Things keep changing for us in Ghost Wars (and other games). We are inviting new players onto our teams and our traditional pairings have been getting shuffled around. I wanted to take a moment to remind all of us (including me) about the importance of communication in our favorite squad-based games. It is the key to a well-coordinated team and separates us from the pugs. I know we are all guilty of the occasional tunnel vision for our intended target or take a stealth maneuver too far when we keep it hidden even from our own team. So as we work to gel in new forms, I wanted to point out some tips/reminders for communication that should help us do a bit better. Feel free to add more onto this thread if you think of any.

 

1. Communicate what you are doing. None of us can read your mind, so take a moment to give us a clue as to what you are planning. We might know about an unseen threat or need a moment to cover your position. Call out where you are going, status of your drone (if you have one), angles you are holding, and if you're going to toss a nade/blow something up. It doesn't require anything particularly fancy, just a few words will do. In my parlance, you might hear "pushing tower," "drone," and "holding yellow building."

 

2. Clearly call out threats. This seems simple, but when you've got the eyes for blood, this sometimes gets lost. Like before, keep it short and simple, but also remember to declare the accuracy of your information too. People are going to act on your call out, so be sure they know if it's a nebulous gut feel, an approximate ping ("I hear someone over here"), or an exact mark. Also, dont let your greed get in the way of team victory. Even if you plan to shoot the call out anyway, let folks know. We don't need someone dying because your intended target sends a volley at a teammate who didn't know your target's location. Also, dont forget to make call outs even in death. Even shot angle can assure proper revenge occurs.

 

3. Listen and pay attention. This one seems simple, but it is one that goes sideways quickly in a firefight. Look to see where your teammates actually are on occasion. Watch your minimap for key patterns about enemy and ally position. Keep track of call outs and intended movements to plot your next move. And most importantly, be adaptable, do not panic and don't let fear get the better of you. We have all had that moment where we had a plan in mind, maybe even executing it, and the rest of the team starts collapsing. We know you aren't a hero, but it's also not the time to go YOLO either. If you're paying attention and the team is communicating, you may be able to slip in and pull a lost cause scenario out from certain defeat.

 

4. Be realistic in your expectations. We all have different play styles and capabilities. Some of us drone better, some of us kill better, and some of us move better. Not everyone can pull off what you think or know is possible. They have to do it in their own way. Not every situation is winnable given the information we had. Take a deep breath, play on, and use constructive feedback to help us all get a little better at whatever you may be good at.

 

5. Careful with idle chatter. The importance of hearing enemies in Ghost Recon is paramount and is the difference between life and death on many occasions. Keep communication to the essentials when your teammates are creeping around enemy territory. Your thoughts on game mechanics in the middle of a battle might just get a teammate killed.

 

I know we know all of these things, but I wanted to bring it back to the forefront as we stretch our muscles to play with new people. It's all too easy to get used to the implicit communication that goes on between seasoned teammates.

I need to patch this thing up and get back into playing. Been really concentrating on the music as of late. Will pe posting why in another thread. in a few min.

1. Communicate what you are doing. None of us can read your mind, so take a moment to give us a clue as to what you are planning. We might know about an unseen threat or need a moment to cover your position. Call out where you are going, status of your drone (if you have one), angles you are holding, and if you're going to toss a nade/blow something up. It doesn't require anything particularly fancy, just a few words will do. In my parlance, you might hear "pushing tower," "drone," and "holding yellow building."

 

2. Clearly call out threats. This seems simple, but when you've got the eyes for blood, this sometimes gets lost. Like before, keep it short and simple, but also remember to declare the accuracy of your information too. People are going to act on your call out, so be sure they know if it's a nebulous gut feel, an approximate ping ("I hear someone over here"), or an exact mark. Also, dont let your greed get in the way of team victory. Even if you plan to shoot the call out anyway, let folks know. We don't need someone dying because your intended target sends a volley at a teammate who didn't know your target's location. Also, dont forget to make call outs even in death. Even shot angle can assure proper revenge occurs.

I absolutely agree, and I have always practiced this in my game play for the past 16 years ...even to the extent of getting myself shot at so as to warn my teammates before engaging the target. Unfortunately, I have seen this attribute practiced by very few other than myself.

