Not able to join servers with more than 4 players to play together

The only way to get more than 4 players on one team is for one member of the squad to create a new party and for people to join that party. When they load in, the player who made the party will be put into a new squad with the player. It's definitely less than ideal, particularly given the matchmaking limitations for the next round described above. The flipside is that it is a pretty effective way to prevent clanstomping. In BFV, even one competent squad of four can swing a match when they join halfway through. Having two squads, all communicating in Discord, makes the round unwinnable for the other team. I appreciate that it is frustrating if you're trying to play together as a large group.

I basically consider All Out War mode to be a basic AF "I can't be arsed to think about anything; I just want to shoot folk. Hurr hurr hovercraft" mode for up to four people. Anything over and above that, I will just play portal.

While the XP gained playing portal is currently limited, I generally find that portal games are less chaotic with a much better flow to them, even with 128 players on 2042 maps. They're consequently a lot more fun. I played on a portal server last night with BF3 teams and rules on the rull rotation with 64-player map sizes. Breakaway was brilliant. Battle of the Bulge was amazing. The ACW-R felt just perfect. My only sad-vegan-face moment was when I found that the AN-94 is the BF4 version, not the BF3 version. The fact that there were no hovercraft was another key difference - they really do mess with the whole balance.

When the devs reinstate progression for Portal, I don't see myself playing much else. Even my squadmate - who is really negative about 2042 - had a blast.