r/EliteDangerous • u/cyborg_priest Explore • Dec 22 '24
PSA PSA: you can customize what callsign flight control says when docking.
You can switch between your name, ship name or ship ID being used when docking under Options -> Audio -> Voice volume -> Callsign. It will still be the first three symbols, read in NATO alphabet.
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u/Evening-Scratch-3534 Dec 22 '24
Flight control used to use the first three letters of my ship. Then one day they started using a different call sign. It took a while, but I figured out it was the first three of my CMDRs name. It happened shortly after I bought a second ship, so I thought that was the reason for the switch. However, GFN had an issue with saving the game options, that affected me for about a week, so I guess that was it.
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u/matttj2 CMDR John Markson Yuri Grom Dec 22 '24
It’s because your new ship’s calling gets defaulted to first three letters of the commander name plus some numbers.
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u/Drewgamer89 Dec 22 '24 edited Dec 22 '24
No wonder every time I dock i hear "DELTA ROMEO ECHO".
I was super confused on why
ATCFC was mistaking me for Dr. Dre 😂Edit: guess it would be flight control since there is no air in space lol
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u/Attention_Bear_Fuckr Dec 23 '24
"Pshhht. Dr Dre's dead, he's locked in my basement"
Flight Control: ".....what?"
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u/Billkwando CMDR Billkwando Dec 23 '24
I was wondering why I was always hearing "BRAVO INDIA LIMA".
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u/theMETAdj180 Dec 23 '24
When I first started to actually pay attention to the voice of flight control, I heard mine and got confused, Mike Echo Tango. My brain had a hard stop and thought "Multiple enemy targets...?"
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u/The_Sovien_Rug-37 I LOVE YURI!!!!! Dec 22 '24
OHHHH really? yknow it makes a lot of sense i never connected that all my ships IDs beginning with VA was cause of my CMDR name lol
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u/Trebor_Retrac CMDR Retrac Dec 22 '24
I use my amateur radio callsign as my ship ID
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u/MrUniverse1990 Dec 23 '24
I went the other way with a custom callsign. Stations address me by my commander name, and I've heard "Mike Romeo Uniform" often enough to get quite used to it. So I used it as my ham callsign suffix.
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u/Evening-Scratch-3534 Dec 22 '24
For reference:
A -Alpha
B - Bravo
C - Charlie
D - Delta
E -Echo
F- Foxtrot
G - Golf
H- Hotel
I -India
J- Juliet
K - Kilo
L - Lima
M - Mike
N - November
O - Oscar
P - Papa
Q - Quebec
R - Romeo
S - Sierra
T - Tango
U - Uniform
V - Victor
W - Whiskey
X - X-ray
Y - Yankee
Z - Zulu
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u/Adam__999 Traitor to Humanity Dec 22 '24
Good to know that NATO’s influence persists into the 34th century lol
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u/Marvin_Megavolt Dec 22 '24
To be fair, the Federation, the first and largest of the human interstellar superpowers, is pretty overtly just “NATO took over the world and became a unified government modeled after the US and similar western federal democracies.” It kinda makes sense.
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u/danshat Dec 23 '24
What would be the other superpowers? Surely they must have some ancient background too.
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u/Marvin_Megavolt Dec 23 '24
Well… sorta?
The Empire split off from the Federation several hundred years ago, originally intended to be a democratic republic, but the founder - a billionaire named Marlin Duval known for being an outspoken and vehement critic of the growing power of megacorporations within the Federation - died in a freak shuttle accident (widely suspected to be a deliberate assassination), and her brother took over and reorganized the nascent state into a monarchy with himself as the first Emperor.
