Yeah, I'm stupid.

I'm just curious; are the alien commands actually useable to communicate with teammates? They make cool scary noises that tell marines where you are; but I haven't, (or I think I haven't), seen them actually used to communicate. Is there a future patch that will allow text to accompany to com? Or am I missing some sort of indicator of what is being communicated when it is used?

yes they do work, if you use the "incomming" bind i believe your team mates hear some kind of "bipedal lifeforms aproaching" thing and also there will be text under your name on hive sight that says like "need backup." These commands are very underutilized IMHO, try using them and looking for them. When the text apears next to your hive sight icon it's pretty obvious, you don't even need to scroll over their hive sight icon to see the text, it's displayed for like 5-7 seconds and then disapears.

K, thanks.

I can't remember hearing any of those commands, and it gave me the impression that they weren't completed yet. I always hear the same old, "Blah, blah, blah is under attack"... nothing new

I have used them a bunch, but it is rather confusing. You just mumble something, the marines hear something unintelligible, and your teammates have no idea what is going on. I didn't recognize the "bipedal lifeforms approaching" thing for what it was, if what was said is true, I assumed that was the effect of a sensory chamber. Besides, it could just be a fade, right?

but then again, it might be handy later: for those marines who don't learn alien speak, you can hear their cries for health and ammo (draws skulks faster than scent of fear), and they can't understand a thing you say.