Callsigns

[Troika]

IMO we need the ability to assign callsigns to override player names in squads. Callsigns would come handy with pilots as it would help with the brevity code in combat as some player names are just too long/weird. Instead saying something like "ilivemymomsbasement visual press" you could go "Gold 1 visual press" or "Gold 2 break right!". In small flights this won't be a problem as you can remember the callsigns, but in large flights it would come really handy and it would help the coordination between players in a fight.

[IgloGlass]

It would indeed be a very nice feature to have in a larger group. Outfits should have the ability to give nicknames to their members in battle.

Sidenote: I would have all my pilots nicked "red" and I would be the red leader ;)

[NoDachi]

No.

That belongs more in RP than practical gameplay.

[IgloGlass]

No.

That belongs more in RP than practical gameplay.

Why do you think so? Wouldn't it be nice to have the ability to nickname different players in a group so that you can easier keep track of your party members instead of always saying their names that might be very annoying like xXXxXXXsupahpartynoobmanlolfamilyguyxXXXXXx

[Pella]

That's why Mumble/TS/Ventrillo is essential to any outfit.

Also PS2 has VOIP.

[NoDachi]

But people would just call him supah.

I've played a lot of team play, and this fantasy command sign stuff is never used because its just an extra layer of complication that really isn't needed.

In planetside1 you could see the colour and number designation of each platoon member. No one ever said "Orange 6 break right".

[Troika]

No.

That belongs more in RP than practical gameplay.

I see you are not a flight simmer, trust me it becomes really handy.

Instead of saying "Iliveinmymomsbasement your six is clear, I'm In a position to give you cover, I will give you cover, you are free to attack any target you see fit". You would just say "Gold 1 press".

[NoDachi]

I see you are not a flight simmer, trust me it becomes really handy.

Instead of saying "Iliveinmymomsbasement your six is clear, I'm In a position to give you cover, I will give you cover, you are free to attack any target you see fit". You would just say "Gold 1 press".

This is not a slow-paced flightsim. You don't have time to throw asinine orders about.

[ZaBa]

IMO we need the ability to assign callsigns to override player names in squads. Callsigns would come handy with pilots as it would help with the brevity code in combat as some player names are just too long/weird. Instead saying something like "ilivemymomsbasement visual press" you could go "Gold 1 visual press" or "Gold 2 break right!". In small flights this won't be a problem as you can remember the callsigns, but in large flights it would come really handy and it would help the coordination between players in a fight.

we have it

it's called "giving someone a nickname"

who even calls anyone by their full handle on voice chat?

I see you are not a flight simmer, trust me it becomes really handy.

Instead of saying "Iliveinmymomsbasement your six is clear, I'm In a position to give you cover, I will give you cover, you are free to attack any target you see fit". You would just say "Gold 1 press".

or you just say "basement get on with it"

it's not hard

[Troika]

This is not a slow-paced flightsim. You don't have time to throw asinine orders about.

I see nothing fast in the gameplay videos about air combat, the whole point of brevity code is to give simple directions/warnings to your friends in no time at all.

[Vanath]

You don't have to use it Dachi. Your opinion is that it isn't necessary and others opinions are that it is.

I don't want to see time devoted to adding this before launch as i'm sure they have other things to do but I can't say I would be opposed if they want to do it after.

[fvdham]

@Troika
You can already say "Gold 2" in PlanetSide1 and I rarely/never see it used.
You can also type, I think alt+3 to send a private chat msg to squad number 3.

People are more likely to use the role:
- adv hacker go there
- max units go there
- fast movers go there

Or to every1:
- all to the cc
- all recall
- all board the galaxy

Or a whisper:
- alt+3 Can you get a new galaxy.
Because why spam info to all squad members that only squad member 3 needs to hear?

[NoDachi]

I remember I once made a load of squad firecontrol macros in ps1.

Completely useless.

You don't have to use it Dachi. Your opinion is that it isn't necessary and others opinions are that it is.

Neither does an arbitrary renaming system needs to be in place. But I see what you did there constricting my name to 'Dachi' :P

If he wants to call someone gold 2, call them gold 2 without needing any ingame mechanics.

[Troika]

@Zaba Whole thing becomes a mess when you try to play with nicknames expecially when not flying with regular group.It is so much easier to remember that gold 1 and gold 2 are a pair, and blue 1 and blue 2 are a pair etc. than "basement and billy" moms and dude" etc.

@fvdham I'm talking expecially about air combat coordination here.

