Radio intercept #1

Hub comms node. Radio intercept #1.
Reconstructed from the build: the voices are made up, the mechanics are real. Open channel, Zone 7. Static cut out. Swearing too, where we could.

03:12
— Where are you? Repeat, where are you?
— The warehouse.
— I can hear you twice. On the radio and through the wall.

03:40
— Door. Push it, or shoulder-charge it?
— Shoulder.
— Someone was standing behind it.
— Now he knows.

04:05
— Bottle ringing, right side.
— That was me. I threw it.
— Then why is everyone coming at me?

04:31
— It’s dark in here, I can’t see a thing.
— Get to the window, that’s the only light.
— At the window they can see me from the street.
— Now you get how it works.

05:02
— Pockets searched. Nothing.
— Chest rig?
— Searching it.
— And behind you?
— What’s behind me?

05:47
— At the car. Standing still.
— How many of you?
— Two.
— Three of you went in.
— Three of us went in.

Night summary: the infected were not fed. Almost. Whoever made it to extraction, well done. Whoever didn’t, their backpack already belongs to someone else.

The channel stays open till morning. Leave your line for Intercept #2 below: from any game, or made up. Good ones may make it on air. End of transmission.

Translating from Dispatcher-speak: nobody was actually on the air, the game isn’t open yet. It’s a sketch, but the mechanics in it come from the build: radio only reaches your own channel, your voice only reaches people nearby; a running shoulder charge knocks a door open, and the door hits whoever is standing behind it; a thrown bottle rings out and draws the infected toward the sound; light inside houses only comes through windows and doors; pockets, rigs and backpacks are searched one by one, and it takes time; and at the Guide’s car you have to stand still for five seconds.

Here’s our question: does the Zone need its own airwaves? Say, catching another squad on your frequency. Or hearing the Dispatcher’s reports right inside the game. For now this isn’t a feature, it’s an idea, and we’re not sold on it: atmosphere, sure, but in a game where sound decides everything, extra noise can get in the way of hearing footsteps.

Two questions:

1. Listening in on someone else’s channel: cool or unfair?
2. Zone airwaves: needed, or should it stay silent?

And we’re still taking lines for Intercept #2 below.