Blackhats Clan

ea/dice

The PC Battlefield 3 update is now live. It includes a smattering of fixes, tweaks, and additions. Read on for the full details.

Today, we rolled out the big Spring game update for Battlefield 3 on PC! The focus of this massive package is to make the game more stable, fairer, and more balanced. You can find a comprehensive change list in this earlier post. The ~1.6GB update is available now. Below are some of the highlights.

New and improved commo rose

This update sees a number of improvements to the commo rose on PC, partially based on feedback from the community. Some of the tweaks we have made are detailed below:

New global call-outs
We have added a number of new commo rose call-outs that you can make to the entire team whenever you want. Where you previously had to look at a Support player to get the option to request ammo, you can now use the commo rose at any time to request ammo, health, or repairs. Using these requests will trigger appropriate icons on the minimap.

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We’ve been hard at work collecting and working on your feedback and suggestions, and are now happy to report that the next patch for Battlefield 3 will be released for PlayStation 3 on the 27th of March. More information on Xbox 360 and PC will come soon.

This patch includes many gameplay tweaks and balances; several suggested by you. The full list of changes and updates is as follows. This update will also bring the “Rent a Server” functionality to Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. For more updated information on this functionality, check back next week.

FIXES FOR PC SERVER OPERATION
- Having the same map occur multiple times in the maplist now works properly
- If adding a new map to the servers maplist after a clear and then running “mapList.runNextRound” the server will ignore any remaining rounds on the map that it still run since before the clear and move to the new first map in the list. The server will now have reset the current rounds per map and run the map in the list for the number of rounds stated when adding the map.
- Maplist can contain up to 1000 entries now
- mapList.list will return at most 100 entries. To get the entire list, perform mapList.list repeatedly with increasing offsets (like banList.list)

Good news, everyone! According to DICE (via Twitter), the new Battlefield 3 patch is currently in certification at Microsoft and Sony, which means the patch is complete and only awaits the go-ahead from the console makers. Of course, the PC patch could be released earlier, but DICE likes to update all three platforms at the same time.

Last time a patch was in the certification stage, we saw it released approximately one week later, which means — fingers crossed — we could see the new Battlefield 3 patch released next week.

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In June, take the battle indoors with our new themed expansion pack Battlefield 3: Close Quarters! This will be followed by all-out vehicle warfare in Battlefield 3: Armored Kill, featuring the biggest map in Battlefield history. Read on for the very first details about these upcoming expansion packs and more.

We are happy to announce the first details on our June expansion pack Battlefield 3: Close Quarters. As the battlefield moves indoors, we will drop you into frantic and relentless infantry combat where the tight level design and vertical gameplay creates a highly competitive environment.

By introducing high definition destruction, everything from furniture to plaster can be shot to pieces, and rubble and broken pieces will pile up on the floor as the battle rages on. Like all of our themed expansion packs, this is much more than just new maps, as we also include new weapons, Assignments, and dog tags to bring back to the base game — much in the same way as we did for Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand.

bf3blog

This should come as no surprise: DICE has trolled teased us Battlefield fans once again with a brief mention on Twitter. This time, it’s DICE gameplay designer Johan Andersson who Tweets

“I have a “slight feeling” next week will be a very, very… shall we say, rewarding, week?  

Coincidentally, next week is the Game Developers Conference, where a few DICE staffers will be present. Last year, DICE used GDC to talk about the Frostbite engine and we got some of the first peeks at Battlefield 3.

What will be announced/revealed is up in the air, as usual when it comes to DICE. Expect a few more vague “teasers” on Twitter before something is finally unveiled. New DLC? New Battlefield game? A new community manager? Who knows…

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We are happy to present the brand new “Inside DICE” series! This is where all of our fans will get candid and personal reflections directly from the people working with Battlefield 3™ and our expansion packs and updates. First out is DICE General Manager Karl Magnus Troedsson, revealing his thoughts on community transparency and on returning to GDC one year after the big Battlefield 3 presentation.

I’m very excited to open up our new “Inside DICE” section. Engaging in direct dialogue with our fans has been on my agenda for a while, and we will do that partly via the new blog series that you are now reading.

When it comes to upcoming game updates, tweaks, fixes, and new features, this is where the producers, programmers, and designers personally will tell you what they are doing, why they are doing it, and when you can expect to see their changes in the game. More than just information on dates and a change list, you will also get to meet the people behind the keyboards actually making it happen, how they go about designing these changes, what obstacles they stumble across, and how many semlor they had for fika. Besides keeping you better informed on upcoming updates, we hope this blog series will give you an insight into game development and post-launch game support itself, as well as into Swedish culture working at DICE, and working as a community manager.

Going Back to San Fran
So what’s on my mind right now? Well, I’m super psyched about putting the final pieces together for an exciting presentation we’re taking to GDC in San Francisco. For any fan, GDC will bring some very exciting news about the future of Battlefield 3.

Presenting Battlefield 3 at E3 2011, seconds before Patrick Bach plays the "Thunder Run" mission. Fond memories.

I love doing live presentations, but it’s also somewhat nerve-wracking at times. I’m up there on stage, representing the team at DICE and all their hard work. They spend blood, sweat and tears making our games, and that’s why I always strive for rock solid presentations. But sometimes I stumble on the language. English is my second language, and this can make for some interesting hiccups on stage. Like at E3 last year when I apparently coined a new meme. In Sweden we don’t say “fingers crossed” but rather we “hold our thumbs” to express the same wish. What came out on stage became the now famous “thumbs crossed”, which my colleagues at DICE refuse to let me forget. :) Anyway, I hope to see some of you in San Francisco, and you will definitely be able to read about the latest announcements after GDC.

I’ve also been swamped with other exciting work lately, which is the reason I’ve been pretty quiet on the Twitter front. I’ve worked hard with the DICE management team to plan the long term goals of DICE as a studio and our upcoming games, and I feel very good about where we are and where we are headed. We have so many great ideas for where to take DICE and Battlefield™ in the future! But that’s for another blog post another time.

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Hello everyone!
We would like to share some of the confirmed fixes and tweaks that we have been working on to the Community. Note that this is still not a full update list and there will be more information on this as we go forward. Also please remember that the content in this list might be changed but of course, we will also keep you in the loop about this. While there still is no ETA on the patch, we´re still working on improving online gameplay for all of our dear community members. So far, this list is for all three platforms (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC)

mp1st

dualshockers

It seems the folks at Battlefieldo, one of the larger Battlefield 3 communities, have had enough of what they say is neglect and a lack of information regarding game updates and patches from Electronic Arts. In order to voice their disapproval of the publisher’s practices, the community, in a post by community manager Cory “Pr3sident” Niblett, has decided to go silent for a full 24 hours starting March 2.

The official thread at Battlefieldo says the plan is for there to be no interaction with the game by the community during that day. No logging on to play, tweeting about Battlefield or posting on the site. The protest is described as “silence fed right back into the mouths of those who have chosen to give us the very same silence.”

And what do the folks in the community want, exactly?

“We want the EA community management to give back control to DICE Community Management, more transparency in the way that the game developer communicates with the community,” Niblett said in an interview with DualShockers.

He also says the folks at DICE aren’t allowed to speak freely with members of the game community. It’s tough to open the lines of communication through EA, he says.