Official: Battlefield 2

[jyoung]

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/boa...threadid=60724

It's almost here:

Battlefield 2 1.03 Update Enters Final QA Pass

That's right, troops. Barring any last minute issues, the 1.03 Update is only a few days from release now. We thought this occasion warranted a post covering the major features and fixes coming in 1.03, so settle back and enjoy.

Wake Island 2007

That's right, the 1.03 update bundles the first Official map release from EA and DICE. In this case the map is a modern-era update of one of the most popular maps from Battlefield 1942 -- Wake Island. The People's Liberation Army has invaded Wake to threaten American supply lines. In response the US Marine Corps has been dispatched to reclaim the island.

The new Wake Island map comes to you free of charge thanks to Fileplanet’s new Battlefield 2 Channel. Visit it at http://www.fileplanet.com/battlefield2.shtml.

New Features

Stats compare - view the extended stats details for any other player in your BFHQ simply by double-clicking on their name on the leader board or using the new search feature
Server Favorites and History - find your favorite servers that much easier. No more searching for them through the main server list
Nickname Prefix - Add and change your clan tag to your account name at will. No more creating alternate account names to cover the changes in your competitive lifestyle
Supply Drop Icons - Supply drops now appear on the main map and within the 3D Map. Find that elusive supply drop much, much quicker
Points for Destroying Command Objects - players now receive points for destroying the commander's toys. Special Forces players rejoice
Server Reserved Slots - Server Operators can now set aside slots for their admins to join a full server at any time
Vehicle Passengers - the names of players in a vehicle with you are now displayed when you enter or change seats
Countermeasures - a reload bar has been added for vehicle countermeasures. You'll always know now when you can set off that next flare

Tweaks

Point Farming changes - DICE has implemented functionality that makes it significantly harder to point farm on Ranked Servers
Mod Support - Mods now work properly with the Dedicated Server! Additionally, the game will automatically switch mods when joining a server that is running a mod you have installed but do not have activated
Map tweaks - Spawn menu map and Commander maps now scale based on the size of the level being played (16, 32 or 64 players). Mini-map also scales automatically based on the vehicle type you are using (manual changes to zoom levels are remembered as well)
Commander scoring - No more TKs from Artillery
Vehicle tweaks - No more accidental kills from bumping a friend with your tank (try to avoid hitting him at speed though) and no more struggling uphill in an APC. Also no more improper TK allocation from vehicle explosions
Auto Team Balance tweaks - Commanders and Squad Leaders now immune to team switch
Anti-Air Missiles - These are now much more effective against fast-movers

…and, of course, more. Look for the patch soon.

Next week would be nice.

[Error]

Today would be nicer.

[Spent]

Commander scoring - No more TKs from Artillery

Great way to give the asshole pkers a weapon they can use WITHOUT REPRECUSSION

Sure you can mutiny but i've had tard commanders now even with the tk system in place who people refuse to eject - this just will make it worse.

[jyoung]

http://www.bf2.se/page.php?id=288

Here's a 1.03 patch review by a beta-tester:

BF2.se has together with BF2combat & BF2rankedserver been able to beta-test the new Battlefield 2 patch, version 1.03.
What can we expect of the patch then? Is it worth the long time we waited for it and how do you type in your prefix?
This and many other things is what I am going to try to give you answers to in my article that I wrote after playing Battlefield 2, v. 1.03.

Wake 2007
As soon as I jumped into the map the nostalgia smacked me right in the face. I can feel the warm feeling of all wars I played on it in 1942. This is the map that changed my way of thinking about 1942 and was one of my favourite map both in clan wars and that short public game between lessons in school, this is the map that made me the player I am today.
Wake have been resting for 64 years to once again be brought to life, this time with the power of today’s new weapons. But Wake 2007 is the same as it was 1942 with the small difference that instead of the destroyer we got a small island as a spawn point for USA mounted with artillery. The ship is resting where it should with a lot of planes and helicopters just waiting to attack to shores of Wake.

