Voice chat? Any info on this?

[kristov]

Do we have any real info on voice chat for DDI table top what-cha-ma-call-it?

Did they make their own, use Ventrilo, license someone elses etc?

Just wondering the quality of it really - I think it is a pretty important factor for me if I choose to use it at all. I probably would not want to play in a game where everyone or even 1 player was typing their stuff in.

 

[D'karr]

Do we have any real info on voice chat for DDI table top what-cha-ma-call-it?

Did they make their own, use Ventrilo, license someone elses etc?

Just wondering the quality of it really - I think it is a pretty important factor for me if I choose to use it at all. I probably would not want to play in a game where everyone or even 1 player was typing their stuff in.

From the demo at DDXP, it is something that they've developed specifically for the Game Table. It is not a licensed product from someone else. They are still working on it because not all the capabilities that they were talking about were yet available. The features were not complete as of DDXP, and they did not want to say specifically what would features would be included at launch.

 

[malcolm_n]

let's hope they take some cue here from wow and not let it mess up everything else about ddi or our other programs. I'm still miffed at blizzard because I can't speak with vent any more while playing; i have to tab out and back in.

But, on topic, yeah, they're using their own.

 

[Graf]

I suppose this is an odd thing to say, but "why develope your own program...?"

I mean, historically wizards has been somewhere between bad and terrible at this sort of thing. They're decent with flash (if it's not outsourced), but nothing more intensive

See: The original CD/program in 3.0, etc.

Can't they just "buy" a version of one of the existing chat programs, skin it, and set up their own servers.

Obviously IANAP but building your own program from scratch sounds... resouce intensive and a waste of time.

I mean, what kinds of "special features could they need"?
A mute button? (Whispering to one or two people would be very cool, but it seems unlikely they'd have that)

Imagines a talk-like-a-pirate button. That would be awesome.

 

[abeattie]

Vent?

let's hope they take some cue here from wow and not let it mess up everything else about ddi or our other programs. I'm still miffed at blizzard because I can't speak with vent any more while playing; i have to tab out and back in.

Huh? my guild and I still use TeamSpeak with WoW -- no tabbing required. What's wrong with Vent?

On point -- I don't expect we'll see a working tabletop tool.

It's all vaporware from here.

 

[arscott]

I suppose this is an odd thing to say, but "why develope your own program...?"

I mean, historically wizards has been somewhere between bad and terrible at this sort of thing. They're decent with flash (if it's not outsourced), but nothing more intensive

See: The original CD/program in 3.0, etc.

That one wasn't developed in-house. It was Contracted out to a software development company.

More of a "That's what you get for going with the lowest bidder" situation than a "we suck at developing our own software" situation.

But in general, It seems like WotC has a really unrealistic view of how much time it takes to make software. If DDI is supposed to launch at the same time that 4e launches, then it should be finished by now.

 

[Graf]

Fair enough.

If DDI is supposed to launch at the same time that 4e launches, then it should be finished by now.

Maybe they're waiting to do a big roll out a week before.
With something like 1/2 price off for the first 100 people who sign up for a year now!

 

[Khaalis]

let's hope they take some cue here from wow and not let it mess up everything else about ddi or our other programs. I'm still miffed at blizzard because I can't speak with vent any more while playing; i have to tab out and back in.
But, on topic, yeah, they're using their own.

Not to derail the topic but if this is the case, you've got some other kind of issue going on. I run our guild's Vent server and no one has any issues using Vent in WoW, either in addition to or separate from the in-game chat (which sucks IMHO - they'd have been better off not adding it). Make sure you check your Vent client's hotkey and make sure its not a shared resource with wow. Most of us choose the ScrLck key for vent.
[/end derail]

 

[Khaalis]

But in general, It seems like WotC has a really unrealistic view of how much time it takes to make software. If DDI is supposed to launch at the same time that 4e launches, then it should be finished by now.

From what I understand, this about sums it up. WotC has a very small coder/programmer staff from what we've seen, and I think they bit off more than they can chew. Especially if they are coding a VOIP app from scratch. From what I've seen so far, my guess is that the original DDI Tabletop release will be alpha quality at best and will take the better part of another year to get up to a manageable level of quality. However, I might be proven wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[fnwc]

From what I understand, this about sums it up. WotC has a very small coder/programmer staff from what we've seen, and I think they bit off more than they can chew. Especially if they are coding a VOIP app from scratch. From what I've seen so far, my guess is that the original DDI Tabletop release will be alpha quality at best and will take the better part of another year to get up to a manageable level of quality. However, I might be proven wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I could be wrong, but I doubt that this is done by the in-house WoTC programming team (if such a thing even exists). Developing a decent chat module for DDI that is relatively painless to setup with a microphone and works well isn't a trivial task. This is probably the team that is developing DDI, which is better suited for a company that develops software for a living, rather than a company like WoTC that focuses mainly on card, PnP and board games.