Issues, Answers and a little bit of a rant to help you!

[Karsten]

Reading some of the posts I wanted to respond. I figured instead of spredding little pices all over I just sum it all up and post it here. So hold on to your hat and read on.


You have PROBLEMS

• Slow game performance - the game is power-hungry RAM IS VERY IMPORTANT
  
  My Hardware is not supported - Face it... things move on for the better of the Game this had to be done.
  
  Ships are not visible - The Server you are playing on can't handle the load (is configured for to many people)
  
  Can't hit people / lag - Multiple problems
  a; Server is under-powered
  b; The person you are trying to get is on a crappy connection
  c; you are lagging
  d; all of the above.
  
  No Team play - I guess that is luck of the draw. But I have played servers that have a great team spirit and the battle is really waging.

Some ANSWERS

• Face it... the NET CODE... is not bad at all. Right now there is just to many people playing with underpowered hardware. Be it the connection the server is on, you are on or the guy you trying to shoot is on. If the Net code where bad I wouldn't have had plenty of great game nights. If you have a low ping and your game runs crappy the server is underpowered! This is and will be one of the biggest problems for a while! People that will go to LanPartys will see this most likely first hand real fast.
  
  Don't complain that your Hardware is not running it. Guess what... things have to improve and development has to move forward. I can remember the same arguments from the time when the first games came out that where 3d accelerated ONLY. What a moan and groan that was. I am glad it happened then, and I am glad this is happening now. It's for the better. If you can't afford a new 80-90$ card that can run the game I am sorry, but then go play another game.
  
  The no Team play issue will go away with the full Version, at least to some extend. Then there will be serious Servers and People that will learn really quick that you need one another. Make no mistake about it. A team that works together will absolutely slaughter the unorganized n00bs, that stand on the carrier and wait for planes. This has to be the most Team play centric Game yet. There is a LOT of things we have not seen yet work together.

MY LITTLE FACT SHEET



Planes are highly over rated.

If I sit in a Flak and you in a plane you better know what you are doing (approch low; pull up and drop the bombs; go low very quickly again). When I played on the server yesterday that had a good game going I spend quite a bit time guarding the north side (Allied) of the Island. I used the Flak extensively and with devastating results. If you where lucky enough to make it over my position once you counted your blessings... I don't think any plane survived a second pass.


Artillery is highly underused.

Guess what, driving the destroyer around the island and shelling the Airfield directly is highly ineffective. It even says so in numerous Readme's. Drive it just out of sight of the island and work together with a Scout and you have a deadly combination. One that will give the Allies a real headache and make you a prime target.
Same goes for the Allied side of Artillery. I have yet to see the shore gun at the Airfield between the island used in the beginning. Yet it is one of the more powerful guns and is perfect for defending the rush up the middle by a landing craft to take the Airfield.


Ships are worth defending.

Please... please play as Engineer every now and then and bother to fix the ship and man the Anti-Aircraft Guns. Why stand on the Carrier and wait for a plane when you watch for the 7th time how an Allied plane is making his bombing run. Guess what, the carrier goes down you will not man a plane PERIOD.


Mines are not used enough.

One of the most underutilized tools has to be the mines and explosive charges. Partly because people are too under organized and to many n00bs are playing. But also partly because people are not reading up on what stuff does!
How easy it is to prevent the "Mad Jeep Charge" by the opposing team by mining the entrance to a base. "But then my Tanks or vehicles can't get out" I hear you say?! Guess what, you can drive over your own mines... but VERY SLOWLY! I tested it and it works. Just inch yourself over them and you are fine.
Remember, if you lay them and die... they are gone as well.


The Scout is a SCOUT.

There is a reason why the Scout is called Scout and not Sniper. First and foremost he is there to spot. Again... see my point about Artillery, pity the Team that will have a crack Sniper that doesn't know that he is a Scout first!


Real Teams will Rule this Game.

For a lot of people this game will prove very frustrating very quick. Team play is a must if you have any kind of ambition and want to win. I don't think we have barley seen the tip Iceberg so far regarding what a good team can do.
Combined Arms will absolutely dominate. 4-5 Infantry, 2 Tanks, 1 Medic, 1 Engineer and a APC that all know what they are doing... pity the Team that will face a Group that knows how to repair, heal and defend the Tanks from the Grenade lobbing.


