^I don't get it, are you disappointed by my link? Also, unozero, by Day & Night do you mean maps that are either day or night, or are you saying the game will have day-night cycles in it?
There is only so much information that they can fit on an xbox DVD, so if they fill 2/3 up with single player junk its not going to leave a hell'a a lot of space for multi player. It would be nice to have more maps and larger maps then we saw in BC2. Also, I wonder what game modes they are going to go with. Will we be seeing more rush? Does rush really need bigger maps? Will it be more old skool?
What I am happy about is the fact that the maps(on the PC version anyway) dynamically alter the "borders" to the player count. You probably know how in BF2 each of the maps that it released with had a 16p, 32p and 64p version? Well in BF3 there's just one map, but the borders are altered by the player count changing during gameplay, so if you have a server with a 64p limit, but only have 16 players online, it uses 16p borders, but if a few more people join the borders are in real-time expanded to adjust to the higher player count. I know this is quite old info, but I am just really excited for it.
How would that even work? I'm not doubting it, just can't quite picture how it'd figure into the flow of gameplay.
Frostbite 2 Engine video. Shows nothing of destruction but the lighting is looking pretty good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foXVF7q035Y
I don't recall them ever saying that the borders would change dynamically in-game, and I followed BF2 from its announcement. All they ever said was that each "map" in BF2 would have three different versions, a 16p, a 32p and finally a 64p version, and they did.
I think that the 16 player map would revolve around the central 1 or 2 flags (thinking Conquest here), spawning at the next furthest "flags" which would currently be the team spawn points. Once the game breaches 16 players, the spawn points are converted to flags and the next furthest flags become spawn points. i.e. in a 5-flag Conquest map, the flag layout for 16p is red/c/blue, 32p is red/b/c/d/blue, and 64p is red/a/b/c/d/e/blue (red and blue being team spawns).
So the entire map would still be playable, without borders? I don't see how they could make borders actually work, because if it drops down to 16 from 32, it would have to jarringly shove everyone outside the new borders closer in. It could just let people outside stay outside until they get back in, but then it allows them to camp outside where nobody can go to get them. Also, having the flags change would be incredibly obnoxious I think.
That sounds about right Stig. To be honest though that sounds disorienting at best. I'm not sure if I would prefer dynamic map borders over simply having 32 and 64 player versions like BF2. I peed a little reading this post.
You know that Deferred rendering: Dynamic lighting video showing the space ship shooting lasers? Did you notice that the lasers gave a tracer glow effect on the larger space ship underneath? Well those are in BF3: http://twitter.com/Demize99/status/33998623788244992 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPpN1aDiv28 Every so often they put in a tracer round in large magazines so you can see where your gun fire is going at night. General purpose tape, AKA Duck Tape is a confirmed feature in BF3 guys!!!!!
Complex mod tools plus documentation is better than dumbed-down mod tools, which is FAR better than no mod tools at all. +1 vote for mod tools
Too complex my ass. Release the developer tools without documentation if you must. I mean seriously it's insulting to hear that modders can't handle the complexity of their engine when you consider the fact that mod developers are responsible for some of the most popular games of all time (Team Fortress and Counterstrike come to mind). Also, I'd give my left arm for the opportunity to play with the Frostbite engine. My girlfriend needs some web design / management experience so we're starting a BF3 news site. The purpose is basically just to gather and deliver all BF3 news, info, images and video in one place with a pretty, simple layout. Once I get it out the door I'll link you all to it. It'll be at BF3Source.com / .net. If anyone wants to help with news posting etc let me know. There probably won't be forums, at least definitely not to begin with. If traffic gets high it's a possibility.
everything sounds great except the lack of mod tools but I don't really mind as long as the game ships with plenty of maps and they continue to support it for a long time plus maybe they'll release it once they know everything is working the way it should (new engine and all) still, reading all this new info makes me very hopeful can't wait to see it in action!!
