Russians have been a faction in the game since launch.
China was added in Dec 2022.
These are variants of already existing factions. Chinese Navy and Russian Airborne troops.
I mean, you have to have a Redfor right?
For the longest time they had an issue with only having Russia, Insurgents, and Militias on the REDFOR side, and the last two were at a disadvantage in terms of equipment compared to Western factions. They were also adding a ton of Western factions, so it was unbalanced in terms of BLURFOR and REDFOR. They finally did add the PLA last year, but they’re bolstering the number of high-end REDFOR factions.
They just announced another playtest of the infantry overhaul this coming weekend, with some adjustments made from user feedback from the first playtest.
All the time.
USMC last summer, Australian Army last year, British army etc.
I guess you could see it as skeevy, but it isn’t really out of the ordinary for the game, the release new factions or retool existing ones all of the time.
I think it would be more skeevy if they added in a Ukranian faction for the Blufor faction list. (I could see a lot of people getting way too into this)
I say Blufor and Redfor which are terms not all might be familiar with, but Squad does not have Blufor (traditionally NATO) forces fight other Blufor factions (most of the time). You have Blufor vs Redfor scenarios or Blufor vs Insurgent or Redfor vs Insurgent scenarios. I think you can have some blue on blue scenarios on maps, but that typically is not happening.
It also pushes games into 2 styles. You have Peer-Peer combat with Redfor v Blufor and COIN (counter insurgency) combat with Red/Bluefor vs insurgency.
There was a LOT of complaining in the Squad community that the only Peer-Peer combat was Russia v everyone else. So they added the Chinese faction last fall, and I see this update (2 more Redfor factions) as continuing that trend to balance the factions, and add more variety to the gameplay.
I think it is very tricky to have to develop for a game like this, where you are trying to be realistic around equipment and weapons used in real world conflict, but that is part of being a sim. Arma skirts this by using made up countries in future wars, but Arma reforger is going to be cold war Nato v Warsaw Pact. Gunner HEAT PC has Nato v Warsaw Pact. You gotta have bad guys to shoot right?
I do think that the timing might be a bit weird looking at this from the outside, but as someone who has been playing Squad off and on from the Early Access days, it doesn’t feel surprising they would add this.
Even more interesting in life imitating game. Squad added amphibious vehicles along with the USMC faction last summer, and added a flooded version of one of the Eastern Europe themed maps “Narva”
Some eerily similar photos from that map and parts of Ukraine now.
Canada, too. And there’s a really high-quality French mod. I’m surprised that the devs haven’t bought it up. The Australian faction started as a third-party mod.
I don’t know what you want in a Milsim game with multiplayer.
Someone has to play the bad guys.
Did you not play BF 1942 because you could play as the Nazis? COD2? Is it bad to play the Americans in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam? Or are the NVA/VC the bad ones? Do you only play as the US/Britain in Axis&Allies?
As someone who has followed Squad’s development from EA, it isn’t surprising. They add factions all the time, with a big focus on redfor lately, due to how few options there are. There isn’t any pro Russian or pro Chinese agenda here. The community just wants more factions to play, and to keep the game a simulation those factions have to be Russian or Chinese (Or maybe Iran? IDK).
You played as the Russians long before 2022 (you basically had to, as they were the only Redfor faction until last fall, when China was added)
It is a simulation, and you have think of it that way. Putting in a faction of one side of the conflict is not support, it is just being accurate.
Welcome to the quagmire of mixed messages that is military gaming with a contemporary setting. There really is no way to square this circle. Going back ages, to the 1970s, the wargaming clubs I’d go to on Saturdays to play SPI, AH, GDW, etc. games were in part populated by steelheads who nearly always played the Germans, others (sometimes the same people) who would never play the Soviets, and a smattering of self-proclaimed Marxists who would only play the Communist side in any game.
Things are still wonky, because if you go for real-world stuff, and real-world actual or potential conflicts, you will run into problems ranging from tone to questions of aiding and abetting. If you keep it totally fictional, you lose a huge chunk of the appeal for many gamers.
Personally, I have no solution to the problem. In most cases I’ve become sort of blind to this sort of thing unless it is totally blatant. Not saying that is a good thing, only that it’s a thing.
Let me tell you, playing as the Russians in Squad, or particularly the VC in Rising Storm 2 can be PROBLEMATIC. The amount of muting you need to do in these games can be quite high. If you find the right servers, and play with the right people, however, you avoid a lot of that ickiness. People shouting racist shit, using accents… yuck.
Playing the VC in Rising Storm 2 (gameplay) is awesome. The asymmetrical nature of the match is so much fun. You got worse equipment, but more mobility, traps etc. Squad is a bit similar with the milita/insurgent factions.
You know what was really crazy?
When Medal of Honor had multiplayer where it was the USA vs Taliban, while the conflict was going on. I remember that being quite jarring.
Well, MEA (Middle Eastern Alliance) was added about a year or two prior.
The game hit early access with US Army, Russian Ground Forces, Militia, and Insurgents.
Over time, they added
UK
Canada
Australia
MEA
USMC
PLA
And now the VDV and PLN.
The first multiplayer shooter game I can remember that did something about this was, oddly enough, the US Army’s recruitment game America’s Army. In that game, you always saw yourself as the US Army side, and the other team always saw you as the opfor. They just swapped visuals!
Hello fellow cardboard pusher
Been years since I pushed cardboard, really. I have a few games laying around, either the ones I didn’t sell for whatever reason or a handful that I acquired for some odd reason over the past twenty years (but of course never played). Just don’t have the patience for it any more.
I had forgotten about MEA.
But, I guess the reason why this isn’t jarring, as someone who plays the game, is that Russia has been there since day 1, as has the USA. They have just been adding in variants/complimentary factions to both sides since then.
Also, part of the VDV/PLN is in 2022 summer they added in amphibious maps, and this allows both redfor factions an “amphibious” variant. If you need an explanation as to why they added these factions in particular? it was to bring parity in the game and a faction similar to the USMC added in 2022.
Hmm, may just be the servers I frequent but I have never experienced any of that in Squad. Only the eye-rolling talk about needing medics to touch their butts when they need a revive.
EDIT:
Thinking about it some more, there is the occasional middle-eastern accent and “allahu akbar” but that is usually confined to the staging area waiting on the game to start.
Exactly. Lots of “jihad” chatter at mission start.
But if you are on well moderated servers those people don’t stick around.
If you’re subscribed to the r/joinsquad, leave the group and join r/playsquad
Squad 6.0, including the much-anticipated Infantry Combat Overhaul, is now live
Gah. Every time I download this with the desire to really explore it, I end up uninstalling it because every single server with a ping lower than 100 or 150 is full. Always full. To play I have to wait literally for a half hour sometimes, and that simply isn’t on the agenda these days.
I am definitely going to give this a try.
I booted this up last night. It looks and runs great, but apparently has no native controller support, which for me is a dealbreaker. I could get everything to work except for free look on the right stick. Unless someone knows how to do that, I’m out. I tried using mouse and keyboard and could feel my stomach getting queasy so I noped right out.
For a game that I know plays at a slower pace, I’m 99% sure that I’ll be more than fine with a controller, especially since I’m probably going to be infantry the entire time anyway (and realistically, I’d do better in any vehicle with a controller too…) so I don’t know why this is a thing, but I guess that’s how MilSims want to separate from things like Battlefield? I dunno?
Maybe I just couldn’t figure it out either, but from what I could find on the web you need extra utilities or something to make it work and even then the claim was “It’s not great.” Booooourns.