 

3. Listen and pay attention. This one seems simple, but it is one that goes sideways quickly in a firefight. Look to see where your teammates actually are on occasion. Watch your minimap for key patterns about enemy and ally position. Keep track of call outs and intended movements to plot your next move. And most importantly, be adaptable, do not panic and don't let fear get the better of you. We have all had that moment where we had a plan in mind, maybe even executing it, and the rest of the team starts collapsing. We know you aren't a hero, but it's also not the time to go YOLO either. If you're paying attention and the team is communicating, you may be able to slip in and pull a lost cause scenario out from certain defeat.

Again, and I'm sorry for saying this, but most I have played with seldom practice this. I know some will occasionally call out a target, but most of time they engage the target "without" providing a verbal "call-out" to their fellow teammates. I believe they do this with the intent of getting the kill first before their teammates do. This seems to be prominent in those who value K/D more than anything else. And yes, sometimes these players kill the target, and other times they just simply die. When they take this "go it alone' action, nobody has a clue where the bad guy is until it is too late.

 

Instead of calling out targets after they die, all I hear is whining about how they died, or whether or not the person who shot them was hacking. Players should be more interested in calling out target locations by saying "he's in the tower" instead. For fucks sake, folks, please tell us where the enemy is located. Those of you who do call out targets are usually too generic in your location descriptions. For example, and most recently, my teammate calls out "he's high, he's high" (I had to ask him 5 times just for that little info) instead of saying "he's up high the rocky formation to the right". There are high locations all over the fucking map, so how the hell is somebody to understand what "high" means, for example.

 

4. Be realistic in your expectations. We all have different play styles and capabilities. Some of us drone better, some of us kill better, and some of us move better. Not everyone can pull off what you think or know is possible. They have to do it in their own way. Not every situation is winnable given the information we had. Take a deep breath, play on, and use constructive feedback to help us all get a little better at whatever you may be good at.

I cannot agree with you more, but unfortunately there are those who think they can kill the entire opposing team by themselves. I see some players dart out and head towards the enemy at full sprint until they engage the bad guys. They kill 1 or 2, die, and then they say to their teammates, "where's my backup?" ...Really? Well, your backup was stationary while running the drone identifying targets for you, and he/she is about 200 meters behind you. Pro Tip! Slow down and wait for your teammates. What makes me shake my head more is that at the end of the round I hear a player boast about how many kills they had, and not even say "hey, thanks for marking those targets for me," or thanks for the revives which allowed me to kill more targets. Remember, there is no "i" in teamwork.

 

REVIVING: I have a big issue with this topic. Thanks to Kurinar, Jenksterman, Danbaron, and many others who make an effort revive me each and every time during a round. Unfortunately there are a few who don't, which make the game less enjoyable to me, personally. On one occasion, I had a teammate who was running a Med Drone 25 fucking meters away, and instead of reviving me, he used it to look for his next kill. Again, he was, and I believe, more focused on his K/D rather than winning the round. I revive whenever it is safe to do so, and sometime when it is not. I do this for the sake of my teammates, because "live" players are critical to winning a round. On another occasion, I had a teammate walk right past me and revive the other teammate that was 10 meters further away from me. Oh, and did I mention, I was running the Med Drone at the time, and I could have revived the other teammate in about a second had I been revived first. It's blatantly obvious that some players show favoritism towards others when it comes to who they choose to revive. I will not have any part in that.

 

5. Careful with idle chatter. The importance of hearing enemies in Ghost Recon is paramount and is the difference between life and death on many occasions. Keep communication to the essentials when your teammates are creeping around enemy territory. Your thoughts on game mechanics in the middle of a battle might just get a teammate killed.

Yes, I agree with you 100 percent. I especially hate those screaming into the mic "THEY'RE AFTER ME, THEY'RE AFTER ME" Well, actually they are after all of us because that is part of the game. Also, players need to be quite when your the last guy standing instead of screaming into your ear telling you what to do or shouting out enemy locations. A simple ping is sufficient. This is HUGELY DISTRACTING when trying counter the threat, so please "Be quite! Also, I hope you realize that this game has a strange/goofy 3rd person view, so I may be looking one way, but you think I am looking in another direction and can't figure out why I can't see the target.

I compreteky agree with all of this. I really do try to improve my communications. This is something everyone should practice.