Battlefield 3

[MaydaX]

BF3 PC Server R12 will be released on Tuesday. Exact timing to be confirmed; I will update this post once it is confirmed.

 

We will have a downtime for the master servers. The RSPs will begin updating their game servers at this point. Those admins which have had their servers updated to R12 can then add the Back to Karkand maps to the map rotation.

 

There will not be any client update - all that was taken care of last week.

 

Server R12 manual is available here: http://static.cdn.ea.com/dice/u/f/bfbc2/tmp/BF3_PC_Server_R12_893642_Docs_ServerAdministrator.zip [static.cdn.ea.com]

 

Changelog

* General crashfixes

* Fixed problem where kits would remain on the level for a long time (>10 minutes); this would eventually make the server keel over

* The Back to Karkand maps are included

 

 

Notice that there are two variations on the Conquest gamemode. The differences are mainly to do with the flags. You will see a "#2" after the map name for a server that runs the second Conquest variation.

 

Game servers can mix and match B2K and non-B2K maps. Players who have not purchased B2K will be warned if they attempt to join a server with B2K maps in the rotation. Quickmatch will not send those players to servers with B2K maps in the rotation either. The guiding principle here is: if possible, avoid having people get kicked from servers.

 

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654347788871326/

[SuperTaz]

[PartyPooper]

My initial impressions:

 

- I HATE ORIGIN

- I HATE having to waste resources on keeping browser windows and ancillary programs running in the background.

- I HATE having to wait DAYS after I purchase Karkland before I can get it.

- Knifing is crap, prefer the BF2/BF2142/BC2 way rather than always having to be behind someone.

- Knifing from behind when someone is prone is a hit/miss affair.

- Honestly, who likes the knifing cinematics in a FPS game which leaves you vulnerable - NO ONE.

- STILL getting hooked up on small crap that you'd normally step over without a second thought.

- Sprinting is unrealistic WAAAAYYY too fast.

- HATE unlocks PERIOD. Should start out with everything and get stuff taken away as you progress - then you'd see real skill.

- should get red dot scope BEFORE 4x or better.

- unless you have the latest and greatest CPU and GPU, this game sucks because you won't see anyone until after they kill you.

- vehicles are better than BC2 but I still prefer the ease of flying choppers and planes in BFV (the original)

- too much crap in the arsenal.... more than 4/5 keys worth detracts from the game and just gets confusing.

- Having to specify the loadout AGAIN when you swap teams is so BF2142 and so LAME.

- Cheaters are still raping in servers. So many in fact that I almost returned the game to the store in disgust. Still might.

- Game play under Frostbite 2 seems good and smooth but still occasionally freezes or gets stuck on the "loading" screen.

- Punkbuster client logging non-functional and broken.

- Maps are good.

[kraxus187]

We made the decision last night about our BF3 servers that if this crashing once or twice a day crap isn't fixed by New Years Eve, we'll be cancelling our servers.

Its a pain in the ass to get them populated (2 64 slot and 1 40 slot server) and then see it go to wate because no one comes back after the patch.

 

And its only since the R12 releas that this has been an issue for us...until then it was full 23 out of 24 hours a day ( I don't know how accurate they are but on the Gametracker things our Air maps server went from the mid 50s percentile to the 99th percentile in a matter of 2 weeks.)

 

Smeone even suggested opening a BC2 server again :bigsmile3: because even that was less hassle then this.

[buttscratcher]

We made the decision last night about our BF3 servers that if this crashing once or twice a day crap isn't fixed by New Years Eve, we'll be cancelling our servers.

 

Might decide before new years... By then, you'll have paid for the next months rental (if you rented at launch)

 

Whats funny, the game is not crashing. Its actually very stable compared to other DICE games we've played. Its the connection to the back end that seems to be the primary problem.

 

Which ever DICE employee that was responsible for 'blaze' deserves a big fat lump of coal up his stocking. Its kind sad actually. Generally speaking, I think DICE deserves alot of kudos for the game. Unfortunatly, once again either they did not properly test this issue in the alpha/beta, or even worse they knew it was a problem, and knowingly sold us a defective product.

