Squad for the Iron Aussie (WIP)

It's easy to want to infodump on a new player (even on yourself!), but we need time to process and apply knowledge effectively. Nothing beats the taster of jumping in completely out of your depth with a friend to catch you, and returning to that situation with experience and the satisfaction of trying your new hypothesis.

The first thing is attitude - Arcade players, prepare to expand your mind.
Start well, and set yourself up for success, not for failure.

Every FPS is different, so you should always be willing to learn. If not, stick to something that better suits your playstyle. But if you never try, you'll never know and you'll never grow.
You cannot expect to boot in for the first time and have all your awareness and tactics transfer immediately. There's plenty of transferable skills, and this is a beautiful game. Because Squad needs good communication, and you juggle more keybinds, firing parameters, and resources than an arcade FPS, give yourself some time, and do the tutorials. That way you can get the car out of neutral to leave the base, and when you meet someone on the field screaming at you for ammo or suppressing fire, you can change to auto and fumble some down. Squad will not handhold you through movement and whether to toggle or hover something (always toggle and wait to act or equip), and you can never assume someone else knows what you're thinking.

Squad is less about kills and more about staying alive.

Tactics, positioning, awareness. The gunplay is wildly fun and very forgiving. Most servers are even playable up to 300 ping.
Squad is somewhere between Battlefield and ARMA (started as an old milsim mod for Battlefield!)
Reload times, respawn times, assets, and your speech to someone else - have weight.
As does the disembodied heavenly voice of the Admins. If you want to succeed, you have to

• work together,
  
• use your resources and
  
• stay aware.

Use to Build Awareness and work better with others!
Wise Sage You Tripped Over while Lost in the Outback
If you meet someone who's coordinated, serving others and sharing a good time, try and keep them.

Your Friendly Local Neighbourhood Server Discord
Treasure troves of experience, rules and resources relevant to your region, with their own risks.

Quick Reference https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413772619
Great if you have no military experience like me.

Squad Wiki[squad.fandom.com]
Avoid research overload by using it only when you really need a stats overview, or you want to lookover the maps.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891433256
There are some great guides out there by passionate class proficionados and comedic savants but if there's one beginner-friendly utility with maximum impact, it's the spike mine.

Maps & Modes

Singleplayer Training - The Tutorial
Do this as soon as possible. Spend extra time in the target range as it's on a hillside and you will never come back here again.
Jensens Range - The Training Range
Has everything. Learn what everything looks like and how it works here. If you need more movement than Killhouse, hop on a low player Jensens Range server, as the Workshop hasn't caught up to UE5 yet.
Seed - Deathmatch with a capture point.
Server Training
Some servers offer training nights on discord for new players! This isn't common as Squad is relatively easy to pick up and you'll spend a lot of your lobby time Seeding or in Jensens, but great to find if you want to learn and need some extra encouragement.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2838886865

Aimlabs
Isn't the best for Squad, but if you're as useless as me it has an impact! Still looking for good settings.

A/N
I'm writing this guide as a journal of my own experience trying to learn Squad.
I am not military, and the most FPS I get is a weekly Competitive Valorant match with people far above my skill level.
I can move, conserve ammo, spray, work angles with a team on a small map, and manage simple utility. Sort of. If I have the energy and the mindset to be aware. Squad explodes all of that outward in a dizzying way, but it still feels very achievable and fun to pick up. You don't have to read 147 pages of a flight manual to take off, but you're not driving a Little Tikes Mobile either.

As someone who never sunk the hours into Battlefield, and instead gets almost professionally steamrolled by arcade shooters (thankyou Riot Games), there are some particular advantages and disavantages. Especially regarding the map size.
So my mate didn't start me in Training, or RAAS.

Quick Start - Just blind boot.

Leave the guides behind for now and go in blind.
Why? To get a taste of live gameplay so you have some intuition and raw observations about yourself, and so you have a reason to return to the Training Range before you fry yourself trying to get up to speed.

Before you get overwhelmed by the callouts, uniforms, vehicles, guns, strategies.... or you are somehow worrying about all 98 (+11) people:

Seed is a rolling capture deathmatch.
Short distances, fast uptime, and nobody to heal because you rinse and respawn.
There's no stakes, you're waiting for a full/majority server.
Maybe you'll find someone waiting around who can show you a thing or two, but you're better off bringing someone with you and hitting the books later.

So why start with Medic?

There's a lot of very shiny big friendly guns. Too shiny.
All roles in squad are important. Medic is simply fundamental. You prevent the loss of tickets and ground. It's filled after Squad Leader and Crewman (necessary to leave main base on time).

