Battlefield 2 & BF2: SF Patch Plans

[fitbabits]

Battlefield Nation (http://www.bfnation.net) has posted news (http://www.bfnation.net/more.php?i=450) on plans to release a patch for both Battlefield 2 and BF2: Special Forces.

BF2.se has the word that on the day of release for Battlefield 2: Special Forces (22nd November), there will be a patch for both the expansion-pack players, aswell as those who are still on vanilla Battlefield 2. Although there's not much information in English regarding what the v1.12 patch will affect, it seems that at first BF2 and BF2:SF players won't be able to be battle on the same server. However, after applying the patch this will be possible.
I guess the days of releasing a fully-finished product to retail are long gone, especially on PC.

[Varsity]

Don't you know the first rule of software?

[fitbabits]

Don't you know the first rule of software?
Apparently not. Please enlighten me. :)

[UnderHero5]

Those days have been gone for a couple of years now, haven't they?

90% of the games I see coming out have a patch released either BEFORE they are out, or within a week of release. And the ones that don't have a patch out SHOULD most of the time.

Oh well, as long as they fix the game and help the situation I don't mind.

[Voodoo]

I don't seem to remember a time when a PC games came out that didn't need patching...

Oh wait...

The days before the web... the days of DOS... Oh those days where have they gone... Someone get me a violin!

[Worldcrafter]

Don't you know the first rule of software?

You don't talk about software?

I think that's also the second rule...

[51|RandoM]

I guess the days of releasing a fully-finished product to retail are long gone, especially on PC.

So you expect bf2 to just MAGICALLY know exactly how the expansion works and need no patching to play nice with it?

lol.

Make sure you've got your seatbelt firmly fastened, I wouldn't want you to fall off the "lets hate electronic arts" bandwagon and find yourself crushed beneath the wheels of ignorance.

[mixuk]

Let's not forget that games used to be a lot simpler technologically.

[Bone]

So you expect bf2 to just MAGICALLY know exactly how the expansion works and need no patching to play nice with it?

No, but I expect BF2 to work properly before they start releasing expansion packs for it. Instead, we get an expansion pack built on top of a still buggy game, whose patch unifying the two will likely only introduce new bugs.

If that puts me on the bandwagon, then so be it.

[fitbabits]

So you expect bf2 to just MAGICALLY know exactly how the expansion works and need no patching to play nice with it?

lol.

Make sure you've got your seatbelt firmly fastened, I wouldn't want you to fall off the "lets hate electronic arts" bandwagon and find yourself crushed beneath the wheels of ignorance.
What Bone said.

[Dabombpizza]

Make sure you've got your seatbelt firmly fastened, I wouldn't want you to fall off the "lets hate electronic arts" bandwagon and find yourself crushed beneath the wheels of ignorance.

Well, if they wouldn't make me watch "EA Games: Challenge Everything" every goddamn time I had to start the goddamn game I wouldn't hate them so goddamn much.

[Voodoo]

Well, if they wouldn't make me watch "EA Games: Challenge Everything" every goddamn time I had to start the goddamn game I wouldn't hate them so goddamn much.

Here ya go...

Skip Intro Movies
To skip the intro movies when you load up Battlefield 2, delete the Dice, EA, Intro, and Legal Bink Video files from your EA Games\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Movies folder.

[MasterKwan]

Expecting something like BF2 to be perfect out of the box is, unreasonable. It's as complicated as an OS was years ago. That being said, there are extreme cases, like The Suffering 2" where the damn game doesn't play at all out of the box.

I've had incredible fun with BF2. I'd like to see more patches not, fewer. There's too much haxoring going on that needs to be addressed in the game.

[Bone]

Perfect out of the box? I don't expect that from any game.

However: in a game that touts its competitive team play AND relies on a ranking system that tracks teamkills, it is inexcusable to still have a bug that misidentifies someone as an enemy, causing rampant teamkilling and misguided cries of "smacktard!", ruining the team environment.

I don't know what's so hard about this. As far back as Quake, there were team scoring dynamics in place that worked perfectly. It's simple programming to assign all players a team ID- either 0 or 1- and stick with it. There's no reason that in 2005, a multiplayer, RANKED game should become confused about who is on which team.

Inexcusable.

[Dabombpizza]

Here ya go...

Skip Intro Movies
To skip the intro movies when you load up Battlefield 2, delete the Dice, EA, Intro, and Legal Bink Video files from your EA Games\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Movies folder.
Unfortunately that causes punkbuster to freak. Believe me, I've tried. That fix works on most machines but not all. My roommate can run fine without that stupid logo, the smug SOB.

