Battlefield 4 (Winter Patch)

[Stoney Mason]

[Brehvolution]

I gave it a play. Hopped in a server with ~60 players. Went 11-8. It's ok..... too much time spent running around looking for people to shoot at. I don't bother with the vehicles mostly because I didn't see any to get into. I'm on the fence about buying it when Watch Dogs is out at the end of the month.

[Groogrux]

Watch Dogs got moved up to the 12th.

[patrickula]

It keeps crashing before I can deploy 

[cool breeze]

The beta is great.  The map in the beta is great (even with everyone camping rooftops and elevators).  Totally get the UT2004 comparison.

[Stoney Mason]

Obliteration mode is now available in the beta.

Obliteration is new to Battlefield 4, and supports 24 players on PS3 and Xbox 360. It can hold up to 32 players on PS4, Xbox One and PC. It also supports Commander Mode.

It sees a bomb spawned into the map, while both teams have to fight each other to claim it. Once secured, it has to be dropped off at one of their enemy team’s objectives. It must then be armed and detonated for the team to score. Once it blows, another bomb spawns in and the process repeats until one team has destroyed all three of their opponent’s objectives, or the timer expires.

[Stoney Mason]

We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has played the Battlefield 4 Beta! Your feedback has been crucial in testing the underlying infrastructure and reporting both bugs and balancing issues to ensure a smooth launch on October 29. In this blog post, we want to bring up some of the key findings and how we’re addressing these for the launch of Battlefield 4. Thanks again for playing and keep the feedback coming on the Battlelog Beta forums.

Low frame rate/stuttering
PC players may have experienced trouble in the Beta getting the game running at a good frame rate. Rest assured that we’re using the information we received to optimize the performance for the launch of the game. We also released three game client updates and a number of game server updates during the Beta to address some of these issues and to gather more information to ensure a smoother launch.

Stuck on loading screen
We have identified some of the reasons why players, mainly on PC, were getting stuck on the loading screen and are currently working around the clock to decrease the rate at which this occurs. The latest PC patch for the Beta helped for some players and we are confident we will be able to minimize this issue for launch.

High CPU usage during the Beta
CPU usage could sometimes skyrocket for dual, quad and six-core processors. We identified some of the reasons and released three patches with fixes that went live during the Beta, to address the problems. This was a true Beta, and as such all the crash reports that were generated during this period will actually help us make a better game.

Controller layouts (X360/PS3)
We’ve increased the available controller options in Battlefield 4, including the new controller layout and multiple alternatives that we hope will make you feel right at home. If you’re more comfortable with the controls from Battlefield 3, we’ve got you covered. Just by bringing up the options menu, you can choose the “Legacy” layout, which is similar to that in Battlefield 3.

Empty server listings (X360/PS3)
While in the Server Browser you may have seen lists of empty servers. By changing the filter options, you’ll be able to find populated servers that you can join. You can also use the “Quick Match” function to quickly get into the action.

The elevator catapult (All platforms)
Although an interesting concept, elevators were never designed to act as a catapult or teleporter. The bug where the elevator button would catapult you up into the air is fixed for the final game. But we did enjoy all the crazy videos you’ve posted. Thanks!

Gameplay balancing
We are still balancing gameplay, and in true DICE fashion will continue to do so well after the release of Battlefield 4. Below are just some of the gameplay changes based on your feedback that we’re making in time for the launch of the game.

Infantry Changes
-Fixed how the player only receives a single local damage sound effect if he or she was the victim of a quick, clean kill.  The sound and camera impact effect had too long a cool down between hits. This should improve the responsiveness of being killed and taking damage.

-Reduced the fire rate of the AK12 in burst from 1000rpm to 750rpm. The rate of fire was too high when combined with the low recoil of the weapon, making it more powerful than intended in burst mode.

-Tweaked the compensator and muzzle brake so they’re properly less accurate in sustained automatic fire.

-Reduced and rebalanced full auto accuracy based on rate of fire for all automatic weapons to balance low ROF weapons. Low ROF weapons were remaining accurate long enough to get easy kills outside of their intended optimal range.

-Increased the default throw distance of the portable ammo and med packs. This makes it easier to throw these packs to teammates.

-Portable ammo packs now reload 2 magazines of bullets instantly and up a total of 4 magazines per pack over time. The player must stay on top of the ammo pack in order to benefit from all of the ammo reloading. Grenades, RPG’s, and other explosive launchers do not benefit from the instant reload function of the Ammo Pack.

