Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

[Shawn Zipay]

Just as the headline indicates, the latest patch for Battlefield 3 will go live at 9AM UTC / 11AM CET (and I think 5AM EST). The patch will be roughly 1.6GB in size and promises to make the game "more stable, fairer, and more balanced."

It should be noted that there are some not so desirable changes in tomorrow's update, a few of which can already be seen today. Are you ready? Get ready because here it is.

Giving all players IR flares
To balance the battlefield and give budding pilots a fighting chance from day 1, we are now giving IR flares to all players. These will be automatically available to you in all air vehicles in the game. So if you’ve had a hard time staying up in the air previously, it should be easier to dodge incoming threats from now on. We hope this small but significant change will mean more players take to the skies and mix up their play style. This feature is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.


More awards for skillful heli flying
One of the balancing items we have done in this game update is to better reward skillful heli pilots. To do this, we have increased the pilot’s score for transporting passengers who make kills from the heli. The assist score for heli pilots is now 50 points/kill. In a fully loaded transport, four passengers who make 1 kill each will give the pilot a sum total of 200 points. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.


Making the SOFLAM a passive income gadget
The Recon gadget SOFLAM (laser target painter) has been given a new feature. Now, when a Recon player places it and then leaves it, it will continue to paint targets entering its area of control, continuously giving the Recon player a passive points income. This means a Recon player can place a SOFLAM in a strategic position, then leave it to find a good sniping spot. Combined with fixing a few scoring error in the SOFLAM, it should now be a much more viable source of experience points for Recons. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.


Suppressing is team play, too!
Another balancing change that reflects how we want every player to be able to contribute to the overall effort is the lowered threshold for achieving the Suppression Ribbon. From a previous requirement of 7, players now only need to perform 3 suppressions in a game to be rewarded the Suppression Ribbon. This means the Support Kit player can rack up scores by skillful use of his LMG. We’ve always know suppression helps – now we are more generously rewarding those team players who help disorient the enemy so we can move in for the kill. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.


New to the game? Get a flying start with our new shortcut items
Today, we are also offering 10 different shortcut items for sale for Battlefield 3 on PC. If you’re new to the game, this is the perfect way to gain some ground on the veterans online. Or if you’d love to get your hands on those AA missiles for jets instantly, this is for you.

The 10 shortcut items are available now from Origin and include:
Kit Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items unique to the four playable classes
Vehicle Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items for all vehicles
The Ultimate Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items from all other available shortcut packs

Free IR flares? Reducing the suppression requirements? The ability to unlock just about anything by spending a few dollars?

When did Battlefield become a casual game?

[jimykx]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

I am starting to hate EA games even more!

More awards for skillful heli flying

well, atleast crunch is finally going to be rewarded and get what he deserves!

[=[BG*D]=ApHeX]

Not just BF3 that has become more casual but nearly every game that comes out seems to cater for that market and it's only consoles that are to blame for this horrid tide of the dumb down.

[5t3v0]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

Gah, 12 hours until the patch is released...

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

well, atleast crunch is finally going to be rewarded and get what he deserves!

I still like having a co-pilot and I still crash a bit.

What I dont understand is the soflam. I thought it was always passive, when not being controlled?

[jimykx]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

I still like having a co-pilot and I still crash a bit.

What I dont understand is the soflam. I thought it was always passive, when not being controlled?

Yeah, i am pretty sure the soflam automatically tracked vehicles in its line of sight when not being used!

[5t3v0]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

Yeah, i am pretty sure the soflam automatically tracked vehicles in its line of sight when not being used!

Really? I thought it had to be controlled to work.

[jimykx]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

yeah, i allways thought it had an automatic mode, specially because i recall gaining points from it when i was not using it

[5t3v0]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

Oh ok. Guess I haven't stayed alive long enough to see it properly in action. That and when I use it I used it manually.

[nemes1s3000]

God I fucking hate EA.

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

yeah, i allways thought it had an automatic mode, specially because i recall gaining points from it when i was not using it

It did, just wid reduced range and FOV. I dont know what that is about?

When did Battlefield become a casual game?

