Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Gameplay; Assault, Engineer, Recon and Support

Engineer; Vehicle Gameplay in Battlefield 3

Designed to support and destroy vehicees, the engineer class in Battlefield 3 multiplayer has the unique ability of repairing vehicles. The engineer class in BF3 has two tools to do this, a handheld repair torch and the remote control EOD Bot. As general rule players use the repair tool as it is much more reliable and always with the player. The EOD Bot is difficlt to control, can be desroyed and if not picked up when the engineer moves leaves the player missing a possible ability.

Along with repair ability the engineer class has vehicle destruction weapons. Perfect for shooting tanks, LAVs and aircraft. The RPG/SMAW is the staple explosive anti-vehicle weapon. Vehicle damage is directional, at least LAV and tank damage; getting behind your target and hitting rear armor yields much better results than shooting it in the face. RPGs can also be used for destroying buildings, either to drop masonry on enemy infantry or to take the front off buildings to allow easier access, and for killing infantry. Splash damage has been toned downsince the original Batlefield 3 release making it less effective but still decent.

The other two weapons that compete for the RPG weapon are the stinger; an anti aircraft launcher with aneffective range of 350m, and the Javelin; a lock on type weapon dealing more damage than the RPG with lower manueverabiity due to the requirement of lock for firing. The JAV can team up with recon and SOFLAM to target air vehicles and superior ground anti armor lock on.

Finally as engineer you can replace your repair torch/EOD Bot with land mines. Landmines persist through death but will probably only destroy inexperienced vehicle drivers as they are easily spotted. Either best left in a chokepoint or used agressively on trapped vehicles, mines can be handy for fast take downs but only if repairs are never needed. Mines are also handy on infantry only maps, traps can be set and detonated with grenades of RPG fire. Mines deal a great deal of damage to infantry with large blast radius.

Finally players who select engineer receive access to the engineers main weapon type, the carbine. Carbines in BF3 multiplayer are similar to assault rifles, execpt their operating range is slightly shorter and damage slightly less that their assault class counterpart. The one main difference is the rate of fire. While assault rifles offer options from slow shooting, hard hitting (G3A3) to the middle of the road, do everything M16A3 and finally the high ROF, excellent for close range AEK-971 and F2000. In comparison carbines offer selection of slow firing SCAR-H to the middle of the road M4A1. Carbines lack high rate of fire, close range weapon. The M4A1 is comparable to the M16A3, and Dice apparently balance all other weapons around the M4A1.

Engineer Perks

On vehicle maps most engineers would opt for the explosive perk unless another member of the squad has it select already. The explosive perk doubles the amount of RPG/stinger/JAV ammo as well as additional mines.

Popular engineer load outs.

Recon; Sniping Gameplay in BF3

Recon is intended as the sniping class in BF3 multiplayer. Arguments about how well recon fill this particular role rage back and forth since the beta. Most agree that the main problems for players using higher zoom scopes is scopeglint. This signals where the player is and allows non-scoped small arms fire to be returned. Snipers can be killed by asault, engineer or support players out to around 200m wih non-zoom attachments. Scope glint was posibly implemented in order to prevent close range quick scoping. At any rate I personally dislike dislike higer zoom scope and long range sniping as it puts you too far away from your squad.

Besides the obvious rifles, recon have access to a range of rather different gadgets. First up is the spawn beacon. The spawn beacon replaces the player in the deploy screen as a permenant spawn point and allows squad mates to spawn in. If placed inside buildings players spawn to it directly; if placed outside on non-infantry maps players spawn in with parachutes.

At first glance this may seem useless as you can spawn on any player in the squad anyway. However consider this; attacking an enemy posistion would require holding a player back to spawn on in case of wipes. This player can still offer ranged support but cannot assist in close quarters combat, building clearing and most importantly, reviving. With a spawn beacon in place just outside the attack area the full squad can approach. If the squad wipes they have a handy point close byto try from again. The spawn beacon is destroyed when the owner spawns on it. Remember to redrop when required

TUGS/MAV for Recon

These two gadgets are sensors that make players appear on the mini map when moving nearby. TUGs is dropped and has a sensing range of around 25m. When the recon moves on he must manually pick the TUGS unit up in order to use it later. TUGS is small and emits a beeping noise. Enemy players can hear it and may try to tack it down but thanks to its small size it can be difficult to locate.

MAV operates in a similar way and can also be flown via remote control. The MAV has IR vision and can be used for reconnisance and spotting. If used in the same way as TUGs the MAV is not as eggective due to its larger size and obviousness, an easy target.

SOFLAM is another gadget for recon in Battlefield 3

Manual and automatic JAV desinator. SOFLAM can be taken in place of MAV or TUGs. It can automatically assign targets for engineers using Javelins. Automatic assign is limited to land units and manual assign can designate air units in addition to ground. It can be effective for clearing the skies.

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• Part 2Battlefield 3 Classes