Voice Attack - now more important than ever

[scorpyon]

There's something intrinsically special about Voice Attack and using it in this game.
In particular, I have found that during combat it has freed up the buttons on my flight stick, meaning I can assign them to the guns more individually.
You can now regularly hear me screaming "Drop Chaff!" or "Cell bank! For God's Sake, Cell BankKkkk!!!!"

That along with all the systems management etc, is incredible.
If you haven't used it (which must be very few people by now), you NEED this in your life!

Your combat abilities will improve ten-fold when you get the hang of it!
(It practically feels like cheating! heheh)

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Yeah, it can really provide that edge between surviving and dying now in combat, especially when it comes to pip management... setting voice activated macros for the most common pip configurations...virtually instantaneous changing from 0 sys-2 eng-4 wep to 2 sys 4 eng 0 wep...way faster than can be manually done, even using a hat

 

[fluffa]

VA is awesome, I got it for ED. but I use it in some many games now.


Want a real laugh, go get in some crazy ass fighting. Recorded you self, as you get shorter and louder with each command as things get hot

 

[aRJay]

If you haven't used it (which must be very few people by now), you NEED this in your life!

As one of the even fewer people who haven't even heard of it, I suppose it is what it sounds like, but the big question is is it any good on a mac?

 

[cmdr_Havalok]

Kate and Vasco have been aboard for 6 months now. Can't hardly fly the ship without them. And I've added lots of StarTrek TOS sound effects to my ship...just to be extra geeky.

 

[fluffa]

As one of the even fewer people who haven't even heard of it, I suppose it is what it sounds like, but the big question is is it any good on a mac?

I think its only windows, could be wrong though

 

[scorpyon]

As one of the even fewer people who haven't even heard of it, I suppose it is what it sounds like, but the big question is is it any good on a mac?

Its a speech recognition software, so I guess it is essentially as good as SR is on a Mac.
Without having tried it one one, I am afraid I couldn't say!

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Kate and Vasco have been aboard for 6 months now. Can't hardly fly the ship without them. And I've added lots of StarTrek TOS sound effects to my ship...just to be extra geeky.

I've essentially gone with training my own AI version (rather than a voice pack) so I can have full control over what "Sarah" replies.
(She's a sassy so-n-so! )

I've started including random conversation branches so I can talk with her (over time) and she will essentially become more "sentient"-seeming.

 

[Ren Garris]

There's something intrinsically special about Voice Attack and using it in this game.
In particular, I have found that during combat it has freed up the buttons on my flight stick, meaning I can assign them to the guns more individually.
You can now regularly hear me screaming "Drop Chaff!" or "Cell bank! For God's Sake, Cell BankKkkk!!!!"

That along with all the systems management etc, is incredible.
If you haven't used it (which must be very few people by now), you NEED this in your life!

Your combat abilities will improve ten-fold when you get the hang of it!
(It practically feels like cheating! heheh)

This must be your day for good posts....

But yes, VA is essential.

Automated actions like-
Docking request
Map usage
Pip management
Counter measures
Target Acquisition
Weird Quotes
Text reply/response macros
Take off and gear retraction
and on
and on.

If you spend the time to train your PC to your voice and even more time to train VA to your actual commands it's indispensable.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Great timing with this thread! I was actually in the studio today with the HCS guys recording my own voice pack. I'm looking forward to joining the AI aboard all your ships.

 

[-Joe]

I've been playing with the new features in VA's latest beta version. VA is usually just reacts to spoken commands, but it can be made to do much more!

Things I'm looking into right now:

1. on the fly profile switching for improved acuracy with big command lists.
2. system for defining time based context of conversation.
3. JSON 2 way link to chatscript to make an ORAC alike interactive character.

 

[shadragon]

Your combat abilities will improve ten-fold when you get the hang of it!

Kind of. Your combat abilities get better with VoiceAttack when you use it for all non-essential commands.

Anything you need in combat, chaff, SCB's, silent running, FA Off, etc. needs to be mapped to buttons on your HOTAS. VA, while good, isn't perfect and can miss a command if spoken too quickly or immediately after another. That delay can kill you. I use VA for landing, takeoff, ship config, navigation, etc., but anything I need when under fire is mapped to my HOTAS.

Tip: I just added a "dark cockpit" command to my VA profile. Sets off CTRL + ALT + G to kill all interior lighting in your ship.

 

[Devlin-Darkside]

Yep used it for ages but I do not always switch it on, it does not seem to work well without headphones.

 

[Frank]

There's a useful side-effect for me when I use Voice Attack. It keeps me calm and collected. Usually I get all panicky when I get interdicted, but if I start screeching my Voice Attack commands the computer doesn't understand me. Speaking in a measured voice also calms me down and allows me to gather my thoughts for the fight.

 

[Rhaedas]

If by headphones you mean a desk microphone, then yes, the quality will go down in recognition there. Not impossible, but not as accurate.

 

[cmdr_Havalok]

Great timing with this thread! I was actually in the studio today with the HCS guys recording my own voice pack. I'm looking forward to joining the AI aboard all your ships.

You need to sing the Pink Panther Theme SOng as a response!

Dead Ant! Dead ant! sing with me

 

[Badben]

I'm sure voice attack is wonderful, and I've heard many, many people say so, but I'll never use it, I just can't. Talking to a game is something I just don't like, I can never get the words out as fast as I can just press buttons, I'm really good at pressing buttons. I have chaff, SCB, heat sinks, and silent running all bound to button combos on my stick and I can press all of them in the time it takes me to say "shield cell bank". That's just my opinion though, lot's of people seem to really like it and that's cool too.

 

[scorpyon]

For me, I've found it incredibly vital for combat (as well as non-combat too).
Mainly because there are so many buttons to think about in a fight, sometimes I just want chaff dropped or recharging.
In particular, I love slamming FA-off, flipping the nose around and screaming REVERSE!! My ship yawns into a full 180-spin and slams into reverse, J-turn style while I unload both barrels.

Essentially, I find there are 2 main aspects I love about it all:
1. I often find I don't have enough fingers / buttons are hard to find in a panic (And I hate Finger-Twister! Heheh)
2. The immersion side of it has helped immensely to feel more part of the game when you yell commands out while you wrestle with your joystick. (Pun intended )