Squad's Unsolvable Problem

[@Monifans]

Hey guys, I know this is the second video I made criticizing squad, so I just want to say: I love squad! I’ve been having a blast playing it. I don’t want to give the impression that I am a hater. This will probably be the last video I make on the topic unless something new comes out. I’m already working on a new faction guide so make sure to check in soon! And lastly thank you for all the positive comments and support. i know i might sound cheesy, but it’s worth its weight in gold. P.S. don't understand why some vocal minority are claiming that i like battlefield( i haven't even touched a battlefield game in years), or want to casualize squad, or want to turn squad into battlefield or HLL. those who say these things clearly have not watched the video. i explicitly say i do NOT want squad to be dumbed down, and praise it for it's complexity and depth, while borderline admonishing HLL for it's simplicity. please actually watch the video before making wild assumptions like that in the future. thanks.

[@TUROCK320]

I observed SQUAD's player base since 2016 : - Each wave of new players dump the level down about the teamplay and the match quality (the veteran can handle some new players but are annoyed by teaching during years what the game is ^^). - OWI do not give good tutorial but "ALSO" the opportunity to he veteran to shine and "continue" to teach the "good way" to the blueberries. - Veteran left or doesnt care about teaching the good way and the good mind to the new players so naturally new players doesn't care too. It is normal. The game is complex for a new players, but the veterans can teach easily what 5 or 10K hours in this game is. Maybe we need recognition from OWI with official rank ... i was not ok with that but if the Squad Leader is responsible of 8 players or the 50 players of the faction, he need motivations. (SQUAD forum talked about that years ago) ADMINS and SL are the most important asset in the game

[@deemwinch]

This game is "good" as long as you have

[@rawnukles]

I just installed Squad 44 and you have summed up the problem. I'm thinking that organising a bunch of random run and gunners and getting them to follow you and stick together feels like hard work. Even if I am willing to try I don't know enough about logistics and game mechanics to do it. So nobody wants to play as squad leader.

[@TUROCK320]

​@@rawnukles ahahah. In my experience. If you have to many "new players" and "Veteran" players left.... unbalance experiences kill the experience inGame itself. I played on a server and i just saw Call of Duty beahviour in 30% of the payers.... as SL it was hard to try to explain why CoD gameplay is no acceptable in a tactical shooter like that. We want play but SL have to to babysitter 90% of the time OMG. So veteran stop to play as SL x) PS : BTW.... the average age was 25 / 30 during the old days with low player base...now with tik tok marketing we have many minor in game.

[@jaygator7]

I think with more tutorials/training (either by community but more in vanilla game would be good) would be helpful. But, the things you find troubling about the game are actually why I love it. If I wanted something more "casual" and FPS, I have tons of options. Squad is unique and is closer to "reality" in that logistics win wars and create new strategic opportunities (e.g. cutting off supply routes). Faction guides etc. would be a great asset and looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[@loganostefano5672]

Squad lives and dies on people being able to communicate and coordinate. OWI lies in the bed they made if they fail to make a game that fosters good SLs that communicate and coordinate.

[@ricoarmstrong7440]

Its the players that need to communicate. OWI can only promote teamplay through gameplay. The rest is up to server owners and players.

[@czarkusa2018]

Extolling the virtues of individualism every time something isn't working is how we got into this mess.

[@Lucas-qk8lc]

@@ricoarmstrong7440 NAILED IT! Communities make or break games

[@steven.2602]

​@@ricoarmstrong7440games don't get their player bases for no reason. OWI is responsible for who they bring in through their advertising and the type of player they appeal to. For years, OWI fostered a terrible playerbase through misleading advertising and gameplay changes. Even if now they wish to change the gameplay today, they still have the playerbase that they themselves made and have been around long enough to dig their heels in. They may not be responsible for the actions of their players but they are responsible for who they wish to appeal to. As OP said. OWI lies on the bed that they made.

[@rokivulovicstanaccount]

A large problem is that squad leading is just incredibly taxing. I have to worry about my squads ammo, I have to worry about my ammo, I have to worry about if my squad will be able to regroup with me from the nearest hab or if I should hold back and wait a comically long time for my casualties to be able to respawn on my rally, and only then can I worry about my actual main role of trying to coordinate with my squad, other squads and the commander about how I'm going try try and tackle the objective. I'm basically a perma-SL whenever I play Squad or PS but I can't find it in my heart to be angry at people who don't want to do so because frankly, it feels more like unpaid work at a call centre more than playing a game a lot of the time

[@this_is_petro1700]

Me and my homies in my unit all got Squad and started playing it pretty regularly, we decided that we wanted to be a mortar squad for the night so we get set in. After we got set up and started hammering the objective we were stopped by a random admin who flew noclipped in like it was Gmod. He said "You guys cant just mortar the objective because how is the other team supposed to defend?"

[@veliest1886]

Maybe by taking the mortars out? seriously wtf never touch that server again

[@keelanashley5051]

Lmao what a lame admin. Dont play that server again.

[@SkyPilot-qx2sb]

Please.... Please tell me he was playing on the opposing team. that just makes this more funny. agree with the other commenters mate.... find a new server

[@solidshrek]

that guy must be fucking insane

[@Ninjobii]

That's the point..

[@xFizzle]

OG americas army had these requirements. You had to sit through a no shit first aid class and pass a test, in order to play medic 😂

[@Yourmom-lole]

Americas Army was based

[@Stinger913]

You did? 😂

[@KoishiVibin]

@@Stinger913 yup

[@sketchy5085]

Not gonna like to me thats just cringe.

[@africanricc3458]

@@sketchy5085why? It’s essentially a tutorial on how to play the class before u pick it….wish squad had this…u got guys running around with AT and never use it…or completely suck at it

[@namesurname624]

I don't think Squad will move towards casualization. More complex systems that were announced will make it harder to play, especially for BF zergs. I don't want to casualize it either, I want more people to learn and enjoy the complexity. Hopefully it's possible.

[@justaguy1253]

Comparing it with BF is the wrong way to look at it tbh. This is a Project Reality successor where the whole point is the more authentic/realistic way you tackle the battles. The whole reason I stopped playing HLL was because Squad and Post Scriptum offered that more serious gameplay.

[@TheCalyptoLive]

This is what BF should have been but they leaned into COD style play too much for me. BF3,4 were the peak BF years

[@burakardakaratasli6376]

Disagree, only reason i gave up playing squad is basically noodle arms. If wanting to be able to shoot a guy that is a 10 meters away from me without having a hardtime is "being a casual" i would rather play arma instead

[@dd805100]

Here's the thing guys like me never buy this game cause I could just play arma without all the bad parts and on my own, I can make my game as complex or dumb as I want games that give players control live the longest

[@gagekellstrom3978]

@@dd805100this is a multiplayer pvp game, all of the systems are there to naturally make ARMA like games naturally, and it does that fairly well.

[@TheOtherOtherAccount]

Man you got me in the first half I was so worried this was gonna end with “and that’s why squad needs to dumb down mechanics like HLL” But absolutely yes. Improved tutorials are absolutely needed. Lock HAT, LAT, etc behind special kit specific tutorials. Lock the “Create Squad” button behind a tutorial as well.

[@st3gosaurus]

?

[@Monifans]

thank you for watching the entire video instead of pausing in the middle and typing a comment before you get to my conclusions!

[@jakob7693]

clan kids and admins ruined this game, all the things you said in this video 100%. the amount of mute players is insane I feel like I'm playing with bots sometimes.

[@MashedApplePie]

True, this whole crackdown on “toxicity” by over sensitive admins really ruined the communication and fun in the game. Barrack talk is not allowed anymore and seen as “toxic”

[@jakob7693]

@@MashedApplePie Bro I got a 3 day ban for my username being "Fumbling Retard" because apparently I'm ableist. Then I got my squad disbanded for "not being on the objective" when I was using a firebase fob with mortars and tow missiles on the 2nd point on invasion, at that point we had already destroyed 2 enemy vics and where providing mortar support but no apparently I have to be a mindless play and just sit and defend like it's rush in battlefield. I have never had a good encounter with an admin they are all pretentious manchildren.

