First BF3 patch deployed

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Logged in to Origin this morning and found it starting to download a 480MB patch for BF3, so some research led to the following links with info:

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/bat...ty-in-today-s-pc-patch-for-battlefield-3.aspx

battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654624754374621/

For those of you without battlelog access, here's a copypasta of the "detailed" notes that the blog mentions from battlelog:


---- Client-Side Changes:

-- Visuals, Stability and Performance Fixes:

• General performance and loading time improvements
• “Black Screen” fix for an issue occurring on some PC Configurations
• Stereo and Rendering Support for Nvidia and AMD Graphics Cards
• Adjusted the “stuttering” encountered on some PC configurations.
• Fixed several Crashes when joining MP and Co-Op sessions
• Fixed multiple problems when using multiple monitors (Eyefinity / Surround).
• Fixed visual corruption issues on certain Nvidia Cards
• Improved loading times for certain textures
• Added console command “GameTime.MaxVariableFps” to limit max FPS
• Added console command “UI.DrawEnable” to hide UI for screenshots / videos

-- Balance and Gameplay Adjustments (PC)

• Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement
• Added back some missing Growlers on Kharg Island Conquest Large
• Added back EOR sound for SQDM and TDM
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it(note the affect this will have on Hardcore mode!)
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest. You should no longer spawn on points too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Combat areas on Kharg Rush tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after 1st base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not suffering suppression
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in COOP
• Added joystick deadzone setting
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed an issue with some weapon sounds in first person
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns, AA guns, and Jet Cannons against infantry
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns against jeeps.
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and Jet Cannons, players under attack from these weapons should no longer lose control.
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly.
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex.
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons.
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R.
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range.
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles.
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons.
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft.
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds.
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against Helicopters.
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells
UI Changes (PC)
• Added round duration and ticket summary at EOR
• Advanced squad polish – should be more intuitive
• Significant changes to the Join Squad functionality (see below)
• Fixed a problem regarding keybindings while playing
• You should now get a better error message when being disconnected via Battlelog

---- Server Update Highlights

• EOD Bot exploit fix
• Several crash fixes
• Anti-stat padding measures taken, disallowing ranked servers to run obscure settings
• Improved team kill kick configuration
• Support for unranked servers. Unranked servers do not report players' scores to Battlelog, but server administrators can freely control all settings


-- Share your profile and stats with new Battlelog functionality

• Ability to share your Profile and Stats pages to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
• User Profile and Stats pages on Battlelog can now be accessed without being signed in to Battlelog if you know a user's URL
• Single sign on from Battlelog to Origin. If you're not logged in to Origin and join a game server, Battlelog will automatically sign you in to Origin in the background and join the game server


-- Quick notes on Squad changes in the Nov 22 update

• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad Selection screen
• Players who choose not to join squads will also show up as Blue in the "Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white -- if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text


-- A detailed look at Squad refinements

A detailed look at Squad refinements

Today's PC client patch features numerous tweaks to Squad functionality and is part of our ongoing efforts to make it easier to play with friends and Platoon mates. These changes will also be implemented for consoles when we release the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 updates shortly. Stay tuned for the exact date of the console updates.

First, we need to look at how joining with Squads and Platoons affects the balance of teams. Initially, servers are commanded to equal out each side, so joining with friends can impact that balance while joining with Platoons further hinders this. As a result we have made some adjustments to the in-game Squad management screen.

For PC, you are now able to highlight the various Squads and select which one you wish to join by selecting a Squad and then clicking the Join Squad button. Please note that the Squad Privacy option still allows 2 man Squads which, during 64 player sessions, can lead to players with no squad position –- the number of people with no Squads will be shown at the bottom of the Squad selection list.

After the patch is applied to consoles (in the near future) you will be able to join Squads by cycling through the list and selecting which Squad you wish to join.
 

Silk

Well-Known Member
Mousewheel binding still not working. Fuck them tbh, incompetent cunts. Sick of not being able to play comfortably now.
 

