I can't understand the absence of a voice chat

Sorry but I can't understand this sentence: "We do not have voice chat in our game as we feel this would ruin the survivor experience. However, you are able to use certain gestures in order to communicatewith other players".

I really can't immagine anything bad for this game if a voice chat is implemented. I am main killer so not that big of a problem, but already on this forum I keep on reading that the overall experience of a solo surv is not that great.

Surely a voice chat will help to create a bare minium coordination among surv.

Let me know if you do agree that with a voice chat the experience will be ruined.

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Comments

  • Starbricks19
    Starbricks19 Member Posts: 74

    Thaks to all of you for the answers.

    I understand and you guys have a point but still: we have the choice to not to join the voice chat in order to don't be bother by screamers, teachers, troll... And you are right sometimes they can be annoying!


    From and atmosphere point of view yes, indeed alone with no way to communicate is more immersive and challenging... So I do agree that a chat will ruin something in the game.

    But as someone says here: why not a lobby chat during the 60 seconds before the match. Like being all together around the fire camp trying to figure out a strategy before the massacre begin. I wouldn't mind that

  • Saitamfed
    Saitamfed Member Posts: 1,620
    edited October 2019

    Voice chat is just a good idea on paper. Aside from the atmosphere. In reallity we will hear people laugh, maybe some language abuses, or maybe someone hearing music wich will make it hard for people to focus. This feature was implemented in another games and it went bad as well.

    Post edited by Saitamfed on
  • Bithard
    Bithard Member Posts: 406

    A lot of people invite the other survivors to party's or chats if they want to play like this, on ps4 they do anyway.

    Proximity chat is just awful, F13th was a toxic nightmare and I'd bet it would be even worse in this.

  • ColonGlock
    ColonGlock Member Posts: 1,224

    Maybe DBD2 will be designed for this, but you would have a hard time getting anyone to play killer if every survivor team had coms.

    It would probably be pretty annoying for solo survivors as well.

  • JammyJewels
    JammyJewels Member Posts: 611

    I’d rather not have Voice chat, thanks. I already get enough abuse as a solo player.

  • darktrix
    darktrix Member Posts: 1,790

    It's wise move. If they add voice chat then comes pressure for people to have to use voice chat. I personally do not want to listen to mouth breathers or poor tastes in background music whenever I play. Nor do I want to be bothered muting people all the time.

    3rd party chats are more than adequate anyway and they don't need add and maintain the feature in the game. They got their hands full already.

  • Mr_K
    Mr_K Member Posts: 9,184

    F13 is a good example

  • coppersly
    coppersly Member Posts: 2,318

    I love how we all acknowledge the game wasn't built around communication and the devs clearly won't implement it because it goes against this, so why is SWF OK??

    We won't implement it because we feel it breaks the game but it's ok if they use discord.

  • thrawn3054
    thrawn3054 Member Posts: 5,897

    I think if it was short range. 16 meters. It might be okay. If they ever did implement it I'd want a mute option.

    As for the people saying F13 was a good example of why not. Most people didn't bother with mics after a while. Though I will say thank God for the mute option.

  • Bravo0413
    Bravo0413 Member Posts: 3,647

    Imagine playing the game and then you get in a lobby with a person who's annoying AF, screaming, overall obnoxious because this is DBD and imagine the killer in the voice chat as well some survivors would most likely be annoyingly loud just for the competitive advantage..... I support the devs decision of not including voice chat in game

  • darktrix
    darktrix Member Posts: 1,790

    SWF is tolerated because 1) there's absolutely no way to enforce a ban on using 3rd party chat 2) people like to be social and play games with friends - and they often like to speak with said friends during a game. To take that away will diminish the appeal of a game for quite a significant portion of the player base.

  • PigNRun
    PigNRun Member Posts: 2,428

    Why voice chat in the lobby when you have text chat? What does this accomplish that text chat on a semi-static screen with little interactive requirement cant?

  • Irisora
    Irisora Member Posts: 1,442

    Voice chat with random people isn't a good idea. You will probably get people yelling, trolling, and insulting you most of the time. Just think about having to mute people in every match... It would be a big annoyance.

