[Dresden]

It is I, Dresden. The resident B3D Battlefield aficionado.

While this thread may be a little premature, seeing as little knowledge of the next Battlefield installment has officially been divulged, outside of guaranteed beta access to MoH: Warfighter players, I wanted to create a thread that would be separate from my BF3 thread, for when information eventually does trickle in. So until that day officially arrives, I wanted to incite conversation regarding speculation, technical inquiries and so forth. Personally, I'd love it if DICE continued the trend of creating a new engine for each new title. A new Frostbite engine for the fourth installment would be incredible. Something I've always wanted to see in the Battlefield series was real time weather effects and a day/night cycle. Grand Bazaar had rain, which looked great. The Special Forces expansion for BF2 had a night map where players utilized night vision, which was also really fun. I think it would be neat to be playing a map where all of a sudden it transitioned to night. Or heavy rain or snow.

Also, one of my few gripes with BF3 was only two factions. BF2, including the expansions had something like six. It would also be nice to feature a game mode where more than two factions were at odds, which would probably result in higher player caps, like maybe 128. Battlefield maps are only getting larger and larger with each game, so I welcome the idea of larger server capacities. DICE has been pretty proficient at establishing intriguing new game modes, so I trust that some interesting new ones are on the horizon.

So what does the B3D community expect/anticipate/want to see with the next installment?

[Billy Idol]

In hardcore modus, teamkill should be avoided by the "reflect damage" strategy of Call of Duty. Other than that, not much to complain...oh, yeah...get rid of the bugs!!

[homerdog]

AFAIK it does not support 32bit OSes. I wonder what they'll do with all the extra RAM they'll have access to.

DICE seems to strike the perfect balance between taking advantage of new hardware and techniques while keeping the minimum requirement low enough for most gamers.

[Trawler]

I'd like to see better destruction in BF4. The ability to take out buildings felt degraded in BF3, though I suppose BFBC2 only had simple structures by comparison.

[Billy Idol]

Dear Repi et al.


-Overhaul the spawn system in hardcore, spawn at all squad members is needed for teamplay

-More vehicles available in MP mode if the map is large, if afraid cause of balance, at least give us quads everywhere, such that one can fast travel

-If I want to spawn, and my buddy dies in this second, or we just lose this flag in this second...DON'T automatically spawn me in the base, let me chose again.

-Weapon gadget unlocks not only with kills, but with points in general while holding it (at least make assists and surpressions Count). So, lots of people turn it into deathmatch mode

-delete your complete netcode and build a bew one from scratch. There is inherent fundamental online lag in this game. Even my ping says 10, there is often so much lag that it makes me cry like a little douche bag full of pink unicorns...my most favorite: i jump behind cover while under fire, and a second after I am safe behind my cover, I still feel the bullets hit me, hit me, hit me...dead. Technically the game is genius, except the netcode...

- in hardcore mode: completely change the teamkill mechanism. People teamkill all the time, because in this game it has no consequence, especially TK for vehicle (because there are not enough, see my other point!). Solution: just reflect the damage! Tk means insta own death, so that people learn and be more careful. Oh and don't shit around shit with servers that allow punish...that is the lamedt thing in the world!

- completely redo spawning system. It is fundamentally broken. Only thing that helps: the very large maps. Most obvious in CQ, where about 40% of the spawns are catastrophic (small map exaggerated the flaws and clearly showed them). Example: I just try to capture a flag, sitting in cover...enemy directly spawns behind me such that I can see his weapon through me...insta death. Happend in Death Valley, happens all the time in CQ (and other side to, how often did I spawn right behind a poor enemy).


- point system is very good. But for Conquest (Large) mode, increase points for flag capture, at least by a factor of two, better would be three. Flag points in CQ with fast flags are perfect.

- SOFLAM is still somehow broken and inconsistent. Sometimes I get points, sometimes I don't (without an obvious difference in performed action)


That's it for the first part,
Billy

PS: most of this can be improved in BF3 as well

[Kyyla]

Please fix the shadow flickering on long distance objects. I can't snipe because of that. Looks too ugly.

[Otto Dafe]

64 player co-op campaign.

[homerdog]

Um, is that your wish or do you know something we don't?

[Otto Dafe]

Originally Posted by homerdog

Um, is that your wish or do you know something we don't?

Just a wish, and I don't think Dice would do anything like that because the franchise is mainly about iterative improvements. It could be cool though, and it might solve the SP problem Dice has right now, if it is a problem. The single player game is the main basis on which the game is marketed and reviewed, even though nobody sane would really buy the game for SP. So if they took the campaign online, they would have a unique selling point without sacrificing the event scripting / tech demo qualities that make for good marketing and review material.

