I had the pleasure of being involved in the Battlefield: Bad Company Beta this past March and got to play this game. I think this one could be a lot of laughs for all of us to get into. Mark your calendars.
I had the pleasure of being involved in the Battlefield: Bad Company Beta this past March and got to play this game. I think this one could be a lot of laughs for all of us to get into. Mark your calendars.
bumpage...coming in 10 days.
hot
Played with Joe yesterday, twas fun.
That just didn't sound right ...Originally Posted by treYdaWg
Good stuff...
Here are the tweaks and fixes for the new game Battlefield:Bad Company coming out June 2008. This information is coming directly from the Battlefield website.
Bugs
Hit detection – we took a look into this and discovered a few bugs in there – this is now significantly improved for the main game, thanks for your help in tracking this down!
Freezes/End of round – there are many stability issues in the Beta which are now addressed for the main game
Floating barrels and debris – now fixed for the main game, you won’t see barrels 40 ft in the air any more…
‘I need a medic’ sound reduced – this is playing way too much in the Beta – have fixed an issue so you’ll hear it much less frequently
Quicksnipe bug fixed – fixed an exploit where you could fire more rapidly, thanks to all of your posts on this.
Grenades – damage and use – there were some issues with their behaviour which are now fixed in the main game, and the damage values are tweaked slightly.
Tweaks/systems
Vehicle performance – altered some physics values so vehicles feel much more massive now (makes a HUGE difference)
Squads and spawning – added some new parameters to the squad system, so you’ll spawn on better choices and closer to the action.
Vehicle alarms – have tweaked the sound values on these so they fit much better in the mix. Incoming missile alerts now play correctly.
TKing – finished a system for this which we didn’t have time to implement for the beta. Those who knife people in artillery, your days are numbered…
Sprint lag – some issues with this have been addressed – won’t be an instant swap, but is much improved.
Controls – have tweaked some of the control settings to allow a greater range of sensitivity and give more precision
Scoring and awards – have tweaked the scoring based on the beta feedback and progression.
Server performance – have made some large server optimisations to improve performance
Laser designator – we’ve tweaked the laser designator so it’s not so powerful. Still a one hit kill, but tanks can now avoid more easily with the right tactics.
Bullet and impact decals – didn’t make the Beta, no one was more disappointed than me. These are fixed and in the main game.
Comments
Free Downloadable content – this has probably been one of the hottest topics out there, and we need to clarify this. There will be a variety of programs that will allow you to download 5 weapons for free – more info on this to follow. The remaining weapons will be available with the gold edition of the game, but we’ve taken all possible care to ensure that they don’t impact game balance negatively.
Prone – we won’t be implementing prone in the game, primarily as a balance issue for the recon class. We playtested extensively here, and with prone the recon class becomes invisible, which is really imbalances the game. As I’m sure you’ve noticed from the Beta, the recon class is powerful enough already…
Parachute – again, we won’t be implementing parachutes, primarily from a balance perspective. The battle already takes place in 360 degrees, and with parachutes and the additional vertical element, it just becomes too easy for the attackers to overwhelm defenders. (Besides, the though of parachuting from a helicopter 100ft in the air certainly doesn’t appeal to me
Rifle grenades – there’s a lot of comment on rifle grenades not being powerful enough in the game, and this is intentional. As we’ve seen in previous BF games, if you make the RG a one hit kill then very quickly the game devolves into a ‘noob-toob’ fest. The RG will however do very significant damage – if the target has taken any damage you’ll probably finish them off, and certainly you should be getting a kill assist pretty quickly after hitting someone with one.
Squad and online play – we mentioned this in the last release, but it’s worth re-iterating. As this was a Beta and not a full release, we had to turn off a lot of the normal Xbox Live functionality, and with this the squad functionality went. For the full game, you and 3 of your friends will be able to join and play together in a squad – you’ll be able to chat over VOIP and earn special squad awards together. Believe me – a good, coordinated squad is by far the most dangerous thing you’ll meet on the Battlefield.
The above issues are only a small part of the fixes and tweaks we’ve been making – the team here have been working tirelessly on numerous rendering, physics and performance improvements to bring you the best game experience possible. We think you’ll really see that difference in June.