  • Facture
    Facture Member Posts: 284

    You don't know my friends. /jk (though I do have one that will get frustrated and let himself die on hook early game sometimes.)

    I agree if I was forced to use or listen to comms I would only play killer.

  • Johnny_XMan
    Johnny_XMan Member Posts: 6,430

    I may be in the minority here but I really don’t see the big deal in including an optional voice chat system at least in the lobby.

    Many times it is very useful to communicate what you’re bringing etc. and the text chat alone doesn’t give you enough time to type at times.

    As for chatting with strangers... Not every stranger is rude or obnoxious... some of them are actually helpful.

  • OMagic_ManO
    OMagic_ManO Member Posts: 3,278

    "Your friends aren't going to throw a fit, get mad at you and start throwing the match when things don't go their way."

    Oh Peanits, you'd be surprised, some people are harsh. i just not to tend to talk to them, they act all high and mighty and try to control yet they are the ones doing absolutely nothing and dying right away.

  • HP150
    HP150 Member Posts: 455

    You can easily solve this problem by making an indicator above the survivor's name that tells you who on your team has opted out of voice chat? It takes like 3 seconds to think up this solution, c'mon now...

  • Peanits
    Peanits Dev, Community Manager Posts: 7,531

    That's all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that you're not communicating with them. Now you know that they can't hear you telling them that the killer's camping, just do a gen.

    The end result is the same. You're not communicating like a premade team.

  • twistedmonkey
    twistedmonkey Member Posts: 4,291

    Most people against voice chat simply want to keep the immersion they have along with not wanting the toxic nature of some random people to annoy them in game.

    Showing an icon is like singling someone out for using that choice.

    Telling those who are toxic in nature a person isn't using voice chat could lead to them blaming those who opt out for why lost and attacking them.

  • StevePerryPsychOut
    StevePerryPsychOut Member Posts: 190

    Either a method of communication needs to be added or swf needs to be removed/nerfed. It's not fair to solo survs to balance the game around swf, and it's not fair to killers to balance the game around solo survs. I've played MP games with open team chat for years, it's not as bad as people here are making it out here.

    Maybe 1 in 10 games have openly hostile or annoying people, and this in games with 6 or more on a team. In games like vermintide with only 4 people, on average only 2 or 3 people will have mics and I rarely get toxic or annoying teammates.

    I get the argument for the game's atmosphere, but I think game balance is more important. If solo vs. swf isn't balanced out, this game will never feel properly balanced.

  • HP150
    HP150 Member Posts: 455
    edited October 2019

    It doesn't have to be all or nothing; Not everyone has to communicate as if they were a 4 man premade squad all with voice comms. Just having 2 random players opt into voice chat could make a huge difference.

    If a team wants to put themselves at a disadvantage with poor or non-existent communication, then that's what they've chosen. What matters is that the option was there.

  • HP150
    HP150 Member Posts: 455

    Why stifle the modernization and growth of the game to cater to toxic players? If someone uses opting out as an excuse to grief or verbally abuse someone through post-game chat, that is IN THEORY a reportable and punishable offense, no (assuming BHVR someday revisits how efficiently reports are handled...)?

  • Frosty
    Frosty Member Posts: 375

    I agree with you. The people who want to use chat already do, the people who would like to could, the people that don't could mute everyone not worth listening to. Then, we, as killers, could start getting more accustomed to playing against coms.

  • twistedmonkey
    twistedmonkey Member Posts: 4,291

    Because by singling them out they would be providing direct information to those who are toxic.

    It's not about stiffling it's about not wanting your consumers to have a bad experience by means of a system you implement. Not all toxicity is bannable just extreme cases and not everyone can handle it.

    Adding voice chat is not modernisation and there is no indication that it would also cause growth that's quite a stretch to claim that. Infact it may hinder the growth as the games which have added this option in the genre havent done too well and had numerous complaints since that were released about toxicity due to it being part if the game.

