This might be a long post and if you have any questions (because usually I am terrible at explaining shit) feel free to ask.
To start the number I mentioned is not random. That's the maximum number you can have in a platoon, which is divided into 4 squads of 12 people. Each squad has a squad leader (SL) and there also is a platoon leader (PL). Most these guys need to do is issue orders, but SL's also can have a device called Spawn Beacon, that let's squad members spawn on it every 2 minutes (1,5 min with upgrades). That device is locked behind battle rank 10 (BR 10). Now I don't remember currently, if change went live so that all platoon can spawn on any SL's spawn beacon or not, but it's probably irrelevant, because the more we have, the better it is.
Furthermore, while PL coordinates everyone at the platoon, it's the SL's job to properly micromanage PL's orders. They require experience in the game to do it, as in leading experience and game playing experience, to be able to make it as fun as possible, it needs to be as micromanaged as possible with new players and even with veterans, only few are able to lead others, most rather not do that and follow. Now, if as far as I imagine, people would like to follow Ross, even if he doesn't really like to do it, they won't be as happy to follow some random shmuck while playing alongside Ross. So Ross is probably end up being a PL, whether he wants it or not. While shmucks can be the veterans, who SL and micromanage and assist him with decision making. And the more we have people, the higher number of squad leading qualified veterans we'd need. We also might run into an issue, where we get over 47 people, then there's question how to deal in which platoon would Ross be? There is a lot of things to talk on that alone, but it's more for the organisational personel than everyone.
Getting to another question on unlocks themselves. Well, you can do most things with basic stuff on infantry level and doing significantly better than starter gear you'd need to put way over 100-500 hours into the game. So I'm not even counting on that. To do something like combined arms you'd need vehicles and the difference between well upgraded vehicle and base one is in way bigger than one between newly created charachter and someone who put his hours into the game on infantry level. I'm not even talking about flying, some if not majority of Planetside 2 veterans can fly decently. The flying is practically behind a skill and lvl wall bigger than infantry and ground vehicle differences combined.
Now this is not to say, people would be totally screwed. In planetside 2 team play is king, way bigger king and way bigger power than any of other skill and time investment differences. That's why I believe good veteran SL's would help us out to have the most fun in the game. And since I believe, most of people joining Ross will be newbies, who can barely shoot straight, I believe we need to strategize taking that into account more than anything else.
