Raedwulf
22 Jun 2009, 16:30
So what’s the difference between the best (i.e. most successes over least defeats) raids & the rest? It’s not the gear – give me a good player with indifferent gear over an indifferent player with good gear every day of the week! It’s not having the 12 best players available – good enough is good enough. It’s teamwork. And the key to good teamwork is good communication. So here it is, the Nimminas guide to making best use of the Beorningas Teamspeak server.
The Three Golden Rules of TS Combat
1) Necessity
2) Clarity
3) Identity
You’ll laugh at this…
No I won’t, I’ll probably be swearing at you, because your witticism just came straight over the top of someone saying something I needed to hear. Now someone’s dead because you weren’t paying attention well enough to realise that was a bad time, or because you can’t tell the difference between want to say and need to say. In combat, can the chatter – it’s that simple.
Brevity is the soul of wit
Wit, in this case, means intelligence, not being funny. Almost everything you need to say can be reduced to 3 words – Subject Action Object – and often one of those can be dropped.
”Angrenel stunning Slave”
“Wound Rhyaehar”
“Silirien Corruptions”
“BONES!”
Clarity means conveying the maximal amount of data in the minimal number of words. And that doesn’t mean telling them everything, it means telling them as much as they need to know in the fewest possible words.
There is no “I” in Teamspeak”
The voice of your Raid Leader(s) will quickly become familiar, even if you’re new to the group. They’re the ones doing the majority of the talking. But if you’re struggling to identify them at the start, how do you expect to be able to identify anyone else? How do you expect anyone else to identify you? Never, ever say “I” or “Me”! Use your current alt name.
Silence Is Golden
Those are the basics. How do you apply them? Believe it or not, you can actually prepare before Instances. What information are you likely to need to convey because of the class you are playing? What things happen in the Instance that you might need to tell other people about? Think about how you can reduce those things to the fewest number of words. It doesn’t matter whether English is your native tongue or not, it cuts both ways. Poor English might mean you’re struggling to find the right words (another good reason to try to think of them before you’re under pressure then!); good English means you’re more likely to use more than are necessary!
What’s more preparation cuts down on verbal tics like “ummm…” “ahhhh…” “errrrr…”. Clarity is absolutely crucial, not merely to get your message off quickly, but to get you off the channel quickly too. If twelve people are talking, that creates two problems – First, it means no-one is listening; Second, even if they are, the message people need will be lost in the general hubbub. Internet Voice, moreover, is far worse than real life. As you’re all aware, it only takes TWO people talking at the same time on TS for speech to lose 70+% of its clarity. Therefore the more words you take to say things, the more problems we will have. Voice conflicts are, of course, inevitable, but your first instinct, unless you are very sure your message is of the utmost importance, should be to pause. After all, it might be that the other person’s message is of the utmost importance!
There’s no easy way to determine who has the highest priority, but if you take a quick pause, it gives you a chance to decide where you lie in the queue. Should you talk, or should you give the other person a chance to speak first? As to stepping into a pause, if two other people have just broken off because of a voice conflict, then the worst thing you can possibly do is to then say something just because there’s a moment’s silence (again, unless your message is of the utmost importance), since that often will just introduce another voice conflict with one or both of the original speakers. It’s all subjective value judgements, I’m afraid, but it’s also quite surprising how much difference that automatic pause makes. The most important thing you will learn on TS is to shut up. Silence really is golden - it is silence that allows the free flow of the information we need to hear.
Obviously, the “I / Me” rule is redundant if your output device is the chatbox. In fact, with your name automatically in front of your message, the rule actually works the other way, to save on typing. The other rules are just as important, if not more so, though. You can’t afford to waste time typing when your hands ought to be controlling your avatar, your group doesn’t want to read 30 words when 3 would do, & unnecessary data to process in the chaos of a fight helps no-one.
