I have been on the hunt not only across online gaming news sites but in game aswell. Alot of people are talking about the little things in BF3, like the destruction of an indestructible tower or the damage of weapon. And well here i have collected what i would say is alot of words and pics for your enjoyment.
If you do not care about Battlefield do not read this and do not comment, if you do care by all means. This is heavy with info, some may be older news and some might be new news to your eyes. There is so much being released for BF3 and so much news is popping up from DICE its a challenge to give you it all, so i have chosen these to share for you at this time. I hope you enjoy.
Table of Contents: - What's Still Wrong in a Game So Right?
- List of Potential Battlefield 3 Balance Updates – DICE Looks to Fans for Feedback
- G3A3 to be Buffed, Vehicle Changes, Mouse Issues Fixed and more
- The Complete List of BF3 Back to Karkand Weapons and Attachments Revealed
- Gulf of Oman Gameplay Trailer Reveals a Classified Vehicle
- Changes to Semi-automatic Weapons On The Way
- Battlefield 3 Weapon Damage Chart
- 5 Flag Maps in Back to Karkand on Consoles, DICE Puts Lead Platform Rumors to Rest, Color-blind Mode Details
What's Still Wrong in a Game So Right?
Battlefield 3 is easily one of my favorite multiplayer games of this console generation; it's quickly moving up the ranks in my "all-time favorites" as well. With a hundred hours playtime at rank 49, I've put enough time in to really get a hang of the game and its unique elements. I've also seen more than a few issues crop up that should be remedied either via patches and updates, or for future Battlefield installments. Some of these might seem minor, and I'm sure I'll be accused of nitpicking, but for long-term and heavily invested players, they can really add up to an annoying (at best) or frustrating (at worst) gaming experience.
Server Browsers
Server browsers are an oft-requested feature of multiplayer games, and fans were thrilled to hear they would be implemented into Battlefield 3. Unfortunately, they're kind of pointless. Yes, you can choose a server currently hosting the map you want to play on, but it's still a normal cycle of maps. That means if you want to play Siene Crossing, and go to the server browser to select a server hosting Siene Crossing, you will only play that map once (at best), and then the cycle will continue. I say "at best" because you might join into a game in progress; you might be plunked down in the game with only 5 kills remaining, and not even get to play the map you chose. Then it's off to the next random map. The console server browser needs to have dedicated map servers. I could spend entire evening gaming sessions playing nothing but Grand Bazaar. I'm sure other gamers have their favorite maps they'd like to play in a continuous loop. DICE need to make the browsers more like the standard PC gaming servers. They could even look to see what the most popular maps are, and test the waters with them first to see what the community's reaction would be.
Great news in theory; mediocre news in execution.
Ranking
My mind was blown when I read that Battlefield would feature 145 levels. Unfortunately, my buzz was harshed by the fact that there are really only 45 levels, and then 100 "service stars," which give you no items or unlocks outside of some rather generic-looking dog tags. To be honest, it feels like an artificially extended ranking system to compete with the likes of Call of Duty's "Prestige" options. DICE should have either spread out the unlocks or just had rank 45 the highest rank. Having 99 levels of Colonel seems a little redundant. They could remedy this short-term by creating Colonel-only servers, or offering some goodies on the Battlelog or something, but in future games, I hope they rethink their ranking strategy.
Weapon Attachments
For the most part, weapon attachments are an absolute blast to unlock and equip. Unfortunately, many of them are completely worthless for the weapon at hand. A massive long-range rifle scope for a pump shotgun? Really? It seems bizarre to me that shotguns have so many useless scopes, and yet lack foregrips, a pretty standard attachment for gaming shotguns. It would have been nice to see some more unique attachments for specific weapons outside of the heavy barrels for assault, bipods for support, etc.
TDM Spawns
The spawns in Team Deathmatch, while not as "meat-grindy" as, say, Modern Warfare 3, can be pretty ridiculous. There are two maps with infamous "instakill" spawns at the beginning of the game. Noshahr Canals and Damavand Peak each feature an opening spawn point that, for some inexplicable reason, spawns a player from each team in the exact same spot. This gives the player looking in the right direction a free kill less than a second into the match. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop at opening spawns. Many maps feature spawn points inside buildings or structures. That's fine and dandy except that those buildings and structures can be destroyed as the match progresses. Then the game might spawn you inside what it thinks is a "safe zone," but is really a crumbled building out in the middle of everything, with no cover around. The opposing team can just sit outside the area and rack up the kills. It seems as if there are "safe zones," and if an enemy isn't in one, the game will choose it as a viable spawn point for the player. This can get ugly when enemies are outside, but looking into, the safe zones, and can get free shots on a spawning player. Canals also has a few of these spots. I maintained a killstreak and a high Nemesis count on one single player who the game kept spawning by a crate on the docks. I wasn't near the docks, but I had an open shot into them. It's definitely a balancing issue that needs some effort spent by DICE rectifying.
