BF2:Communication and VOIP
From BattleWiki
camontrbasde Have you ever noticed that the female arabic voiceover seems to be saying, "You busted my hymen"?
VOIP
The voice chat is a tiered system. Your push-to-talk button does not send your voice to the whole team. Instead, communication travels through a hierarchy as follows:
- As a commander, you speak to the squad leaders. (Default key: V)
- As a squad leader, you have two different channels you can use. One speaks to the commander and the other squad leaders (Default key: V); the other speaks to your squad members (Default key: B). That means two separate push-to-talk buttons, not a push-to-talk button and a channel toggle.
- As a squad member, you speak to your squad leader and fellow members (Default key: B).
Also, you can't talk all the time! Specifically:
- You can't speak once the round is over.
- You sometimes can't speak when you're "dead". This is because you have actually been killed, and are not merely "critically wounded".
You will know if you are transmitting because there will be a green speaker icon (for the squad member channel) or gold speaker icon with star (for the commander/squad leader channel) in the upper right when you're successfully transmitting. Sometimes there's a brief lag between pressing the push-to-talk button and this icon appearing; always wait for the icon to appear before speaking.
When using VOIP, make sure to set things up correctly. The in-game microphone test, when not connected to a server, is a good way to make sure things work properly.
- You do not need to position the mic directly in front of your mouth. Nobody wants to hear you breathing. Below the mouth or around it will still sound pretty good. Of course, if your mic is really far away, you'll have to be careful with your setup to still sound audible.
- Most small headset or standalone mics will need mic boost on.
- You should turn the threshold DOWN until just below the point where it starts clipping the soft parts of your words. Say things like "this is a test" and make sure you hear ALL of the "th" sound at the beginning of the word. If not, turn the threshold down lower. Threshold (i.e. "gate" in the audio world) is the level of audio that must be present even WITH your push-to-talk button pressed for the game to pick up your audio. Having this too high is like a bad cellphone or speakerphone connection: it clips out bits of your words and makes you less intelligible.
- You should turn the transmit volume DOWN if you hear distortion ("clipping") that sound like you're "too loud" or "too close to the mic" when you speak. In the game, if the green "transmit" icon in the upper right flashes red, you're clipping: you're too loud. Having this occasionally is OK, but if it happens frequently, you should lower your transmit volume a bit.
If a player is annoying you with VOIP, you can mute him by holding down the Tab key (bringing up the scoreboard), right-clicking the Manage tab at the top of the screen, and then selecting the player to mute.
Other communication
Much like in Battlefield 1942 with the function key-based radio commands, there is a non-verbal/automatic communication system for those who do not have VOIP enabled. (It's a good idea to use the English voice-overs only Audio option if you don't speak Arabic and Chinese, and don't plan on memorizing a hundred different phrases in those languages. Otherwise, everything will sound "realistic" but you will have no idea what's going on unless you take your eyes off the action to read a line of text every 10 seconds.)
- On the other hand, leaving it set to default means that when you are USMC and you hear someone talking in Chinese or Arabic nearby, you know it's an enemy.)
- Yes, but if they're in English then you'll actually know that someone nearby (friendly or not) is throwing a frag/smoke grenade, calling for a medic, etc. This can be critical information.
- Press and hold the "Q" key (by default) to enable the overlay, then move the mouse to select a specific response, request healing or ammo, and click your left mouse button.
- The center option of the "Q" menu is used to call out the position of enemies to your fellow teammates. You can use either the left or right mouse button. The left button will try to auto-detect the enemy type based on what you're looking at (and may register as a question mark if nothing is close to the center of your screen). The right mouse button pops up a list of different enemy types for you to choose from. You can't look around while holding down 'Q', so you need to be fast or lead whatever it is you're spotting with the left mouse button.
- Press and hold the "T" key (by default) to enable the secondary overlay, then move the mouse to select a specific response, such as requesting commander orders, calling for artillery and similar commands, and click your left mouse button. This is only available to Commanders, Squad leaders, and Squad members.
- This feature is also very handy for spotting and warning others about incoming enemies. To do so, ensure that the enemy target is lined up with your aiming reticle, press and hold "Q", and then click with the left mouse button (on "spotted"). This automatically notifies teammates of incoming enemies, and more specifically the type, be it enemy infantry on foot, aircraft, helicopters, tank or APC. Any successful announcements of enemy activity or type will briefly mark the enemy's position on the minimap for your team.
- For fighters, getting enemy fighters on the minimap helps a lot in getting a good intercept. Spot those enemy fliers, men!
- If you don't have a target in your sights, then instead of left-clicking on "spotted", right-click, and it will bring up a menu of choices from which you can select a type of enemy. If you left-click without a target, you'll send a generic "enemy forces spotted" message and the minimap alert will briefly show a flashing question mark.
- The commander may also spot enemy troop movements for his team and automatically update their minimaps at any time. Commanders should right-click on the minimap above an enemy and then click spotted to do so. Note that the commander does not need to scan the map to do this, so long as he knows the target is an enemy.
Teamspeak
Due to the limitation (or just basic design) of BF2's built-in VOIP, another alternative for voice communication is Teamspeak. This circumvents the limitation of only being able to speak to people in your squad or the commander. Of course, it can also become quite confusing especially when there are 30 players on a team. Another good utility is Teamspeak Overlay, which works with Teamspeak to allow you to see in-game who is communicating. Teamspeak requires a separate server to be setup.
