Using teamspeak...

Okay, Zac and I have been experimenting, and have come to the conclusion that we are not happy with the voice system in unreal 2004. It pretty much blows. So, I have decided that we are going to go to a third party software to properly talk to each other. These are the advantages of using team speak: Sounds much better, has voice activation instead of pressing a key to talk, before a game we could all jump on the same channel very easily to talk about what game we all wanted to play next, and even talk about what teams should be. Plus this will work with ANY game, and it works while unreal is loading. This is the disadvantage of using team speak. You must download the software, and you must configure it correctly and connect to the server I host, which is not difficult, but may require a tad of computer skills. I am very confident that most of you can handle this. The software is only like 5 Mb big, and it is pretty cool to use. Don?t worry I will give everyone step by step instructions on how to use it. Well okay, use it to the best of my knowledge.After testing this software with Zac we have come to the conclusion that it really kicks major ass. It will work perfect and works so much better then what unreal has setup.

First thing is first...

The link above will have everything that you need, from downloading the software, to any questions that you may have regarding team speak. First thing I would recommend, download team speak. Don?t worry this shit is FREE!!! Which is why I am using it.

When you come to the official home page in the left hand corner you will see a box. This box says main menu as the title. In that box you will see a link that says downloads. Guess what, that is what you want! Click on it. You want version 2.0.32.60 and for those windows users that would be on top hand left side. It says something like TS2 Win32 Client (RC2). Download one of those mirror sites right below it. This is the program that you want. Then install it. During the installation follow the instruction. I would recommend having it add any codecs that you may be lacking. It should automatically do that for you. If you have any problems during installation...good luck! I am sure it will go smoothly.

Opening up team speak...

Okay, opening up the program. Go to the start menu and look for the team speak folder. Then click team speak. When you want to connect to the same server I am, you will click the connection tab. Then click the quick connect. The server address will be e-mailed to you. It will simply be my IP address. Also put in your nick name. Then click connect. It is as simple as that! You will be connected to me at all times.

This are some of the cool features that you can do with this program. Click the setting tab. Next you will see sound input/output settings. Here you can adjust your output volume to any level you would like. You can also then adjust your voice send method. Some people like it so that you have to click a button to send you voice (like a walkie talkie). Others like me, like it set up so your microphone is voice activated. You choose one or the other. If you choose to send it by holding down a key, you can configure it to any key you would like in this section. If you want it sent by voice activation, then this is where you can configure how sensitive you want your microphone. Next under the settings tab, click options. In this first tab in this box you can select sound devices. Under this tab you will see a slider bar and you can adjust the quality of your voice. If your connection can handle it, I would recommend sliding that to good quality.

When you connect...

Once you are connected, you will either see one or two channels. You will see a default channel, and eventually, after I create it, a red team channel. At first we can all communicate on the default channel, to see what teams people want and what game mode/boards people want to play this week as well. Team speak DOES NOT require unreal to be running to work. In fact, team speak will work with any game or if you would rather, you could even use it to replace your telephone. When we are playing unreal, blue team will be on the default channel and red team with be on the red team channel.

Okay, when playing the game it is very easy to switch between the two channels. This is where I must stress please be honest when playing Unreal 2004 and DO NOT switch channels to listen in on the enemy. I could set up passwords on the channels but that would just complicate things. Please be honest, if you are not suppose to be on that channel please do not be on that channel!!! When a mach is over, then we can all jump on the default channel, and we can talk about what game we would like to play next, and even on what board. So, when the match is completed, you will be able to jump on the default channel that way we can all communicate and voice our opinions. To bring unreal 2004 as a window, hit alt+enter. This will allow unreal to be in a small window so you can access your start menu, and from there change the channel in team speak to the default channel.

Quick side note...

Zac reminded me of something important. When playing unreal, you might want to adjust the filters on the internet connection. When you open unreal, go to join game in the main menu. Then click the internet tab. Click filters on the bottom. When this open ups, it is important to uncheck the password box. If you leave it checked, then you will not see any servers with passwords, which means you will not see our server. Deselecting this box will fix that.

If anyone has any questions, again please ask them. I will try to answer them the best that I can. Another side note. Zac and I have been doing a lot of testing. The dedicated server that Zac set up worked pretty well. However, we are not sure how it will work when we get a lot of people playing. We will not find that out until a bunch of people try to join the server. I have my fingers crossed that we will experience very little lag. As well, the team speak sever will be created on my computer. I will e-mail the IP addresses the day before, that way you can connect to the team speak server I have created. Hope this covers everything!