Community Update from EAUK About Squad Hopping

EAUK_Protagonist, over on the EA UK Forums have posted information on why "squad hopping" was disabled in the 1.3 patch.

[PATCH 1.3 UPDATE]
We at DICE and EA are aware of the concern surrounding the coming change to squad selection. We would like to take a moment to ease the feelings of tension related to this change. Our goal is to refocus game play on team work, squad coordination and to also remove the spawning exploit used by some.

In BF2 we introduced tools that would allow players to support one another as they battle for control points. To further enhance this aspect of game play squads were introduced to give players even more tools to coordinate their efforts and support each other. Allowing squad mates to spawn on the squad leader was intended to provide an easy way for squads to stay together during chaotic battles.

Unfortunately squad leaders have been used by some to launch team wide attacks on remote parts of maps with little thought to actual team unity beyond these maneuvers. We believe this change will refocus the game play on team work and add more value to the roles of Squad Lead and Commander

I wasn't that nuts about the squad hopping lockout, because it is sometimes necessary to have the squad leader changed, in order for the squad to spawn on a certain position. But with this advantage, there is a disadvantage, by having this available, then teamwork is degraded, because squad leaders are switched during this process, breaking the chain of command. By enacting this, the chain of command will be more teamwork on servers. This change will be for the better good of the Battlefield 2 community, but it will take time for people to adapt to this, and it will return to stability as it was before.

There is a discussion about this topic on the Total BF2 Website.