Squad leaders can communicate to one another and the team commander by holding down G. This is reserved for squad leaders.
Squad members can talk to one another holding down B.
Then you can talk to anyone on your team within 25 meters by holding V. This is not a radio channel, but rather you just basically talking in the open. As such, there is no accompany radio squelch, and sound occlusion effects kick-in. (So, the further away a friendly is, the fainter your voice sounds. Or if you’re in another room, your voice is going to sound muffled to your teammates, etc, etc).
The preferred method of communicating is to avoid using B unless you need to talk to the entire squad, or a squad member you need to talk to is too far for V to be used. The reason it’s generally good protocol to keep the radio clear, especially for the squad leader. If everyone is yelling on the radio, and the squad leader is also trying to talk to other squad leaders, it’s a lot to process.
Note, that you can use local chat (V) and the enemy cannot hear you if they are nearby, so you don’t need to whisper. But they can hear your footsteps, or broken twigs if you’re moving in the bush, or your gunfire, of course.
Here’s a good gameplay video showing a lot of the squad planning and what you can do.
It’s Militia vs Russian versus, with the video from the perspective of the Militia.
The first 30 seconds is the squad leader laying out the plans. They’re going to move to an objective near the Russian’s main base and set up a FOB there to block/delay the enemy. That way, they can buy time for the other squads to seize the objectives behind it.
This blunts a very common tactic in Squad, which is that the early objectives are capped by 1 or 2 guys while the bulk of the team moves toward key positions in the middle of the map. The Russians do not respond well, as they should have been able to regroup and overwhelm a single squad. Instead, they’re penned in, and pay for it.
November Update from the Devs. The new animation system looks pretty damn good, and it’ll finally let you mantle over low walls. Plus, other goodies include anti-tank mines, the Stryker APC, and the British are coming!
So, there’s a group/mode called SquadOps that’s very awesome and very hardcore. They have weekly training sessions (1-hour boot camps) that you have to complete before they let you in on the weekly events.
The rules are fairly simple. You can bandage and the medic can heal you if you’re wounded. But if you’re incapacitated. you are dead and the medic cannot revive you. The dead go into spectator mode and can talk to one another, which creates a fun viewing.
The squad leaders are very good, and it really feels like you’re in the Army at times.
Here’s the most recent event.
I’m signed up for training this week. Cannot wait.
So I completed Basic Training certification last week and am scheduled to participate in Operational Rising Giant tomorrow evening. Very excited. Will let you know how it goes.
So I’ve really been digging this SquadOps community, which is an offshoot of Squad.
This was from earlier today. Massive one-life event pitting two teams: Russians vs Militia. The Russians have to clear a Militia forward operating base that could be located in one of three map locations. The militia has to defend.
The first 30 minutes of the operation were fairly quiet. My team (the Russians) used BTRs and a truck to transport our 37-man team (4 squads of 9, plus 1 commander) to the first location. Infantry dismounted and cleared the town, which was empty.
Upon approach to the second possible FOB location, we stumbled upon the enemy. The militia had fortified a two-story garage, which gave them overwatch over the surrounding village. My squad managed to get into the village under fire, and it proceeded to urban combat. Guys getting cut down everywhere.
Near the very end, the following happened. The militia had honeycombed the roof of the garage with sandbag defenses, which made it difficult to root them out with grenades. Enjoy. This is the admin cam after you die. The eyeballs floating around the screen are the cameras of dead players. And the voices are everyone who was killed talking on the separate Discord channel (the players still alive cannot hear us).
The holiday sales flooded the game with a ton of people who treat it as Battlefield, and they still don’t cooperate or communicate well. That makes public games a real crapshoot.
With that said, I really enjoy taking part in the SquadOps one-life events. This was on Wednesday. 3 squads of US infantry, backed by 2 Humvees, are doing a night operation to locate and destroy insurgent roadblocks.
I was on the insurgent side in this round. The video is of the team commander, Karma, who is probably one of the best in the entire community. He’s constructed an observation post with a heavy machine gun. Let’s pick up the action.
FYI, Karma and the OP were overrun minutes after this. Militia still held on to win.
v9 of the Alpha is almost ready, and here’s a big rundown of what’s new. There’s a lot here! Unfortunately, the cool new animation system will roll in v10.
Alpha V10 is releasing very, very soon. A bunch of us are already playing it before wide release. Huge update. The new animation system is in, and it’s great. Allows a lot more realistic and natural movement, head movement independent of weapon, as well as vaulting over obstacles, bipods on automatic rifles, and new maps!
Alpha V11 is out, and it’s huge! British faction is in! Bradley is in! TOW is in! Visual overhaul so it looks better and sharper than ever, along with performance optimization so the frame rate is amazing, the sounds have been overhauled and it’s incredible (I was in a Stryker and I could hear the brass raining down on the roof when it fired).
This is by-far my favorite game; I’ve put in 800 hours is the past 18 months.
Karmakut is doing an all-day stream, so you can get a good feel of how the game plays