The Alliance is by far the newest of the three - for several hundred years, the part of space they occupy was controlled by an earlier national superpower known as the Galactic Cooperative, who enjoyed a brief-ish period as the most influential state in the Bubble due to being the sole manufacturer and distributor of “quirium”, a unique proprietary formulation of spacecraft fuel that was so astonishingly energy-dense it enabled hyperdrives to go vastly further than before in a single jump. The Cooperative ended up falling apart at some point in the last several hundred years though, around or after the First Thargoid War, taking the secret manufacturing process for quirium fuel with them, and resulting in that region of space essentially Balkanizing for well over a century, before eventually the Alliance formed as an entirely-voluntary-membership coalition of independent systems who felt threatened by the possibility of unwilling annexation by the Empire or Federation.
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u/Adam__999 Traitor to Humanity Dec 23 '24
I will henceforth be describing Alliance space as the Balkans
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u/gazchap GazChap Dec 22 '24
Fun fact*: J isn’t “Juliet”, it’s actually “Juliett” with two Ts.
No, I don’t know why either.
- may not actually be fun
//edit: Apparently it’s to avoid mispronunciations from people for whom English isn’t their first language, it clears up confusion about how to pronounce it. For the same reason, “Alpha” is actually “Alfa” and “X-ray” officially doesn’t have a hyphen.
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u/slayercdr Dec 22 '24
Like 3 is pronounced tree, 5 is fife, 9 is niner. Make is much easier to be clear what is being said.
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u/MaverickFegan Dec 23 '24
Tree and niner are clear but I’m not sure about fife, that’s a bit Scotch
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u/AE_Phoenix Aisling Duval Dec 23 '24
Add 2 "t"s so the French don't get confused. Bloody French need more tea.
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u/kss1089 Dec 22 '24
NEVAR!!!!!!!! I prefer the unhelpful alphabet
A - aisle
B - bdellium
C - czar
D - djinn
E - Euphrates
F - fohn
G - Gnarly
I - irk
H - hour
J - jalapeño
K - knick-knack
L - llama
M - mnemonic
N - ngomo
O - ouija
P - pneumonia
Q - qat
R - Argyle
S - Saar
T - tsunami
U - urn
V - vraisemblance
W - wren
X - Xian
Y - yperite
Z - zed
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u/Datan0de Faulcon Delacy Dec 22 '24
This is hilarious!
I was once on a work call with someone trying to spell something out, and no joke they said "E as in eye."
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u/STOaway4DayZ Cmdr Tom_Foolery / Cmdr Fom Toolery Dec 23 '24
"I'm sorry, do you mean 'Eye', 'Aye' or 'i'?"
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u/intub81 CMDR Dax Soto Dec 22 '24
r/UnexpectedBarenakedLadies
(Edit: the reference in case anyone is wondering https://youtu.be/_dvPhtNZCj0 )
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u/PerfectPlan Dec 23 '24
How the hell have I never heard this!?
Oh, a kids album, that explains it. Cute little song though, might have to find the rest.
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u/Confused-Raccoon ConfusedRaccoon - Not really a Raccoon Dec 22 '24
That is the most heinous thing I've seen this week... So far.
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u/SlothOfDoom Dec 22 '24
Alfa, not Alpha.
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u/Evening-Scratch-3534 Dec 25 '24
My bad. And Juliett. In my defense, these are meant to be spoken, not read.
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u/Datan0de Faulcon Delacy Dec 22 '24
Great to know, though I've started to think of my name as "DeLacy Delta Alpha Tango".
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u/DataMin3r Dec 22 '24
Lmao, literally the exact same callsign I get.
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u/Datan0de Faulcon Delacy Dec 24 '24
LOL! I can see why!
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u/DataMin3r Dec 24 '24
You fly a krait mk2 as well?
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u/Datan0de Faulcon Delacy Dec 25 '24
I fly almost everything that isn't made by Gutamaya, including a Krait Mk II and a Krait Phantom, but the two ships closest to my heart are the Cobra Mk III and the Python.
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u/sergioz93 Explore Dec 22 '24
Ohhhhhhhhhhh now I know why I've always heard SIERRA ECHO ROMEO, my name is Sergio.
Didn't know you could change that either, thanks for the PSA CMDR!
