North, South, West, East

[Vicious302]

When your not near your squad and your trying to say where something is in regards to you, please stop using degrees, it's too specific and way too many use them when they aren't next to someone. Just use general North, South, West, East and if you can try and use landmarks. I've had this happen to me like everyday I play someone wants to say oh 240 from my posistion, like I can calculate 240 from his position, even if I knew his posistion.. riiiight. "East of me by the two story building" is soo much better. If this even helps one person stop using degrees when they aren't useful, this post was a success.

[AfterDune]

I usually have no troubles with degrees. Just depends on the situation you're in and how far apart your squad is. Best system is probably a combination of using degrees and using (the more simple) South/West/North/East indication.

[Stemplus]

If you meet someone doing it then look on your compass and line yourself with the degree he's giving you, then check where are you looking at (N, E, W or S), look on the map again, and finnaly find out what does he actualy mean. It is complicated and requires the knowledge of the current map/area, so saying North/West/South/East is MUCH better

[LITOralis.nMd]

0
90
180
270
360

Just remember those numbers, and extrapolate the difference to figure it out.

While we're being old men in rocking chairs complaining about stuff, if you call out "Enemy spotted 45 degrees" please say either zero forty five, or forty five north east , cause the listener is always guessing if VOIp/PRmumble cut out when you said "three forty five", "one forty five" etc.

[Sgt.BountyOrig]

The degrees are always useful, it's good to be specific as it helps eliminate errors. You just need to look at a protractor and get a feel for which set of degrees are where.

[Arnoldio]

You need to view it from their POV. I often say "East, from my position", many times following with "that would be East minus ten from you guys.". I do the calculating for them so they have less trouble guessing.

[40mmrain]

yes good point, OP.

You know what else I would really like people to stop saying?

People seem to think "danger close" means enemies are close. Not so, it's a phrase to warn of friendly artillery or air ordnance landing close to you.

"oh shit contact right there danger close!"

fucking stop.

[ledo1222]

yes good point, OP.

You know what else I would really like people to stop saying?

People seem to think "danger close" means enemies are close. Not so, it's a phrase to warn of friendly artillery or air ordnance landing close to you.

"oh shit contact right there danger close!"

fucking stop.

The enemy is Dangerously close.

[40mmrain]

yes see, they are very different.

[Wicca]

I hate people who say numbers. I always have to do a 360 before i find the right number. Stop using them. Its easier to remember 4 words, than 360 numbers. jeez.

[Pesticide]

i hate the N W E S letters on the compas ... just give me a fucking number to turn my aim or turret to looking at the dial, if i have to look for a letter on the dial, its a waste of time if i scroll to the wrong side cause i dont know what number is closest, or at least add the full numbers next to the letter

driver to gunner: enemy east or enemy 210 , 99% of the time the number will find the target faster

[Tit4Tat]

Numbers over letters all the time.


Your brain is more acquainted with number's rather than cardinal point's, unless your a human compass.

[Wicca]

Maybe a vote is in order?

WE MUST HAVE DEMOCRACY!

Otherwise we will just bash eachother.

[[508th_PIR] Grey]

Numbers over letters all the time.


Your brain is more acquainted with number's rather than cardinal point's, unless your a human compass.

Certainly requires citation, and is more likely than anything exactly false.

One's innate sense of direction trumps any arbitrary numerical system. In the context of this discussion, however, calling out a radial is best when you are communicating with someone very near you - obviously ideal when calling out targets for the gunner in your vehicle - though sometimes it is faster to just say left/front/etc, particularly when the target is nearby. When communicating with those a reasonable distance away (other squads, commander, etc), cardinal directions are probably more efficient, as a radial would require them to spend extra time getting a fix on your target.

tl;dr - It depends.

[KingKong.CCCP]

When in vehicle (tank) numbers are useful, cos the angle is the same for both. Still, I prefer letter before numbers: "North, 350, 200m". Sometimes I make a 330 degrees circle with a gun looking for a number.

For infantry, numbers are useful only on loong range. I hate when people say "245, enemy 30m!", cos I got killed many times looking for the number before just before realizing the guy is in front of me.

But still, many guys have problem with the use of a foreign language, and lets face it, degrees are way more simpler to use instead of reality spotting. If you know to count to 360 in another language, and if you know words "enemy" and "vehicle", you are pretty much capable of giving some kind of useful information to your buddies.

The best option is not to use NEWS nor degrees at all, and just stick to the real(3D) world landmarks, or "left", "right", "forward" and "behind". But hey, that's difficult...

[PoisonBill]

Problem?





No seriously this is annoying, saying "northwest" instead of "129 degrees" will save time and lives.

[[508th_PIR] Grey]

No seriously this is annoying, saying "northwest" instead of "129 degrees" will save time and lives.

Or not, since 129 degrees is southeast...

[Murphy]

That's something that PRT did (hopefully TART still does) address with the "bootcamp". It gives the chance for instructors to standardize the way players communicate locations. These tourneys offer a lot of great experience for players of all skill levels, but the new guys obviously benefit most from the chance to play with guys who have been around for years and years. We all know Wicca is all about helping the new guys, and I have no doubt he points them in the right direction, but I've always felt if there was some sort of monthly training session offered up to newer players (with enough sign ups and interest) a lot of these threads that many experienced players scoff add simply wouldn't have been made.

OT:

Cardinal directions are much simpler to instantly turn to, and if you're stuck with people calling out bearings just remember every 90 degrees is your next cardinal (so do the math with 9 then add zero).

[40mmrain]

here's an image, I got bored doing linear algebra, so I did trigonometry. WOrth mentioning I was using standard math notation so north falls on 90 degrees here, not proper compass bearings.



I think some of you guys are bad at reading. No one finds it difficult to look at numbers that are clearly marked in the compass, this is the issue. IF youre a sniper and your spotter is not 10m away this becomes REALLY obvious, for armour it's not as large an issue, but it can happen.

[Tit4Tat]

Your brain is more acquainted with number's rather than cardinal point's,

Think about this ^^ again, it applies to majority of people.



e.g if a gunner is looking SE and driver screams " Bomb car E" countless times the gunner will do a full circle or move in an opposite direction, than realize where E is (of course l33t players don't do this).


same scenario, gunner is looking 200 and driver screams " Bomb car 150" split second look at the compass and your brain instantly tells you that you have to move in the negative direction.


Maybe its just me than.