Dust 514: Voice and Chat

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Voice and Chat

Using a simple and cheap headset, either a BlueTooth or wired USB variety, makes the Dust 514 experience so much more enjoyable and gives a massive tactical advantage over not using one.

However even in the open beta, setting up the voice chat in particular is not at all explained well in the game tutorial.

Voice Chat

With so many different headsets available there is no chance for a wiki to cover all of them. So this page will make the assumption that your headset is connected to the PS3 and is correctly configured for use. Use the PS button and go to the settings to make sure.

Voice Chat in the game is turned on by default. Should you wish turn it off, go to the Neocom by pressing L1 and using the D-pad highlight System Operation and press X.

Here you will find options for the game such as controller sensitivity, brightness levels etc. The menu we want is in fact the first menu screen you'll see when entering System Operation, Audio.

You will see settings for Voice Chat and Push-to-Talk here. Use the D-pad and X to change Voice Chat and Push-to-Talk. The settings are saved automatically when you leave the menu.

Push-to-Talk is, in this Merc's experience, a waste of time until proximity chat is in the game and the opposition might hear you talking as you sneak up on them.

However, Push-to-Talk can be useful in situations where you have loud background noise or a faulty mic, reducing the chance of damaging your squad's eardrums and preventing a possible situation of being muted.

To activate your mic while in Push-to-Talk mode, use left on the D-pad to activate your mic.

The Push-to-Talk function is also easily accessed by bringing up your communications windows and selecting Push-to-Talk button in the top right hand corner.

Squad and Team chat

Voice chat is free to use and part of the game. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

But first you have to activate it. Pressing Select brings up the Chat Channels.

This is the hub of communication for Dust Mercs and Eve Pilots and its best to get familiar with it. You'll be spending some time here. To get around use the d-pad, X to enter, O to exit and press the square to enter the software keyboard if needed.

The default view when you call it up is from top to bottom:

Notifications

This is where squad invites, emails and other in game notifications will be displayed. The box around it will briefly flash and glow to let you know if you've received a notification This will happen in all chat channels should a new message appear. It has a circle with an ! in the centre of it as its icon.

Local

This is the same as it is in Eve. Mercs are stationed in various systems around New Eden before so any passing Eve pilots can text chat to them in game here. As in Eve the talk in here can be off the smack variety. Its icon is that of a speech bubble.

Corp

Again the same as in Eve. Here members of the same Corporation, be they Eve pilots or Merc's can freely chat about corp related stuff or even just normal chit chat. A star is the Corp channel icon.

These three channels are constant and permanent. They can not be minimised or turned off.

Under the yellow hash line we find:

Squad

Again a permanent channel. If you're in a squad after receiving an invite in your notifications this where you'll find your fellow Squad members. Its icon is a set of Corporal stripes. In terms of Voice Chat, this is the point where the most confusion happens with new players is, so it deserves to be in bold.

The action of joining a Squad or indeed Team, DOES NOT enable voice chat for speaking to the other Merc's there.

In order to do that once you're in the squad, you must highlight the actual box that says Squad in it, press X and Activate Voice will appear. Highlight it, press X again and bingo, you should be hearing your fellow squad members. But only if they've done all that as well and have a mic.

If you've done it all correctly there are three ways to tell. Obviously the first is you can hear people. Secondly, next to the icons in each chat channel, in the top left corner, you should see a green light if the voice is activated for that channel. Thirdly, next to your name there should be a speaker icon that flashes green when you speak into your mic.

An important note should be made at this point. Even if you don't have a mic, activating voice as described above will mean you can hear what those in your squad are saying. This is useful as you'll be able to obey any orders given by your Squad Leader and any question you may type in Squad Chat they can give a verbal answer in response, saving a little time.

Team

This only appears when you enter a game in any mode, be it Corporation Contract, Skirmish or Ambush. Its icon is three stars in a triangle.

It is usual practice in DUST University squads to switch to Team voice chat so you can hear what others are doing in your team. Follow the same process as above to activate Team Voice Chat.

+

This is where you add any chat channels you'd like to have. All the large corporations in Eve and Dust have a public channel and DUST University is no exception. Ours is Chat.D-UNI. It's not password protected and is available to Mercs and Eve pilots of any corp to chat. Highlight with the d=pad, press x and type in the name of the channel you want to join. You can even create your own.

Push to Talk

Finally in the top right corner of the Chat Channels is a toggle switch for Push to Talk, should you wish to quickly turn it on then back off.