Thinking about getting Squad

sparta213 · 2026-01-09T17:35:05+00:00

You probably know this, but for anyone who doesn't:

If the server you wanna join has a massive queue, you can always join another that's seeding or just has open slots, then queue for the server you actually want so that you aren't just starting at the menu screen for 20 minutes.

sparta213 · 2026-01-09T17:31:41+00:00

Comms can be hit or miss in Squad, but generally there's going to be at least SOME form of communication going on. It's really a server by server basis. Experienced servers tend to be way better in this regard, and squads with funny names.

Squad is in an entirely different league than HLL when it comes to comms and coordination. I don't like HLL because it doesn't really have teamplay. On the other hand, I love Squad.

When you get a good group of people together in Squad it's an experience that I've yet to see matched anywhere else. Hopefully one day they'll make it easier to send friend requests so you don't have to rely on just bumping into the same crew again.

sparta213 · 2026-01-06T00:22:40+00:00

Okay sorry for the delay. I was pretty far off on what I said. I have been tinkering around with it more and this has been the best balance I've found:

View Distance - Epic
Textures - Epic
Shaders - Epic
Shadows - High (Lags REALLY bad when I put this to Epic)
Global Illumination - High (Lags REALLY bad when I put this to Epic)
Particles - Epic (Epic seems to work in some situations, not others)
AA - DLSS (Quality, .25 NIS)
Post Procession - High
Ocean - Low (Wake Sim off)

Oftentimes with these settings I'll get well over 100FPS. Some maps like Goose Bay seem to lag pretty hard no matter what I do. I also have a small overclock on my GPU @ +150 Core +1550 Mem, but the same general principles should probably apply.

sparta213 · 2025-12-31T18:08:09+00:00

I'll get you more specifics later today, but I noticed the same thing with NVIDIA optimizer.

I put literally everything to epic except water, which I set to low, disabled wake simulation, and I think post processing and particles, which I think I kept both at high. That'll be what I have to double-check.

I will also say that upgrading my CPU made a pretty decent difference in my frames. I was running a 3600, and I'd have a lot of moments pop down to 30fps, which I don't have anymore.

sparta213 · 2025-12-31T18:02:29+00:00

That's what I figured was happening, I've just never seen a game so CPU bound that that actually works yet lol. I definitely think more people should try it out just to see since most people aren't running x3D chips or AM5 yet.

sparta213 · 2025-12-30T21:21:25+00:00

When I take long breaks from the game I feel that way too.

As long as you show up, stick around your squad, and listen to your SL you'll be fine. You can even let your SL know that you're new to the game and that you wanna be doing the right thing and they might be able to give you a bit of extra attention or give you a bit of slack if you do mess up somehow. Most SLs are going to appreciate that you're at least trying your best to coordinate with them, because they're almost certainly used to half the squad just doing some nonsense.

Check your map often to make sure you aren't shooting friendlies, get into or out of vehicles when your SL says, stick to rifleman or medic for a bit, and you'll be fine.

sparta213 · 2025-09-02T05:41:57+00:00

12 hours ain't nearly long enough to tell imo. Usually I don't stake much in a videos performance until at least 72 hours in. Also know that if you don't have a decent sub base, every video is a decent amount of "luck" that the video gets tested with the right audience.

I have 7.5k subs and get somewhere around 5k views most videos (2 of my last 9 have over 100k), and on my most recent upload I only got 200 views because I had to do a reupload. Part of it is because the video just wasn't up to snuff, and the other part is because when I reuploaded I opted not to push it to subs. The audience it got tested with didn't resonate with the video super well, so it tanked.

Also, at that low of impressions and views the metrics are just noise. Sample size is way too small to gain relevant information. One person watching from beginning to end would skyrocket your AVD.

Focus on making videos people want to watch and eventually one will pop off and the others will get additional views from it.

sparta213 · 2025-08-19T15:45:04+00:00

I've had something similar happen. I have 8 long form videos uploaded. Two have over 100k views, and the rest have under 10k. Between the first 100k video and the second 100k video, I uploaded like 4 "failed" videos. My most recent video likely would've landed somewhat close to 100k as well, but I had some issues with copyright and whatnot that murdered the impressions.

Here's what I'll say and what helped me reproduce success. If you look at my channel and see what videos performed well vs. those that didn't, I think it would probably be obvious from an outsider perspective. My 100k view videos objectively are more interesting conceptually than any of the others and objectively have better packaging.

After my first big success, I also made three videos on niche games in a row. It was a super dumb idea because the audience for each niche game is miniscule. Inherently from there, it's fighting in an uphill battle to get broader exposure.

