This is a very lightweight mod I created to give ShackTac the ability to control our voice volumes in adversarial gameplay using ACRE. This takes advantage of API functionality added to ACRE a few months ago. As of now let’s just say that it requires ACRE 1.4.7 and TS 3.0.7 minimum. There should be no other requirements aside from that this must run on both the server and clients to work correctly.
I’ve created a video overview of it, with the voiceover text included below for easy reading.
ShackTac’s ACRE Volume Control mod introduces a critical element that has been missing from ACRE until now – the ability to very easily control your in-game audibility. The effect this has on player-vs-player scenarios in particular is remarkable.
Note that this mod must be run both client- and server-side.
Further instructions after the break.
First, you will need to bind a key to ‘Talk on Direct Channel’ – found here. This mod hooks that key to activate the volume control menu – when you press it and hold it down, a slider will appear that can be adjusted by using your scroll wheel. When you release the key, it will set that volume of speaking. From left to right the settings are – Whisper, Close Contact, Normal, Loud, and Shout.
Whisper can be heard for a few meters maximum. Close contact is about half as far as ‘normal’. Loud can be heard out to more than 100m, while Shout can be heard a bit further.
It is important to note that you can use the ‘whisper’ mode to talk on your radio when enemies are nearby without them hearing you – you will be heard clearly over the radio, while you will not be heard nearby.
That’s it. It’s a simple mod, with a dramatic impact on gameplay. Hope you guys enjoy it.
I am sharing this due to being asked to do so by people who’ve seen us using it in our videos. Don’t expect feature requests or anything to happen – this is a really simple mod and I don’t want to bloat it. It is what it is, use it if you like it, don’t if not.
You can see examples of this being used to great effect in various recent videos by me, to include:
You’ll note that each of these includes situations that, had we not been using stacre_volume, would have resulted in comm compromise by the enemy players.
Anyhow, enjoy! If you run into any issues, post them here or in our tracker.