Greetings All,
Today we have a special article for you to feast your eyes upon. Squad is a brand new upcoming game that has recently been Greenlit with 41,213 votes (in just over a week). So it is a great honour and privilege to have the developers answering some questions put together by BerlinerKuchen, Sidthesloth and Samblues of the Arma Division and kindly answered by Litoralis (Community Manager of Squad). Please remember the game is currently in pre-alpha so nothing is set in stone.
Squad Website - HERE
Steam Greenlit page - HERE
So to kick this Q&A off, What is Squad?
Squad is the standalone spiritual successor to the Project Reality Mod for Battlefield 2 (PR), it’s the realization of a dream to go it alone by a segment of the PR mod team, focusing on their experiences synthesizing the best parts of the arcadey run and gun shooters and the realism aspects of military simulators, with a specific focus on teamwork. Squad is built from the ground up on Unreal Engine 4, which has freed the development team from the confinements of modding a closed engine, and alleviated the various issues related to PvP capabilities of that other engine we all love for Coop missions. We are at the point where, if the Devs or modders from communities like TAW can dream it up, we can program it into the game. Will all of these desired features make it into the official core game? No, but we're pretty certain after a decade of modding we can distill this into an extremely enjoyable out of the box experience for guys with limited hours to game online after work or on the weekends.
What is the main focus of gameplay in squad?
Our motto is "Communicate. Coordinate. Conquer." Teamwork, at all times, through any means available, i.e. with the grunt standing next to you, to the squad-mates across a valley covering angles, to inter-squad comms across roles on the team. We have taken the best communication concepts from FPS shooters, and provided the entire stack of tools deserved and desired by teamwork orientated gamers to be able to intuitively work together. We take special pride from our mod background in providing these tools to allow immediate accessibility with ease of use tools for people who don't know each other before the round starts..
What period of time/setting is Squad based in/on?
For the Dev Team and core game itself, the answer is near past to near future, and this will be the basis of our retail release. We come from a long long tradition of modding, going back to NovaLogic titles, and are actively looking for mod teams who want to come onboard and build other eras, and we're looking to help them monetize those addons in a way similar to Rising Storm was integrated into the Red Orchestra 2 game.
How many players are planned to be inside one match?
The short answer for TAW.net members is: 100 players on a server as our first step on the journey.
The long answer: Unreal Engine 4 is improving so fast we don’t know our upper limit of player count. We no longer require symmetrical player counts, nor are we restricted to the concept of symmetrical teams, ie. one side can be US Army and the other Insurgents, or we can have two rival Militia/Insurgent teams, so we can do 30v70 40v60 45v55, all of which can allow various game modes/missions on each map. In addition to that, we already have infantry mechanics near sorted enough to allow smaller level design, such as 5v5 8v8 12v12 events for communities, MOUT training maps, LAN events, clan ladders etc.
What different roles/classes are planned?
This is one of the features we'll bring over in spirit from the Project Reality mod. There will be around 10 roles in Beta stage, more later, with restrictions in place to prevent 20 snipers on a 50 man team etc. The role system is very much part of our meta game, where fluidity to resupply and change classes and the kit composition of a squad at supply points to act on and react to changing battle conditions is a critical gameplay element. The obvious follow up, How is this different than Arma? You won't be choosing your outfit, you won't be choosing from each and every weapon available, you will be able to choose from a limited selection of standard issue scopes/sights. You will be able to choose between some weapons for the same kit, such as a RPK with extended map or PKM for a Militia squad assault rifleman kit, or between two standard issue DMR rifles for US Forces. Simplicity, but still some customization with near real world parallels.
Will there be a medical system?
The quick answer, yes, the system in PR was good for the era and we'll take some cues from milsim mods to optimize the experience out of the box and make playing as a medic a rewarding experience. The longer answer, medic system, ttk calculations, desired length of firefight engagements, loss of accuracy while injured, revive and respawn mechanics, all work together to craft the ebb and flow of gameplay, and we've got a long history working inside a closed engine, and can now stretch out and implement long sought after features, such as casualty dragging, stabilization instead of instant full heal, the ability for server admins to choose which medic system to activate on their servers, etc.
What is the most important aspect of Squad and why?