[@jakob7693]

@@MashedApplePie Bro I got a 3 day ban for my username being "fumbling R-word" because apparently I'm ableist. Then I got my squad disbanded for "not being on the objective" when I set up a firebase on the 2nd point of invasion defence with tows and mortars. At this point we had already destroyed 2 enemy vics and were providing fire support with mortars. Apparently I'm supposed to defend on the first cap mindlessly like it's rush in BF4. I have many other stories and none of them are good encounters with admins. They are all pretentious man children.

[@letsplayfreakde1273]

​@@jakob7693 in cases like that, ask them if they have any clue about combat ir. And just act wayyy smarter then them. While it's not nice or the right thing a lot of these man children will even change their whole game strat

[@jakob7693]

@@letsplayfreakde1273 That doesn't matter anymore because squad has become too 'Gamey' if that makes sense. Lower run speed, Choosing units before the game starts (Which creates a unit meta where people almost only choose tank or mech units.) the removal of set layers, ( MEA vs INS on Fallujah invasion , VDV vs Milita invasion on Yehorivka or RGF vs BAF on Narva invasion. All battles where you can suspend your belief and think these battles could happen/ have happened.) The community is so focused on things being 'realistic' but don't actually know what realistic is. It's only 'realistic/milsim' when they feel like a cool operator clearing rooms and having fireteam comms and not 'realistic/milsim' when they are stuck in a defence position getting shelled. Take the new mortar carrier nerf as example, people want the game to be realistic but don't actually want to die to something they feel they have no control over. (THATS WHAT WARFARE IS)

[@maboilaurence8227]

The situation is worse in Europe, you either find a full group on Discord or it's everyone yelling in their own languages.

[@tachanka1612]

you need to join really poor servers then, or certain nation based ones

[@usmcbf3090]

@@tachanka1612 European servers are the worst because of the UK "British Empire military" larpers and the fact that half of your team is unresponsive. Americans servers are better in that regard, however they seem less friendlier.

[@tachanka1612]

@@usmcbf3090 play royal anglian for europe you’ll have a long queue but it’s worth it mate

[@twokeydd3447]

​@@usmcbf3090us servers are lot of noobie blues, who try to cosplay combat operators, but they are almost feeding enemy and laughing in blue chat after that

[@ruffles638]

@@usmcbf3090 British Sl's are either high on their own fumes or extremely competent.

[@The_Heisenberg_]

Every time I've played HLL I've never really had the chance to coordinate or work with a squad because no one talks, it's worse than squad in my opinion simply because I haven't had the chance to work together with anyone.

[@Arnechk]

HLL is just low TTK COD.

[@frankpurvis9189]

@@Arnechk ive had good teamwork loads of time on HLL and im a console player, yes its not every game but most games more than half the squads are communicating. what i can agree on is its not as complex as squad so the few squads not communicating aren't completely weighing us down.

[@TUROCK320]

@@frankpurvis9189 Yes. In SQUAD if you want spawn on the battlefield you need a SL. Sometime you have no SPAWN, just the "main base" and you have to walk or wait for taxi at the main and mov on the battlefield. HLL you have contextual respawn on the map in charge by the gameplay, no the SL. Players on SQUAD have no choice.

[@frankpurvis9189]

@@TUROCK320 I only played squad while it was free for a bit, but when I did about the same amount of players were communicating as HLL. The rest would spawn and either start walking or hop in a truck by themselves and start driving, so they do have a choice but when they make that choice they are a active detriment to the team.

[@never3194]

a year ago there were still a lot of people talking, but now everything has become completely bad in HLL

[@senior9250]

i only bought and started playing squad christmas of 2020, but since then i've definitely noticed a shift in playerbase in general. back then i would join a server and it seemed like all 50 players were talking and communicating, or at least cooperating. nowadays even when I try to squad lead and keep it as simple as possible so many people are just unresponsive or ignore you. it seems like the majority of players arent there for the strategy part just the action. and its not entirely new players faults, ive seen hundreds of veterans simply refuse to teach new players or just be edge lords and order people around like they're below them. i tried getting a friend into the game about a year and 1/2 ago but it always felt like i had to hold their hand because no one else was kind enough to help them. i couldn't ask him to just ask the guy next to him bc they just wouldn't help him. super odd how self destructive the squad community is

[@BlackWolf9988]

This is the main problem, avoid playing during and 2 - 3 weeks after a sale. Sales attract a lot of new player who just dont know what they are doing. Trust me game quality goes up a lot if you wait after a sale and play on a big server.

[@deezboyeed6764]

​@BlackWolf9988 I always wonder who buys a game where the tagline is communicate, command , conquer. And then ignore all three of those things.

[@calopsita4465]

​​@@deezboyeed6764exactly all of us were once new players, but we didnt sit in silence doing nothing around the map, we followed our SLs and tried to win the game despite not knowing much abt it, i dont get whats so difficult

[@21Light12]

Its really a bizarre phenomenon how the more popular it gets the more we see its flaws. I do remember how old squad was better but, it was flawed as in graphics and infantry mechanics were not up to par as it is now. Totally with the work you described could totally change blueberries behavior. The only actual "old squad" experience right now gets tied up in discord events by the different better servers. Maybe Moidawg's Epsorts.

[@edustef41]

Moidawg's tourney is idiot-level, how do you play an unbalanced map only once? There is a reason any competitive game that has asymmetrical maps makes the teams play each map twice, so you play both sides, like CS, Valorant, etc.

[@Getupsitdown]

@@edustef41it’s the first one, no one said it would be perfect

[@edustef41]

@@Getupsitdown No one is asking for it to be perfect, my complaint is about something very basic, even the really old tournaments of Squad before launch had this.

[@TUROCK320]

Hello, i drop one of my observations here as SL / player. (light and boring observation ) This subject have been in discussion 9 999 time on the SQUAD forum (dead now). I observed SQUAD's player base since 2016 : Old SQUAD : 3000 players in the player base / simple and hardcore game mechanics with slow gameplay ( ex: RP 9 spawn max) + SQUAD INF only with some VHL New SQUAD : 35 000 player base / more and complex game mechanics + dynamic gameplay (the RP rules) + 200 VHL NEW PLAYERS PROBLEMS : - Generally each wave of new players dump the level down about the teamplay and the match quality (the veteran can handle some new players but are annoyed by teaching multiple time, to multiple players during a match and during years and years what the game is ^^). - Years after years (UPDATE / new gameplay too )Veteran left or doesnt care about teaching the good way and the good mind to the new players so naturally new players doesn't care too. It is normal; players / people learn by followinf, and watching the SL' s mistakes. Anyway, it still fun to play SQUAD but it is more a routine for VET, and violent for new players. It is a nich game at start x) (like hell diver 2 for exemple)

[@privatefrizz8627]

@@TUROCK320I agree with this sentiment. Been playing since 2018. Squad may just be too old at this point. Even though it can give a fresh outtake on shooters as a whole. It just takes a toll on me when I realize more than half my team is new and doesn’t want to participate in the teamwork aspect.

[@grimmerjxcts2206]

It's not optimised My pc is way higher than recommended settings yet some servers freezes so much ...

[@wyk3548]

Try changing directx version

[@lilfish5245]

For me dx12 works much better than dx11

[@sim6446]

this goes for almost every single game from the milsim genre lmao

[@grimmerjxcts2206]

@@sim6446 i wonder why they are like that

[@sim6446]

@@grimmerjxcts2206 there's a shit ton of things to render, other more arcady games wouldnt render with such detail and scale + the dev studios arent half as big as the AAA studios thankfully were getting to the point where these games run atleast above 60fps on good pcs

[@galacticdragon9841]

As someone who has never played battlefield and finally has gotten a full interest in squad, I feel like you are focusing too heavily on new players and assuming they all play the same and expect the same thing outside of squad, lots of people will find squad through various means and not all comes from the same place. But also, most people find games through videos of the games, lots of squad media poses squad as how it is played and supposed to be played, so I don't think Squad attracts the wrong people. I personally do notice that just about every time the team loses, and by a lot, everyone quickly notices, it's because we didn't do the necessary things like get up more fobs around the objective so people do get better at the game every match, and learn the teamwork aspect pretty damn fast. As long as people pay attention to the map, squad leaders can quickly find out what is going wrong and how to fix it in future matches. Squad definitely isn't for everyone too, people who play cod, battlefield and those games religiously probably won't find interest in these kinds of heavy teamwork games anyways because squad obviously isn't a run and gun game, heck even lots of ARMA players don't like Squad because it isn't realistic enough (heard this from the most recent Squad newbie that plays ARMA I met). Now one issue I see, is that Squads retention is also heavily based on community, which as the game continues to get larger, is an issue, because people start to only play a couple servers, then the community kinda splits on things because everyone gets their eco chambers unintentionally, which I assume you have found yourself in considering you think everyone is a battlefield veteran. I don't personally see how Squad will die outside of a shit rework.

