BF2:Boycotting BF2

From BattleWiki

NOTE: Many of the game's shortcomings have been fixed in the most recent 1.03 patch --Jayson Virissimo 15:27, 9 Oct 2005 (PDT)

BF2 expansion to be released by DICE Canada fall 2005, less than 6 months after the release of BF2: http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?comments=37767 DICE Canada are responsible for BF Secret Weapons of WW2 and BF Vietnam.

BF2 1.03 patch announced for summer release, said to fix some significant problems: http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=10448477

BF2 Boycott thread: http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbattlefield/topic.asp?fid=7419&tid=1700304&p=1

Below is the list of reasonable, fixable things we need fixed before we become unpissed at EA and buy another BF product.

Please add new discusions on the discussion page if you agree or disagree with given topics. Feel free to add new problems which you think are reasonable and fixable.

• Commander and squad leaders should all be in the same "Executive" chat channel together. As it is, the commander speaks to many squad leaders, while individual squad leaders speak only to the commander. This leads to a) the pointless exercise of squad leaders having to relay messages to other squad leaders THROUGH the commander, as well as b) the radio noise of all squad leaders hearing the one-sided transmissions of the commander talking to squad leader(s) other than themselves. Relevant posts: http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=10458744 , http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=10504572

• The command line join function (+joinserver ADDRESS) works, but the password function (+password PASSWORD) does not. Not being able to join private servers from the command line or external server browsing tools is unacceptable.

• TKing with vehicles is way too easy. You literally cannot afford to move a tank/humvee etc. if you have any teammates anywhere near you.

• Revise the TK system for mines/claymores etc. Allow, say, 3 tks via this method with no penalty, then reduced scores for the next 7. You get the idea.

• Random crashes to desktop and server crashes.

• Make patches installable - even if your c:\ is small on avaiable space, it shouldn't matter while the d: the game is installed on has 30 Gb. (Only creative use of junction points allowed me to install. EA support folks are likely clueless about what that is, as is most everyone else.)

• The Loading Times are much too long - and on top of it there is the loooong "client verification" (yes i understand there must be some Cheat protection but cant it be on like only 1 out of 10 games?

• After a game is finished and the next map is loaded you dont see for a while which map it is (so you can't decide if you want to stay on the server or log out without waiting for all the excessive loading to be finished)

Stuff that sucks and makes us angry at the game, but alone probably isn't enough to make us boycott it:

• The UI sucks for various reasons. Here's one: There are too many mandatory prompts before entering the game. A login screen in an FPS game with save password feature but no auto-login feature? A "join game" button to enter the game, with a "join right away" checkbox that only joins 15 seconds after the option to join appears? Then you're met with the mandatory game action of choosing your spawn point and clicking another button to spawn into the game? Come on.
• The game crashes to desktop for users who have certain resolution and refresh rate combinations.
• The only way to play the game at the common LCD resolution of 1280x1024 is to hear offhand how to enter this into the command line: +szx 1280 +szy 1024
  • I've gotten this resolution without the command line parameters with the 1.12 patch
• Random and meaningless PB kicks.
• Sound seems "muted" somehow - somewhere between the crystal clarity of DC and the muffled mess that is/was BF:V
• Please give points to special forces for blowing important stuff up.
  • Happens with 1.12
• Autobalance indiscriminately changing soldiers' teams at a whim for some 'autobalance' function. To fix this, a formula should be made that addresses this -- in non-mathematical terms, it would take the scores of the players, even them out between the teams, but more importantly, keep squads intact (but it should only do that for squads with common tags, such as clan tags), and keep the commander on the team he applied for.

• Helicopters are way too strong, as are jets. In Real Life, an RPG could take down a helicopter -- that's why you never have idiots hover when they aren't covered. Extend this to the game, and you'll take the power of the Helo out as a 1 man wrecking and capping crew (not to mention the base camping that happens).
• Artillery should allow for multiple types of barrages, as random hits do not 'fit all'. To put it succiently for non-artillery types, you can shoot in a straight line, in a vWv cluster, or in a circular area. You can also shoot a FPF (Final Protective Fire), meant for continious fire in case you are in danger of being overrun -- this is especially important on the idiotic 'Double Assault' map types, that allow a team to lose very quickly without hope of recourse. By the same token, The reload time for Artillery sucks. It never takes that long in Real Life™.
• The lag that hits the game after 20 minutes of play. Maybe its just my rig (though I hope not, with 2 Gig of Ram, Geforce 6800 OC, Athlon XP 3000+) But after I play for some time, I encounter an awful case of Framerate lag -- that in my opinion shouldn't be there. The sound also becomes a virtual slideshow, which sucks to say the least.
• Introduce rejoining from the command line using an external browser. I have to close BF2 out completely to join a second server from ASE - which makes it hard to understand the use of ASE for anything more than simply browsing servers.

• TKer's that TK purposefully around a helo pad or a Plane pad should be kicked from the server after 2 times. I realize accidents happen, but not twice in a row.
  • ...don't forgive, and it'll happen 3 times only.