Remove planetside comms: yes/no?

[Snakebittenn]

It would be better if squads still had their own radio channels, but the only way to reach Command (and for Command to reach the Marines outside of announcements/overwatch messages) is through the RTO. Taking away comms entirely would be a big step.

[Knuffles]

RTO backpacks could have an area of effect, if the area of effect covers marines they can speak on their own radio. Could work I think

Holy shit, Wait, this is actually fire? Could even add a tech to make the AoE larger. That's a kick-ass idea

[Fortelian]

Or we could do the best solution of not removing comms at all

[AlbertBlackwell]

do what elzbeth said


pretty decent idea

[Tails of Akira]

RTO backpacks could have an area of effect, if the area of effect covers marines they can speak on their own radio. Could work I think

Actually, Yes.
That's what cyborg are kinda like in the normal ss13. people can hear comms from them which is really neat.

[Wulferion]

100% agree with this. With RTOs we have a perfect system in place to make squad cohesion an important thing again and all the changes needed to make it happen right now is to remove the comm tower.

One downside i see with it is that it would probably make solo CIC a bit painful. I'd also lower announcement cooldown to make sure you always have a way to quickly pass on information to marines.

The AoE comms are an interesting idea and i see that working as well. It would still make cohesion important while allowing marines to talk more. But i believe that we can do away with comms completely and just rely on phones.

I can't overstate how much better this would be. Removing comms and relying on phones would not only make it necessary for marines to stay with their squad but it would also make CIC more relevant again since CIC would be the only option to spread information across all 4 squads at once. It would encourage more interaction between marines on the ground since they'd have to talk to one another to pass information around and it would make SOs much much more useful in the CIC.

It would also be nice to add a few spare radio packs (deactivated until used) for deploying officers, scout and possibly synth

[kooarbiter]

We can just let comm tower act like a larger aoe booster so fob can communicate more often with the ship

[Bob_Vancleave]

nope dont like this idea. 1st problem is that you'd be relying on some ape brain mouthbreater whose only capable of spamming down armor plates to communicate to CIC, who are already incredibly deaf and disconnected from marines. you'd also be giving them a tremendous amount of powers, similar to specs. didn't like how rounds were dependent on specs not being apes, won't like how rounds depending on RTOs to not be apes either. another problem is that CIC does not take calls from RTOs seriously. had a round where queen used the comms disrupt ability before flanking south FOB. Was the only one there at the time and used the RTO backpack that comes in the JTAC kit to call CIC regarding the impending doom of the FOB if it was not announced. They picked up and then immediately hung up, which sealed the fate of the FOB.

elzbieta's idea (people in a certain radius of the RTO can use comms) is an interesting idea, i'd much rather it be like this than only RTOs being able to use comms

[CABAL]

You talk ideas, but no grease code monkey is willing to touch comms spaghetti code as it is hold by saliva, duct tape, hopes and occasional child sacriface.

[Wulferion]

nope dont like this idea. 1st problem is that you'd be relying on some ape brain mouthbreater whose only capable of spamming down armor plates to communicate to CIC, who are already incredibly deaf and disconnected from marines. you'd also be giving them a tremendous amount of powers, similar to specs. didn't like how rounds were dependent on specs not being apes, won't like how rounds depending on RTOs to not be apes either. another problem is that CIC does not take calls from RTOs seriously. had a round where queen used the comms disrupt ability before flanking south FOB. Was the only one there at the time and used the RTO backpack that comes in the JTAC kit to call CIC regarding the impending doom of the FOB if it was not announced. They picked up and then immediately hung up, which sealed the fate of the FOB.

Okay, regarding the reliance issue i don't think it would be such a problem. Marines relying on teamwork and everyone doing their job is a good thing and something that should be encouraged by the mechanics. You need to keep in mind that there are two RTOs in each squad so there is a good chance that at least one of them will be doing what they should not to mention that SL can relay the info themselves, all the RTO needs to do is stay close to SL and hand him the phone when requested.

Now regarding the CIC being deaf i know where that perception comes from by groundside marines but its mostly not the case. Marines feel like nobody is listening at times but 90% of the time CO/XO did hear it. Usually when nobody responds it doesn't mean we didn't hear you but rather that we're busy with something more important. You got to keep in mind that as CO/XO you got all comms open and everyone wants something from you not to mention that something might be happening in CIC itself. So if a marine is giving us some information or wants something but at the same time there is OB being called on JTAC or something like that its not acknowledged but it is heard still.

The other thing that marines usually interpret as CIC being deaf is their information not being announced right away. Well there the case may simply be that the information is not that vital or we have to decide how to deal with it first. And of course if someone is in the middle of an announcement its possible he'll just not notice before he sends the announcement.

There is a lot of stuff going on in the CIC not to mention a lot of marine calls are pretty vague. A marine screaming "QUEEN!" really only tells you there is a queen but to find out where and what she's doing you'll need to find the marine and check his cam which takes a bit of time. Basically any call you get (unless its from someone you know can be trusted) will require you to asses the situation. There are literally bravo marines that will call out that FOB is under attack when one runner passes through.

Lastly you said CIC doesn't take RTO calls seriously. This is exactly the issue that removing comms would fix. RTO calls are not taken seriously right now because 99% of them are prank calls. With comms existing nobody uses the radio for legitimate reasons anymore or its very rare. Also the example you gave is more likely just a lag on the CIC side. Unfortunately if the game lags out and you click on the phone more than once it will result in you picking up and hanging up right away. Speaking from experience here.

The area around RTO for comms would solve your first issue since you wouldn't rely that much on RTOs but i think even the most basic "just remove comms" solution would work pretty good.