[@Lord-x3k]

No honestly the new players are annoying I get squad is a hard game to get into it took me a while to fully understand what to do but the difference between me and these new player is that I would actually do what my squad lead told me to do and not be in the middle of the map trying to get one kill per game.

[@archpenn7842]

@@Lord-x3k Nah, OP made a terrific point about people only playing on specific servers, alot of the newbies most of the time can't even pick a server that speaks their language or offer a good newbie experience, so often times you'd see them bumbling in obj to obj hoping they're doing the right thing. this whole elitist "me good they bad" thing is what makes players drop games in the first place, you deserve shitty teammates if you cant even foster a good environment for potentially good players in the first place

[@keelanashley5051]

@@archpenn7842 I get your point and mostly agree, new players are a problem, but only if they choose to be. I will gladly help a new guy out who tells me he is new and is trying to learn the game. But, especially post sale, too many new players just act like they know what they are doing, or maybe they dont care, and it absolutely kills the game for weeks. Taking Commander and then losing the game because none of the other SLs listen to anything you say, and just W Shift onto the attack point, die, respawn, and do it again, all the while ignoring the things that need to be done, its infuriating. You sit there and explain exactly what needs to be done, and the only thing that comprehends your words is a brick wall. That sucks lmao. I am all for teaching people the game and giving them space to figure it out and improve, but they have to want to do that to begin with.

[@Time_flies_fast]

​@@archpenn7842this negative attitude from 'pros' towards noobs comes usually from the frustration that the noobs make the 'pros' lose the game by not doing something logical, since the game needs teamwork

[@archpenn7842]

@@Time_flies_fast Not usually, i play primarily on noob friendly servers and theres alot of ppl who aren't that interested in playing properly just join in to shoot willy nilly. Noobs who are trying to learn the game vs people who aren't is definitely a huge difference

[@rolooky2211]

Squad leading is in a weird spot right now. Limiting the role isn't necessarily what I'd like to see from this design problem. I think the key to this is FTL and Commander reorganizing and to spread features out from SL exclusive actions to offload a bit of the burden from every capable SL, like allowing more flexibility with who sets down repair stations, MG and AGL emplacements, etc. The map marking system needs a usability overhaul, Lazing targets needs to be implemented in some manner, the DEPLOYMENT screen needs to be readjusted to disallow kit changing after staging phase entirely to prevent ammunition drain. I'd say Squad is way less intimidating of a sim game than Tarkov and ARMA, but it offers something incredibly special compared to them. I ultimately found HLL to be exhausting after a year. I'd regularly had play commander there because all you're really doing is serving up assets and managing spawn locations. Asset management was so much less tedious there. Now in Squad I'm seeing 1,000hr+ SLs just throw assets away and how fucking dare I ever question a really questionable plan. I can make a plan and I'll have at least a handful of people trying to simply stop my version of a plan in command chat to give themselves a priority (?) in the chat. There's a lot of egotism in this game it's probably the worst thing about the role of SL. Having to listen to the gripes of absolutely delusional SLs and team members just playing slots until they have a good time, magically, with no effort, will probably end my enjoyment eventually.

[@deezboyeed6764]

Also in addition theres many commanders who can't understand basic concepts, such as not ordering a tank to push alone.

[@british1139]

Having a good squad lead is so awesome that even when you LOSE you still have a good time. Playing the global escalation mod, playing as Aussie SAS. Can't remember the name of the map but we got caught in this valley area. Easily the most intense firefight I've had in the game, but we managed to, using grenadiers, smokes, etc, fight our way up this valley side and overcome the first couple of enemy buildings before we went down. I immediately added that squad lead on steam, he did a fucking AWESOME job commanding and controlling that situation.

[@Skult1]

I feel like I've never encountered the problems you expose on this videos. Where I play (South American servers) I rarely see SL's being silent and unresponsive. It has happened of course, but it's not as frequent as I suspect being like in other servers. What I feel Squad's missing is in the "Combined Arms" aspect as tanks and other vehicles are rarely seen on the frontlines and most of the time they just roam around the map chasing other vehicles.

[@Monifans]

the great (and terrible) things about squad is that every player can have a vastly different experience of the game depending on the times they play and the servers they play on. so there's a chance you're just playing on all the right servers (good! stay on them!) and agree on the vehicle aspect of squad, might be a video on that in the near future

[@senior9250]

can absolutly agree with this, i play on NA servers but often hop on spanish speaking late at night as i speak a little and largely understand the SL, the players on NA definitely talk less and are just less friendly than the other ones for some reason. the vehicle part is definitely a problem within itself with i think it mostly just being tanks having duels instead of supporting infantry and many servers not allowing mechanized infantry

[@cevizjj44]

This used to be the case for Turkish servers unfortunately as servers grew and clans grew exponentially more toxicity occurs. Also since the community is now larger many new admins are recruited, generally not by experience but by connections through clan membership, who just don't know how to be a good admin so it just makes a chain effect of toxicity Edit: the reason why clan membership is so high in Turkish servers is because In most Turkish servers even new players can join server supported clans and get free whitelist, better treatment by admins, just generally getting away with more things that normal players who haven't been around for too long get targeted for Server admins focus more on clans arguing with each other, people using foul language (even if it's a joke), trolling, while more important things like people "ghosting" (cheating by using a friend to give info about the other team), bad SLs, noobs using important kits, inexperienced vehicle squads, all these things fly right over their head, they're more interested in drama

[@cevizjj44]

​@@senior9250Yea the issue with tanks and ifvs has become a joke among the Turkish community we generally say they play war thunder among themselves while we suffer

[@armymonsterdeusvult.2548]

@@Monifans I've had similar experiences with German servers. They are much less dysfunctional and I've even found them easier to squad lead in than US based servers.

[@pszemo9638]

The major issue in Squad is Laziness of the players XD

[@bmc508]

squad needs to stay a niche game , thats why it is getting more players , because it attracts a precise kind of gamers

[@EliecerFalcon]

Preach!

[@humbleguardsman5578]

this comment doesn't make any sense. The whole point of this video shows that squad is attracting the wrong kind of players. I don't think curving a game's player growth is a good idea and the reason it's getting more players is because of the lack luster casual FPS games right now.

[@sim6446]

if the game doesnt grow it will never reach it's potencial if the milsim genre stays niche there wont be any devs to make a high efford expensive games bcuz theres no profit

[@Monarch_GNSG]

This is why Foxhole is such a fun game. The mainstream COD, Fortnite "people" have not broke into the game. And thus every single person you talk to has a good chance of responding and being a good person.

[@BlackWolf9988]

​@@sim6446 i would argue that if the game becomes to "casual" it would mean a lot of regulars would leave who started playing it cuz of that. The average squad player is somebody who wants to play something more hardcore than a battlefield game but also doesnt wanna waste hours joining a milsim arma clan. For me personally as somebody who played squad and squad 44 before testing HLL during free weekends multiple times, i just could not get into it. Having to grind for certain weapons and the map design really made me dislike the game. The game is also just a boring meat grinder with meh gun play to a point where Ro2 a 10+ year old game does everything better imo.

