Battlefield 3

[weemadando]

More BF3 SP griping.

Playing the mission in Northern Iran w/the huge antenna and the Russian paras, it was clear just how FUCKING TERRIBLE the game design is.

There's swarms of enemies coming towards us but both LAVs anchoring our flanks stoically refusing to engage them. Even when enemy BMDs come in, our brave friendly armour ignores them.

Meanwhile it seems that I'm the only person in the unit who is a) not firing blanks and b) actually firing. Lots of guys taking cover and occasionally popping out to have a look, but rarely is anyone firing and even more rarely do any of them ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING TO THE ENEMY.

Plus, I've had a couple of glitches where AI buddies in vehicles disappear - I was in ghost tank for a while with a poltergeist who loaded shells and on the way to fight the Russian paras, all around me were ghostly conversations as some malign spirit drove our truck.

Most annoying though has been some of the dumb story beats:

"Do you know this pilot?"
"Yeah."
"Here's a side mission which never actually intersects with your own..."

At least the tank/find the video site actually tied in.

But that moment in the tank mission where you dismount to go and do the engineers' job for them... Sure, that makes sense.

It seems that DICE may have overreacted to last year's "BLOPS PLAYS ITSELF" fattynerd whining and gone way too far in the other direction.

[Stark]

Dude you needed the Hornet section, because everyone loves no-threat 'put dot on little dot' sections! Right?

I liked the three separate layers of canopy/visor distortion. It was pretty.

[Edward Yee]

Oddly enough, my main negative gripe with the Hornet section was "why did you give me the M61 if I'm not the pilot? The boresight is a lie!"

Never got a single cannon hit, but I could consistently nail each Sukhoi with one missile just by timing it to launch/release/uncage once the Super Hornet had passed by the inevitable flares.

[weemadando]

We need to talk about that campaign.

I want to see that I've got Sgt Fuck-sticks logic down here and how terrible the writing is.

1) Oleg Taktarov tells you about plot relating to the bombs that meshes with intel your team already has.

2) Tells you that you MUST SHOOT YOUR CO in order to have any chance of preventing this. Why? WHO THE FUCK KNOWS. Something about "politics" and "just the two of us". BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE DICE.

So, what does Sgt Doofus do? Does he:

a) Tell the CO not to fire as you've got a prisoner?
b) Tell the CO not to fire as this guy has intel?
c) Tell the CO not to fire for some other reason?
d) Shoot his CO?

If you guessed d), then you're a fucking idiot, but also correct. So yay for you.

But what if you don't immediately shoot your CO? And he sees you with what appears to be a prisoner. I mean, this whole mission is about prisoners right? So what does your CO do when he comes through the door? Does he:

a) Ask you what's going on?
b) Demand that Oleg Taktarov drop his gun/get on the ground/something?
c) Shoot Oleg Taktarov because he thinks that Oleg Taktarov is threatening you?
d) Just fucking straight up shoot you without saying a word?

If you guessed d), then man you should probably see a psychiatrist or something. Or write games for DICE. Because that's what happens.

And should you choose to shoot him, unlike every other fucking instance of this kind of thing in the game, it isn't a QTE that goes down, you get controls back. But you better not be waiting for the QTE thing to pop up, otherwise your CO will just FUCKING MURDER YOU. But hey, there's a checkpoint right? THERE SURE IS BUDDY. RIGHT BACK AT THE START OF THE FUCKING SECTION, before the driveway, before the house, before the speech from Oleg Taktarov. Hope you wanted to hear that all again. Because you're about to. Better not get bored. Better be ready for your murderous CO to come walking in with a heart full of hatred for you.

JESUS. What a fucking abortion of a single player.

[Stark]

Were you just not paying attention? I thought the scene was a great character moment. I knew exactly what Dmitri was talking about. It's lame Captain America shoots you, but that's linear narratives for you.

[weemadando]

Paying attention to what?

I understand that Dima's plan is to somehow stop the nukes by taking individual action, which makes little enough sense as it is - surely calling up DGSE and going: "ah yeah, someone in the PLR jacked a suitcase nuke, but we know it's target is Paris on this date and time..." is a better option than storming a building through the French police blockade, and then chasing them through Paris killing everyone as you go. Because that makes it look like you were less culpable.

The main issue with that scene is just how fucking dumb the ending to that scene is, where somehow being mute all of a sudden and unable to tell your CO to hold fire, you've got intel or something... Instead, you just shoot him. Because then you can have your dramatic escape from...

Wait a second, how the fuck did you escape? The Russian Paras had the valley still didn't they?

[Stark]

But the russian paratroops were totally ineffective! Why would they prevent you leaving? Just kill another entire company of them.

[The Vortex Empire]

Yeah, weren't you paying attention? 4 US Marines can fight through 1,000 Russian paratroopers with armored support and air support.

