I'm sure this has been suggested at some time or another, but i was just thinking that with all these new features for the squads, something I would love to see is a squad talk option. This would basically be the same thing as team talk or all talk, but only to squad members. Right now, i find that its hard to organize a squad, even if the squad members desire it. With squad talk, the squad leader could suggest organized maneuvers and squad members could call out targets for the rest of their squad. I have no idea how hard this would be to code, but I think it would make micro-teamplay much easier.
i wholeheartedly support the idea, but i would be very careful in how it is implemented. Any change should be simple, streamlined, and easy to use.
I'd say same as allchat and teamchat, just press a button and type. Like say you have T bound to teamchat and y bound to allchat, then you bind u to squadchat and you have full communication capabilities. It should be a different color though. I think some games use pink for squadchat because it stands out.
Arklansman has been mentioning it a dozen times now aswell. But honestly I think this is a bad idea, for the reason that people in your team are not your enemy and should know whats going on with your squad, information is important and if its from your own team than everyone should know, not just your squad. However what I think would work a lot better is that chat from people in your squad get their own color. So if someone talks in teamchat and he's also in your squad, he gets a different color for you. Also the squad leader could have a SL or whatever behind his name in chat. And if people are not in your squad, they could have the squad they are in behind their name. For example: [CLAN] NICKNAME (Squad A): Take that area!
That would work in theory, but i'm afraid ingame it's not that practical. In the chat you'd have names like: : ][CW][ : RampantAndroid <Rank> (Squad C) (E6): Need cover! That's a lot of info to say "need cover", and you have to search for the "Squad C" part to know if it concerns you right away. Colors could work better because it immediately stands out, but we have 26 possible squads ... that's a lot of colors. I suppose it could be done so that colors do not stick to a squad name, like Alpha is green and Beta is blue, but that the first squad in the list with 2 or more players (1 player squads shouldn't have their own color) is for example green. If the Tango squad is the only squad then they would be green. This would limit the number of colors required to the amount of squads (with more than 1 player).
a person can be in one squad only, so theres only one color needed to represent chat from within your squad and the chat would be : ][CW][ : RampantAndroid <Rank> (Squad C-E6): Need cover! or whatever, isn't that much.
(Squad C) ][CW][ : RampantAndroid <Rank> (E6): blah may work better? this whole things seems like it would be a good idea, if a simple way could be thought up. how about in squad communications are italicized? not too distracting if it doesnt matter, but still distinctive.
Its true that information is important in the game, but I think that nobody wants to clutter up everyones chat window by talking directly to their squad. I don't think having a squad chat would cut down on team chat at all. It would simply provide an opportunity for a bit more coordination on the squad-level.
The microphone command is more important than text in my opinion. text you might be happy for everyone to read- if you're taking time out of combat it's gunna probably be important. on the other hand, microphones can be used for all sorts of micro things you need on the fly. for example, "enemy by that tree" or "put down some walls" --------------------- I'd rather have this as "local" rather than "squad" anyway. as much as I want to encorage people to move around in squads, letting the squad member that's half way across the map know that "there's an enemy by that tree" is a lot less useful than knowing that the guy next to you, without having to visually check if he's in your squad or not, is going to reliably get the information every single time. what's more, with local there's loads of uses such as for co-ordinating your vehicle without spamming the entire 26 player team with noise.
I understand that realistically expecting your whole squad to move around as a unit is a bit far-fetched. I simply want to give the squad leader a window of opportunity to try. I want squad leaders to be able to invite their squad members to run coordinated maneuvers. Say for example that you want to have your squad run wolf-pack assaults. You could simply ask them all to get tanks. Easy, and simple. The only problem with voice chat is that no everyone has a microphone. In theory its the best way to communicate, but since its not required to play not everyone uses them.
and it does.. messages already fly by so fast.. especially with all the specs and people screaming omg ban
