The CPM is very vocally split on this topic. I think it is one of the simplest way to alleviate pubstomping but I do understand that 4 is limiting when you have an active corp and want to play with your friends. I am looking at whether we can have 4 man squads for public and keep 6 or even 8 for FW.

It'd help Scotty in more ways than one.

* Better matchmaking
* Better fights
* Better NPE
* Fewer stomps
* Fewer stompathons
* Shorter queue times

If drawbacks exist, do they outweigh the benefits?

Could gray out the public contracts section. It could work.

CCP has already derailed the fun in this game over the course of the last year. Between ruining vehicles, equipment, orbitals, then onto suits and playstyles. Bringing down squads from 6 to 4 equals less fun for the squad and now unobtainable orbitals. Want to fix protostomping? Remove Officer weapons and Prototype suits and weapons from pubs. Problem = fixed.

The CPM is very vocally split on this topic. I think it is one of the simplest way to alleviate pubstomping but I do understand that 4 is limiting when you have an active corp and want to play with your friends. I am looking at whether we can have 4 man squads for public and keep 6 or even 8 for FW.

PLEASE don't reduce squad size. Rather, increase FW squad size to eight, and keep public squads at six. I for one do not fancy the idea of going back to the old days of small squads, as I believe that playing with your friends is a key component to an engaging multiplayer experience. Why take that away?

That was one (of many) things that turned me off of Destiny. I couldn't play with the people I enjoyed hanging out with, and therefore became frustrated and ultimately quit. My fondest memories of Dust will always be of the times where six, twelve, or even sixteen of my companions all joined together to enjoy the game we love.

What about public matches that are divided by security space?

1.0 - 0.5 security space will only allow 4 player squads
0.4 - null security space will allow you to have the standard 6 player squad.

Make contracts in low-sec & null sec space give you more payout and salvage to appeal to players that want to play to win and not pub around. This will somewhat help separate the casual player that doesn't care all too much about winning and the Hardcore player that wants to win.

However, there will still be K/D padders, especially guys from my alliance.

Hell no.

I should not have to pick and choose my friends to play with because you dont have any.

What about public matches that are divided by security space?

1.0 - 0.5 security space will only allow 4 player squads
0.4 - null security space will allow you to have the standard 6 player squad.

Make contracts in low-sec & null sec space give you more payout and salvage to appeal to players that want to play to win and not pub around. This will somewhat help separate the casual player that doesn't care all too much about winning and the Hardcore player that wants to win.

However, there will still be K/D padders, especially guys from my alliance.

What about public matches that are divided by security space?

1.0 - 0.5 security space will only allow 4 player squads
0.4 - null security space will allow you to have the standard 6 player squad.

Make contracts in low-sec & null sec space give you more payout and salvage to appeal to players that want to play to win and not pub around. This will somewhat help separate the casual player that doesn't care all too much about winning and the Hardcore player that wants to win.

However, there will still be K/D padders, especially guys from my alliance.

is there some reason for the allergy to odd numbers?

why not make squad limit 5 and have 30 man battles? bigger/smaller in multiples of 5.

off peak might make sense for 20 min battles on the smaller maps. ive been in battles where its 13 vs 9 for some reason anyway.

I worry if you try to sub-divide too much then you end up with pools of players too small for the match maker to really do anything with. Dust currently only has the concurrent player population to run 40 to 100 matches at any given time.

Pubs should be 4 man squads while FW and PC should have 6-8 man squads.

The stomping of randoms and newberries by 6 man squads on pubs have to stop. It is hurting the game. We need new players to stay not for old players to scare them away.

This idea of 4 on pubs and 6-8 on FW hurts no one but the stat padders and pub stompers.
You want to roll with your 6 friends? Queue up for a FW battle. You would actually be helping FW queue times and *gasp* playing with players probably on your same level. Now I know that a lot of 6 man squads leave a match when they see that the other side also has 6 man squads.

4 man squads only on pubs hurts nobody except for the stat padders and stompers that want to feel good about themselves and ganging up on that one redberry trying to make the match worth it.

So Rattati, for the game's health do it. Make 4 man squads only for pubs.

I think you are really quite sideways on this, why no squad? Its not like you receive bonus health for being in a squad of someone with "leadership boosters" in their head. In fact as a solo player I can still get within the top 3 spots on a regular basis if I just go and run my gun, and drop some equipment to help others. That is in PUB play without breaking out a whole bunch of proto gear.