Serious Servers will have a high Re-Spawn delay.

It's simple and I said it before. This game lives for Team play. If you play on a server with a high respawn time (40-60 sec) it is simply a more tactical server that tries to foster team play. Don't moan and groan about it. Think... make use of it. With respawn times like that it makes sense not to blindly charge. It makes sense to try to stay alive and hide. It makes sense to bring/be a medic or engineer along into battle. It will make the whole combined arms concept o much more of a sticky point.


Guarding is worth while.

What we are seeing so far is a lot of Parachuting and grabbing spawn points. A team that knows how to post guards will just laugh at that tactic. Forward points need two or three guards. Backpoints at least one that is able to call for help and get it quick.


Communication is your life.

At first the communication part seems clumsy and at the most it is used to ask for a pickup right now. With people learning and playing more as a team the appropriate use of your F keys will be a must. Learn them and listen to them. If you don't listen to each other as a Team... you are not much of a team.


Training is a must.

We all been there... we all started at one point. "How do you take off"? "How does the Artillery work"?
Do yourself and the Team you are playing with favor. Take the 5-10 minutes and read some faq's and the read me file!
Start your own local Server and learn how to fly. You don't need to be in a mad scramble for a plane only to crash it. Just take 10-20 minutes and learn by yourself. You have the choice of plane and plenty of time to take off. Play with the Bomber and figure out how to hit things. Then play with the Torpedo plane (One of the hardest to master). Know this... 4-5 Torpedo's ON TARGET can sink a destroyer! 6-8 will do the trick on a carrier. And that is not using the Torpedo as a Bomb... which looks pretty and all but does next to no damage.
If you want to know how the Artillery and indirect fire works... play as Scout and use your Binocs by selecting them and then hit fire on a target. Jump in a jeep and haul to a gun. You just spotted for yourself and only need to right click while in the gun. There is your target. There is quite a bit of help out there to figure out how to use the big guns effectively.


Give your Teammates a lift.

If you ride in a jeep and you see someone hauling through open terrain offer him a ride by at least slowing down next to him. While annoying if the person doesn't take your offer, it is well made up by the people that are thankful not to have to hike to a far far away place.
Same goes for you if are on the receiving end... take the ride when you see someone slow down, or at least hit F1-F2 (Negative) to let the driver know you are fine taking a hike.


Kill score means nothing.

Face it... if someone plays as a Mechanic or Medic his score will be low. And rightfully so, it is not his job to go and try to kill stuff with the rifle. He is there to support. If you are hung up on the end splash screen that shows your score you better of going back to CS. Give your support team some love, without them you'd be nothing! To bad nobody has come up with some score that shows the effort by these workers of good will! Thanks guys!

I hope this helps a bit. Post your comments or your criticsm. I am open for all.

Karsten (AKA Black Thunder)



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Since I talked about some things you can learn. I post two of the most helpfull posts here. Thanks to the guys for writing them up


Written by Swedish Chef

Here's a little clarification on how to direct artillery fire.
BTW, any onshore battery or ONLY the destroyer's rear guns can be used for directed artillery fire.

First, once a scout calls for artillery support and you happen to find yourself in the back turret of the destroyer's gun you'll see an icon in the shape of a rocket blink over the "health status" bar (green bar indicating the health status of the ship).

- right click mouse button (or use your alternate fire key)
- you'll see a crosshairs with a yellow indicator on the top and to the left, as well as a "tank" icon in an arrow. The crosshairs show the exact spot that is to be bombarded.
- move your mouse left or right to move the TOP yellow indicator left or right to align the arrow to point to the middle of the reticule (crosshairs).
- move the mouse up or down to move the left yellow indicator that will give you the trajectory height!
- fire a shot (press left mouse button - or primary fire key) for a test volley.
- you'll notice that if you correctly aligned the arrow to point towards the center of the crosshairs, the shells will land either short or long of the target. Now's the time to tweak the shot.
- move the mouse up or down (depending if the shells landed short or long) to zero in on the target (represented by the crosshairs). Only move the left indicator up or down VERY little because at a distance a small movement up or down will make a big difference.

