Simplified SWAT tactics brought to FPS games

Keep coms clean and tight.

This is where this whole blog chain comes from. My real-world experience as well as being an avid gamer since I was 14 years old. I have gamed many thousands of hours with many different types of people and one thing I can say. If coms meaning communications aren't clear and concise its a shit show of disorganization.

My gaming team and I have almost perfected communication. With that being said I bring to you this series that I wrote in 2014 that I will update this year in 2020. I do so because of the experience I feel can help many young people who struggle with this concept.

Communication is an important aspect in any relationship you will ever have. Being able to talk with your girlfriend, boyfriend, friends mom, whatever is an important everyday occurrence. Clear communication is also very relevant in a high-stress situation. Being in a gun battle will put you into what we call tunnel vision. Meaning that you become so focused on one thing that you will be distracted by random chatter that has no meaning.

Excess communication is distracting. Keeping your communications to what is important will increase your efficiency by giving you the ability to react to enemy movements and additional threats without having to talk over someone or try and process what that person is saying that has no relevance. This prevents you from splitting your attention between whos talking and what you're trying to do.

It's important to have fun while playing the game, but if part of having fun is playing for that WINNING. Many times excessive talking about shit that is not relevant will just detract from your team's ability to work smoothly and win effectively. So if you notice that your friends are carrying on about what they had for dinner, there girlfriend problems or just generally have diarrhea of the mouth, do us all a favor and tell them to shut the fuck up. Teach them that there is a time for that kind of talk, but not when the digital shit is hitting the fan.

Well Twisted how do we improve this? you might ask

Here are some things that we have worked towards that you can learn from our experience and bring to the table.

Work out common terminology for each area that you play in. What does this mean? Well if there are places that you like to go then work out a common name that everyone knows what the reference means. It doesn't have to be a fancy name, it can be as simple as calling it potato or banana, but if everyone on your team understands the reference then that is the first step to being a better communicator. That is a massive coordination win and will make you operate and kill much more efficiently.

Heading call outs are good, but sometimes you have to change it up. If you and a teammate communicate using heading callouts you have to remember when you split from each other sometimes it's easier to just talk them onto the target. Something like he's halfway between me and potato. This is way more descriptive to someone who is not in the same position as you are, but this would only be good if they knew where you were. If you were in EFT with no team markers you would have to get much more descriptive.

You would have to say something like he's 35 meters northwest of the 3 story apartments along the fence. This would be a good style positional call out with a landmark in a game like Escape from Tarkov.

So sometimes its better to just use plain speak. “He’s east of me, near the rock” that would mean a lot more then he’s 90 from me. This is only helpful if your team understands directional call outs. There are times that you are all moving in the same direction you can say something like "contact right." This is applicable but you have to do it when you are all moving in the same direction only.

These are just tips that you can put in your toolbox to help improve your teams' efficiency and ability to communicate better. The biggest thing that I can't stress enough is getting rid of the chit chat that happens and clogs up coms. Also, don't talk over people that are trying to pass out relevant information. This shit gives me cancer, so don't be that cancerous fuck!