The AT Battlefield Bad Company 2 F.A.Q.

[Zargon]

true

unless you land in front a building full of enemies like zaitsev did, I got gunned he got gunned down repairing and they got me through the canopy before I knew they were there, then they blew the chopper up

 

[kentsfield]

I just bought bad company 2 from steam sale. I've been playing for a couple of hours, I'm almost private 3, i unlocked a few weapons in assault class.

The problem is that I can't choose unlocked weapons or change class/kits in squad death match. Nothing is available except AEK 971. I tried a lot of servers.

If I play rush I can choose kits and unlocked weapons.

Is this a bug or I'm missing something?

please help

 

[minmaster]

ok
vietnam is awesome!
still trying to learn the maps but it's not too bad
the only bad thing is in rush there are too many narrow bottlenecks, it's so MoHish.
when the game opens up, it's pretty good. often that means play conquest.

i also get the feeling that your resupply rate is faster than vanilla. you can spam nades so much more because of this and it shows.

 

[Childs]

ok
vietnam is awesome!
still trying to learn the maps but it's not too bad
the only bad thing is in rush there are too many narrow bottlenecks, it's so MoHish.
when the game opens up, it's pretty good. often that means play conquest.

I was thinking the same thing last night. With the exception of Phu Bai Valley, all the maps are just like MoH. Not a lot of room to flank, its just go straight to the first set of points, then straight to the next, etc. Even in conquest mode everything is pretty much in a straight line.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

ok
vietnam is awesome!
still trying to learn the maps but it's not too bad
the only bad thing is in rush there are too many narrow bottlenecks, it's so MoHish.
when the game opens up, it's pretty good. often that means play conquest.

There are only two spots (each on a different map) that I know are notoriously bad, otherwise there are plenty of super sneaky flanks that can be achieved.

i also get the feeling that your resupply rate is faster than vanilla. you can spam nades so much more because of this and it shows.

I'm not sure about supply reload times, but grenade spam is up a lot because a lot of people end up choosing the double grenades perk (particularly Assaults with the M79) because there is no equivalent alternative for RDS or ACOG that almost everyone uses as for their perk 1 in the main game.

 

[minmaster]

no, nade resupply rate is faster. there have been others complaining of this too.

btw, the guy who made the MoH maps made vietnam maps so it's no surprise but still, that was what sucked about MoH.

 

[minmaster]

also do you guys think vietnam performs much better than vanilla? i'm getting really good frame rates so i turned on bloom and HSAO and it didn't take a noticeable hit. bloom actually looks decent here unlike in vanilla where everything was way too bright.

 

[Termie]

also do you guys think vietnam performs much better than vanilla? i'm getting really good frame rates so i turned on bloom and HSAO and it didn't take a noticeable hit. bloom actually looks decent here unlike in vanilla where everything was way too bright.

Agreed. I'd say I'm getting 5-10fps higher than in vanilla. It's a darker game, too, so bloom probably doesn't look as bad. There's a lot of sand and snow in vanilla, which reflects a lot of light.

 

[GullyFoyle]

The scoreboard for the race to unlock the 5th Vietnam map, Operation Hastings, is up Here

Looks like it is separate, per platform. Go PC! They've passed 9% already, we should be playing Hastings within a week...

==================================================

twitter.com/Demize99: "Got Vietnam balance suggestions? Tell em to @DICEfigge or @gustavhalling #BFBC2"

==================================================

Regarding the past few days' connectivity/server problems (Dec 18th-22nd)

MikaelKalms, DICE

Here is a quick recap of what has happened during Dec 18th-22nd:

During Saturday, the stats database was getting overloaded for PC. This was both due to increased player counts and 3rd party stats websites pulling out stats.
This manifested itself in several ways:
* Sometimes the game would spend a really long time at the "updating stats" stage.
* Sometimes when people logged in, the game claimed that they were at rank 1.
* Sometimes the game would claim that they hadn't achieved anything (no pins/insignias etc).
One thing which is important to note here is that the stats for players have not been modified in any way - it is merely the game client that fails at retrieving them from the database.

We have blocked the main 3rd party stats websites, and are having a dialogue with their developers. Also, we have done modifications to the master server code to reduce the load that game clients cause on the stats DB. These changes were deployed during two master server restarts during Tuesday.

