'[R-COM wrote:epoch;944548']Consider typical PR server:
- 64 player server with squadless kick enabled
- 2 slots reserved therefore maximum 62
- 62 divided by 2 = 31 per team
But ... for example ...
- 9 uber-l337 APC/sniper/chopper/combat catering locked squads of 2 people per squad
- 2 * 9 = 18
- 31 - 18 = 13
- max squads reached
- 13 people kicked for not being in a squad.
Mathematics. The foundation of the universe.
It's not hard.
Thats a flawed argument. All of this anti-locked squad stuff is flawed.
What we have here is an extremist reaction to poor habits of some people. Fact is that locked squads should be viable when they are necessary. Sniper squads are in fact necessarily small. They must be small.
Why should sniper squads be no larger than 3 people? Number one you don't need 6 people to achieve the objective of a sniper team. You need a sniper, a spotter, and if you have the right person, preferably a patient one, a rear guard who can double as medic. Further it actually detracts from the effectiveness of the squad and the team to have 6 people in a sniper squad.
Reasons:
#1. 6 people are easier to spot than 2 or 3 plus these people aren't trained soldiers. Most pubbies don't know what it means to 'not silhouette yourself on that ridge'. They get impatient and understandably want to see whats happening.
#2. Since you only need 3 people to achieve the objectives of a sniper/recon squad you are actually losing 3 rifles from the battle. Your team is basically out 3 players.
I play in the PRT, the sniper doesn't have 5 other people with him. You need as many full infantry squads as you can get.
I also played on a no locked squads server this week with a friend. We were doing a sniper squad with the two of us. When we were forced to open the squad it immediately took away out ability to act effectively. Instead of stalking the enemy and doing recon we spent more time corralling all of the new players and keeping them disciplined. I also don't blame them for silhouetting themselves cause its bloody boring to have to sit there and watch someone else rack up an awesome score against an enemy you can't even see.
Lastly it was totally unnecessary to force us to unlock the squad because there were only 4 squads total. There were enough unassigned players to create a full squad anyway.
I think its just anal and lazy. If you have admin who are dedicated enough to warn a locked squad within 2 minutes of me creating one then you should be able to keep people from making 9 useless locked squads when a server is full.
The worst case scenario of having useless APC squads that don't do anything is something admins have to deal with. I've played on TG lots. Start of a round people will say in chat "I call Huey, making Pilot squad" and the admins will force people to recognize it. The squad leader of an asset squad gets to choose how many pilots and then can lock the squad. It works, no wasted assets, fair sharing. Through that you create a community that respects and expects that.
You don't need to create a lazy all encompassing rule that just shortcuts active admin-ing.
I say you either do what TG guys do or you just let it roll. Its frustrating to not be able to lock a squad if you know what you're doing. You can't punish good players for what you fear the bad ones will do. If you get the too many locked squads with unassigned people thing then just tell certain squads to open up. Actively manage the situation based on whats happening. Its not sensible to enforce martial law in a suburb on a calm day, so why do it on a half full server when there aren't any asshats fucking around?
Some of the best squads I've played with have been pubby squads, or a mixture. In reference to OP, if you really don't like the 'no locked squads' rule, then go play on a different server, there are plenty. And Epoch mate, if I ever find a server like that, I will be happy to be kicked because that is not at all what PR aims for.
