Voice chat will provide for extra social gameplay (Bartle taxonomy of player types - Wikipedia) Allowing social gamers to enjoy the game more, extending the reach of the game.
Allowing players to interact with each other provides entertainment beyond regular shooter game mechanics. Creating new avenue for cooperation and competition, allowing for players to work together easier or taunt the enemy.
This feature provides a continuous opportunity for players to have a good time and return for some social interaction even if they are not doing well at other aspects of the game, such as shooting or when the player has already unlocked most of the unlocks and doesn’t have much to explore in the game.
Directional local voice chat has been the driving force for many popular games in the past (h1z1, PUBG, dayz, Arma series, red orchestra, squad).
Squad has 0 progression in terms of unlocks and exploration, while maintaining a strong playerbase mainly thanks to it’s social aspects in the form of voice chat and teamwork.
- Voice chat must be 3d directional around the player ( like speaking in real life )
- Extra:Occluded by walls (muffled, lowered distance, lowered volume)
- Cannot hear people past a certain distance (volume drop-off based on distance) (0m-5m 100% volume, 5m-50m expotential drop off)
- Extra: distance affected by the volume (player speaking at max volume(actual mic audio volume) linear drop off: max distance → min distance (5m) player speaking at minimum volume(actual mic audio volume))
- hotkey to quickly mute voice chat (in case of undesired behaviour by other players)
- hotkey to mute only enemies
- report functionality for voice griefing
This is also known as proximity voice chat local, VOIP, local VON.