[@2kippy]

I watched the entire video and my ARMA reforger mods are still installing

[@TacticalMetalhead]

Arma 3 > Reforger

[@Monifans]

just bought reforger, really got to give that a try

[@ara_orun8184]

A couple friends and I made an entire clan just to bridge the gap between high skill and low skill players. We understand how new players can be intimidated by the game and we play around that and also make sure they have fun at the same time. It also helps when you try and semi roleplay to make things interesting

[@frank_simpnatra3224]

I agree with your points, I think the single biggest issue with the game is the, what I call “xbox mic, cod 13 year olds” these kids just see a streamer or a trailer and jump into the game knowing nothing about the mechanics and just waste tickets and vehicles. You try to talk to them and if you can hear them through their shitty mic, they just talk shit while vaping. I played squad back during the green light days and it was a blast. It’s so popular now that it’s difficult to find consistently good players. Your idea of making mandatory tutorials is a must. Have one for general gameplay and mechanics that is mandatory before joining a game, allow them to only pick rifleman. Then have a tutorial for each specialized class. LAT/HAT, Medic, AR/MG, grenadier and marksman. Kind of like getting “certified” in each role before picking them.

[@syrianballsman6421]

maybe the game just fucking sucks and is not fun

[@danmur15]

unfortunately, the only real way to get a decent Tactical Shooter experience is to join something more structured like a milsim IMO. Im in two currently, I've been with the 29th Infantry Division for about 5 years on Rising Storm 2 and Squad, and I joined Task Force Black for Arma Reforger a few months ago. theres actually a wider range of milsims than i think most people realize, the 29th has a structured drill schedule with consistent hour-long matches every week on private servers and is more of your typical milsim. Meanwhile TFB was originally described to me as a 'chillsim' since attendance is instead measured by how active you are on their public server, with no set times or durations. Both groups essentially do the same thing: provide consistent curated battles in a tactical shooter game that just isnt possible when you have to herd blueberries on Squad's public servers. It's a shame, but its really the only way you can have squad's (or any other tactical shooter) mechanics reach their full potential.

[@powering__4062]

To anyone watching right now, please know that Squad 44 is still alive, and currently boasts 900 players active right now. It is being fed regular updates, with a hinted Pacific update later in the year

[@Joseph-kg3uc]

He seemed to have gotten outdated information because Squad 44 is getting back to its old glory days.

[@Monifans]

i already made a post about this. squad 44 was still down in the dumps when i published the video. 2 days later it started growing because of the update, and i'm happy of it's new found success. while i'm cautiously optimistic, just know that squad 44 has "come back" a couple times since 2020, but failed to retain those players and sunk back down. so, we'll see if this time it is permanent.

[@powering__4062]

@@Monifans sorry thats my fault i only saw this video

[@thesandvitchman9303]

Squad 44 got saved big time by the project variety update when that got officially added to the game.they finally gave us some new and much needed armored toys to play with *finally the us gets a non sherman heavy tank *welcome to the modern fps world m26 pershing*and France gets the long awaited Char b1 bis.

[@Choccymilk2996]

Squad absolutely needs required tutorials, for literally 7 years I never learned ammo or build or how to SL since I always just relied on trying to get into that one “inf mic” squad if I wanted a good time 😂 it really wouldn’t be too crazy to force people to take 8 min to learn the fundamentals of the game

[@Soy-Food]

Can we get Red Orchestra 3 now?

[@C4ndleJ4ck]

Trying to find teamwork in an online lobby is like trying to find an emotionally stable long-term spouse on Tinder.

[@brunotvrs]

Took me 3 years and 15+ women but I found my emotionally stable long-term wife on Tinder :))

[@joelm5509]

​@@brunotvrs me too mate! Took several years and tries and finally. So its not impossible 😂

[@Turned2Ice]

some day people will understand that using their microphone and communicating are not the same things

[@ryanclough8967]

Experience is the best tutorial, I learned the fundamentals of what I needed in Squads tutorial, then I got into a squad that was chatty, friendly and helped me fill in the blanks. People need to be the change they want to see, it's easy as fuck to be jaded and indifferent, it's hard to teach new people, but it's what people need to do to keep game quality high.

[@lubu4u312]

I love squad leading. I love helping my boys make big plays and the feeling we get when it works is amazing.

[@quimble2177]

PS also had the issue of, and while I hate the word but it fits here, toxicity. Not mean words, but people actively booting people because they were “the wrong clan”, not *being* in a clan, and general elitism and other shit.

[@benigno7209]

The flip side of that coin is that elitism & gatekeeping help keep the playerbase competent and high skill. Good in moderation.

[@CeriTsujimura]

Never been kicked from a PS lobby for being in the wrong clan, is this a recent thing since the takeover from OWI?

[@RyukaXV]

In my years playing PS, never i had beeen kick for no being in a clan

[@tedarcher9120]

​@@CeriTsujimuraNot from a lobby, but from certain squads. Happens all the time in Squad too

[@bushsbakedbaby1374]

@@benigno7209 doesn't matter if the playerbase is competent, if it's so small that the dev's get shut down... You need new players to keep pumping money into the game to recoup the development costs and make it possible to get updates. Gatekeeping is really good in the right situations, but if you only have *one* or maybe two servers with a decent player count, (Squad 44) then you need to seriously tone it down.

[@Jatsy]

This is a really well-made video that explains the issues I had with Squad perfectly. I played Squad religiously for years after I got it. I started playing less and less and eventually dropped off completely just before the ICO update and haven't touched it since. The randomness of the match quality really got to me. Having spent 99% of my time in various infantry roles and becoming good at them only to then suffer from lack of coordination led to me trying armor and getting screamed at for not being a pro that can read the minds of my silent crew. The dopamine hit of having a good SL and a squad that operates as a squad and not just a COD lobby is divine. I haven't found anything that hits that same high and wish I could just boot it up and get those hits again and again. When everything is working like a well-oiled machine, even the loses don't hurt that much. Losing because your TEAM was outplayed and not because the team fell apart feels acceptable. I miss it, so much.

[@dylanlahman5967]

Absolute slam dunk, Amen. You've just put into words every ounce of opinion I've held on these three games. I will say though, they really need to find a way to make squad leading at least optionally a little easier. I don't know how to do it without ruining the deep logistics of the game, but playing squad lead is absolutely more taxing than almost anything I'd do in real life. It's about on par with legitimate work, except I'm not being paid. Maybe they offer server config knobs that let you host a server more similar to HLL (e.g. don't need teammates to spawn rallies, autogenerating resources at fobs, etc).

[@Ponybloodismycoffee]

Insurgency kinda solves the problem Squad has by locking commander and observer roles behind a level cap. You can't play as these roles until you've played a certain amount of hours, and by the time your able to, you understand their purpose and how to use them effectively. Middle ground between "just pick anything, not my problem" and "hardcore tutorialization". Great vid!

[@isr4el187]

I wonder if the ICO alienated the playerbase and made a lot of the good players quit, and now it's harder to find balanced matches

[@Monifans]

this problem has persisted way before the ICO and still persists after it.

[@isr4el187]

@@Monifans I have not heard people complain about inbalanced teams nearly as much before ICO drop. There's a correlation, people just don't want to admit it :)

[@Monifans]

@@isr4el187 I invite you to go to a modded server where all these “veterans” went and see just how much better the communication is. (It’s not)

[@isr4el187]

@@Monifans There isn't a single person on my squad friends list, which is a solid like 150, that still plays that game modded or not. There is still some vets on those modded servers, but most have moved on.

[@Monifans]

@@isr4el187 this is all completely subjective or anecdotal. look, im not going to convince you. you're clearly not in the mind to be convinced. the good news is, no one has to convince anyone. there are modded servers made just for people like you. go join them.

[@izzyb6985]

Having a good SL and a squad with kits that know what there doing. HANDS DOWN one of the best experiences I've ever had in gaming. You feel so connected. It's a shame it only happens on certain servers

[@swaviddenson5623]

Squad is only fun with a planned organized event. Even hell let loose struggles to be good casually but it does better

[@martindrengenxbox360]

Earlier today, I was that Seal Team 6 member, lol. I instructed my squad to pick up some logistics trucks and follow me, I wanted to set up an FOB in a small village overlooking our objective. I got there ahead of my squad as I just sent it in an SUV. I got in a short firefight, took out 2 guys, then re-positioned and dropped a 3rd guy, ran to another building, dropped enemy 4 and 5, and finally got the 6th and last member of that squad. I cleared the last building and gave the logistics trucks the go-ahead to roll in and set up. This happened over the course of 3-4 minutes. That Scar H didn't let me down.

