7 replies to this topic

[Tesunie]

A common problem I come across when people talk across a Voip or other vocal comms program (such as Discord or Team speak) are the terms many people use while trying to relay information. It's great when people are talking and communicating, even when the terms and information relayed isn't exactly helpful, but here are some tips that can help make it so what you need to say actually comes across in a way people can understand.

Common Problems:
"Enemies over here": This is a very common one I hear a lot. It's extremely vauge and no one knows where "over here" is unless you have one locked. Say the most approximate grid space from your minimap, something to get your team looking in the correct direction at least. Doesn't need to be perfect, but a statement of "Enemies spotted near E3" is a lot better than "I see enemy near me" or "I see enemies over there."

"They are behind us!": Another common statement, most likely caused by a bit of shock and reactionary vocals. This can be helpful if everyone on your team is facing the same way, but as is most often the case you don't. Normally, everyone's back is facing slightly different, you normally even have people spread out over two map grids. So, this shout can have people turning around to deal with something "behind them", when in fact they have an enemy more likely to the side of them. Once again, going to default to calling out the most appropriate map grid location of the enemy location, especially if you can't get a lock on it for some reason.

"Move to the (Direction)": This one is another common one. "Move to the left", "Enemies to the right", "Travel down the left ravine". Some of these calls can be helpful, but once more a grid location is a sold rallying point. "Regroup at D6, behind the ridge" is more helpful. "Rally E7, then move down the E line" is another good way to group people together and moving in the same direction.

"Target the (insert mech here)": This one can be useful, but just calling out a mech class (Assassin, Flea, Altas, Etc) isn't always going to be helpful. If there are more than one of that class mech, this can lead to confusion. If possible, it is best to call out their designation, "Target the Assassin A mech" or "Focus F Atlas's right side torso".

Calling out actual letters: This can lead to some confusion, and is one of the more challenging aspects of clear communication to learn to do. There is a reason people say "Alpha" or "Fox", as it helps with clear communication. Now, I'm not going to say "remember these specific call signs for letters", but it is better to say something that has a strong starting sound of the letter. "Leroy" rather than "Lemma" is fine, it's still got that strong L sound (unless someone is named Leroy, then it gets confusing again). "Oscar" vs "October" is another good one. Whatever words it takes for you to get that sound in. Saying just "E" can become confused with "G", where as "Echo" and "Golf" are far more recognizable.

[Aidan Crenshaw]

the https://en.wikipedia...onetic_alphabet exists for a good reason

[SilentScreamer]

One problem I hear over VOIP in MWO is two or three guys tying up communication with chatter about something irrelavent to the match like the next mech release, or new car they bought, politics, etc. and making it impossible to communicate important information.

At least I can mute them in VOIP then use the old "Y" for TEAM CHAT instead.

[justcallme A S H]

To be honest even calling out targets in game should not be happening from.the majority of player base.

Why?

They might be calling out target "J" for instance. Now J is 500m from the fighting and off to the side. By calling out a POOR target the team of mindless drones all turns/moves towards it when they are better off leaving J alone and focusing on the main force.

That's on if the biggest issues from those who are "calling" games in MWO. Doing stuff like that will usually cause you're team to lose and shows a grave lack of map awareness by simply calling out the red square you see.

[Bloodwitch]

justcallme A S H, on 24 April 2019 - 09:16 PM, said:

To be honest even calling out targets in game should not be happening from.the majority of player base.

Why?

They might be calling out target "J" for instance. Now J is 500m from the fighting and off to the side. By calling out a POOR target the team of mindless drones all turns/moves towards it when they are better off leaving J alone and focusing on the main force.

That's on if the biggest issues from those who are "calling" games in MWO. Doing stuff like that will usually cause you're team to lose and shows a grave lack of map awareness by simply calling out the red square you see.

Agreed, filthy casuals should just uninstall.

For real, tho.
The guy who's calling has no map awareness and the rest of the team are all mindless drones. Weird outlook you got there.
Even if that were to be true, it would apply to the other team as well then. So give and take.

