FOCUSED FEEDBACK:: The importance of Squads

---

@TheOnlyJuman wrote:

Welcome to FOCUSED FEEDBACK a series of feedback letters that address various points in the game in the hope of pushing it to something great.

In this one, we'll take some time to think about SQUAD MECHANICS, aka the 4 green arrows on your map!

Let's think about it for a minute. First of all, it is crucial to fully understand the importance of squads. Why are they in the game? What is the added value of such a mechanic?

Battlefield is a game that screams to you every second you play it that you're part of a team and that you should play that way. Whether you're an absolute beast of an infantry player, or even in the most armored vehicle, you will never be enough if you're alone. In that sense, the regrouping of players in 4 to 6 members units that'd push and operate together was a natural step in what is now a pillar of the Battlefield franchise. Until BF2042 and its removal of traditional classes, it was about specialization to add something to the squad. On a well-balanced and efficient squad, it would be possible to have an anti-armor powerhouse with unlimited ammo, capable of self-healing and reviving, and also with a sniper to take out infantry and push the objective. The peak of the Battlefield experience would entirely depend on that squad system.

I'd argue that since maybe the Bad Company titles, the squad mechanic has become pretty shallow and is now almost just a convenient way to highlight your friends in green in matches. With random people, the squad mechanic too often stumbles and every one of its members is scattered on the map and only serves as a mobile respawn beacon. Random players in the same squad are not sticking together anymore, because they don't have any reason to do so. And since we no more have that "specialization" aspect in 2042, we need to look at other stuff to bring squads to the forefront of the experience.

Let's pinpoint the issues with squad play in BF2042, to address them point-to-point right after:

• The SQUAD LEADER mechanic doesn't bring anything to the tables except for a barebone objective order.
• Asking for an objective order seems incomplete, and doesn't transfer the squad leader role if that order isn't given quickly enough.
• No squad management screen.
• Squad capture doesn't give you more points.
• Not enough info about squadmates when you're in-game.
• Squad scoreboard doesn't reflect any "attack" or "defend" score, despite being the most important thing in a Battlefield game.
• If a player leaves the match or switches squad, the points he scored are deleted from the squad.
• On squadmate respawning needs some substantial changes/spawn beacons needs fixes.

All of these combined really dampers the importance of squads and the squad leader role. And I believe that, in a 128 players environment, it is more important than ever to start playing together and pushing the objectives.

So let's address all these points, and try to revitalize those mechanics and update them to bring teamplay back into Battlefield.

FIRST, BRING SQUAD LEADER TO THE FOREFRONT

In the squad presentation screen, the character with the voice line and animation should always be the squad leader, to introduce the importance of squad play from the get-go.

That's the guys we should stick with! Let's work together as a unit rather than as individuals!

SQUAD MANAGEMENT SCREEN

Ok, ok, squads' names appear multiple times, but you get the idea.

A good way to access that screen would be via the "Squads and players" screen that is already present in the game. The minimum requirements in-game should be to see all our team squads in real-time, their scores including captures, revives, etc., and if they are in vehicles right now.

If at one point in the game I need to switch squad, it will always be because I care, even a little, about playing with a squad. So I need to see which squad is doing well in that regard, to join them and play together. If I'm an infantry player and there's a squad playing only vehicles, then I need to be able to know that before joining them.

That's why it is super important to also include the defense and captures of objectives into the scoreboard.

SQUAD CAPTURE

First of all, before going into the squad capture stuff, let's get rid of the "anyone in a squad can ping an objective" mechanic. It doesn't work and just destroys the purpose of organizing with your squad. It should only be up to the squad leader to ping the objective. It'll have another huge impact on organizing playing with the whole team, which I'm covering in another topic below.

The squad capture system should come back, and most importantly it should take into account the number of squad members that helped capture or defend a point.

Capture should remain the main goal of a Battlefield game so this should be reflected in the scoring system. To tie squad play to objectives fighting, soldiers would get a score bonus for every squad member that was present on the objective when capturing. That would IMO be much better than the bonus score when capturing a flag that was pinged by the squad leader.

Semper Fi boys!

SQUAD RESPAWNS / SPAWN BEACONS

Let's get this out of the way first: squad respawning is frustrating at best in its current state, with that pesky "IN COMBAT" mode that prevents us to spawn on our teammates. I understand the will to have some sort of spawn protection, and I also understand that's a complex topic to balance out. You can't add spawn protection that lasts x seconds, otherwise, it would be unfair for the enemy. I believe it is also complex to calculate what cause that IN COMBAT state, but I firmly think that such a system is no longer viable in a 128 players environment, due to how much more often players can be considered "in combat". This often leads to a situation in which I'm clicking forever on a squadmate and am not able to spawn, even if the said squadmate isn't taking any damage. And as I think it is a good thing to tell the respawning player there is a risk on that respawn point, I don't believe we should restrict the spawn.

