TG_Rizzo

I know the topic of locking squads came up a while back but I don't recall if we ever came to any sort of conclusion on how to handle them. I think as we gain more experience with BF2 we're going to see more and more specialized squads and not all of them are going to need to be full-sized. In fact, some will deliberately want to remain smaller, e.g. a 2-man Cobra squad.

So, what is TG's policy (if any) with regards to locking a squad?

If we don't have a policy yet, here's my thoughts on the subject:

* locking should be reserved *only* for specialized squads that need to remain smaller than the maximum of SIX. There's really no reason to lock a full squad. This also assumes the players in the locked squad are all on the same page and will be playing together for at least the entire round.
* we don't want people locking squads just for friends--the SL should have a practical, "teamwork" oriented goal in mind.
* we don't want to see a bunch of locked "lone wolf" squads all claiming to be "Sniper" squads--after all, there is a limited number of squads a team can create (12?).
* The CO is final arbiter on whether or not a squad needs a lock. Frankly, I think the CO should have total control of the squad makeup before the match but you never know who you're gonna get. In a perfect world, we'd always have a familiar and trusted CO running things but on the public servers it's a toss up.

Sound off! Let's hear your thoughts...

Telorn

Currently, the max squads on either side is 9.

If there is a group of TG'ers that don't want the squad open for any pubbie to join, I don't see an issue with them locking it.

__________________
Telorn

Tempus

Too many locked squads with few people could prevent players from joining squads at all.

__________________
Battlefield 2/2142 Game Officer
Contact me with server/player/admin issues.




-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

asch

The current TG policy is that we do not restrict locked squads, however they squad should be following the SLs orders and the SL should be working with the CO. If the CO finds a specialty squad that does not work with his strategy, the squad should either change, break up or form with another.

Personally I have no problem with someone locking a squad to play with their friends as long as they are following the rest of our guidelines (see first comment).

This is where the CO needs to have his squads merge. The SLs should be working with their CO. And the max number of squads is 9.

So in the end, I don't see a reason (yet) to formally restrict players from locking squads. If this is done to bypass the squadless kick then these players should be reported via teamspeak. The CO needs to take more control of the squads by providing orders that work with his strategy.

__________________
| My Maps

Fear the Frog! | Kill the Frog! | An Inconvenient Truth

TG_Rizzo

Fortunately it hasn't been a problem but with only 9 squad slots available it definitely has the potential.

Acid

if we were going to lock squads, i would set the maximum number of locked squads to 5 or something so then 24 people on a side would have 4 non locked squads to go into.

__________________

kin3

I'm with Bommando. I end up on some good squads just by chance.

__________________
The Old Guy
kin3

asch

I completely agree.

Unless I'm missing something, I haven't seen too many locked squads to cause a problem. Should we end up with a situation where players cannot join squads we'll definitely address it.

I'm not sure if we can restrict the number of locked squads, but it's worth a look.

__________________
| My Maps

Fear the Frog! | Kill the Frog! | An Inconvenient Truth

asch

Just to help clarify a bit...

We are trying to keep the rules & guidelines short, simple and to the point. There are many situations (i.e. 9 locked one man squads) that while they may cause problems, have not presented themselves as a problem (yet). Should a pattern show itself we'll make sure we address it so as not to affect the game-play that we so desire here.

If these occurances are frequent, please do notify one of the admins and we'll address it.

__________________
| My Maps

Fear the Frog! | Kill the Frog! | An Inconvenient Truth

TG_Rizzo

Right, it hasn't been a problem so there's no real reason to fret too much over it now. I've just been mulling over some ideas for smaller squads and was curious what the policy is. thx for the info.

Kedge

When a squad is locked on other servers, I've noticed that you can still request an invitation to join by pressing the "Join" button in the Caps-Lock menu. On the TG servers, nothing seems to happen? Am I doing something wrong?

I ocasionally lock my squad but I would like other people to be able to request to join it.

Thanks

Wilf

When I lock squads (last night for example), sometimes I see 'Invite request timed out' pop up.

I didn't invite anybody, so maybe it was somebody trying to get in to my squad and who's request got lost in the noise?

As for the main point, I think small 3-4 man Spec Ops squads for behind enemy lines work are great. I need to lock them just so I can make sure we are all Spec Ops and therefore invisible to the enemy commander scan.

asch

When you lock a squad you can "invite" players. They have the option of accepting or denying the invite. After a period of time the invite times out.

For those looking to join a locked squad you can still request to join. The SL will receive an accept or deny option to let the requestor into your squad.

__________________
| My Maps

Fear the Frog! | Kill the Frog! | An Inconvenient Truth