Dust 514: Voice and Chat

Voice and Chat

Using a simple and cheap headset, either a BlueTooth or wired UBS 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.

Strange as it may seem at this stage of a beta, Voice Chat in the game is turned off by default. So you need to turn it on. 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 that Voice Chat is off and Push to Talk is on. Use the d-pad and X to remedy that by turning Voice Chat ON and Push to Talk OFF. 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.

Squad and Team chat

Contrary to popular opinion, a UVT (Universal Voice Transmitter) is not required to use Voice Chat in either Squad or Team chat. While in battle, 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 DOES NOT enable voice chat for speaking to the others 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 your name there should be a speaker icon that flashes green when you speak into your mic.