[fvdham]

I think the most advanced flying in PlanetSide has been and will be:

- all follow the leader
- all make sorties between enemy base X and repair station Y
- all fly to this waypoint

The pattern here is: all X

If you can do the above, you will be among the elite in organization, because most pilots fly alone.

[Troika]

If he wants to call someone gold 2, call them gold 2 without needing any ingame mechanics.

Yeah and when you see angrydude101 about to fly right into enemy AAA you must remember his callsign instead of just seeing it float above his reaver - fine in small flights, not gonna work in larger ones.

I think the most advanced flying in PlanetSide has been and will be:

- all follow the leader
- all make sorties between enemy base X and repair station Y
- all fly to this waypoint

The pattern here is: all X

My suggestion tries to improve this by aiding the communication between pilots - with callsigns.

[fvdham]

@Troika
Have you considered playing PlanetSide 1 in preparation of PlanetSide 2 ?
I think there is still a week of crowded servers and it will help you understand
the limitations of flying over a 300+ player battlefield.

[Troika]

@Troika
Have you considered playing PlanetSide 1 in preparation of PlanetSide 2 ?
I think there is still a week of crowded servers and it will help you understand
the limitations of flying over a 300+ player battlefield.
Actually I am a PS1 vet (I subbed several times) and I am a flight simmer. I really think this nickname/callsign thing would help.

[NoDachi]

Actually I am a PS1 vet (I subbed several times) and I am a flight simmer. I really think this nickname/callsign thing would help.

Did you find the callsign thing help is ps1?

[SKYeXile]

Actually I am a PS1 vet (I subbed several times) and I am a flight simmer. I really think this nickname/callsign thing would help.

So everybody chooses a real 2-3 word name and then a standard alias aswell, i don't get the point of this whole thing, players ingame names are their call signs....

[Pillar of Armor]

Squad color and number is used a lot in organized outfits. In our mag column I've said stuff like, "this is gold six, two vannies on my position" or "GG just west of orange 3".

[Troika]

Did you find the callsign thing help is ps1?

I wasn't in to air war in PS1, Mainly Infil and Engineer. Though I did fly the Galaxy a lot.

Anyways, the suggestion is a simple one to implement. No one doesn't have to use it if they don't see any uses for it, just like UI customization might be a useless feature to some.

[Brusi]

"Red PussyDestroyer, Standing By..."

[Accuser]

I really liked the "Champions Online" naming system. They set it up so that every account name was "@accountname", and you then made any character name you want. So walking around in-game, people would only see "Accuser" over my head. But if they targeted me or interacted in any way, they would be able to see "Accuser@accountname".

I'm hoping we'll see the same in PS2, since 6,000+ players on a server all vying for good and personal names is going to suck. It would also kind of negate your callsign issue too.

[Troika]

@Skyexile The squad leader would assign the call signs. It would help with the brevity code and flight organization.

@Pillar of armor I dont recall the squad number being visible ingame, but if so, that will solve my issue.

@Brusi I don't see nothing wrong with that, the callsigns would only be visible to your squad.

Edit: reply @Brusi

[Pillar of Armor]

@Pillar of armor I dont recall the squad number being visible ingame, but if so, that will solve my issue.

Yep, they show up in the squad list, on the mini map and on the main map. Well, in PS1 anyway, I guess we will find out if they still do in PS2 beta.

[ZaBa]

@Zaba Whole thing becomes a mess when you try to play with nicknames expecially when not flying with regular group.It is so much easier to remember that gold 1 and gold 2 are a pair, and blue 1 and blue 2 are a pair etc. than "basement and billy" moms and dude" etc.

why would you even be trying to do fast-paced tactical stuff with people you don't know

i mean it's one thing for ground pounders but be honest you're pretty much never going to squad up with randoms in the air unless you hate yourself

like, i have nothing against your desire to play the game your way, but why would you try to do it by hooking up with strangers and hoping they're on the same wavelength as you?

[CutterJohn]

They should just stop requiring unique player names. That may have been necessary in 2008. It is no longer necessary. Anyone with a steam account knows this.

[Flaropri]

Why do you think so? Wouldn't it be nice to have the ability to nickname different players in a group so that you can easier keep track of your party members instead of always saying their names that might be very annoying like xXXxXXXsupahpartynoobmanlolfamilyguyxXXXXXx

You don't need an in-game mechanism to give nicknames to people.

