One thing that will help all three sides in this game is basic communication. Having been on all three sides to assess and decide which side I wanted to be on it was painfully obvious that all sides have the same communications problem.
Sadly, much information given on VOX and text is vague, misleading, and in many cases unnecessary. It's been mentioned on the forums in the past but the topic bears repeating as ALL sides can benefit from Aces High Communications 101.
How many times have you been in a ground vehicle, and at times with perkies paid for your ride and you hear this: “Hey, there's a Tiger over there”. (Really? Where?) “it's over there, can't you see it?” (If I could see it would I be asking?) You stop, turn your engine off and begin scanning the area for the Tiger in question when you literally have zero information to go on and then ***THUD*** you are back in the tower.
How many times have you been in a plane with three or four enemy around and maybe ten friendly planes in your same area within 3-5K. Radar is out (not that that really matters), you scan in all directions, your head on a swivel of views and you reach over for a sip of soda while country text and range VOX is as quiet as a church mouse . ***TINK-TINK-TINK*** you are back in the tower.
How about when people are texting on country about an enemy cv at such & such location. You up a box of bombers to go sink it. After a good 15 minutes of getting to altitude, calibrating your bombsight, opening your doors and scanning the area for the cv you still cannot find it. Ten minutes later you are still looking in the last known location—even looking in the other keypads nearby and still cant find it. After asking on green country text for the fifth time (nicely) someone finally pipes up that it was sunk 15 minutes ago and no one bothered to put it out on green.
These scenarios are all too common in our game and don't have to be. We are all guilty of bad communications to a point, me included, so lets help each other on this issue regardless of chess piece affiliation in a positive way:
“Thou are responsible for thine OWN SIX”. Never demand a check six call and never get indignant when you don't get one...but looking out for your own countrymen is a respectable trait. As a courtesy, give check six calls (on VOX or the “/' key) when you see someone else's bacon in jeopardy...they just may return the favor someday.
“Information without sufficient proper details is useless information” Having to listen to someone's constant “Spitfire droppin' in”, “Here comes the bombers”, “Tiger”, and “there's a wirble” are worthless without details and even tedious after awhile.
WHERE is the Spitfire dropping in from? East? West? South? North? How high? What angle?
WHERE are the bombers coming from? How many? What altitude? Do they have escorts?
WHERE is the Tiger? To your 3 o'clock? Nine o'clock? Is it in the open? Behind the nearest windmill? Which barn is it near—exactly? Who is most in danger of that Tiger?
WHERE is the wirble on the base? Camping the runway? Which runway? Which end? Near the VH? In the trees under the radar tower?
Giving a play-by-play as to what you see through your own eyes without and relevant details as to what others are seeing is worthless information. If this is your personal way to hand out info and after awhile no one responds to you you may very well be in their squelch list. Details, details, details or else hesitate before hitting Range VOX until you do.
“If you kill a cv—spot a cv—or even see an enemy mission upping PUT IT OUT ON GREEN country text quickly with all the relevant details you can provide”. Most AH'ers use the grid square designation and then the numbers keyboard pad keys for additional and more accurate location on the map. If you sink a cv inform your countrymen on green country text so that others don't waste time trying to find and sink something that is already at the bottom of Dale's Virtual Ocean. It's only courteous to do so.
“Bad or vague information is worse than NO information.” The easiest way to put in a nutshell that it SHOULD be is “The Communications Golden Rule: Provide clear, concise, and accurate information to others as if you would have them provide information to you.” Pretty simple really.
So, next time you press on F12 to give out information ask yourself: Is it detailed? Is it accurate? Is it courteous? If not, you may not be doing your buds any favors by reporting. If it IS, others will learn to trust your info and depend on it.
This post is by far not all that would help communications so if you have other positive ideas to help, feel free to add them to the thread and thank you in advance.
This is being posted with positive intent to help all players enjoy the game more and improve themselves.
GOOD LUCK!
