VoIP and the Space CB Radio

Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
12
#1
This has been a very heavy topic among everyone in the forum as of late and it's the inclusion of using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) in order to communicate with other players in the game. I will not get into the VoIP discussion, there is already a great thread about it! [VoIP do we need it?]

I want to discuss the use of CB Radios in StarBase if the development team wants to go down the VoIP development route.

So what's a CB Radio? Well it stands for Citizen Band Radio, and is widely used in the trucking and boating industry for long range communications. So why would we need it?

Well a big issue with VoIP is the idea of a lot of noise traveling in a server to people that don't want to hear chatter from the neighboring rental lot, or having someone just spamming the vicinity with stuff like this... while driving around in their space ice cream truck.

What if we limited VoIP to a small area, such as within earshot range, like how Sea of Thieves utilizes it with players only able to hear each other within a 50 foot radius (approximately, I don't have the measurements). Even calculate sound that can be contained within a closed space. If I re-call correctly, the dev team has already figured out how to determine if a ship has a "sealed" area, they could use that to contain simple VoIP chatter in a ship.

Here is the Law of Fermat's Principal on Sound Reflection

Well how about long range? From a ship squadron giving out enemy maneuvers to sending calls to other MegaStations? Here is where our CB Radios come in.

Generally a CB Radio has 40 channels, but a few are reserved for official uses. I would imagine the local factions in power would have to regulate their local CB Radio usage among their populace.

These are the typical channels used today in the industry:
  • Channel 8 - Highway Reports
  • Channel 9 - Reserved for Emergencies
  • Channel 11 - AM Call Signs
  • Channel 19 - Truckers General Communications
Handheld CB Radio: An early game device could be easily crafted or bought as a handheld CB Radio. This could expand a players communication ability to a few kilometers, to hail a passing ship or keep in touch with a mining partner. This is an item that needs to be obtained to avoid new players immediately attempting to spam the airwaves, they need to put in a little work to get to that point.

Ship CB Radio: This is a built in CB Radio that can be customized for range using maybe antennas or dishes to increase their effective range. Maybe you could set up a dish on a turret, aim it toward a far away MegaStation or enemy squadron and attempt to pick up some signals.

MegaStation CB Radio: This may be treated a bit differently than the typical faction citizen CB Radio. This will have the ability to communicate to other MegaStations via their own separate channels. They can only be run by the MegaStation primary owners or faction owners, or people the owners designate as aloud to use. These radios could send recorded messages to be picked up by other stations. MegaStation Radios could even send a greeting message automatically to new ships or broadcast to a local channel 8 like. "The WarpGate is currently undergoing maintenance. Please be patient while we operate." Maybe a MegaStation can broadcast their own radio station with individuals doing a podcast or have a Jazz Listening Channel.

Of course you will still have the ability to search channels and mute individual players that will still spam the channel. And even so, yes we can use discord for organizing military attacks and whatnot. Though there is also something organic about being able to quickly tune into a popular channel that people are using to discuss the local trading. Maybe you're driving your cargo ship across space and see a convoy. Click your ships Radio to Channel 19 and make some new friends.

For those of you wondering if this is even possible in a large multiplayer game. Well it has already been done with the Mod TruckersMP. Basically it's a multiplayer mod for Truck Simulator that connects you to other truckers in game with a working CB Radio that has only a 1 kilometer range, but is quite effective! Here is a video of a youtuber demonstrating the CBRadio in Truck Simulator If an un-paid modding community can get this done. I'm sure it would be a really awesome feature in StarBase!
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
10
#2
I like this idea. Would be a fun feature but likely would have to wait a bit while more important things are done.
 

Vloshko

Well-known endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
52
#3
If VOIP is added, you must also add the option to specifically turn voice off; include both in-bound and out-bound voice in the disable option. Personally I will never have it on, and you'll never here me speak in game, nor will I type in chat during a fight, the only thing I'll type after the brawl is something along the lines of "GG".
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
12
#4
If VOIP is added, you must also add the option to specifically turn voice off; include both in-bound and out-bound voice in the disable option. Personally I will never have it on, and you'll never here me speak in game, nor will I type in chat during a fight, the only thing I'll type after the brawl is something along the lines of "GG".
That's an obvious feature. What I would hope to have is a toggle shortcut to activate and deactivate my mic.
 

Bloodlance

Well-known endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
59
#6
i do not want anything that takes resources away from the actual game developement.

ingame radio physical jukebox would be cool , 1 Cr per song. (and you could hear it in the game world from different distance).

i will personally mute all in game voice sources and use only TS3 with friends and corp.
 
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