  • NoMitherPlayer
    NoMitherPlayer Member Posts: 174

    I agree with HP150. As long as there is the option 'mute' this is the chance for solo players to meet some new mates and enjoy the game more if everyone is cool. And people who are like naah it's already too hard for the killer" Are you serious? Yes the killer side is too hard. But does that justifies you would choose to make the survivor's side less fun? You're just like dbd devs who choose to favorite the new players instead of you guys the loyal killers. I don't see the fun you have in winning a game because of the lack of communication.

  • Okapi
    Okapi Member Posts: 839

    If they won't add in-game voice chat because that would "break the game" and "ruin the atmosphere" they could at least acknowledge the massive sized elephant in the room: SWF.

    Everyone knows a match involving 3 and 4 person groups is an entirely different game from 4 solos. So why after 3 years does the solo-SWF gap exist!?

    Here are some easy to implement suggestions that would not kill the atmosphere by adding too many auras in game:

    • Add chase indicators for all 4 survivors and not just the obsession. Make the obsession chase indicators red.
    • Add a totem counter to the hud that both survivor and killer can see.
    • Add a hook indicator to the hud for each survivor so all players in a match knows if someone is on death hook.
    • Allow survivors to see each other's load outs in the pregame lobby. Killer would not see this for obvious reasons.
    • Allow survivors to see if anyone else in the lobby is in a SWF group. Again killer would not see this, but they would see any SWF groups in the postgame results.
    • Allow survivors to invite people in the pregame and postgame screens into their SWF group.
    • If a killer has been near a hooked survivor while not in a chase for a period of more than 15 seconds the hook icon of the hooked survivor will begin to flash red.


  • thrawn3054
    thrawn3054 Member Posts: 5,897

    @Peanits I have to disagree. Adding the option so long as there is also a mute button could be helpful. I'd say it would need to be short range coms though 16 meters or less. You could even add a noise notification for the killer if they're within a certain range. Overall I think it could be something interesting and worth exploring.

  • Mochan
    Mochan Member Posts: 2,886

    Not interested in Voice Chat. I don't want to hear stranger's irritating voices, it's like noise while I'm playing video games.

  • PolarBear
    PolarBear Member Posts: 1,899

    Yes but this then comes back around on itself. Serious players want everyone to be in voice chat and won't play unless everyone is. This is at least what happens in games like overwatch. I've had teammates throw the game just because I refused to join voice chat. The same thing would probably happen in DbD.

  • TeambossFloze
    TeambossFloze Member Posts: 1,260

    Big fat no. Next!

  • Mochan
    Mochan Member Posts: 2,886

    And DBD would be a million times worse. DBD is a lot, lot more stressful and rage-inducing than LFD.

  • Mochan
    Mochan Member Posts: 2,886


    Good suggestions (some of those I recall myself suggesting at some point in the past), even that last one might sound alarming to killers, but it's what they deal with with SWF anyway.

    Once done killers can then be buffed or survivors adjusted to hit the balance targets if necessary, though I doubt it'll cause a big dent in the stats. It would regardless be a huge step in mitigating the SWF issue.

  • Madjura
    Madjura Member Posts: 2,450

    Your friends aren't going to throw a fit, get mad at you and start throwing the match when things don't go their way.

    You are a community manager. I would assume that making sure toxic people who abuse voice chat to insult other players is something that would fall under your responsibilities.

    This is basically you saying that you are unable or unwilling to deal with toxicity in the community.

  • csandman1977
    csandman1977 Member Posts: 2,358

    I don't agree with any of the arguments against voice chat. As long as there is a mute button or a way to opt out then there is no ligitament reason not too. Not while the game has been altered to encourage and make easier swf teams.

    Played overwatch, never had a problem. Played call of duty, never had a problem muting annoying people.

    Get yelled at by a stranger for not playing the way that person wants? Not going to lose any sleep over it.

    I agree with all of this for the most part. More information players have the better the experience. I would also add, no mither not showing the broken status and the survivors not seeing who the obsession is.

    But back to comms, killers are more easily outplayed by comms. As it stands now, since comms are 3rd party there is absolutely no way the devs can balance for it without destroying solos. But giving every single player access to that information, whether they take it or not, means that we can potentially start bringing crap killers out of the gutter with much needed changes. Changes that could be made with part of the actual game design in mind.