The balanced feature set between un-serious arcade shooter fun, and the focused gameplay of military simulators, while leaning toward enjoyable arcade action over simulators’ high learning curve. We are not going to casualize our gameplay heritage, and we’re going to provide and improve on all of the game design elements that promote teamwork , communication and coordination, and also tacitly punish lone wolf antisocial gameplay styles. Server Admins shouldn't need to be physically present to enforce rules to ensure teamwork, we’re going to build a game that admins and players expect teamwork as the only viable, enjoyable, and winning strategy, no matter what server or game mode they’re joining on any given day.
How many maps are intended to be released?
It’s too early for me to reveal this info, we have something planned in the near future to give a better idea of what we have in store for theatres, geography, factions etc. A bit of general info about three of the maps for the Alpha, our test map is Logar Valley, which is 2.25km^2, we have a 4km^2 map as a larger test map for vehicle layers, and we have a smaller test map for infantry training and small group fun. Any of the TAW.net members with serious mapping experience and are looking for a mapping job, get in touch, we’re hiring.
Will there be any DLC’s and if so what will they bring?
It is a bit early for us to give firm answers to this question, and the whole series of related questions about DLC and mod support. The Dev Team is trying to avoid fragmenting our community by pushing what in practice becomes required DLC. There might be middle ground solutions allowing everyone to play any future DLC in limited roles. Keep in mind at this point we have no plan to release our new content as paid DLC, rather we plan to release it as regular updates. We also are trying to allow modders to have access to our SDK as soon as we have a version of UE4 as our final base and have locked down our underlying code-base, so they can build their own maps, modes. mods, kits, etc, and we are also considering allowing mod teams to build our community made factions, with the concept of partnering with them to monetize full faction or full conversion mods if they are of sufficient quality. Everything I mentioned is still in discussion, it will take some time to find multiple sustainable solutions to add new and evolving content to the game.
What different modes will there be?
By far my favourite question to answer. We come from a background with the following game modes:
Advance and Secure, which is a multiple route objective capture mode,
Insurgency: A Conventional Faction on a search and destroy mission to eliminate either Insurgent weapon caches, and/or to secure objective zones.
Skirmish: A simpler game mode that is Infantry Only, which will always be in demand. Seeding a server, playing intra-clan scrims, training infantry tactics, etc all have a place in Squad.
Command and Control: ON large maps, each team builds a single Forward Operating Base which is given double the number of deployable fortifications and defences such as Anti Tank emplacements, and two commanders play a game of chess trying to locate and destroy the opposing FOB.
Vehicle Warfare: Simply put, a tank vs tank mode that will be seen much later in Squad development.
Now, why is this my favourite question to answer? Can you code in UE4 Blueprint and or C++. Then you can create your own game mode logic in a few hours. We can do just about anything that can be logically coded, Insurgents vs Militia, zone control, breach and clear scenarios, VIP escort scenarios, convoy defence, etc. Values of anything can be designated as win scenarios, be it capturing a bridge or building a defensive FOB, etc.
How much will be part of the core game, and how much will be brought on later by modders, that is still up in the air. Our Dev team has over 100 years playing and over 40 years modding FPS games, the brainstorming sessions on this topic get pretty intense, and we're going to push the limits as far as we can manage.
Will there be Clan vs Clan support?
It is a focus for us to support our own clan based gameplay. From the very high level implementation for Server Admins, to more visible immediate things such as clan tags and in-game identifiers (caveat in-game identifiers might be in the UI menus only), we’ll have all the clan related tools needed so the Devs can play with our own clans in Clan v Clan matches. We've had some early talks with people interested in developing clan vs clan community tournaments, we see it as a big part of the future of making the game we want to play, and that means clan vs clan scrims on the weekends.
What makes this different from Project Reality?
A development team with combined over 35 years experience working together on PR now control the low level coding of a game engine that is at the cutting edge for the industry. We have DX11, and will have DX12 sometime after official release. Our VOIP system is integrated, everything will work perfectly out of the box without any third party software/content, we have brought on industry professionals to fill gaps in expertise and maintain a very fast development cycle.
Will there be community server hosting support?
Yes. As well as direct lines of communication for Server Host Providers and Server Admins to the Dev team to make hosting and administering Squad servers as hassle free as possible.
What makes this different from any other team-based shooter game?
