No one uses voice chat!

@metalman981 Very true. I'm sitting here right now trying to match into a game, but I REFUSE to play with folks that have no voice chat. I've tried, they don't listen. Also, I can only hear non crew members through the speakers as opposed to the headset. Another issue in itself.

I only use party chat and my crew will typically brig Randoms who refuse to communicate. I prefer to not listen to other crews, mostly because all I've gotten is trash talk and cussed at by little kids my son's age. It gets old and I don't need my kids hearing that if they're around. Before you make assumptions, most of the time I leave other crews alone, it's usually trash talk and unprovoked cussing at me as they chase my usually empty ship down repeatedly.

The problem with game chat is that when I'm trying to sneak a barrel on a galleon and I'm telling my crew the plan I don't want them to hear it.

Guys on Xbox, bare in mind that people on PC have lots of issues entering a party to communicate.. often just general voice chat is their only option.

@xixxo123 Furthermore the xbox dashboard is difficult to get in to and use whilst in-game.. they have to ALT+TAB out to accept invites, even then its pot luck if it actually works.

@ephraim275 You can change the settings to remove it from speakers to headphones for other players. You can also change it from directional to non directional. This will allow you to hear people close by no matter what, but you wont be able to figure out what direction they are in. Currently there are glitches with the voice chat in which some players cant hear other players. large parties have resorted to using party chat because there is ALWAYS 1 person which nobody can hear. And obviously when in party chat it is hard to hear what in game people are saying.

@metalman981 the main reason my friend and I are considering not using in game chat is because if you turn off all the other sounds and also turn off directional chat you can hear everyone in the game talking on your server.

It is not safe.

@metalman981 Too bad my voice chat doesn't work half the time. It's so f****d on PC. I could have it push to talk next thing my crew hears me without push to talk, I have never heard another person talk but my s**t is enabled to do so.

@metalman981
I'm 50/50 on this.

The reason is that, the first time I grouped up, I was the only one using voice chat and because I had no idea if others could hear me, I didn't talk either. But it didn't matter at all.

The group I was in worked so well, we communicated by using the pirate chat and had no issue doing anything, we did everything. It really was the best group I've been in.

But it was one of those, "once in a life time" events. And only worked because one player took the role of captain, while rest of the crew followed his orders and knew exactly what to do.

For me game chat is broken it kinda works but its not a good alternative.

@jimmy-voorhees

Outside of a few really good Randoms, I've found most want to either just do their own thing, don't communicate, and are typically counter productive to what the rest of us are trying to accomplish. Like you're loaded with treasure and on the run and your random drops your anchor because he wants to explore the island you're passing. Some are vulgar and out to cause problem, but it seems most want to just "solo" on a galleon.

@typical-mat you can type in that kind of situations of course but most of the i find voice chat useful and it is the point of the game too. Because there is not much content speaking and chatting about random stuff has become an important factor of the game for me

Many PC players and even some xbox players are using third party chat services.

Xbox chat implementation is awful. Added as an afterthought and not well integrated into the console. All you need to know about how bad Microsoft is at understanding modern gaming is that the Xbox one originally required an accessory to chat and even now the Xbox headset is awful and there is still no push to talk button on the controller.

I play randoms all the time, but man, you have to sift through atleast 4 or five groups before you find ones that are competent and actually trying to function like a crew. First thing I do is use voice to say "Hey folks", hoping for a vocal response. It is what it is at this time, till those not interested in working as a team lose interest and move on. So, if you see me join your crew, I'm all about crewmanship.