There you go!!! That's directed artillery fire. Keep in mind that the back turret of the destroyer has to be in a position to be able to shoot at the target. If the destroyer is facing forward to the island and the back turret is pointing towards the open sea, there's no way to move the turret to face the island so you can't shoot at the island.

The BEST strategy is:

(1) to park the destroyer offshore, far enough so that the onshore gun batteries can't really see the boat. Park it so that the back turret faces the island. This also prevents Allies from swimming to the destroyer and sabotaging the ship.

(2) Keep the destroyer on the side of the island where your team (Axis in this case) have captured flags. Directed artillery fire will not be as effective at close range! That way you can blast any emplacement on the far end of the island without the Allies knowing where the bombardment is coming from

(3) Wear the "engineer" kit to fix the boat once in a while if an Allied plane(s) should damage your ship..

(4) Yell and bitch at anyone moving the ship. There's a tendency for ppl to get on the ship and start driving it directly to where the action is..... Many times ppl beach the ship and then it becomes quite ineffective.


Hope this helps

Chef
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Written by Creeper

About Torpedo's

I'm amazed how few people know how to use the torpedo's correctly. Here's how:

1. They are not bombs, dropping them directly on the decks of the carrier and destroyer do very little damage.

2. Don't drop them over shallow water (the water you can see the ocean floor under) The torpedo's don't have those special wooden fins like in Pearl Harbor, so they'll just hit the bottom.

3. Torpedo's have mass and momentum when you drop them so if you drop them from too high an altitude or too steep an approach, they can sink so deep before they reach their target ship, that they will pass right under it. I recommend you fly a mere 10 meters above the water surface and come in from far enough away you can line up properly. Wait till you are about 50-100 meters away from the target, flying parallel to the surface and over deep water before dropping the torpedo.

The game is so detailed I've managed have one of my torpedo's sail under the destroyer but hit the aircraft carrier.

Torpedo's do a lot of damage if they hit so you'll know you are doing it right when you sink the destroyer in only 5 or 6 hits or the Carrier in maybe 10. (Haven't gotten an exact count yet)
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Thanks Creeper!

[rexor deckard]

Nice Job....

In the spirit of things, I will add my .0001 cent.

If you are an Anti-Tank guy, do not engage armor from the front.

1. It points out your location

2. It does bad damage

Engaging from the rear does this.

1. Does not give away your location, minus being somewhere that is not visable to the driver

2. Does great damage to the point that your next shot should destroy the target

To those around the Anti-Tank guys, please provide him cover as best you can. That pistol of his is not a realiable combat option, and by the time his grenade detonates, chances are he is dead.....

[richcz3]

WOW Karsten,

Excellent job with that posting. Very practical fact sheet and tactical compilation.

I think the performance issues you describe are pretty spot on. For some people to get better performance, a small investment in hardware could go a long ways. Considering this is just a demo and not the final code.



Thanks

richcz3

[Coulter]

Some issues with your "little" fact sheet:

Originally Posted by Karsten

MY LITTLE FACT SHEET

Mines are not used enough.

One of the most underutilized tools has to be the mines and explosive charges. Partly because people are too under organized and to many n00bs are playing. But also partly because people are not reading up on what stuff does!
How easy it is to prevent the "Mad Jeep Charge" by the opposing team by mining the entrance to a base. "But then my Tanks or vehicles can't get out" I hear you say?! Guess what, you can drive over your own mines... but VERY SLOWLY! I tested it and it works. Just inch yourself over them and you are fine.
Remember, if you lay them and die... they are gone as well.

No reasons mines are rarely used is that they are ineffective. They can be easily seen (even when hidden) by using 3rd person perspective which most people use. Thus no more reason to use mines. Besides why would you want to play an engy when the Medics weapons and abilities are FAR more powerfull. Most players are getting so good at piloting they can drop a bamb on a dime and at least on the servers I am on most team have to play on foot as the enemies are constantly bombing their vehicles when they have planes wiping them out with one pass. So no need for repairing.

The Scout is a SCOUT.