After a ten year experience of various advocates trying to pull us toward one extreme of arcade shooter to the other as a full on military simulator, we’ve managed to find a framework to balance game design decisions that works across almost all FPS game elements, this isn’t something that was seen often by the public. But the Project Reality team had internally struggled against falling industry standards as has been recently termed “casualization” and then also learned to selectively pick and choose competing gameplay options from the milsim mod scene and meld them into our existing game structure. This synthesized over time into a mod that had no commercial equivalent, and that arena of competing ideas, and that champion of a mod that emerged, is what brought this mod team together to invest years of their lives into bringing Squad to market.
Will there be mod support?
Every single coder on our team started as a modder. This is our chance to pay it forward so in ten years time there will be a vibrant modding scene in FPS gaming. You will one day see a degree of support; but at the moment we need to focus on making a core game that everyone will enjoy. We’re discussing a framework and outline of a pipeline for a SDK, and tutorial sub-forums to provide ongoing support for the modding community. From day one, the assets we’re building, the workflow we’re using, has been documented to allow accessibility to the modding community when we get closer to retail release.
I can imagine this is a popular question, do you think there will be a WW2 setting in the future?
We would like to see it also, we have no definitive answer. It’s been a long time since there has been a really amazing FPS segment leading WWII title released. We hope to see the Project Reality WWII mini-mod be reintegrated into the main PR Mod soon, so we can storm Omaha Beach again on our gaming nights.
Now that you’re steam greenlit, what is your next goal?
It’s interesting, we knew we had a great game, up until Greenlight we had no real outside validation, we know there are over 250,000 people who have played PR at one point or the other, but would that translate into a public show of support for our venture? It’s been good to get ourselves reintroduced to the FPS community on Steam, it’s been even better having prior PR players and modders come back to us to offer support in various ways. For now, as Community Manager, I’ll be out there spreading the word and putting the people together who need to be introduced. We have Project Reality veteran players in every imaginable field related to online gaming, getting them up to date on Squad has been really enjoyable, some of these guys I gamed with 3 or 5 years ago and haven’t heard from since. Talking to newly interested communities we think will enjoy Squad. Talking to younger gamers who haven’t had a proper teamwork focused FPS game on market has been eye opening, Turns out we weren't the only ones looking for something more out of our FPS gaming experiences.
BerlinerKuchen’s first impressions:
When I first heard about Squad, i instantly recalled my happy memories of project reality again. I knew from as soon as i saw the very first description of what Squad aspires to be, i wanted to be involved and help to make the best out of the game Squad. The first impressions for such an early build are just amazing. It is nowhere near done but it is already creating such a great atmosphere and feeling to a shooter game, the way that barely no other game has. This is in pre-alpha yet has better mechanics and has had more updates that most early-access steam games.
Squad has it in it to become the new Project Reality, welcoming new players and the veterans, each one of them will have their own unique and great combat experience. I definitely will be purchasing this when it is out.
Samblues’s first impressions:
Squad is currently in Pre-alpha. So when i first downloaded it, i was extremely shocked to see amazing visuals, smooth fps (i am currently hitting 60-80 fps on ultra everything with a gtx 770), atmospheric sounds that really immerse you and great voice communication mechanics inside of the game that allow Squad members to communicate with squad members, squad leaders to communicate with squad leaders and a proximity chat also. Squad has also got great weapon modules and explosion effects. One of the most important aspects of any Team-based military game is the community and so far i am very impressed. The community is already merging together to create useful forums, new ideas and i shall not forget to mention how supportive Squad developers and other testers have been to us! I’ve been part of the testing for only a few weeks yet every week i am finding new content in the build and i’m so impressed with the progress that i’d definitely buy it now! This is definitely a game to look out for if you’re into Milsim, Fps and really, any tactical based game!
Sidthesloth’s First Impressions:
My first impression of squad is by far the best I have had for any game. I was very shocked after my first round with how amazing the graphics was and how I was getting 60fps + in a pre-alpha. The weapons in the game have some amazing models and the texture quality is very high. One great thing about squad is the fast paced gameplay which makes it feel like you are always in a amazing fire-fight. The maps just look stunning and they all fit the feel of the game. The thing I most love about squad is how the focus is on squad play and not the typically solo killer shooter. I just simply can’t wait to play more. I never normally recommend a game that’s not even in a beta stage but I can make an exception for Squad. I feel this will be one of the best game of this year and I am so happy to be in pre-alpha and having such an amazing time.
Thank you to the Squad developers for answering our questions and allow us to post this article. Squad’s looks like it will be a fantastic game so make sure you get your hands on it!
2nd Lt. Samblues
Executive Officer
2nd Battalion
Arma 3 Divison