The experiences I linked can be started with 1 person.
In general, no, you don't need 4 people to start. Specifically, you may have certain limits that EA constantly changes, if you want weapon mastery or challenge progression. But, if all you want is to play and are fine with just rank XP, you can and have always been able to solo start a custom server.
I created a server with generic settings and it said full progression. When I went into it says 4 people needed to start.
Yes, like I said, if you want full progression, you will be limited by EA's ever-changing policies. If you want to get around those limits, you need to create a properly-configured custom server. In other words 1-player start and 4-player start are both options and are both true statements. Nuance is what differentiates them.
Thanks for the reply.
In my case, I want full progression so I don't mess with the settings.
4 people to start is an improvement over the previous requirement.
I have tried a couple of your portal servers and they are good but I really missed the weapon XP.
Again, thank you for keeping this thread active and helping people out with advice.
