Squad PMC Update: STRONGEST in YEARS [Review 2024]

[@LCTRgames]

// BREAKING NEWS // Squad Devs confirmed today that they are moving to Unreal Engine 5 in the future!

[@LCTRgames]

What do you think about Squad? Do you prefer the modern battlefield over something in the ww2 period? How does this Western PMC faction look to you? Leave me a Comment and let me know!

[@mygoodsir539]

you say this is the first non nation state while we already have the militia and insurgents

[@Loy_Otterton]

A militia is basically just civilians being formed into an army in an emergency. An insurgent group can range wildly in its make up, but are probably fighting for a sort of leader to achieve some sort of political or military goal and if the insurgents win they will likely put their own government in place.

[@Grizzly_Khan]

LCTRgames is a big shot Nostradamus for foreseeing weapon skins

[@LCTRgames]

lol tks

[@itsrobby3487]

I've been playing squad at 40 fps since they did that lighting update a while ago. I've got a 3080, but my CPU bottlenecks my setup by about 30%, so I can't complain until I get a new one... Either way, I remember a Q and A that the devs did a few months ago where they said that they were looking into possibilities for upgrading to unreal 5, but like you said, there is no way that they'd be able to upgrade any time soon. I honestly feel like they have enough content in the game that they could slow it down a bit and focus on performance, but that's just me. I also feel like squad needs more new maps more than any other kind of new features. We haven't really gotten too many new maps recently, and some of the newer ones that we have had run worse for me or are saxin islands, which is extremely hard to play with most teams due to the communication and propper faction selection needed. If I chose one game to play for the rest of time, squad would have to be it because of how much there is to do, the developers, and the community (eventhough there are times where I hate every other squad lead in the game). I hope that this game continues to reach new players while keeping it's vision focused and providing us all with new gameplay experiences and possibilities.

[@LCTRgames]

An update focused on performance would be welcomed by most people I think, or at least a good proportion of the community - they just need to manage expectations for that update about new content.

[@kidsinafrica3080]

The weapon skins are fine and actually nice addition as long as they stay realistic.

[@romgba2129]

PMC meta is strong but it is really easy to counter in more open maps, in the first week pmc where stomping everyone but now if you have one or two IFV playing distance the PMC are having a hard time, so I'm not sure if the meta is really moving or is it just taking time for everyone to adapt to the new gameplay proposed by the pmc? But I really love the change in the game, it gave everyone new idea on how to play and you sometime see some strange but successful strat made by SLs.

[@soulshinobi]

3:03 That's very likely shader compilation stutter, sounds like the game isn't precaching shaders or it missed some in it's precompilation step if it has one. I guess it's not surprising they missed it since they added new assets. You could try clearing the shader cache for your video drivers and Steam (and game if there's an option), reboot, and play again to see if initial caching happens more efficiently (since all shaders will be compiled post-patch). It is infuriating stuff, and something the devs should look into. Hopefully you can trigger most effects for the first time in the training range, but make some noise to the devs. Those hitches are pretty extreme in duration. Be careful what you wish for, UE5 is notorious for traversal stutter on games with larger maps. Hitching just as the result of moving from one area to another, and unlike with shaders this will happen every time.

[@LCTRgames]

Ah I'll check that out, thanks. Yea I don't mind pre-caching shaders when the game loads, even if it were to happen every time - just want it to be smooth when im playing

[@soulshinobi]

@@LCTRgames Especially for an FPS game the smoothness is critical. You nailed it when you said you'd rather have a solid 80 fps than 130 fps with hitches. If you're curious about the nature of the issue especially within UE search YT for Digital Foundry stutter struggle.

[@soulshinobi]

I just found a great video that describes shader compilation very concisely, as well as some things that might help, like reducing CPU load by setting a frame rate cap: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGjcnp9nrpiZeqc

[@bushcat274]

i5 13600k @5ghz, Prime B760-Plus D4, 16gb DDR 4, MSI RTX 4070 12GB. Settings mostly ultra and high, dlss auto, sharpening 50%. Fps sits at between 100 to 120 mostly, some maps will get down to 90. Usually when the whole server is fighting in close proximity of a flag or two. Hope that helps.

[@bushcat274]

My 3 games with out fail are Squad for multiplayer, Arma 3 for deep 4 hour single player immersion fests and Doorkickers 2 for brutal maths!

[@LCTRgames]

As an ARMA player, any thoughts on Reforger?

[@nakatanakata2665]

The performance issues need to be adressed. My rig covers the recommended requirements and the game is unplayable above low settings. Otherwise the game is good and the PMC rocks.

[@spookygulag9342]

I prefer squad before 6.0 (with current Q E nerf) now it feels like im a Donbass mobolized soldier , cant run more then 20m , can hold the gun, got scared because of the tree branch falls near me and etc. Oh and playing a FPS in 40 fps with FSR on performance is awful ( i run any other modern game on high in 2k withiut any issues)

[@LCTRgames]

I'm almost becoming a fan of the ICO differences, but I agree there still should be some tuning. Sometimes the lack of ability to hold the weapon after movement feels almost silly for a professional soldier. I get that it's a game and they want to balance things, but this current iteration doesn't feel like the final spot for me.

[@kidsinafrica3080]

TBH they made the game slower and it was a good thing... Now teamplay matters more... Tho I agree the stamina is way too low.

[@spookygulag9342]

@kidsinafrica3080 yea they made game slower but they did nothing to inc team play. U cant make a player be a better team mate if he doesn't want to. This is the issue of squad in its entire life spam. Before 6.0 I saw people who wear ignoring orders or full squads with no communication and now I see same thing. But now u aim longer and u walk longer do there is less your input in the game. Squad from fun game became a stabdart gacha game where u are spending more time to achieve same experience. I loved squad, I participated in Clan vs Clan tournaments. I played the squad which devs intended. Random server will never be a "a game which devs want"

[@NATESOR]

It's a bit like yelling into the void, but I comment the exact same thing to every single squad update: Stop adding new content. Fix/optimize the game. Rewrite the entire code from scratch if you have to, performance is completely unacceptable now.

[@LCTRgames]

I get the frustration, i really hope they're long-term planning a move to UE5 in the background and just aren't ready to talk about it yet.