You spend less time panicking about all your controls than holding left click and begging for Cooking Mama to make the stamina bar go up faster.

Let yourself get used to using your new control scheme in a live environment without the pressure of letting down your entire squad as you fumble the med bag and the other 6 or so abilities on your number keys.

• How Capture Points work - Majority rules.

• Rushing to Die (Do Not) - Going Solo unless your awareness and gunplay is good, is a bad idea. Squad is not COD. And I am so thankful it isn't - I seem to have an actual chance at playing the game to my strengths with the slower pace (famous last words, marksman).

• Reloading and Equipment Switching - This isn't 3 abilities and a numpad of icons. And thank Ratchet and Clank and CS:GO that I know what a radial menu is. Cycling through my equipment on the fly takes brain training and memorisation. It wasn't clear to me at first what toolbelt each number represented.
  "I will not press R with a full mag. I will not press R with a 2/3 mag."
  ...Frick.

• Reading Fire - Not the type, the location. "From Where?" Maybe I saw a bullet trail (a 'tracer')... but which building... High contrast arcade characters fighting in a palace or a hanger stand out. Men in camouflage over two blocks from you do not. Here, there are no out-of-body cams. It's you, the compass, the map, and your brains on the floor. And you already thought heads were small? At least these fleshy hitboxes are more susceptible to bullets!

• Leaning - Clearing corners and peeking out from cars just became your only skill as Jiggle peeking is replaced by focus. Freedom for my internal chicken. By far the fastest adaptation you'll make.

• Healing - Dragging bodies is a skill you can't seem to get in Training. But then again you'll do it forever. Keep a clear coast and back that dumptruck up. If thats a door, a smoke, or a gamble, do it. But remember: somebody saw them and killed them. Do you really want to stand in the same spot without making sure you're clear? You have to look at the person you're healing, no leaning here. They're your eyes now.

We didn't drill forever, just a couple rounds. My mate was kind to me and let me practice res'ing him a few times.

I found out for once I could actually make some kills.
And I found out that didn't even matter, because I realised I actually felt incentivised to pay attention and avoid being downed. Something about the approach and feel was clicking.

Movement, Interacts, HABs, Team Camo

First Drive - Why I've been banned from driving.

Rifleman: RAAS Objectives, Comms, Resupply
Hear callouts and terminology in use, observe the culture and behaviours.
The Squad Leader is important.
Just because something goes boom, doesn't mean it's you.

My Takeaway from Jensen's Range?
Physics is fun again!

Support Fire: munitions and setting range of fire

Crewman kit is for Tanks and phat APCs.

Cement your essential controls.
Here's a drill or race you can do in a vehicle with 3 seats to get the muscle memory: Supply, get in, start the engine, drive, stop, change to gun, aim 1000m away, auto fire, change to driver, drive, turn 180 degrees, drive, stop, change to alternative fire, aim 180 degrees around and burst/single fire, turn the engine off, exit the vehicle, pull out your vehicle repair kit and find the engine, get back in the vehicle, return it to base and swap vehicles.

Big Things Have Big Momentum
Use your handbrake. Stop early.

Armored Vehicle Ammo is generally speaking,
1 = Heavy Piercing for Armor
2 = Explosive to damage People, bases, cars.
3 = Coaxial to protect People nearby (no shockwave)
4 = Smokes

Scissors, paper, rock. You can't kill a tank, but you can disable it.

It's one thing to read a nice hitbox guide and memorise the tactics.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172739937 It's another thing to walk down the aisles of Jensens or a museum and perceive the engineering and problem solving:

• Tank > APC > IFV > Truck
  
• Ammo Types and Usage. Vehicles are not big fish > little fish, or rock paper scissors, but 'combined arms' with different pros and cons. That said, if you see something two classes above you, run.
  
• Holes, moving parts, and explosives are weaknesses that can be disabling.
  
• Ammo burns. Or explodes. Maybe hit it.
  
• Glass optics are easy disables, tiny targets.
  
• Air vents are radiators for the ENGINE - if a vehicle is close enough for you to see them, that's where it is.
  
• APC's carry people, so there are hatches. And then militias forced as much gun in them as they could.
  
• Your head sticks out of an 'Open Top' turret.
  
• You will be run over. Look both ways.

There are 54943 things going on I am on the wrong background and I cannot work out which way is up.

My SL is in a logi and I am alone in the middle of the map.

Apply 3-4 in RAAS

Build comms confidence and use a Radio during a match