, most people will have moved on to another game.

Karakas · 05/17/07, 2:31 AM

Now I guess there really is no excuse for any "guild bank" accounts getting banned - long overdue on Blizzard's part, in my opinion.

I'm a bit torn on the VOIP aspect. Even if the performance is the same as a third-party Ventrilo server, there's still the concerns of private channels, cross-group channels, and all-around better customizability that the third-party programs offer than I don't think Blizzard can or will have the inclination to provide. One example is just the "special effects" under Ventrilo - I think I have a custom volume level set to just about every single one of my guild mates, since no two people's mic volume settings are a like

Thelyna · 05/17/07, 2:41 AM

Semi-OT, but I think there's a way to filter ventrilo so that everyone's volume comes to you the same ... not sure how to do that though.

Gwyd · 05/17/07, 2:45 AM

We run a second vent server open to both sides on the server for use in pugs. pvp or just chatting. Over the time it's been up I can't say it's see massive usage apart from a few retro pugs (naxx ect).

This is due more to being on an EU realm, we have a very wide mix of nationalities. Most are happy to use text communication but hesitate to use voice comms.
In the North American, Korean and Chinese communities I can see an in game voice op working well, in the EU community it might be more of a poisoned chalice that could separate people by nationalities if people demand it’s use in every pug.

But only time will tell.

Northerner · 05/17/07, 2:48 AM

Originally Posted by Cheeky

Depending on the storage resources they have at thier disposal it could be possible to cache all traffic for a set period of time, so they can be reviewed by GMs. Knowledge of this ability may be enough to curb the majority of complete assholes.

That would be an unrealistic quantity of data at even a lousy bitrate. Worse, sifting through it would require an massive amount of manpower compared to the results. It's still possible I suppose but honestly, I just can't imagine them logging even the last few minutes of all traffic if this is widely adopted.

I can only assume Blizzard has some culpability answer for the ToS and plans to allow it to self-police to a large degree. The only other answer that comes to mind is a number of /reports resulting in a GM spying for a short period of time and logging that. I'd be happy enough as long as there are mute and/or kick options available, although frankly the odds of me ever using it are slim to none.

Daboran · 05/17/07, 2:55 AM

Originally Posted by Thelyna

Semi-OT, but I think there's a way to filter ventrilo so that everyone's volume comes to you the same ... not sure how to do that though.

Right click the name and set a special effect. Volume is one of the options.

vicious · 05/17/07, 3:34 AM

If they have seperate options for the guild bank, i think it will be extremely powerful... ie guildmaster control checkboxes ala the current interface for:

- add items to Guild Bank
- remove items from Guild Bank
- use Guild Bank funds to repair

Having multiple controls will allow you to have "repair off" except for the nights / times the GM decides, not when XYZ players are doing heroic BlahdittyBlah and wiping 5 billion times.

I am very excited for Guild Banks, just hope there is the proper control in place to keep it in check. It elliminates the need for addons and web-interfaces to show bank contents, that is, if all guild members can *see* what is inthe bank, and not add/remove.

those types of permissions seem obvious, and i hope they arent overlooked

• Zak · 05/17/07, 5:16 AM

Originally Posted by vorda

Has anyone tried either of these programs? The faq of TSoverlay (the second link) makes me believe it crashes your game when you alt tab, which would make it rather worthless during raiding (yes, I alt tab alot

).
Could use some first hand experience.

I've been using TSO happily for ages, with no problems tabbing out. I think I'm still using quite an old version too, as I get a 'warning this is a beta' popup every time I start it - works fine though, so I've never bothered checking for an update.

Thanaomira · 05/17/07, 7:47 AM

Hmm. What percentage of sold gold is ripped from hacked accounts? (I've heard various numbers tossed about, but since I read said numbers on the Internet, I don't exactly give them a lot of credence.)

And now we'll have guild banks. I haven't seen much detail about guild funds except for the ability to repair. It's interesting to me to think about the risk/security angle of having pooled assets.

Apate · 05/17/07, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by vorda

Has anyone tried either of these programs? The faq of TSoverlay (the second link) makes me believe it crashes your game when you alt tab, which would make it rather worthless during raiding (yes, I alt tab alot

).
Could use some first hand experience.

I use it all the time. It is still in beta (perpetually), but it works great. I usually run windowed mode maximized. It used to crash if I did something like alt-tab, enable, connect to TS, alt tab to WoW, alt-tab to TSO, exit TSO and TS. Now It doesn't crash at all, but that's probably a directX/video card issue anyway.

Ukerric · 05/17/07, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by Karakas

Now I guess there really is no excuse for any "guild bank" accounts getting banned - long overdue on Blizzard's part, in my opinion.

Guildbanks are also useable, I guess, as a tool for gold farmers hunting:

- They make a guild and use it: far easier to track once you find a member of the guild, and ban in one fell swoop
- They don't use: far easier to find out who's still using mules instead of the guild bank feature...