Lack of INF squads?

[burghUK]

theres a lack of infantry squad but also a lack of quality within them. When theres not a squad 2 flags ahead building a fob and losing thousands of tickets then theres a squad of guys in the thick of combat with all our decent kits losing them over and over. Not to mention the fact every time i seem to make a squad these days i actually have to tell people to stand further apart and to keep checking the rear( common sense if anything). Hopefully the quality will increase as the hype dies down.

[Mouthpiece]

But my problem is when boneheads join my squad at the start of a round then request a ton of specialist supah 1337 **** that I never said they could have. Besides requesting stupid kits that I never said to grab, people never stick close to me or they roam around.

+1 about the 1337 **** and not sticking close. I always tell my squad that they can't take limited kits without permission from me. But usually one or two "boneheads" manages to grab a marksman rifle or even a HAT unnoticed. Sometimes with these actions they provoke the evil side of SL in me. Than I give them one minute to change kit to rifleman or I kick them. Some people just can't play without l33t kits.

Actually the problem is more serious than "just some kits". It's about disobeying your squad leader. My (and my squads, i think) morale just gets destroyed when there are some idiots that simply can't follow some simple rules I stated when they joined my squad. And how can I trust a grunt in a life/death situation when he has failed me before in simpler tasks? How do I overcome these situations? Be reasonable (maybe the guy just didn't hear you or something), ask him: "What's up?". But when reason and logic fails, use the kick function. There are and always will be people that doesn't and don't like to teamwork and those who do. By kicking someone you have more chances to have a good game (meet the second kind) than by ignoring the guy (letting him lonewolf, etc.).

[Psyko]

you need to take a step back and look at the servers. they were all playing new maps which were the new 4km heavy vehicle maps. 4km maps obviously have a lot more priority on vehicles (not just CAS and tanks, but APC, transport, engineers, Anti-air, and air transport) so manpower is spread thinly thoughout the vehicles with lower priority on infantry.

once things settle down in the following two weeks you'll see a contrast between 2km and 4km servers. everyone will have a chance to do everything and balance will resume.

[ComradeHX]

I could not find a INF squad to join in all server I play AAS on now...

We need some more infantry buff(Incendiary damage increase?).

[ma21212]

I used to do alot of armor but now its getting boring. I almost always do inf unless friends insist on armor

[raw157]

What annoys me, is when you see an "Arty" squad that's got 6 people in it. Do you really need 6 people? If you actually used teamwork, you could get away with a much smaller squad and then be able to form them into INF squads.

[Spec]

That's the thing: Armor is leet and all that, but other than driving around and shooting, you can't do much. You already have lots of options as infantryman. So many things to do if the SL is creative. Sneak around, climb mountains, surround the enemy with your squad, defend a position, suppress the enemy for another squad or half of your squad to flank etc. Then all the tools you have. You can put down mine fields, you can hide and snipe enemy armor with HAT or TOWs, you can use grenades, grenade launchers and all sorts of weapons, breach doors, arrest civies in insurgency maps, revive people... Vehicles are fun at first, but more and more people will return to infantry over time.

And the 6 men mortar squads will soon be gone. Mortars are useful, but not really the most exciting weapon to use. You enter a number, press calculate, press LMB, and profit. Now they're new, but that'll not be for long.

Don't worry, I think it'll balance itself. Vehicle whores will stick to vehicles, infantry whores will stick to infantry. Now everyone is just playing with the new toys.

[BloodBane611]

I personally play only infantry (though I've been messing about with the mortars a bit lately). If you don't like the lack of infantry squads, here's a quick fix:

1) Join game
2) See there are no infantry squads
3) Click "Custom Squad"
4) Insert infantry title here - VOIP INF, PIMP INF, etc

Look, an infantry squad!

I do this on every server I join, works like a charm, and I have a damn good time with people I've never played with before.

[Furst]

Now everyone is just playing with the new toys.

exactly, AND dont forget there are also INF layouts for every map. remind admins to put em into map rotation!

it does not mean that there are no vehicles, but less of em! (of course no super heavy assets also)

might be a quite good alternative in many cases for the future. pretty easy solution, and if many "vehicle whores" leave the server then, take it easy, new players will join!

1) Join game
2) See there are no infantry squads
3) Click "Custom Squad"
4) Insert infantry title here - VOIP INF, PIMP INF, etc

thats the second solution for this problem, of course. solving the problem on your own by creating the infantry. pretty sure youll quickly find other people joining you, maybe even enough to create a 2nd infantry squad. then via mumble or TS you can cooperate and develop damn great teamwork together and so on and so on and so on...!

if the squad limit is already reached, simply ask the admins around if they can find a solution, like putting together some asset squads e.g.

i give it one week, then im sure old behaviours and "standards" will return into gameplay putting infantry squads back on the map. no worries!

[raw157]

thats the second solution for this problem, of course. solving the problem on your own by creating the infantry. pretty sure youll quickly find other people joining you, maybe even enough to create a 2nd infantry squad. then via mumble or TS you can cooperate and develop damn great teamwork together and so on and so on and so on...!

if the squad limit is already reached, simply ask the admins around if they can find a solution, like putting together some asset squads e.g.

i give it one week, then im sure old behaviours and "standards" will return into gameplay putting infantry squads back on the map. no worries!

