31 replies to this topic

[Alan Hicks]

They are not worthless at all, they can be a great help if you are in a team that works together.

They guy talking over the mic should know that he gets the message clear and short, that does not spam with garbage talk but just simple directions and call targets.

Some people may speak during a match, but hardly anything they say is understandable due to their voice, accent, or their mic set-up.

Just by listening to players through the game you know if they are going to be a help or just a distraction that contributes to a loss. Because of that, the mute button is always handy.

[Wolfos31]

It depends on who you play with. But I've found in game coms can be really useful even in soloQ. But I agree with some of the others here that tone and succinctness really plays a big role in the success/failure of coms. "Enemy UAV Echo-4, can someone hit it?" "Charlie, Atlas, RT Open" "Light behind us in Bravo-3" etc.

If I hear someone on Coms that sounds confident and isn't berating people I'll do my best to follow their calls. I also will call in plenty of matches if I feel like I'm aware of something others aren't. I actually call the most when in my light mechs, especially my Raven. because that's its role on the battlefield. Call targets and paint them, identify pushes, herd the team into good firing lines.

Sure not everyone listens, but eh, what are you going to do?

[Kubernetes]

OP, I recall you in a game recently. We heard your calls. Thing is, when you run your Light at full speed to the enemy, throw up a UAV, and scream for us to attack ("I've got their backs turned!"), we can't, because we're still halfway across the map. Assaults and Heavies don't run at 130kph. So yes, we heard you, but you didn't look at the mini-map and realize that we were still over 1000m away.

Edited by Kubernetes, 05 April 2019 - 08:49 AM.

[JediPanther]

I more often than not watch molten metal win than not when he gives simply voice coms. I've also played in unit play in casual and semi-casual play. Simple fact of the game is teams that communicate and work as a team win over the one that doesn't.

[Comante]

I find the in game messagge system extremely limited. I wonder why we could not have more standard messages like in Counter strike. Radio message are useful if you understand the language, not everyone that can read English can understand audio or American somewhere in the woods accent or slang.

[Grimm Shado]

Brotips from this thread on productive use of comms:

• Communicate as succinctly as possible
  
  • Radio time is a limited resource; if you are speaking others cannot
    
  • People only have so much attention to give during combat
    
  • To shorten, use the fewest words possible to convey the most information. e.g. "Hey guys that Atlas is vulnerable, let's focus fire him!" could be "Focus Atlas Charlie he's exposed"
• Make your comms as understandable and useful as possible for teammates
  
  • Order words in descending importance. For me generally: 1) desired team action [Focus], 2) identifying info ['Mech chassis + target letter], 3) reason [CT cored, exposed, alone]
    
  • Try to use the simplest words possible. Makes it easier for others to understand what you say, AND helps teammates who don't speak English as a first language
    
  • ​Periodically ask before drop if others read your mike well. I've never seen this request ignored.
    
  • Remember in a PUG game people have no idea if you know what you are doing. They don't owe you obedience to your requests. Part of providing useful info is doing so in a way that they believe the info.
    
  • Use the NATO phonetic alphabet when referring to grid squares and enemy targets. Memorizing 26 words that refer to letters is not difficult, and you really only need to master the first 12 (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima)
    
  • In Conquest mode the resource points are labeled with greek letters. Avoid confusing teammates by calling 'Mech target "E" Epsilon or "G" gamma or "K" kappa, instead say "Echo", "Golf", "Kilo" (NATO) when referring to 'Mechs.
• Only provide info that is currently actionable by team members
  
  • Use minimap to see position of teammates. If they are 2+ grid squares away they are likely too distant to attack distracted foes. On the other hand, they might benefit from heading to a superior location
    
  • If they are behind terrain they can't focus fire your target for 10-20 seconds at least
    
  • If they are heavily engaged in a different direction they probably won't have attention to spare or want to shift focus to what you think is important
• Use a professional tone
  
  • It's more fun to pretend you are a professional MechWarrior who keeps cool under fire, for you and the rest of the team. I mean listen to that guy, he probably doesn't even look at explosions as he walks away from them!
    
  • The guy who sounds upset seems less credible, and is less fun to listen to

Edited by Grimm Shado, 05 April 2019 - 12:14 PM.

[Wolfos31]

Grimm Shado, on 05 April 2019 - 12:07 PM, said:

Brotips from this thread on productive use of comms:
-Excellent Advice-

Can we get this stickied? Or cross posted to new player help? This is good advice given clearly. Nice work Grimm.

[Prototelis]

FWIW; I don't strictly adhere to the NATO alphabet because its stupid. Phonetically distinct single syllable words are best.

You might also try calling Visual (I shorten this to "VIZ") RIGHT and VIZ LEFT for torsos. More people seem to understand that.

