« News
Jul
02
Voice Chat now Production Ready
In my last newspost, about a month ago, we announced the integration of a new Voice Chat feature into Vendetta Online. At that point it was in something of a "beta" state: working and tested bit still a bit uncertain. At this time, we're happy to report that it's been working very well, and we consider it "Production Ready" across all platforms. Part of this was the recent addition of a new dedicated voice-chat server to our main cluster, giving us both more capacity as well as a more reliable hosting of the voice chat service in our main datacenter (the previous test server was located in our office).
As recently announced elsewhere, this voice chat feature is actually based on the new multi-platform SDK variant of TeamSpeak 3. We are apparently the first to publicly integrate this new product, and are very happy with the results to date. As far as we know, this may make us the only launched MMO with integrated voice chat across Windows, OS X, Linux/32 *and* Linux/64, all four of our available game clients.
The feedback from you guys, our userbase, has been tremendous, and the new feature seems to be a popular one. There's also been quite a lot of attention given to suggestions for new ways in which we can utilize voice chat within the game, such as voice-based "hailing" of other ships, and different ways to augment and improve large-scale battle interaction and command hierarchies. Guild-specific features will probably be next, although we're kicking around a few possibilities as we continue to learn about this new system.
With Voice Chat now entering production readiness, you can expect us to again move our development focus back to more direct gameplay-oriented features. We will continue to expand on the integration and usage of voice chat within the game, but we also want to get back to more fundamental topics, like the redux of the faction system and removal of "Friendly Fire" restrictions, as well as other long-awaited work on the economy, hive and border wars. In related news, the newer "Kourier" Erlang-based subsystem which has been controlling our many demand-driven convoys, NPCs, battles and other large-scale gameplay, has been working well. It is currently managing a population of between 5,000 and 12,000 unique NPC characters in the game universe at any given time. You can expect us to move forward with our plans to build a lot more dynamic content and gameplay into this system, including sporadic warfare between corporations, NPC pirate clans, and deeper economic ramifications to the everything that happens in the galaxy. But, that's a subject for a later newspost, which will probably cooincide with the public release of our Trac system and development roadmap (hopefully within a month, barring another major unforseen feature, like voice chat).
As always, please keep the suggestions and input coming, especially on event ideas and other special, recurring gameplay we can start including in our forthcoming newsletter (remember to check if you have the subscription box checked in your Account Info). Have a great week/weekend, everyone, and a happy Fourth to those of us from the USA.
As recently announced elsewhere, this voice chat feature is actually based on the new multi-platform SDK variant of TeamSpeak 3. We are apparently the first to publicly integrate this new product, and are very happy with the results to date. As far as we know, this may make us the only launched MMO with integrated voice chat across Windows, OS X, Linux/32 *and* Linux/64, all four of our available game clients.
The feedback from you guys, our userbase, has been tremendous, and the new feature seems to be a popular one. There's also been quite a lot of attention given to suggestions for new ways in which we can utilize voice chat within the game, such as voice-based "hailing" of other ships, and different ways to augment and improve large-scale battle interaction and command hierarchies. Guild-specific features will probably be next, although we're kicking around a few possibilities as we continue to learn about this new system.
With Voice Chat now entering production readiness, you can expect us to again move our development focus back to more direct gameplay-oriented features. We will continue to expand on the integration and usage of voice chat within the game, but we also want to get back to more fundamental topics, like the redux of the faction system and removal of "Friendly Fire" restrictions, as well as other long-awaited work on the economy, hive and border wars. In related news, the newer "Kourier" Erlang-based subsystem which has been controlling our many demand-driven convoys, NPCs, battles and other large-scale gameplay, has been working well. It is currently managing a population of between 5,000 and 12,000 unique NPC characters in the game universe at any given time. You can expect us to move forward with our plans to build a lot more dynamic content and gameplay into this system, including sporadic warfare between corporations, NPC pirate clans, and deeper economic ramifications to the everything that happens in the galaxy. But, that's a subject for a later newspost, which will probably cooincide with the public release of our Trac system and development roadmap (hopefully within a month, barring another major unforseen feature, like voice chat).
As always, please keep the suggestions and input coming, especially on event ideas and other special, recurring gameplay we can start including in our forthcoming newsletter (remember to check if you have the subscription box checked in your Account Info). Have a great week/weekend, everyone, and a happy Fourth to those of us from the USA.