In game comm's

[HagarTheHorrible]

If the Dev's ever implement in-game comm's how would you like to see it implemented ?

 

Is this a leading question I hear you ask ?

 

.....but of course.............., since you ask.

 

 

If there is an in-game comm's system it might be nice to have it connected to the map (O)  You hop onto the server,  where there might be a general chit chat lobby,  Once you choose your side you are automatically put into the side channel so that you can speak to anyone on your side.  All aircraft on your side are shown on the map, as is the case now on some servers, however and there are a couple of options here, each aircraft is either shaped to show type or it is described beside the aircraft marker i.e He-111.  You then also have the pilot name next to the aircraft (this maybe can be toggled), so that you know who is where and where your mates are on the map.  Where there are several aircraft in a small area, that one tag overlaps another, then zooming in on the location can help separate them.  Now comes the clever part.  By clicking on an aircraft you can be assigned to their radio channel, this channel might have several aircraft in it which might be denoted by a coloured ring around each of the aircraft in a particular channel. Whether this map view of aircraft in your channel is still available after taking off from your airfield or pressing play, in the case of an air start, I don't know, maybe it would be server optional depending on difficulty ?

 

Simple case scenario:

A couple of friends, along with a couple of odds and sods, want to make up a He-111 bombing party.  They join their side and chat on the German side radio channel to decide which airfield they are going to start from and what bomb load, fuel qty etc.  They then hit play, finding themselves sitting in the cockpit of their respective aircraft.  They then go to map view "O", zoom in on their start location, they can now see where they are parked and who is in which aircraft. one of the four pilots then clicks on another of the aircraft, on the map, and it sets up a radio channel.  Both aircraft now have a coloured ring around them (the same colour) to show that they have a radio connection. the other two pilots then click on either of those two aircraft to join that channel.  You now have four aircraft in a flight that can speak to each other and have a good idea of who is who, who is in their radio channel and where they are in relation to each other.   A couple of fighters meanwhile also spawn in and set up their own separate radio channel so that they can chat to each other without annoying the bombers.  I don't know how it would be possible for the two flights to chat to each other though, unless it was by having a German fraction radio channel also always available for inter flight organization ?

 

Basically, to sum up.  You click on an aircraft icon on the map and that connects you to their radio channel, with some form of indicator to show who is linked to who.  The aircraft icons on the map show where they are on the map (as they do now) but distinguish between types and also displays who is flying them.