As multiplayer games become more advanced and allow more players on a server at the same time, voice communications can get confusing. Joint Operations can support 150 player servers and team communication can become ineffective. The primary problem with communication is quickly getting information to the correct players. Typing is too slow so TeamSpeak is the best solution. The problem with TeamSpeak is it is treated like our in-game voice and the radio. We have to use TeamSpeak to communicate to players whether they are two meters away or two kilometers away. The radio can get cluttered with information that is not important to some players. This article will explain how to set up TeamSpeak for effective inter-team communication. The protocol was developed by members of Team Element. First, the TeamSpeak setup will be explained. Then, the protocol will be described with examples.
Setting up TeamSpeak will allow for powerful, effective communication while gaming. The idea of inter-team communication will mean that players are in separate channels that fall under a channel family. A channel family includes the parent channel and any of its sub-channels. The following TeamSpeak setup will help players communicate and switch between channels. The first step is to set up key binds to communicate and switch to other channels. First, go to TeamSpeak’s Settings then Key Settings. It will bring up this dialog box:
From here, all key binds can be set to do various functions. The essential key binds are switching between channels and whispering to other channels. Below is the key bind setup for switching to the next channel. A second bind should be created for switching to the previous channel. Often, a TeamSpeak server will be filled with many channels for different games. Sometimes there will be sub-channels for a game to separate teams or roles. This will allow quick channel switching and can be essential for games that have problems with Alt-Tabbing to desktop. For those that are concerned with knowing the current channel, there is a program called TeamSpeak Overlay that will display TeamSpeak information on top of game screen. Visit
http://www.qbnut.com/tso/ for more information. The add-on is in alpha phase but it has proven to be stable and compatible with many games.
Part of the protocol Team Element has developed requires communication between channels. An effective method is to set a whisper key to transmit to the entire channel family. This will allow you to talk to all players within the channel family. The only exception is if you are in the parent channel. For some reason, it will not transmit to others in the parent channel. Protocol on using this key bind will be explained next.
While in game, one can use these key binds to switch to separate channels while still retaining the ability to communicate with each other. Effectively, the regular method to transmit (push-to-talk or voice activation) is used to communicate with those in your channel. Hopefully, those in your channel are close by in game to give the effect that the players are close together ‘talking’. When communicating with other channels, the whisper to channel family key bind should be used. This gives the effect of communicating over a radio. The protocol while using this key bind should be strict to avoid overlapping voices. This means establishing radio contact before transmitting the message. Here is an example of Riyker contacting Sarc from another channel solely using the whisper key bind.
Riyker: Riyker to Sarc. Over.
Sarc: Break, break, break. Transmit, Riyker. Over.
Riyker: Fireteam Alpha requests reinforcements at Objective Bravo. Over.
Sarc: Roger. Fireteam Bravo en route to Objective Bravo. Out.
First, radio contact is made to allow the receiving party to silence the radio. The players in each channel should remain silent when given the break order to allow the two players to communicate. Sarc acknowledges Riyker and allows transmission. Riyker sends his message and Sarc confirms the message. Notice that ‘over’ is said at the end of each transmit so that the receiving party knows it is clear to respond. ‘Out’ is given at the end of the conversation to signify the radio connection is broken. All players in the channel family can now resume regular radio protocol.
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