[kraxus187]

Our payment isn't due till the first of the month, and if it isn't fixed,I know that our RSP will receive the emial before midnight cancelling 2 of them (the US based ones). The UK based one is paid for by 2 clanmembers in Europe so that'll be their decision.

[Piggy]

My initial impressions:

 

- I HATE ORIGINAgree entirely

- I HATE having to waste resources on keeping browser windows and ancillary programs running in the background.Agree aswell

- I HATE having to wait DAYS after I purchase Karkland before I can get it.I bought limited edition so I dont know how this is

- Knifing is crap, prefer the BF2/BF2142/BC2 way rather than always having to be behind someone.I prefer it to, but it keeps people from only knifing, just like they did on BF2/BF2142, BC2 has a knife animation so I dont know what you mean there

- Knifing from behind when someone is prone is a hit/miss affair.ALWAYS hits for me, only thing I hate is a delay in the amount of times you can do it in succession

- Honestly, who likes the knifing cinematics in a FPS game which leaves you vulnerable - NO ONE.I do gives me a chance to actually SAVE my teammate

- STILL getting hooked up on small crap that you'd normally step over without a second thought.It's like this in EVERY FPS game nowadays, old school games had more blocky appeal so it was harder to get caught on.

- Sprinting is unrealistic WAAAAYYY too fast. It's SPRINTING, what do you expect? Run, but hey its easy for that sniper to shoot you in the face need to have a happy medium here

- HATE unlocks PERIOD. Should start out with everything and get stuff taken away as you progress - then you'd see real skill.Ok this makes ABSOLUTELY no sense, since it's been like this in EVERY Battlefield game (afaik correct me if Im wrong) perhaps you're playing the wrong game

- should get red dot scope BEFORE 4x or better.Ya it is kinda stupid that I get red dot near last on some guns

- unless you have the latest and greatest CPU and GPU, this game sucks because you won't see anyone until after they kill you.Not true, that is usually connection related

- vehicles are better than BC2 but I still prefer the ease of flying choppers and planes in BFV (the original)I prefer the flying to BF2, least I can barrel roll a chopper or fly at least somewhat high

- too much crap in the arsenal.... more than 4/5 keys worth detracts from the game and just gets confusing.Dont know what this means.

- Having to specify the loadout AGAIN when you swap teams is so BF2142 and so LAME.Different team, different guns, pretty common.

- Cheaters are still raping in servers. So many in fact that I almost returned the game to the store in disgust. Still might.I've seen ONE hacker in my entire gameplay time, and he got banned right away so,

- Game play under Frostbite 2 seems good and smooth but still occasionally freezes or gets stuck on the "loading" screen.It worked fine until a couple patches ago

- Punkbuster client logging non-functional and broken.Dont know what this is

- Maps are good.Really? I hate the maps thats why I play nothing but B2K now.

 

Agree with you for the most part, except for some weird things.

[wickysnip-NNB]

I HATE having to waste resources on keeping browser windows and ancillary programs running in the background.Agree aswell

you close browser and still play once you lunched game

[Piggy]

My best game to date.

 

http://i.imgur.com/8kKoa.jpg

[HSMagnet]

My best game to date.

 

http://i.imgur.com/8kKoa.jpg

 

 

HAXZORZ!11!1

[MaydaX]

My best game :)

 

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8092/bf32011121423233592.jpg

[BOTA:X]

Nice!

 

Edited December 21, 2011 by BOTA:X

[Kalms]

So -- those of you who were discussing whether or not to close down your BF3 servers, has any of you made the decision to close them down yet? If yes, what were the primary reasons?

[USP00P]

Our payment isn't due till the first of the month, and if it isn't fixed,I know that our RSP will receive the emial before midnight cancelling 2 of them (the US based ones). The UK based one is paid for by 2 clanmembers in Europe so that'll be their decision.

 

As this quote from a fellow clan mate of mine posted is true as stated above. The primary reason was because of our servers crashing and trying to keep our servers populated which is so hard to do after the R16 patch. If our servers crash anytime between the release of the R16 patch and the 1st of January we are cancelling at least our 2 U.S. servers.

