News: Totalbiscuit Night Ops Footage! - Page 25

LtCarman · 2012-05-23, 01:57 PM

Similar to Elvis in the mid-late 70s, the BF series is now just a shadow of its former self. The teamplay elements that made the BF series memorable are gone entirely.

First and foremost, there's no commander. The reason? Well, according to DICE, they had to "lower the complexity threshold."

Then we have the "squads." In BF2/2142, there were 6 person squads. The SL served as a mobile spawn point and could issue orders. Besides the obvious "attack" and "defend" commands, the SL could send out demolition commands (which would've worked great with the destruction) and way points. What do we get in BF3? A 4 person squad with the ability to spawn on ANY squad member. The SL has been reduced to a person with a star next to their name. No longer can the SL issue waypoints or demolition orders. Instead, he can only issue "attack" and "defend" orders. That's it. The SL does nothing more, nothing less in BF3.

Of course, we also have the lack of in-game VoIP. The above issues would be somewhat bearable if we had in-game VoIP. Instead, we have VoIP via Battlelog. Why is this a hassle? Well, if you're playing pubs, you have no way to communicate via VoIP. To do so, you'd have to alt+tab, send a friend request to the pubbies in your squad (and wait for the to accept), and make a party. Then finally, you would have to invite them to the party you just formed. Now you can use VoIP! When asked about this, DICE responded with, "Well, Battlelog VoIP works in-game. Therefore, there is in-game VoIP." Not an exact quote, but that was the general gist of the Tweet.

Conquest, which is arguably the "signature" Battlefield game mode, has devolved as well. Now, it's pretty much just a glorified TDM, except with flags that you can cap for fun. Coupled with the lack of most teamplay elements as mentioned above, just makes it all that much worse.

And again, I'm not saying that BF3 is a bad game in and of itself. It certainly isn't when compared to all the crap that is out there today. But when compared to past Battlefields, it is clear how it is disappointing. It's just sad to see the direction that this once great series is heading in.

And completely off-topic, but as I was lurking on PSU (finally decided to make an account), I couldn't think of why "Stardouser" looked so familiar and then I remembered...Mordor.

captainkapautz · 2012-05-23, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by Stardouser

The only thing that makes squad leaders a "lie" to say they were removed, is because the game technically designates a SL. Functionally, they were removed. "Reduced" makes it sound like the devastation was small, it was not, it was functional removal.

A lie is a lie no matter how small or big, saying BF3 has no SL is false, plain and simple.

Neither was it "functional removal", you still give orders, doesn't matter that it's not as much as before, core function is still there.

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Also, people play Conquest as TDM at least partly because of killcam, 3D spotting and audiospotting which weren't present in BF2, because those things are a constant reminder that push you to pursue players instead of objectives. And with no automatic VOIP it's difficult to organize random players to do anything but play TDM in conquest.

And those things are all the fault of DICE for putting them in, so yes, they are responsible for the increased occurrences of people playing TDM in Conquest.

Blaming DICE because your average player is a derp is not a valid arguement at all.

On a sidenote, this whole "I can't do proper teamwork with randoms" is, atleast in my opinion, a complete non issue, simply because if you want teamwork then you just play with your friends, which pretty much solves all the problems you posted.

IMMentat · 2012-05-23, 07:39 PM

Agreed.
Remember, in planetside1 the casual/new/unoffiliated players affectionately titled "the zerg" were the blunt force instrument a skilled commandteam (how few of these there were, stupid command rank system rewarded grinding rather than leadership skill) pointed and released when possible and took advantage of when they were entrenched in a good fight (or tried to).

It was individual squads, outfits and co-operating teams that generally cracked the shell or provided the distraction that finally weakened the enemy just enough to be over-run.

captainkapautz · 2012-05-23, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by IMMentat

Agreed.
Remember, in planetside1 the casual/new/unoffiliated players affectionately titled "the zerg" were the blunt force instrument a skilled commandteam (how few of these there were, stupid command rank system rewarded grinding rather than leadership skill) pointed and released when possible and took advantage of when they were entrenched in a good fight (or tried to).

It was individual squads, outfits and co-operating teams that generally cracked the shell or provided the distraction that finally weakened the enemy just enough to be over-run.

And you gotta admit those "SpecOps" missions were awesome fun.

IMMentat · 2012-05-23, 08:55 PM

Game defining. Its why PS1 has veterans as well as former players. #nods#

kadrin · 2012-05-28, 12:23 AM

So is no one else bothered by this ridiculously low TTK at 15 minutes?

The light assault dropped him as a heavy assault in roughly 1/4th of a second, you can watch as he takes 4 hits in that time from one source.

He claims it was a nasty headshot but still, I personally think TTKs are far too low if it allows headshots to drop someone that quickly, it's equal to Battlefield 3, not higher like we were told.

Then there is the netcoding to think of, Battlefield 3s is absolutely horrid, easily the 2nd worst I've ever seen in a video game (and quite possibly the 2nd worst in video games period), and with their low TTKs it REALLY shows how bad the netcoding is. All I can hope is that Planetside 2s netcoding is good, especially when they're trying to shoot for 2,000 people when most games fail miserably with 32.

Purple · 2012-05-28, 12:39 AM

Originally Posted by kadrin

So is no one else bothered by this ridiculously low TTK at 15 minutes?

The light assault dropped him as a heavy assault in roughly 1/4th of a second, you can watch as he takes 4 hits in that time from one source.

He claims it was a nasty headshot but still, I personally think TTKs are far too low if it allows headshots to drop someone that quickly, it's equal to Battlefield 3, not higher like we were told.

Then there is the netcoding to think of, Battlefield 3s is absolutely horrid, easily the 2nd worst I've ever seen in a video game (and quite possibly the 2nd worst in video games period), and with their low TTKs it REALLY shows how bad the netcoding is. All I can hope is that Planetside 2s netcoding is good, especially when they're trying to shoot for 2,000 people when most games fail miserably with 32.

please remember that TTK is currently not set. As Higby said somewhere (twitter i think?) that if he went on another day that could have been very long. it may take a few months of beta to get the TTK just right.

kadrin · 2012-05-28, 01:02 AM

Originally Posted by Purple

please remember that TTK is currently not set. As Higby said somewhere (twitter i think?) that if he went on another day that could have been very long. it may take a few months of beta to get the TTK just right.

That is excellent to hear. Hopefully concerns voiced now will be taken into consideration then.