Asking for thoughts on this, here’s my take:
Most of us have been there; after multiple rounds of rolling spec or smartgunner, hoping to get a frontline position, you finally get it, only to realize that you have been assigned to Bravo. Or similarly, you rolled an engineer with the hopes of working on the FOB, only to be assigned to Delta.
You got the roll you wanted, but not the role you wanted.
This results in all manner of unneeded insubordination, such as Bravo’s SG or Spec goes to the front lines, despite the SL or SO’s protestations, or other squad engineers staying to work on the FOB all round.
So, what if all the specialty rolls were not assigned to squads at round start?
Without changing the number of available slots, you just set all Specialists, Smartgunners, Medics, and Engineers to either echo squad, or to no squad. Then, either in the cryo bay, or in the cafeterias, you put up colored (for your convenience) “squad assignment consoles” (I need a new name for it, I just realized the acronym is SAC, intern your sack jokes here) where you swipe your dog-tags, and then boom, you’re in the squad you want, and have access to their prep areas. Command could, of course, opt to change you to fill a specific need, like if (somehow) there are no engis in Bravo, or if (again somehow) all of the specs joined Bravo.
Anyhow, my reasoning is thus: As a PFC, you get to choose your squad. As any other squad role, depending on your number when run through the roll and squad assignment algorithm, it’s really a toss-up as to whether you get assigned where you wanted to go. I do not know the specifics of how that assignment works, but I assume everyone gets a number, then a player is checked against their job preference first, if it available, they get it, then their squad preference is checked, if not available, they are then assigned to the next available squad. I also do not know if it tries to balance engineers and medics between the teams. If it does, then depending on the order, someone who wanted bravo could be assigned to alpha, while someone who wanted alpha could be assigned to bravo, during the same turn. But, that’s all based on an assumption about the assigning algorithm.
My point is, players being able to choose the squad, and thus, the role they want will cut down on insubordinate acts just by the merit of ensuring people are where they want to be.
Obvious downsides include squad stacking, a lack of certain roles in certain squads, the aforementioned super squad with 4 SG and 4 Specs.
And others I prolly can’t think of. But I’m curious to know what everyone else thinks.