[@Turned2Ice]

be careful with stories like that in squad community, you might be called a brainless cod player refusing to communicate

[@martindrengenxbox360]

@Turned2Ice I know, but the ones who would call me that weren't there. Full comms with my squad the entire time. They were also delayed due to an enemy tank.

[@MadBaronFlys]

Not sure how Squad has stuck to a convoluted logistics and supply system for so long. Project Reality does it much more gracefully, requiring supply crates to build FOBs, but none of the manual loading, unloading and mental math BS. Additonal crates can be called for and delivered by chopper or truck. And, having to grab ammo EVERY TIME you spawn in Squad is just an annoyance that I'm sure most people would rather not worry about. Who spawns and doesn't refresh their ammo anyway? And forget about changing your squad after you spawn - you'll be assigned a basic rifle with no optics and 2 only mags. Good luck. The point is - some of Squad's gameplay design is hostile to the average player.

[@TakeMeToYoFishmonger]

the tutorial idea seems like a really good idea, its like what arma 3 does with its campaign missions.

[@anseph4595]

I think touching on the idea that both the game mode and win/ticket mechanics are really the primary issue. Part of the reason why the ICO was so negatively received is really due to the fact that before, if you had 1-2 decent squads who both communicated and had decent twitch shooting skills, you could carry a team to victory. With the introduction of the ico, it made it insanely more difficult as you were no longer able to use and abuse better twitch fps skills to carry and teamwork/strategy became more of a determinant in how a game plays out. As a result, an uncooperative team of randoms doing their thing, dying and bleeding tickets results in these casino pulls of trying to get that "perfect" game where everything and everyone is on point. I honestly view Karmakut's "Dynamic Direction" project positively, simply because the *king of the hill* type game mode is exactly the type of mode that can fit in people doing their own thing, while more hardcore players take on the metagame managing the team wide spawn network and coordinating assaults. Disconnecting individual deaths from the win condition and instead centering it on assets and easy to understand objectives that encourage randoms and casual players to contribute and be useful will be key to making games of squad much more consistent and fun for all parties involved. Essentially, AAS is a shit game mode for casual pub style matches/servers. You need to dumb down or rather redesign these modes to be more open to having casual players contribute without actively participating in hardcore teamwork.

[@marywiza]

I feel so proud of being a good squad lead... but the problem is: I was already a bad squad lead before being a good squad leader. Every squad player has to get their time to grow. I think squad community is still growing up. I see many many competent squad leaders growing in matches. I highly encourage team players to be squad leaders! Create squad with name: "NEW SL TEAMWORK" and such. The art of squad is good. It saddens me to see youtubers giving up saying squad isn't enough for battlefield players.... thing is: it's not for all battlefield players, it's different! It's a "combined arms simulation". It's not supposed to be like battlefield. Armor and infantry must work together in order to achieve total dominance over the battlefield. Edit: I'm sorry i might have misunderstood a little the video. It sounded a little confusing what you're opinion was.

[@mangosuppe8706]

100% what you saying, I am way too afraid as a player with just 10 hours to pick up squad lead when I see no squads that aren't full. Because every squad lead I see just seems like 1000 hour veterans who know every abbreviation, every point, code, hab/fob location, just everything!

[@finn9233]

HLL is a classic example of "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master". Its much more accessible and less punishing for new / unexperienced players, while at the same time offering enough depth for interesting team wide tactics.

[@KanzlerOttoVonBismarck]

3:50 A detail I love in red orchestra 2 is that the zoom is only in the optics, there's no zoom outside the optics. 99% of games zoom the whole screen in, or just black the rest of the screen

[@bernardoacordi3993]

I like being squad lead, that said, it’s frustrating when your squad is ineffective due to individual player skill, sometimes you feel like Winters, and everything you do works, sometimes you do the same thing but it doesnt work due to individual player skills in an engagement.

[@spaceshiba575]

I think that Squad is there to cross the threshold and open a new experience to those casual battlefield, or cod players. The people who are tired of spawning, running, then dying will enjoy squads slow paced quality. While those who want the battlefield experience can find it sometimes, but will struggle to pick up the excitement if they just wanna play it as the same system battlefield has if they're playing to spawn, run, then die. I left battlefield to go play something more intense, after seeing arma 3, and reforger, and squad, I tried squad to open me into the the variety of milsims. It was perfect when I played. It was because matches were slower paced. you had to worry about stamina, and other factors such as where vehicles go, where do i go? all of these were great things for people who wanted a new and different experience. I think that a lot of this video (which i did watch all of it!) talks about the aspect of wanting squad to adapt to a more casual gamestyle so squad leaders and infantry can work together easier. While I will say it is a problem where SL's who dont wanna talk and infantry squads who are the "mute squads" who dont talk at all throughout the whole game while someone runs off to the middle of nowhere and gets shot later from somewhere they dont know and then leaves, they are all punished for not communicating, and coordinating. People will get upset, you find yourself not having as much fun or intense gameplay as the other squads communicating, and if you run off people will kill you from nowhere. These are all good punishing factors for those who dont want to participate in working together. The problem I believe where this lies is OWI's effort to actually help those who are the incompetent, mute, and solo squad leaders. When I learned SL, the tutorial in squad never helped me. It gave me a basic run down of the system functions but not actually how to play the game. We lack in a good tutorial to help players change the way they play the game. We get a lot of short matches too, because a lot of good players can be sided on one faction or some squads just dont listen to others and do their own thing. I think the way squad handles the punishment for players who want to separate from the goal of squad which is communication and coordination is good. I just believe the big problem is the lack of effort to actually teach people how to change their playstyle, and adjust to something different and what to do. As a side note: Karmakut (originally a squad youtuber mainly a few year back) made a mod for squad called Dynamic Direction. This was when OWI was completely radio silent. And before ICO. He made the mod to actually make squad be fully what it needs. Which now OWI has kinda fixed but not as much as I wish it would. Karmakut released the mod that forced everyone to work together and making gameplay super fun and not as overly punishing as OWI made vanilla squad and changed some of the style to better suite the game and people . He did this by starting with a new gamemode, which had one giant purple circle over one area of the map that randomly changed throughout each round into different areas of a map. You had to place a HAB in the circle somewhere to gain tickets and drain the enemy of theirs. Your HAB was not able to be hidden because of how big it was and radio tower sticking out. That was the point. The point of the FOB you placed was to fortify it, defend it, and attack the enemy. It worked super well. He also forced people to work together by removing all players showing up on the map, and only leaving SL's as the only one you can see. That way those who are infantry, will have to follow their SL because they cant see where everyone else is and or they will think they're super far away from the fight. He also dropped armor timers to 5 minutes per respawn because he knew that the drive back to the battle would actually be the penalization timer. Rather then just doing what OWI does and makes a 15 minute or 30 minute timer for tanks on some layers which is absolute BS. I cant tell you how many times I played that mod. I loved it, it was fun. And i think it also worked because it brought so much people into the mod who actually felt the same way. We lacked communication and coordination. I think OWI can take a lot out of what Karmakut did for his community and the guys who wanted that coordination and communication. It worked well and was more tactical and fun. Squad right now is in a good pace, but we just need something new like a gamemode other than a "capture the flag" repetitive BS match. The chances of getting something exactly to or what karmakut was trying to do is probably not gonna happen ever. But if he comes back and updates the mod, I definitely recommend trying it.

[@lmaogottem5984]

the problem with dynamic direction is that the people playing that mod are mostly from karmakut's community, which is an established milsim community who knows how these games are supposed to be played. the problem with vanilla squad is that 90% of the player base never played a milsim before and they're used to just running in, finding something, then clicking on it. I still think dynamic direction is still a good idea, it forces players to be in close proximity to each other, so even if minimal communication is happening, it still allows players to work together whether they intend to or not.

