Radios and removal/limiting text chat

[fullmetalmonkey 0]

This is something which i mentioned briefly on the Washington DC server the other night.

As with many other ARMA 2 missions and mods, they utilize the use of Radios and Comm systems, whether that be a Ham Radio, two way radio, programmable radio, walkie talkie etc. Now, i believe in the use of the voice communication in the game solely. Whilst i understand not everybody that plays this will have a microphone, especially those who have got ARMA 2 specifically to play this mod i think it would be an awesome addition to have findable radios of varying types like the ones i've mentioned and have it so that only voice communication is avaliable instead of text.

Personally, i hate seeing 'Is there anyone in Cherno?' or after someone dies, from the 'dead' player 'F***ing bandit in Elektro!' type stuff as for me it ruins the immersion.

So what i envision is this.

Your out exploring the world and you come across another player. You are communicating via Direct Communications channel and decide to team up, after all safety in numbers. You are exploring an convenience store and find a set of walkie talkies (two way closed communication) and share them with this ally and then decide to explore a city. Whilst in the city you get split up due to either zombie attack.

Now, what would normally happen is both players would be communicating by text chat due to being out of Direct Communication range. Which, one is begging for bandits to close in on your location and two, just isn't realistic at all.

So instead you would have to communicate via the radio (which if people are in your direct local area can hear your voice as if your using Direct Communication) and try and work your way back together.

With a programmable radio it would work the same way but you can have as many radios as you want connected together because you would have to select a specific frequency. But it would also leave you open to outside ears listening on you and finding out what you are upto. These radios can only be found in military bases or off of 'officer'/'military' zombies.

Ham Radios would work in the same way as programmable radios but would be stationary objects like a tent, which would be designed to be placed in a camp with someone there defending it or helping to co-ordinate a raiding operation. These radios can be found in random small towns/villages.

If these were in the game, with the total removal of text chat or reduced to a minimum ie only one chat message per minute i think it would improve the overall immersion in the game and possibly even 'force' more teamwork with people.

Apologies if the formatting is bad, i've typed this up on my ipad.

[Leechman 8]

Many people have had ideas pretty much the same along these lines. In fact they occur pretty frequently.

Please use the search function before posting.

[dut 21]

Rocket has said he wants to remove global and side chat. Until then there are ways to communicate in it without giving away your position, I use headings, distance and 'enterable building' often.

Regarding radios, they work great in Fonline and I'd love to see them in DayZ. There's actually some pretty popular topics about them in this suggestion forum already.

[edwood 1]

Achieving quality comms has always been an issue in ARMA.

I've been in love with ACRE for a long time... ACRE would be awesome if integrated with DAYZ. However, it is definitly another thing that can, and will go wrong, and another barrier to entry for new people.

ACRE: A Radio mod for Arma2 that gives you

- Directional and localized speech - ie. As you walk away, i hear your voice getting quieter in the direction you're travelling

- Realistic radios that sound awesome, and give you over 100 channels.

- more complexity... good for Arma / Milsim freaks - bad for those who aren't :(.