Morning Discussion
Hello again, Internet. You'd better make this enjoyable but with the 2010 Games Developers Conference kicking off today in San Francisco, I'm not getting my hopes up for an gentle day. Fortunately we have embedded reporters Brian and Garnett on the scene to bring you all the latest development developments.
Take it easy, sleazy.
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jbury
replyI'm guessing Bad Company 2 is still having some server troubles, spent 40 minutes of my hour lunchbreak trying to get into a game before giving it up :(
The most annoying part is that when I've actually managed to get into games, it really is quite fun-
Yea, same here. I've pretty much given up trying for now. I love the game but the disconnections are annoying. I can't wait for them to get it fixed, though, as I've also had a blast playing it. My first battlefield game and I think it's great. Guess I've missed out on a good series.
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punkbuster was the first problem, got that sorted out now
This new problem is that I can't join any servers at all. If I click a friends game in my friends list it just says "Couldnt find game"
Doubtful I'll play tonight, I have to be at the office to play and I've got to leave early today for physiotherapy-
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YOUR FRIENDS LIST IS BROKEN (possibly)
Click on your friends name and then compare. Make sure the name that shows up in the compare window is actually the friend you want to play with.
Medster was the first friend that I added, and then I piled on 22 other shacker names.
I had to whittle my list down to 13 people before I could actually select Medster from the friend's list and join his game.
Very weird bug.
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Its freakin' great. Only Recon left to go
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I started messing around with assault last night, now I know why everyone loves/hates the 40mm launcher. That and an ammo box seems pretty deadly.
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Being able to resupply your grenades with your own ammo box is stupid ridiculous, and shouldn't happen. Can you heal on your own kit as medic? I think not, unsure. People that go 20-3 in a match, that just sit a couple hundred yards away launching grenades into the fight, or at buildings are just huge douches.
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Can you? If so it seems so unbearably slow.
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Do you need to toss the pack down or just hold it out to heal yourself like BF2?
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So you toss the kit on the ground to heal yourself? If it works, it's slow as fuck, too slow to even realize, is what I'm saying. In BF2 you just held the kit and heard yourself being patched up. In BC2 there seems to be no indication whatsoever.
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meh, they are the last ammo to reload, meaning it will reload your main gun, then your pistol, and eventually will give you grenades / other gadget ammo. that first reload takes about 5-6 seconds to get, and then each additional grenade/rocket/etc beyond the first takes another couple of seconds. So yeah, to refill completely, you need to have not fired any other weapon and then you need to stand on the box the entire time. It's pretty easy to counter this strategy.
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Current status http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2
EA servers are currently down stopping login to a number of EA games. EA is investigating and will be back online as soon as possible.
also:
BFBC2 PC server R6 is going to server providers now. This server version should stop all the PB INIT errors that have been happening.
woo!-
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I think a few weeks should be enough to sort it out. We've seen big strides in the first week (r1 of the server software crashed about hourly).
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Yeah EFF YEAH was pretty bad too, Alco and I were thinking that if that keeps up after R6 we might file a complaint with gameservers. Sometimes I think they overload their boxes.
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This is probably your problem: http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=22346464
You can either put in the new string or search for * [[ in the server browser (remove the space between the asterisk and the brackets).
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Given that we have seen a new server release every day or two (with probably many more changes happening on their end), suffice to say that they are working their asses off to fix the problem.
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The very few times I've had connection issues, I played the single player. Put it on the hardest setting and boom, great practice for MP. Plus, it's not half bad, and cool to see what they can do with the engine.
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I actually preferred BC1's SP so far because it played more like Battlefield -- big open maps with a couple of objectives that you could approach from a bunch of different angles.
In BC2, it feels like they are trying to do the same shit as the CoD games, and I don't think they pull it off most of the time. Also, running down narrow linear paths to a slightly open area where the AI come from the same direction every time is pretty boring to me.
Still love the voice acting and script, though!-
Agreed, I fucking hate that there is a cutscene every. 30. seconds. though.
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They are having waaaaay higher demand than they could have ever dreamed of, and I think that some issues have arisen from that that a limited beta would never have revealed. I'd link you the story on the battlefield blog but they appear to be restarting THAT server too, lol.
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yeah I've been trying to remind people that the first week or two of ANY Dice game is like this. Basically, EA can't handle the load that their games' popularity puts on their server, and a combination of people giving up on the game and EA finally allocating more resources makes it so that shit eventually settles down and works perfectly.
I will give them credit for fixing the UI issues or BC1 and 1943, which had no "cancel" option if you were stuck in a "waiting for server" type of loop. -
Given that I have been talking to guys from DICE and they have said the same thing, it isn't just a bullshit line to shut up the whiners.
But hey, since you clearly know what their problem is, why didn't you wait a month to pick up the game?-
Well then Fox explain to me why every Battlefield game in the franchise is plauged with these issues when it launches until it's patched? 1942, BF2, BC1, BC2, you name it - often very badly at first.
Yet every time we get that line....sorry but eventually it wears thin. Don't get me wrong, I think this game is fantastic and I love it, but this doesn't deserve a constant apology like it's out of their hands.-
Would you prefer that they remain completely silent on the issue? Shit, I can only imagine the forum rage then.
Re: the issues, my personal bet is the same thing we see across the whole game industry (besides places like Valve and Blizzard that are largely self-funded): aggressive release schedules and investor demand pushing games out as early as possible, not leaving enough time for "fit and finish" polish.
My point remains, if you had seen this with every previous battlefield, why would you not wait a month before buying?-
BECAUSE YOU WOULD THINK THAT A COMPANY WOULD LEARN FROM THESE MISTAKES.
