8, 10 or 12 man squads?

[sylphaen]

I do not get the squad cohesion issues... No one forces anyone to fill up a squad to 12 persons. The squad is also only as good as its members.

Larger squads allow to form small little logical groups inside the squad. 12 being a number easy to divide in many different ways, I prefer it to 10.


I prefer one squad of 12 to three squads of 4. With 12, you do not need to reform squads when you switch the leader changes its composition or roles as the fight evolves.

Versatility is great and I hope we will get versatile tools.

[moosepoop]

you cant divide the squad into minisquads. firstly peopel will go off to do their own thing. secondly there will be too many command beacons on the map.

[sylphaen]

Originally Posted by moosepoop

peopel will go off to do their own thing.

Isn't that the whole point of spreading out ?

[NewSith]

I would actually like to have squad limit set by SL. So, of course, it should have some max number (and I say it should be 10, Pilot+Gunner thing is good reasoning), but it's up for the squad leader, IMO, to decide the max amount in that frame.


EDIT: Also, Platoons. The topic was brought up multiple times, Higby responded that they'll consider it, but I remind you still.

[Blackwolf]

Originally Posted by moosepoop

you cant divide the squad into minisquads. firstly peopel will go off to do their own thing. secondly there will be too many command beacons on the map.

First, these are symptoms of a lack of discipline, not a general rule of thumb. I've never been a part of an outfit that ALLOWED people in organized outfit squads to just run off and do their own thing. Mainly because I would just quit said outfits.

Secondly, command beacons are fine so long as they are controlled and not annoying beams of light shooting down from the sky.

[Rbstr]

Honestly, 4 or 5 is good as long as there's some kind of platooning ability.

It might be good to have the smaller squads in a strict sense but have larger official groupings available. If some kind of squad exp sharing is around for instance you'll want to have a full squad to maximize that...but those may just be random dudes drawn in for promise of exp.
It also has a huge effect on potential squad spawning mechanics. Smaller sizes seem like they'd lead to less undesired squad spawning issues. One dude can't suddenly become 10, only 5.

[sylphaen]

Originally Posted by Rbstr

It also has a huge effect on potential squad spawning mechanics. Smaller sizes seem like they'd lead to less undesired squad spawning issues. One dude can't suddenly become 10, only 5.

Oh right... forgot about that... There would be better ways to fix it that would not involve axing teamplay, though. I hope squad sizes are not reduced for reasons like that.


If anything squad leaders should get a lot more options instead of budget teamplay mechanics.

[captainkapautz]

12 sounds good, have squads as big as fits into a gal or sundie if it isn't 12 sounds even better, but what I'd like to see is some kind of way to differentiate between individual squadmembers, i.e. every single squaddie isn't colored the same on the HUD and/or map.

It'd be nice if the squadleader could give every squaddie his own color or even better an icon, i.e. "Bob gets a wrench cause he's our combat engineer, Steve gets the red cross cause he's our medic and Jimbo gets the explosion-icon cause he's on MAX-duty to fuck shit up.".

Would even be better if it was a cert the squadleader had to get, preferably rather early, so you knew right away if your squadleader is worth a damn or not.

P.S.: Yea, I know platoons had different colors for different squads, but all that did was instead of just having a map and HUD full of yellow, it was also littered with purple and the other color I forgot (green?).

[Blackwolf]

Originally Posted by captainkapautz

12 sounds good, have squads as big as fits into a gal or sundie if it isn't 12 sounds even better, but what I'd like to see is some kind of way to differentiate between individual squadmembers, i.e. every single squaddie isn't colored the same on the HUD and/or map.

It'd be nice if the squadleader could give every squaddie his own color or even better an icon, i.e. "Bob gets a wrench cause he's our combat engineer, Steve gets the red cross cause he's our medic and Jimbo gets the explosion-icon cause he's on MAX-duty to fuck shit up.".

Would even be better if it was a cert the squadleader had to get, preferably rather early, so you knew right away if your squadleader is worth a damn or not.

P.S.: Yea, I know platoons had different colors for different squads, but all that did was instead of just having a map and HUD full of yellow, it was also littered with purple and the other color I forgot (green?).

Squad members were represented numerically. The leader was 1, in order of joining the squad, you'd have 2-0 (0 being 10). If a member dropped out and another joined, he got his predecessor's number.

Platoons were color coded as well as numbered. The leading squad was yellow, the second was orange, and the third was purple, all with numbers 1-0 allowing easy identification for Teamspeak and the like "This is purple 3, I've got a visual on an enemy AMS at my location".

The bar showing your squadmates had name and number at the top of the screen, so if you needed to know who was 3, you could glance up.

[captainkapautz]

Originally Posted by Blackwolf

Squad members were represented numerically. The leader was 1, in order of joining the squad, you'd have 2-0 (0 being 10). If a member dropped out and another joined, he got his predecessor's number.

Platoons were color coded as well as numbered. The leading squad was yellow, the second was orange, and the third was purple, all with numbers 1-0 allowing easy identification for Teamspeak and the like "This is purple 3, I've got a visual on an enemy AMS at my location".

The bar showing your squadmates had name and number at the top of the screen, so if you needed to know who was 3, you could glance up.

I know that, but having to find a single number in a sea of same colored numbers can cost precious seconds.

[Blackwolf]

Originally Posted by captainkapautz

I know that, but having to find a single number in a sea of same colored numbers can cost precious seconds.

Which is why I suggested what I did, SL having the ability to designate color coded fire teams complete with both letter and number codes. Finding individuals will always be a chore, but 12 man squads seperated into teams of X determined by the SL would simplify things a lot, without getting too deep in the micromanagement.

[captainkapautz]

Originally Posted by Blackwolf

Which is why I suggested what I did, SL having the ability to designate color coded fire teams complete with both letter and number codes. Finding individuals will always be a chore, but 12 man squads seperated into teams of X determined by the SL would simplify things a lot, without getting too deep in the micromanagement.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I had in mind, just more simplified.