Its not about padding stats its about working with the team to accomplish the goal, having larger groupings available would allow for better cooperation especially in pub matches where 1 squad on the other team is holding the map, the thing is that they are their team, its not ganging up, that one redberry is doing the wrong thing and needs to be grouping with others. Moving with the team, not being a lone target but part of the mob running at the enemy so the dps gets split between multiple targets.

In fact if I want to stat pad, my sniper rifle and proto scout work fine, as do my BPO logi suit fit with proto rep tool and proto nanite injector. Those too are parts of a team that are needed, just not for every merc. Larger squads would allow more specialization based on need by communication and working together rather than a bunch of solo players run and gunning.

Let's just go back to no squads and we can all q-sync in a PSN chat like the old days.

Q-sync is useless because of mu.
Some roles such as uplink logi and hacking scout are not necessary in amb so amb shoud be 4 man squad.

The CPM is very vocally split on this topic. I think it is one of the simplest way to alleviate pubstomping but I do understand that 4 is limiting when you have an active corp and want to play with your friends. I am looking at whether we can have 4 man squads for public and keep 6 or even 8 for FW.

If groups of +4 only have PC and FW to play in, then we have essentially confined larger groups to skirmish type matches, exclusively. BLEH!!!

This produces a horrible dilemma for some players--you can either party with a large group of your buddies but play only one match type all of the time, or you can play your favorite non-skirm match type (dom in my case) but do so with just three other mercs. In my opinion, it's a less than ideal solution

I dont get your logic. So lets nevermind the new players who dont have core skills or protofits or map knowledge. Lets continue to put them against 6 man stomp squads from your corp because "These are friends partying". So if you arent stomping new players, you arent able to have fun?

CCP wants to increase salvage payout...based on one of your ideas. Theres a thread in this section. You think that you could focus on the issue? If the problem with 6 people is needing to make ISK to be friends, then why not focus on FW payouts and leave the new and casual players alone in the one mode they have? Why not push for Dom and Ambush to be added to FW? Why not try to make things better, instead of maintaining a status quo thats hobbled the game?

Frankly I find your view on squads beyond selfish. There are many ways people can "hang out" in this game. There are chat channels and voice chats and such. I dont understand the whole mentality of "The only way i can hang out with my dear, lifelong friends is by stomping new players in pubs".

The ideas in this thread would let pubs become more relaxed, raise the stakes on FW, and allow a better team deploy in PC, and you're hung up on the fact that people with no competitive drive want to "party" by stomping new players out of the academy.

I dont get your logic. So lets nevermind the new players who dont have core skills or protofits or map knowledge. Lets continue to put them against 6 man stomp squads from your corp because "These are friends partying". So if you arent stomping new players, you arent able to have fun?

CCP wants to increase salvage payout...based on one of your ideas. Theres a thread in this section. You think that you could focus on the issue? If the problem with 6 people is needing to make ISK to be friends, then why not focus on FW payouts and leave the new and casual players alone in the one mode they have? Why not push for Dom and Ambush to be added to FW? Why not try to make things better, instead of maintaining a status quo thats hobbled the game?

Frankly I find your view on squads beyond selfish. There are many ways people can "hang out" in this game. There are chat channels and voice chats and such. I dont understand the whole mentality of "The only way i can hang out with my dear, lifelong friends is by stomping new players in pubs".

The ideas in this thread would let pubs become more relaxed, raise the stakes on FW, and allow a better team deploy in PC, and you're hung up on the fact that people with no competitive drive want to "party" by stomping new players out of the academy.

SirManBoy is a vet and does not care about new or casual players. He cares about his corp and his friends.
CCP needs to think of new money and player retention and not CPMs like SirManBoy proto stomping corps

Buddy,

I care about this game as much as anyone and I recognize the problems that it faces. However, we need careful solutions that do more than just shift heartaches from one portion of the community to another. I'm certain that such a solution can be found here, but at this juncture I'm simply expressing some of the problems I see with an overly simplistic change that bars squads of a certain size from competing in pubs. I realize that it's a popular idea supported by many people in this thread, but it comes with sacrifices that deserve consideration. I don't think I'm being unfair by saying so.