Online

[icycalm]

The Cult Discord server is now operational and only accessible to members. To receive your invite, subscribe here: https://culture.vg/subscribe.html


So what have y'all been using for voice chat while I was gone? I know the Mumble subscription expired; I meant to renew it but for reasons I won't go into it would have been very hard for me to do it, so I didn't. So unless someone has a better idea, I'll go ahead and pay for a Mumble server again.

[infernovia]

I like Mumble, I have my own server that we started using when the subscription expired.

The new kid in the block is Discord:

• It's free and easy to setup. Just create an account and join a channel and you are 90% of the way there. You don't have to mess around with servers/ports/firewall etc.
  
• Split text channel and voice channel. Text channel can be further split into different topics. Your posts are saved for posterity.
  
• Still not a good replacement for Mumble as a voice chat solution. I haven't seen a way to create subchannels. It also didn't support the way I prefer to voice chat. I am always on continuous, and I use one button to mute and another button to unmute. I much prefer it to toggle mute (you quickly forget if you are muted or not) and hold to mute/talk (tedious).
  
• Oh, and it seems to crash my computer when I turn on my Xbox 360 controller. Very annoying.

Here is the one mothmanspirit started for Insomnia: https://discord.gg/khqK8qR

[icycalm]

I am on Discord right now. It's got a super-smooth UI. It's a pleasure to use. It looks to me like IRC + voice chat, which would be awesome if the voice chat was as good as Mumble's. Since you are saying that it isn't, we'll stick with Mumble for the time being, but I still want to keep the Discord channel if mothman can turn it over to me so I can customize it. It's so much more convenient to Steam chat, where you have to engage each person separately and ask them if they want to play, etc. With Discord you just type what you want to play and everyone logged in sees it immediately, and if they want to play they respond, and if they don't they don't.

One thing I can't decide is whether to issue passwords or just let people log in freely. I think with Mumble passwords are a must, because you are in the middle of a game and you don't want randoms crashing the party, but perhaps with Discord you can just let anyone log on as long as you usually have some moderator around to kick out people who are looking for trouble. I guess we could try without passwords for a while, and add them later if they are needed.

[icycalm]

I wonder if we can customize the url to https://discord.gg/insomnia

[icycalm]

This is the official Insomnia Discord server now: https://discord.gg/8Vx2Sax

I've asked ronan to make a banner that will go on the frontpage alongside all the others.

[icycalm]

Still not a good replacement for Mumble as a voice chat solution. I haven't seen a way to create subchannels.

You create subchannels for voice the same way you do for chat, so that's not an issue as far as I can see, except if I am not understanding your meaning.

[icycalm]

The Discord banner is on the frontpage now, right beneath The Cult's logo. Clicking on it will send people to the server, but I don't expect to get any randoms right now because of how fucked the frontpage is. Once I fix it we might get some from time to time. Which I am not sure if it's gonna be a good or a bad thing. We'll see I guess.

[infernovia]

Still not a good replacement for Mumble as a voice chat solution. I haven't seen a way to create subchannels.

You create subchannels for voice the same way you do for chat, so that's not an issue as far as I can see, except if I am not understanding your meaning.

What I meant was something like this:

- Planetside
-- Group 1
-- Group 2

Group 1/2 can speak to the parent chat or between group members only if desired. Alternatively, a leader can broadcast his message to everyone or just discuss things with group leaders.

Granted, this will only be important once we get to huge games.

[icycalm]

After using Discord's voice chat for several hours a few days back, I have to say it beats Mumble in every category easily. It worked in plug and play fashion without having to adjust a single setting, and with perfect sound quality and clarity -- a far cry from having to wait 15 minutes in Mumble every time a new user wanted to set up the program, or having to fiddle with settings for ages to get rid of feedback etc. several times a session. And that's without getting into the text chat functionality or the stellar community-building features; even as a simple voice chat app it beats Mumble hands down.

The only problem remains Mumble's superiority in games with multiple teams and subchannels, for which we can simply go back to Mumble temporarily. On the other hand, infernovia's muting issue did not occur to me. I don't see why you would want to mute either yourself or any person you are playing with. The app is set up on continuous by default, and that's the best option because it means you don't have to worry about pressing anything, or the drawbacks of delayed voice activation. If I am missing something, please let me know.

[icycalm]

I guess the only reason I can see someone wanting to mute themselves is if they mumble, lol.

[icycalm]

I am removing the direct Discord link from the site because we kept getting a ton of wannabe lurkers who wouldn't even respond to a greeting, and after half a year of this I've finally had enough. All Discord links from now on will point to this post, and if a newcomer wants to join us on the server they will have to post in this thread to ask for an invite and I will create one specifically for them and email it to them.

[icycalm]

I've added the new Discord link everywhere (including replacing with it the older link posted earlier in this thread): https://discord.gg/8Vx2Sax

I decided to make the server fully public again, since we've been getting so many people from the PA community that we had to deal with moderation anyway, and we've been doing a good enough job of it that I think it's safe to reopen the floodgates. We are already close to 100 members, and that's after I kicked/banned several dozen PA guys over the past couple of months. With our continued dominance of the PA scene, and the Rust events on the horizon, which have the potential to be orders of magnitude more popular, we should end up with a pretty popular Discord eventually, which has considerable benefits, aside from looking great on the frontpage. We already have three recruits for PA, and I expect more soon. A popular Discord seems to be a good way to grow the clan, so I am committed now to growing the Discord as much as possible.

[icycalm]

The Cult Discord server is now only accessible to members. To receive your invite, subscribe here: https://culture.vg/subscribe.html

[icycalm]

I turned on the Discord Events feature for our last XenoThreat attempt on Saturday and it made the server look cool and the event flashier and more official. I've used it before, with other events, but not consistently. I keep forgetting to turn it on. So now I've added it to my "things to remember" checklist (which includes lines such as "Call mom"), so that should help.

When we restart Battlegrounds, I'll advertise every session this way. It's a bit of extra work, but I think it's worth it. Makes the server look more alive and draws everyone's attention to these awesome sessions, both in the lead-up to them, and while they're live.