Warfare & Tactics

This particular subtlety of FCing has fascinated me so I direct this question to the grunts in a fleet;

Do you prefer for the FC to call targets by;

A) pronouncing the name followed by ship type
B) spelling out the first three letters of the name follow by ship type

I ask because based on my experience, I find both versions can impact fleet performance both positively and negatively. Specifically, because of how a person's brain interprets and processes information, both styles affect how quickly a grunt can locate the target within their overview and perform the necessary combat activity on that target.

I postulate that 'B' is preferred over 'A' because it is easier for a grunt to understand the letters as they are enunciated rather than hear an entire name which can be spelled in multiple ways.

Think of "Jaime". Some may interpret the name with a hard 'J' and others interpret it as a silent 'J'. If the FC pronounces that as a silent J, then grunts may get tripped up as they are not familiar with that version of Jaime. They spend more time than necessary trying to locate "Highmy" which isn't on the overview.

Anyone who has called targets understands how lolzy it gets when pronouncing really weird names of various toons that contains a combination of letters and numbers. This trips up the FC and affects the fleet's performance. And don't get me started with international FCs who have thick accents and how this scenario plays out in a fleet fight.

And as I sit here and explain the logic for 'B', I have talked to a few pilots and they say their preference is 'A'. It turns out that many of them actually prefer to hear the entire name rather than just the first three letters. Why is that? Perhaps that is what they are familiar with and their brain doesn't wish to start processing information differently now?

Thoughts? What do you prefer?

PS- Yes, I am aware of the broadcasting feature. But FCs don't always broadcast due to a variety of reasons which is beyond the scope of this discussion. And I don't consider it fail if someone doesn't always broadcast.

It only really becomes a concern if you're fighting the Russians.

Primary.... XX1123VASILYXX123
Secondary... XX1123VAS1LYXX123

Fuggen Russians.

PS - When I've called targets in the past I've used both depending of the situation. Like 20 drakes its pointless calling drake of ... whoever, often better to use the first few letters.

But easily pronouncible names or varying shiptypes is easier, quicker and more effective to call by shiptype / name. If people don't understand an Englishman pronouncing stuff in English then they are probably spazzes and we're all going to die anyway.

So both and neither. Hope this helps Deen.

Well then people from Yorkshire are either not english, or don't speak english, cause no one can ******* understand them.

On topic, I think it's best to do both, in the order you put down, as the name requires. Sometimes it's obvious what it is, sometimes it requires you to spell it out in addition. Also broadcasting helps but can get lost in the sea of other broadcasts unless you separate them out on the broadcast history filter, and even then you have to find the space for them.

Same reason why entities who have a stable of FCs with whom they fly (ex. the 'old' PL) are "better" than the random-bloke-with-a-mic FC scenario, one simply (as a fleet/gang sheep) learns what the screaming/grunting means by way of familiarity.

In limited engagements with less than 40 reds it is usually possible to pronounce names in such a way that they are easily identified, might not be accurate but it gets the wrecks/loot/tears spawned.

Without it one has to resort to all the silly sort by name, range, type and what not which is rather silly. Support the various petitions in AH to get a revamped UI where in-game tools can be used to easily call targets (tagging is slow as hell) so that the FC position is opened up to more people.

Wasn't there a Keyshortcut to mark a target as Primary and Secondary? Can't remember... And if so, is it used?

Broadcast set to move broadcast targets to top.. that is all...

FCs i have flown with used every method you can think about. If the FC has an accent i cant understand, it doesn't matter how he spell things.

A few fleets i have been in have someone typing in fleet chat what the FC says in short, very short, but i cant miss that :)

Edit: Repeating ten times also works.

I have a preference for the format of "Primary is romeo india victor, riverini in the tornado." Unfortunately no one uses that method. Although that involves a few more syllables than usual, it only takes too long when targets are dying too easily and quickly to justify full fleet coordination on damage.

When I abandon hopes of finding a particular name in time to properly assist in damage, all command afterwards sound like the following:

Set Auto-Repeat Off
Clear group (weapons)
Sort by name, descending.
Lock target, fire one volley.
Unlock target.
Laugh at all the idiots that can't pronounce words like zealot and anathema.

Broadcast is your friend, when in doubt, KILL THE ONE I POINTED DAMNIT!

prefer 3 letters + shipname.

unless x gal is there then we just say "x gal primary" even if he's 700km away cloaked in a velator...j/k x gal