Squad management is pretty pointless

[player]

If you don't manage them whatsoever there won't be any severe downsides besides the officers in question leaving. This is even worse if you're like me and don't give a damn about the perks that come with each squadmate. Moreover, the squadmates themselves aren't given much of a personality either, so it's not like you can get attached to them or anything and this problem is made tenfold by the fact that the game will even autofill your team if there aren't any squadmates left. They're just meat for commander mode's meat grinder.

Have the AI do something extreme, like go on a crazed tirade, start violating the RoE more often or maybe even ignore your orders followed by them even criticizing you. Atleast give us something.

No hard feelings

[Desiire]

Practice mode is great. Outside of earning a tiny handful of cosmetics; you get all of the rewards of Commander mode without trying to unlock levels and dealing with the roster system. It's a blessing

Kind of wish instead of a roster system they just had a core cast of characters whom you bond with as the game goes on

[player]

Originally posted by Desiire:

Practice mode is great. Outside of earning a tiny handful of cosmetics; you get all of the rewards of Commander mode without trying to unlock levels and dealing with the roster system. It's a blessing

Kind of wish instead of a roster system they just had a core cast of characters whom you bond with as the game goes on

Idk, playing practice mode just doesn't feel right. I like progressing through the game because otherwise if there's no clear objective to strive for and complete then everything else just kinda feels pointless to do, y'know? Also, I agree with your second point. I wish this game had a more relatable set of characters to actually bond to, too.

[Filthy peasant]

what is incredible to me is the sheer number of people defending this system in my thread i posted about the same thing, like it adds so much to the game and its so immersive to take care of nameless officer's number 5 mental health and an essencial part of the game.

[Desiire]

i would agree with you and I played through commander mode first because I figured that was "the right way to play," but unfortunately I and many others have learned that there is little to no story in the game. there are a few "clues" that maybe link a few missions together, but there is no build-up to ANYTHING. there are essentially a handful of "arcs" or "series" that take place throughout the campaign, such as the pervert ring or the jihadists, but they are so loosely connected and have no interesting characters except maybe the Voss family--there is almost nothing memorable with any mission or character except how impossibly hard the level was, or how much of a nothingburger the characters are

a great example is the mission that has 3-4 extremely hostile perps in the house that is just boobytrapped to hell and back. it's a great mission environmentally, but the environment does not tell a story AT ALL. and you can't name any of the characters in that mission. they're not worth naming. they're just a cluster of nobodies--even when you are tasked with arresting one of them specifically by name.

not like Fairfax Residence, where the name of the perp you are looking for is in the mission. You will never forget the name of Lawrence Fairfax once you play through that level. Everything about that mission sticks with you from beginning to end, and there is only one or two suspects in that entire level. That's because not only is the environment compelling, but the briefing is too. And then you play it and the officers with you are just blown away by what they are seeing. It's great. You don't get ANY of that in RON because who cares what officer joe-bozo-who-gets-fragged-next-mission says

I can name you maybe two people in RON. Their stories--the missions surrounding them--the environments in which they inhabit--they are so superficial and uninteresting, and the mission briefings are so pitiful and full of nothing that immerses you in the story. The only missions that made me go "huh, cool" is The Spider and Valley Of The Dolls, which are easily the highlights of the game

at the end of the day the commander mode is just a huge nothingburger. the levels are strewn around haphazardly. they don't get progressively more difficult: they are just random. You start off with a handful of easy missions and then you are immediately fighting crazy farmers with body armor; and then you are back to shooting unarmored cartel thugs; and then you are back to shooting armored people, and then you are back to shooting gangbangers in some beachside property. It's just random and it makes you not care about anything

[Desiire]

all of that is to say commander mode will just leave you frustrated beyond the roster system itself. i don't want to influence your opinion in any way; i'm just telling you to be prepared because eventually you'll hit the wall and realize that the story is going nowhere too and it'll make you double down on not caring about anyone or anything going on

[SkebbZ]

Just made a mod for this, there's a hardcore variant which pretty much nerfs the system into oblivion so you can ignore it if you like.

https://www.nexusmods.com/readyornot/mods/3278