[@Turned2Ice]

if you are not spawning, running and dying in squad then you are probably wasting your time in the middle of nowhere

[@spaceshiba575]

@@Turned2Ice agreed

[@IgnaceLoyola]

I discovered squad a month ago and find it magnificent. I play it because of the hardcore realistic aspect that forces you to learn from your mistakes. I dont know much about the ICU update but the whole mechanic of aim stability being tied to stamina is a must imo as it forces you to manage assaults better and allows suppressive fire to actually be a thing. As others pointed out Squad reaches out to a hyper realistic niche, if I want closer engagements and action ill just go play insurgency. Squad is innovating and we need it to explore the boundaties of milsim games. Once again that's my opinion, my favourite fps games are Insurgency 2014 and Call of the Wild, so obviously im in heaven in squad since it's the perfect mix of both.

[@reidsneid2046]

I honestly don't think i've ever seen a video that hits the nail on the head as much as this does. The highs that squad offers are completely unrivaled, but the lows can definitely become LOW. It's easy enough to mitigate the cons of bad leadership by going into more serious servers, but the initial learning curve is pretty brutal along with not many people wanting to become an SL, especially since SLs don't get access to the big booms. I hope they add more incentives to foster better leadership within squad, but here's to hoping OWI keeps the game true to itself.

[@bababeya2749]

I think one important thing that makes all the difference in these sort of games is having a dedicated community (I.E Perhaps a more rigorous server) or a core friend group of likeminded indivisuals to play with. It can really make all the difference when you know and like your entire fireteam. Afterall, fireteams irl know eachother, and the boring bits, I.E Transport to point and resupply runs are made all the more fun by witty banter in the middle. Just a thought

[@AndrewofDoom]

Yeah, usually when I SL I have one or two of my friends on to back me up to help me out.

[@luciusachron679]

My biggest problem with squad was having noone to play squad leader. My first 3-5 games almost nobody would start a squad and the ones that did would be instantly filled in seconds because noone wants to lead. I finally just decided to squad lead myself ( mind you after only maybe 5 games max) and while i wasnt the best, a few people were at least supportive cause they didnt have to lead. The others were just complete assholes who want to bitch and moan but dont want to actually lead.

[@Lord-x3k]

As someone who’s squad lead reason I stopped squad leading is people not wanting to listen to orders even when you ask in the nicest way possible.

[@AndrewTheFilipino]

i hope OWI sees this your 3 step to a better Squad sounds absolutely doable

[@juan_cat_juulio]

I've been a squad lead before and loved it I recently got the game. The problem is I have to learn a lot to function as a squad lead.

[@MaunoKoivistoOfficial]

Great points well made. This is exactly what I want from KZbin

[@ezioperez4747]

Im confused the steam charts say squad has double the people that hell let loose has

[@obeastness]

The reason I never play squad is because none of my friends are playing it. Going in as a solo is depressing, every squad that could be fun to join is locked, if you manage to get into an open squad, you often get an incompetent squad leader who rage quits when everything is going to shit causing the entire squad to dissolve, and if I squad lead, I have to deal with all the issues you mentioned, it truly is a community service, a painful one.

[@lanewilliams4473]

The cicada 3301 music caught me so off guard. Gotta commend the choice 🔥

[@MatheusBruno611]

Oh I agree with you. The problem is not that the game is complex, the problem is that there is no one to teach it

[@wirb3859]

One if the biggest problems i see with Squad is that almost every CC or ‘New player tutorial’ maker or just word of mouth in general calls it “Battlefield but realistic” to dumb down the premise of Squad to new players. This means they enter the game expecting ‘Battlefield but realistic’ but then are overwhelmed by the amount of cooperation, teamwork, and game sense that Squad requires players to have in order to be competent. They wonder why they are spending the first 10 minutes of each game driving in a truck to a location to build sandbags. They wonder why they can’t find enemies that are supposedly 50m in front of him. They wonder why everyone is talking so much on Squad Chat. They wonder why a guy called a “HAT” is yelling at him to come over to drop ammo for him. The list goes on

[@usmcbf3090]

While I do understand what youre saying, I came from Project Reality (which is a standalone mod for Battlefield 2) and I can absolutely see the comparison to Battlefield, especially older Battlefield games. However you are making a valid point, theres a lot more mechanics in the game than in your average Battlefield game, its hard enough already to get people to realize they can and have to revive people as medics/assaults there.

[@Skynet_15]

I think OWI needs to rework the squad leader comm rose to include orders that pop up for the squad members. Unfortunately, people who don't want to use their mics or don't know any particular information about an objective will exist, and a reworked comm rose might help with that. It might also help to have a mandatory training tutorial as you said but one focused on squad leader roles, not just squad mates. If they can implement some sort of certification system where a role is locked out for newbies until they complete the mandatory kit training that might be useful

[@OAB179]

Hey buddy, long time squad player here, wanted to give some info on the game and the devs intention to my knowledge. Squad is a first person tactical shooter featuring multiplayer battles on a large scale. There is a good video about it from 2019 called “ what is squad?” I recommend for those looking for the real squad experience is looking for clan or dedicated server. Not new friendly servers. Those should be considered to practice. 1. First and foremost, squad is not designed to cater to arcade or milsim players. What squad is trying to do is gap the bridge in between the two. By trying to avoid the repetativness and lack of depth the plagues the arcade shooters while reducing the complexity that often exists in military sims, (arma). 2. This is a team oriented game, players that stick together and fight as a squad are given the advantage while single player can be penalized. 3. Each roles has a unique benefit, Squad leads available to communicate with other SL, medics are the only ones who can heal, rifleman give ammo, lmg,hmg great for suppression and fire superiority. 4. (Infantry Combat Overhaul) ICO UPDATE, this was definitely the most controversial update squad has had. That is because between V9 up until the ico update squad was leaning more to the arcade side of shooter games. So to correct that and push towards their original vision of the game they released the ico update. Their inspiration is from a mod on battlefield 2 call project reality. Squad 44 Haven’t had the chance to play this one at its peak, but from what I read was OWI sold post scriptum, and the new devs for the game completely fumbled it. List of reasons go on to *little to no support/communication from the dev team. *No advertisement or community outreach *Unstable game engine that limit players with older tech/pc * And then entire dev team fired Around December This lead to them selling the game back to OWI which is going to overhaul the game.

[@bartomiejkoodziejczyk2457]

I played both games. I'm a 1,500-hour veteran of HLL and I've played squad for about 300 hours. What makes playing squad most difficult is the lack of markers on allies, which would make it easier to distinguish enemy from ally, and the lack of ping marking for each player.

[@oreothedoom]

Squad leading takes incredible patience cuz them mfs do not listen

[@Magyarpatriot-dk4mi]

War of rights is the best tactical first person shooter, the game activley awards and punishes if you do or dont follow orders, but it still lets you play as you want, it locks important roles such as officers, ncos and airtillery behind levels so that only the more experienced players can play them but leveling up is easy and it dosent take that much time to be able to play as every class, so the game has overall a good progression system. The best part is the voice chat in my opinion because even when your commander is incempetent or when team organisation is low, the players can goof around with each other. Not to mention little details like the battle replay when you can watch how the units moved and acted during battle or how you can customise the uniform of you character in every regiment in the game. Very good game.

[@Chreeeis]

I think a good place to start in improving communication and engagement across games is a mechanic that automatically uninstalls the game for players that create squads and immediately give sl to someone else

[@hurleybot]

Even when you win it sometimes feels unfulfilling. Last night our team beat the brakes off of the enemy team but my squad only got engaged twice by enemies and spent a third of the game in that Chinese logi AMTRAC. Though like you said, those "cherries" moments make the slog worth it though. Getting a cool firefight or a sneaky HAB destruction.

[@SeleckPlays]

Squad's number 1 problem is that a tank can't run over a small bush. Hell Let Loose has much better driving/map mechanics.

[@BillyJackman3D]

good video. main thing is squad leading feels more like work than fun in squad.