 

As time goes on, I see less people playing BF3 and tons of empty servers that used to stay full around the clock. DICE made a huge mistake by not fixing the crashing issues first and worrying about fixing the weapons that everyone was complaining about. The majority of people would like to see the game not crashing, clients and servers, first instead of worrying about a RPG killing a tank in a few hits or nerfing the IRNV scope which totally ruined that scope by the way. <<<< Just an example.

 

For future reference, keep your priorities straight and fix the client\server crashing issues first and worry about all the other bs later.

Edited December 22, 2011 by USP00P

[MaydaX]

As time goes on, I see less people playing BF3 and tons of empty servers that used to stay full around the clock. DICE made a huge mistake by not fixing the crashing issues first and worrying about fixing the weapons that everyone was complaining about.

 

And break weapons that people didn't complain about. It's very annoying to get used to the weapons then many of them get changed in patches because some think weapon X, Y or Z are overpowered. Wish they would just fix any really overpowered / underpowered ones and tell people to live with the rest. It's very annoying to say the least. I thought the beta weapon damage model was ok and just needed a few adjustments. That's where the major weapon tweaks should have been made, not in every patch of the retail game.

 

That and the netcode change of the last patch was the final nail in the BF3 coffen for me. I play a bit now with friends but not for long and I don't have the desire to play alone much anymore. Whch is a shame because I did enjoy the game but every patch killed it more and more.

[buttscratcher]

As time goes on, I see less people playing BF3 and tons of empty servers that used to stay full around the clock. DICE made a huge mistake by not fixing the crashing issues first and worrying about fixing the weapons that everyone was complaining about. The majority of people would like to see the game not crashing, clients and servers, first instead of worrying about a RPG killing a tank in a few hits or nerfing the IRNV scope which totally ruined that scope by the way. <<<< Just an example.

 

For future reference, keep your priorities straight and fix the client\server crashing issues first and worry about all the other bs later.

 

+1 I agree totally. Same line of thinking applies to Karkand. They had to push that out the door, for the second round of pre-Christmas advo, before getting the base game working properly.

 

So -- those of you who were discussing whether or not to close down your BF3 servers, has any of you made the decision to close them down yet? If yes, what were the primary reasons?

 

Having seen the same exact issues DICE gave us on Battlefield Bad Company 2, I didnt wait to start canceling. We dumped a 64 slot out right, reduced another 64 down to 32, and reduced a 48 TDM (we were told pre-launch we could run that slot size) down to 24, thanks for that one, btw.

 

Biggest unresloved problem DICE has not fixed (or is unable to) are the back end disconnects. Whoever came up with this "new and improved" back end, should be fired. The noob server renters think their servers are crashing, are confused... They are not crashing, your back end on Bf3 is worse than Bc2 - if that was somehow possible.

 

btw, while your here asking for our input, how about answering a question for me:

 

Why is there no pings shown in Procon? Its disgraceful that a "PC first" game does not have pings shown inside its control program, to allow for the traditional "high ping kick feature"

[USP00P]

Couple other notes I forgot to post.

 

The Back To Krakand expansion, the tickets shouldn't start counting down before the round actually started.

 

Second, browser gaming was the wrong way to go. Why couldn't DICE just keep it more simple for the user to just have an actual program client like the BF2 and BC2. I hate having to run extra services on my PC just to play a game. Yeah, I know you can close all the other stuff once in a server. But if you want to go onto another server, then you have to open all that crap back up. I'm sure many will agree with me on this.

 

I think EA\DICE are going to have to do something drastic to get the BF3 community populated again like it was in the beginning. Preferably have to put out another map expansion pack.

[HSMagnet]

 

I think EA\DICE are going to have to do something drastic to get the BF3 community populated again like it was in the beginning. Preferably have to put out another map expansion pack.

 

i doubt having to buy an expansion pack is going to spur a resurgence

[fozzer]

There's an easy fix for all the ails that affect modern day pc gaming.