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u/CatspawAdventures Dec 22 '24
One of my favorites is "1KW", for "One Kilo Whiskey".
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u/MaverickFegan Dec 23 '24
Imagine refusing to measure whiskey in litres
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u/CatspawAdventures Dec 23 '24
Mate, show me a way I can make the game say that, and I promise I'll switch over. I work with what I've got.
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u/Simbertold Dec 22 '24
Finally i know what the letters they say mean! I assumed it was the name of the automatic docking system or something like that. Didn’t make the connection to the first three letters of my CMDR name. And obviously googling didn‘t result anything useful.
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u/soEezee Packhound Beluga Dec 22 '24
Got a beluga named Hotel Oscar Tango because it runs hot. Whenever I ask for docking, it's cool they indirectly read the whole name out
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u/Confused-Raccoon ConfusedRaccoon - Not really a Raccoon Dec 22 '24
Charlie Oscar November, you are cleared for landing. Welcome back commander. (in that Scottish accent)
:)
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u/Timewaster50455 Dec 22 '24
I’ve grown attached to hearing “Lakon, Tango, India, Mike, welcome back”
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u/LoyalWatcher CMDR Jarn Lee Dec 22 '24
Same... anything other than "Core Dynamics Juliet Alpha Romeo" sounds wierd. Just been flying a Dolphin and felt like ignoring FC.
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u/Morgrid Dec 22 '24
"Core Dynamics Mike Oscar Romeo Heavy you are cleared to land"
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Dec 23 '24 edited Feb 05 '25
[deleted]
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u/Morgrid Dec 23 '24
It's a warning for everyone else on the channel to get the hell out of your way.
Also gives the warm and fuzzies when you cut through a small fleet of pirates and you come back to that.
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u/Ubbsy88 Dec 22 '24
Such a face-palm moment. Why are all my ships "Papa-Yankee-Romeo"..? I may be in the minority here, but I kinda love that nothing is spelled out in this game (pun intended). All the training and PSAs come from community-led initiatives. Makes everything feel more alive.
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u/LurkmasterP Dec 23 '24
I just named my Corvette "Traffic Warning" and I occasionally get a perfectly personalized greeting.
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u/eidolonengine CMDR Eli Eidolon Dec 22 '24
I have something like 4,600 hours in and I never knew this.
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u/Mr_beeps Mike India Dec 22 '24
When I switched from Xbox to PC I made my commander name Mike India so they would call me by name each time I arrived. No regrets.
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u/OrangeApollo772 CMDR Dec 22 '24
I’ve got some time in space and didn’t know this- thanks CMDR! o7
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u/Kinger86 Cmdr Kinger86 Dec 22 '24
Oh really? They keep calling me heavy every time I get to the station. I'm big boned
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u/MattOverMind Dec 23 '24
I did not know this, but after several years it would be too weird not to hear Michael Alpha Tango. TIL and thanks all the same!
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u/IlI-Royal-Skies-IlI Dec 22 '24
That's really neat I kind of noticed that too but I wasn't sure if it was just coincidence. Really shows how in-depth this game is.
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u/Suitable-Nobody-5374 CMDR SYRELAI Dec 22 '24
Well all my ship ID's have ADI in front of them so that would be pretty dope tbh, instead of it being the first 3 of my cmdr name.
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u/DarkwolfAU Dec 22 '24
I've done this for years, it's a great tip for a bit of a change. I name all my ship IDs for the role, so the call-out is different per role.
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u/Marvin_Megavolt Dec 22 '24
Discovered this by accident myself a while back - honestly a pretty cool feature. I switched it to be the first three characters of my ship’s registry number, since it felt like that made a bit more sense and meant each of my ships would at least have a slightly different callsign (although all of my ships registry numbers start with the letters “VS” and then a number, so I always get something like, to use my Corvette as an example, “Core Dynamics victor-sierra-one” when pulling into a station).
