Voice privacy and conduct

On a faction server, a player's position is wartime intelligence. Voice chat was therefore designed so that it is impossible to use it to locate someone from afar, and so that your voice only reaches players who are really close to you.

What is sent, and what is not

The server knows positions (it needs them to know who is near whom), but it keeps them to itself. Your client only receives a result: "this player, at this volume, rather on the left". Turning your head to place a voice is still possible, just like in real life; reading coordinates from the stream is not.

Listening range also stays below the distance at which the game shows you other players: any player you can hear, your game already sees. So voice provides no information a cheat client could exploit.

Who can hear you

• Only players in range, in the same world, with a voice client open. This rule is enforced by the voice server itself: a player out of range cannot "subscribe" to your voice, even with a modified client.
• Nobody when you are alone: with no neighbour, your client sends nothing.
• Nobody once you have left the game: after a few minutes off the server, voice disconnects you.
• Not a blocked player: if either of you has blocked the other (/friend block <player> in game, or from the website), you no longer hear each other at all.

No recording

Voice goes live through the PVPFACTION voice server and is never recorded: there is no archive of what was said. Details of the data processed are in the privacy policy.

The "speaking" indicator

In game, an indicator appears above a player's head while they talk. For subscribers, only its colour changes with the rank: the text stays the same for everyone, because a bigger or more readable indicator could be seen from further away, which would be an advantage.

The rules also apply to voice

Insults, harassment, threats or discriminatory remarks are sanctioned the same way spoken as written. A player who is muted or banned is removed from voice for the whole duration of their sanction.

To report behaviour in voice, use the Behaviour category of the report form. Since voice is not recorded, be precise: time, in-game location, what was said, witnesses.

Good manners — A headset prevents echo, push-to-talk avoids broadcasting your living room, and a quick "muting for two minutes" beats constant background noise. Everyone benefits.