First and foremost, congratulations to Sugar Skulls for winning USL Free Infantry Season 5. With their entertaining OT victory, we conclude the season and look toward the future. <b>Is there a future?</b>

As of this morning, the head staff have begun discussions regarding the future of USL and how best to approach it. While it's become quite obvious that people are growing bored of the game, we do believe there is still some life left to be had and have constructed a series of changes that could potentially occur while likewise preserving the essence of USL as it's meant to be.

<b>Some of these suggestions are as follows:</b>


- Smaller teams, small rosters. While traditional USL has most often seen a 7v7 or 8v8 format as it's flag-bearing team size, we believe that lowering matches to 5v5 could be highly beneficial to the league. In addition, a roster limit of say, 7 or 8 players would make the most sense with this change.

This would provide the league with more squads and new strategies of which leaders could tinker with. Do you use 2 medics and 3 marines, or 1 medic and 4 marines? etc. Obviously some players would have to step up and become leaders but managing 5 players should be easier than managing 8.

I know what you're thinking (maybe). 5v5 on the the traditional giant USL maps sounds like a nightmare, amirite?

- Which is why we're likewise proposing edits to shrink the maps to a suitable size for a 5v5 format. Palm has already generously offered to start working on some map mock-ups for the public and we likewise implore anyone with the ability to make/edit maps to do so as well. The more options there are, the happier people are going to be in the end when a final map (or maps) is/are decided upon.

- We're pondering an incentive to engage in battle. Sick of spending thirty minutes in a match when only five of those are actual combat? Yeah, you're not alone. We're very open for suggestion/opinion here and the one that's been discussed most is a suggestion/pinon from the public in the past. (I do not recall the source of who suggested this, but kudos to you if you did.) The suggestion revolves around possibly incorporating a capture flag point that grants you kills over time (ie: 1 every 10 seconds or something of that nature). This would be a difficult to hold on to point so that a team cannot camp it and at the same time, would force the team who has the lead to not simply sit at their base and wait for the other team to come to them.

- Another idea that can be incorporated with the above or otherwise is CTF style dropships with multiple spawn points and no safe zone for which any one team could run/hide. (I would propose each dropship having three different spawn points as to allow teams to pick and choose where they want to re-group on the map.) If necessary, Palm has also pointed out that ammo/class-change depots are available but this may not be a necessity if we promote fighting and eliminate camping.

Obviously this league is a player's league and all of the above are suggestions. We can offer them and implement the changes but the ultimate decision comes down to what the public wants and thus <b>we are asking for public discussion on the above as well as any suggestions others might have.</b> What do you think about the above? Love it? Hate it? Have an idea to improve on it, or a new idea in general? Let's hear it.


inb4 "let it die".

Another idea which I discussed with Khaos was to have 2 matches per week on any scheduled day that the 2 squads can agree upon. Promotes more activity instead of the majority only logging on Sundays. SBs will probably happen more often and I think it would help keep people interested.

I suggested just having a chess league and was laughed out of the conversation. Afk...

I think even 7v7 would be good, 5v5 just wouldn't be Usl.

7v7 roster cap 12, apollos Ec edit

Increase penalties for camp timer (lose a kill if you camp 30 seconds past camp timer), if you camp in the final 2 mins for longer than a minute and the game is within 3 kills game automatically goes to
Overtime.

The game is dying because of camping not because there's not enough people.

What tox has just suggested is actually really really really smart. It's the only way to promote activity and make people log on throughout the week. More ever, there could technically be a game EVERYDAY of the week which means pub, sbs and population/spectators everyday. It could actualy be HUGE!

I too am offering my skills for map editing. It's totally upto you guys but I'm willing to do anything that needs to be done. Im very good/fast at editing.

I don't think the 3 spawn point thing is the best idea due to the fact that this is a team game. Let's say for example you have a med and 4 marines and a med goes to one point and the marines split 50/50 over the next 2. You're spread across the map and it's just not practical, in my opinion. It's a team game so it should stay as a team. Again just my opinion!

Love the idea of smaller teams, because it'll create more teams with more sbs and more chances to win due to talent spread out more. The flag idea could work as well but you'd have to play with placement to figure out best places

Make each team start with an Atlas/Cutlass, maybe people would play ripper

Free scheduled matches was my idea.

6v6 seems legit with a cap of 10 players.

I think implementing 3/4 flags similar to SL might help, it would keep people moving. You could either win by capture or kills in 20 min matches

Matches were always free schedule on FI. Captains just decide to do Sundays.

With flags the best thing for that wouldn't be win by capture but if you hold a flag then after x amount if time you get a "kill" added. But the flag would have to be dead center and out of a building for that to be fair.

I think the majority of us may find it difficult to make matches mid week considering we're old and have jobs and shit.

From the posts made on these forums I would have never guessed anyone was old with jobs/kids.

Problem with map changes and playstyle changes is it makes for a longer offseason, which kills the league.

I don't think it would take that long, tbh. We usually have a 3-4 week off-season and I imagine any necessary changes could be done in that time.

Even if that were a problem, it could be worked on and implemented for season 7. It could get done by season 6 as well, these are just ideas being thrown out there so we know which direction to head towards. We could let season 6 happen as normal while we discuss this in depth during.

Lower team sizes to 5v5 or 6v6 and cap roster at 8 or so = more squads and less benched people. No one wants to sit on bench for an entire season if theyre online for the matches. Great idea really.

Have two games a week = increase motivation to log on during the week.

My two cents. Go for it.

I second the idea of having 2 matches a week or even 1 on any given day. Gives more reason for people to be more active during the week.

This is sort of coming off like a decision similar to the CTFPL draft league(thanks albert). Change pushes people away and shrinking teams is basically like cutting teams/players in half that want to play together, which will make them rage and stop playing.

It could work if people in this community weren't so fucking negative but I have a feeling it won't. IMO this is a nail in the coffin if things are left the same but just reduced team sizes. You can make the argument that smaller teams = easier time to find squad battles but how the hell do you even sb when there is no population in the zone because of shitty pub maps like RvB and GvY? Basically what I'm saying is in order for this to work the zone needs some serious TLC. otherwise RIP infantry.

Make a map. I made green yellow and its the only one people will play. Mizz and I are open to receiving and adding new maps. We have tried with the community said and out up pub zones asked for but the player count always remains at 0 for them. So if you'd like a new event map added to usl, make one, dont complain.

I havent seen any other negativity on this post other than yours merci. We are all trying to come up with ideas instead of just saying smaller teams = dead league. This isnt shitty PL btw.

Not sure if smaller teams would work considering we dont have many leaders left to run more squads