We hope that you continue to enjoy the Beta as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together and playing alongside you. We really appreciate all of your feedback and participation; it’s been candid, direct and we hope you’ll notice that difference it’s making to the game!
All the best!
Jamie Keen, MP Producer & The DICE team
treydawg (06-19-2008)
Other games can manage it, why can't you figure out a way to?
Are these improvements made in the demo or only for the final release?
This was taken from another forum and the post was in April - I tried to find the actual posting on the Official Battlefield forums to link to...but I couldn't find it. I am assuming that the fixes were probably in the demo - I probably should have stated that.
The post was more to explain prone and parachutes and a couple of other squad based things.
treydawg (06-19-2008)
Did they move the release date to the 25th? I saw this on the Battlefield forums...but wiki still says 23rd.
How many can we have in a squad? 6 or 12? Anyone know this info?
I thought it said 4? That would be consistent with what I've seen.
Mr. TBS (06-19-2008)
it looks like 4 to me too, so it will be 3 squads? gheyness
AF, trey, emo, maxy, jake, oystorz
we're alread over 4
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a
What features are you bringing over from the previous Battlefield games, are there any unique relations? Excluding the obvious of course. E.g. will there be a squad system or a return of the hot swap feature from BF Modern Combat?
Much of the core mechanics of previous Battlefield games are present in BFBC but a few are not. We’ve also worked hard to simplify e.g. team play.
How does BF:BC relate to the PC version? Will the console version of Battlefield be more ’arcadey’?
The controls of the next-gen consoles does change the way we set up the first person experience. However, not to the extent that it’s all just run and gun. The lack of mouse removes some of the pixel perfect shooting but it still takes skill to become truly successful.
The TTK (time to kill an enemy soldier) seems a bit long right now. Are you still tweaking this through the data collected in the beta?
A lot of people comment on this, indicating it takes too many bullets to kill an enemy. I suggest trying to be accurate in the aim, less pray and spray. Shooting in burst, no side strafing when shooting or even better, kneeling will greatly increase your accuracy. And of course, for those lightning quick kills you have to aim high towards the head. You’ll notice that when you manage to nail a burst here it won’t take much to drop your foe.
How has it improved from previous Battlefield games?
The two biggest changes in BFBC comparing it to other Battlefield titles is the addition of the single player campaign and the new, tactical destruction. This both evolves the second to second play (online as well offline) and also gives players craving for a more story driven experience something to look forward to.
What’s the maximum amount of people that can play in one game?
Battlefield: Bad Company supports 24 online players, the same amount of players as we did in BF2: Modern Combat. Instead of simply increasing the number of players as a selling point we’re focusing our network and rendering power on what matters e.g. tons of weapons, vehicles and destructible environments.
One of the main complaints we heard from the beta users is the absence of crouching, especially annoying for snipers. Are you going to introduce this in the final game?
Crouch is definitely in the game but we don’t have prone. And the snipers is actually one of the reasons we took this out (the other was to simplify controls). In the sandbox experience we take great care to balance all weapons, kits, vehicles etc., against each other. The Recon class (i.e. the Snipers) are already very powerful with the only 1 shot 1 kill weapons, the deadly Laser Designator plus the protective Motion Sensor. Now if Snipers could lie down in the sub vegetation they wouldn’t only be deadly, they would also be near impossible to spot. Hence, remove prone. However, crouch still gives a lot of the aiming benefits similar to prone.
More and more console games today offer web front-ends with match logs and statistics, images upload and so on. Will Battlefield: BC offer such a feature?
Absolutely. For anyone interested in tracking their online games more in detail there will be a variety of features available online. Anyone into stats will be well set. Another new feature on the homepage will be that you can view the screenshots you’ve taken with the in-game tool. With the press of a button e.g. just before you knife your main adversary you can immortalize the moment with a screen dump which automatically gets uploaded to your page.
Will it be possible for the gamer to configure the controls completely?
No
Is it possible to make use of the feedback from the beta-testing before the official release or do you plan to include slight changes etc. using Xbox Live Download Content or an update for the game?
There’s definitely been time to make changes to the game. We don’t have time to answer all the questions from people but we scour the forums constantly for issues. And there have been tons of changes to improve the game since the beta.