I used to play WoW a lot with the toon name: "HalktheRed" and people would just call me Halk all the time in my guilds and groups (or sometimes Halk the Purple or otherwise mess around with the color portion).

This includes unintelligible names. "Xdw45kd" Might get shorted to "X D W" or "45kd" or "That a-hole with the stupid name."

In the above example I'd almost undoubtedly go with "noobman" pending what the other people's names were (although as long as someone wasn't literally "noobman" themselves I'd lean towards that to make fun of such a silly name :D )

[Troika]

@Pillar of armor I really would like to see the number floating somewhere nex to the player name though, as I don't have time to check the minimap when trying to warn a team mate that a missile is coming at him.

@ZaBa New guys always come in to your outfit and to teach them the ropes would be easier with floaty callsigns on everybody, besides In flight sim lobbies even the random dudes usually play ball quite nicely.

[StumpyTheOzzie]

But people would just call him supah.

I've played a lot of team play, and this fantasy command sign stuff is never used because its just an extra layer of complication that really isn't needed.

In planetside1 you could see the colour and number designation of each platoon member. No one ever said "Orange 6 break right".

Yeah we did.

[Troika]

You don't need an in-game mechanism to give nicknames to people.

I used to play WoW a lot with the toon name: "HalktheRed" and people would just call me Halk all the time in my guilds and groups (or sometimes Halk the Purple or otherwise mess around with the color portion).

This includes unintelligible names. "Xdw45kd" Might get shorted to "X D W" or "45kd" or "That a-hole with the stupid name."

In the above example I'd almost undoubtedly go with "noobman" pending what the other people's names were (although as long as someone wasn't literally "noobman" themselves I'd lean towards that to make fun of such a silly name :D )

Lets say you have a 10 people in your flight, 2 covers 1, 4 covers 3 etc.
Basic tactic is that 1 kills and 2 flies behind him covering 1's ass. If 2 gets engaged they do 180 and 1 clears the threat. All other pairs do the exact same thing.

If the guys are labeled clearly as gold 1,2 Blue 1,2 etc it is easy to direct the fight. If you just go by nicknames each players role becomes unclear. I might say "Barney and ellis cover the Galaxy" -not remebbering that Barney is gold leader and Ellis is blue wingman. I instantly break 2 teams. I could of course say "Blue cover the galaxy" and thus keep the team together, but do I know that blue is still flying and not shot down? Do I know blue is anywhere near the Galaxy? I would have to see a guy flying, let's call him Bob, know that Bob belongs to blue to give a tactically sound command.

Much easier with callsigns

[Phantomdestiny]

having played a lot of Arma II it is very useful to have call signs rather than having to say their name specially when you can recognize their role by their call sign eg : 1-2 might be a assault trooper while a 2-7 is probably a sniper

[Block]

Might be cool if squad leader could shift click a few names and designate a colour to them which all members of the squad could see. It seems like something that could help coordinate random group/squads more so than anything more organised.

[ZaBa]

it sounds like being able to not give a damn who you're flying with so long as you can effectively order them around is very important to you

fair enough

the presentation of the idea as a necessity rather than an option in the OP was somewhat off-putting is all

[KTNApollo]

Everybody should ignore NoDachi, he's just buttmad that his callsign wasn't cool.

OT: I'd like to see callsigns in-game or atleast outfit's applying nicknames to members.

[Troika]

@ZaBa It's not only that, knowing the assigned roles between players - who covers who etc. even with your regular team mates becomes easier with call signs, as people do like to switch roles from time to time.

[Block]

Everybody should ignore NoDachi, he's just buttmad that his callsign wasn't cool.

OT: I'd like to see callsigns in-game or atleast outfit's applying nicknames to members.

I don't get it...aren't they the same thing? Hi I'm Pete Mitchell - Callsign - Maverick...whats my nickname gonna be?/vice versa...Talk to me Goose!!!

[Flaropri]

Do I know blue is anywhere near the Galaxy? I would have to see a guy flying, let's call him Bob, know that Bob belongs to blue to give a tactically sound command.

Much easier with callsigns

I'm not seeing it. Unless you're suggesting that callsigns are more visible than names (I did skim most of your posts so I may have missed that part)? Or is it just being able to color-code groups? Because you're still going to have to see them flying, know what group their in, etc. just as with names.


I'm not against it either mind, I just don't see why you can't assign groups of pilot commands without an in-game way of assigning groups beyond squad/platoon grouping.

*shrug*

As far as command certs or similar goes it's not a bad idea, just don't know many situations it would be necessary or particularly useful.

