January 25, 2012
Note: I am talking about the PS3 version of the game below. It may or may not be different on the PC or Xbox 360, but I don’t have either those to compare against.
Over the past month or so, I have been having some incredibly frustrating issues with Battlefield 3 that only seem to be getting worse as times goes on.
Matchmaking
Quick Match matchmaking seems to have have become significantly worse since early-to-mid-December, even though my server filter hasn’t changed (only US West Coast is checked in the server browser and from what I’ve read, Quick Match should honor the settings there).
I am constantly put into games where the opposing team holds all of the objectives and the team I get put on is losing by 100 or more spawn tickets. Not only is this incredibly frustrating, it’s absolutely pointless because it’s pretty much a guaranteed loss.
Note to self: Try joining matches from within the server browser and see if that’s any better.
Hit detection
You’d think blasting an enemy in the face 4 or 5 times with a shotgun from a few feet away would drop them like a sack of potatoes, but apparently not. This scenario happens a lot:
Enemy: Standing in a room not moving, occasionally looking out a window.
Me: Enters room and unloads 4 or 5 buckshot rounds into enemy.1
Enemy: Turns and pistols me to death with two shots.
Post-death screen: Enemy still has >70% health (occasionally 100%).
I’m not sure how that’s even possible, but it happens all the time and makes me want to smash the game disc into a thousand little pieces with a hammer.
Lag
This goes hand-in-hand with the matchmaking and hit detection issues, and mostly happens when people from Europe, Australia, or New Zealand are in the matches I get put into. I’m not sure why joining non-local(ish) region matches is even an option because it seems to do nothing but degrade the gameplay.
Various bugs
Using the MG36 is impossible. If I choose that weapon, when I spawn my arms are 4 feet long and the gun is held over my head2. No scope, no crosshairs, no nothing. It’s useless.
Getting stuck on seemingly nothing. Occasionally I’ll be running and will just stop. I can jump, but can’t seem to scale whatever the game thinks I’m stuck on (there’s usually nothing there as far as I can tell).
Getting stuck climbing over obstacles or climbing into or out of windows. This seems to happen ALL THE TIME.
And the point is?
My hope is that DICE is working on fixing these problems and, if not, they’ll at least be made aware of them. Also, if anyone has any suggestions for workarounds or fixes that I haven’t tried or don’t know about, please let me know.
December 30, 2011
I decided to write this post after a few frustrating days of playing
with “Christmas Noobs”. It’s long, but if you’re new to the game, please
read the whole thing—it will go a long way towards making you a better
teammate.
Welcome!
So you just got a copy of Battlefield 3 for Christmas. Awesome!
It’s a spectacular game, and you’ll love it, but here are some
multiplayer tips so you don’t drive those of us who’ve been playing
since the beginning crazy.
Choose the right class for the map and game mode1
If you’re playing Conquest on a relatively close-quarters map like
Operation Métro, you probably shouldn’t be trying to use a sniper rifle.
If you insist on playing the Recon class, that’s totally fine, but use a
shotgun or a submachine gun (UMP45, PP-2000, etc.) instead.
If you’re playing Squad Rush and are on the attacking team, please don’t
sit in the hills with a sniper rifle. It does no good whatsoever and
will only end up frustrating your non-sniping teammates. I was in a game
the other day where all three of my squadmates (all under the rank of
10) were sitting back sniping and I was the only person trying to set
the charge on the objective. It was easily one of the worst and most
pointless experiences I’ve had playing the game.
If you’re on a map with a bunch of vehicles, consider playing as the
Engineer or Support class (with C4 equipped).
There are plenty of other examples, but I think you get the point.
Also, it may seem like I’m ragging on snipers—I’m not. Snipers can be
extremely useful in the right situations—for example, when playing Rush
on the defending team on a large map. Most of the time, however, there’s
a better class choice for the map or mode you’re playing.
Use your class’ items
If you’re playing the Assault class, throw medkits and revive your
teammates2.
If you’re playing Engineer, place mines or repair your team’s vehicles
when they need it. Also, you have a rocket launcher—don’t be afraid to
use it.
If you’re playing the Support class, place claymores and, most of all,
THROW AMMO PACKS. It’s incredibly frustrating to run out of ammo and
have Support guys all around but none of them have thrown any ammo for
their teammates.
If you’re playing Recon and sniping, well… find a bush or something to
sit in. If you’re playing Recon and running around like a madman with a
shotgun, thank you for being useful to your team.
It’s amazing how many players don’t do these simple things to give their
team a better chance at winning.
Vehicles
Nearly every map in the game features vehicles of some kind. Often
they’re the difference between winning and losing the round. Learn to
drive them and learn to love them, but know your limits. If you’re a
terrible pilot (like I am), you’re better off jumping out of the
driver’s seat and letting someone else take control so you don’t crash
the helicopter and everyone in it directly into the ground.
See you on the battlefield!
If you’d like to play, send me an invite! You can find me on the
Playstation Network as DrCrankypants.
December 25, 2011
If you’ve visited the site over the last few days, you probably noticed
some things were a little broken. I made a change last week and,
obviously, I didn’t test well enough before pushing it live.
Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the problem until this morning so page
titles have been broken for a few days. That said, I pushed the fix out
a few minutes ago, so everything should be back to normal now.
Please let me know if you run into any issues. Also, Merry
Christmas!
December 11, 2011
After my last post I had a few people ask the question
that I knew was coming:
Why write your own thing and not just use WordPress?
There are actually a few reasons I chose to stop using WordPress and
none of them have anything to do with disliking the software or anything
like that1.
Simplicity. WordPress has far more features than I need. By writing
my own software, I get the exact feature set I want and can add more
features later if I need/want to.
Portability. I didn’t want to deal with a database. All of my posts
are plain text files written in Markdown that are stored in a folder on
Dropbox. And since the site is built in static HTML, I can host it
anywhere with no need for a database.
I got to write some spiffy software and learn a few things.
So there you have it. Nothing nefarious, no hatred… I just wanted to
simplify and try something new.
December 9, 2011
Earlier this year after I read Brent Simmons’ plea for baked
blogs, I planned on writing my own static blog engine. Due to
a lack of time—among other things—it just never happened, so I stuck
with WordPress. Then, couple of months ago, I still had the static
blog itch so I switched to Jekyll.
I really liked Jekyll but the big drawback to using it for me is
this—Jekyll is written in Ruby. Unfortunately, I don’t know
Ruby1 so it was really difficult and time-consuming for me to add the
features I wanted. This eventually became a deal-breaker for me.
The solution?
I spent a few nights earlier this week writing and refining my own
static blog engine that I’ve lovingly dubbed Slurm. It’s
written in PHP and, since I wrote it myself, it does exactly what I want
it to do and has all of the features I need (and if I want new features
in the future, I can easily add them).
The details
The way it works is really, really simple:
Whenever the command line slurm script is run, the code checks the
files in two directories—_posts and _pages—and then performs the
conversion from text files written with Markdown to static HTML. The
generated files are then copied into the site’s document root, along
with any static assets (stylesheets, scripts, images, etc.).
For added awesomeness, the _posts, _pages, and _drafts directories
live on Dropbox and are mounted in my hosting account’s home
directory via the Linux command line version of the Dropbox
client. That means I can write and edit posts from anywhere I can
connect to Dropbox—it doesn’t matter whether I’m using my laptop, iPad,
or iPhone, it’ll just work.
Here’s to the future
My hope is that since this is making it easier for me to write and
publish, I’ll actually do more of it. I guess we’ll see how that pans
out over the coming weeks and months.
As always, if you notice any issues, please let me know.