Here are some fantastic upgrades to consider for the current voice chat system in game. Since voice chat is a fundamental feature for a social game I think these improvements would be very impactful.
1.) Give some sort of visual cue for when voice activity is detected:
Currently when you hold down the Push to Talk button, a microphone appears BUT there is no way to confirm your voice is actually coming through. This leads to people needing to say things like “can you hear me”.
A game that does this well is Rust, when you hold the push to talk button a microphone icon appears, and when voice is detected the microphone icon lights up.
2.) Microphone Selection in Settings
Allow players to select a microphone to use in game via the settings menu. This way you can confirm you’re using the correct microphone and its not your webcam mic when you’re trying to using a nice professional mic.
3.) Mic test option in settings
A quick mic test button in the settings menu that allows you to check audio levels and confirm everything is functional and sounding good.
There has been times where I have been talking in game, feeling ignored, only for a friend to say that my mic must’ve not been working the whole time because they didn’t hear me.
Way more players might start interacting and talking to one another if these are implemented, which leads to a more engaging game & community.
