Devs you gotta do something.

[☠Big Balls☠]

Hell let loose is having a free weekend and is on Sale. I was checking it out and reading the reviews and I remembered there was another WWII game that I liked and I remembered reading that it was picked up by the Squad devs. So I did some searching and here I am. I check the reviews here. Game seems to be dead. hmmm I check the steam charts.

Squad 44: last 30 days Avg Players 242. Peak players 652.

Hell Let Loose: Last 30 Days Avg Players 5,039. Peak Players 14,207.

You either need to do free weekends or go Free to play or something. I imagine you didn't get this game from the previous devs for free and you would like to make consistent money on your investment. There was a chance I would have paid for this game tonight but It looks wayyyyyy to dead for me to waste my money on it.

[Floringer]

a free weekend or discount will not revive the games player numbers, at least not in a sustainable way. its gameplay is too cumbersome and niche for player numbers such as HLLs.

good news is, they are in the process of making the game more accessible, stream lining stuff and making it less tedious. plus, just yesterday, they teased the pacific theatre as being in the works.

tldr: they are doing something

[Elise the Indominus rex]

The very demanding, challenging gameplay of Squad 44, which requires strict teamwork, would only lead to a short, extremely steep player peak during a "Free Weekend" before the player numbers collapse again.

The game is NOT dead, the player numbers are just normally so low; however, several servers are easily filled every evening (CET time).

The developers are currently working on improving performance, fixing bugs, revising the existing chapters and OWI just announced yesterday that they will be working on the Pacific War as a new front in the future.

In addition, MA and OWI intend to go on a marketing offensive in the future.

TLDR: a free weekend does not solve the problem, the player numbers are normal, the game is not dead, the game is constantly being developed further

[Elise the Indominus rex]

Originally posted by Bardown33:

this game stinks, it has always stunk, nothing can save this. this IS a bad game, why cant people just deal with it? 3-500 players is all this game is ever going to have and that's reality. there is nothing these devs can do to bring me back, and im sorry, but i'm in the majority. this was nothing more than a squad reskin for a fast buck.

ok

[Frank Machin]

lol +1

[Sledge]

The only thing Dev's need to do is continue to fix and improve what they already have. This game is an entirely different experience from HLL.

HLL is an FPS which offers grind/progression, easy-to-grasp gunplay and mechanics and a well-optimized experience. It has tried, and largely succeeded, at offering a semi-realistic experience that is accessible to traditional BF and CoD players who prioritize fast gunplay, grinding achievements, skin/weapon DLC's, ect.

PS (Squad 44) is an immersive teamwork-focused FPS which puts a special emphasis on historically-accurate assets (uniforms, weapons, vehicles), a high-fidelity ballistic and armor penetration model, and a foundation which can be modded and tweaked to offer a variety of experiences and theaters. For reference, PS has early Western front (pre-1941 invasion of France), late Western Front (to include Market Garden), Crete as well as mods which offer Eastern front and North Africa. And a recently-announced expansion for the Pacific theater. The Vanilla gameplay is decent, though still being improved upon. This game really shines with the mods, which at this point are almost indistinguishable from the vanilla content in terms of quality and optimization.

Player count is the not the basis by which to judge either game. Fortnite has how many players? Is anyone here going to argue that game is "better" than more niche FPS titles? There are more than enough players in the PS community to keep the games active and engaging...this is especially true if you join a clan; there are several organized events every week, all of which are full.

[DanDan]

Squad 44 is getting up on par. The graphics updates have helped a lot. Then the chapter red bloody fall mod was release yesterday and it has very well designed and atmospheric map. Map design is the most critical part about this game, the post scriptum early map design is total trash and kills the server count when a original map is on rotation. When the developers finally launch the pacific front i know oddworld has done excellent maps in squad and will be the same top notch quality for squad 44 I'mwilling to bet this will bring some consistent players back.

[☠Big Balls☠]

Thanks for the reply's everyone. It’s seems like the new devs have stuff planned for the future. I will keep an eye on this game and grab it on sale.