Yeah, i think within a few weeks, the thrill over the Mortars will be gone, (still useful) but it won't be the flavor of the week, and the 6 man squads will be gone. Hopefully people stop congregating around them to try and get a shot to use them too.

Time will fix all things.

[Cassius]

I'm curious to see other players' opinions on this. Recently I've noticed a lack of infantry squads in servers. Out of 32 players there's always an APC squad, Tank squad, Trans squad Jet squad and now mortar (awesome) squads. Often there are 6/6 players in a mortar squad, and most servers allow 2 mortar squads. This leaves a small amount of INF on the ground actually fighting. Is it just me or are infantry squads going out of style with all the new content being brought in?

Well on wide open maps, if you have armor, use it. Armor can cap just as good. Only advantage Infantery has on asset heavy open maps is that it can hide and thats only true if there are trees around and stuff. If its meant to be played out by armor go on and man the armor. One inf squad will do aright on such maps.

[HileMighClub]

I loveeeee infantry squads. I'd choose that over any other squad any day. I guess you guys are right, maybe it's just the new release and people wanna try out the new toys!

edit: I agree that a mortar squad does not need 6 ppl in it. You need a SL , a mortar operator and maybe 2 others MAX to resupply. I know .95 is new and people are just getting use to using a mortar but I'm hoping things work themselves out eventually!

[LITOralis.nMd]

I've been SL whoring the mortar assets since 5 minutes after the patch was released.
I'm convinced mortars will fall out of fashion in short order...
I've been putting 100+ mortars downrange on some maps and my squad is getting less than 10 kills.

Great, we blew up a FOB from 800M away and have a visual confirm... it's just not that satisfying a form of gameplay.

Mortar squads will evolve into dual role sniper/mortar squads in short order. A sniper SL with medic afield spotting, and 3 or 4 guys running the mortars.

However... seriously on the 4km maps with the mortars the game simply is now too complicated for only 64 players... Iron Eagle 64 AAS could use another 12+ players per side easily.

Iron Eagle I've tried building FOBs at 6 mountain tops overlooking Alkomin and 2 times built the FOB inside Alkomin. Sometimes we control the Alkomin obj the entire round without shooting a bullet, other times we are annihilated by CAS or mortars ... without firing a bullet... Very frustrating. Ended up as top squad without a single kill in the squad twice.

There simply aren't enough players to defend and attack the territory...

[HileMighClub]

There simply aren't enough players to defend and attack the territory...

This is exactly what I was thinking, with all the new features + new assets, there are not enough players to fill the shoes. If only battlefield engine allowed 200 players.. sigh.

[Wakain]

I noticed a small decrease of infantry squads as well, therefore I find the locked inf squads more and more a pain, I've never truly understood that since you can always kick a player who goes lone wolf or to make space for a clanmate. truly, who wants to play with 4/5 ppl if he can have 6?

in the rounds I played since pr.95 hit the shelves I've been joining 1 man squads mostly, saw them filling quite fast though so I can't say I'm very concerned about the future of the infantrysquad in pr

[[T]waylay00]

I agree that too many assets are taking away from core infantry gameplay. But in defense of the 6 man mortar squads, an extremely effective mortar squad does require 4+ people:

SL - finding range and coordinating attacks
mortar gunner
mortar gunner
resupplier

optional:

additional resupplier
field observer

It's easy to see how these squads can get so big. To be honest, I think mortars should be able to be resupplied directly from ammo crates, which in turn, should also last longer. This would eliminate the need for the resupplier. Plus, who wants to sit around resupplying mortars all game long anyway?

[Spec]

Noone needs to. An effective mortar crew needs two men, one for each mortar. Range finding is no problem. Get the coordinates, do some math. Don't even need an officer kit: Both can be rifleman and resupply their own mortars after each strike. The teams logistics squad or an infantry squad helps them getting ammo crates to the FOB, or one of them just goes getting some ammo when no mortar strike is currently needed.

[[T]waylay00]

Noone needs to. An effective mortar crew needs two men, one for each mortar. Range finding is no problem. Get the coordinates, do some math. Don't even need an officer kit: Both can be rifleman and resupply their own mortars after each strike. The teams logistics squad or an infantry squad helps them getting ammo crates to the FOB, or one of them just goes getting some ammo when no mortar strike is currently needed.

Point taken on having the gunners resupply themselves. But you're doing yourself (and your team) a huge disservice by not taking advantage of the SL's ability to see the exact range to the target on the map.

So at the bare minimum, I'd say you could have a SL (who also guns) and a gunner with a rifleman kit. Still though, your fire support is more limited because of the lack of constant resupply.

[Spec]

Well, unless constant mortar spam is requested, two men are really enough. With some practice, calculating the range is only slightly slower than using the SL kit, too - but ya. One officer and one rifleman are enough for an effective mortar team under normal conditions.

[Arnoldio]

There is so much stuff in PR that it reduces the percentage on infantry.

I think mappers should really look into their asset placement so it keeps a nice balance of assets/team, so the APCs and tanks are really just that cherry on the top of an infantry based team.

Just sayin'