Month: May 2012

The point Rynn is making is entirely valid. BF3 is NOTHING like BF1942.

Powerslave118 writes here

I agree 1942 is nothing like BF3, or BF2 or BFv or 2142. 1942 was populated by casuals from the other hardercore FPS that were popular at the time. I don’t know anyone remotely good that left the games I was playing to join 1942. And besides trying it breifly I do not blame them! 😛

This was good in a number of ways.

Firstly the type of gamers that left their previous games to play 1942 were the type that would sit down and have warm fuzzies about things such as not base raping, not camping on the crane/roof in TDM, not repeatedly spawn killing people.. and so on. Many of these players were not hardcore in their previous FPS and 1942 could probably be considered their “cherry popper” for high play time. I find people talking about their original game tend to overlook its problems.

Secondly it created an atmosphere of not super competitiveness. The players that left were not the reet (to use a phrase from the period) crowd and did not bring massive egos and dickheadishness that went along with it. They may have been competitive and had awesome close games, but they would not have been the total dicks that inhabited the upper mid to lower upper player tiers in other FPS. Sidenote: Most of the best players I knew from back then were good guys, the almost there crowd were the worst.

I remember a conversation with a guy from ozf. He was asking me my opinon (from me playing UT) about tanks, or something. This guy was really casual in UT, yet he was asking what I thought (as a decent player.. in another game) about how tanks should engage each other. Competitve spirit. Check. Decent, not stupid playerbase, check.

Thirdly it was new, fresh and different to the other FPS of the time. This allowed players to overlook glaringly obvious flaws that would otherwise detract from the game.

So yes, this has been a tradition, nay a prerequsite of BF games since the original. However the developers have never implemeted things like spawn protection or any of the other no brainer mechanics that would cut back on some of the glaring problems the series has suffered from. At least in some players eyes.

Also BF1942 was an unballanced terribad game.

I don’t think map size or vehicle loadout is the culprit here. The biggest problem is the community today. The gametype has never really worked, at least not the way people seem to think. It was babied in by non-hardcore players and cultivated by the skill and strategy of these players that did not involve spawn rape. The problem is the game is massively casual and this is really the first implementation where more hardcore people are playing.

More Battlefield 3 posts

The DAO-12 is the current baby of the TDM/metro/shotgun crowd. Since the drastic nerf of the USAS in the last patch the DAO-12 has

been the goto for those wanting close in stopping power with higher ROF than the 870MCS shotgun.

Higher rate of fire is desirable due to the current problems of hit registration on shotguns at close range. Prior to the patch I was liking the 870, but now its slow ROF makes it unreliable because hits may not register in close. While the DAO and other semi auto shotguns are also effected by the bug, their higher rate of fire allows them to still be useful – spam it, if the first shot does nothing the second one should – fingers crossed. In addition suppresion causes all sorts of randomness with shotguns that rate of fire goes a long way to making up for.

Thanks for the shotgun history lesson, but what attachments should I use on the DAO

This should be easy – without extended magazine the DAO12 runs 8 cartridges. 8 is not terribly bad compared to other shotguns, for instance the M1014 which starts with 4 rounds and is also semi-auto. However combined with a hellishly slow reload it means most players will opt for extended mags. This seems to be typical route for attachment progression with shotguns.

1. Obtain extended magazine.
2. Equip extended magazine.
3. Never change attachment.

Note: Reloading cannot be interrupted by aiming down sights, I have died several times waiting ADS to break the reload animation. Firing will break it so do that instead.

At the intended use range, 0-20m (or less) eight rounds are sufficent for dropping 2-3 enemy players. Even for players with bad aim this is plenty of leeway, if you are incapable of dropping two players with eight shots an extra four are not going to help out overly much.

So the first attachment you will probably take is extended magazine, we will come back and discuss this later.

What ammo type should I pick for the DAO-12 Shotguns?

