Project Reality Forums

Right now as SL you have 4 radio channels open at all time :

Local
Squad Channel
Squad Leader/CO Channel
Game speech channel

I know that I can mute the game speech voices or reduce their volume, but they're quite usefull at times.

This makes communication hard as sometimes some random SL that wants to talk to squad 8 actually talks to all squads. Sometimes you have some SLs talking about strategies while you're trying to communicate with your squad in a fight. Sometimes you want to find who needs a medic in Local but your squadmembers are talking to each others.

Exemple of a heated fight as I'm leading squad 5 :

"Hey Squad 8 would you mind //Heli- "AFFIRMATIVE A VEHICLE IS ON THE WAY"// driving the APC here for transport.."
"Which squad //Johny333 from squad-Enemy at 105!!!// //Gagou14 in local - "I NEED A MEDIC!!!!"is talking to me?"
BOOM BOOM BOOM
"Squad 4"

Simple solution : Keys that you can press to mute specific mumble channels. Pressing the key again unmutes them.

Say for exemple :

P = Mute/Unmute Local channel.
O = Mute/Unmute SquadLeaders/CO channel
I = Mute/Unmute In-squad channel

Of course those keys are just for exemple.

Aint that already possible in mumble?

I suggest just getting used to it, one of the biggest skills for a squad leader to overcome is the ability to process multiple feeds of information simultaneously in the most efficient and effective way possible. I understand it can be overwhelming at times, but if squad leaders start not knowing if you can hear them (if you're muted or not) when they actually need to get a hold of you... the entire system will start to break down.

Agree with bluedrake but who do so many plonkers spam all SL s, when talking to an individual squad, had one twonk last night directing trans and so on even after asking him to use the appropriate key he continued.

Bluedrake42 wrote:I suggest just getting used to it, one of the biggest skills for a squad leader to overcome is the ability to process multiple feeds of information simultaneously in the most efficient and effective way possible. I understand it can be overwhelming at times, but if squad leaders start not knowing if you can hear them (if you're muted or not) when they actually need to get a hold of you... the entire system will start to break down.

That would be a easy fix. Just have the transmit sound cue and the text at the bottom saying who's talking, but no actual sound transmited, just to signal you someone is trying to get a hold of you, so you can unmute them and respond when you can.

This is why I love ACRE for Arma so much. You can put individual radios on your left or right speakers and control the volume of each individually. That makes it so much easier to filter what is coming from where and what has priority. But we probably won't be getting ACRE styled radioes anytime soon.

Anyways, the left/right/center option per channel might be a fix if possible with mumble? Other than that, keeping your squad together and trained to mostly use local if not otherwise possible reduces the spam from that direction and using individual squads channels instead of all SLs can help reduce radio clutter too. It's all about radio discipline. And train your squad to shut up if you call for "hold comms" or "break break break".

I'd rather would like to see everyone in the squad gets mic muted when SL talks.

sirfstar wrote:I'd rather would like to see everyone in the squad gets mic muted when SL talks.

This.

It might be bit radical but last night playing it was a nightmare and we only runned mortar support squad

I partially blame lazy players and SL's too - lazy because they have the tools given to them to mark enemy positions, fobs and APC's but instead they go on about it on chat for 5 minutes cluttering the comms

sirfstar wrote:I'd rather would like to see everyone in the squad gets mic muted when SL talks.

Good idea

Bluedrake42 wrote:I suggest just getting used to it, one of the biggest skills for a squad leader to overcome is the ability to process multiple feeds of information simultaneously in the most efficient and effective way possible. I understand it can be overwhelming at times, but if squad leaders start not knowing if you can hear them (if you're muted or not) when they actually need to get a hold of you... the entire system will start to break down.

A mute key does not determine if they will respond to you or not. There are many times there is a squad leader you can't get ahold of because he doesn't respond.

Mute keys are useful. Me actually being a useful squad will sometimes need to mute my squad to hear other SLs, or vice versa.

Sent from my XT1028 using Tapatalk

I have a better idea.

Double Tap any mumble key to mute that channel

Squad leaders channel's really need to be half-duplex.

Bluedrake42 wrote:I suggest just getting used to it, one of the biggest skills for a squad leader to overcome is the ability to process multiple feeds of information simultaneously in the most efficient and effective way possible. I understand it can be overwhelming at times, but if squad leaders start not knowing if you can hear them (if you're muted or not) when they actually need to get a hold of you... the entire system will start to break down.

This kind of extreme multitasking ruins squad leading, half of it should be commander's responsability. The only SL tasks should be handling comms with commander, positioning his squad and keep them together. SLs should not decide if the squad is attacking or defending, if he should place a FOB on X place or not; or from which side he is flanking the objective... That is all commander's business and multitasking so much takes your attention off the real battle.

