Battlefield 2 Map Preview

[bapenguin]

Gamespy (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/battlefield-2/624721p1.html?ui=rssFeed) will be doing a preview all this week of the maps of Battlefield 2.The Zatar Wetlands

This map featuring swampy terrain around the Red Sea coastline consists of a series of large islands separated by swamps and rivers. On anything but the 16-player version it's a large map, so grabbing a vehicle to scoot from one point to the next is a must. Air vehicles are plentiful, so numbnuts are constantly parachuting into points behind the lines.

Lets hope the other maps offer a bit more variety from the demo map.

[Goronmon]

I'm really looking forward to how the urban maps play out. Especially if you can enter buildings and attack from different levels.

If they do a good job it might be like Full Spectrum Warrior except with other players instead of AI. Now that would be sweet.

[Hizawky]

Game is waaay too fast paced and lacks a reason NOT to die for it to be as tactical as FSW.

I mean, 15 second respawn, and respawning right on the squad leader, you basically have no incentive to stay alive. All I see are people going guns blazing, balls-to-the-wall infantry heroics in BF2. Theres no 10 minute wait time between rounds.

[Goronmon]

Game is waaay too fast paced and lacks a reason NOT to die for it to be as tactical as FSW.

I mean, 15 second respawn, and respawning right on the squad leader, you basically have no incentive to stay alive. All I see are people going guns blazing, balls-to-the-wall infantry heroics in BF2. Theres no 10 minute wait time between rounds.
Aren't there servers options that could change those settings? Might be interesting if someone tried to make a server that forced tactics.

[ÜberJumper]

There's lots of neat tactics to be had once servers start breaking out of the short rounds/low tickets settings. There's a few out there right now that run down to the last ticket rather than a timer, and they're a heck of a lot of fun to play on. There's a lot of different things you can do on the Oman map that make it several maps in one.

[vornskr]

I mean, 15 second respawn, and respawning right on the squad leader, you basically have no incentive to stay alive. All I see are people going guns blazing, balls-to-the-wall infantry heroics in BF2. Theres no 10 minute wait time between rounds.

I don't really have a problem with this? Something I wasn't crazy about in the original BF was that people seemed to fan out all over large maps, causing small individual skirmishes, and whoever lost that had a hell of a trek on their hands. Or they had to grab a vehicle, and most people don't wait to see if others want a ride.

With the squad leaders, people can spawn right next to a player and work as a team. The people that don't get it can make the long hike. The people that do will be able to work together to get objectives done. Some of the most fun I've had thusfar is playing as a medic in squads, racing against that 15 second timer to get people back on their feet while still in the middle of virtual enemy fire.

Balls-to-the-wall infantry heroics are fun as hell dude.

Also, it should be noted that you actually have to aim in Battlefield games. Holding down the left button and waving the mouse to and fro will not get you anywhere. So you can be heroic, but if you don't stop to aim, you're going to die alot. Even with short timers, noone likes to play a game where all you do is run, die, respawn.

Aren't there servers options that could change those settings? Might be interesting if someone tried to make a server that forced tactics.

I wish there was an option that forced squads, but alas, I have not seen it.

If you wanna try something cool as a squad leader though, grab an APC (or the Black Hawk as the USA) and hang just outside an enemy capture point thats under attack by your side. Basically, you'll provide a small foward firebase, where you can snipe at enemies that stick their head too far out and your guys just keep spawning into armored safety. This is even better in the Black Hawk, just gotta remember not to stay too close, most capture points have those guided missle launchers :x

[Bone]

There's lots of neat tactics to be had once servers start breaking out of the short rounds/low tickets settings. There's a few out there right now that run down to the last ticket rather than a timer, and they're a heck of a lot of fun to play on.

Unfortunately, if you advertise the "no time limit" on your server name, EA has chosen to blacklist you from the public server listing. We lost all traffic on our servers last night except for those of us who know the IP.

It appears safe to enable this option (it's a simple config file change) as long as you don't put either "time" or "limit" in your server description.

Just another example of EA not getting it, and punishing those who would actually try to generate interest in their game.

[XxSATANxX]

Well my machine that played HL2 and DOOM3 and FryCry can't play BF2.