  • KuromiStarwind
    KuromiStarwind Member Posts: 325
    edited October 2019

    Voice chat might be "fun" when you're looping the killer or running from them and you're both talking to each other, like in F13. But in the general sense, communication more or less breaks the game and makes it much, much easier for survivors. Knowing where the killer is, when to save, when to sit on gens, when to try and get the killer to target you and not your friend because you still have DS active, and having so much more information that is for you to learn yourself in game makes the game much more trivial. This isn't F13, where if you get caught, you get 1 shot dead. Take a look at how frustrating this game can be from a solo survivor's experience to understand how much easier it becomes when you're talking with teammates.

    In most cases I honestly believe that the majority of people would not use voice chat even if it was implemented, and the only people who would use it are people who use discord, and would simply complain that it sucks so they stick to discord, so why bother?

    Let me ask you all a very simple question: With how toxic and "me vs them" mentality both survivors and killers have in this community, do you honestly think you'd WANT to be on voice chat in a game like this, knowing the utter scumbags that will use it?

  • csandman1977
    csandman1977 Member Posts: 2,358

    not everyone is toxic and douchey. Killers should not be allowed to hear survivors. And there is always the opt out button.

    I just dont understand why swf is fine even though it breaks the game, but implementing an option for all people to use would be bad for the game.

  • Mochan
    Mochan Member Posts: 2,886


    Probably the real reason why it's not done, is because it's too much work to incorporate it, and that would take away from other things that are already long overdue for attention, like fixing basic bugs that have been around for months.

  • StarMoral
    StarMoral Member Posts: 938
    edited October 2019

    I find it odd most people are saying no because they dont wanna be yelled at by 12 year olds (who shouldn't be playing the game in the first place) rather than focusing on a balance perspective.

    The one thing that gives SFW an advantage, regardless of how many players are in the group, is the ability to use 3rd party communication, a mechanic purposefully left out of the game to instill a sense of loneliness. How many people replying to this post thinks this game is scary? Like, really. I do think it's about time we got this mechanic in.

    And if you're afraid of being yelled at by children, actual or adult, grow a spine and tell them to shut up.

  • Sluzzy
    Sluzzy Member Posts: 3,130

    Voice chat ruins the immersion, so glad they leave this out.

  • Animalheadskull
    Animalheadskull Member Posts: 478

    Yea, Apex solo que voice chat is pretty rough. Everything is silent until someone goes down. Then you are trash and a piece o #########. Voice chat wouldn't do anything to help this game if anything it would hurt it. My opinion.

  • StupidPallets
    StupidPallets Member Posts: 395



    Right, but they would have the option so they choose. BHVR takes away their option for them. Leaving voice chat in is objectively better due to the option to simply turn it off. There isn't any room for any other interpretation that this is a bad decision based on BHVR saying, "We'll decide for you" when something is completely optional. "Leaves their mic open the whole time as they listen to music ... " is such an embarrassing excuse considering a basic mute function when otherwise there are and would be people that are enjoyable to talk with while playing. The more I understand how BHVR thinks, the more I come to the conclusion that there is no bottom to the level of how stupid you think we are.

  • twistedmonkey
    twistedmonkey Member Posts: 4,291

    Voice chat doesn't mean people play like an SWF.

    SWF aren't strong just because of voice chat it's becasue they are a group of friends who know how each other play and coordinate well together.

    This rarely happens in pug groups.

    Voice chat hinders the game more than adds to it. It becomes more elitist and anyone not on their level becomes a target for ridicule.

    Then there is those who will question why peoole do x instead of y questioning how they wish to play the game.

    Then There are regions where people speak multiple languages. People tend to only think of their own country when it comes to this idea.

    People screaming down the mic is just one aspect of why it's a bad idea. To say people have to grow a spine is quite frankly rude and highly inconsiderate as some may have trauma from life experiences. People use games as an escape as well as fun. Everyone's mind is different and that should always be respected.

    DBD has been bought by many on the pretence it has no in game voice chat like others games in the genre. If you buy a product you should always be informed of what you are purchasing and accept it for how it is.