The second selection you receive is the ammo type. The default 12G buckshot rounds are good and individually deal the most damage, you could roll with these for you entire career if you wanted to as they are great. If you have the physical warfare pack (what is this, I have it, no idea where I got it) you also start with the 12 Gauge Flechette rounds. Not sure if you can unlock these without the physical warfare pack. These rounds are packed with what equate to nails. They deal slightly less damage than 12G buck but have the benefit of additional penetration. Originally I was trying to shoot players through walls with zero luck. In Battlefirsld 3 penetration refers to penetrating other players, sounds dirty hey.

flé·chette: a small, dartlike metal projectile used as shrapnel in antipersonnel bombs and shells.

With 12G flechette rounds you will hit both players if they line up behind each other. The intended use of the shotguns is generally up close and personal and it may seem that players do not line up often, but once you roll with shotguns in nosehair TDM shipping containers you will see just now often it does occur! The other benefit of penetration, even if you do not damage the second player much, is suppression.

12G Frag rounds are unlocked at 50 kills and are really nothing to write home about. They perform ok and are sort of fun to splash players around corners – hit markers, theres a guy there! But beyond this they do not have the stopping power of buck or flechette rounds.

The last choice is slugs, which I don’t rate for semi-auto shotguns because of the recoil, spread and the fact that the other rounds work so much better.

The choice between buck and flechette is up to the user.

Will you be using it where players may double up from time to time?
Will you be seeing individual players frequently and no multiples?
Will you even care that you don’t hit the second player, preferring to drop the first player faster?

All these questions can only be answered by you, and the gametype + map + player size are all factors here.

On Noshahr Canals TDM I would pick flechette as players often line up between the shipping containers in mid. 24-32player TDM on Noshahr is probably the best way to grind unlocks, especially as reson. Run into the containers, setup TUGS, watch the minimap and profit. Pre aim the edges of containers after using the minimap.

On Caspain 64p I would pick buck when spawning to attack hilltop.

On firestorm I would not take a shotgun in many situations as there is not a great deal of close range fighting. The only time may be if I am trying to act as the spawn point for my squad and want to make sure I don’t die. In this situation hiding and staying alive is important. Single players will probably find me and so taking 12G buck makes sense.

And so on. These choices apply to all the semi-auto shotguns, Saiga 12K, M1014, Jackhammer and the USAS-12. The MCS870 is slightly different because of its high damage per shot and lower rate of fire. Apparently the MCS870 with slugs is single shot kills to upper chest/head since the big patch.

Ok back up a bit, you seemed to imply that an attachment different to extended magazine might be ok?

The DAO-12 defaults to 8 shells. This is enough to drop many players at the intended range. If you are managing to kill more than 2-3 players in an encounter you are some sort of BF3 god and should probably stick to the not-nub assault rifles and carbines.

The laser sight, unlocked at 70 kills seems like an odd choice for a shotgun. However it offers a little-known benefit; it reduces the size of the fire cone for each shell.

Sidebar: ADS also reduces the fire cone and shotguns do not gain spread when aiming down sights and moving, unlike assault rifles.

Why would you take a laser sight on a shotgun? Because pellets from each shot are grouped tighter giving you a longer effective range. If this stacks with the ADS cone reduction then you are sitting on top of a virtual.. something. Shotgun for sniping? To 30m?

Laser sight gives your one shot kill range an increase and overall effective range an increase.

So thats it? Laser sight is the only other attachment option? Kind of disapointed.

No way! Given the intended close in use of shotguns and the somewhat large basic magazine of the DAO-12, a flashlight is a worthwhile investment. Blind those suckers, cause rage and basically own some suckers.

What about DAO-12 sights

Because this is a close in weapon the only options are iron sights – RDS – Holo.

More about sights explains why I would take irons or RDS every time over holo, even more so for shotguns.

More Battlefield 3 posts

Where to start. Not with sights, that would be too simple.