I'm thinking that is kind of a buzz kill for me and purchasing BF2. I really was'nt expecting amazing performance but NONE? My Ti 4600 card seems to handle most games fairly well. I'm lost as to why you'd block that card as being "to old to even play"

[Vulture]

I would agree with the longer spawn times if it was easier to grab gear that you needed. When you get assigned to blow the arty or the radar, it helpos to have some demo packs. Of course if your team is presently an anti tank pair backed up by engin,medic, and MG you got a problem.

So why does my anti tank rounds do jack against the arty again?

[Goronmon]

I'm lost as to why you'd block that card as being "to old to even play"
I don't have time to fully research this, but...

To my understanding, they don't block the card specifically, but they did use certain technical features that the card must support in order to even run the game.

Such is the problem with PC gaming, sometimes you have to upgrade (though if you have a 4600, thats at least 3 years old, isn't it?)

[Hizawky]

Oh, you guys misunderstood. I love the game, and balls to the wall infantry. I was not bitching, I just said it was not a slow paced game.

The game is heavily laced with tactics, but its like the speedball of FPS's. Its very fast, very quick, and very tactical.

[KiloFro]

Has anyone found a server where people actually co-operate? This game would be great if people actually used squads and listened to the commanders. Right now I feel lost in the chaos that is the usual BF2 pickup game.

So far my favorite part of this game is watching people plummet out of the skies as they try to master the controls of a helicopter or jet.

[vornskr]

So why does my anti tank rounds do jack against the arty again?


I had the same reaction when I hid in the MEC base, throwing round after round at the UAVHut from my stolen t-90 at it and didn't even scratch the paint.

Further investigation in the form of guided rockets from the Cobra elicited more confusion.

Also confirmed that TOW rockets and 25mm rounds are inneffective.

I think these are the purpose to Spec Ops guys besides scoped automatic rifles and a fun way to blow up tanks. They may have went a bit too far with that idea.

[netcraazzy]

I think the fact that only Spec Ops guys can blow up the artillery cannons is a case of forced class specialization. On the other hand, if just anybody could blow it up then you'd almost never get to use them.

I do agree that most of the servers seem to be total chaos, just as most BF1942 servers were. I'm really dying to find a server with some serious players that are willing to cooperate. Do any EA folks out have their own demo server?

[Morratut]

I think it will calm down though. Especially when people start playing it lots and decent strategies start emerging.

I remember the chaos when BF1942 arrived. Nobody did any teamwork. It got better though. Don't get me wrong you still had servers full of solo asshats. As soon as the full game arrives servers will get better, i loved playing DC with 800 tickets and no time limit. BF2 will be the same i bet.

[screwtape]

I've been on a few servers where almost everybody worked in squads and followed orders from the commander. It was incredibly fun, though I think that particular experience may be the exception rather than the rule when the game retails.

[ÜberJumper]

It seems that the longer you're on a server, the better the teams are that form.

A bunch of Relic Community guys are using IRC (irc://irc.hwcommunity.com/bf2) to coordinate and find demo servers that have desirable settings to play on. We've found a couple of the "Global Unlock" servers which allow for the use of the extra class weapons, and they're fun. We form custom squads, but last night, we ended up with a bunch of guys that WANTED to teamplay joining our squad as our numbers thinned. In one match, we had all 6 of us tooling around in 2 BTR/LAVs and 2 M1/T-90s. We had a decent team commander who was actually giving us orders, so we'd follow his directions to the objectives and once we took them, we'd get updated orders to get to the next objective.

On at least a couple of occasions, I'd drive a full LAV/BTR onto an objective. I'd pop smoke and scream "DISMOUNT DISMOUNT DISMOUNT" into the mic. As we take the flag, I'd remind them to "Secure the area", get a chorus of "Oks" "Rogers" and "10-4s". Once it was secure, folks would hop back into the AFV, and we'd roar down the beach towards the next objective.

By the end, it was even more streamlined. The Tank supporting our assault would hang back and pound targets as they popped up, as the infantry secured the objective, the tanker would already be moving to start suppressing the next objective before the infantry arrived.

We had mixed success with Air-Support though, we have a bunch of good pilots and gunners for the MI-28. However, we need to put the air-support guys in their own squad, and have a commander that can coordinate between the two... that or slightly larger squad sizes for voice comms.

Note for commanders using Artillery. DO NOT call in artillery strikes until shortly before your team is about to assault the objective.

