This might seem obvious but this was prompted after an FTL said in game he doesn’t have an RTO backpack because he picked the whistle.
You can pick not to vend either, go to Req (or your own squad prep) and check for a phone backpack. If there is one, you can just go back and vend the whistle, if there really aren’t any then you can go back and make your choice. They are only mutually exclusive out of your vendor, not in what you can use.
Stop using your Whistle.
Non-Commissioned Officers (Squad Leaders, FTLs) can issue three orders:
Accuracy+ , lowering scatter and recoil and increasing accuracy.
You can issue one of these at a basic level every 80 seconds.
You can issue one of these at a higher level (XO level) every 240 seconds using the whistle. The higher level buff is huge, ESPECIALLY movement speed.
Put your whistle in your bag, pull it out only when you want the higher level order for something important (pushing, retreating, holding under attack).
You don’t need a super buff when stood around waiting for Xenos to push. Keep the whistle for important moments.
I was wondering why giving orders with the whistle also slowed me down.
Honestly kind of an annoying change since now I’ve gotta finagle the whistle into a storage slot in my usual loadout setup (instead of just keeping it attached to my armor) if I don’t want the long cooldown.
As someone who frequently plays FTL/SL/aSL, the whistle is a great way to get marines attention so they stop Cade hugging and push. I constantly use it with great effect. You can attach it to your armour/uniform btw you don’t have to waste an inventory slot on it. I just pick the whistle from the FTL vendor and take the free RTO backpack from the surplus vendors in squad prep
The whistle being a toggle instead of something that is automatically applied to orders when worn would be a banger of a change. Being a toggle instead of an annoying noise button would also probably be appreciated by many since a lot of players seemed bugged by the sound effect.