-Increased the muzzle flash of the 25mm and 40mm launchers to make their threat position more visible.

-Fixed an issue where the knife stab didn’t align with the kill event.

-The revive time has been increased from 7s to 10s.

Vehicle Changes
-Fixed some descriptions of weapons for vehicles that incorrectly described the function of the weapon.

-Increased the damage of the Stinger and IGLA to 3 hits to kill attack choppers (was 25%, now 35%).

-Increased the speed of all TOW guided missiles to 75m/s from 50m/s so they can catch-up to fast vehicles like the Quad bike.

-Increased the sustained fire accuracy of the Coaxial LMG on armored vehicles because it was underpowered.

-Reduced the damage the 40mm and 25mm infantry weapons do to armored vehicles to highlight their anti-infantry role.

-Reduced the damage main gun on the IFVs against other armor to highlight their primarily anti-infantry role.

-Fixed an issue where the tank main gun did not correctly hit the center of the crosshair at all times.

-Multiple options are now available for controlling how your vehicles steer with a joystick on all platforms, as well as improved the responsiveness of steering while accelerating.

Locking Weapon Changes
-RPG7 and SMAW can no longer lock on to Laser Designated Targets. It was inauthentic and not balanced.

-Fixed some projectiles not warning vehicles when they were fired on a Laser Designated target. Reduced the lock on distance for RPGs, SMAW, and MBT LAW missiles to 350m from 500m. This gives the IGLA the clear long range AA role for soldiers, and keeps the team play element of Laser Designation.

-All Laser Designated missiles now do a maximum of 90% damage to Attack and Scout helicopters (down from 100%). This was done to give helicopters a chance to use their Fire Extinguisher countermeasure even against Laser Designated weapons.

General Changes
-The kill string in the score log now appears sooner, making the UI more responsive to a kill event.

-The aim assist on X360/PS3 has been tweaked to be more consistent at all ranges. The assist was over powerful at close range, and not powerful enough at medium range. Players should now find that close combat requires much more player input and the snap to a target is far less forgiving. At medium range the player should experience a bit more assistance tracking targets, but generally still reduced aim assist effectiveness.

PC Specific Changes
-Fixed a string in On Foot PC key bindings that should have read “CROUCH (TOGGLE) / PRONE (HOLD)”.

-Removed an unused “Underslung” key binding on PC, the “Select Gadget 1″ key binding now controls both of these actions as expected.

[Stoney Mason]

[Stoney Mason]

New Map


#t=10

[Stoney Mason]

[Stoney Mason]

New Map. Operation Locker



People streaming the game all over twitch. Unless you use a VPN it will available tonight at midnight EST at least on PC.

[Stoney Mason]

Game out now. As expected the multiplayer reviews are great and the campaign reviews are pretty terrible. I'm gonna play for a bit then head off to bed and put some real actual serious time in tomorrow.

[G The Resurrected]

I'm holding out till blackfriday due to price. Someone on the pc has to give me a rundown on how it compares to 3. The beta didn't do a good enough job of telling me how things changed.

[thisismyusername]

I'm holding out till blackfriday due to price. Someone on the pc has to give me a rundown on how it compares to 3. The beta didn't do a good enough job of telling me how things changed.

It's very VERY minor things that you probably won't care about. I can't give you a performance breakdown, but the gameplay is just BF3's tweaked in ways that should've been in BF3 from launch.

It's basically, I feel, "Battlefield 3 if Battlefield 3 had more time in the oven and had a few more maps."

[Stoney Mason]

Played like two missions of the campaign. Animations are great. Graphics are very nice. It seems like shit from the little bit I've played. DICE has no idea what they are doing in campaigns and should stop. They are embarrassing themselves and just dragging down their review scores. At least the bad company campaigns were funny even if they weren't good either. The battlefield campaigns are just

 


As far as the multiplayer it seems to be good if I could actually play it because it crashed on me every game I tried. I wasn't planning to play much tonight anyway but now tomorrow I need to troubleshoot and see if its bad luck, my computer, the drivers, or the game. It wasn't crashing like this for me in the beta by comparison.

 



This is why I will always own a console.

[Smooth Groove]

Soft or hard crash?

[Stoney Mason]

Soft or hard crash?

You mean the system or just the game smooth?

It's just the game. A lot of time with looping audio at the time whatever was happening.

