Combat Communications

From AAManual

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Communication is crucial to the success of an operation. In America’s Army there are five types of communications.
They are: radio, shout, whisper, global and hand signals.

Radio

In the game, radio communications cannot be overheard by ENEMY, and have unlimited range. This is the default communication method.

Shout

Both friendly forces and ENEMY can hear Shouting. However it has a very short range. The medic call is also a shout, therefore one must be careful when shouting, and/or calling for a medic when ENEMY is around. Additionally, throwing a grenade will cause your character to yell “FRAG OUT”. To temporarily disable this feature, press the RUN/WALK key (default SHIFT key). When walking your Soldier will not yell “FRAG OUT” when throwing a grenade.

Whisper

Whispering has a very short range and can still be heard by both ENEMY and friendly forces.

Global

Global is used to send a radio message to both ENEMY and friendly forces.

Hand Signals

Hand signals are completely silent, however you are limited to what you can say, and the player you are communicating with needs to see your hand signals to understand. The following are hand signals used in America’s Army.

Stop! Move Out! Ready Negative Double Time! Look! Affirmative Get Down!

The SAI

The SAI has 3 levels of zoom (and a full-screen toggle) to provide players with a quick, visual understanding of their surroundings, and also report on enemy movement (via the "Enemy Spotted" function to plot a marker for others to see). However, in order to see your team mates in the SAI, you must have Line of Sight (LOS).

SAI Zoom Level 1 SAI Full Map SAI Icon Key

Fortunately, SAI linking is "chained", such that if A can see B, and B can see C, A can also see C even if A doesn't have Line of Sight (LOS) with C.

Sound tricky? Not in application.

Squad Leaders and Fire Team Leaders have the added benefit of seeing all of their subordinates at all time, even when not in direct LOS.

Additionally, players have the ability to make the SAI semi-transparent and toggle its ability to rotate or even disable the SAI entirely via both the Settings UI and Keyboard Mappings.

→ For more detailed information on the SAI please see the Situational Awareness Indicator (SAI) or Navigation