A bit later some networking issues caused something which we refer to as "ghost games" appearing in the server browser. What happened here was that 5-8% of all game servers fell offline, yet parts of the backend was under the impression that the servers were still connected. When the servers tried to reconnect, the backend would deny with the reason "there is already an identical server connected".

The swiftest way of resolving that is also the crudest - restarting the backend. We did so during Wednesday (a bit before lunchtime GMT).

At the time of writing, the backend is doing reasonably well and we are about to surpass 40k players online in less than an hour.

EDIT:
During evening Dec 22nd there are still reports about problems. These are likely due to packet loss that was occurring between two backbone locations in the US (one destination being near the master servers). The ranking DB itself held up fairly well during the night.

==================================================

 

[bunnyfubbles]

gonna get platinum pretty quick with the M40 and XM22

The ARs are pretty well balanced, usually have a tough time choosing between the M16 and AK, the M14 eats through its 20 round mag too fast to be as versatile. Although I think the AK is ultimately best overall

As far as the LMGs, I'll take the XM22 hands down. PKM/M60 power from the main game, but handles like a SAW with its accuracy/ROF and 200 round box. M60 is useful against Hueys, but that's about the only time I'd really want it over the XM22. I like the RPK's ironsights for longer range engagements but overall its matched if not totally outclassed by the XM22 and M60. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the RPK is underpowered, but I think the XM22 could be a potential candidate for nerfing if they ever patch the game. There will be situations where I'm using the RPK or M60 and I end up wishing I had the XM22 for its 200 round mag.

And for the SMGs, well the PPSh seems like the obvious first glance winner according the stats (and most Engies I die to seem to carry it) but I favor the Uzi because it handles almost identically to its main game counter part (but is more powerful). Mac10 is definitely a let down, I think it should have a suppressor, otherwise it feels way too lackluster and inaccurate to be chosen over the other options.

M40 is also the hands down winner for snipers. Its one-shot-kill radius is significantly larger than the bolt actions in the main game, I could see this being nerfed a bit in the future. The semi auto snipers definitely seem too weak considering they're practically direct clones of the T88S from the main game but with different range scopes (IIRC the M21 has a shorter range scope which would make it better for closer quarters while the SVD has a longer range scope, this is assuming you don't choose 12x scope perk), in fact with a slightly higher recoil amp if anything these rifles are actually worse than the T88S. I can only guess that DICE thought there would be a lot more players who couldn't play without their ACOG crutch and thus there would be a lot more people using the M21 and they didn't want to make it too powerful against all the other people stuck with iron sights.

The 1911 is identical to its main game counterpart and the TT33 is a clone of the M9. Not quite sure what to think about pistols being no more powerful than pistols in the main game, they definitely take more of a backup role thats for sure. I suppose their vast superiority to the other guns when wielding from the hip is what merits a neglect to up their damage, they could become too OP that way.

Flamethrower is neat, but I really hope the novelty wears off soon. Too many idiots run around with it when they shouldn't be if they're trying to help the team.

no, nade resupply rate is faster. there have been others complaining of this too.

M79 resupply time is 10.5 seconds just like the 40mm, but the M79's reload time is slower, so it has a slower ROF which means those grenades might feel like they're being resupplied faster because you can't deplete your supply as fast...

as far as hand grenade resupply times, I'm not sure what it is in Vietnam but in the main game its 7.5 seconds and for the most part resupply times of similar weapons between the two games have felt the same to me. I really think the increased grenade spam is due to the increased number of people carrying the double grenade perk

 

[stag3]

also do you guys think vietnam performs much better than vanilla? i'm getting really good frame rates so i turned on bloom and HSAO and it didn't take a noticeable hit. bloom actually looks decent here unlike in vanilla where everything was way too bright.

i think it's because it's using the MOH engine
game feels way smoother and hitboxes register without "jitter" to me
this is how bc2 should have been

 

[bunnyfubbles]

i think it's because it's using the MOH engine
game feels way smoother and hitboxes register without "jitter" to me
this is how bc2 should have been

lol, and guess which engine MOH multiplayer is using...

if the game performs better its likely because of level design

smaller, more linear levels with less fog and smoke can make a HUGE difference

 

[Termie]

The scoreboard for the race to unlock the 5th Vietnam map, Operation Hastings, is up Here

Looks like it is separate, per platform. Go PC! They've passed 9% already, we should be playing Hastings within a week...

