Project Reality Forums

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

Or not, since 129 degrees is southeast...[/QUOTE]
Haha, owned.

Definitely go by degrees, I've never heard anyone scream out "NORTH/NORTHWEST!"

Saying a general direction leaves a larger area to be scanned, I would say 15 degrees left and right of the direction stated, where if you use a simple number, like 270, that's within 5 degrees of where your enemy is at it leaves a smaller area to be scanned.

yall are about to get another mike ditka stop it about reading the entire post before you reply. I'm not talking about when your in the same building or vehicle, I'm talking about when your NOT NEAR THE REST OF YOUR SQUAD! Of course you use numbers when you can, unless the target is in such plain view that it doesn't require a degree and you can just say north or south, etc. to make it faster. Because to me if I'm a gunner and you give me a number that makes me think it's far enough away that I'm actually going to need the number to find the target. where as is you roll up on a fob being built 100m or infantry squad thats spread out over a decent size area you can just scream the first letter you see and I know it's going to be so easy to see that I won't need a degree.

I do pretty much like Arnoldio said, I guess where it would be from their position

"Enemy at your 105 guys"

I just kill the enemy and move on. Why waste valuable words

But really, degrees in armor and cardinal directions on foot. Or if you want to troll someone just yell "Enemy over there! OVER THERE!" And if you find your gunner is moving slowly to engage, just point the front of your vehicle at the target and say enemy to the front.

Actually if you about know his position, you can kinda extrapolate where its relative to you if he gives you a degree.

What really is annowying: Teamchat: X on/from me.

Yeah, I am going to look for your name in the squads and highlight you.

Tit4Tat wrote:Numbers over letters all the time.


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

I can't speak for anyone else's brain, but my brain strongly disagrees with this

I completely agree with OP, if there is a large distance between squad members calling out contacts in degrees is bad form. I normally ask for grid estimates in these situations (when the distance is approaching 200m +).

Can't we all agree to call out contacts in radians? Much simpler.

Enemy tank at pi/6 (I can't find the pi key on my keyboard).

So many lulz would be had, everyone would play with a calculator beside them.

What the OP said is absolutely correct imo except that there are more words than just 4.
Oc the combinations should be used too.

N
NNW
NW
WNW
W
WSW
SW
SSW
S
SSE
SE
ESE
E
ENE
NE
NNE

The 3-letter-directions might already be too specific (depending on the situation oc)!
So using degrees is only really helpful if you are spotting for someone else and you sit pretty much right next to each other.


Additional but very important too (especially in large squads):

If you do a contact report PLEASE take the time (when possible oc) and do the grid calculation yourself (map knowledge!!!) and/or report the enemy position from your SLs position!!! If you now say: "hell, how should I do that?" than think again...how is your SL supposed to do that for a 6 man squad with multiple reports coming in at once? OC it is possible but very stressful and time-/brain-consuming to do so. And if you don't want your SL to die cause he was trying to figure out all the stuff his men were reporting - give him a hand and calculate for yourself!

But not only is it way easier for the SL but also for all the other squad members! If you report contacts from YOUR point of view, everyone in the squad either needs to remember were you are/were or check the map and lose valuable time! The SL position on the other hand, SHOULD be known to ANY squad member at ANY given time and if not...he is the one large, green circle on the map...way easier for everyone to quickly see his position!

An example: AR covering from a rooftop to the NW. You are 100 m east of the AR (YOU should always know where the more or less stationary guys are situated to you!) and you spot a contact 100 m N of you. What do you tell the AR to look at or watch out for (provided he might have an angle and is not busy right now)?

If your answer is sth. along the lines of: "AR, enemy techi is about 141 m NE of you" than you got it!

I could give a thousand examples where giving degrees is not only "not really helpful" but also a direct hinderance to achieve victory!
As with pretty much everything in PR: It is very dependent on the overall situation and you need to learn when to use what!

Regards!

just remember a circle is 360. it's a matter of getting used to checking where you are currently looking and a simple bit of math. If the number is lower than my current number or the difference with my number is greater than 180 turn left, if it's greater and the difference remains under 180 turn right. it sounds a lot harder than it really is.

if i am for whatever reason a good distance or at a wierd angle to whoever i'm talking to i will also follow up with an approximation of what degrees it should be for him. if at great distance and i have the time i will give a grid instead.

as for danger close...yeah that pisses me off too, proper term is CLOSE CONTACT!