Revert back to the old school dedicated server scenario, or is that being too simplistic ^_^

[Sorryboutthat]

So -- those of you who were discussing whether or not to close down your BF3 servers, has any of you made the decision to close them down yet? If yes, what were the primary reasons?

 

Hi Mr Kalms,

 

I agree with the points the other streaming admins and pbbans staff have said. One thing Dice cant control is a lot of people bought servers and there are only enough people to populate 10-20% of them.

 

1. The worst thing for us has been the server crashing/battlelog disconnects. That will be the main reason we pull the plug.

 

2. A personal reason for me is the last patch wrecked my game. It is taking up to whole clips to take someone down, I am getting killed seconds after I duck or go around a corner. This happens to me on server after server. I knifed a clanmate last night and he said I was 10 feet away. I like the game but when I am handicapped with this this lag, it makes it hard to want to keep playing.

 

[USP00P]

i doubt having to buy an expansion pack is going to spur a resurgence

 

This was just an example, not necessarily what I was aiming at. But if they did do something like this then I'm sure they could just incorperate new maps into what's already there instead of making people buy something else. I do feel that EA\DICE does owe the BF3 community something without having to spend more money to bring the population it once had back. Most servers that are out there are ran by clans and other organized organizations. I feel EA\DICE should offer us something free of charge that would significantly bring the population back. Because including our clan, we all were victimized in beta testing all these patches after the official release of a game that wasn't by any means ready to be released.

 

I think personally, if EA\DICE reworked this game into being a client interface instead of a browser game, and eliminate having to download, install, and use origin to login which logs you into battlelog, that would bring some players back. Simplicity for the novice user is the key. I love the game and love the graphics on the B2K expansion. But I don't love it enough for our clan to keep paying for servers that stay empty due to EA\DICE screw ups. Whether it be client, server, or backend issues. It's just not worth it.

Edited December 22, 2011 by USP00P

[buttscratcher]

^ Free content wont bring back pissed off gamers. See 1.51 for 2142.

 

They'll get the hype machine cranked back up on the next broke game before that happens.

[USP00P]

^ Free content wont bring back pissed off gamers. See 1.51 for 2142.

 

They'll get the hype machine cranked back up on the next broke game before that happens.

 

Like I said it was just an example. And you're correct, there are alot of pissed of BF3 players that probably put the game down and probably moved on or went back to playing something else.

 

As I look at server listings on various sites, referring to Battlefield series games, I see BC2 is still holding on pretty strong still for some people.

Edited December 22, 2011 by USP00P

[MaydaX]

As I look at server listings on various sites, referring to Battlefield series games, I see BC2 is still holding on pretty strong still for some people.

 

Some being the key word.

 

Stats for Game: BC2 PC

-- Total Servers = 1,762

-- Populated Servers = 558

-- Stock Servers = 1,610 (8,628 players)

-- Vietnam Servers = 152 (315 players)

-- Players Online = 8,943

 

Quite the drop in a few short months.

 

^ Free content wont bring back pissed off gamers. See 1.51 for 2142.

 

+1

 

Maps are not the main issue right now. It took too long to get the big issues worked out and there are still many more. I don't think BF3 can be restored to it's launch days. No amount of DLC or maps will fix it and the player count will just keep dropping until the next game comes along.

 

I wish they would restore the weapons to launch day or even the beta and restore the netcode as well. That's only a few things in a long list of needed changes. But what do I know, I just played FPS games on PC for over 10 years (Damn I'm getting old LOL).

[injuneer]

I don't think my clan is planning on cancelling servers just yet, but as far as myself playing the game, I've played a whopping 5 minutes over the last 3 weeks. IMO, the game play just flat out sucks. Most maps feel like I am back on COD again. DICE bragged about these huge maps they have created and then crammed all of the flags into the center of the map. Like stated above, for a "PC first" title, I don't very much in the way of a "PC" game. Hell, you guys chose to put XBOX controls in where we should have joystick support, PS3 gets teh B2K pack a week before PC?. WTF is that?