- ASE: nobody ever hears anyone on our maps when pressing the voice key, while text chat works normally.
- ASA: you hear only players standing very close to you, or nobody at all, and no microphone icon appears when you talk.
What you see
Why it happens
ASE. Since patch 311.74 (11/06/2020), a server that runs crossplay or the Epic Games Store version uses Vivox for voice by default, while Steam-only servers keep Steam voice. Our ASE maps run crossplay so that Epic players can join, and Vivox never starts on them: the server logs show no voice start-up at all. Crossplay stays on, so in-game voice on our ASE maps stays silent. Voice happens on our Discord instead.
ASA. ASA voice is proximity voice by default — the server option for map-wide voice is off unless a server turns it on — and our ASA maps keep that default. You hear only players standing near you on the same map. On top of that, the client has a voice-channel setting that can silence everyone, and players report that the game uses the Windows default microphone rather than one you pick in the game.
What you can do
Check first: which game are you in?
- ASE: use the Sincerity Thailand Discord for voice — the invite is in the website footer.
- ASA: hold the voice key (B). A microphone icon appears at the top left while you talk; no icon means you are not transmitting.
- ASA: open Settings → Advanced and set the voice chat channels to All.
- ASA: make your microphone the default input device in the Windows sound settings — a player fixed it this way, because the game uses the Windows default device.
- ASA: stand near the player you want to talk to. On our maps voice reaches only players close to you.
How long to wait: nothing to wait for — on ASE in-game voice does not start at all, and on ASA the settings above take effect at once.
When to ask an admin
ASE: no server setting makes in-game voice work while crossplay stays on, and crossplay stays on so that Epic players can keep playing — use Discord. ASA: voice that reaches the whole map would be a change to the server settings, and that is the owner's decision. Ask an admin if, on ASA, two players standing next to each other still cannot hear each other after all the steps above.
Tell an admin the map, the time (the clock in your profile menu shows the server's time), your character's name, what you carried or had uploaded, and the exact message on the screen. For a transfer: both maps and both times. Report the same day — the backups reach back only about two days. Contact admin is in your profile menu; the Guides page has a question box.
Avoid it next time
- Agree on Discord for voice when you play in a group, on both games.
Sources
- ASE patch 311.74 — ARK Wiki, CC BY-NC-SA
- Server configuration — ARK Wiki, CC BY-NC-SA
- Steam Community (ASA): Voice chat not working
- Our records (internal): the operator's diagnoses of ASE voice (crossplay and Vivox) and ASA voice (stock proximity voice)