My idea is only to WARN the player, but if he wants to respawn anyway he should be able to do so by holding the DEPLOY button/key. Here's a mockup for it.

New concept for just a warning, the button goes Yellow instead of Red, and you have to hold the button for 2sec if you really want to get back at that spot.

Spawn beacons should also benefit from that warning indicator since the respawn is immediate and can lead the players to immediate death.

ORDER REQUEST & TRANSFERRING LEADER ROLE

Right now there is no way to transfer the squad leader role in a random squad. Let's look at previous versions, in which if the Squad Leader doesn't reply to an ORDER REQUEST within a specified timeframe, the LEADER role is transferred to the squadmate that asked for the order. That countdown could be reflected in the Squad UI, as shown below.

Here's how a squad request could be reflected in Squad UI, with a visible countdown before transferring the Squad order.

SQUAD STATUS

Every member in the squad UI should see squad mates' requests.
For example, if a squad member asks for ammo, it should immediately be visible in the Squad UI, and be highlighted if you are in the position to provide supplies.

Every member in the squad UI should see squad mates' requests.
For example, if a squad member asks for ammo, it should immediately be visible in the Squad UI, and be highlighted if you are in the position to provide supplies.

SQUAD SCOREBOARD IMPROVEMENT

Squad scoreboard is a nice addition to the game, but SHOULD NOT be an excuse for not including the traditional scoreboard. I believe both should be mixed together, so we can also see the individual performance of each player. Image speaks louder than words, so here's a new scoreboard mockup with the most important part of the scoring system added, POINTS CAPTURED & POINTS DEFENDED. POINTS CAPTURED might come with a 2x multiplier to really incentivize players to push the objectives. And POINTS DEFENDED could be awarded on every kill on a flag area.

One very important point to change into the actual scoreboard is also the fact that points that were awarded by a player that left the squad stay for that squad. I don't really see the point of the score dropping down when a player changes squad, leaves the game, or just crashes (which should also be reflected onto the scoreboard.)

As you can see, almost everyone has the same score. That's me realizing in the process of making this that I need to stop wasting my time on unnecessary stuff and go enjoy my life! (also I'm pretty sure the maths don't add up, but you get the idea.)

INTER-SQUAD COMMUNICATIONS

That part is a REALLY important one and doesn't imply too much work to put it in-game.
Let's get this straight: most of the communication should be with the squad, however, some information can be used to organize all the squads of the team.
That would be pretty simple, and that system is a matter of fact already present in Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Every time a squad leader ping an objective, it adds a number next to it, that everyone in the team can see, so they know how many squads are attacking or defending that objective.
Here's how it'll look, both in-game or on the map/spawn screen.

With such a mechanic, you can easily tell how many friendly squads are attacking or defending a point, and can organize accordingly.

This would actually help A LOT to quickly and easily organize squads on the battlefield, both in Conquest and in Breakthrough modes.
And this could also be reflected onto the Squad Scoreboard, so we know what objective each squad is fighting for.

That's it for the FOCUSED FEEDBACK part on The importance of Squads! I feel we have to reinject a sense of squad play into the game, even more on a 128 player setting. We can't afford to turn the tides of a battle alone, we need to be a proper unit to be able to shake things up.

Next up, we'll have a look at big stuff we can add and change to tackle the vehicle's issue and see how we can create systems to allow them to play together!

---

Based on the Squads thing in your post The Game Still lacks/Needs:

-Battlelog/ Platoons - This will help us players organize our clans on the game just like in BF3/BF4, etc

-Bigger Squads (6 man like in BF2) - 4 man squads are too small and traditionally battlefield is normally 5-6man squad. 1 Squad leader with 4 to 5 foot soldiers of different class classifications for specific duties for the squads objective.

-Classes like in BF2: Spec-Ops/Medic/Assault/Engineer/Support/Sniper - These made sense so you can only use certain weapons as a certain class, just like in BF4. One set of weapons can be used by ALL classes while others are specific to those particular classes.

-Ability to join on friends even if the "Party" is full" - as of right now we have to have a squad join a server, leave the party, start a new party and invite more friends to get all your friends on the same server and wait in que for a spot which

-Server Browser - This is why we need server browser back as well so we can join the same server we know has room left. Matchmaking is horrible. let us play with our friends...