TeamSpeak

Introduction to TeamSpeak

Typing in-game can get a bit frustrating for many people - it doesn't let you get enough information across as quickly or as efficiently (or even at all for non-native English speakers) as real-time chat.

Consequently, if you have a microphone and speakers, Teamspeak (voice over IP software) will probably serve you very well.

The client can be downloaded here at http://teamspeak.com/?page=downloads

Once Teamspeak has been installed and started up, go to the Connections button in the top left corner and click "Connect". You will be prompted for several pieces of information which you must provide to enter a Fleet Operations Teamspeak server.

• The Server Address
• The Port
• Your Nickname
• Password (no Fleet Ops Teamspeak servers are passworded)

Official Teamspeak Server

This server is extremely reliable with well maintained permissions and channels (for resolving commentator channel and inter-player issues).

Privileges are broken into three groups, which makes the server organization much clearer: server administrators have ultimate power and can be contacted to resolve situations in a hopefully unbiased fashion (a small number of administrators have been conscripted from each time zone - to better prevent misuse of administrator privileges), commentators can lock commentator channels (to prevent unwanted entries), and regular guests have access to all other features.

Other notable features:

Uploads are restricted to the upload/download channel so that it is much easier to find or replace them.
The ability to create semi-permanent channels has been disabled to prevent the large scale duplication/spamming of channels (temporary channels are still available with highest sound quality).
The server address is simple to remember!
"Scotty-bot" to find when players were last on
Nice Star Trek style server icons

• The Server Address: ts.fleetops.net:9990
• The Port: included in the server address
• Your Nickname: {whatever_you_desire}
• There is no password set on the server

In case the address does not work for whatever reason, the address IP and port are: 128.127.66.214:9990

Backup Servers

If for any reason gamers desire to use another server, there is at least one other option available.

Robe1Kenobe, a member of the Fleet Ops community, has given all Fleet Operations users access to his Teamspeak server:

• The Server Address: server.jeffrobe.com
• The Port: automatically included in the server address
• Your Nickname: {whatever_you_desire}
• There is no password set on the server

General TeamSpeak Tips

The Fleet Operations server is subdivided into areas called Channels; you can only talk to people who are in the same channel as you are. Channels can also be contained within other channels. To switch to another channel you can double click its name.

At the bottom of the launched program there should be two tabs when you first connect. The first one is a log of all the actions the server takes, such as logging new users on. The second tab is the chat tab. It will reflect the channel you are in. It allows you to instant message people in your channel.

Right click on a person’s name and you will get options on how to interact with them, such as lowering how loud they are, or muting them. Certain actions like kicking can only be done by administrators, but still appear for everyone else, so don’t bother trying.

In the toolbar you will find two buttons with red crosses over them. Pushing the left button will mute your microphone, pushing the right button will mute everyone else.

A common option that may be of help to you is to have TeamSpeak minimize to tray. Go to Settings -> Options -> Design -> Minimize to tray

Bookmarking the FO Channel

To make joining the Fleet Ops' server easier you can add a bookmark for it. If you are already connected to the server you can click the <Bookmarks> menu and select <Add to Bookmarks>. Or if you are disconnected you can click <Manage Bookmarks> to open the Bookmarks Manager.

In here you can click <Add Bookmark> to create a bookmark and enter all the details for it. Give it any label you like and input the server details here.

If you click <More> you can edit other options. Ticking the <Connect on Startup> box will take you to the server whenever you turn on TeamSpeak.

Microphone Options

For TeamSpeak  a headset is definitely recommended: that is, a pair of headphones with a microphone attached.  If you can afford it, shell out on some nice gear, maybe 20 quid (GBP) is around a good amount to spend.

Once you have yourself some nice equipment, the next part is to get it working at its best. That is where TeamSpeak’s Capture options come in handy.

Navigate thusly: Settings -> Options -> Capture

The most important option here is how to transmit; you have three options for this:

• Push-To-Talk: people will only hear you when you hold a button down. Be wary of using key combinations that activate other programs or are hotkeys in Fleet Ops.
• Continuous Transmission: people will always hear you, and therefore anything in the background: a poor choice.
• Voice Activation Detection: TeamSpeak will only send sound when it thinks you are speaking. So quiet background noises won’t be sent, but loud noises like your cat deciding you should play with it instead of Fleet Operations may be. This option is recommended.

The bar you see is the level of sound TeamSpeak needs before it will transmit. Choosing a Voice Activation level correctly is important. Too low and the sound of your breath will send, too high and you will have to raise your voice. Click the <Test Voice> button to see how your voice registers. You should set the bar just below the level your voice hovers at, when <Test Voice> is pushed TeamSpeak will repeat your words back to you if you are speaking loud enough.  It will also stop other people hearing you too, so feel free to say anything as a test.

Creating a Channel

The Fleet Operations server has channels for teams from two games, which is usually more than enough, but if you want a new channel you can make one. The main reason to make new channels is to have a co-commentator join for making a replay, but have a password so that not anyone can join.

You probably aren’t a Server Administrator, so you can only make a temporary channel, that is, when everyone leaves the channel it disappears.

You will automatically become the Channel Administrator of any channel you make, so if you don’t password it and somebody joins you can kick them out of your channel. Server Administrator tasks like banning will still be unavailable of course.

To create a new channel right click any channel name and click <Create Channel>

You will get several options, of which the following will be described

• Name: ostensibly this is the name of the channel that everyone will see.
• Password: you can choose the password, but since the limit is not sure it is best to choose something simple. Tell people the password and they can join while others will not be able to. If somebody fails to join your channel, your computer won’t make a sound, so it won’t disturb a recording.
• Codec: by default this should be at maximum. Leave it there: TeamSpeak doesn’t use much bandwidth.
• Needed talk power: leave this at 0 or you may find that nobody can talk in your channel, everybody by default is assigned as a guest when connecting.
• Don’t bother pushing <More>, the options in there are useless to you.

Your new channel will now appear at the bottom of the list.

TeamSpeak and Firewalls

If you have your firewall set to block outbound connections, then you will need to add two exceptions for TeamSpeak, the first is obviously the TeamSpeak executable and the second is the update executable.

Here are their paths if you installed TeamSpeak with its default settings:

TeamSpeak executable:                 %ProgramFiles%\TeamSpeak 3 Client\ ts3client_win32.exe

TeamSpeak update executable:       %ProgramFiles%\TeamSpeak 3 Client\update.exe

%ProgramFiles% is usually C:\Program Files

TeamSpeak doesn’t need any other settings usually.