What happened to our competent SLs?

[CougarTX]

I've been married to this game for over 4k hours, even have a channel promoting Squad gameplay, but it's been seriously disappointing lately. Very few have the balls and confidence to take up SL anymore. Squads keep coming apart before leaving Main. Well, you probably know what I mean. How can we get the veteran players to return? Discuss...

[GutZ]

according to reddit, some of them are not playing the game because of ICO update, they want their game reverted back to pre-ico so they are throwing a hissy fit.

The game has more players than ever and lots of them are new so this goes to show that ICO is a success and isnt being reverted back and Im on the same page with that.

Basically, new players are going to have to catch up..and If you really want to help out- then take the role of playing SL, and narrate on the mic as you play to your squad on what, and why, you are doing everything that an SL does. This way others can learn from watching you and take the role in the future.

[ArtofWar]

7,000 hour player here and as long as the game remains an unfun pile of ♥♥♥♥ thanks to the ICO, I am never coming back and I'm pretty sure none of my friends who are all veteran players will be either. Gameplay is what is important and the gameplay is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ now. I don't have all the time in the world to play anymore like I did years ago while I was in school. Now I work 12 hour shifts everyday of the week, the last thing I want to do when I get off work is boot up Squad and deal with 1. terrible teams that don't communicate or work together which is what you run into 90% of the time, 2. frustrating game mechanics that artificially limit my own ability. Squad is already frustrating enough because of the lemmings you get on your team every game. You can't consistently rely on your team mates to do literally anything in this game and taking away player agency in the name of "authenticity" was a bad move and only made the gameplay boring as everything they did just made camping the best way to play. Before the ICO I could at least rely on my skills and the skills of my squad mates because like I said I play with friends. We could effectively have fun and do well within our own squad regardless of whether we won or not. We didn't necessarily care about winning because we were having fun. Now the game just isn't fun, end of story.

[ArtofWar]

Originally posted by BlackDave:

.
The game has more players than ever and lots of them are new so this goes to show that ICO is a success and isnt being reverted back and Im on the same page with that.

No it doesn't, it has no more players than it normally had. We were hitting 18k peaks long before the ICO. Anyone with slightly above room temperature IQ could look at the steam charts and see exactly that the playerbase hasn't grew at all, it's pretty much stayed the same. In fact it will probably start declining again once the holidays are over and the sales are done. Im not gonna argue with you about it either because like I said anyone can look at the chart and see for themselves that you are objectively wrong. And nobody that dislikes the ICO wants it reverted entirely. I think most people, even people that like the ICO can agree that it needs to be tweaked. I will not return to vanilla squad until then or I'll just wait for a mod to fix it.

[Aegmar]

Originally posted by CougarTX:

I've been married to this game for over 4k hours, even have a channel promoting Squad gameplay, but it's been seriously disappointing lately. Very few have the balls and confidence to take up SL anymore. Squads keep coming apart before leaving Main. Well, you probably know what I mean. How can we get the veteran players to return? Discuss...

There are enough experienced players around who could do SL reasonably well, most are just too lazy.

[Saxtorph]

Over time the game has become less fun for SLs as the developers tried to make it more accessible for new players. The ICO was the last straw for many SL players, including myself. Now I play HLL, which feels a lot more like what Squad used to be.

[Baxter]

In the past you could get by just explaining the situation and the objective to the squad and go from there.
But now you have to spend most of the time babysitting people repeating yourself over and over again, and don't even start talking about something that requires more coordination then move here attack this.

Simply not worth it anymore most of the time.

[ArtofWar]

Originally posted by Baxter:

In the past you could get by just explaining the situation and the objective to the squad and go from there.
But now you have to spend most of the time babysitting people repeating yourself over and over again, and don't even start talking about something that requires more coordination then move here attack this.

Simply not worth it anymore most of the time.

I would rather babysit actual children. I've lost faith in mankind just from playing this game. I used to think everyone had at least a little common sense but after playing this game for years I've come to realize that most people have very little, if any, common sense. I mean the number 1 cause of players getting killed in this game is situational awareness. Most players have the situational awareness of a jellyfish. Most players don't seem to realize that every sound you hear in game is telling you something. I can hear a gunshot in this game and be able to tell you immediately the direction it came from, how far away it was approx. and exactly the kind of gun it was. That is how good players map out the battle in their mind and stay situationally aware at all times.

[MacDuh]

There were more grownups, nowadays too many children. Some people left before ICO, some after.

[Radegast]

There is directly the opposite the arrivel of new unskilled players without clue, who create squads instantly and feel no shame to ruin the game.

But what i can say. I wait and create squad after the initial phase of round not to be borred by new players (who play for fun and deny patiently follows).

[Speedy]

Originally posted by BlackDave:

according to reddit, some of them are not playing the game because of ICO update, they want their game reverted back to pre-ico so they are throwing a hissy fit.

The game has more players than ever and lots of them are new so this goes to show that ICO is a success and isnt being reverted back and Im on the same page with that.

Basically, new players are going to have to catch up..and If you really want to help out- then take the role of playing SL, and narrate on the mic as you play to your squad on what, and why, you are doing everything that an SL does. This way others can learn from watching you and take the role in the future.

Originally posted by Radegast:

There is directly the opposite the arrivel of new unskilled players without clue, who create squads instantly and feel no shame to ruin the game.

But what i can say. I wait and create squad after the initial phase of round not to be borred by new players (who play for fun and deny patiently follows).

not all nw players are alike mate, i for instance come from arma and hell let lose, wiling to learn, but people like you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on new players and giving us ♥♥♥♥ even in disscusion doesnt really help out

[killertowfoo]

SL shouldn't even be called SL, but 'HAB dude'. Ever since the proxy mechanic was introduced HAB placement/spam went from important to match-deciding.

When all it takes is zerg lemmings to get within 100m of a HAB to disable reinforcements, no amount of tactical leadership can overcome poor HAB placement. As a result, being SL is not really leading, but just placing HABs, then thinking about the next HAB, then dreaming about the HAB after that. It's an extremely boring role to play.

ICO attempted to correct this with more suppression and slower movement, but it still isn't enough to overcome the horrid design flaw of proxy.

[Pvt.Donger]

The best part about free weekend was it ended after the weekend

[Beatlejuice]

Simple, delete ICO update. That is the fastest way to fix competency and bring back experienced players. ICO ruined the game in many ways.

You want good players that know the game, get rid of the trash that drove many of them away.

[Radegast]

Originally posted by Beatlejuice:

Simple, delete ICO update. That is the fastest way to fix competency and bring back experienced players. ICO ruined the game in many ways.

You want good players that know the game, get rid of the trash that drove many of them away.

Tell me when you experienced skilled players last time?

I know exactly. Beta test with ICO 6.0 everybody loved it.

[ZapatoSupreme]

the ico drove half away, the noobs n sales drove rest to other games, and the cbl bs