Lightspeed~SPARTA~

Marking Enemy Locations on the Map Whenever possible, all enemy contacts should be marked on the map so that the entire platoon has accurate information on enemy dispositions. This is a simple process - double-click on the map, then use your up/down arrow keys to select an appropriate mark. If you want to change the color of the marker, hold shift and press up/down arrow. For labeling the markers, try to be concise, and make sure you throw in a number. Having ten sets of "ei" markers isn't too terribly useful, but having each one with a one- or two-digit number (ie ei1, ei12, etc) makes it much simpler for people to talk about specific enemy locations with clarity. http://dslyecxi.com/images/arma/ttp/marked_up_map.jpg

?ALERT - This is almost always going to be the word "Contact!" It should be the first thing out of your mouth when you spot the enemy. Saying this gives everyone a heads-up that something important is about to be passed over the radio, and that they need to start scanning the area for more enemy as well as think about where they can move for cover and concealment. ?ORIENT - This immediately follows your alert. "Orient" is simply a few words to get people looking in the general direction of the enemy. In the example above, "front" was the orientation. You can use relative directions (front, left, right, rear) as long as there is a clear standard for what those mean. If you are in a stationary, defensive position, "front!" means nothing. If, however, you are moving towards a known waypoint, "front" is descriptive enough - in that case, it is the direction of movement, and everyone will already know it. Clock bearings should NEVER be used. Use relative directions, compass bearings (north, north-west, south, etc), or specific degree bearings (bearing 250, etc). ?DESCRIBE - What did you see? Was it an enemy patrol, tank, or a little old lady out for a stroll? Say it in as few words as possible while being very clear. Examples being: "Enemy patrol", "APC", "machinegun nest". ?EXPOUND - If time and the situation allow for it, and you think it is necessary, give more information. This can include their range, specific degree bearings to the threat, information about what the threat is doing ("They're flanking us"; "They don't see us"), how specifically they're positioned ("two soldiers on the roof, one in the building, the rest are patrolling around it"), etc. For instance, if you spot a patrol that is walking through a patch of woods, step #3 would be "enemy patrol", whereas step #4 would clarify that with "in the treeline, bearing 325". More example contact reports- "Contact, North North-West, enemy sniper, he's in the second story window of the brown-roofed white-walled building at the crossroads." "Contact, bearing 085 , T-72, hull down behind the rise 200 meters to our front, he's looking the other way. " "Contact left! Machinegun nest, dug into the middle cluster of palms across the river, due West, 400 meters."

Being able to concisely report enemy locations is a critical communication skill to have. The sooner we know about enemy positions, and the faster it is passed to the entire squad, the better our survivability will be and the more effective we will be at reacting to threats. Here's an example of a very poor radio transmission of a contact report: Uh, guys... I see enemy infantry. Uhh... they're over there, by that tree. No, uhh... the other tree." (Note that the squad is in a forest at the time of this transmission) A more proper contact report would be as follows (color-coded for explanatory purposes). This is an intra-squad report - reports across squads will be covered later. Note that if the squad fireteams are dispersed, it may be necessary to identify yourself prior to sending the contact report. Simply preface it with your callsign (this is Charlie One) prior to starting the report. "Contact front! Enemy infantry in the open, bearing 210, three hundred meters!"

Hearing someone say "Enemy infantry, bearing 210!" is fairly worthless in a 40+ player game with the platoon spread out over hundreds of meters if not more. Because of this, and other considerations, we use a simple set of radio procedures to keep things running smooth. If you are communicating across channel commander, you initiate each transmission with who you're talking to, followed by your own callsign, and then the message. For example, if Bravo Lead is contacting Command to tell him that they took a casualty in a firefight (post-fight, most likely), the transmission would be as follows: "Command, this is Bravo, be advised, Bravo Two down one."This simple procedure keeps command chat organized and allows for the various leadership elements to know when they're specifically being talked to.

Heres a link to some useful info - thankx Shack Tactical. http://dslyecxi.com/armattp.html

Playing the tactical domination today where we elected a Commander and then split off teams, it was pretty clear the organsation into teams was very clunky. I wonder if we can figure out a way to make it easier to allocate the teams and also perhaps deal with the cluttered comms from 2 separate teams communicating. I dont think the process would be complicated but just need to get everyone on the same page. I think the Comms is prolly a simple fix - the basics like announcing who you are and which team you belong to - for example- Lightspeed - Team Bravo - blah blah blah over. Over = waiting for a response. ie. "Lone tango spotted - am I clear to engage over?" (waits for order) Out = no response required - nothing further to add. ie. "I am holding my position - out" (no response needed) Instead of "I see a tank". Who does? Where? What team are you trying to advise? Remember Im no expert but I have an idea of what works what doesnt. In terms of the Teams shown in team status - we may need to do some testing to see how we should set it up. Today we had Alpha team, for example, actually sitting in the Bravo position while the Bravo team sat in the Delta team position. Thoughts?

ah my precious...OGR is simply the best.

TEK is in the house!! Cool - see you in the server!

I bought an HD4870 1Gig DDR5 - sweet as - running everything on highest quality and averaging 35+fps. I suspect I have a slight bottleneck with my CPU and only 2 Gig of Ram but as long as its above 30fps its smooth as silk. oh yeh - this replaced my 8800GTS 320mb which gave me only 15-20 fps on high (not highest quality).

ok so ive converted them but others cant hear them ingame. i wonder if everyone needs the same sound files to hear eachothers, although i have heard others in game b4. anyone know how those were set up?

only 5 hard drives running?

As you may or may not know, I'm a GR diehard and I'm not sure if these have been made but I'm going to knock some up tonight. That is - a list of 10 ingame radio chat messages taken straight from Ghost Recon - I'll try and pick the 10 best GR sound memories but also the most appropriate for use on the battlefield. "Got a tank" "Over the hills and through the scrub" "I think we caught them napping" Anyways there are a lot of them, I'll go through them all - might even post a list here to see if others want them ingame. Might even convert and pack them all and ppl can use the ones they like. But tactically, I could put together a list of radio commands that are simple but highly informative for the rest of the squad. Will keep you posted.

for what its worth, I dont mind the odd vehicle here and there but im old school - on the ground is where I want to be and I dont want to do the clean up job after the vcls do the bulk of the work. I want to take on a town with my fellow grunts on the ground.

no its not. GR4 is apparently...but not GRAW4

I am in foh shaw - can you give me the time zone bcoz i am on other side of world - might need to get up at crack of dawn which is ok. Also, you say you will issue pw on thursday nite - where will it be issued? here or do i have to get to ts? thanx in advance this is going to be great fun. Lighty

Just bought a new video card for Arma 2 and Dragon Rising. I was running an old 8800gts ddr2 320mb which gave me about 15 fps in Toms Hardware Tests. Now I've purchased an ATI HD4870 1gig ddr5 which runs at 60fps and should have that in by weekend. See you then fellas. Oh by the way Halli - new personal best - 87 kills - 6 enemy vcl - and only died 13 times. Won't be long before the apprentice becomes the master. And finally, great move to up the number of AI on the maps - really has lifted the intensity and workload for capturing villages - much improved. thanx Lighty out

yep its all good and will def do some of the closed server tactical stuff cheers Lighty

Lightspeed likes this. Having a geat time on Arma2 server.

Lightspeed here - from GR.Net. Had great games today on the Domination Server - nice group of players - was on the server for 4 or 5 hours. I haven't done that length of COOP for a couple of years since Gr died out. Says a lot for Arma 2 - great game and the ppl in the server. Will be back tomorrow and in future for sure. Cheers, Lighty.