Basic HTML Version
BY ROSCO
UNKNOWN TECHNOLOGY
Communication is key to success, whether it is an
STF, PVP, a fleet event, or any other type of group
activity in Star Trek Online. I’m sure most of us can
remember a time – probably not far in the past –
where some troglodyte destroyed the chances of the
entire team because of poor (or no) communication.
There are several options available for us to stay
connected, from the chat system in the game to 3rd
party components such as Team Speak.
However, when using something like Team Speak,
people tend to find themselves fumbling between
two dissimilar programs just to keep up because
there are many in our number who, for a variety of
reasons, use Team Speak, but are unable to use a
microphone. While they can hear everything, they
can only respond through the keyboard.
Unfortunately, it is very easy to forget these people
and it is often an effort to remember they are even
there, much less actually communicate with them.
For the rest of us, then, there is a tool packaged with
Team Speak that we can use to integrate important
functions of Team Speak into the game interface.
This feature is exceedingly easy to use and setting it
up is only slightly more difficult. To get started, open
Team Speak and click the “Settings” button, then
click “Plugins”.
The Plugins menu is slightly more intimidating,
but it’s a lark. All you need to do here is first put a
checkmark next to “TeamSpeak 3 Overlay Plugin.”
With “TeamSpeak 3 Overlay Plugin selected, click
“Settings.”
This control panel has six tabs, but you don’t need to
worry about most of them. However, you will need to
set a hotkey and you do this under the “Input” tab.
This hotkey is used to take control of the program
while in game, so you want to avoid using any key
you would ordinarily use in the game. When you
press this hotkey, it will put your game in the back-
ground and allow you to manipulate the message
windows on your screen. If this happens in an event,
you might become very angry. So make sure you use
something else. This leaves startlingly few keys on
the regular part of the keyboard. For this example I
selected the “pause” key. This is one of the group of
three keys at the top that appear after “F12.” It is
probably safe to use “Scroll Lock” or “Pause Break”
for this hotkey association.
TEAMSPEAK OVERLAY
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