We need a development tag for interface issues such as my following example.

I've tried the game on Vista and Windows 7 and it is the same universal problem. Using the in game audio control, even if I reduce all three bars to 0, I still can hear environment / background noise at max levels. Yes music will go down and some battle stuff, but everything else stays on. The only way to actually turn it off is to disable the sound driver in the ffxiv config.

My issue with this is trying to use Ventrilo. Yes, I know that SE has major problems with 3rd party software, but tech support didn't even answer my question about the volume issue early on, when they saw I was using Ventrilo, they reverted to 'We're sorry but SE does not promote the usage of 3rd party software"

If SE hasn't figured it out yet, I don't really think i need to explain what Ventrilo is. But it is nowhere near our fault that the chat system needs even still a major overhaul to /t especially. It simply allows the group dynamic to work smoother. You can sum up strategies in a minute or two as opposed to having to type it all up, etc etc.

Not trying to manipulate ffxiv, or do anything illegal. Just trying to talk to my party/group. And I don't want to play the game on silent mode either. So why if can you not reduce all bars to say.. 10-30% total volume and it work?