I don't think patching is that big of a deal with BF2. Yes, the red name bug sucks and should be patched. But I've only run into it once. What I would rather have is a freakin' buddy list. Coordinating games is a pain in the ass, thank god fo xfire. Actually, I hate their menu system over all, it's a big piece of junk with a video that is dragging down system resources constantly playing in the back. But the game is amazing, I love it despite it's problems, and only look forward with anticpation to each patch with hope that my gripes will be fixed.

[TheKeck]

You don't talk about software?

I think that's also the second rule...

This gave me a good chuckle.

[TheKeck]

So you expect bf2 to just MAGICALLY know exactly how the expansion works and need no patching to play nice with it?


If the whole purpose of this patch is to reconcile with the expansion (which, it probably is) then I'll be pissed. BF2, while I love it, still needs more fixin'.

[TheKeck]

Unfortunately that causes punkbuster to freak. Believe me, I've tried. That fix works on most machines but not all. My roommate can run fine without that stupid logo, the smug SOB.

I don't think patching is that big of a deal with BF2. Yes, the red name bug sucks and should be patched. But I've only run into it once. What I would rather have is a freakin' buddy list. Coordinating games is a pain in the ass, thank god fo xfire.

I didn't delete the movie files, just renamed them. Works fine for me, but you seem to indicate that it varies, so who knows?

Also, while there are many bugs in BF2, I've never run into the mislabeled team color one. Interesting.

[Bone]

I don't think patching is that big of a deal with BF2. Yes, the red name bug sucks and should be patched. But I've only run into it once.
Lucky you. I run into it every day, at least twice a day. As an admin, I'm a lot more sensitive to this bug, for good reason. We run our ranked server like a very tight ship.

Here's a scenario:

Some random guy on our server is playing, when an enemy appears in the main base, about to steal this team's airplane. The natural reaction is to gun this guy down and pat yourself on the back for your heroics.

Of course, he was actually shooting a teammate who was innocently going for his own team's plane. Unfortunately, when he respawns, he's still going to appear red to his teammates. Unfortunately, the TK sometimes doesn't register on the offending killer's screen.

Now, this happens a few times and one person starts screaming "Admins! This guy is TKing me repeatedly, kick that asshole!". Or worse, the guy who got TKed now starts shooting his own teammates. Because, often, he sees his teammates as red also (although sometimes it's only a one-way bug).

Consider that my main goal is to play BF2, not decipher whether someone is actually beind a 'tard, and how impossible this is made when there are now witnesses to what looks like blatant TKing. I don't know who to kick unless I stop playing and do detective work. I want our server's ranking to mean something, and not punish people (or even kick and ban them) for TKs they were never responsible for.

This is a big deal.

[swiftdraw]

Holy shit... You know, I kind of expect a bug or two in any game, but BF2 is friggin' ridiculous. I at least want my game to be stable when I buy it, can I get that much? Heck their first attempt at a patch actually made things worse. Two(?) patches later there are still glaring flaws and EA is going to release a exspansion thats probably equally, if not more buggy. This is and pricing are the reasons I don't pre-order or buy PC games right when they come out, its getting ridiculous.

[Maskatron]

I'm hoping that the disconnect problem that a lot of people (including me) are having gets fixed soon.

[Bone]

Yes, that's another bug I've seen lately. A number of people get spontaneously disconnected which then becomes a crash to desktop.

[fitbabits]

Yes, that's another bug I've seen lately. A number of people get spontaneously disconnected which then becomes a crash to desktop.
It's not a bug, it's simply a minor foible. I mean, you seriously can't expect it to be perfect and without issues. :rolleyes:

On the topic of bugs - remember the stuttering audio bug in Half-Life 2 and how Valve were so upfront about its existence and even encouraged people to report problems with it? That is how to work with the community in solving issues with a product that your loyal fans have shelled out good money for. I'm just sayin'.

[Bone]

Yep. And for awhile, even I was saying "look, the Special Forces team is not the same team that worked on BF2".

But now, it seems like an effort should be made on the customer service level that says "our available Battlefield programmers are working on the remaining significant bugs in BF2 before moving on to the expansion pack".

This would make me feel better about spending another 30 bucks on a product that is supposed to work with the incomplete product I spent 50 bucks on.

[mpsmith]

BF2 is fine, on the whole. The incorrect IFF bug is annoying and has cost me a few TKs, but its really just a drop in the bucket. Shit happens, I TK on accident anyway (a bit over 400 TKs so far). And yes it crashes on a rare occasion, but overall BF2 is a very good, fun, acceptable product. I can't think of any game as complex as BF2 that doesn't have these kinds of problems.

Oh, and just so my TK count doesn't get taken out of context, I have over 15000 kills, meaning that I get maybe one TK every 50 kills. Bombing is a risky business.