It took awhile in the campaign. Like 40 minutes the first time. Booted it up and played another 10 minutes and it crashed.


It crashed within 5 to 10 minutes in multiplayer. 2 times. I checked my GPU usage and fan and they seemed fine though. It may be a driver issue. AMD has put out like two or three beta drivers in the last 10 days targeting Battlefield 4 and I've gotten all of them. 

[Smooth Groove]

I was asking if it just crash to desktop or did the PC lock up.

You could try a reset if it's the former.  Sometimes that helps especially if you've been playing other games.

[Smooth Groove]

Also turn everything back to default if you've been overclocking

[Stoney Mason]

I was asking if it just crash to desktop or did the PC lock up.

You could try a reset if it's the former.  Sometimes that helps especially if you've been playing other games.

It froze in game and I would have to alt tab out and close it from the task manager. But yeah, I had been playing other games before that this evening and hadn't rebooted my system in awhile since BF 4 was preloaded so I'll give it a rest tonight and see if things perform better tomorrow.

[Stoney Mason]

There was like a 600 mb patch this morning and I got up and played a level of the campaign and a couple of rounds of multiplayer and it didn't crash so maybe that resolved it.

[Groogrux]

I don't know how it went in other places, but between my store (Gamestop), the one tehJaybo works at, and the one in between us, we had less than 200 people show up for the midnight release of this game (or AC4 or WWE2k14).

Was there something we missed, or is everyone just waiting for the next-gen versions?

[Stoney Mason]

I don't know how it went in other places, but between my store (Gamestop), the one tehJaybo works at, and the one in between us, we had less than 200 people show up for the midnight release of this game (or AC4 or WWE2k14).

Was there something we missed, or is everyone just waiting for the next-gen versions?

I think there is a definite divide between the hardest of the hardcore who probably are more likely to get some of these titles on the next gen systems.

It also could be brand fatigue. I was excited for Battlefield 4 but there was no way in hell I'm going to plunk down money on another Assassin's Creed or WWE game.  There are probably people who feel the same about battlefield.

I've also heard the theory that GTA 5 essentially sucked a lot of dollars and enthusiasm out of the market already for other software.

[Brehvolution]

Just picked mine up for PC on lunch.

[drew]

"player profile appears to be damaged"

just lost 3 hours of campaign progress on hard

[Brehvolution]

[Brehvolution]

Maybe he bought the horse armor DLC.

[Stoney Mason]

So you can't be killed by debris?

I think that's probably a "levolution" issue. The big scripted destruction pieces are staged so that big piece of rubble could be phony. I know on Siege of Shanghai if you were anywhere near the tower when it collapsed you died whether something hit you or not.


Played for a few hours. Some of the maps are crazy. That flood zone map is insane. It's like a massive version of Favela from MW 2 with flooded street ways so you swim around a lot. I dig it.

[Stoney Mason]

whoops wrong thread

[Your Stalker]

(Image removed from quote.)

You can play as Chris Redfield? 

[Groogrux]

I don't know how it went in other places, but between my store (Gamestop), the one tehJaybo works at, and the one in between us, we had less than 200 people show up for the midnight release of this game (or AC4 or WWE2k14).

Was there something we missed, or is everyone just waiting for the next-gen versions?

I think there is a definite divide between the hardest of the hardcore who probably are more likely to get some of these titles on the next gen systems.

It also could be brand fatigue. I was excited for Battlefield 4 but there was no way in hell I'm going to plunk down money on another Assassin's Creed or WWE game.  There are probably people who feel the same about battlefield.

I've also heard the theory that GTA 5 essentially sucked a lot of dollars and enthusiasm out of the market already for other software.

The brand fatigue and money loss from GTA are definitely possible.  However, the thing that is still confusing is that my store alone had close to 500 reservations of BF4 on the current gen consoles alone...

[Rufus]

How does that stack up to, say, CoD?

[Groogrux]

If you're talking about pre-orders for both games, they're almost neck and neck.  Last I checked, Battlefield was just edging CoD in my store, but I hear that it was the other way around in most of the others.

[Brehvolution]

The campaign is pretty crazy so far. It's weird having to do certain actions on the keyboard while using a 360 controller. I was up til 1am playing and I didn't mean to be up so late. 
Haven't touched MP yet.

[Sho Nuff]

The campaign is pretty crazy so far. It's weird having to do certain actions on the keyboard while using a 360 controller. I was up til 1am playing and I didn't mean to be up so late. 
Haven't touched MP yet.