New in 1.03
1.03 contains a lot of new fixes and adjustments. We are given new sounds ( T98, MEC & China Jeep and new canon sound for the tanks. ), point-farming have been eliminated ( you can’t stand and heal your friend forever etc.. ) and you can’t repair an helicopter as fast as you could before.
The physics have been changed on the vehicles to make it harder to kill soldiers by running them over in 1km/h. Other bugs have been fixed as the Blackhawk-bug, no more weak spots there. Or as DICE calls it: “Set some wheels on jets and helicopters to stronger armour to prevent them from being destroyed instantly by AT missiles.”
The patch is big, 175 mb, and it contains a lot of fixes. You now must jump out of the APC to help you comrades to take a flag, this has been the centre of a lot of discussion on the BF2-forums around if it is a good thing or not.
The fix I love the most is that the TV-guided missiles finally response to my clicks and has a 2-click function. The first clicks mark the victim and the second click fires the missile. If you want to change the target just click on another space and the cross moves there. Your fire with a double-click and after it been deployed you can navigate it easy by clicking and you get the feeling of being in control of the missile.
The earlier messy BFHQ also had a remake and the compare-stats-function seem to be a fun addition.
You gain ranks much easier now then before so quite a lot of people are going to go up in rank the first time they play 1.03.
There is also an Account Login Welcome Screen that will contain messages from EA from time to time.
Auto-team balance have also gotten a big remake and seemed to work fine to me. But this will always be a function that always can be tweaked a little more.
The commander will now get it a little easier when TK-punish for artillery are removed and the soldiers can now see where the commander drops his crates on our mini-map.

Prefix, the long waited prefix is finally here! And it works very easy. Every time you login to BF2 you have the chance to add a new prefix to your nick and it won’t affect your stats in anyway. Your prefix will not be stored and you can change it every time you login.

Mods
Modsupport have finally been added to the menu. BF2 will automatically activate the mod witch server you join and you can now filter after different mods in the in game-browser. Modders are probably be glad about that you now can share BF2 libraries easier also.

Serverfixes
Admins can now reserve slots on it’s server with an easy command. You then add the serveradmins in the serverconfig by typing their accountnames. There have also been some small fixes as Linux serves crashing when trying to contact stat servers.

Conclusion
BF2 v.1.03 has been long waited for, and I think you will love it, because soon it is here and you can notice all the changes yourself! There have been a lot of small fixes to improve the game play beside the ones I have mentioned.
To finish of this I want to thank EA and their trusted-partner-program that made it possible to try the new patch and of course Planet combat & BF2rankedservers!

// Gustav Halling ”a.k.a” cmd

The prevailing rumor right now is that the patch will be available on Monday.

[Error]

Oh i'm liking the sound of that tv guided missle fix. Not to mention the rest of it.

[Destro777]

I hope that rumor about gaining ranks faster is true. The amount of time needed to unlock even your second gun is flat out rediculous. Patch sounds good, can't wait.

[Spent]

I hope that rumor about gaining ranks faster is true. The amount of time needed to unlock even your second gun is flat out rediculous. Patch sounds good, can't wait.

I dissagree - this is what is going to sour the game if you ask me. Right now the unlokcables are a real reward and the dedication to get them pays off - after this patch the unlockable proliferation will be unbelieveable and I think it's going to take the fun out of using them, as well as wash out the weapons that people don't like right now [which might be okay, but I like the fact that if you want to use a rocket launcher you have to use an smg uless you busted your ass for a DAO - adds strat]. Now everyone and their brother is going to be walking around with G3s and DAOs. Also cuts short the excitement of unlocking - right now it takes months of play time at LEAST to get all the guns, there goes some replayability.

[Destro777]

The way it stands now, 90% of the people who have the game will never be able to see 2 or more unlockables unless we quit working and play nothing but this game all day. That incredibly lame. I mean I play the game alot, and have been playing since release day, and im still not even half way done to unlocking the 2nd weapon. Thats stupid. The unlockable guns aren't all that much better anyways, they are just different. An alternative.

I dont see how altering the ranking system would hurt the replay value cause I don't know of any other online FPS games that allow unlockable weapons over time. Especially online FPS games that ive been playing for years. Thats years of replay there. If those games got away with it, why wouldn't BF2? All im saying is to make the unlockables a little more reasonable.

[Spent]

The way it stands now, 90% of the people who have the game will never be able to see 2 or more unlockables unless we quit working and play nothing but this game all day. That incredibly lame. I mean I play the game alot, and have been playing since release day, and im still not even half way done to unlocking the 2nd weapon. Thats stupid. The unlockable guns aren't all that much better anyways, they are just different. An alternative.

I dont see how altering the ranking system would hurt the replay value cause I don't know of any other online FPS games that allow unlockable weapons over time. Especially online FPS games that ive been playing for years. Thats years of replay there. If those games got away with it, why wouldn't BF2? All im saying is to make the unlockables a little more reasonable.

IF you aren't even half way and have been playing since launch then you aren't playing in a squad enough or effectively enough. The moajority of points are teamwork points you need to get a group of guys like on here in vent and play together once in a while - you'll get a lot more points way faster.

[Destro777]

Nope, nix that. Im always in a squad - usually with people I know, and 80% of the time we get number 1 squad. Maybe cause a couple of the games I played were on unranked servers. I donno.