And it could be fun. Imagine say a fort full of AI, being sieged by squads of human players. Squad A does spotting / overwatch for squad B who must sneak in and sabotage something or other so squad C can drive / fly / charge in, all while squad D is keeping them busy at the gates. If any squad screws up than the objectives of the other squads change accordingly.

[homerdog]

Oh hell yeah it would be fun, and IMO impossibly difficult for DICE to do right without spending years developing the concept and gameplay mechanics and technology to pull it off.

[Mobius1aic]

- No more lame ass special melee kills that leave you vulnerable and at the behest of a stupid animation "connecting" and taking place. It needs to be like BF2 knifing. Fast, furious, and highly skill based requiring you to aim and actual hit the enemy. Not some cheap free kill. Fucking hate the melee in BF3 so much.

- Fix the rock hit boxes. I don't know how many times I've been on top of a rock, aiming just over it's edge, and it's still "hitting" the rock.

- Get rid of the "easy spotting" system that lights anyone up like a Christmas tree while cluttering the HUD and possibly your view of that target, which brings up my next point.....

- Declutter the HUD in general and give us the option to decide how opaque the on screen symbology is. The symbology blocking ones view at far distances drives me batshit.

- The de-bipoding of a gun when you're being suppressed. Bullshit, plain and simple, especially when your hits on a standing or crouching sniper trying to hit you do not destabilize him what so ever.

- Quit amalgamating the classes, and separate them out in order to make them properly significant in teamplay, and make the customization per class more in-line with each class.

- Real squad system and VOIP just like BF2 and 2142. Spawn only on squad lead. I'm fine with the squad beacon as long as it means the squad member has to parachute in.

[Billy Idol]

Originally Posted by Mobius1aic

- No more lame ass special melee kills that leave you vulnerable and at the behest of a stupid animation "connecting" and taking place. It needs to be like BF2 knifing. Fast, furious, and highly skill based requiring you to aim and actual hit the enemy. Not some cheap free kill. Fucking hate the melee in BF3 so much.

- Fix the rock hit boxes. I don't know how many times I've been on top of a rock, aiming just over it's edge, and it's still "hitting" the rock.

- Get rid of the "easy spotting" system that lights anyone up like a Christmas tree while cluttering the HUD and possibly your view of that target, which brings up my next point.....

- Declutter the HUD in general and give us the option to decide how opaque the on screen symbology is. The symbology blocking ones view at far distances drives me batshit.

- The de-bipoding of a gun when you're being suppressed. Bullshit, plain and simple, especially when your hits on a standing or crouching sniper trying to hit you do not destabilize him what so ever.

- Quit amalgamating the classes, and separate them out in order to make them properly significant in teamplay, and make the customization per class more in-line with each class.

- Real squad system and VOIP just like BF2 and 2142. Spawn only on squad lead. I'm fine with the squad beacon as long as it means the squad member has to parachute in.

Spawn only on squad lead will destroy the game imo.
I am playing often with friends, not spawning at each others position and playing together is a fun killer. When you play alone, you are dependent on your squad leader...good luck when it is a fucking camper who sits the whole half our at the same spot...often in such a way that spawing is not even possible.

Spawning only at squad leader...no.

[Malo]

Originally Posted by Mobius1aic

- No more lame ass special melee kills that leave you vulnerable and at the behest of a stupid animation "connecting" and taking place. It needs to be like BF2 knifing. Fast, furious, and highly skill based requiring you to aim and actual hit the enemy. Not some cheap free kill. Fucking hate the melee in BF3 so much.

BF3 version looks to be far more realistic. What you're asking for sounds like Counterstrike style running around knife frenzy which would seem very out of place in Battlefield.

[Scott_Arm]

All I really want is more destruction. Having vehicles break apart and deform when they explode would be cool, especially if the explosions damaged terrain, other vehicles and buildings. Like, if a tank blew up and a big chunk of it went flying and smashed through a wall. That would be awesome. Honestly, the visuals are already good enough. Just push more and more physics!

[Svensk Viking]

The unlock system should disappear

[Davros]

What bf4 needs is unreal tournament quality bots

[Malo]

Originally Posted by Davros

What bf4 needs is unreal tournament quality bots

Level complexity and path algorithms is very very different between the two games.

[The549]

Give us the option for an Arma sized game, then it would be automatically one of the best games of all times. If they allowed for scalability. Just some fucking scalability. I also wish for a third party in government.

