Since we want all in the community to enjoy ops being it PvP mining etc I have ran into a problem as an FC…
Some people are DEAF!! which makes coms pointless for them and difficult to experience eve like the rest of us.
I want CSM to help push this issue to CCP to find a work around as the current broadcast system is slow and lacking when it’s not useful to give more information.
I can imagine it’s hard to be deaf, but EVE’s sound itself is not at all required to play the game.
Communication in EVE itself is via sight (chat) and as you mentioned, visible fleet broadcasts.
The problem lies outside the game: most groups use third party tools to communicate with voice chat rather than using the in-game text chat.
This means the solution to communication with deaf people in the fleet (or people who are unable to use their sound/headphones) already exists: talk in-game rather than outside of it. Or at least ask someone to relay the important FC messages in fleet chat. It wouldn’t be the first time I see that happen in a fleet.
As voice chats (mumble, teamspeak, discord) all happen outside the game, I don’t see the solution to those voice chats as something CCP can easily fix if players themselves aren’t willing to use the in-game text chat to include a deaf person.
Such a solution would mean that CCP builds their own voice chat that can compete with the scale and usability of mumble and discord, (not going to happen) and then builds a speech-to-text function within it.
However, with third party tools as the cause of the problem you could also look for a third party tool as solution for the problem. Speech-to-text applications have improved a lot the past few years, and I would be surprised if there is no third party tool a deaf person could use to follow what’s being said in voice chat.
Maybe someone here already has experience with good speech-to-text apps?
I’m not totally deaf. Yet. Though impaired hearing does often make it difficult to know what the FC said. The use of fleet broadcasts is very important to me. I don’t fleet with an FC that don’t use them. Fleet warp and the use of fleet chat helps a lot
EVE Online used to have RGB lighting support. Might have been AlienFX rather than something keyboard specific but it would help.
Too bad a lot of that tech like Nvidia 3D Vision has come and gone. It’s a hard business model and you see stuff like paid voice and audio plugins now as it’s a lot of work to maintain for the few people that want these features.
I also think there’s a few use cases of Sanderling with custom overlays to help with accessibility but AFAIK those are bespoke.
How is the broadcast system slow? Is it slow to input the command to broadcast? -You can create hotkeys
What is lacking in your opinion of the broadcast system?
What information do you wish was added?
At the last summit I discussed with CCP an expansion to the broadcasts in adding more simple communications. This would aid in dealing with both hearing impaired and language barriers.
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Something that is quite mature technologically is live sound-to-text. I really hope to see this sort of feature integrated into discord as soon as possible, and also as seperate, easy software that can tap into any audio stream - for other voice clients. This would have the power to revolutionise accessibility.
I think a simple solution would be more fleet broadcast options for that.
We already have stuff like attack, needs repair etc. But more options like “jump gate and wait on other side” would be great as well. Or “activate module X on Target Y” as well.
Wait… this game has sound? Mine is always turned off.
For voice, just use a macro program with key commands programmed in. The fleet commander can use it. Some keyboards have this built in.