Spawnkill in 3...2...1...Spawn kill is a go.
Is Battlefield a great game? For sure. Despite a predictable hairy launch week, the game runs like a dream now, and I would easily count this as the multiplayer game of the year, no question. That being said, I really hope DICE continues to balance and tweak the balancing, and adds a more specific server functionality.
List of Potential Battlefield 3 Balance Updates
Alan Kertz, Core Gameplay Designer on Battlefield 3, has recently released a list of balance changes that DICE developers have been experimenting with. This is in hopes to provide insight to the millions of Battlefield fans as to what types of things the dev team is working on in hopes to gather proper feedback before any more patches are released. Bugs and glitches have been intentionally left out of this list.
Kertz puts it best: "Rather than waiting until we launch these updates for feedback, today I would like to give you, the Community, a peak into the Balance testing that we are doing here at DICE."
Vehicles:
Increased the locking distance for Jets when locking on laser designated targets.
Increased the damage the MBT's primary weapon does to other main battle tanks.
AA Missiles should no longer kill the pilot instead of the vehicle.
Tank rounds will now instantly destroy Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.
Using flares too early will no longer distract missiles fired at long range. The missile must be approaching the vehicle in order to reliably be distracted by flares.
Attack Helicopter Guided Rockets will now only track ground targets, as originally intended.
Reduced the direct damage done by helicopter gunners vs armor.
Slightly increased the blast radius of the rounds fired by helicopter gunners vs infantry.
Vehicle weapons should now suppress correctly.
Increased the direct hit damage of the APFSDS rounds for the IFVs.
Miniguns and Helicopter Gunners now more quickly destroy parked cars.
Weapons:
Significantly increased the damage of Laser Guided Top Attack missiles.
Javelin missiles fired without laser targeting now do more damage to the side and rear of MBTs.
Slightly reduced the repair speed of the repair tool.
Fixed a problem when locking on to two nearby targets, the locking should no longer jump rapidly between multiple targets.
Reduced the total number of RPG and SMAW missiles carried from 5 to 4.
Slightly reduced the locking time of all weapons vs Laser Designated targets.
Slightly reduced the effective blast radius of the RPG and SMAW projectiles against infantry.
Reduced the recoil of the SKS rifle and slightly increased its power at close range.
Semiautomatic sniper rifles, Assault Rifles, and LMGs now have more consistent damage over long range.
Increased the close range damage maximum range of 9x39mm ammo.
Soldiers:
Increased the spawn protection time from 1sec to 2sec. The protection will still be immediately canceled as soon as the player moves or shoots.
Spawn protection will no longer be canceled by the player looking around.
Slightly increased the speed at which a player can shoot again after sprinting.
G3A3 to be Buffed, Vehicle Changes, Mouse Issues Fixed and more
Core Gameplay Designer, Alan Kertz, has revealed some of the next steps the DICE team is going to be taking in order to improve Battlefield 3.
Also, some gamers on the PC are experiencing issues with the mouse which isn't firing as responsively as many would like. This sounds similar to another problem PS3 users are facing with the "input lag," forcing many to play on lower resolutions. Still no word on this particular PS3 problem, but Kertz has informed us that the mouse issue has "been fixed internally," and that it "should make a future patch."
Kertz has been receiving a lot of feedback ever since DICE released a list of future updates that the team is working on internally. Note that all of these updates were related to 'balance' rather than what glitches and bugs the team is ironing out. One fan in particular suggested the ability to target an empty vehicle with the soflam/guided missile even after the driver/pilot exits the vehicle. Kertz simply responded, "Agreed." Many fans have also voiced their opinion regarding the recent nerf of the G3A4 Assault Rifle, which many feel is now under-effective. This is especially true at range. Kertz responds by stating, "agreed, ranged damage will be going up again in the future." Most likely, we can expect this in their next patch. Along with weapons like the G3a3 and the SCAR-H, the IRNV scope was also hit with a substantial nerf, at least in the eyes of some. A recent video demonstrated it's inability to clearly see the enemy while in the tunnels of Operation Métro. Kertz did not say if it would once again be re-balanced, but he did mention that "the smoke In the tunnel from the fires hurts [the vision]."
The Complete List of BF3 Back to Karkand Weapons and Attachments Revealed
The PS3 patch, which went live a few hours ago, has updated Battlefield 3′s weapon list to include all 10 new guns that Back to Karkand packs in.
These new weapons can also be used on regular Battlefield 3 vanilla maps.
