I think the best addition for racing online would be a voice communication system. Possibly set up like a CB radio system, with multiple channels so teams can talk privately and then click to the public channel and talk to everyone at once. With a button to speak so you're not constantly broadcasting your voice.
Could even have locked channels for Teams so that people can't com snoop.
I think a voice over IP system would be best, its used in alot of games and you get good quality sound with very little increase in net usage.
one game its used in is Half-life (Gold src), another I'v seen is Red orchestra (Unreal engine).

Better if it is kept to Teamspeak for Ventrillo in my opinion. Built-in voice communication on those games are a nightmare because people play music, have annoying voices (usually because the voicecomm is such a low-end codec), and everyone would be screaming, swearing, etc...

Surely you'd want to mute people, but I'd rather not have such a hassle, and only use TS of VT servers to talk on with people I know.

I find that those programms tend to incrase net traffic alot because they go for high quality audio. I'v had alot of experiance with the voice communication in Half life and I have set it up so you get better than telephone quality(wich is realy all you need) and my ping only goes up about 5-10 ms. If people are realy serious about the sim they won't play music and they will use it properly. Mute is something I didn't think LFS would need because I didn't think people would be foolish with it, but if it is, then its not hard to add.
I'v never realy used team speak or any of those programmes because its just easier to use the in-game voice, and its less of a hassle to set it up so it doesn't lag you're game.

The voice system would also make it easier for admins to talk to players and give warnings for breaking rules, even if the player doesn't have team speak.
You can't mute an admin, and if an admin is spamming music, do you realy want to be on that server?

Quote from DragonCommando :

You can't mute an admin, and if an admin is spamming music, do you realy want to be on that server?

Tell that to yourself.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Tell that to yourself.

I don't understand what you mean dude.

-1 Lets stick to Ventrillo. I can just imagine me in a race, really concentrating, then suddenly I hear:

"JORDI!!! DINNERS READY!!!"

Or I dunno, someone who goes to spectate, but leaves their mic open so I unwilling listen to them um,

Works great on Xbox Live.

Quote from DragonCommando :

I don't understand what you mean dude.

Well, you said that you want voice chat in LFS, but admins could spam, so you don't like voice chat? Nevermind.

It's bad enough that I have to read the text of some of the idiots online. Listening to them would be worse.

The whole idea is that there are alot of people who don't like to use external programms, if you add one internaly it is optional, you don't have to use it or even have it active.
you hold a button to talk so its not like your going to hear the other guys mother or something. And what I meant by the admin spamming is that if the admin using it improperly, what does that tell you about the admin of the server, there not realy serious about the sim then are they?
I personaly would ask them politely to stop, if not. then it realy depends how bad it is, I might leave or I might turn off my recive volume, and if admins are realy going to abuse it, alow muting of admins then.

Quote from LFSn00b :

http://goteamspeak.com

I already stated that I don't use team speak because I don't like how it works, there are alot of people who feel the same way as I do and are very happy to have built in voice com in HL (and mods of it) and RO

then use ventrillo: e.g. www.fragmaster.net/vt/

I think what he's getting at is he wants the kind of integration HL2's comm. system has (all you need is a mic) with the same ability to mute players if need be. Ventrilo and TS are great if you wish to chat with people that have those programs, but quite often people don't or they can't be bothered switching out of LFS to open those programs. By having voice comm. integrated, if you wish to speak to someone about setups or race strategy then a private channel could be created quickly within LFS, or you could address everyone at once with announcements regarding the server, the upcoming race, etc.

It would be useful, yeah, but I don't think it's crucial at this stage. Would be a nice idea post-S3, though .

ah okay. could be cool but i don't want to hear some random noob shouting at me so i would mute that on public server and use fm-vent... yep but for events it would make life much easier...

-1, except if we get a mechanic-spot to fill in (instead of those tire temp/damage-meters) or the option to form a team...

Its a good idea and always works.

Quick and easy, no fuss on who's server you have to join to talk to someone for less then 20 minutes for a race.

Everyone has the same bit of software so no more downloading or compatibility issues.

Cheaper for people hosting ventrilo or teamspeak servers.

Can disable it completely in the options screen if you want to use TS or Ventrilo only.

Can block certain users or have some sort of 'friend/buddy' list that works along side LFSW. + Can block users individually unlike the chat system that requires blocking everyone.

Maybe it is a good idea, but we've all seen how "well" built-in voice coms work. So I would disable it anyway :/

Quote from DragonCommando :

and its less of a hassle to set it up so it doesn't lag you're game.

download teamspeak
Install it
Run it
type the name of the server, and your nic.

That was easy!

It won't lag you,because its a server setting, teamspek is just so easy, plus i want to stay in when im NOT in LFS

-1

It will get on alot of people tits if this was implanted

As for teamspeaking making lfs lag you are kinding me right lfs uses more traffic then teamspeak and i was on a full server and about 8 people talking in teamspeak

In game comms would be handy to have but I don't really see the point for public races. They're mainly just used for communication in enduro races for driver swaps and strategies etc. In public it'd just be another place to spam. If you really want voice TS and Ventrilo both offer it and are easy to use and setup.

You sure 8 people were talking while that screenshot was taken?

TS doesn't use much bandwidth when no one is talking, but each person uses about 2-3kb/s on good codec like Speex 25.9 or GSM 16.4. Still even 8 people talking at once is only 16kb/s which shouldn't lag lfs unless you're download speed is very slow.

Quote from Fischfix :

then use ventrillo: e.g. www.fragmaster.net/vt/

Ventrillo sucks even more. TS has a miles better UI.

E: If you want to cut down the bandwidth used by TS, use a lower quality codec. OSR use a really shite quality one but we can hear eachother. We're not singing, we're shouting at eachother FFS.

+1

anoying to write the IP on paper, then minimize lfs, insert ip into TS, etc...

...boy

for me i think lfs could have some integration with teamspeak or ventrilo... like u join in the server and if the server have his own voice server, a button appear on lfs... the u click, ts opens and u good to go.

just pointing out that the voice com in half life IS teamspeak, just integrated.
this means some bored nugget like me could pop into your voice channel just by searching for your TS server (the one that gest created when you make a host) and annoy the living shit out of you.

anyone else see why this is a bad idea now?

password ?