Note for squaddies assaulting an objective when you've got a commander using artillery strikes. DO NOT rush into the objective when an artillery strike is about to come down on you.

[51|RandoM]

I haven't tried the arty, but I blew up the other emplacements with just grenades, so you might try that.

I have horrible game lag in the single player game sometimes, it is really bizarre. This is on an fx-55 + x800xl.

If I can ever get it to create a multiplayer account, I'll try to see how multiplayer is.

[bradlay]

Last night we killed a raft full of dudes, stole their boat and took a squad of special ops guys onto the carrier. Blew up the radar system and fought off a couple waves of engineers. Stole a helicopter and made it back to land where we captured a flag. In the old game, hiding out on the enemies carrier had no purpose other than to grief. I think DICE has done something really great here for BF1942 fans. I guess you had to really play that game to love this one.

What other kind of frickin' variety do you want from a map? Jaded much?

You can fight in that downtown urban area, assault the giant hotel, assault across two large open fields, through a river while blowing up bridges, assault either a land based airfield or a goddamn aircraft carrier, not to mention air battles. What map variety is this missing exactly?

[Genital Eclipse]

The map is awesome, the game is awesome, the size of the boner I get from playing BF2 is friggen awesome.

Squads were brought to us by jesus. Thank you lord.

[snubber]

Hah. . . .

[Bone]

Has anyone found a server where people actually co-operate?

I'm really dying to find a server with some serious players that are willing to cooperate. Do any EA folks out have their own demo server?

My server is bf2.frontlineformation.com (70.85.57.36 if DNS doesn't resolve the name), but you'll probably have to manually add the server within BF2 since EA blocked us from the server listing for running no time limit. Or use All-Seeing Eye or any other browser besides Gamespy and look for Frontline.

The players there are all focused on using the squad and commander roles, and teamwork in general. We also have numerous admins to remove the idiots bent on ruining the game.

[netcraazzy]

My server is bf2.frontlineformation.com (70.85.57.36 if DNS doesn't resolve the name), but you'll probably have to manually add the server within BF2 since EA blocked us from the server listing for running no time limit. Or use All-Seeing Eye or any other browser besides Gamespy and look for Frontline.

The players there are all focused on using the squad and commander roles, and teamwork in general. We also have numerous admins to remove the idiots bent on ruining the game.

Sweet, I'll give it a try tonight!

[Zanzibar]

Man, what IS it with me and BF1942?? All I could think about while playing BF2's demo map is 'I wish this was like Wake Island's demo map from BF1942.' That map had fuckin' EVERYTHING you wanted to know about BF1942 - planes, ships, infantry, lots of vehicles of EVERY type. I played the Wake Island map about twice before I trotted off to buy the full version.

I know. I keep crying about how good BF'42 is. It's the perfect balance of easy, slow-moving vehicles with infantry.

[bradlay]

The map is awesome, the game is awesome, the size of the boner I get from playing BF2 is friggen awesome.

Squads were brought to us by jesus. Thank you lord.

Why do you even play games? Do you enjoy any of them?

[ÜberJumper]

bradlay:

Ummm I'm pretty sure he's madly in love with BF2.

[bradlay]

bradlay:

Ummm I'm pretty sure he's madly in love with BF2.

Ah, seemed like sarcasm. Carry on.

[Genital Eclipse]

Yeah, sorry, sometimes 'erection' comments can throw people off.

Erections happen to your red zone parts when you're excited about certain things: girls, bf2, boats, boats with girls playing bf2 while topless serving mojitos in assorted lime varities... etc

Bf2 foreva!!!

[netcraazzy]

My server is bf2.frontlineformation.com (70.85.57.36 if DNS doesn't resolve the name), but you'll probably have to manually add the server within BF2 since EA blocked us from the server listing for running no time limit. Or use All-Seeing Eye or any other browser besides Gamespy and look for Frontline.

The players there are all focused on using the squad and commander roles, and teamwork in general. We also have numerous admins to remove the idiots bent on ruining the game.

Hmmm I can't seem to connect to your server. Do you keep it up all day or only when you are playing?

[Bone]

It's up all day, but we had to stop it and change the IP address earlier due to some problems with it conflicting with our DC server.

It's back up and should stay at bf2.frontlineformation.com for good. The IP is now 70.85.57.36 if you can't resolve the DNS name.