[Troika]

@Faropri Yes, in order for it to work the callsign should be clearly visible floating above the player. Either replacing the real player handle ( probably not good) or reading right under his real name in bold.

[maradine]

You might call me a simwhore - it would be a reasonable label. I've never needed glowing text above the other elements of a package to remember their callsigns or issue/receive orders. I always thought making it as close to reality as possible was the point. Maybe I'm too far down the realism chain?

Anyway, you don't really need additional visual queues if you want to sim it up. You can assign numbers, teach NATO brevity code, go nuts. I certainly wouldn't oppose those additions, but I definitely don't see them as necessary for players of any stripe to get their brand of enjoyment out of the game.

[Troika]

@Maradine We already have the floaty names in game - they are not going away
, Im only suggesting a way to make the feature more useful.

I'm not trying to "sim it up" - just coordinate people in easier way within a squad.

[maradine]

I see you are not a flight simmer, trust me it becomes really handy.


Sorry, that must have been some other guy.

I think asking for the option of turning off visual tags would be a better ask, personally. I'd give it 50/50 that there's already some sort of flag in the options screen. From a lines-of-code perspective, that's about 3.

[Troika]

@maradine The suggestion is simply to add a line under the player name for squadleader to type a callsign for the team members. How is that "simming up?"

[fvdham]

If the guys are labeled clearly as gold 1,2 Blue 1,2 etc it is easy to direct the fight

In PlanetSide1 you can do this:
create 3 squad of 2 people and join the 3 squad in a platoon.

[Troika]

In PlanetSide1 you can do this:
create 3 squad of 2 people and join the 3 squad in a platoon.

If you can see the squad color AND the number floating somewhere next to the player name - that is all I need.

If the number is only visible in the minimap/map then It won't be enough to work in air to air combat imo.

[maradine]

@maradine The suggestion is simply to add a line under the player name for squadleader to type a callsign for the team members. How is that "simming up?"

It's not. In fact, in the context of this conversation, I'd say it's "dumbing it down", to use the phrase so popular around here.

My commentary on "simming it up" was an encouragement to you to go and implement whatever meta level on top of the game you want, to reach whatever level of simulation you and your outfit-mates desire.

[lolroflroflcake]

Like it was said before, this is already in Planetside, and communication is always clearer when you refer to someone by their screen name or a shorter form of said name as that is what people associate themselves with.

Roflcakes or even just Cakes gets my attention far quicker then then purple-9. You want to expedite communication you refer to someone in a specific manner rather then with interchangeable code names. The only reason they do this in aviation is because you can't usually tell or don't know who is in the airplane off to your right or a kilometer behind you, so you call the airplane instead of the person.

And I would think the only reason militaries do it, is because they have so many people to deal with so assigning numbers makes it easier, unless your willing to remember one hundred thousand names, and it probably makes it easier to divorce your emotion from your job when everyone is just a number. Neither of these things are problems in a video game.

You can do this if you want but its nothing super special and it won't really help communication, not trying to bash or flame I'm just making observations so sorry if it seems that way.

[Emperor]

Callsigns are a fun idea, and they could work, but it's adding complexity and it probably won't be that useful. Not only do you not need callsigns, you rarely even need to address other players by name. In most games all the caller really needs to call is A) situation, and B) area. Take a look at these two examples:

"Gold 1, take out the enemy air support above the biolab. Blue 5, Blue 7, get the tanks outside the tech plant."

OR

"Planes over biolab; tanks tech plant."

While the first would sound cooler for immersion (like something you'd see in a movie), you're rarely going to need that level of complexity in your calls. Even assuming a huge battle spread out over a wide area, let's say there're two platoons of tanks and 3 distinct wings of enemy fighters. In fact, to make it even more complex, let's assume that one tank platoon is TR, one is NC; one wing is TR, two wings are NC. So either:

"Gold team, TR fighters near the cliffs, NC wings above tech plant and amp station. Half of Blue target NC fighters at biolab; rest of Blue team, TR and NC tanks outside."

OR

"Planes: Red cliffs, Blues A and B. Red and Blue tanks at C."

They both convey the same thing, but one takes a lot less time to say. "But you didn't actually issue any orders, you just told people where they are." Yes. It should be assumed everyone knows what to do off that information. Obviously the planes with air-to-air certs are going to target the enemy aircraft; planes with air-to-ground certs are going to target armor. Even if you weren't playing with your outfit and were just playing with randoms, nobody's dumb; nobody who specs their plane out for something is going to do the exact opposite of what their specialization is, if given the choice.