[@jimmyxrose]

that's a good video, great job making it alive

[@Tinylittledansonman]

Squads failure is being too casual. Reforger is basically what OWI described Squad would be on their kickstarter. Its been sad to watch them devolve from PR but it happened. Its basically just a slightly more complicated and tacticool looking BF clone at this point. Remove anyone can revive, enable people to kill downed enemies, implement true local chat where people in range can hear you, and above all have some actual authentic game modes. Not a single dynamic game mode that uses the whole map. Its simply too tourny focused to be what people like to pretend it is. At the end of the day its a very simple easy to play BF clone that people RP as being something requiring high levels of teamwork and coordination...then freak out when you do anything but rush center cap or play back cap defender lol. Thats basically it. Those are the two strategies in Squad. Whats sad is Reforgers conflict crushes it as just a single game mode. The game still offers so much more on top of that.

[@bunbun2181]

Good points being made! I love squad and it´s community and im glad to se more like minded people

[@TheSidwysDrftr]

Armour is less desirable in squad compared to hell let loose or post scriptum. A lack of divisions between what each squad specializes in, and the HP system is frustrating. HLL does the squad type divisions, PS does a component HP system.

[@sappermanz2474]

There’s a few of us SL’s out here doing our best. No locked squads, and the best leadership an ol washed up warfighter like myself can muster. I’ll give you a mission brief, break you into objective based fireteams, keep you situationally aware, and assign you sectors of fire that focus on terrain as well as the enemies’ likely avenue of approach.

[@aj.-3737]

Remember, boys sleep in the evening and men play in the evening.

[@BlackWolf9988]

2 tips for any new squad player. 1. avoid playing during game sales and 2 - 3 weeks after. 2. Try playing on a big clan server which also has active admins. As somebody who has well over 1k hours these 2 things really make a big difference in game quality.

[@Monifans]

honestly i just play on Tactical Trigernometry and usually have great games. sometimes there's a few rolls if there's too much clan stacking but it pays off overall.

[@Darkslayer125]

OWI and their shitty optimisation is the biggest enemy of the game ironically. How can the graphical demands keep going up, yet game looks the same? How can i feel great playing the game a year ago, yet a year later, aiming down sights make you drop to 20 FPS?

[@tylervolentine1286]

Honestly, my main gripe with the game is the lack of kit ammo... would love to see rifle kits with 10-15 mags. That way you take away pressure of constantly resupplying ammo, potentailly elongate firefights, and lean into the suppression mechanic... I'd be much more willing to expend 60 rounds suppressing to take a position or cover an advance if it wasn't a quarter of my ammo.

[@waddup177]

Doesn't need more ammo I don't think. Most guys have at least one rifleman, and that rifle bag can do pretty good in helping to sustain rounds down range during a firefight. IF you're burning that much ammo as suppressive fire then ur doing it wrong tell each squad member 3 round burst in the general direction

[@kobun6474]

Wild Bill Jammin said as much about Hell Let Loose. "People want to have fun, they don't want to play HLL" And honestly, mood

[@lilfish5245]

Play only on servers that have lots of experienced players. Those usually have large queue but its worth it

[@Monifans]

Paying for the whitelist is worth it’s weight in gold

[@Mr.Scootini]

I agree with this. It sucks to wait but it’s worth it.

[@BlackWolf9988]

​@@Monifans A lot of clan servers also offer free whitelist if you become semi active for a couple weeks.

[@tirushone6446]

in my region the the 1 "good" server is bearley even around anymore and even when it is the admins are massive dicks that will ban you for the slightest infraction of the rules or having more then your alloted amount of fun, so I have to play the casual servers, where everyone suchs. it's just such a shit situation the game is in. And I think addig the ico when they was a mistake becuase maybe its fun when you have a team, but when they made it so you can't lone wolf, but your team won't communicate, I just had to quit, nothing else to do.

[@98based30]

My really big problem with Squad is the performance of the game, usually FPS is horrible, and I have spoken with people who suffer the same and they have way better PC than me

[@Turned2Ice]

enjoy realism on ue4

[@MidwesternResults]

this video has honestly hit it right on the point. great video my guy.

[@Foxforwater]

I pretty much agree with everything in this video, and these community issues have self-reinforcing negative effects. I really wanted to get into Squad a while ago, and did my best to prepare myself through lengthy community guides so I could be useful to my team. When I played it I couldn't find a single squad that wasn't a completely unfocused mess without any orders. Sometimes the squad leaders didn't even have a mic, seemingly competent squad leaders left quickly because most people didn't respond, and I resigned myself trying to be the medic putting band aids on the meat grinder and uninstalled the game shortly after. When I tried Project Reality years ago I remember our squad rolling up to a eastern block apartment complex and sitting in that building the whole round defending a road where mostly not much happened, but I still had more fun during that than in the mess of my Squad matches.

[@africanricc3458]

It also depends on the servers u play on….that ultimately defines your squad experience…the server is everything

[@NeonCalibre]

Squad is bearable in Australia with the tight nicked community of Aussies and some decent SEA players who speak English quite well. We always have regulars that are willing to do their time as SL and have quite a bit of fun. Its always prideful knowing the individuals in the squad are doing well and are happy, talking away and during the quiet times of the game, enjoy banter, idle chatter or just get deep into some good conversation. I hope the community stays strong here, it seems to be still thriving with 4-5 full servers each day.

[@Herr_Gamer]

I know the vid is a couple months old, but HLL is on a downturn. S44 got a decent bit of a player boost with the most recent large update and there is a Pacific theatre update on the horizon. If you look at recent reviews, you see more and more HLL refugees joining the game. Post Squadtum is back, baybe

[@TB_Pvt_Mike]

Man you were spot on everything regarding about the situation with Squad, being someone who’s 2.5k hours are mostly from squad leading due to the amount of incompetent SLs who don’t how to properly place FOBs down or how to wrangle their squad mates. I think squad has great gameplay mechanics, the problem being people don’t take the time or actually put any effort into learning these mechanics. That real problem is not ICO, (never has been) but rather players who who play it like COD like shooter, the kinda players who are willing to run across the desert for 10 mins from a OBJ that they lost rather then just respawn. In regard to your Post Scriptum section I agree with that yeah they really didn’t market this game well, but there was like 1.5 - 2 year period where they never put out any info about updates or the future of the game. The reason being they put way too much effort into that armor, that yeah it’s pretty cool but i thing it wasn’t worth 2 years of other content.

[@privatefrizz8627]

I see this more as a modern gaming problem than just a squad problem. Most modern games are a lot more streamlined. There’s usually more “casualized” gameplay and more quality of life features that we tend to take for granted. It’s more convenient. Which is pretty appealing for a lot of people. So when we play a game like Squad; we end up facing problems that we almost never encounter in almost any game.

[@privatefrizz8627]

Just replying to myself so it doesn’t just look like a HUGE rant. I think your solution could work. If we get a LOT more tactical FPS games in the near future. Most people are probably not gonna be willing to put additional time into learning the basic concepts for squad in the way you proposed. I saw that you played Arma and have an Anti-astasi guide. Most of the people I play with in Squad have barely even touched Arma. It’s too much of a sacrifice they’re not willing to make.

[@riseup3150]

I get the best results I feel if I jump in a seeding server, and usually, usually I can squik out a win or two in a set of three games. It has been a while since I've actually played a round of squad.

