When the 1.4 patch was first released the new map was great, especially on IO mode. Playing USMC it was great to work in squads and head over to the island, and then take the fountain flag, then the hotel, then the mosque. After that the game was yours.

NOW, nobody plays in squads as a squad, just every sniper for himself. Everyone plays snipers or medics reviving snipers and nobody cares about taking flags.

What a waste of a great map....

What does everyone else think?

IO blows

I now agree. All noobs do is play sniper or stand near ammo crates throwing 'nades continuously

I second that, haven't played IO a lot, but i'm against the entire idea. BF is about the entire battlefield "expirience" not just about infantry. If you want IO go and play a game thats based on it.

Jalabad is a great map, what has give me a lot of fun, specially now i play a lot of engineer (wich is good news for you planewhores out there, i'm getting the vibe for tracks in stead of wings)

The damn CSS noobs have turned it into CounterField.

And i havent even played IO, thats how much i despise the idea.

its been this way since 2 weeks after the release of BF2
i have only had a listening squad under my command three or four times, two of them were in the first 2 weeks, it was so fun, the commander followed my orders, i had a complete army of non-assigned units behind me because the squad was full, and 2 other squads also followed my command, and it all started with a small 3 man squad... that was the most enjoyable round of BF2 i ever had.

well latholas, if it happoned only 3 times, then you sure didn't play alot on the Gamingsource server

That's not true. A friend of mine and I run a regular squad on the StrafeRight 24/7 Kark/Jala server and it's a rare event for it to be only we two. And it's not just an extra spawn point either: one of the things we do is hop in a couple o' DPV's and motor around the south side and up to the Mosque. Then the leader climbs onto a rooftop and gives cover and acts as a spawn point for the rest of us. Then we move on down to the market and catch the MEC in a pinch. It's worked just about every time we've tried it.

And 'nade chuckers are noobs but snipers are definitely not noobs. I play sniper quite a bit and I know what I'm talking about when I say that it takes more than an average Joe to be an accomplished sniper. Believe me, I'll be the first to join a squad or lead my squad with the commander's orders, but sometimes it's nice to relax and just go it alone for a while. But if I did, Jalalabad would NOT be the map I'd choose.

I must be playing on the wrong servers...

Its funny to look at the 40 man stand off between the USMC staging area and city entrance flags which is made up of 'nade chuckers, snipers and medics. All I want is one person to be in my squad to back me up. Then it is easy to take first the fountain, then hotel, then mosque, then the game is won. But trying this alone is tricky.

I agree that being a good sniper is difficult - I hardly play sniper, becuase I simply am not good at it. But there is no skill in 20 snipers standing in the open popping off rounds getting the odd kill, without caring if they are seen and killed becuase they know they are 10 medics waiting to revive them. These are noobs.

I miss playing in a squad, so much that I find myself playing commander now

I'll have to try some different servers...

There I definitely agree with you. I never could figure out why no one joins a squad, even with people they've never talked to before, because every time I join a squad I have a blast, and we totally roll over the uncoordinated opposition. Squad play is a lot more fun and a lot more effective, I just wish people cared more about having fun and playing to win than they did about getting points for unlocks they're never going to use because they're too busy chucking 'nades and using they're sniper rifles as semi-autos.

If you're looking for some good squad play, me and a friend of mine, EternalWarrior, run the Warriors squad on the Straferight server just about every Friday (college permitting). Both of us will be switching to BF2142 as soon as it releases though so you might be out of luck (unless you can swallow your deep hatred for EA after 1.3 . Forgive and forget, man, forgive and forget.) Straferight will have a BF2142 server though, so you'll probably find us there.

I cancelled my Amazon order for BF2142 after playing the demo. Think I'll stick with BF2 until ET:QW comes out. The idea of starting from scratch in a ranking system for basically the same game with a mod totally drains the life out of me. It's a good idea to keep the interest, but it becomes life consuming.

Hope you have a blast thou'