My Thoughts on "The Game Sucks for Casual Players"

[$100 Bill]

I read a negative review today from a guy with about 1300 hours. His primary complaint was that on larger maps many casual players find themselves stuck on a point for whatever reason that is no longer the cap in question. Whether it be bad SL'ing, or vics got blown up, or any other number of reasons. He wrote that these players will start running to the next objective and by the time they get there 15 minutes later the next point is no longer the objective. They then go AFK or quit.

I have seen this happen and it has happened to me. Don't get me wrong I love the big maps and I look for groups or communities that I know the pubs are well-established. But a casual player does not know the well-trained servers and gets a bad impression of the game. So I put some thought into this issue and tried to come up with some helpful solutions. This is my list and by no means will I defend these suggestions as gospel.

With that said here are my ideas to improve the experience for casual players.

1. OWI--What if there was one or two offciial servers moderatered by OWI that only run skirmish maps? Let the casual players do their thing. Let them learn.

2. OWI--Add more small to medium-sized maps that have some light vehicle game-play. For example: Add a map that has a dozen techies vs. 1 or 2 MRAPs. Let them learn how to use SVG techies. Or a medium-sized map with tech vs tech game-play.

These kinds of maps will allow casual players a chance to hop in the game and learn. Casual players (who happen to be your largest consumer base) have been demanding maps with less vehicle game play. Don't only cater to clans and/or hardcore players. Yes, they are the loudest but they are ruining the experience for your newer players and/or casual players before they learn that tank play is freaking awesome. Take care of all of your customers. Lastly, this will help keep them off the regular servers run by the community. With 2,000+ hours I have seen many of these so-called expert clan-servers fall to♥♥♥♥♥♥ especially when they stack up against the public.

3. Community Servers--I'm sure OWI will not listen to my advice above and I'm sure they have good reasons for ignoring me and ignoring the largest segement of the consumer base. With that said, server owners can be the change that the public players are demanding. Skirmish maps don't have to be just for seeding. You have a vested interest in growing this community so why not sprinkle in more skirmish maps in your rotation? Try adding a skirmish map every 3rd or 4th, or 5th map. There are plenty of good skirmish maps now. Some are medium-sized and very fun to play. Every map in your rotation doesn't have to be a tank battle. I'm sure you will tell me how stupid I am. It's fine, I know how to take crittercism but I also know how to listen. I know how to listen to you and I know how to listen to what the casual player wants. At the end of the day it is your server so you get to make this choice not me.

4. OWI--Is there a way for you to show the next map on the server browser? It would really help people pick a server so that they could find a favorite map. There are times where I am dying to be a crewman and I don't want to have to wait 4 or 5 hours for a good armour map. Similarly, there are times when I want a good skirmish map (no, not sumari...sigh).

5. Community Servers--Stop stacking against the public. They will quit and they will move on. Consequently, the player-base will dwindle and die ultimately leading to you having no one to play against. How can rolling over the opponent every single game be fun for you? The reason I stop playing most-single player games is because I can roll over the AI and I get bored. You will have more fun if your matches are closer and exciting.

These are my thoughts on a few ways the gaming experience could be improved for newer/casual players. Are there any other ways that you can think of? If so, I would like to hear your suggestions too.

[Dakota]

In my opinion, non of this is needed and I personally hate the smaller maps. What the game needs is a simple tutorial. Red Orchestra 2 had one that lasted maybe 15 minutes and I knew everything I needed to to play proficiently going into my first battle. I would love for Squad to do something similar. Adding smaller maps and steering the game or new players off in a different direction is not the solution, because the problem is that new players join and don't have a single idea what to do, then only receive the advice of "go watch YouTube guides" (which often go outdated) or "play 100 hours as a rifleman and ask others how to play the game"

[OVKHuman]

OWI is a small team and running their own server isnt going to be any better off than community servers. Note that all official servers require them to follow OWI server rules. Skirmish maps are not the most popular...unless its talil because thats the one time infantry combat might be fun.I like your 4th suggestion. Clan stacking could be made against by OWI but I feel like they don't see it as a priority or something...*hold on advertisement incoming* RIP prevents clan stacking by forcing clan members to balance themselves +/- 2per side