Sounds kind of reasonable, the biggest concern would be when and how it transitions from one map size to the next. Some kind of soft limit on how many players you need for it to switch would help. Example: don't switch to the 32p version until, say, 36 players join, then have it gradually transition back once (if) that number sinks back below 32. The other big thing would be how captured points translate when the map shrinks, but there's not much point obsessing over that while we're still throwing around hypothetical numbers. Anyway, still seems weird to me, but I'd be interested if they managed to nail it and keep everything balanced. An earthquake, you say? Calling it: it's going to be another superweapon plot, this time the TERRISTS done got their hands on an earthquake bomb. Anyway, the biggest change I'm waiting for from BC2 is a more lenient levelling curve with less essential equipment up the line. That or, you know, no levelling at all (haha).
unozero, you know there's three more images, right? Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler I got in trouble for scans
I might be in the minority for this, but I'm hoping for an expanded Hardcore mode. I'd like to see a mode where you can only change your class once per game (but your equipment infinitely). Or even, ideally, giving you a levelled character of each class, and you pick one class from your class roster each game in a loading-screen lobby where you can see the class selection of your teammates and squadmates. You level your way through equipment for each one, earning double the points of the regular game mode... so I guess this would have to be expanded to the regular game as well. Which would still be pretty cool, I think. In fact, they might be working on something like this, though not so elaborate, since they mention soldier customisation being a somewhat prominent game element.
It'll probably be persistent customization since people love that shit. Even if they're one tiny man among 64.
Its good to read they are primarily building it for pc then porting to consoles. Now that does make me wet!
I have to say I like what I've been hearing. No dolphin diving is fine with me, I always thought that was a seriously immersion breaking aspect of 1942/BF2. I have to say here, I absolutely LOVE the HD dynamic audio they use in BC2 and (presumably even better in) BF3. Wearing headphones at a decent volume allows for a more immersive experience than I've ever had in a FPS before.
Well, then I have to say that I don't like what I've been hearing. The singleplayer and co-op will be shit if Bad Company is anything to go by, which means wasted resources for the MP aspect, which means less maps than we could have got. No mod tools for a bullshit reason means they're going to monetize the **** out of maps and stupid ****ing weapons. The lack of mods cuts the value of the game nearly in half, in my eyes. The day one "expansion" is bullshit for obvious reasons. Everything else sounds like standard shit to me. The sound thing has been done before, so im not particularly impressed. Improved animations, destructible environment, radiosity lighting, all of it is just nothing more than what should be expected from games as we move forward with the technologies, and we've seen it all coming a mile away, and have seen it all in other games already. Until they start talking about meaningful aspects of the game, I'm going to have to say I'm quite disappointed. All we've heard so far are just standard advances outweighed by major steps backwards.
Yeah, I'm not particularly impressed so far either. Definitely looks the part, but like most I couldn't give two shits about a single player campaign in a Battlefield game. No mod tools, no commander, four classes, killcams, regenerative health (apparently?) and even more unlockable shit than BC2. No doubt it'll be a good game in the end, but I can't help but feel a bit pessimistic with that Demize99 clown apparently in charge once again. Funny to see him shitting on modding considering that's how he got his job.
I'm excited but nostalgia is the cause of 90% of it. BF2 multiplayer is my personal pinnacle of online gaming. I can only hope for something somewhat near that experience.
I made the mistake of reinstalling BF2 at the weekend. Got repeatedly bombed to shit on Dalian Plant and then utterly destroyed as it endlessly rained grenades at Karkand. Felt like I was firing blanks the entire time as I struggled to hit anyone with any weapon. Ragequit. MY MEMORIES ;(
I don't care about the singleplayer, although I suppose the coop campaign could be worthwhile. I agree that I'd rather the resources be devoted to multiplayer, but I can't fault them for adding a proper singleplayer mode and furthermore they have the resources to do both well. I do have a serious problem with the lack of mod tools though. I don't need a kiddie friendly level designer like in Crysis, I need the real tools (like Hammer or UnrealEd). It wouldn't take them all that much additional effort to package the editors used by the developers into the release and write a few pages of basic documentation on model formats and engine functions and specifications and whatnot so people could at least make maps. Even if they wanted to do it "right" like the Unreal editor / sdk where it would take them a bit more effort to get together the documentation and everything, I see absolutely no reason why that effort could possibly be considered wasted, or put to better use. Mods like Desert Combat and Project Reality are a huge part of why the BF series is so well-loved by PC gamers. Plus, there would inevitably be a mod that faithfully recreates Battlefield 2 on the glorious Frostbite 2 engine. That would be epic.
cant be bothered to search 11 pages to see if this was already posted: Frostbite 2 engine vid: http://video.golem.de/games/4352/frostbite-2-engine-real-time-radiosity-siggraph-2010.html