From what i've seen, bad shootcalling doesn't happen that often. The other problem is that, even when called, a good portion of the team didn't tapped R to begin with, 2 other don't bother switching target and the rest doesn't have the proper range on their weapons to engage. All unknowing to the shotcaller.
Then again, having (at least some of) the team focused vastly improves the chances of winning.
When you call shoots, you don't engage like you would do in a group. You simply relay information, and hope someone can make us out of it.

[Tesunie]

justcallme A S H, on 24 April 2019 - 09:16 PM, said:

To be honest even calling out targets in game should not be happening from.the majority of player base.

Why?

They might be calling out target "J" for instance. Now J is 500m from the fighting and off to the side. By calling out a POOR target the team of mindless drones all turns/moves towards it when they are better off leaving J alone and focusing on the main force.

That's on if the biggest issues from those who are "calling" games in MWO. Doing stuff like that will usually cause you're team to lose and shows a grave lack of map awareness by simply calling out the red square you see.

The point more so is, if you ARE going to call a target, don't call "Focus on this Atlas", but rather "Target Atlas J". Then, the rest of the team as players will need to decide if they are able to and if it's to their/the team's advantage to focus said target.

This thread isn't about effectively making drop calls. It's about effectively communicating the information you have to the rest of your team. Can't say how many times (despite being in T1) I hear "There is an Atlas over here! Guys help me! Over here!" And no one on the team has any clue where said Atlas is, what it's designation is, and without that circuital information also lack the knowledge of if it's even a viable target for the team to focus.

"Enemy behind us!" tends to be just as useful, as the person calling this out might be facing different from the team, and no one knows where this enemy is once again. It's not relaying the information needed to the team for the team to make the tactical decision (individually of course) to do anything.

What the team does with good information is a different matter, but at least information will be better spread for the team to actively do something with. "Over here" is just useless gibberish in this game. "To the west" is a little more helpful, but not by a whole lot (seen some people do this). "E4" on the other hand is a definitive statement of data that can be utilized and help team "map" awareness.

That's all I'm relaying here. What people do with said information is now in their control, but at least it will still be more helpful to the team overall. I mean information is information and ammunition is ammunition, but good information is still really helpful.

[justcallme A S H]

Bloodwitch, on 24 April 2019 - 11:01 PM, said:

Agreed, filthy casuals should just uninstall.

From what i've seen, bad shootcalling doesn't happen that often.

I think telling them to uninstall is pretty ridiculous. They just need to stop making bad calls.

Well from what I've seen in the 1,000s of games I've played is distinctly opposed to what you're saying. No calls are better than objectively bad ones.

Bad calls leads to bad information. Bad information leads to bad movement. Thus often no calls are actually better than saying something, turning the entire team and then causing snowball losses.

I mean this happened 2-3 times just last night, people on comms telling people to turn / move to certain targets etc. Those targets totally the WRONG one to be heading towards. Of course look up user stats, low-skill users each time making this absolutely game costing statements on comms.

[Bloodwitch]

It was meant to sound ridiculous because you came off fairly harsh.

Although, you went from "calling out targets should not be happening from the majority of players" to "they just need to stop making bad calls". The later i can subscribe to. Pretty much what Tesunie is on about the whole time. Improving the quality of calls.

Question is, what is bad information? Misinformation maybe? Yup that is pretty bad, agreed.
I can make something out of almost every (real) information i get. Even something like "stealth light here!"
While i don't know where "here" is, at least i know that there is a stealth light. Of course it would be better if the call was "stealth commando in Fox 5".

Btw, i've had a great game yesterday where a really bad move was called out and the team went from "full potato" to "get your stuff together".
And i'm willing to guess that the games you described would have snowballed either way, with or without the so called "bad information".
Sometimes you are on bad teams, not much you can do about it.
I can give oh so many examples but you probably had enough similar if not same situations yourself.

Edited by Bloodwitch, 26 April 2019 - 09:28 PM.