Dev Notes - Squad Management, Squad Orders
A preview of Squad Management and Squad Orders in Season 5
Hello there!
Today we’re sitting down with our Engagement Team for another preview of Quality of Life changes coming during Season 5.
As one of the most frequent requests by the Community, we wanted to let you know ahead of time that Squad Management will release as part of the upcoming Season 5 update. We understand that you’ve been looking forward to this feature for quite a while, and we want to start with acknowledging your patience while we’ve worked to make it available for you. The team is keen to get it into your hands, so let’s take a closer look at how the improvements will work.
Improving Squad Management
With Squad Management we understand the importance of having a smooth experience for your squad experience during a match. That means we set several design goals when adopting this feature for Battlefield™ 2042:
- Provide an easy overview to see and manage squads in your team
- Being able to create, or join a squad of your choice
- See in which squads your friends are playing
- Easily navigate through squads
Squads and Players
The Squad Menu is now separated to give you a full overview of all squads on your team. In this menu you can make someone else the leader, and see how many players or friends are in a squad. It also shows class icons so you know how to best complement a squad before joining it. And to add some personal flavor, leaders can also show off their Player Card Tag as the squad icon.
We also worked with the narrative team to come up with code names for each squad for that additional personal touch. One of our personal favorites is Gravedigger -- surely the Gravediggers know how to PTFO. We definitely don’t mess with that squad!
Create and Join
At any time you’ll be able to create or join a new squad directly via the Squad Menu. Previously you could only switch to a random squad, and only from the deploy screen. If you create a new squad then we’ve also added a short waiting period before other players can matchmake into your squad to ensure you can play together with your friends.
Easy navigation
The Squad Menu was created to make it easier and faster to manage and navigate through squads on your team. While before it was unclear when and how to change squads, you’ll now be able to do that at any time and with only a few clicks.
We hope that with this new improved Squad Management experience you feel that you have the control over who you’d like to play with during a match. Once this is in your hands, please stay in touch and give us your feedback about how you feel about it!
Later during Season 5 we’ll also add Squad Orders functionality. Let’s take a look at how that works.
Squad Orders
Sticking together with your squad is not only the most effective way to play Battlefield. We also think it’s the most fun. However, we've heard your feedback that with the present approach to squads and their management there is no clear role for being the leader of a squad.
The current ping system does allow a squad leader to give orders, but offers no incentive for other players to follow those orders. With Squad Orders we’re giving leaders a common goal with their squad members to encourage collaboration and teamwork, alongside keeping the squad together.
What you can expect from Squad Orders is that you’ll be able to ping an objective as a squad leader (be it attack, or defend). Your squadmates are then able to confirm that order to work together as a squad to complete it. If successful, then the whole squad receives additional XP for completing that order. You’ll also receive personal bonus XP for your contributions to either attack or defend the objective while the Squad Order is active. The more you contribute, the more XP you earn.
In short, PTFO - and get rewarded!
Thank you for reading along with us today as we gave you an early preview of what to expect for Squad Management, and Squad Orders. We’ve got further improvements on the way, but for now we’re looking forward to getting this in your hands during Season 5.
//The Engagement Team
This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.