There is a reason why the Scout is called Scout and not Sniper. First and foremost he is there to spot. Again... see my point about Artillery, pity the Team that will have a crack Sniper that doesn't know that he is a Scout first!

Um yeah, but there are hardly any scouts on the servers anymore. Reason most people don't play as scout's truely is because their weapons are HIGHLY inaccurate. Thus they never get the opportunity to do anything but spot. I remember day one when 99.9% of all the players played scouts, now it is next to impossible to find one on the servers (at least the private one). Again much better just to play a medic.

Real Teams will Rule this Game.

For a lot of people this game will prove very frustrating very quick. Team play is a must if you have any kind of ambition and want to win. I don't think we have barley seen the tip Iceberg so far regarding what a good team can do.
Combined Arms will absolutely dominate. 4-5 Infantry, 2 Tanks, 1 Medic, 1 Engineer and a APC that all know what they are doing... pity the Team that will face a Group that knows how to repair, heal and defend the Tanks from the Grenade lobbing.

I said the same thing about R6, RS, etc. However what is probably going to happen is all the tactical minded people are going to form their own groups. 90% of the people who join those groups are going to be kids who don't really care about teamwork. The tacticians will get tired of the munchkins and immaturity they see in the community and quit. Result is that the only people left are the run and gunners, and at least 75% of those will probably play medics. This can even be seen in the CE community. Most of them are not strategical/tactical player they are people who have a high amount of skill at playing that game solo and depend on that skill in game, not on teamwork.

Serious Servers will have a high Re-Spawn delay.

It's simple and I said it before. This game lives for Team play. If you play on a server with a high respawn time (40-60 sec) it is simply a more tactical server that tries to foster team play. Don't moan and groan about it. Think... make use of it. With respawn times like that it makes sense not to blindly charge. It makes sense to try to stay alive and hide. It makes sense to bring/be a medic or engineer along into battle. It will make the whole combined arms concept o much more of a sticky point.

I'll believe that when it happens. Just like I am sure people are going to run "intense" servers as well. Oh sure they will be ran, just not the norm, and I doubt any one server of that kind will stay around long as few people will play on them.

Guarding is worth while.

What we are seeing so far is a lot of Parachuting and grabbing spawn points. A team that knows how to post guards will just laugh at that tactic. Forward points need two or three guards. Backpoints at least one that is able to call for help and get it quick.

Incorrect. OK 16 on 16 game. Allies place a gaurd at each point, that takes out 5 guys leaving you 11, 5 guys are flying, that leaves you 6 to do other things. If they are trying to take down the enemy ships then you can figure on 2 at the Defguns. That leaves you 4 guys for defense, AA, etc. The Axis can take up their 3 planes, paratroop out over flags and take probably 2-3 right off the bat (inside of 20 secs of game start) plus re-enforcements from the sea. Japs will most likely stop the clock about 20 pnts above the allies' score. Plus any losses the allies had on the ground from flags being taken. Japs can easily surround and push forward. Sorry guarding doesn't work. best thing to do is move all the tanks to the AB immediatly when the game starts, get a man on each of the 2 defguns, a couple of scouts to spot incoming enemies so you now where they are going, and set up a defensive perimeter around the beachlanding (the most important flag next to the AB due to distance and cover) and AB. Then turn it into a war of attrition and use the allies superior defensive standing to whittle down the enemy forces.

Communication is your life.

At first the communication part seems clumsy and at the most it is used to ask for a pickup right now. With people learning and playing more as a team the appropriate use of your F keys will be a must. Learn them and listen to them. If you don't listen to each other as a Team... you are not much of a team.

Nah we'll probably just get punks saying "I need a pickup" 50,000 times and driving everyone insane.

Kill score means nothing.

Face it... if someone plays as a Mechanic or Medic his score will be low. And rightfully so, it is not his job to go and try to kill stuff with the rifle. He is there to support. If you are hung up on the end splash screen that shows your score you better of going back to CS. Give your support team some love, without them you'd be nothing! To bad nobody has come up with some score that shows the effort by these workers of good will!

