Prepare for the FIA

[u/Polo117]

Sticking to the same US/USSR HQC playstyle will not work with the FIA in 1.7

Solo play will result in you giving your gear and vehicles to the FIA for free

• Solo building a base? You got caught by 1 FIA, who now has your construction truck, radio, gear and will use all these things against you

• Solo operating a heli or armored vehicle? 1 FIA will watch and follow you for an hour, waiting for the perfect time to kill you and take your vehicle

Arsenals at every base enables constant sabotage

• Every Arsenal is a place for the FIA to upgrade their gear from a simple pistol, to everything they need

• There should only be a few arsenals at heavily defended bases, with lots of player traffic

• Once the arsenal is not needed, it should be disassembled

Storage Depots are destructible

• Hoarding depots in one spot is a saboteurs dream, they should be built under camo nets, and spread throughout the base

• Depots can no longer be used for indestructible walls

Rushing to build bases or capture points will result in you getting ambushed

• Players can't predict safe paths to drive or walk, the FIA could be ANYWHERE

• FIA can reposition most of the default FIA AI, and landmines around the map

• FIA can recruit more FIA to position

• FIA can build defences

Bases need to be isolated so they're harder to infiltrate, and easier to defend

• Bases built besides towns, forests etc allows the FIA to walk right in, even with AI defenders

• A base built in a clear, open field, with sandbag walls makes it harder to infiltrate, and also protects the AI defenders

• Just need to avoid positions that have high-ground looking into the base

Abandoning vehicles at every base you attack gives the FIA free transport

• Many people spawn a vehicle, drive to an objective, and once they capture, will build a new vehicle station and spawn another vehicle, while their original one is a walk away

• These scattered vehicles give the FIA more options for transport, to use them as roadblocks or ambushes

The FIA punishes those who lack situational awareness, who don't work within a group, and those who rush to complete their objectives.

I'm keen to see how this new danger will change how people play, how will you as a soldier, Squad Leader or Commander change your playstyle in this new environment?

[u/BlenderNoob1337]

Sounds like you highly overestimate the impact of the faction. Ambushes, enemi3s sneaking around your base etc was already there without them. Using enemy armory to rearm also isnt something new.

[u/Polo117 → u/BlenderNoob1337]

Yup all these tactics already existed, except the end goal for the enemy team was to push and capture an objective.

The end goal for the FIA? To disrupt you with whatever you're doing, for as long as possible.

But yeah with the FIA being capped to 8, these impacts will be isolated, though many believe even 8 is too many...

[u/SerzaCZ → u/Polo117]

The genius of this is that previously, you were a member of a conventional fighting force.

You doing whatever meant one less guy to defend and take territory and actually move the frontline.

You could lose. But the FIA? We can't win. But that means we can't lose, either. Forget holding territory. We are the boogeyman.

[u/InformalYesterday760 → u/SerzaCZ]

Having played it in 1.7, I fear it really encourages some of the worst parts of Reforger. We already have some odd gameplay loops between supply runners and rats who have slipped past the front lines with an RPG.

Like it's objectively one of the most "effective" ways to play Reforger in 2026. We have these super diffuse front lines with limited massive engagements cause it's just so much more effective to be solo with an RPG and go hunt supply runners.

So each team needs folks running logistics, so the team focused players will be largely doing that. But the other team will have like 10 folks behind enemy lines blowing them up and harassing supply trucks.

We've ended up in a weird gameplay loop where it is actually quite rare to see combined arms pushes with helis, armored vehicles, and infantry fighting alongside each other. The most common thing is being a rat and popping out of a bush with an RPG and setting a truck on fire.

I don't have many solutions for this problem, but it really feels like Reforger is stuck in a weird spot. The FIA is gonna make this even worse cause FIA is basically designed to do even more back line harassment. I don't think supply runners will stick around for this very long - and that's been my experience in 1.7 Supply runners get annoyed and leave, and both US and RU stall out cause neither can get enough cohesion together to break out. And FIA just farms them for kills, as the best players end up there over time.

[u/Zman6258 → u/InformalYesterday760]

I don't have many solutions for this problem

All the potential solutions either add severe limitations to the game in a way that takes away from the pseudo-sandbox nature of Reforger, or require significantly better handling of large-scale groups of AI. The easy but video-game-y solution is to say "the back lines are too well-secured to infiltrate" and have a dynamic "leaving the battlefield" warning, but... y'know, that's extremely video-game-y. The "proper" solution is significant friendly AI patrols, including backline logistics and vehicle patrols... but you already know how much the game struggles with AI limits.