Left 4 Dead has a wonderful voice command system that is easy to understand and use. Not to mention quick. I Suggest empires copies this system as closely as possible. While dividing commands to two category's Local and global. F and C are wonderful keys for this(squad selection menu could be L or something).And squad leader orders could be its own menu all together.
Vess, already laid out a new voice menu, its slated for not this coming patch (too late for that one) but for the next one.
I just read your document, it seems very complex still. Easyer for first timers then our current one, But still requires "navigation". Maybe you could make a visual aid as I have.
Current voice menu system is terribly unintuitive. I've been playing this game for months and I still don't always remember which combination of keyboard gymnastics will get me to yell out "Ammo you noob!"
The idea is good, but I dislike your pictures, because (as far as I can tell) it still ties commands to the 'movement' buttons, and that's a terrible idea. I want to be able to talk and move at the same time, thanks... don't use WASD for anything except moving and I'll be fine. The only reason other games override those keys for other things is because of consolitis -- they're designing with a console in mind, where you have fewer buttons. On a computer, though? Just use 1 through 9 like every other damn FPS in the history of ever (having to change weapons while talking is much less important than walking). 1-9 divided into two separate menus. It's the best solution; the only reason anyone varies from it is because it doesn't work on a console. Empires is not a console game, so we should just use the number keys and call it a day. Seriously. Overriding the movement keys while you have the voice menu open is a major, major design flaw. It makes your voice menu completely useless while in combat, which is the one situation where you need quick and easy communication. Never use movement input for menus unless you're developing for a console, it's just a terrible idea. Movement keys should be used for movement and nothing else, because as soon as you use them for anything else you're paralyzing the player for no better reason than your own inability to think up a sane method of input. Additionally, seeing the numbers there just makes it easier for players to memorize the key combinations. F-2 for "I need ammo" is much easier to see at a glance and remember for the future than "F-up".
just make your own menu using the keypad keys, use this set of comands in you autoexec.cfg in steam/empires/cfg folder to activate... ................. bind "KP_ENTER" "emp_menu_quickcmd 7 5" bind "KP_PGDN" "emp_menu_quickcmd 7 3" bind "KP_DEL" "emp_menu_quickcmd 7 2" bind "KP_PGUP" "emp_menu_quickcmd 7 1" bind "KP_rightarrow" "emp_menu_quickcmd 7 4" bind "KP/" "emp_menu_quickcmd 8 4" bind "KP_END" "emp_menu_quickcmd 8 6" BIND "KP_HOME" "emp_menu_quickcmd 8 1" BIND "KP_5" "emp_menu_quickcmd 8 3" BIND "KP_LEFTARROW" "emp_menu_quickcmd 8 2" BIND "KP_upARROW" "emp_menu_quickcmd 5 0" BIND "KP_downARROW" "emp_menu_quickcmd 5 4" BIND "KP_ins" "emp_menu_quickcmd 5 2"
I think these should be the default and changeable under the options menu. And the names should be changed from 'emp_menu_quickcmd blah blah' to something more identifiable like 'Call for Ammo'.
The key used should be "Q", it works well in Battlefield and is currently not used in Empires (other than for last weapon).
well let binds handle that (i rebound most of my keys) besides that - THIS IDEA IS FUCKING AWESOME!!! GIEV NAO!!! :D has my stamp of whatever is needed to see that ingame ...