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

BF has always been a casual game, the so called "pro" gamers are a minority, although a very loud one.

The 10 shortcut items are available now from Origin and include:
Kit Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items unique to the four playable classes
Vehicle Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items for all vehicles
The Ultimate Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items from all other available shortcut packs[/indent]

EA and Activision is driving me away from gaming.

[eradicator8]

Is it really that hard to understand?I for one have never played BF3 simply because I have not been able to run it despite adequately covering the minimum reqs.If their support will finally be able to get me to run it I will be left in the stoneage trying to survive for just 20 seconds despite having preordered the game since it was first annouced that a preorder would include the BF2 maps.If I was not to give it up allready I needed some way to get in the game with only my lack of BF3 experience as my disadvantage.What about the new BF3-gamers? Should they be disencouraged to start playing because they would get owned just as they hit the battlefield.How would EA ever get new players if they would never get enough points for unlocks simply because they would be cannonfodder.Try stepping outside your "I play for five hours a day" view for a minute and see it from other peoples perspective.It is the same lame discussion with the ones who played the BETA. Why doesn´t my unlocks work in the live version?Simply because if it was only the grinders who could enjoy the game it would soon only be a few thousand players online. That is what has happened to BF:H. If you dont spend the cash you wont survive.

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

eradicator8, if new players are unable to level then that is a flaw in the game. Which I by the way knew was there from day one so I hurried with levelling the aircrafts.
But that should be handled by DICE balancing the game to give newcomers a viable kit. The old idea for unlocks was "different, not stronger", but they flushed that down the toilet.

Instead of fixing the game, they are now selling you a fix to their mistake. So they actually have an economical incentive to make the game unbalanced. How do you think that will work out, with EA in the background making all the financial decisions?
Newcomers will still have just as much difficult levelling, except for those who are willing to pay double price for the game. I saw numbers around €40 for the full unlock in one of EAs forums. Does that sound right?

EA has very consistently worked on squeezing more and more money out of the series on top the actual selling price. Look at the history.

*BF2 had SF that doubled your unlock points in the core game
*BF2142 had ingame adds that wasn't announced until release.
*BF2142 NS allowed you to unlock more weapons and bring new weappons into the core game
*BFBC2 I don't recall the exact scheme with this one, wasn't it something about only allowing "partners" to host ranked games, e.g. does who paid a kickback to EA?
*BF:H They were only going to sell "customizations", no better weapons because that would wreck the balance. Well guess what? They lied.
*BF3 has very powerful unlocks especially for vehicles, making it hard to level them as a beginner. And suddenly they start to sell the complete unlocks. I would not be surprised to learn they had that planned from day one.
*BF4 If they follow this trend, BF4 will have the same balance problems as BF3, but the bundles will be available from day one. So now everybody will be at an disadvantage except those who pay extra. You only have to look at their F2P games to see how they are thinking.

So to sum up: Each time they sell these "shortcuts", they create an incentive for themselves to ruin the balance of the game. You just need to look at their F2P game to see how they are thinking.

[jimykx]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

Yeah Vreki, not to mention BFp4f with the payed shotguns that are damn OP. They are good for close quarters, good for sniping, good for killing everyone in one shot

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Battlefield 3 PC Patch Arrives on 29th at 9AM UTC - Also Gives Unlock Shortcuts

Vreki is right. Everyone was shouting "Why are they making all these adjustments to all these different weapons and vehicles?" People were looking through them and some weapons were getting stronger and some where getting put back from when they were nerfed the last time and unlocks are being more useful, like flares, the soflam, and sniper rifles. Why is that? Well, who wants to pay for bundles that suck?

EA could do the music CD approach and bundle 10 items, but only one or two be good.

Also, I found out what the soflam deal is. The soflam still has passive lock on, even before this patch. The Recon player would only get points for the lock on if they were controlling the soflam. Now the Recon player and place it somewhere and if it locks on, they get passive points.

Some would argue that its a lazy point machine for doing nothing. The thing is that recon gets so little points for using any of the "teamwork" tools, that I personally think its a fair trade. You have these crappy tools and you give up a spot for them, you should get something for using them.