Originally Posted by Strag

I know some folks are having trouble making the transition from Battlefield 2 to Red Orchestra, and this is understandable since the two games are so different. A big sticking point has been Red Orchestra's lack of built-in squad organization. Some have expressed frustration, wondering why a new release would take such a "big step backward" in terms of multiplayer functionality.

One thing to keep in mind is that Red Orchestra strives to be a combat simulator, and the combat it attempts to simulate is that of the Eastern Front in World War II. Squad structure was much different for those forces at that time, as this quote from Tripwire's History and Tactics Guide illustrates:




So again, please keep this in mind. I think this has been one of the hardest "old habits" for many players to break when making the transition to Red Orchestra. Tripwire has tried to simulate what combat at the time was like, including the squad organization of the period. For folks who have been playing Battlefield 2 for such a long time, this may seem unnatural. You must unlearn what you have learned.

Ive always felt that at a certain point, you can cross the fun of realism and start hurting gameplay. This game would be amazing if there was a simple squad structure, even if it wasnt as complex as BF2's. Hell, even just being able to see where your team members were on the compass or to see their names show up on your HUD might be enough. But, alas, there is no squad structure what so ever. The few times someone has divied everyone up into 2 squads, people very quickly forget who is in their squad (Cant press tab to see), and even if they remember, you cant stick with them because you cant see them on your compass or see their names on the HUD. If, somehow, the squad sticks together, you cant really organize them very well because you cant see where people are looking by a quick glance at the compass. Instead, the order is just "Defend here" with no organization at all.

The asinine objectives dont help teamplay either. In almost every map, the objective devolves into an entire team trying to capture the enemys only objective. There is absolutly nothing tactical whatsoever about sending 32 people to have a bloodbath in a small, confined location. Im pretty sure they made it this way to simulate how the germand and russians threw themselfs at eachother in massive numbers, but again, the realism is hurting gameplay.

As i think Shiner said a while back, i will have to have proof that a game will have great gameplay without a squad structure such as BF2 or other games.