Proposal: Voice control to supplement mouse

I was intending to post this on the official forums, however it takes a CD-key so I can't. I'd be happy if someone could repost this there.

The reason why I (and probably quite a few others) didn't play a lot of multiplayer Starcraft or Warcraft was that it took an insane amount of microing, which in practice means clicking the mouse in all the right places, to be good. I just found it impossible to look away from a battle in progress for 0.5 seconds to switch to the base, queue up 10 units, then switch back. You had to do these things to be good, and I couldn't, so I couldn't be good and didn't play. Probably applied to a lot of people. The best people apparently click 4 times a second or something.

What would help a lot would be if it was possible to use voice commands to select units. Something like saying 'All units' to select all units. You could then be microing a battle, and just say 'Build 5 marines', and have them queued up without shifting view. Simple. No need to double click a microscopic drone in the middle of an economic invasion, just say 'Screen drones'.

Descriptors:
All / Screen (select units anywhere on the map, or just those on the screen)
Build (alternatively, 'build --- at three' to queue up at the third expansion).

Followed by unit names or building names. Put a confirmation message on the screen as well.


It probably makes zero difference to very good players who dominate with the mouse anyway, but as someone click-challenged I think it could make it easier to compete.

 

There are many things wrong with this. First off i'll just give a few examples.
1. Your in a battle and you say *select 5 marines* it wouldnt know wich marines to select.
2.If you say quee 3 marauders and you have 3 barracks with a reactor and one with a tech lab, the other, just a barracks. You may want the marine to be built at the reactor barracks and the non upgraded barracks because your saving the tech lab for a marauder and such. The computer, will of course, not know this. Its just too complicated, I can say about 50 things that would make this wrong. It would also ruin an rts. Rts's in my view are my favorite games because I like to use my mouse and click with an overhead view.
I like to know that I have 100 apm while playing dota, or *much less on a normal w3 game* a decent apm while playing normal w3. Just play the game the way it was meant to be played, I used to click on everything, from building units, to building buildings. Now, I use hotkeys. Improving my apm skill and strategy. Also I am not exactly sure if you meant voice commands and a mouse. I'm just thinking how I would be extremely angry if I was trying to move my units with voice commands. This is my view.
I'm sorry if I had any spelling errors or some gramatical I sorta wrote this fast

 

You're voice playing is more micro intensive than a mouse!

"Build Command Center at XXX point"

-or-

*Select SCV, Click Build, Click Command Center, Click location"

This would be a good idea for a partially blind man to be able to type on a wordpad easily...but this is just fantasy "VR" that will never be implemented due to the shear complexity of it.

 

Exactly, you would probably work harder just to say everything, if you want to be as good.

 

The only way I can think of this ever working really well would be something like...


No, never mind. I can't honestly think of any way the voice would be better unless your mouse just got shattered and you are in a tourny match.

 

Some good posts.

A good idea, but sniper pointed some things out and:

"so I couldn't be good and didn't play"

1. Being good doesnt mean you cant play with other bad players and still have fun!
2. Games arent "only" about being good, but more about having fun!
3. APM is a part of every game.
4. The game shouldnt be changed to suit everyone so everyone is gosu, what is the next thing? A bot that controls the mouse for you?

 

Voice control for an RTS is something only auctioneers would be good at. And possibly people with missing limbs, or severe hand problems. Otherwise, voice control is still going to be a lot slower than control with a mouse and keyboard.

While a person can only click a mouse ~4 times a second, they can also be issuing keyboard commands at a similar rate. 2 mouse commands and 2 keyboard commands per second puts you at 240 APM. A voice controlled interface would only be able to do something like 30APM.

Plus a confirmation message? You might as well play on slow. You'll get steamrolled on fastest with such a mess to deal with.

 

voice is not going to win
you would be better off with keyboard macros on your G15 logitech or something.

And imagine in longer games, 1 hour + , you are not going to be able to concentrate enough on what you're saying.

It's like singing while playing the drums. It might sound better, but its so much harder than just playing the drums alone.

 

This isnt something that I think will work for SC2, but might be a cool idea for future RTSs. To use this on a professional level is impossible though.

 

People who call horse races would be even better

***************

And say voice commands for SC2 was possible and worked well. After 20 mins of yelling at your computer to move marines etc, your voice would go all horse and die probably. Not to mention have a few irate neighbors from the noise.

 

As far as selecting units with voice goes, you wouldn't be any better at playing than you are now.

The best you could do with voice control is grabbing your pack and throwing them in some rough direction.

Selecting and controlling units should be precise. In battle, you select a unit that is about to die and move it to where it is safe. Timing is critical. The direction/path you walk that unit away from the battle is critical. You can't do that with voice control.

If you want to improve your play this is really what you need to focus on. High APM isn't essential. Timing and precision orders are everything.

 

Just like dota

 

I played the tom clancy end war game. I enjoyed it and would definately go so far to say it revolutionized the RTS genre for the consoles. However I don't think the voice commands belong in SC2 as it has a mouse and keyboard. Which work more effectively on their own, and I can see voice commands giving certain people to much of an advantage.

 

Certain people an advantage over those with mouse and keyboard?

I'd assume you mean someone who has practiced the voice commands versus those who haven't ever touched a mouse and keyboard before, right?

 

I'd say this is a good idea to spread starcraft for the disabled... but they have to make it an rpg-tactics game like a chess match but with infinite options as much as SC.... of course they can still play using their feet as their hands as long as they have the dexterity to do so,. btw Ive seen a program showing a female with both arms amputated piloting a plane using her feet.. neat eh?

 

I'm sure people would work out which language is the most effective to use and learn it >> Of course you could always set your own "HotWords" and invent a series of honks and grunts which would send your army to glorious victory!

The possibilities really are endless if you think about it....imagine a LAN party with voice control (If LAN still exsisted...)

 

If it were set up similar to End War or w/e that game was called I would say yeah it could give an advantage to some people. I was able to micro twelve squads in that game simultaneously and combine that with the fact that someone wouldn't even have to look back at his base and issue build commands in a split second. I would say yeah to people who have experience with voice commands will have a tough time keeping pace with a mouse and keyboard.

 

Another issue with this idea is that a lot of Starcraft 2 players will have English as their native language (myself included). This game is going to be released in a lot of countries and I think Blizzard would have hard time supporting all/most of those.

Besides I do agree that a voice control would be to complicated as it would take to many details to make an effective command as previously mentioned here.

Perhaps a tutorial for using hotkeys implemented in the game would be better? Learning to manage buildings while in battle can be done if you just practice it a bit.

 

will never happen! this is not a tom clancy crappy game like end war or something. its just so slow paced if u actually think about it. Imagin a progamer speaking into a microphone at 350 commands per minute! thats ****ing insane! and not to mention you would have to have voice recognition for how many differant languages? just to complex and slow. maybe if this was Sim's 3 would i like it hahaha