[nolaJeff]

Originally posted by Ben Dover:

Thanks for the reply's everyone. It’s seems like the new devs have stuff planned for the future. I will keep an eye on this game and grab it on sale.

Yes, it's definitely worth it, especially on sale. The game was released in 2018 and has always had a small player base. For years naysayers have kept saying the game is dead yet I've got 2500 hours in the game and many other players have more. How's that possible if the game is dead?

[right-handed pencil]

Originally posted by nolaJeff:

Originally posted by Ben Dover:

Thanks for the reply's everyone. It’s seems like the new devs have stuff planned for the future. I will keep an eye on this game and grab it on sale.

Yes, it's definitely worth it, especially on sale. The game was released in 2018 and has always had a small player base. For years naysayers have kept saying the game is dead yet I've got 2500 hours in the game and many other players have more. How's that possible if the game is dead?

leaving the game on while afk

[Skram]

Originally posted by Bardown33:

this game stinks, it has always stunk, nothing can save this. this IS a bad game, why cant people just deal with it? 3-500 players is all this game is ever going to have and that's reality. there is nothing these devs can do to bring me back, and im sorry, but i'm in the majority. this was nothing more than a squad reskin for a fast buck.

Nice private profile, I'm SURE you own the game.

[Floringer]

Originally posted by gretta's furburger:

Originally posted by nolaJeff:

Yes, it's definitely worth it, especially on sale. The game was released in 2018 and has always had a small player base. For years naysayers have kept saying the game is dead yet I've got 2500 hours in the game and many other players have more. How's that possible if the game is dead?

leaving the game on while afk

based

[brkavost]

everybody just admit it.. it was just cash grab game nothing alse :D and ye im one from that i*iot who spend 40 eur for that crap who is dead now 2 years xD terrible

[Elise the Indominus rex]

Originally posted by Ⓡ |Brko:

everybody just admit it.. it was just cash grab game nothing alse :D and ye im one from that i*iot who spend 40 eur for that crap who is dead now 2 years xD terrible

If it was that, why did OWI acquire Squad 44 in the first place after it was abandoned by PeriscopeGames? This would not make the slightest sense from a business perspective. If you see your purchase as a mistake and need to cope your wrong decision, fine by me. From an objective point of view, however, your statement is fundamentally wrong.

[...loading name]

Forget the devs, they are only good for bad decisions. OWI sadly enlisted the wrong modteam.

The SK made a survey what chapters the players prefer:
Chapter 1 : Arnhem, Best, Doorwerth, Driel, Grave, Heelsum, Oosterbeek, Veghel, Velmolen
Chapter 2: Dinant, Stonne, Maginot
Chapter 3: Utah, St. Mere, Carentan
Chapter 4: Foy, Haguenau, Colmar
Chapter 5: Greece (Mercury Arts, current developers)

Result:
1: 22
2: 14
3: 6
4: 7
5: 2

Nothing more to say, f.

[76561199712523935]

Originally posted by ...loading name:

Forget the devs, they are only good for bad decisions. OWI sadly enlisted the wrong modteam.

The SK made a survey what chapters the players prefer:
Chapter 1 : Arnhem, Best, Doorwerth, Driel, Grave, Heelsum, Oosterbeek, Veghel, Velmolen
Chapter 2: Dinant, Stonne, Maginot
Chapter 3: Utah, St. Mere, Carentan
Chapter 4: Foy, Haguenau, Colmar
Chapter 5: Greece (Mercury Arts, current developers)

Result:
1: 22
2: 14
3: 6
4: 7
5: 2

Nothing more to say, f.

To be fair it was a better move to have Mercury Arts rather than solely OWI as the devs. It gives the illusion that there is a dev team that interacts with the players. Only until you realize MA is only part time and they had 1-2 programmers on their team. It's still OWI doing the work behind the scenes. I mean really, the Squad logistics update for 1 programmer to do in about 6 weeks is a bit unrealistic.