[Billy Idol]

Originally Posted by Scott_Arm

All I really want is more destruction. Having vehicles break apart and deform when they explode would be cool, especially if the explosions damaged terrain, other vehicles and buildings. Like, if a tank blew up and a big chunk of it went flying and smashed through a wall. That would be awesome. Honestly, the visuals are already good enough. Just push more and more physics!

Yeah,this!!!

[green.pixel]

Originally Posted by Malo

Level complexity and path algorithms is very very different between the two games.

UT has much more complex map layouts.

[bigtabs]

-delete your complete netcode and build a bew one from scratch. There is inherent fundamental online lag in this game. Even my ping says 10, there is often so much lag that it makes me cry like a little douche bag full of pink unicorns...my most favorite: i jump behind cover while under fire, and a second after I am safe behind my cover, I still feel the bullets hit me, hit me, hit me...dead. Technically the game is genius, except the netcode...

The alternative would be that you shoot people who from your POV were just about to go round a corner and you don't get a hit registered, which is much worse. It was annoying for me at first, but the way to think of it is that your avatar was shot, and only 'realised' it a moment later, which is often how bullets affect heroes in movies.

I know, quake etc. but there is so much going on in this game you can't possibly believe that they can have near zero lag between what you see and what everybody else on the server sees.

The person actually shot you before you went round the corner. It just took a moment for that to register on your client. Remember how bad it was in BC2? BF3 netcode is a joy. In BF3 when I accurately aim at people I hit them.

On the subject of BF4

• Battle Recorder is a no brainer. That was an unbelieveable marketing opportunity missed.
• New FPS gameplay element. BF3's most innovative gameplay feature was probably suppression. It came as a surprise to me and I guess most people who'd never thought of it, but it works really well. I'm interested to see how they can innovate FPS gameplay in BF4, or if they even try to. It's going to be pretty dissapointing if they don't.
• Actual support for eSports, to make it an excellent viewing experience. All they need (presuming Battle Recorder exists) is a decent spectator mode with a reasonable UI for streaming. Don't worry too much about balance, leagues and tournaments will allow/disallow certain weapons/maps/gadgets quite happily on their own.
• No single player campaign. Anyone who has played battlefield knows that dumb bots on existing MP maps are infinitely more fun and replayable than carbon copy COD, especially if we can have our friends join us. Sure we could have both, but the development resources should all be going into multiplayer.

[orangpelupa]

make bf4 like bfbc2 and I will be happy.

look al the
user interface. it's too crowded on bf3

map. bfbc2 a lot more useful and simple

weapon chooser menu. why I need to die to choose weapon on bf3? where is the weapon stat like on bfbc2?

spawn menu. why I can't click the map to chooses spawn point?

et cetera. ...

so many things dice already did well in bfbc2 is nowhere to he seen on bf3.

does bf3 already being produced before bfbc2?

[Richard]

built-in VoIP

I agree with bigtabs on having dumb bots instead of a 4 hour scripted SP campaign.

Expand objective types on rush (i.e. more like Enemy Territory).

More maps on release. If the engine is not rewritten from scratch, use as many from BF3 as possible.

More than 1 char per account.

[Mobius1aic]

Originally Posted by Malo

BF3 version looks to be far more realistic. What you're asking for sounds like Counterstrike style running around knife frenzy which would seem very out of place in Battlefield.

Realistic enough for the same 2 or 3 melee kill animations *sarcasm*. The only reason they went the route they did was because it's an "in" thing over the past few years, and it facilitates making it easier for consolers and their inferior FPS controlling method.

Yes, BF2's knifing got super crazy when two guys were sprinting around and jumping over eachother like banshees trying to knife eachother. But you know what? It was hella-fun and such a thrill. It took skill and great timing to actual manage to hit the enemy as opposed to just holding the "win" (melee) button in close enough proximity or at the height of close combat.

Obviously you never played BF2 so you don't realize how cheap BF3's melee truly is. In fact, I think many of BF3's features cheapened the BF experience, like the "he's right there!" spotting system, and much of the deeper strategy is gone. Oh yeah and the points for anything and everything system is pretty lame too. The whole "everybody succeeds!" shit really needs to be buried into the ground. The broader BF3 experience is pretty excellent, but it's obvious that their are certain casual tendencies in the gameplay, even though it still takes great overarching skill to be the absolute best. It's just a fine example of what happens when devs cater to a broader and more casual market, but I guess it's what it takes to survive these days It's because of those points I mentioned that I can truly appreciate Red Orchestra 2 and it's brilliance in sticking to authenticity and realism while still retaining great fun factor.

[redtailboas]

hope they make the single-player worthwhile!

btw, any good single-player mods for battlefield 3...?