Gulf of Oman Gameplay Trailer Reveals a Classified Vehicle
DICE has released a brand new trailer of the map "Gulf of Oman", one of four maps packed in Back to Karkand. The map pack is due out next month and will be free for Battlefield 3 Limited Edition owners, otherwise you'll be able to purchase it for $14.99. DICE states "we are bringing back three popular combat vehicles from Battlefield 2 into the Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand expansion pack: The STOVL fighter jet, desert buggy, and one of the APC's. In this gameplay trailer from the Gulf of Oman map, you can also get a first glimpse of a classified fourth vehicle bound to strike fear into the very hearts of the enemy."
Changes to Semi-automatic Weapons On The Way
Could we see some exciting changes made to sem-automatic weapons in Battlefield 3 in the near future?
Alan Kertz, Senior Gameplay Designer at DICE, stated last night that he is "working with a coder today to make semi-automatic weapons fire smoother (like it was in BC2). Still some work to be done, hopefully soon." While we've recently seen a PC patch (soon to come to consoles), it hasn't included a significant amount of balance changes to weapons, at least in the terms of the way they shoot or the way they feel. Most of the changes have been teaks made to damage or range values. Now, Kertz hasn't revealed if this is something that will be making it into an upcoming patch, but judging by his words, "still some work to be done, hopefully soon," it looks like these changes may be happening in the near future.
Of course, fans have been asking if assault rifles/automatic weapons might be seeing changes as well. Kertz responded, "ARs are pretty ok, mostly this is pistols and semi-auto rifles and shotguns." Other fans have stated that they believe semi-automatic weapons are fine the way they are, at the moment. Humorously, Kertz responded, "I assure you, they are not."
Battlefield 3 Weapon Damage Chart
5 Flag Maps in Back to Karkand on Consoles, DICE Puts Lead Platform Rumors to Rest, Color-blind Mode Details
More details about Back to Karkand and color-bind mode in Battlefield 3 have been revealed. Also, DICE shares it's response to recent development rumors.
Besides the graphics, some of the biggest differences between the PC and console versions of Battlefield 3 are the map sizes, especially in the Conquest game type. Where you might find maps that include five flags on the PC, those same maps might include only three flags on console eg. Operation Firestorm. However, with the release of Back to Karkand this December, DICE is looking to change that. According to Global Community Manager, Daniel Matros, consoles will also be receiving five flag maps. However, recent GameSpot PS3 footage of Back to Karkand showed the maps Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman to be only three flag maps. We've yet to have seen console footage of Sharqi Peninsula or Wake Island, but if only one map were to include five flags on console, it would most likely be wake island with its lengthy U-shape design.
As a follow up to one of our recent articles detailing how they will be handling cheaters in Battlefield 3, DICE has recently announced that they have "banned hundreds of offending accounts and have stats-wiped additional accounts for exploiting (such as boosting)." Lookout for more!
Many fans are still on DICE's tail regarding support for the color-blind. It's something that is a must for Battlefield 3 considering the recent Modern Warfare 3 had color-blind support at launch. Thankfully, Tomas Danko, VO Producer at DICE, has some new info. He confirms color-blind mode "has not been forgotten, only postponed. This is an important issue to lots of people at DICE." Expect updates as more details of the upcoming patch become available.
Despite recent rumors of Battlefield 3 switching to consoles as the lead platform mid-development, Danko assures us this was not the case. "We spent years making the game on PC only, then ten months to fit it onto consoles AFTER the design was done," he said in response to one distraught fan. Take from this what you will, but it's important to recognize how much work DICE has put into the PC version of Battlefield 3.
Leave your thoughts below!
Thanks guys this was alot of info crammed into one thread, so take the time sit down read it and enjoy. See you on the Battlefield!
I have a heap of it. Got more new news if wanted, but i was going to do another thread soon, just as big with like patch update news, release date for the new dlc, problems with the voip, trophies and achievements for the new dlc, the antenna but thats already had a thread made and about ea selling 8 million copies.
I have more as well on that but thats about it. of what i would deem the more important stuff.
Biggest issue with BF3 you covered, which is the number of flags on console versions being on such massive maps there is only 3 objectives/flags.
That's rubbish IMO - you got the space - use it. Put 3 flags in the middle of Op Firestorm so the ground troops can duke it out. Also all the flags are on ground. Back in BF2MC on BackStab for example you had to climb the stairs at both flag 4 & 5 to capture the bugger.
The map design has been one of DICE's greatest let down's in recent years. They look great, they play well but just not the epic Conquest affair they use to have in their games.
Geezus Black Gold had 5 flags on one oil rig! So why they keep dumbing them down for us in the years since is beyond me.
Quote from II The Salt on the 2nd of December 2011:
Yeah top thread.
