Smaller squads means directly less teamwork opportunity. In fact 4 man squads (closed beta days) meant every match was a pub stomp one way or another. Reducing the size of squads will make the problem worse not better. If scotty threw you into a random squad however (if running solo) and filled partially filled squads, then things may sort themselves out to less pub stomping ofc this means that people need to learn how to operate as a team rather than as individuals, often on the fly. Seems like everyone is expecting a lot when it is a pub match.

My point isn't that there is a skill point gap in the squads or players team to team, its more about how they come together, play to their team mates. Assist and complement, not what gear they are using and has little to do with the fact that there are 6 man squads, which on a 6-6-4 team (2 six man squads, 4 randoms) the 4 solo players having the ability to fit in where they find their niche on the battle field supporting the 2 squads or just run and gunning. It has nothing at all to do with the fact that the squad size is what it is, the squads allow for greater co-operation among friends and corp mates. It helps more than it hinders. Larger squad sizes would allow half the team to be on a squad, allowing more co-operation not less, reducing the stomping. Ofc this really relies on people squading up to their full potential.

I can see your point about proxy chat but that's a cop out. Inviting people to your squad is a start, teaching them a better way is the next step.

So I have now done some research and have found that a completely random grouping of people in Pubs in a squad does work even without mic support, just using basic squad commands (squad leader knows what he/she is doing with the almighty wheel) and by playing as a team of people.

To do this I made a "Public" squad and waited for it to fill up with people. As time went on we went from Dominating the matches (domination mode) to outright cloning out the other team over the course of 3 hrs. The squad started as 2 members and grew with each match and was successful. We had squad members from more than one random corp and it was amazing how well everyone who just wanted to play as a team could work together both without comms and without any instructions other than normal squad commands.

We did not proto stomp, we rolled over all the solo players on the other teams. Like a wave of terror they ran fleeing to the hills and tried to snipe us but still we came on strong and persevered. It was like a death squad in some horror film, not even the tanks that they threw at us could stand up to our fury.

Keep in mind this was a completely random group of mercs who all joined a squad and deployed with some simple planning before hand. Punch for ammo, stay together to stay alive, follow squad orders for movement. This is not hard to do guys and really funny how well it worked.

Thank you to all who participated in the application of bullets with me this afternoon. It was a true pleasure I will be running these Public Access Squads on a regular basis, if you want to be part of the "education process" join me in schooling the solos, one match at a time.

If you think I am thrilled by this, then you are mistaken. However, this is the way the wind is blowing. Instead of obstructing the process, I plan on brokering the most equitable outcome I can for all interested parties.

I could go for increasing team size to 18, but as stated by CCP Rattati it will have a cost of performance. Regardless how you do it, I think it's importaint that the available squad sizes can fit evenly into the team.

But, I would prefer to have more options of squad sizes.

Tell you what, how about instead of getting 5 of your friends together to run squads only pick up 3 or 4 others to run with, see if it makes a difference.

Then I would...I am an advocate for larger team sizes, bigger battles more gore, more ragdoll, a market that functions exactly the same as the Eve market, true Open World gameplay, PVE missions involving shooting things not people, Opening the stations so we can walk around and murder each other in our quarters, Merc transports through New Eden and having CCP complete their ideas in a manner that works better rather than creating more problems every time something gets fixed. But this is a lot to be interested in, how about more fun with more peeps.

4 man squads from Closed Beta