So really, all you need to communicate is where things are. If you absolutely, positively need to have a specific group do something, you can address them by name, or just address the squad leader. Or in the above example, let's say you call ops and someone's doing something they shouldn't be, then you've got one guy or a few guys to single out by name and say, "You guys, go here."

What's actually going to be FAR more important than callsigns are designating areas around facilities that you can't just call by capture point. "Around A" might be fine for a general location, but what if there are a number of buildings clustered around A?

[Led]

Is there going to be local voice chat, or squad only?

[maradine]

Outfit, squad, platoon, and vehicle intercom were the commonly discussed VOIP channels. I don't think any have been confirmed (correct me if I'm wrong), and proximity-based VOIP was a forum request.

[Emperor]

The vehicle VOIP, at least, has been confirmed. When you enter a vehicle you'll be put on the channel with the other players inside. I believe squad's been confirmed, as well.

[Led]

I hope they do add local voice. Nothing like stopping to type 'I think I saw an infilt-' and getting a knife in the spine.

[p0intman]

When PG are running in massive numbers, we inevitably have someone say 'ENEMY AMS ON ME!' to which I always reply, 'Call out your number' with reference to their squad number on the platoon/squad pane. this is already doable with voip and number/color designations for squad members. in other words, its already standard if people know their color/number.

most of the examples here already fall under standard squad lead duties.

[Rivenshield]

/looks nonplused

I already have a callsign. It's the same one I've been using since 2003.

It's 'Rivenshield.'

[Baneblade]

No.

That belongs more in RP than practical gameplay.

Right, because a war game has no business using military ideas.

[NoDachi]

Right, because a war game has no business using military ideas.

'war games' are not even war games. They're pastiche of war games.

[GreatMazinkaise]

Right, because a war game has no business using military ideas.

Some of them sure, but expect to get made fun of when someone hears you calling out your Whiskey Tango Foxtrot nonsense...

[Ratstomper]

I gotta agree with these people. You choose your callsign when you make your soldier. It doesn't make much sense to have a callsign on top of the callsign you chose. There will be more than enough HUD and map indicators to let you know all you need to for gathering info.

As far as giving orders, just use the callsign the person chose when they started the game. That's what they're used to responding to...

[Kran De Loy]

Some of them sure, but expect to get made fun of when someone hears you calling out your Whiskey Tango Foxtrot nonsense...

Yeah, this.

As for VOIP I seriously hope they put in an effective ignore system before they allow for a localized VOIP system.

[Mr DeCastellac]

In Planetside I just say "Orange 4" or whatever depending on if they're in orange, yellow, or purple squad, and what number they are.

[fb III IX ca IV]

If the game assigned callsigns then some interesting things could be done. For example, in the "Blue" outfit, you could have Blue 1, 2, 3, ... assigned by the game to each player, and then voice recognition could be used to make voice chat directed at a specific member to only go to that member, or at least make it louder than normal so it stands out to the player.

[Graywolves]

I like what Planetside did with the gold squad 1-0(10) and again with purple and orange.

All follow Gold 1, Orange 4 needs a rez, 7 softies coming on from Purple 9's position - This all makes it so easy for people to just look at the map and know what is happening with minimal communication.

[NCLynx]

IMO we need the ability to assign callsigns to override player names in squads. Callsigns would come handy with pilots as it would help with the brevity code in combat as some player names are just too long/weird. Instead saying something like "ilivemymomsbasement visual press" you could go "Gold 1 visual press" or "Gold 2 break right!". In small flights this won't be a problem as you can remember the callsigns, but in large flights it would come really handy and it would help the coordination between players in a fight.

If you're typing, you're doing it wrong.

If you're on a VoiP with someone who has a long name and you're always saying ALL of that name you're doing it wrong.

IMO of course.

[Ravenclaw]

real military use it, tho they usually use things like Echo Bravo etc

[Baneblade]

'war games' are not even war games. They're pastiche of war games.

Ok Mr. Picker von Knits.

[kaffis]

Alternatively, Ilivemymomsbasement can, you know, choose a name that isn't asinine and annoyingly long. If he doesn't want to do so, then he can just get himself blown up because I won't make time to warn him of stuff on voice.

Or, you know, I can just abbreviate, like everybody else does. Ilivemymomsbasement is now "Your Mom" or just "Mom" or "Loser." :D