[@Potato_Tactics]

SPOT ON! Actually spot on everything! TLDR: I rant that I quit squad because I saw a rise of bad squad leads, squad mates & squad commanders giving instances of said players but also point out im dogsh*t at the game too Big reason why I quit squad is because after the combat overhaul I noticed a significant decline on good squad leads, good commanders, and good squad mates. And Im not afraid to admit after the combat overhaul I became terrible I still cant get used to the weapon sway, in picture optics (gives me motion sickness), as well as the blur when being supressed (its not that bad when youre not aiming in) but still played it because it was fun. I just dont like the player base thats left now went into 3 different servers and people were logi wasting. One went into a kill zone that command said over the radio, another I told them not to take a specific road because of a tank (they died), another because they again went into a kill zone but died 2 other times same place 2 different logis (we lost the game because of this guy). I got threatened a ban because my team were trying to get rid of a sniper halting reinforcements (that sniper got like 30 kills and 40 or 50 so downs). In that same server new game the commander kept blaming everyone else for not taking points but this guy had no cooperation listened to no squad leader whatsoever I was in the same squad as him and was honestly the most infuriating squad lead i was with, his squad mates didnt like the dude either. Didnt let the sniper (same guy who kicked our ass last game) do his job, same with AT guys They cant get into positions ambushing armor. Attack Fobs were terrible positions gave no thought to logis (still got mad at logis for dying) since its the only way to supply them (map doesnt have helis) didnt put anyone on watch while building those fobs (no one was protecting or watching enemy movements). In no way shape or form am I saying im a good squad lead, Ive definitely made huge mistakes while playing like in a game I lead a huge rush on the snow map with the satellite dishes I dont remember the name of the map. We pushed and we pushed them back out of the point and I was under the impression that we capped the point... turns out we didnt and command got mad at us for continuing to push them back to the point after. We got capped from behind and we lost because everyone (including myself for egging it on) kept pushing. Honestly that was super embarrassing because I should have stopped and looked at the map that entire attack we lost more than 3 quarters the team. Then there was another time where I lead my squad into 3 consecutive ambushes 1 by armor killing us, 2 by machine gun fire, 3 also machine gun fire, in zones that had enemies marked/known very stupid. Another time teammates told me there was a mine I drove over it like a total dumb*ss with a logi, I was laughed at and made fun of RIghtfully so it was dumb. Im actually getting a flush of memories while typing this lol.

[@thekingminn]

The worst problem for me is the Mic problems. I have not been able to play squad for over 3 years now because my mic don't work. I have tried using 4 different headsets. I have tried every fix for this issue.

[@metalfusion1319]

I think a campaign that teaches basic things like section attacks would b cool

[@soupssheetshow1407]

As a Battlefield player, the biggest issue I see with Squad is that the classes seem to be set up to encourage lone wolf gameplay as they are all almost as equally competent as each other as they all get an assault rifle and a class gimmick (e.g. Anti-Armour gets a rocket launcher), so since they're all as equally strong in general combat, there's no real need to support your squad mates outside of the specific areas of your specialisation. Like, in Battlefield, the medic is running around with a SMG, or a carbine at best, so they can't do anything to defend themselves at long range and so are incentivised to stick with their team where their healing and res'ing mechanics can do the most good. The recon is the polar opposite, where they are great at long range, but are outgunned as soon the any get within mid-close range, but their kit is designed around long-range detection and scouting; whilst also being able to deploy spawn beacons to help move their team into more advantageous positions. Every role has its strengths and weaknesses that are covered by each other and each squad is encouraged to have one of each class in it to provide mutual support, thus ensuring that all of the teams playing naturally support each other. Mutual support is the key here, and Squad just doesn't feel like it has it naturally because every class basically has the same strengths and weaknesses outside of the specific situation their gadget calls for. I'm really interested in the FOB aspect of the game, as I enjoy base building and siege/counter-siege gameplay, but the lack of a dedicated engineer class that can build one up all by itself and having to rely on three separate classes with wildly different gameplay motivations to set up one just seems really rather silly; as you are basically herding cats every single time you want to do any building at all. A better comparison would be between Squad and Insurgency, because they are both gunning for the same audience, but Squad seems like it want to be ARMA-Lite and Insurgency is more around twitch shooting and urban warfare. Which is a problem for Squad, because the ARMA-Lite crowd is more likely to play something like Enlisted instead as Squad doesn't feel like ARMA at all.

[@App-bj6kz]

This was a fantastic video and touched on the different approach between how he’ll let loose uses casual players effectively and how squad struggles to do so, maybe squad should remove the ticket system all together? Although that creates other problems, I’m not sure how squad can utilise the casual player or do we head in the direction of not welcoming casual players at all? Remember though, casual played outnumber the mil sim fan at 1 to 100.

[@teezzmegee972]

Honestly you're right on the money with the gambling part but I honestly think that can apply to much more games than you think. Here's a little story that will go no where :p One time my team getting absolutely demolished by hordes of bmps and artillery. I was literally just prone down as they were bombing the crap out of us and it later killed me. (Let's say I have a fear for autocannons now....) The other time, I was a spotter for a bmp or a t-72 and they were raw dogging Abrams and Bradleys like it's out of a german pron flim.

[@witherwolf3316]

I've been wanting to try out Squad for quite a while now, but seeing just how focused around communication, coordination, and very specific tasks makes it very daunting and I feel like I'd need to go through a training camp to understand how to fulfill certain roles. Like the Armor, Logistics, and Transport parts of the game. I have no idea how people learn to do that stuff, and the "just practice" mentallity doesn't work because I don't want to be a detriment to my team. I feel like what Squad needs is a casual playlist or a campaign. Just something to help new players get their foot in the door on these mechanics before going out into the thick of it.

[@queuedjar4578]

The entry barrier really isn't as hard as anyone realizes when getting into squad. As long as you know basic keybinds and are good enough with the controls basically everything goes as follows: Armor: Pay attention to your SL, drive when he says drive or shoot when he says shoot at whichever radial number Logistics: Pay attention to SL, listen to where people want stuff, drive to said place on map. It's usually marked. Transport: Move people around to where they want you to move. It's usually marked. Pay attention to SL. And if you play as SL, just tell other people to do stuff, and kick from squad if they don't cooperate, easily replace them with someone else probably more willing. You don't have to actually really know what you're doing, just act like you know what you're doing and basically everyone follows along.

[@deezboyeed6764]

If your new, tell people and ask for advice. Youll get mostly positive feedback (always small amount of assholes). Genuinly the message you wrote here all ready proves youhave most thought then most people who buy squad.

[@PineActual]

Took a break from squad for a few months cause I just had a majority bad experience playing infantry and hit or miss with vehicles. Most relaxing gaming months of my life.

[@troar237]

hmm I had about 500 hours in when I retired the keys, I remember most of these issues but also being able to select a good server with reliable and knowledgable players. I miss squad, I can't wait to come back to gaming and Squad in a few years and see how far it's come.

[@Turned2Ice]

it evolved, just backwards

[@BoBunch]

My dumbass really went "Is that Aiden pierce to the left????"

[@ZeYkslawok]

The main issue in both games is the fact that they're opened to anyone. If both implemented a whitelist system to only include players communicating with any kind of experience then they would would be a lot more fun and adapted. A player who's willing to communicate is a player willing to actually play and learn. That's why serious RP servers on Garry's Mod, GTA, Minecraft and so on use whitelisting.

[@Turned2Ice]

> A player who's willing to communicate is a player willing to actually play and learn the most clueless thing I heard in months

[@brendontruong7127]

There is also a similar underlying issue in the game Foxhole where the whole "spawn, fight, die, repeat" runs counter to the whole resource and logistics system. If the game wants some form of longevity then there needs to be some retweaked implementation to attrackt casual players. Something like a more indepth battlefield scavenging system would help keep the casual players stay longer and lessen the absolute soul sucking grind that is running logistics. There could be something like corpse piles that spawn on front lines and you can find weapons, amo, etc. Something like a wooden cart that the player can move themselves to carry more loot around. It would be fun and high risk and high reward as it would oppen opportunities for the enemy to hijack your scavenging opperations and steal the loot for themselves. It would make the footman gameplay more varied and interesting.

[@liife735]

I feel like this issue is more exaggerated than in reality. 1,300 hours of squad and what the game has always come down to was 1-2 squads playing logistically with habs and flanks and the rest occupying armor/meatgrinder. It’s arguably the best system for the game. Most heli pilots are people who constantly main heli and carry the whole build/ammo side of the game.

[@africanricc3458]

Tbh I love where squad is at….u don’t ply together and communicate u don’t win….u can’t “1-man” it like u can kinda do with ARMA reforger…..if u are alone in squad, u won’t last too long…it’s like a chess match….they bring in a tank u need to make a counter move….constant problem solving like I’m sure it would be on a real battlefield…