[defanatic]

Eh. I find it about as egregious as experienced players in Operation Flashpoint.

[defanatic]

I can't edit my post anymore. Have I offended?

Has anyone found a consistent method of getting defibs to work? I find that aiming just under where the ragdoll is while sprinting towards it works for me more than actually standing over the body, although I suspect it is ping dependent.

[Edward Yee]

My method has tended to be to attempt a dolphin dive (I know it doesn't work properly, bear with me) so that my character's defib paddles appear to be just touching the other player's body as I land prone.

[Stark]

You guys are wierd. The bodies persist after the player respawns, so the few times it doesn't work for me, it's obviously a map issue (ie on stairs = lol) or they've already respawned and lag hadn't told me yet.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

One would think they'd have made a hud element to aim the paddles at by now...

I guess that would be too 'unrealistic'...

[Artemas]

you're stupid if you think the issue is that "paddles dont have crosshairs"

the issue is just flat out glitches preventing you from rezzing the dude you're shoving your paddles into.

or having to paddle at the wall a meter away from the body to rez him

or the guy having already respawned, just with the game not telling you

[GuppyShark]

That is what Andrew is saying.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Yeah, some sort of icon showing where you need to target, and if they're still a viable rez-target in the first place.

Last one I played was BF:BC2, and while they appeared on the minimap as a heart-monitor style line, there was nothing in the first person view to indicate where you needed to aim. Although, I recall it cleaning up respawned player's ragdolls instantly.

[Broken]

Just curious, do people play on normal or hardcore servers? I have only messed around a bit with this game due to my work schedule, but normal servers seem like a paintball match at times, not a gunfight. Just wondering how folks are playing.

[CaptHawkeye]

Hardcore would be great if they didn't also totally disable the UI elements. Leaving you with no way to know even the most basic things you *would* know by just looking down at your grenade/ammo belt.

[weemadando]

I particularly liked how in BC2, playing on hardcore made certain class features pointless. Why throw a motion sensor when it isn't going to show up anywhere? Why spot guys when nothing happens if you do?


GAME DESIGN.

[weemadando]

I particularly liked how in BC2, playing on hardcore made certain class features pointless. Why throw a motion sensor when it isn't going to show up anywhere? Why spot guys when nothing happens if you do?


GAME DESIGN.

[Stofsk]

I particularly liked how in BC2, playing on hardcore made certain class features pointless. Why throw a motion sensor when it isn't going to show up anywhere? Why spot guys when nothing happens if you do?


GAME DESIGN.

Let's take away the red dot in the MG36's sight because it's not like the MG36 doesn't have an integrated red dot sight or anything

Or hey, I heard you wanted to use a heavy machine gun emplacement. Good luck aiming it without any crosshairs because it also doesn't have any iron sights...

That said, I am pretty sure the motion balls still work. It's just that you don't have the magical HUD minimap to look at, you need to call up the full-screen map. Hardcore mode can be good because it avoids the strangeness you get in soft mode where you can shoot someone a dozen times, they one-shot you and you look at the death screen of your killer and he's sitting at 100% or some bullshit. I guess what I'm saying is hardcore mode's damage modeling is a lot better than soft mode but some of the simhard nonsense is a mark against it.

[defanatic]

I usually play on normal, but I am a scrublet.

I think perhaps there is a minimum range on paddles. It would actually explain a lot. My 'dead body capable of reviving' indicator seems to work, although I'm not sure what the difference between skull and crossbones and oscillator is.

EDIT: Also, is there an SDN platoon? Might as well make one, given the number of posts we have on this thread.

[Stark]

The assists still work, even though you're not assisting anyone because everyone's HUD is gone. HC is as simple as 'setUI=off' and 'damagefactor=3'.

[Mr. Tickle]

Some comments on MP:

The IR scope is going to have to be either nerfed hard or will just be banned flat out in competitive play. It is a complete and utter game changer in terms of normal game flow, it's an instant hack available to anyone, on any map. The scope itself is shit and 3.4x would be a normal preference, but with the cluster fuck of shit on your screen having the ability to instantly scan any angle for enemies is crazy. Prior you had to at least rely on a degree of visual ability, to pick out movement in the distance etc, with the IR scope, why bother?

The Mav again will likely have to be banned from competitive play, for similar reasons, although it takes a player away from combat to use it, having an instanta spot across the whole field of play is crazy useful.

The maps are pretty crap too, too small for PC but too big for console, so we've ended up with some crappy middle ground where its either a linear cluster fuck or the flags are 200 metres apart.

Fingers crossed for a good patch and some good maps in Karkland, but I'm doubtful.

edit: spelling error

[Stark]

The difference between something like Caspian with 64 players adn with 24 players really highlights that they shouldn't be trying to use the same maps.