The Direct Communication channel is far too quiet, and it's range is far too close. Literally, you have to stand on top of anyone to get a muffled, hard to hear voice.
If you move 3 meters from them, it's even quieter.
If you move over 5 meters from them, you can't hear them at all.
That's like standing at one end of a room, talking normally and someone else at the other end of the room hearing absolutely nothing.
This never used to be that bad... what happened? Why was this changed?