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
yea they have also made it near-impossible to seed a server now, too.

You need at least 5 people to join a server before the game will allow you to do anything. However, you now have to have a 5 minute idle timer. If you are idle for 5 minutes the server will kick you. GUESS WHAT ISN'T DISABLED WHEN YOU ARE WAITING FOR PEOPLE TO JOIN THE SERVER AND START THE GAME???
 

Ki!ler-Mk1

Active Member
Here is the effect of this patch on our server:
(Full every day for at 8-14 hours for fourteen days)

vBhh1.png



Today (Tue Nov 22nd, 2011) we have updated most components of BF3 PC:

* We have released an update to the BF3 PC game client via Origin. It is ~500MB large. Everyone will be prompted to install the update.
* We have updated the master servers - mainly stability fixes.
* We have updated Battlelog - see the blog post for details.
* We have sent out a new game server build to all PC RSPs.

The new server is R9, build ID 886605.
Manual here: http://static.cdn.ea.com/dice/u/f/bfbc2/tmp/BF3_PC_Server_R9_886605_Docs_ServerAdministrator_v2.zip [static.cdn.ea.com]

Battlelog will only show Server R9 or newer. This is because the new game client is no longer compatible with the older game servers. The RSPs are gradually updating their servers. As they complete the update you will see more and more servers in the browser.

Here is a near-complete changelist for the game servers:

* Support for unranked servers (vars.ranked)
* Ranked servers have a few settings as read-only (see documentation)
* Unranked servers allow changing of all settings
* Reintroduced vars.allUnlocksUnlocked for unranked servers
* The game server will parse all of Startup.txt even if an error is encountered
* vars.roundStartPlayerCount / vars.roundRestartPlayerCount handling rewritten to be more natural
* vars.maxPlayers cannot be used to go past the server's max number of slots any more
* Security updates to the game server
* Fixed several server crashes, hangs, and a 10-second stall - all of which which would make the server drop every player
* vars.gamePassword can only be invoked during server startup, not while the server is already running
* vars.teamKillCountForKick 0 will disable team kicking instead of kicking people frivolously
* banList.add would sometimes crash; fixed now
* EOD bot scoring exploit fix

If you are a server administrator that run ranked servers, then you should take note that a few settings are no longer changeable for ranked servers.
The most notable example here is that you are no longer able to set the min # of players to start a round to less than 4. This is to prevent statspadding.
Secondly, the idle timeout mechanism is always on, and set at 300 seconds on ranked servers.
This is to prevent people idling for long swathes of time on ranked servers. Having idle kick at 5 minutes is harsh, and we will revisit the max timeout for Server R10 - however, we do not plan to allow for turning of the idle kick altogether.

If you are a server administrator that run unranked servers, notice that you should set the server to unranked by having a 'vars.ranked false' at the top of your Startup.txt. You must set it to unranked during the server startup; once the server is present on Battlelog, it can no longer be switched between ranked and unranked status. Once it is set to unranked, all other settings can be controlled. And yes, the setting for unlocking all weapons & gadgets (vars.allUnlocksUnlocked) is back.

An update (Targeted at admins.).
 

Ghostwolf67

Well-Known Member
-- Visuals, Stability and Performance Fixes:

  • We made some changes to somethings that probably didnt need it. We may have fixed stuff but honestly now you've bought our game we couldnt give two shits. You're lucky it worked in the first place at all.
-- Balance and Gameplay Adjustments (PC)

