SQUAD is NOT New Player Friendly.

[Noir Angel]

Obviously, a game like this will take time and effort to get into, but there needs to be a clear path for new players to get up to speed and the tutorial just isn't good enough.
Yes, it teaches a lot of the mechanics, but to actually get into the game you need experience, which is almost impossible to get, at least on EU servers.

''New Player Friendly'' servers are either empty, very low population or not New Player Friendly at all. All squads are locked, everyone is speaking in a language other than english (which is fine, but makes joining a squad more difficult) and nobody is replying in chat when you're looking for a squad that can help.

Unless you find some random clan or whatever that plays infrequently, then you're probably going to find yourself running around in a Squad with zero teamwork 99% of the time, 0.5% of the time you're not in a squad and 0.5% of the time you get kicked for not being in a Squad.

I really want to enjoy this game, but the state of it makes it nigh on impossible.

[S t e v e]

How i learned Squad.

Console commands that i use:
AdminChangeLayer Yehorivka_RAAS_v06 (test any map you want offline) hold Shift+P to enter free camera mode and fly around map to learn it.
DebugSkipStaging (skip staging timer)
AdminForceAllRoleAvailability 1 (unlocks all kits and roles)
AdminForceAllDeployableAvailability 1 (unlock any deployable)
DebugRevive
DebugFullHealth
https://squad.fandom.com/wiki/Server_Administration here you can find commands to spawn any viehcle or deplyoable.

SquidBots - Bots for Seeding you can find it in workshop. Helped me learn different uniforms and get used to gun play.

[Koent c. Uranus]

Squad isn't new player friendly. Once you get to know the game better you'll understand why.

For now google and watch youtube videos till you understand.

[RicardIII]

The first 100 hours or so are the great filter. Just play rifleman or medic to learn the controls, maps & gameplay mechanics. Listen to SL and read your map really often, so you don't have to open it when shtf.
And yes, you are right, you need a good server. There are some really great one.

[Seldom]

I agree. And honestly I have no idea how 6.0 is supposed to fix the lack of communication on European servers where 95% of players (or so it feels) don't speak a lick of English. Europeans simply WILL NOT speak English or coordinate with randoms.

[Seldom]

Look, OWI, I get it, you don't want this game to turn into another run-and-gun clone of CoD, and I think that's coming from a good place, but ruining Squad's gameplay to encourage teamwork is kind of misguided. You have a playerbase issue, not a gameplay issue. Randoms didn't communicate before 6.0, and they still don't, and nothing will change that. And specifically in the EU region players are notorious for not using mics in every single multiplayer game out there.

If you don't have friends playing this game or aren't part of some clan, just don't bother at this point. Playing a game like this with randoms who aren't invested in winning or coordinating with you is a miserable experience. Especially after 6.0.