[MUD-Dev] PvP and teamspeak?

[Douglas Goodall]

Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:

> Is it common for PvP oriented teams to require teamspeak? I
> suppose it could be a real advantage when you coordinate PvP
> actions. Still, they say they aim for around 70 members. How do
> such guilds organize their fighting given the bandwidth issues?
> Any ideas? I imagine that you could set up teams with teamspeak
> and then have the teamleader using text chat to coordinate.

I've used Teamspeak or similar tools in several games, though it
certainly seems more popular in FPSes than MMOGs. And, in MMOGs,
it's used for just chatting as much as strategy/commands. It does
give some players an advantage in PvP (and, sometimes, raids). DAoC
is the only game where I used Teamspeak for more than anything but
special events. It had a dramatic impact on our success rate (and on
the game experience as a whole), far more than I would have expected
prior to using it. I don't play DAoC anymore, though, so I can't
comment on the current state of the game. During the last free trial
period, I noticed a decline in gank groups and poor player behavior
generally, so it may no longer be necessary/popular.

In my experience, someone in each team would set up a separate
Teamspeak server just for those 6-8 people (or those who had
Teamspeak--it's a bit awkward being in teams where some members are
on Teamspeak or in the same cyber cafe and others aren't). In the
few cases where more than one team is required, the inter-team
coordination was still done in game chat.

> This kind of situation makes PvP game designs rather impossible to
> balance for non-hardcore without either making defense much eaiser
> than attack or introducing some kind of artificial handicaps based
> on ratings etc. The most bothersome thing seems to be that the
> advantages of teamspeak and a professional organization structure
> isn't really represented in the server database.

Neither is broadband or the latest video card...

There's definitely good reasons to prevent Teamspeak, which gives
some players a significant out-of-game advantage. I don't think you
should try to control for things like good organization, which all
players are (theoretically) capable of.
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