Comms Expectations

Etiquette and Helpful Tips

Listen First!

If you join into a large group in comms, LISTEN for at least ten seconds to see what’s going on before you speak. Obviously, if you’re addressed, speak up!

Check Your Background Noise

A television, barking dogs, or kitchen noise in the background can be quite distracting. If you need to, enable Push-to-Talk (PTT) in Discord by right-clicking the Microphone icon on the bottom left and selecting the option.

Please refrain from eating, loudly burping, or breathing heavily into an un-muted microphone.

“You’ve got a hot mic”: we can hear things you might not be aware that you’re broadcasting! This is a request to either stop the noise, or mute your microphone temporarily. If you’re unresponsive, we may Server Mute you, which you can ask to be reverted through text chat.

Try Speaking in the Third Person

When you’re in a busy channel, instead of saying “I” or “me”, use your handle/gamertag: “Go to Apollonaut’s ship” versus “Go to my ship”, and “CrayBacon down, need medic” instead of “I’m down, someone help me!”. When there are 20+ people in comms, it can be difficult to tell who “me” is.

Attention grabbers

“Clear Comms!” or “Break Break!”

These are meant to serve as alerts for the whole group; stop whatever discussion is happening, and listen!

Critical Communications

  1. Commands from Event Leadership

  2. Requests for Party Invites (don’t hesitate to do this, we don’t want to leave anyone behind).

  3. Requests for recovery from incapacitation

Event Comms Levels

Open Comms

Mission success has been evaluated to be unaffected by noisy comms, and there is currently little to no risk of injury or incapacitation.

Chatter away! Off-topic conversation is allowed to flow freely (within community guidelines).

Condition Yellow

An attention-grabber has been called! The situation requires from the present players, and there may be a risk of combat. This is the “on alert” condition.

Off-topic conversation should cease, and voice communications should be coming primarily from leaders. Helpful information that contributes toward mission success should be shared.

Combat Comms

Shots have been fired, missile warnings are coming in, or someone is incapacitated or killed.

Critical communications only! The situation may evolve quickly.

Be silent as often as possible, and be as brief as possible when conveying information. If you’re narrating a play-by-play of the action you’re seeing, it may drown out critical communications from leadership and from downed teammates.

In combat events, try using the “Hey You, it’s Me, here’s my message” format:

“Event Leader, Apollonaut — Need a Party Invite”

“Medic, Apollonaut — help!”