Simple possible solution for fast real time "shouts" or "orders" to nearby other players without having to open chat and type really fast while getting shot in the face or blown up.

Some hotkey "shouts" on the Number Pad. They seem perfect for this, or number keys if not an option.
Simply yells:

8-Forward! or Attack!
5-Hold this Line! or Defend this Position!
2-Fall Back!

4-Cover Left Flank!
6-Cover Right Flank!

7-Cover my advance!
8-I'll cover you, move up!

1-Hold Fire
2-Stealth in. or Sneak, Quiet, Goin quiet... etc. Something to note an effort to "stealth" in.

We all know during battle it can get hot and heavy. We don't always have time to stop and type simple commands. I know, as with many things in RWR, it's about the pressure of battle. But often it would be nice to throw out a quick command or call to help quickly coordinate right in the middle of a firefight.
I tried to cover the basics of immediate movements n a firefight. Or at least directional shouts, and to specify what type of approach or strategy my be needed right then. It's all about timing, and typing at key points is a waste, but there seems to be a lost opportunity to coordinate even tighter in real time.

Thanks guys. See you on the field.

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Try this:

Copy http://modulaatio.com/runningwithrifles/hotkeys.xml to %appdata%\Running with rifles\, edit to your liking, and configure your hotkeys in key config.

OIS for some reason appears to not support numpad - can't test it myself as I don't have one, JackMayol told to me once that key config menu isn't taking input from numpad. RWR passes every keypress it gets from OIS there, so it would seem the signal stops somewhere earlier than RWR.

As a bonus, as hotkeys support mouse position picking, a silent hotkey message (starting with /) could be captured by a server and the server could be placing a marker at the spot showing to other players in the faction. A fairly simple server side mod would do it.

Damn, I forgot about those hotkey options in the menu. Thanks I'll check into it.

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Oh, one additional note, I personally envisioned these "shouts" to only be seen by players within the same screen. Not broadcasted over the chat channels. That's all.
Still haven't had time to research this info you gave me though.

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Figured it out. Functions exactly like I was looking for.
Now I have:
Move Up,
Hold Line,
Fall Back
Watch Left & Right Flank.

Pretty awesome. I just mapped the key-bindings to the Number Pad in the "Control Config" Menu once I made the "hotkey.xml" file, works fine.

So, any chance we could get 4-5 extra hotkeys eventually? And have the chance to put all the Numbers to use?
This is exactly the mechanic I was thinking of. Very functional. Much quicker! Having those few extra would be super handy. (If possible, some day)

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I'm sure more hotkeys will be added. There's much more room in the key config now that radio calls don't have keys anymore.

AWESOME!, they are great! If the Numbers aren't immediately needed for anything better then 5 Hotkeys should do just fine. Thanks.

Not that it is of immediate importance, but could UI in the Main Menu be created to allow a player to simply fill in a line of text for each hotkey. And just leave the Hotkey key-binding in the Key Configuration like it is.

Now that I know how to do it, it's not really to much of an issue to change, but a UI may open up this option and make it more easily accessible to the common player.

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Could of course, but not sure if will be. The whole feature isn't very high priority so time spent tinkering with making it easier to set up could be used better elsewhere. A wiki topic on the matter might be just enough for the "power users".

In addition, it was set up so that mods can provide the hotkeys.xml file which will replace the ones defined by the player when a mod is active. That might work awkwardly if you'd be able to change the hotkey targets in the game as you'd be changing the mod by changing those.. and it might require you to run RWR with admin rights as normally a user doesn't have write permission under Program Files, which is where the mod files would be in. Anyway, a mod could be dependent on the hotkeys calling specific custom script commands provided only in the mod making it unintended for modifying in-game.