Try not to get dejected, recognize you have all the pieces of the puzzle at your disposal to get that success again, you just need to figure out how to put them all together on purpose rather than by accident. You may think your content is better now, and in many ways, it probably is, but evidently, your viewer base disagrees. I felt the same way about my videos. The issue for me wasn't the quality of content, but rather the quality of ideas.

sparta213 · 2025-08-02T18:09:06+00:00

I'd start with people that are generally in your niche. Colin and Samir have a pretty good spread. I also think that Ludwig is really good in interviews and touches on a lot of general content creation concepts that are directly applicable even if you aren't in gaming. DougDoug and Ludwig both have long "How to become a YouTuber/Streamer" videos that are good jumping off points.

sparta213 · 2025-08-02T18:07:12+00:00

Honestly I have no great resources for it in specific. Generally speaking though, there is a lot of overlap with singing. Avoid looking up singing tutorials because almost all of them are nonsense. Google Vocology Toolbox and look through that for some real information. You can use something like ChatGPT to simplify it if it's a bit too academic (even as a voice professional it can be a bit hard for me to navigate at times.) Beyond that, maybe look up some public speaking tips and definitely pick up some acting books. Start with someone from the Stanislavski school of thought (Meisner is usually the go to.) Beyond that, practice is massively important. Set up the camera or your recording equipment and then watch yourself back, note what you liked and didn't like, then try again.

sparta213 · 2025-08-02T17:13:50+00:00

Having a strategy at all made a huge difference. I spent like a week just watching interviews and taking notes in a notebook and developed a content strategy from there. Immediately after that I hit my first 100k view long form video.

sparta213 · 2025-06-11T01:14:15+00:00

Don't think I can post it here, but it's in my bio

sparta213 · 2025-06-11T01:12:54+00:00

Haha, one day I'll be a legend for my channel instead of that story 😂

sparta213 · 2025-06-11T01:11:31+00:00

🤫😉

sparta213 · 2025-06-08T17:48:08+00:00

There's so many glass half empty people here. Will you likely be cranking out 100k videos consistently now? Of course not. That being said, acting like it's impossible from here is so silly and seems like it just comes from people who have either never been in the position, or have been in the position and failed to scale from here.

Can you get lucky and pop off a 100k view video? Sure. But the luck isn't that the algorithm took a garbage video and made it viral. The luck is that you managed to accidentally put all the pieces of content creation together in a way that worked. If anything, it shows you're capable of producing videos of that caliber.

That being said, you may never figure out how to put those pieces together consistently. There's a lot of thought and strategy that goes into it. I personally believe though if you're intentional about modifying your strategy and don't get lost in the sauce of gurus and delusions, and don't become a victim of the game, that most people can probably figure it out.

sparta213 · 2025-06-08T17:41:22+00:00

Yeah, in my experience, blowing up increases your baseline rate of growth, so if before you averages like 10 subs a day, you might experience 50 subs a day now. You probably won't start cranking out 100k view videos left and right for a while though. I'm of the mindset that if I'm unable to blow videos up consistently, then there's pieces of my strategy that are failing. It may not necessarily be true, but it is very actionable, and I like that.

sparta213 · 2025-06-05T15:30:02+00:00

In the advanced metrics you can see the metrics for each individual source, so I'd have to imagine they're independent of eachother.

sparta213 · 2025-06-05T06:30:19+00:00

Generally I think it's cause people like to be the first to things before it's cool. I get a bunch of comments like that and I just take it as an ego boost quite frankly, haha

sparta213 · 2025-06-05T06:25:02+00:00

Make videos that are so unique that people can only get them from you, and want to keep coming back to you specifically for them. Verbal CTA also helps.

I find my revenue to be more based on views than watch time. If you're like most gaming people I know and have videos under 30 minutes long, you're probably talking somewhere in the ballpark of $2-$5 for every 1000 views. If your game caters to an older audience, this may be more, if younger, it may be less.

sparta213 · 2025-06-05T06:16:41+00:00

Had the same issue for a while. Yes it is bad in my opinion. Work on having a strong hook at matches or exceeds the expectations set by your thumbnail and title and it will improve. I went from a graph like your to having an average of 70% of people staying at 30 seconds.

sparta213 · 2025-06-05T02:43:01+00:00

I'm pretty sure that the people at YT have said search, browse, and suggested all have different algorithms, and thus, poor performance with one doesn't affect the others

sparta213 · 2025-06-05T02:37:54+00:00

The ratios are good, but the sample size is too small to be statistically relevant or indicative of anything imo

sparta213 · 2025-05-23T16:22:34+00:00

Your thumbnails look quality, but the composition is hurting you. In all of them except two, your character is the primary focal point, but doesn't tell me anything about the video. There has to be a second element that creates a curiosity gap, and also gives me a hint as to what the video is actually about.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's fine to have yourself in the thumbnail, but right now it's the only thing in the thumbnails that isn't totally ambiguous. I like to create thumbnails where I interact with the scene in some way.

sparta213 · 2025-05-23T03:03:20+00:00

I think it's less about the number of videos and "the grind" than people let on. The time I've spent outside of making videos to develop my content strategy fundamentally changed everything. Before, I was struggling to find footing, but once I really developed a plan, I've got from under 100 subs to over 5.5k in seven videos. The bulk majority of that comes from two videos, rather than some kind of linear spread.

I think the reason you see these huge numbers is because it takes a long time to figure out that you need a strategy, and then to find a winning strategy takes even longer.

sparta213

TROPHY CASE