I have been disappointed with, not all, but a lot of players lately. If I sit my *** on a flag for defending because all the team is retardely rushing (sometimes they go for flags that are not even on the game yet) and leaving the flag alone, people on my squad will yell "meh, SL, this os boring...". Oh, fuck you, go play something fucking else with pew pew all the time if you think tactical shooters are boring. Another thing I've been listening a lot is "this is not ArmA".

I am getting tired of squad leading, I have been doing trans and mortars a lot.

Being a SL is hectic. Most of the times a briefing can help reducing "stupid" questions during rounds when your focus as a SL is on other things, otherwise you will just have to accept that you have a squad member or two that will randomly interrupt you - at times giving out his own orders to your members.

Be more authoritative or kick the player that can't keep his mouth shut.

If other SL's are spamming the wrong channels then that rounds team likely has bigger problems than mumble communications.

Death! wrote:This kind of extreme multitasking ruins squad leading, half of it should be commander's responsability. The only SL tasks should be handling comms with commander, positioning his squad and keep them together. SLs should not decide if the squad is attacking or defending, if he should place a FOB on X place or not; or from which side he is flanking the objective... That is all commander's business and multitasking so much takes your attention off the real battle.

At times squads must communicate with each other but in these cases there isn't any problem with spam when there is lesser than 5 squads. Usually the problems occurring then is due to lack of squad to squad communication. When you have 20vs20 players the use of a commander is often small.

Although on 40v40+ maps I believe that it is often the case that the commander role is seen as an uninteresting role to play as, either squad leaders are hard to communicate with or they have a small interest in the goals of the commander. Or, the commander is hard to communicate with and has little insight in what other squads are up to. If only the PR community could get used to using the commander....

----OT----

If this could be done simply then I have no real complaints, I won't use that feature and I hope that all squad leaders can hear me when I need to reach them.

PoisonBill wrote:If only the PR community could get used to using the commander.

We could have bigger briefing time... 3-4 minutes after the squads are formed should be enough to set basic goals for the team.

This is something I'd like to see... hea- not hear

As for the issue with not being able to tell if a given squad leader is muted, there could be a different coloured radio icon in the bottom right when speaking to one, ie red for receiving, purple for not receiving. A lot of the time I find people don't respond on SL mumble anyway so it's virtually a non-issue. I'd also like the ability to mute/unmute individual squad leaders, with Alt + Numpad #. Alt + Num Enter could be used to unmute all. Alt + Squad chat would mute squad chat. There'd have to be symbols in the overlay signifying mute states.

Muting SL channel will inevitably make already poor SL comms even worse on some rounds.

Whenever I have SL comms overload I just tell every one else to shut up and use individual channels if necessary.

There is a better practice that all SLs can follow than simply muting other SLs, and it falls in line with this game's ethos.

A good practice all SLs should follow is waiting to see if you can have the other SL's attention before speaking to them. I suggest all SLs follow these rules:

1) When trying to speak to an individual squad first say the following "Squad x this is squad y."
2) Wait for the response from said squad before transmitting the message.
3) If there is no response after 1 minute ask again. If they do not reply then wait for them to make contact with you.
4) If transmitting to all squads use the following: "Squad x to all squads" and then transmit your message.
5) Keep information and messages concise. We don't want to hear your stories on SL comms. Sl comms should only be used to co-ordinate squads and to provide intelligence to the relevant people.
6) Try to "*" key as little as possible; and if you do keep it short and simple.

If the fourth option is taken, all other squad leaders should temporarily abandon their conversations and listen to the message for all squads before continuing their discussion. It might not be in the ideal time, but it reduces comms overload if you are in a less than ideal situation.

If these basic procedures are followed then there will be no need for a SL mute button. This is because squads are checking whether other SLs are free to speak and all squad leader chat will be used as minimally as possible.

I have a lot of experience in clan battles where the levels of communication have a much higher demand than in pubbie games. In these scenarios those above rules were adhered too and I had no frustrations or problems with comms.

Remember, this is a game about teamwork and communication. It's up to us, as SLs, to learn to communicate with one another than simply finding a quick fix.

Squadleaders should use the appropriate channels. Its true that IRL the net is busy too, but do not just talk global unless you are in a pinch.

And yeah what Danger said, always use squad x this is squad y so that if you are a good fellow using individual squad chat the squad you adress can do so in kind.

simple thing would be to treat it like an actual radio. "Squad 8 this is squad 5" and wait for him to call you back. then send ur message. dont just send ur message and expect it to be heard and wonder why no one does what you want and why there is no teamwork between squads.

then if you are the SL of a squad then you could enforce that on your squad radio. "SL this is S.A.W." and wait for a response from SL "go ahead S.A.W." then send message.

Derp all you want on local i dont care.

Not only SLs have hard times hearing others - same thing goes to medics. After yesterday's two rounds playing as a medic my ears got really tired. Muting squad channel for a few secs is also really handy while locating wounded mates in chat-littered environment.