Biggest issue with BF3 you covered, which is the number of flags on console versions being on such massive maps there is only 3 objectives/flags.
That's rubbish IMO - you got the space - use it. Put 3 flags in the middle of Op Firestorm so the ground troops can duke it out. Also all the flags are on ground. Back in BF2MC on BackStab for example you had to climb the stairs at both flag 4 & 5 to capture the bugger.
The map design has been one of DICE's greatest let down's in recent years. They look great, they play well but just not the epic Conquest affair they use to have in their games.
Geezus Black Gold had 5 flags on one oil rig! So why they keep dumbing them down for us in the years since is beyond me.
You have a point. One reason that comes to mind is the fact of battle. They are looking for more closer and bigger battles. Yer little battles over flags are good and all but what you want is a fight for a flag. Take COD for example. They could put in maybe one or two more flags on some maps for domo but they dont only because they want there to be a bigger battle at each.
The less flags the bigger the battle and the harder it is to grab one.
(Sorry for using COD as a reference but it was an easy one to use)
Quote from II The Salt on the 2nd of December 2011:
Yeah top thread.
Biggest issue with BF3 you covered, which is the number of flags on console versions being on such massive maps there is only 3 objectives/flags.
That's rubbish IMO - you got the space - use it. Put 3 flags in the middle of Op Firestorm so the ground troops can duke it out. Also all the flags are on ground. Back in BF2MC on BackStab for example you had to climb the stairs at both flag 4 & 5 to capture the bugger.
The map design has been one of DICE's greatest let down's in recent years. They look great, they play well but just not the epic Conquest affair they use to have in their games.
Geezus Black Gold had 5 flags on one oil rig! So why they keep dumbing them down for us in the years since is beyond me.
You have a point. One reason that comes to mind is the fact of battle. They are looking for more closer and bigger battles. Yer little battles over flags are good and all but what you want is a fight for a flag. Take COD for example. They could put in maybe one or two more flags on some maps for domo but they dont only because they want there to be a bigger battle at each.
The less flags the bigger the battle and the harder it is to grab one.
(Sorry for using COD as a reference but it was an easy one to use)
Yeah I understand they want to funnel the play - but good map design will create its own battles and certain maps will have them at the right spots. If you look at BF2MC Deadly Pass (see below) it had an oval shape degin with 6flags and two bases at each end.
flag 2 (top of screen) miles away on one side. On the opposite side same distance it had an artillery strike that came live every 4mins.
In the middle of the map it had 3 flags in close proximity to each other, the ground pounders fought these out but sometimes a tank could get in there and mess you up - the flag right in the middle was only one not reachable by vehicle and was crucial to controlling the map, then it had one more flag outside main part of town as an oasis that snipers could sit outside of and watch or dudes from flag 3 could run out to get -
The tanks and choppas fought the outsides contesting every now and then for a flag but most of the work was done by the ground pounders. What flags you held, dictated the game and offered up more intense battles at each flag as you tried to control the city. If you couldn't well you'd run up and get flag 2 or flag 4 to slow the tickets.
In BF3 they need to reduce the flag cap and hold area's - they are massive! you're a good 30m away from a flag and can still cap it!! thats crazy... and put in more flags to give the game more atmosphere which its sorely lacking.
You don't get to know the short cuts, lane ways and avenues better than when you're on foot - you just don't get that with 3 flags that can be controlled and dominated by vehicles.
Pretty much the big maps like Caspian Border, Op firestorm and kharg Island all need more flags on them.. I for one am not in a vehicle all too often except for quick transport uses but even still it can be a hassle going from flag to flag at such great distances. The smaller maps work quite well on xbox otherwise. The main thing I do like about all the maps though is that they are simple and therefore not trying to over crowd shit in there just cause they can. Simple yet effective > over-crowded and unnecessary. One thing they got very right.
Little Big Eye from BF2MC was another - both teams start off with jeeps. Whoever controls flag 4 gets the 30mm spawn at their base.
Flags 4 & 5 can be seen in middle of map - the battles between these two flags alone were epic
6 flags with 2 bases at each end
Black Gold
The beach side has a choppa and a little bird, and some boats. They gotta make a foot hold on the oil rig which is lined up with snipers taking a shot across the water. A shit team wouldnt even land on the rig.
The better teams once they did make a landing set about controlling some spawn points. Those on the rig wanted to repel them and go back to sniping as its so much fun....so both were motivated to contest the flags on the rig hard out
Once a foothold was made, those sniping had to swap classes and the battles were intense. Once they swapped sniping it gave those exposed on the beach the chance to get into boats and choppas in numbers -
This is clever map design - the rig is the size of flag B area on Op Firestorm - yet look its got 5 flags on it
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