• Fixed a problem where the mouse worked sometimes
• Added back some missing Growlers on Kharg Island Conquest Large
• Added back to the future sounds for SQDM and TDM
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position but the vehicle driver will still kill you. Get to it Tkers.
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it. Thats right we basically just added that really annoying COD perk!
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest. You should now spawn with enemies right behind you so they can knife you easier
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM you just spawn really far away from everything. You need Cardio
• Fixed a problem with revived players not suffering suppression so now its twice as annoying being brought back in a firefight
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in COOP. The flash was on
• Added joystick deadzone. Its where they go to die
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders. Beware snakes
• Fixed an issue with some weapon sounds in first person. It sounded like you were firing a bullet when you were in fact firing kittens and hugs
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns, AA guns, and Jet Cannons against birds, escpecially flamingoes.
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns against General Lee's. Take that Duke boys.
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and Jet Cannons, players under attack from these weapons should no longer lose control of their bowels
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly. Who are we kidding. It pretty much fires the apocalypse now.
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 T-Rex.
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons. Pistols now fire further than rifles.
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R. If you like the PP2000 you get nothing because you suck.
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range. Yeah we thought it was for long range at first. Our bad.
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles. Surely a guns minimum range is the end of the barrel?
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons. Some other guns needed it but we've given up trying to balance stuff now. Go peer pressure.
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft. Oh boy did you also makes flares deploy twice as fast as well?
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds. You are actually shot with a bronco.
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against Helicopters. We were watching apocalypse now when we wrote the patch.
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells. Before you were firing inferior russian ones.
UI Changes (UI)

• You should now get a more persistent error message when being disconnected via Battlelog. Like say every few hours.
 

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
<Grr, blank post, I hate thee>

Shorter version:

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/25413462/Battlefield-3/Product.html?P36=WBQDYH&affid=lewiep&awc=buyat&_$ja=tsid:11516|prd:lewiep

BF3 for £17.99 courtesy of SavyGamer.

Worth a look or actually dead?
 

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
I am still playing it with a few guys, and we do actually still have a THN server atm, though no-one's actually using it currently.

Plus the game IS frickin sweet.
 

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Well I'm a flash git so I make sure that that is not a problem by having some very up to date hardware (hello AMD 7970...) so I'm probably not the best person to answer that question to be honest...
 

Luster

Member
i wish i had more time to play the game, but sw:tor happened :/
and ofc SC2 is chewing on my game time too...
 

Tempscire

Active Member
Grr, blank post. I was saying I run it on medium with a Q6600 at stock speeds, 4GB of DDR 2 and an ATI 4850 without any problems.
 

Ghostwolf67

Well-Known Member
Worth a look or actually dead?

This game is totally, totally, TOTALLY dependant on who you play with. In Totality. Good group of mates, a dependable server and a nice team balance and this game is your best friend. Start straying from that scenario in any direction and this game becomes an exercise in 'how long can i go without imagining throwing my pc out of a window...'
 

Tempscire

Active Member
And is it worth it, in your opinion?

I agree with Ghostwolf to an extent. I do still feel you could probably have a blast on a random server without a group of people you play with regularly so long as people aren't dicking around but that really goes without saying for any game.
 

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for the thoughts. I've decided that £18 isn't too much to spend on something that has a shot at being good. That said, I've no intention of turning this into a £200 game by replacing my graphics card to do DX11 stuff; no need for that power elsewhere it seems, so I can wait and those cards will come down in price nicely.
 

Spicypixel

New Member
Realistically the correct answer is, if you ever intend to go to the iseries in the next 12 months it's probably one of the de facto games.
 

Ghostwolf67

Well-Known Member
I played for 4 hours in bf3 with ronin two days ago and had a real blast. With no problems either, this was after the recent patch also. I load it up today and now everytime I die I dont go to spawn screen I just get kicked from the server. Every server.

I'd like to think this is EA's evil way of telling me i die too much and trying to limit my suicidal game tactics but i know them too well and realise its just origin or battlelog or something they've made that works one day and then wont the next for no real reason.

I updated punkbuster because its the usual culprit of this sort of fuckupery. Still happening. Not entirely sure whats changed in the interveneing time period between then and now but was wondering if anyone experiencing much of the same?
 

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
There was a patch midweek that screwed a LOT of things up to do with punkbuster, but they seemed to have fixed it...
 
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