KCDS 0.4.2

Voice chat: players near each other talk, built into the server, with nothing to install.

Servers and players both need 0.4.2: a client and a server of different versions refuse each other when joining. The launcher updates itself on the next start; servers update from their update channel or the new packages. Scripts written for 0.4.1 run as they are.

Voice chat

• Talking to who is near: players hear each other within range and in the same dimension, in three tiers, whisper (2 m), normal (10 m) and shout (30 m). Each player hears the 8 clearest talkers at once. Voice uses the game server's own port and is on by default; nothing is recorded.
• A voice that belongs to the world: walls and doors muffle it, a closed helmet visor takes its highs, a drunk voice wanders, a hurt or breathless one is weaker and a knocked-out one is only a faint mumble. Heavy rain and riding cover it some. The talker's mouth moves on every screen that hears them.
• The player's own settings in the game's Settings > Sound Settings: push to talk or voice activation and its sensitivity, the microphone and output devices, how loud they are heard and how loud they hear others, a microphone test, and echo cancellation for players on speakers. A microphone shows beside the name of whoever talks.
• Rules for servers (kcds.players.Voice): setRange, setEnabled, setPlayerMuted, setPlayerDeaf, setListenerMuted (one player stops hearing another), setPlayerMuffled (a gag), and the events voiceTierRequest (refusable) and voiceTalkingChanged. See Voice chat.
• Cost: voice runs on a thread of its own and sends about 53 kbps per talking player, nothing while they are silent.
• A separate voice server for large hosts: kcds-voice comes with the Linux server package and moves the voice traffic off the game server's machine, with the same rules and events.