6 Tips to get the most out of your radio
The team radio in Urban Terror is fundamental to coordinate between teammates and is crucial to achieving victory in possibly every game mode.
We already discussed it and we talked about useful radio binds, but today we are going to take it a little bit forward. Here are a few tips to improve your binds to make sure you get the maximum effectiveness possible.
1. Use only necessary binds
Use only the fundamental binds. Do not confuse your teammates with unuseful binds. To make sure you have the proper binds at the right moment, consider making two or more configurations depending on the gametype you are going to play (eg. one config for Team Survivor and another for CTF). For example in TS things like “Enemy Spotted” and “Enemy Heard” are fundamental, consider things like “Flank ‘em” and “I’m Flanking,” but pass on binds like “Stick with me.” In CTF binds like “Flag Exiting…” is very useful but “Enemy Spotted” isn’t.
2. Don’t write unnecessary things
Don’t write things that are not necessary within your radio calls. The voice is already telling the command (like I need a medic) and most of the time knowing how much you are hurt isn’t necessary. Also I couldn’t care less about how many rounds are left in your magazine or where the hell you are. Less is more.
For example, never use $location in your binds. Your current location is already sent in every radio message in white. Or again if you have to use “Enemy Spotted” just bind $crosshair, so the voice will say “Enemy Spotted” and your teammates will see on video just their location. Don’t be redundant.
3. Unbind the funny stuff
Don’t waste keys to bind “Nice One” or “Good Job Team.” You can just write “n1″ in the team chat. This will also feel more personal and boost the morale in the team. Also in Clan Wars don’t waste time with “Thanks” or “Sorry about that” or “No problem” or whatever… mistakes can happen and healing somebody is just ordinary business.
4. Have them at your hands
Some binds should as near as possible to WASD so you can use them without thinking. I’ve binded my radio calls from 1 to 0 (since I bound the weapons elsewhere).
5. Use colours
Use colours to increase readability. Remember: the less time you take to decrypt a message, the faster you will come back to thinking about shooting. Don’t make a rainbow. Only a few colours. (Example my “Enemy Spotted” has the $crosshair in red).
6. Agree to binds with your clan
Take your time to open up a topic in your forums and to make a lists of binds that are absolutely necessary to everybody and to explain what to do if somebody is giving an order using the radio. For example agree with your clanmates that “Incoming” means: “Everybody get here asap.”
Got more suggestions? Share them in the comments!
Do you use the radio or you prefere Mumble or Teamspeak? Tell us why!
Related posts:
- Radio and message binds you should use There are a couple of messages you must be ready to send to your teamates anytime. Using the radio manually is almost impossible, so it is crucial to bind some radio messages. I feel that having the F1-F10 keys for this is quite uncomfortable. If you have read my previous post about key binds you should know that I have scattered my weapons all around WASD and left the keys 1 through 0 free. I used them for radio binds and let's see what they do....
- Key mapping Basics There are a couple of things that you should do as soon as possible. One is to bind some radio messages, and we'll talk about this in another post. The other is to map your keys effectively. I found the basic configuration a bit frustrating and very uncomfortable, also it doesn't look like any other configuration from the modern FPS. Luckyly you can change it. The following is my key map. I found it to be very good. It can be a good starting point to you to improve it further and further....
- 10 tips to become the perfect medic One of the most unique things in Urban Terror is the medkit. Since this item takes up a slot in your inventory that could be used for armor or add-ons for your weapons... why do many people choose to take it? The ability to quickly heal your teammates to nearly their full health in a couple of seconds can make the difference between winning and losing the game. This article will give you some guidelines for how to be a good field medic and be the MVP of your entire team....
Very nice article. Too many times have I seen people spam the “What the f***, over?” radio over and over.
Make sure important stuff like “flag now” or “left/right/middle” binds are done with say_team instead of ut_radio, so you can send them when you’re dead.
@KoTH : LOL! yea..and its quite irritating..