Cool...thanks for the reminder to go for team actions. Honestly, on medic I've been racking up 25 heals a game, because without the sights to choose, I always pick the enhanced healing kit. But I think next week is optimistic...with 3-4 days under our belts, we're only 10% there. I'd say it will take 4-5 weeks to get the new map.

It's good to see that the PC community has shown that it can "out play" the consoles, but I wonder if this translates to the number of players actually playing, or if we're just less selfish...

Another (off topic) observation...what is up with PS3? Its unit sales and game sales have really lagged, and it looks like about half as many people are playing BC2 on it as compared to xbox. I have both systems, and I'll always recommend the PS3 based on its free multiplayer and bluray...and because I've given huge amounts of money to Microsoft to first repair my launch console and then to replace it.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

you didn't read the link where they stated that they only started counting on the 22nd...and the game's full release was only the 21st, who knows what the peak will be with Christmas right around the corner.

As for the PS3's numbers? my guess is that the 360 obtained the early reputation as the "FPS console" and also has the best reputation for online experience and that the cost is acceptable. At any rate screw 'em all, PC trounces both, stop caring!

 

[stag3]

lol, and guess which engine MOH multiplayer is using...

if the game performs better its likely because of level design

smaller, more linear levels with less fog and smoke can make a HUGE difference

at first i thought it was just optimized netcode but isn't moh a modified bc2 engine?
why can't they port that back over to vanilla bc2?
i see a ton of "fog" in vietnam levels as well,
no smoke grenades i agree with

 

[GullyFoyle]

Yeah, they didn't start counting stats for the Battle for Hastings challenge until Vietnam was released on all three platforms, which didn't occur for the PS3 until last evening (some time after I left work). So the PC hit 9% in only about half a day. And with everyone off on vacation, it make take as little as 4 days.

 

[Termie]

you didn't read the link where they stated that they only started counting on the 22nd...and the game's full release was only the 21st, who knows what the peak will be with Christmas right around the corner.

Yeah, they didn't start counting stats for the Battle for Hastings challenge until Vietnam was released on all three platforms, which didn't occur for the PS3 until last evening (some time after I left work). So the PC hit 9% in only about half a day. And with everyone off on vacation, it make take as little as 4 days.

Didn't realize that about the Hastings challenge. Looks like we're in good shape to get it soon then.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

any website tracking stats still?

 

[stag3]

nah they're all down for now

 

[minmaster]

apparently, the main the reason for better performance is the lack of destruction 2.0 on the scale it is in vanilla. that actually makes sense now and don't mind the some of the destruction taken away to improve performance.

 

[Termie]

apparently, the main the reason for better performance is the lack of destruction 2.0 on the scale it is in vanilla. that actually makes sense now and don't mind the some of the destruction taken away to improve performance.

Was this intentional or is it simply because there are fewer buildings? The straw huts don't come crashing down quite like the 3-story buildings in vanilla.

 

[minmaster]

well they did obviously make the game more like MoH even though it uses the same engine as BC2. so i'm pretty sure it was intentional.

 

[Maximilian]

you didn't read the link where they stated that they only started counting on the 22nd...and the game's full release was only the 21st, who knows what the peak will be with Christmas right around the corner.

As for the PS3's numbers? my guess is that the 360 obtained the early reputation as the "FPS console" and also has the best reputation for online experience and that the cost is acceptable. At any rate screw 'em all, PC trounces both, stop caring!

My guess is the console players dont care for "team actions" and spend their time fiddling with analogue sticks and a sniper rifle alone in the middle of nowhere

 

[Termie]

My guess is the console players dont care for "team actions" and spend their time fiddling with analogue sticks and a sniper rifle alone in the middle of nowhere

Hilarious!

 

[bunnyfubbles]

at first i thought it was just optimized netcode but isn't moh a modified bc2 engine?
why can't they port that back over to vanilla bc2?
i see a ton of "fog" in vietnam levels as well,
no smoke grenades i agree with

There's far less smoke/dust/snow in Vietnam than in the main game

the lack of Destruction 2.0 is another solid theory

any website tracking stats still?

stats are still being tracked by they've shut down the updates to reduce load to the stat servers in order to prevent screwing up the servers that cause people to temporarily lose their ranking in game

once the game's launch finishes rolling out and things settle down we'll see the stats sites back up and functional

well they did obviously make the game more like MoH even though it uses the same engine as BC2. so i'm pretty sure it was intentional.

its more like MoH because of weapon damage stats than anything