Mumble

Why is it useful?

Mumble is mostly used in two situations: PvP and Classes. In PvP it is very useful because, for example, it is faster to call out a primary target than to type it, especially with PvP related lag. In classes it is great as well because we do not want our poor instructors getting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from typing everything. In effect, it is just a lot easier and faster than typing.

Quick guide

1. Download mumble from http://mumble.sourceforge.net/ (the stable version is running v1.2.2). On Windows, the stable version is recommended because it has a better overlay (ie. font size can be changed) and better hotkey setup. On Mac, the overlay feature does not appear to work on the stable release; try the developer snapshot.
2. Install and set it up (create your own certificate, etc)
3. Start the client and Server>Connect>Add New...
   • Servername: Eve University
   • Address: mumble.eveuniversity.org
   • Port: 64738 (Default)
   • Username: <Your Forum Username, i.e: Your character name with nothing either side>
4. Connect (you can ignore the certificate warning - this will be fixed later).
5. When prompted for your password, use your forum password!
6. There is no six!
7. You should automatically be dropped in the "Chat E-UNI" channel.
8. Talk.
9. Restart EVE client if you want overlay to work.

Setting up Mumble

Audio Tuning Wizard

When you run Mumble the first time, an Audio Tuning Wizard is presented to you. If you skip or miss it on the first run you can retake the wizard by clicking Configure > Audio Wizard. It is recommended you go through it carefully, since setting up Mumble correctly will make your and everyone else's life much easier (going through the Audio Tuning Wizard properly will also normalise everyone's voices, such that everyone will sound the same volume regardless of how they have their microphone set up).  However there are two things I would like to highlight:

Push-to-talk

When you reach a screen that looks like the one above select the top radio button, click on the box on the same line and press the key you you want to use as the push-to-talk key.This is your normal push-to-talk key; for certain Fleet roles you may need more than one (see the comments in the Fleet channels), but for general E-UNI activity one is sufficient.

Text-to-speech

When you reach a screen that looks like the one above I recommend you disable the text to speech notifications.

Connecting to the Eve University Server

<certificates>

Notifications

In the Setting screen Configure>Settings you can find Advanced settings checkbox in the bottom left corner. With it checked you can access the Messages settings. From there you can disable popup and sound notifications about events you don't care about.

Channel Structure for Structured Fleets

One of the great advantages of Mumble over Teamspeak is the ability for squad members and their SC to talk amongst themselves, without clogging up comms for the rest of the fleet. This can be invaluable for bait squads and instructing new members. In order for this to work however, it requires people to be in the right channel and everyone should have their keys set up correctly. This part of the Mumble setup guide focuses on setting up your key shortcuts for the structured fleet channels.

E-UNI fleets will use four distinct channels (these are not real channels as such but the concept helps to understand the difference between the actions behind different hotkeys).

• Fleet "Channels":
  • Squad Channel, where the squad members can have their internal chat without bothering the rest of the fleet (or even their SC)
  • Command Channel for FC, WC, SC and scouts to discuss between themselves
  • Report Channel, where squad members reports their actions to their SC, e.g. calling points
  • Order Channel for command staff to give orders for persons below them. I.e. FC to talk to whole fleet, WC to their wing, SC to their squad

Key Bindings for Fleetchannels

In structured fleets E-UNI is using three different hotkeys, to establish the channels described above and creating an ability to talk "up" and "down" the command structure.

• Keys as called in Mumble:
  • Push-to-talk
  • Shout to Parent (or whisper if using the older version)
  • Shout to Current (or whisper if using the older version)

Now, on to set some hotkeys! To start, you go to Configure -> Settings -> Shortcuts.

There you will see this screen (sans the whisper keys, because we are going to set them up for you now!). Press the Add button in the bottom of the screen.

Shout to Parent

After you’ve clicked Add, a new empty key setup appears. For Function, choose Whisper. After you chose Whisper, click on the empty field under Data and click the (…) button.

First, click Whisper (or Shout if you’ve got the RC2 version) to Channel at the top. Next, choose Parent and check Whisper to subchannels.

Click OK and set a key binding by clicking the empty field under Shortcut. Next, add a another key. This key will be for commanders to talk to their subordinates.

Shout to Current

Again, set the Function field to Whisper and click the (…) key. Click Whisper to Channel, select Current and check Whisper to subchannels.

Different channels in Different Roles

Now let's show how the key bindings we made link to the channels we mentioned and how they are used in different roles in a fleet:

• FC:
  • Push-to-talk => Command channel
  • Whisper/Shout to Parent (No use for an FC)
  • Whisper/Shout to Current => Order channel (I.e. FC giving orders to whole fleet)

• WC/SC:
  • Push-to-talk => Command channel
  • Whisper/Shout to Parent (No use for an WC/SC)
  • Whisper/Shout to Current => Order channel (I.e. WC/SC giving orders to their wing/squad)
    • Other command staff will not hear SC/WC talking to his/her squad/wing on a squad channel. To keep your FC up to date on what the squad/wing is doing SC/WC must remember to inform also the command channel (Push to talk)

• Scout:
  • Push-to-talk => Command channel
  • Whisper/Shout to Parent (No use for a scout)
  • Whisper/Shout to Current (No use for a scout)

• Squad member:
  • Push-to-talk => Squad channel (without SC!)
    • Squad Commander will not hear squad members talking in squad channel. Use report channel (Shout-to-Parent) if you want your SC to hear you
  • Whisper/Shout to Parent => Report channel (own squad including SC)
    • Other command staff will not hear reports (e.g. call of points) made by a squad members to their SC using the report channel! SC has to make sure to keep your FC up to date by relaying important bits of information to command channel (using their Push-to-talk key)
  • Whisper/Shout to Current => (No use for a squad member)

In short, the structured fleet channels enable great streamlining and filtering of information. This way, fleet commanders can focus on leading the fleet rather than having to process endless streams of information and squad members and their commanders can coordinate more efficiently amongst themselves. On the other hand, all this requires a great deal more communication and discretion in doing so from SC’s to the rest of command.

Overlay

Sample overlay

Mumble provides a very handy and customizable overlay. To configure it go to Configure - Settings and pick the Overlay option

Sample settings are provided below that will put the overlay near the top left corner, fitting in one person just perfectly if you've got the left-side menu narrow (sample to the right). If more than one person talks they might overlap your Current Location info. Be sure to disable the "Always Show Self" option after you've played with where the overlay goes.

Overlay not showing up? Make sure you start Mumble before starting the Eve Online Client.

Sample overlay

Note: In 1.2.3-rc2, setting up the overlay is a bit different. The developers added a way to move around the overlay on your screen, but in doing so also made it harder to set the "Only talking" option. Go to Configure - Settings and pick the Overlay option, then right-click on the Overlay preview (see image), hover over "Filters", and select "Only show talking".

The RC overlay settings window

Overlay in Linux

To actually display the overlay over Eve in Linux after you've enabled it in Mumble's settings you need to have Mumble launched first and then run mumble-overlay in front of the wine command that you use to launch Eve. For example:

mumble-overlay wine explorer /desktop=Eve,1600x1200 "C:\Program Files\CCP\EVE\eve.exe"

If you use a WINEPREFIX, then you would insert it after the WINEPREFIX variable like so:

WINEPREFIX=/home/username/bin/wine/wine-eve/ mumble-overlay wine explorer /desktop=Eve,3200x1180 "C:\Program Files\CCP\EVE\eve.exe"