Basically what Kilo said.

And for announcing that enemy is close - I don't give a flying fudge how you announce it, just do it in an understandable manner. There is no proper way in my book. Just keep calm and try to be as precise as you can (about their whereabouts), and the less words - the better.

Vicious302 wrote: I'm talking about when your NOT NEAR THE REST OF YOUR SQUAD! .

Well, then, you should probably stop screwing around and get back to your squad...

Could someone please expound and give more examples on how to calculate the degree an enemy is from another guy? I saw the tank and IFV example but am still confused. There is a split crowd however.

What is simple for one is not for the other and it works both ways. I am encountering the same problem in Forgotten Hope 2 with the tournament and having a discussion there. I am part of the compass degrees crowd and it is against using a clock system there.

I recently discovered the secondary inter cardinal directions which seems to be a good compromise between the two. As for here though I'm unsure. When enemy is further away, azimuth is good. But you have to be close to the people your talking too. If they enemy is very close, a general direction is better.

I am trying to understand all systems and come out with a training plan for learning it and know what situations they are useful for.

Bearings also play a factor in what system you use. Rather the direction is bear off your position, a landmark, or a friendly.

chrisweb89 wrote:Can't we all agree to call out contacts in radians? Much simpler.

Enemy tank at pi/6 (I can't find the pi key on my keyboard).

So many lulz would be had, everyone would play with a calculator beside them.

SI unit for all sciences and maths, so it ought to be more military, right?

MiamiHeat87 wrote:Could someone please expound and give more examples on how to calculate the degree an enemy is from another guy? I saw the tank and IFV example but am still confused. There is a split crowd however.

What is simple for one is not for the other and it works both ways. I am encountering the same problem in Forgotten Hope 2 with the tournament and having a discussion there. I am part of the compass degrees crowd and it is against using a clock system there.

I recently discovered the secondary inter cardinal directions which seems to be a good compromise between the two. As for here though I'm unsure. When enemy is further away, azimuth is good. But you have to be close to the people your talking too. If they enemy is very close, a general direction is better.

I am trying to understand all systems and come out with a training plan for learning it and know what situations they are useful for.

Bearings also play a factor in what system you use. Rather the direction is bear off your position, a landmark, or a friendly.

it's not really practical to start busting out trig ratios in a tank fight, however what might be helpful is understanding when something is at a higher angle or lower angle from your buddy.

So, basically, if you have an enemy T72 at YOUR 210, which should be inbetween south and west, and your friend is ahead of you, try and kind of guess where his angle is, the best way to estimate this, is basically remember when his angle is lower, or higher than yours. Here's a diagram.



So because the enemy is close to you relative to your friendly ahead, he is at your 210, but for the guy above you, the tank is closer to his south, and maybe around 195. This is just a reality of 2 dimensions! Which are the only ones we usually have to deal with in tank fights. It will take practice to get used to thinking out differences in angles, but if you just think about the relativeness, or draw it out, it becomes obvious. On the other end of the spectrum, friendly 2 is behind you, so the enemy is farther away from his south and more like west now! In very very fast tank fights, trying to call out better directions to your friendlies may help.

Try and think about this and practice it in the field, theres a reason soldiers do lots of training exercises, and why you were made to do all those practice problems in school

A quick way to communicate a general direction to target in that situation would be "210 minus". "210" gets them in the ballpark, while "minus" tells them to scan left of 210.

Thanks 40. I get it now.

40mmrain said it all, after a while you get a feel for it and youre accurate enough to describe to your gunner/driver /friendly tank position of your target.


moving into an area you should be aware of possible directions enemy could be coming from , that way you dont need to sping your turret 300 degrees when you can spin it only 60 degrees.

On the other hand you got 8 more squads on the team, ask them where's enemy armor, somebody should have heard/seen them. That way you know where to expect them.

For example when i play with vehicles and im in the gunner position i like to where to drive in degrees , even if it means just driving down the road, its and unambiguous command which takes out of equation forward, back, left, right, both driver's and gunners.