They STILL did this shit? I gave up on BF3's campaign because it asked me to press buttons on the keyboard IN THE OTHER FUCKING ROOM

[Brehvolution]

 

[fistfulofmetal]

The campaign is pretty crazy so far. It's weird having to do certain actions on the keyboard while using a 360 controller. I was up til 1am playing and I didn't mean to be up so late. 
Haven't touched MP yet.

They STILL did this shit? I gave up on BF3's campaign because it asked me to press buttons on the keyboard IN THE OTHER FUCKING ROOM

thats pretty rude of them you would think they would at least let you press the button on the keyboard in the same room.

[drew]

I think I've decided not to go premium this time around, who's with me?  I mean I preordered it to get china rising free which would be factored into the cost of premium, and any sort of premium only knife or whatever is lame because you know that person just paid for it...the only thing I'll miss is the double XP weekends.

anyways ppsh w/ laser god tier

[Eel O'Brian]

I'll go premium when it's on sale for $20

[Stoney Mason]

Game doesn't crash for me as much as it did the first day but it still crashes a lot more than it should. A lot of threads on reddit about it happening to people.

http://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield_4/comments/1pkxgf/dear_bf4_call_me_when_you_stop_crashing/
http://answers.ea.com/t5/Battlefield-4/Battlefield-4-keeps-crashing-on-PC/td-p/1724995/page/32


Crashes on the PC version at the end of the PC quicklook for example.

[Mr. Gundam]

Where dem dinosaurs at?

[Brehvolution]

It hasn't crashed on me yet. I haven't touched MP though.

[drew]

I'll go premium when it's on sale for $20

why? thats just silly, by that time not only will almost all the map packs be out but all the gold battlepacks will have came and went too.

bore support towards bf is dissapointing, and nobody on my friends list is playing, anyone here on 360?

[Rahxephon91]

Waiting until I get a PS4 in March hopefully.

[Groogrux]

I'm still pumped for this game.  Waiting on PS4 to launch.

[Eel O'Brian]

what is a gold battlepack and why should I care about them

[Groogrux]

Apparently they have XP boosts, weapons upgrades, ect in them for multiplayer gameplay.  I think EA did something similar with the online play for Mass Effect 3.

[Eel O'Brian]

Okay, thanks

[Mupepe]

Waiting to get it for Xbox One.

[SantaC]

[Mupepe]

Is that Xbox One or the PS4 version?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Stoney Mason]

Beat the campaign. The only reason to play it is to see the graphics and the show piece moments. It's not a good campaign for a myriad of reasons I won't bother going into.

You have to play the last missions three times (thankfully its short) to unlock three different multiplayer weapons because of the "choice" ending. 

I'm not looking forward to playing this campaign again for the unlocks on console.

[G The Resurrected]

Worse than BF3's story or better?

[Stoney Mason]

Worse than BF3's story or better?

It's simpler. Which is probably a virtue. Neither are good, but Battlefield 3 was a very convoluted story and it was told in a very confusing manner. This story is just dumb but at least its relatively straightforward.

[G The Resurrected]

no connection between the two right? No real reason to call it BF4 over BF2014?

[SantaC]

play the multiplayer and forget about the campaign.

or wait for PS4 version

[fistfulofmetal]

Flood Zone is fucking crazy.

[Stoney Mason]

Flood Zone is fucking crazy.

Yeah that map is pretty sick. Still have yet to play Paracel storm.

no connection between the two right? No real reason to call it BF4 over BF2014?

I don't know. I mean I can't really remember the specific of BF 3 too well but its not like any of the main characters carry over or anything.

Also that live stream yesterday of the Europe versus North America showdown thing showed some of the maps coming in second assault.

[fistfulofmetal]

Campaign is poop coming straight out of a butt.

I'm thinking this game is taxing my GPU pretty hard... or the game is just glitchy as fuck. There are textures disappearing and flicker and going all glitchy while playing. My GPU is getting up to 72c while playing and I don't remember what it typically gets up to during games.

[SantaC]

Campaign is poop coming straight out of a butt.

I'm thinking this game is taxing my GPU pretty hard... or the game is just glitchy as fuck. There are textures disappearing and flicker and going all glitchy while playing. My GPU is getting up to 72c while playing and I don't remember what it typically gets up to during games.

it's a game that drives graphics yes