Agreed, although most medics I know have the best scores on any server (kill, retreat, heal, repeat). However the point you missed is that most of the clans that DO stay around for a long amount of time and are competitive (playing in official tourneys, leagues and such) will be depending mainly on skill with weapons/vehicles and less with teamwork overall. Just two or three good players can win a match if they are good enough skill wise, and that is how most of the competitive clans will look at it. Also the fact that they don't want to have to take all that time training recruits, making sure they work well as a team, etc. Much easier to judge based solely on kill skill and not on teamplay.

I hope this helps a bit. Post your comments or your criticsm. I am open for all.

Karsten (AKA Black Thunder)

Some good points you madei n your post; however, I doubt much if any of these will be listened to, or even used by 99% of the player base. People are coming into this game from CS and the like and don't care about having to use teamwork, they just want to kill, and skill is everything to them. Just my 2 cents, but it is what I have seen with every semi-realistic shooter to ever come out.

-J

[MrMan]

Hopefully at least some of them read and take notice to it. It'd be a lot more fun to play!

[Docastillo]

Good stuff dewds...

Maybe the authors can make it into a article so we can post it in the articles sections on BF Nation...

"Tips on how to make BF worth while"

[richcz3]

Coulter

I was wondering if you could offer us any more negative insight or jaded gamer information on BF 1942. I personaly like a good counter to Karsten's positive posting. You do a great job at it amigo.

umm lemme guess...you really really r e a l l y don't like the 3rd person perspective...right
I love being an Engineer. Mines and Det packs are highly effective. Just need to play in a team or you'll get taken out trying to use that rifle.

There is plenty of team play going on since the demo was released. There is a reason why BF1942 is 2nd most played game MP on the Web. There is a very small minority that dislikes it. Cheer up m8. The full version is only weeks away and all hell will truly break lose.

richcz3

[Karsten]

I'd be happy to. Where should I send it?

[Phrenzy]

For me, as a pilot... Kill score means everything. Not a personal pride, but a duty to my team. My job as a pilot is to gain air superiority, thus killing all the enemy pilots in the sky, and cause hell on earth to the enemy team, bombing them mercilessly, wiping out tanks, APC's, approaching jeeps, grounded planes, and troops alike. If I don't have a high kill score from doing all that, my job as a pilot isn't effectively done.

[richcz3]

Phrenzy

I challenge you to a duel.

(Takes off right black glove and slaps Phrenzy twice accross the face)

Name your aerodrome and be fit to fight. :


richcz3

[Coulter]

Originally Posted by richcz3

Coulter

I was wondering if you could offer us any more negative insight or jaded gamer information on BF 1942. I personaly like a good counter to Karsten's positive posting. You do a great job at it amigo.

umm lemme guess...you really really r e a l l y don't like the 3rd person perspective...right
I love being an Engineer. Mines and Det packs are highly effective. Just need to play in a team or you'll get taken out trying to use that rifle.

There is plenty of team play going on since the demo was released. There is a reason why BF1942 is 2nd most played game MP on the Web. There is a very small minority that dislikes it. Cheer up m8. The full version is only weeks away and all hell will truly break lose.

richcz3

I'm not down, or necessarily jaded. I'm a realist, that's all. Foolish to get your hopes up when say 6mths to a year from now this community will be like CS and all the others with the l337 d00dz running everything. As for the engy use. I USED to play an engy. Then I started playing on the BF/CE community server (password protected, and it has been this way on all pswd servers I have played on unless they are newbies then I play engy and come in 1st) and found out why no one there does. The pilots there are literaly dead on with almost every bomb.

In vehicles everyone runs around in third person view. When they see mines they move to go around them. If they can't go around them they hop out of the tank/jeep/whatever and blow-up the vehicle so the enemy can't use it then go the rest of the way on foot. Try the server some time and you'll realise why engy IS next to useless on servers where the players know what they are doing.

As for the bashing the "guard" idea. It wasn't bashing, guarding is a tactically foolhardy means to try and win and will only result in faster depletion of tickets. Being ex-CCT I know this as we dealt with tactics on a daily basis. It spreads your forces too thin and in the end is futile. Better to take a strong defensive position and force their men to slam themselves against a brick wall repeatedly.

And as said before, I am cheery as heck, once I realised the inherent weaknesses of the various kits and the fact not to use them against people using team tactics because you just can't do anything contributory with them.