[Jman5]

DjStickyMouse, on 04 April 2019 - 02:16 PM, said:

Change My Mind

Nobody ever listens anyways.... No body ever listens to the information you give them.... everything just gets ignored... So why have Coms at all?

People not listening to solid calls in a game happens ocasionally. If it's happening frequently though then the problem is you, not your team. You have poor communication skills, your calls are unwise, or they're completely unreasonable. A good example of an unreasonable call is to demand that people rescue you when you're off on your own and the rest of the team is engaged with the main body.

A good drop caller is one who is self reflective, flexible, and puts the teams needs first. A bad drop caller is one who constantly blames his teams for not accomplishing the impossible.

Edited by Jman5, 05 April 2019 - 04:46 PM.

[Feral Clown]

In game comms are useless. For my own sanity and to avoid timeouts from PGI I disable them. My stats tell me I absolutely do not need comms and the command wheel is sufficient. As far as nobody following calls, it's a good thing 99% of the time. People in quick play who have little to no experience playing the game with a unit or group generally spout out nonsense and unhelpful information or to whine about how bad everyone else is. Do yourself a favour and turn off in game VoIP and if you really want a team experience install discord and teamspeak and find people to play group queue or cw with.

[DjStickyMouse]

Feral Clown, on 05 April 2019 - 06:17 PM, said:

In game comms are useless. For my own sanity and to avoid timeouts from PGI I disable them. My stats tell me I absolutely do not need comms and the command wheel is sufficient. As far as nobody following calls, it's a good thing 99% of the time. People in quick play who have little to no experience playing the game with a unit or group generally spout out nonsense and unhelpful information or to whine about how bad everyone else is. Do yourself a favour and turn off in game VoIP and if you really want a team experience install discord and teamspeak and find people to play group queue or cw with.

Thats exactly what I did. The amount of times Ive seen what the enemy team is about to do... told the team... then they act all surprised when it happens is ******* absurd. The amount of times Ive said "hey i have 4 or 5 guys chasing me (the squirrel) push them now while its 11 to 7 or 8" and they sit there poptarting and poking like *******. from now on im only playing for my own stats.

Grimm Shado, on 05 April 2019 - 12:07 PM, said:

Brotips from this thread on productive use of comms:

• Communicate as succinctly as possible
  
  • Radio time is a limited resource; if you are speaking others cannot
    
  • People only have so much attention to give during combat
    
  • To shorten, use the fewest words possible to convey the most information. e.g. "Hey guys that Atlas is vulnerable, let's focus fire him!" could be "Focus Atlas Charlie he's exposed"
• Make your comms as understandable and useful as possible for teammates
  
  • Order words in descending importance. For me generally: 1) desired team action [Focus], 2) identifying info ['Mech chassis + target letter], 3) reason [CT cored, exposed, alone]
    
  • Try to use the simplest words possible. Makes it easier for others to understand what you say, AND helps teammates who don't speak English as a first language
    
  • ​Periodically ask before drop if others read your mike well. I've never seen this request ignored.
    
  • Remember in a PUG game people have no idea if you know what you are doing. They don't owe you obedience to your requests. Part of providing useful info is doing so in a way that they believe the info.
    
  • Use the NATO phonetic alphabet when referring to grid squares and enemy targets. Memorizing 26 words that refer to letters is not difficult, and you really only need to master the first 12 (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima)
    
  • In Conquest mode the resource points are labeled with greek letters. Avoid confusing teammates by calling 'Mech target "E" Epsilon or "G" gamma or "K" kappa, instead say "Echo", "Golf", "Kilo" (NATO) when referring to 'Mechs.
• Only provide info that is currently actionable by team members
  
  • Use minimap to see position of teammates. If they are 2+ grid squares away they are likely too distant to attack distracted foes. On the other hand, they might benefit from heading to a superior location
    
  • If they are behind terrain they can't focus fire your target for 10-20 seconds at least
    
  • If they are heavily engaged in a different direction they probably won't have attention to spare or want to shift focus to what you think is important
• Use a professional tone
  
  • It's more fun to pretend you are a professional MechWarrior who keeps cool under fire, for you and the rest of the team. I mean listen to that guy, he probably doesn't even look at explosions as he walks away from them!
    
  • The guy who sounds upset seems less credible, and is less fun to listen to

Yeah I hear you on all of this but it is to the point where yeah sometimes ill get a good group who will listen to good calls. but 7 out of 10 times its just going right over heads. so i dont even bother anymore. Im also done playing squirrel getting 5 guys to chase me because people never listen to the call to push when i have all that attention on me. ill just play poptart sniper like everybody else

[Wil McCullough]

If you say that 7 out of 10 times, pubs don't listen, that means 3 out of 10 times they do.

If you can call well, that's an almost guaranteed 3 wins in every 10 games. That's massive. You win ~half your remaining matches and you'll be rocking a ~ 2.0 wlr.