There is always a degree of “static” going on, & out of combat, these rules could be largely relaxed. Only… Remember that good practice breeds good habits that become second nature. If you want to be a successful raider making these things part of your overall skill-set is important regardless of your class. Finally, we’re not thought police, or even speech police. No-one’s going to kick you or kill you over this. Just bear in mind that TS Channel Admin’s have some power over you; and that Raid Leaders are always on the lookout for people that make of themselves good soldiers or damnable nuisances… ;)
The Three Golden Rules of TS Combat
1) Necessity
2) Clarity
3) Identity
You’ll laugh at this…
No I won’t, I’ll probably be swearing at you, because your witticism just came straight over the top of someone saying something I needed to hear. Now someone’s dead because you weren’t paying attention well enough to realise that was a bad time, or because you can’t tell the difference between want to say and need to say. In combat, can the chatter – it’s that simple.
Brevity is the soul of wit
Wit, in this case, means intelligence, not being funny. Almost everything you need to say can be reduced to 3 words – Subject Action Object – and often one of those can be dropped.
”Angrenel stunning Slave”
“Wound Rhyaehar”
“Silirien Corruptions”
“BONES!”
Clarity means conveying the maximal amount of data in the minimal number of words. And that doesn’t mean telling them everything, it means telling them as much as they need to know in the fewest possible words.
There is no “I” in Teamspeak”
The voice of your Raid Leader(s) will quickly become familiar, even if you’re new to the group. They’re the ones doing the majority of the talking. But if you’re struggling to identify them at the start, how do you expect to be able to identify anyone else? How do you expect anyone else to identify you? Never, ever say “I” or “Me”! Use your current alt name.
Silence Is Golden
Those are the basics. How do you apply them? Believe it or not, you can actually prepare before Instances. What information are you likely to need to convey because of the class you are playing? What things happen in the Instance that you might need to tell other people about? Think about how you can reduce those things to the fewest number of words. It doesn’t matter whether English is your native tongue or not, it cuts both ways. Poor English might mean you’re struggling to find the right words (another good reason to try to think of them before you’re under pressure then!); good English means you’re more likely to use more than are necessary!
What’s more preparation cuts down on verbal tics like “ummm…” “ahhhh…” “errrrr…”. Clarity is absolutely crucial, not merely to get your message off quickly, but to get you off the channel quickly too. If twelve people are talking, that creates two problems – First, it means no-one is listening; Second, even if they are, the message people need will be lost in the general hubbub. Internet Voice, moreover, is far worse than real life. As you’re all aware, it only takes TWO people talking at the same time on TS for speech to lose 70+% of its clarity. Therefore the more words you take to say things, the more problems we will have. Voice conflicts are, of course, inevitable, but your first instinct, unless you are very sure your message is of the utmost importance, should be to pause. After all, it might be that the other person’s message is of the utmost importance!
There’s no easy way to determine who has the highest priority, but if you take a quick pause, it gives you a chance to decide where you lie in the queue. Should you talk, or should you give the other person a chance to speak first? As to stepping into a pause, if two other people have just broken off because of a voice conflict, then the worst thing you can possibly do is to then say something just because there’s a moment’s silence (again, unless your message is of the utmost importance), since that often will just introduce another voice conflict with one or both of the original speakers. It’s all subjective value judgements, I’m afraid, but it’s also quite surprising how much difference that automatic pause makes. The most important thing you will learn on TS is to shut up. Silence really is golden - it is silence that allows the free flow of the information we need to hear.
Obviously, the “I / Me” rule is redundant if your output device is the chatbox. In fact, with your name automatically in front of your message, the rule actually works the other way, to save on typing. The other rules are just as important, if not more so, though. You can’t afford to waste time typing when your hands ought to be controlling your avatar, your group doesn’t want to read 30 words when 3 would do, & unnecessary data to process in the chaos of a fight helps no-one.
There is always a degree of “static” going on, & out of combat, these rules could be largely relaxed. Only… Remember that good practice breeds good habits that become second nature. If you want to be a successful raider making these things part of your overall skill-set is important regardless of your class. Finally, we’re not thought police, or even speech police. No-one’s going to kick you or kill you over this. Just bear in mind that TS Channel Admin’s have some power over you; and that Raid Leaders are always on the lookout for people that make of themselves good soldiers or damnable nuisances… ;)