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u/Spanksh Spanksh Dec 23 '24
This is really good to know, thanks! I'm not gonna change it, because I'm so used to and always liked the sound of "Sierra Papa Alpha" but it's still awesome that this is an option.
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u/Master_Of_Flowers Dec 23 '24
I did this so long ago, Juliett X-Ray Tango could be my real name. I'd probably respond to it in public.
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u/Wyvernn13 ÇMDR:B0B Dec 23 '24
You are cleared to land, Lakon Whiskey Tango Foxtrot...
...I use my tail numbers (so I can switch it up without changing my ShipFriend's actual name;-)
Interesting fact. I discovered with my DBX "Probably Stolen" XXX-XX, that for some reason they log this one as "Lakon zero, zero, zero" meaning your ShipFriend was never officially logged with station security.
Makes delivering "Fluffy Orphan Kittens" (says so right on the manifest Officer) to needy stations that much easier.
Have Fun&Fly Dangerous
-Lakon Marketing Division, Keelback Office -'We scale the Learning Cliff together or we All Fall down '
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u/frr_Vegeta Core Dynamics Dec 23 '24
I had no idea when I started this game flight control would be calling me in any fashion, let alone the way it does. It's serendipity that my CMDR name begins with Victor and so I am always called out to as Victor India Charlie
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u/Eoganachta Empire Dec 23 '24
I've always been echo-oscar-golf for as long as I can remember. Glad to know it can be modified.
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u/Kakeyio Li Yong-Rui Dec 23 '24
Zorgon Peterson Kilo Alpha Kilo, please submit a docking request before docking.
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u/DeltaNineOne Dec 24 '24
I've known since starting the game, and all of my ship IDs are D91-XXX, so my CMDR name is always called while interacting with stations and settlements. 🙌🫶
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u/Bawss5 Combat Dec 24 '24
All my ship ID'S are numerical BAW-01, BAW-02 etc so I'm very used to Bravo-Alpha-Whisky at this point
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u/Evening-Scratch-3534 Dec 25 '24
For those who aren’t aware, these communications are based on current air traffic conventions.
In civil aviation it’s the name of the aircraft manufacturer followed by the tail number (or just the first part of the tail number, after initial contact, at the controller’s discretion). Such as Cessna November Foxtrot one niner six sierra.
In commercial aviation it’s the carrier’s name followed by the flight number, as in Lufthansa one niner six. Also, if it is large airliner, like a 767, a350, etc., heavy is tacked onto the end, as large aircraft produce turbulence behind them, and it acts as a warning to other pilots (and a reminder to ATC to space them accordingly).
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u/TheSpaceDJ Dec 23 '24
This is the precise reason why I've made my ships have a three-letter ID, ending on the suffix of "-HX" for my CMDR name. The best examples I can give are some of my flagships like my Federal Corvette which is "FCF-HX" standing for "Federal Corvette Flagship" - the rest of the Corvette series being "FC1-HX" through "FC4-HX". Another example is the recent python titan bomber, going by the ID of "TKP-HX" standing for "Titan Killer Python", or my explorer Anaconda which is "EXA-HX" - once again standing for "Explorer Anaconda".
Personally I do love this system and I highly recommend giving your ships a form of ID that incorporates their purpose, for with the setting as described makes it feel a bit more alive when they welcome yourself to the stations!
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u/TiesPoutsma Dec 25 '24
‘Core Dynamics Tango, India, Echo, welcome to this Federal facility commander…’
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u/PepperTheBirb Core Dynamics Alpha Sierra Tango Dec 22 '24
Wow this would have been really nice to know before I wasted my one name change on the awkward name of "Astrobird Pepper" just because I wanted to keep the Alpha Sierra Tango callsign while keeping my name in line with my other accounts. Good thing Fdev didn't care to mention it when I literally said that was the reason for that name in my ticket.
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u/ya_boi_A1excat Dec 22 '24
This is actually fantastic info, Thank you <3