I'm sure there will be plenty of optimization for the game before release, hopefully in terms of loading times for the game.
I, and my friends play on PC, and I'm not sure if this also occurs for players on Xbox.
Bug symptoms: A player will join the crew. They will hear what we say instantly (when we say it). But their response to what we say will get to us 45 seconds to a few minutes later.
How we tested: We found they would be able to hear us instantly because I called my friend/crewmate on the phone, and he could hear what I said through the game the moment I would say it (not just through the phone). His response I'd hear over the phone would reach us in game afterwards.
During my time in the alpha, I found that some chat audio is transferred during the initial loading of the game (when you get the spinning blue pirate wheel).
I think what is causing the issue is that audio was constantly being recorded for my friend while loading the game, but wasn't transferred to us until he finished loading in, which means we would get any audio that was recorded from him while he was loading after he already was in game.
Our solution: We had him enable push to talk so that the time in between when he wasn't sending audio gave his game time to catch up with ours.
I don't think the game should try to transmit or record voice chat while loading. That way if a player has push to talk off and is constantly transmitting audio, they don't have their chat delayed when they finally load in.
