I'm quite worried that the game will be ruined by teams changing around all the time due to autobalance or map changing.
Seeing as this game will have a heavily teambased gameplay I'm afraid that due to the previously meantioned reasons I won't be able to actually play with friends/clanmates and therefore will be forced to play with randoms.
Which will make this whole teambased gameplay more frustrating than fun.
I hope that Splash Damage knows this and will hopefully do the same as BFBC2 where the teams stay the same all the time, no autobalance and the teams stay the same after the map changes.

No you will never be forced to play online in BRINK. If you want to play in a closed online game where only your friends can join, you can. If you would rather to stick it out alone that's cool too. You will never ever be forced to play online with randoms unless you truly want to.

Also I don't see why the teams would change after each round. Seems a little illogical so I doubt that system will be in there.

You can group up with your friends so you all stay in the same team.

I mean play with friends/clanmates as in playing on the same team as them against another team of players.

Well of course you would. Friends are all automatically placed into the same Fireteam and will stick together for as long as there are members in the Fireteam. If you have clanmates that aren't on your friend's list(oxymoron right there) then you can just invite them directly into the Fireteam.

I havn't heard about this, is there an interview or something explaining more about this?

Should be in the BRINK Bible Post-PAX 2011.

It shouldn't be a problem keeping the teams 8 vs. 8 since the game uses bots.

If there is a balancing problem teams will stay on the same side and bots will fill out the roster.

You can choose to disable bots and have all human players.

A fireteam holds up to just 2 people though (including yourself).

No, they hold up to 8..

(taken from the Compendium)

Steve “badman” Hessel sheds more light on Fireteams, in a Q&A at BrinkAddict.com:
“Fireteams in Brink support up to eight members, so theoretically the entire team could be in the same one. There are several ways to get a fireteam started. If you invite one of your friends to your match, Brink will automatically try to put them in the same fireteam as you. Similarly, if you join a friend on a server via the friends list, the game will try and do the same. You can also invite people who are in your match, or request to be invited to an existing fireteam via the scoreboard.
The biggest advantage of fireteams is that Brink will automatically enable VoIP chat for all of the members in it. Spawning on other members of your fireteam is something we explored early on, but ultimately decided against.”
- Steve Hessel, Community Relations Manager

:shrug: I see, which compendium is that because the one I read said it as there being 4 fireteams per team holding up to 2 members each. http://www.fragworld.org/frag/community-blogs/brink-info-pt-4-controls-hud-and-everything-else.html < thats where I got it from....getting the notion it may be slightly outdated.

That's why you finish reading it since he has updated it. As Capt said above that is from the update.

I believe that to have been a misinterpretation. There are up to 4 fire teams per team and cannot be one man fireteams, but from everything that has been in interviews it seems that there can be a single fireteam designed to keep you with your friends.

It's mentioned in every other interview, basicly. But they don't make it a big deal, because frankly it works the same like in - say - Call of Duty.

Sounds like the OP is worried that his team will get split up every round cause of balancing issues. I hear what he is saying cause even in the quoted post the dev says TRY on every statement. We all know that the CoD tried this from the get go and ONLY got it right in 2 of the games from the get go. The others failed AND only TRIED to fix it. Eventually getting it right AFTER the game was out for some time.

The teams wont change. Even if someone leaves.....I know I heard someone say something about bots a while ago. Ones that will take up the empty space on a team until someone joins.

Steve “badman” Hessel sheds more light on Fireteams, in a Q&A at BrinkAddict.com:
“Fireteams in Brink support up to eight members, so theoretically the entire team could be in the same one. There are several ways to get a fireteam started. If you invite one of your friends to your match, Brink will automatically try to put them in the same fireteam as you. Similarly, if you join a friend on a server via the friends list, the game will try and do the same. You can also invite people who are in your match, or request to be invited to an existing fireteam via the scoreboard.
The biggest advantage of fireteams is that Brink will automatically enable VoIP chat for all of the members in it. Spawning on other members of your fireteam is something we explored early on, but ultimately decided against.”
- Steve Hessel, Community Relations Manager

Automatically & try - Are like putting Definitely & Maybe in the same sentence or Same & Difference.....

So will it, Or will it NOT put you in the same team - I dont like the "Automatically try" phrase lol.

Either way, Im good for anything!

Me too.

I think it is setup to automatically proceed in putting them on your team. If a variable is introduced it will fail. Hence, TRY.

LOL

After reading the "Matchmaking" part of the Brink Compendium, it would seem like you can actually set up a game where you and your friends can join the same team and either allow other players to join the game or play vs the AI. I could be wrong though and it might be a console thing.

MATCHMAKING

- Brink does not use filters and lobbies to put together groups and find matches. Instead, each player controls their setup choices in Brink, using a drop-in system for adding players (real or AI)
- You choose which mission you want to play. Select whether you want to play against AI or allow real people to join the opposing team as well. Then the game searches to see if there's an existing match that meets the criteria. If there is, and the game has started recently enough that you can still get into the flow of it, then you join that game. If not, it creates a new game for you to play in.
- However you set things up, you can invite friends to your game or join theirs, and then travel together from game to game in a group.