How about spamming f5? I need a medic… I need a medic… I need a medic… it fills my bedroom with Denzel saying that…
Gonna change my binds now LOL
I have this, very useful while playing TS
bind ALT “ut_radio 5 1 Enemy at ^4 $crosshair ”
(this will say the location you are aiming at)
I do that too. Though I don’t bind it to alt. I have it bound on my mouse, one of the scroll cruise buttons above the scroll wheel. It’s really only useful if you’re playing with people who know the names of locations.
Honestly, most don’t. I am hoping that the upcoming map focus articles will help rectify that problem such that more players will recognize locations better. I hope at least this will be true for people playing in clans.
I agree, but when someone says that u have to watch the minimap where his arrow is pointing at…
It is all about getting used to it..
“The voice is already telling the command (like I need a medic) and most of the time knowing how much you are hurt isn’t necessary.”
I disagree… since I medic a lot… I often want this information because I will use it in determining priorities… also some people will bump the button and I’ll get a radio call that says “I need a medic” so if it says “status:healthy” I know I can ignore it.
I think it’s definitely different in different game modes as you said… and definitely different in scrims vs. casual. I’ve had a couple people that caught that “enemy seen” thing while playing with clans (they weren’t in a clan… just hanging out)… and started using it ever 5 seconds on a full pub server… it was freakin’ annoying. Yeah… enemy spotted… there’s 12 of them… they’re everywhere… thanks. lol
I actually ignore half the information that I get from radio calls and JUST look at what’s flashing on the minimap… same way that keeping an eye on your team mate’s color bands lets you know approximate positions of enemies when one of your team dies. For Me though.. it’s mostly the position indicator that is helpful… everything else… vent / mumble / ts are really good for.
Lol what kind of clan uses binds in a match?
They probably have enemy spotted bound to their fire button. Not a bad idea actually, as long as it’s not a radio command.;) And flood protect is on.
Well I know some old school players that doesn’t like mumble that much because they think it’s distracting and I have to agree with them. I am a player that listens a lot (and gets accused of wallhack for doing so) so having somebody talking to me it’s a bit distracting.
It depends on the team i guess..
About noise players make and accusations of WH and so…I totally agree with you.
You should make an article about the importance of listening (like in all FPS games i presume) and how to optimize it in the game : hardware stuff, sound setting in game, etc…
PS : Thanks for the great job you do with the website, keep it it !
Haha nice bind made me think to rebind my radio calls!
I find the radio binds one of the funniest feature of Urt. My keyboard is full of “funny binds”. When on pubs I happen to meet person who shares my joy of urt radio we can pull long and amusing dialogues. I agree that during clan matches to many binds are confusing both for me and my team . The idea of having diffrent set of binds for pubs and each of game mode is sensible. Would the author of the article elaborate and write how to do that?
Sure, I’ll try to do that!
I used to have 2 sets of binds too. Easy to switch with a config. Look for an upcoming article on configs from yours truly.:)
I need some drugs!
Check out “The BST-Powered Urban Terror Radio Training” : http://urtrt.koinema.com/
Developed by the one and only BST|misbstress
Lool this radio training is nice
Do you think binding Enemy Spotted to my fire button is a good idea?
“..but pass on binds like “Stick with me…”
IMO “stick with me” and “regroup” are fundamentals for a good coordination in CW, unless team harmony is so good that they do not needs it (does such a team exist?).
Instead I guess “medic!” is not useful, because a quite skilled medic always knows when a mate needs medic just aiming him.
dont you guys use ts/vent in this game?
How do I get rid of binds? I have some calls binded to numvers (that you use to get to less used calls in the menu). I’m not sure how to delete the binds. Help would be greatly appreciated
\unbind key
Example to get rid of the bind on the “E” button: \unbind e
Thx m8! I have been opening my config and erasing the “bind 8 Need a Med” lines and that is scaring me pretty bad because if I screw up, I probably couldnt use my settings. Thanks Engine!