Can you tell us something about the destructible environment and how the gamer should/could use it? Will there be "penalties" if we destroy something we shouldn’t?
The Tactical Destruction as we like to call it will change how you play the game but it’s up to you and your imagination as to how. Battlefield has always been about the Sandbox experience: open environment, lots of vehicles, weapons, kits. Start the game and you’re off. Strap C4 to a jeep and drive it into a base? Sure. Try wing walking the wing of a B17? Go right ahead. Play around with the destruction in the same way and you’ll find a lot of new ways to get an upper hand on the Battlefield. And no, there’s no penalty for using the destruction. Just watch you fire cone so you don’t hit or splash damage any friendlies.
I noticed a driveable golf kart in the attract video of the Battlefield: Bad Company beta, as well as a level that looked like a golf course. Please tell us you’re including an exclusive VIP Mode for that map where you have to protect a professional golfer!
That’s actually from a single player mission but otherwise an interesting idea. J The golf cart is the latest additions of super high-tech weaponry on the Battlefield.
As you will most likely know the squad system in the beta is very limited. Will there be more options in the retail version (if so: could you give us examples?) and are there clan management options in Bad Company as well?
The squad system in the Beta is much limited, mostly since you can’t create your own and invite your friends. This will of course be available in the full version of the game.
Something I noticed in the beta, is that being a medic is next to pointless in Bad Company. Reviving your allies is gone, everyone dies pretty quickly so it’s harder to heal them now also people tend to run away from you more often than before because they can’t tell you’re trying to aid them and the Assault class can heal themselves, etc. Will this be changed significantly in the retail version and if so, how?
Actually, that’s probably more up to how you play the Support class. Our statistics show that a lot of people play this class and score very high with it. Yes we don’t have revive but if you’re active with dropping the med packs you can definitely keep your squad alive longer. Combine that with the powerful LMG’s, the ability to repair vehicles and dropping Mortar Strikes on incoming enemies this has proven to be a very versatile class on the Battlefield.
Could you also explain why the Conquest Mode has allegedly been cut from Bad Company? Not that I’m against the Gold Rush mode, mind you.
There’s several reasons why we focused our effort on creating Gold Rush instead of just bluntly port over Conquest. Our main idea was that we wanted more action! Players have a tendency to become spread out in Conquest, some fighting for a back base, others running up and down a vague frontline and some are just hiding in the periphery. So instead of having several bases we focused in down to one (or two counting the home base of the Attackers). This means we get much more focused attention from all players which we think is a great thing and the Beta feedback on Gold Rush has been very positive. However, other feedback from the Beta have been rather unanimous, many of our old fans really miss the old Conquest mode which is why we’ve decided to make this available as free downloadable content showing up after release.
What do you think of the online modes featured in Call of Duty 4? Why do you think so many people love to play this game?
COD4 is a very polished experience with a great multiplayer. We enjoy playing it here at DICE as well, but it is a different flavour of FPS from Battlefield. We truly believe that our vehicle experience, our destruction and our better opportunities for team play will set us apart.
Persistent worlds in online warfare seems to be the next step, with "maybe" examples as Call of Duty online in the perspective. Will it be your next big thing? A persistent world Battlefield game?
Persistent is a big word. Maybe we’ll start to see shooters try to blend into some MMO hybrids in the future but it feels this moves the focus slightly off from what otherwise is the core of shooters: skill, team play, competition and fun. So I’m unsure if this actually is a recipe for success.
Why did you decide to remove parachute from the multiplayer mode?
The decision to remove the parachute was made for a couple of reasons. One of them was to lower the amount of Attackers landing behind enemy lines and creating an unbalanced situation for the Defenders. Another reason was to avoid having people bail out of a critical helicopter to avoid death which can be very frustrating to the gamer shooting it down.
How does the squad system work? How important it is to stay together with your part of the team?
The player can create a squad from people on his friends list which will stay together of matches. Team play is not forced upon the player but it definitely will help. In our test we can see maps being completely dominated by single squads if they act as a unit, using voice communication and help each other out. The tactical depth of the game will become more and more apparent when we start to see experienced squads pitched against each other on the Battlefield.
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