Like I said give the ce-bf server a shot (pass available on their forum) and you'll see what I mean. All of the players are old Codename Eagle players so they have the tactics and such of Dice's game down to a science. You'll see my point then, and it is an experience you can't get from playing any other type of player on this game. As CE is the only thing close to BF1942 in style and operation.

-J

[Marzipan]

Ok, several addendums:

Mines ARE useful, even if the other teams sees them it blocks them from running into the airfield in a jeep and 10 seconds later we don't have a spawn point, even if they don't capture, it stymies us.

PLEASE, if you see one of us laying down mines and we tell you, "MINES Nrth Airfield!!!" (especially if we repeat ourselves while taking fire to do so), please please PLEASE don't just run over them in a team jeep and make me have to lay them again. Take your time to get over them they are a strategic plus. I've seen mines make all the difference in whether north base can be gained for example.

Scouts + the center gun are an INCREDIBLE combo, once again, very useful for closing the north road to axis troops coming from north base.

AA. I can't tell ya how many times I've tried to tell folks this. It's a full 2.5 second lead at anything 100m away or more. Notice where your puffs are happening. If they aren't near the plane you aren't leading enough.

Defending the airfield. If you're gonna wait on a plane.. well honestly I don't want to be on the team that has more than 2 or 3 players standing around waiting on planes to spawn.. You _are_ aware that no planes spawn until one of your planes in the sky are down, right? You can hit 'M' and see whether you've got 3 planes up, and if you do, you're gonna be waiting a while. But regardless, if you've just GOTTA stand around waiting on a plane, at least grab an AA gun, or get on top of the bunker there, lie down and snipe. BE USEFUL.

Landing Beach. too many times I've seen Allied just not care when landing beach is taken. Landing beach, for all it's easy to shellability, hard to defend bunker etc, is the single closest spawn to the airfield. If you find yourself in a group of 6 people having just spawned at south base, running to regain the airfield, grab someone and grab landing beach. If you're on foot it makes all the difference.

As far as the fellow above arguing towards the likelihood of running and gunning. Honestly, I've been on teams, not clanned up teams, who knew how to use the communication tools and work even _sort_ of together stomp the living pOOOp out of teams of runners n gunners. It was almost BORING it was so friggin easy. I believe that the system in place now, maybe with a few more options (I'd love to be able to Alarm->Mines! and a couple of other communications), allows people who are able and willing to team play to come into a group situation and be useful _without_ having had to form a clan and practice with them on a private server over and over. I believe also that the likelihood that -some- of the gameplay in terms of shooting will tighten up with the release and mp demo patch, so folks will play scout again.

Oh, and Phrenzy, I challenge you AND that other dude. Zeros at Dawn!

[Phrenzy]

Dogfighting isn't my best skill :P My other plane skills come before it.

[Coulter]

Originally Posted by Marzipan

Ok, several addendums:

Mines ARE useful, even if the other teams sees them it blocks them from running into the airfield in a jeep and 10 seconds later we don't have a spawn point, even if they don't capture, it stymies us.

Easy solution to that. Do what everyone who knows what is going on does now. Either paratroop into the AB, or go along the beachside and hide until it goes grey. I don't know of anyone on private servers these days that rushes the flags with jeeps unless they KNOW there is no way that mines are there. They instead get in a plane and eject over a flag.

[Marzipan]

yeah, I bomb (and torp!) best, and I'm getting alot better and sticking to an enemy plane's tail, but I haven't been often able to deliver enough gun to down the other guy. Usually drives them off, keeps them occupied while AA eats um up, but only a couple of times have I landed enough lead for the boom.

[Marzipan]

Coulter, yeah, I've seen that a number of times, but I'm mostly on public servers, so I see the first behaviour more.

[Gr246]

Unfortunaly, you can play has "Rambo" and win (take the first spot). They don't care if they lost (as a team) the game, they only care if they are on first place (as individual).

And i think the medics/enginners, should be awarded for there work. (Like healing someone, fixing something, taking a mine from the ground [enemy mines, ofcourse ] and such.)

Maybe after a few patches

(BTW. where is the MP Patch )