SITREPS and Contact Reports

[=Sarc=]

These were SOPs for the original Ghost Recon back in the day. I don't remember it to a T but they are probably still posted in one of the SOP forums.

The one rule that applies to all communique is stating who you are. We're not always going to recognize the transmitter so add in your callsign. This way if you're giving a contact report and die soon after, the team will know if the flank fell apart.

SITREP

A SITREP is a situational report. If another player asks you for a sitrep, you pretty much describe your current situation in a clear and concise report. Here's what I think is relevant to a COD4 sitrep:

1. Enemy status - It's good to know if you're in the middle of a standoff or enemy movements. Just throw out any enemy contacts you've had in the last little bit.
2. Your status - What are you covering? Where are you located? Say a little bit of what you are doing or planning on doing.
3. Recommendations - Ask for backup or suggest something to change the current plan of attack. This is your time to be the strategist.

This can all be done in as little as 5-10 seconds.

Ex:

Originally Posted by Site A Attacker

"No enemy contacts. Covering street route to site A. Recommend pushing this flank."

You don't even have to wait for someone to ask it. If there's time, call it out and let your teammates know what's going on.

Contact Reports
The contact report is probably the most important use of VOIP in any game at TG. It lets your teammates know you've spotted the enemy. Here's what should be in a COD4 contact report:

1. Numbers - State how many enemies you see or hear. If you don't know, just state that you know there's an enemy nearby.
2. Location - This is very important. You want the entire team to know where the enemy is. It's like a rudimentary UAV when there's a location in a contact report.
3. Status - This is important too. Call out if you're being engaged, if the enemy is planting (or you think so), or if the enemy is just moving to another location.

Ex:

Originally Posted by Site A Defender

"Contact! 2 enemies moving to site A. They smoked the area. Probably planting the bomb"

These are just small little things that don't clutter the VOIP channel and are effective at keeping the team informed. We don't have to be talking 100% of the time to be tactical. Remember, the enemy can hear you if he's close enough and has the eavesdropping perk so keep transmissions short.

[Clodhopper]

+rep
Thanks for this

[=Sarc=]

Bump to remind players that this is very important information. I keep hearing gunfire yet no contact reports until I ask. It's ok if you're a bit busy but if the engagement runs for more than a few seconds it's time to slow down and call out a report in case you die. Even if it's spec fire, it should be reported. Call out those contacts!

[Long Bow]

I find at night while playing server 2 contact reports are picking up. Most nights now people are callig out numbers or if they know a common route the enemy takes they call out "no contacts moving to A". It seems that once one person starts doing this the rest jump in.

One thing I'm struggling with is being concise and accurate without the compass. I find myself using the spawn points as an indicator. I tend to say right or left of bomb site on their side or our side alot. It tends to sound a bit mudled from me I fear.

[kin3]

Yea I think it is beginning to pick up on the hardcore server. Another thing is to call out your position on defense.

[blackmain]

But people need to get in the habit of doing more often.

[jmaker]

Originally Posted by kin3

Yea I think it is beginning to pick up on the hardcore server. Another thing is to call out your position on defense.

Lol. I even did this the other day, and I still got teamkilled soooo...I suppose it works most of the time.

[Long Bow]

I find most regulars on server 2 call out where their heading when they spawn in. Some call for assistance or call for a sitrep from the other bomb site. However there still needs to be some more consistancy to it.

When the server is full of TG'ers and some regulars I usually don't find communication to be lacking 90% of the time. Like I said the difficult job is some times describing locations.

[jex]

Since we don't have a compass yet, then doesn't everyone think we should come up with a standard. It's alright to sit here chatting about it, but we need to action it otherwise it becomes shop talk. I think Sarc's idea is simple and effective.

[amu107.9]

The relative position of an enemy to a target is still useful Longbow. I try to call out compass positions even when there is no UAV. But I found that most people don't memorize the compass positions on a map. The usage of relative direction is still better than no reference at all.

Even if there is no visual confirmation of an enemy.
You can still hear a person moving around if they are not careful.
Allowing you to atleast announce a possible contact in your vicinity. Which you can double check by hitting escape to check the position of your team mates.

That's another thing that I have started to use more.
The "Escape Key" allows you to adjust your kit. But also on this screen is a nice structural map of the surroundings with your team mates position and visual orientation indicated.
This is an essential tool that is given to you. If the compass positions were actually indicated on that map. The usefulness and usage of that screen would be drastically improved.

[=Sarc=]

If we set a standard with an SOP, we can say that the direction from your own spawn to enemy spawn is north. We keep that reference during the round and it should be even better than a compass. The maps are small and we can easily remember the direction we set for north.

[|SOG| Vir2L]

I personally think the easiest way to call out directions is by hitting ESC and looking at the map there. The top of the Map is north, etc. etc.

Not everyone knows where the enemy spawn is, so it might be confusing for some people. At least by hitting ESC, everyone has a reference.

--N--
-WE-
--S--

[=Sarc=]

Enemy spawn is always on the other side of the bomb sites. You're pretty much facing the enemy spawn when you spawn in.

Looking at the map works too. It just has to be something fast that we can all do at the beginning of a round to establish north. After that, it should be pretty easy to remember which direction is north relative to the bomb sites. Since the bomb site markers are always up, you can easily remember north using those markers.

[Long Bow]

I use the spawns as points of reference currently but it makes for a long contact description. I think using Sarcs suggestion is a simple fix and easy to remember. If we can get in the habit of calling it out each round it should work.