[$100 Bill]

Originally posted by Dakota:

In my opinion, non of this is needed and I personally hate the smaller maps. What the game needs is a simple tutorial. Red Orchestra 2 had one that lasted maybe 15 minutes and I knew everything I needed to to play proficiently going into my first battle. I would love for Squad to do something similar. Adding smaller maps and steering the game or new players off in a different direction is not the solution, because the problem is that new players join and don't have a single idea what to do, then only receive the advice of "go watch YouTube guides" (which often go outdated) or "play 100 hours as a rifleman and ask others how to play the game"

I think the tutorial might help a little but most people won't play it the same as they don't play the range so I'm not sure how much the tutorial would help but certainly it would be better than nothing.

[$100 Bill]

Originally posted by OVKHuman:

OWI is a small team and running their own server isnt going to be any better off than community servers. Note that all official servers require them to follow OWI server rules. Skirmish maps are not the most popular...unless its talil because thats the one time infantry combat might be fun.I like your 4th suggestion. Clan stacking could be made against by OWI but I feel like they don't see it as a priority or something...*hold on advertisement incoming* RIP prevents clan stacking by forcing clan members to balance themselves +/- 2per side

I'm not suggesting implementing a rule preventing stacking just a suggestion to server ownewrs that their own experience would be improved as well as that of the public if they tried to balance it out and keep it exciting.

[Dakota]

Originally posted by $100 Bill:

Originally posted by Dakota:

In my opinion, non of this is needed and I personally hate the smaller maps. What the game needs is a simple tutorial. Red Orchestra 2 had one that lasted maybe 15 minutes and I knew everything I needed to to play proficiently going into my first battle. I would love for Squad to do something similar. Adding smaller maps and steering the game or new players off in a different direction is not the solution, because the problem is that new players join and don't have a single idea what to do, then only receive the advice of "go watch YouTube guides" (which often go outdated) or "play 100 hours as a rifleman and ask others how to play the game"

I think the tutorial might help a little but most people won't play it the same as they don't play the range so I'm not sure how much the tutorial would help but certainly it would be better than nothing.

The range and a tutorial would be very different, and while not every player would play a tutorial I would imagine enough would to make a difference seeing as it would be a one and done thing

[Shifter]

I feel you on #5. It gets old quick on either side when its a steamroll due to stacking.

[oldschool]

^, number 5 needs to be a thing

They need some way to grade players, then after every match try to balance out the teams

[$100 Bill]

Originally posted by OLDSCHOOL:

^, number 5 needs to be a thing

They need some way to grade players, then after every match try to balance out the teams

A rebalance would be helpful. I bet a rebalance based upon hours played would be just as good as any other arbitrary ranking system.

[oldschool]

yea im not for a ranking system, something like hours played+previous games performance. IDK, but if they put in a system they should be able to tweak it easily to keep improving on it

[TheWolfDrone]

Don't have some insane amount of hours in the game but I do play it, and watch things about it. So in my own personal point I would love more small and medium maps. The reason why I like most shooter's is it switches things up every map or so. Not just constantly spend 3 minutes plus driving somewhere or god forbid walking due to crappy placement of things. Not every single map being played has to be a travel time and vehicle focused thing.

Edit: To add in, big maps can look great but damn if some small maps in shooters don't just take you in completely and amaze.

[lasersaw17]

i think this would be a great idea and squad should test this out... im down to try it! i stoped play because it gots olded after awhile... i have a good amount of hours on this game i would love to see this game try your suggestions out. hopefully the devs see this post and think about it i have to say squad is a great game tho

[$100 Bill]

Originally posted by lasersaw17:

i think this would be a great idea and squad should test this out... im down to try it! i stoped play because it gots olded after awhile... i have a good amount of hours on this game i would love to see this game try your suggestions out. hopefully the devs see this post and think about it i have to say squad is a great game tho

Thanks for the kind words.