In my mind the most important thing in FPS is situational awareness. In Battlefield this is visual – the world view and your mini map, then audio. Bf3 is severely lacking in the audio department compared to most FPS so you have to lean on the visual more. I dislike this but I can understand why Dice have done it – simply more toning down of the genre to a generic mush that anyone can get some kills in. FPS development, or degradation, depending on how you look at it is in line with other more serious issues like schooling and upbrining of children to all be “winners”. Maybe a topic for another post.

Back to situational awareness. Since a large part of Battlefield 3 is visual having an open view, even when aiming down your sights is beneficial. Because of this it is a good idea to run iron sights if at all possible; they block the least view. I do not use all the guns – I see no need, they are all close enough to each other to not need to use everything. Also try using a higher FOV,instructions are at the end of this post.

Assault
AEK-971 – Iron sights. They are my favorite in the game.
M16 – put a scope on it. The aperture rear sight blocks too much close-in view for my taste.
M416 – Either is nice. This was the first gun I used and stuck with it on iron sights for a long time, however the center part is quite fat and can make aiming at distance difficult.

Engineer
M4A1 – Like the M16 a scope is better, the rear sight is annoying.
SCAR-H – Irons. This is one of the only guns I think benefits from a magnification scope – I like to run acog on it.

Recon
SKS – I use both, irons have a rear ring but it is nowhere near as annoying as the M16. While I play aggressive recon I tend to be slightly less aggressive with  the SKS which influences my choice here.
SV98 – Having not played recon very much and initially liking the iron sights, I am glad I tried an attachment*. I highly recommend the Kobra.

Non-Class Specific
AS VAL – Iron sights. They rock, second only to the AEK
I hipfire the PDW-R and P90 and put an ACOG on them for longer range.. somewhat usefulness. Funny thing, the ACOG is so large on these it becomes irritating when hip firing.
Shotguns: The MCS870 has very very open iron sights but I find they are difficult to aim so use an attachment. For the auto shotguns I  just hip fire if I feel like being a total ass and using them – DAO 12 was good for grinding recon on nosehair TDM.

Here are some images to illustrate the various sights.

The very first thing to note is that iron sights, at least the good ones, do not obscure the view around the pointy end of your weapon; giving you a clear view of everything in the general aiming area. Seeing enemies allows you to react to them even if you are putting fire on another target at the time.

The second thing, and possibly the most important thing to note is that iron sights and the red dot sights give you a larger field of view when aiming down the sights. This is the primary reason to pick either the US red dot or the RU Kobra attachments when running a red dot or holographic setup. You can see more and react to more with more FOV.

So to recap:
Ironsights > Red dot sights > Holo sights.

How to pick between the US RDS and the Kobra? That is easy. The housing is much larger and obscures more view on the US RDS (fig 6), because of this the Kobra walks away as the best red dot / holo sight in Battlefield 3. In the fig 6 example 1 the housing is obscuring the door to the right of where the player is aiming. In the second example it is obscuring the arch where a player could walk. The Kobra also obscures your view in the same way, but because its housing is much less bulky the negative effect is less.

* Prior to using the SV98 I found that iron sights were acceptable. The largest boon a rifle offers is the ability to easily dispatch those pesky hill camping snipers who do not move. However at longer range, 1-300m, the iron sights become difficult to use because the small size of the target, combined with bullet drop means that the target is behind your front sight. Engineer and assault weapons are ok to this range and can make up for this problem simply by being able to shoot more bullets – it is easy to put enough fire on a target even if all the bullets don’t hit. This was also the case with the SKS.  Obviously you can just shoot and it works reasonably well but I prefer to use the Kobra RDS. The reason the Kobra is better than the other RDS and holo sights is the aiming area. Instead of placing a dot on your target you place a gap on it. This is good, in addition to the other reasons to use the sight. Why is it good to place a gap instead of a dot? Because it does not obscure what you are aiming at! See the image below for a close up illustration.

More Battlefield 3 posts