Why is this so difficult to fathom? Why do you blindly defend DICE / EA when this is a known issue? They have a known history regarding this. You would think they'd figure this shit out just once, and never let it plague their games again.-
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Then EA should prove it. A blanket statement like that means nothing to be without raw data.
Release some numbers. I refuse to believe that the PC is single handedly destroying the EA login servers - unless they are all using the same Authentication servers between PSN, Live, and EA.com (for PC).
Between pre-order sales data and the beta they should have an IDEA as to what to expect on release.
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Jesus, fuck, I'm being called a fanboy by one of the biggest BF fanboys here.
Wake the fuck up. I'm not blindly defending DICE. I'm providing information about what we know about the problem. This is because I'm helping run a server for all you guys, which means that I try to keep informed about all this stuff, and I assume that a lot of you are doing other things with your time.
I have a number of problems with the game, and with aspects of the online experience (just scroll down to the Punkbuster subthread below). I just think it is not constructive to continually criticize guys that are probably working 20-hour days at the moment (hell, for the last few months) trying to fix this shit.-
Whatever, why don't you climb back into your bed with the BC2 sheets and Mirror's Edge pillow cases you fucking fanboy.
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When I roll over at night it's like I'm kissing Faith
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Whoa - lets be carefully with the 'F' word. You're providing a service to all of us. For that I'm grateful, as are many other Shackers. You, and the other admins are all getting shafted, and for that I hope that your server provider is going to compensate you for your losses/down-time.
You're doing your damnedest to keep things running, and that is well worth the applause. But it's still a major fault, and it's continually a major fault of EA games. We can both agree on that. -
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This is why a pre-order 'beta' is such a retarded idea.
You wont get the stress test you would with a public beta. If you release a public beta in phases, you avoid the "this game sucks" whines because it dies instantly but you get the benefit of proving your system can handle more players that it will probably need too. Also makes people more willing to try the game out, because they dont have to pay :p
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Can anybody else still login ok?
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Story! I was in squad for a bit last night in EFF YEAH conquest on I believe White Pass. Myself and two other shackers with a random dude were holding down a flag inside one of the attics. We were just owning up there, I was tossing health packs, another shacker was tossing ammo, and we must have killed 10 guys in under a minute before they noticed us up there. 'Nades down the stairs, all sorts of chaos. I had just unlocked the M60 and was picking off fools from all sorts of ranges with the 4X scope.
Suddenly, BOOOOMMM Bradley shell to the roof and it's caving in around us, the dark, safe attic now had sunlight pouring in and washing everything out in a haze for a second. I revived my fallen squad mate that didn't survive the initial attack and we continued to hold down the roof. The Bradley took out another wall, severely narrowing our cover, yet we still took out the tank and stayed alive. At this point I think we had racked up 500 pts each just from the attic.
Bradley #2 rolls up and blows the SHIT out of the top floor with a direct shot. At this point the attic had no more walls or roof, completely exposed, we only had a little piece of wall for 4 of us. Chaos all around, I saw two mates get picked off by the tank's secondary, and then the whole damn building collapsed.
It was a great stand!!!-
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You're just gonna have to learn to not get killed by it ;)
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Yeah I was using the M60 last night with the accuracy attachment or whatever and it was a rape machine, it really does feel overpowered. Not that I didn't enjoy killing people with it.
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I think it's the same type of power I felt when using the G36C as a medic in BF2. Loved that fuckin gun.
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I would love if team mates walking in front of the mortar scope - didn't affect the timer on it. So annoying. Honestly - I wished that the mortar strike would STICK to the spot that it is first clicked on - and any movement in front of it didn't affect it EVER.
Such a pain in the ass trying to drop it at someone's feet, only to have someone run across them breaking line of sight, and interrupting the call-in. -
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The Medic is the most broken class ever. He can get the no-recoil-M60-of-death or the one-shot-shotgun-of-doom AND can rez people. I see no reason not to play as him.
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I'm not seeing the server failures but I'm getting C2D a lot of the time. Another weird problem was during the respawn I wouldnt' actually respawn. I'd like my location, choose respawn but when the timer hit 0 i'd just sit there. I have to keep clicking ' spawn spawn spawn ' before I actually show up.
Great games last night though. -
Gameservers.com Owners: You now have the option to disable PunkBuster:
We have been given the go-ahead to allow customers that are having issues with Punkbuster kicking players the option of turning Punkbuster OFF for the time being.
You can do that by going into the config section of your BC2 subscription and choose the "ServerOptions.ini" file. From there, you will find that you are now allowed to edit the Punkbuster setting and can now have this setting set to false.
Please keep in mind that while you do have this option available now, we will most likely have to force this on after the issues have been corrected.-
Yes, you will remain ranked -> Servers will remain as ranked with PB - for now
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Fucking AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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Also, I love that this is pretty much a tacit agreement that Punkbuster is hilariously broken. God I hate Punkbuster.
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How is Even Balance still in business? Their site is a complete joke. Their software sucks balls.
Is EA/DICE the only devs that use it still?-
I have no understanding for how they are still in business. The benefit they provide to EA is that EA does not have to use another anti-cheat program (VAC), and they don't have to roll their own.
Since EA has a severe case of monumental stupid; they'll never go with VAC (as useless as it is in most cases.)-
So we're stuck with Punkbuster, because working against cheats/hacking is a 24/7 business and requires a ton of work, and there are not many companies willing to do the work.
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Not even really a 24/7 business. Like anti-virus developers they simply come to work every day, fire up their browser, and peruse the cheating scene. I'm sure they spend a bit of time trying to build heuristics that might sniff out a cheat program they haven't fingerprinted, but anything someone personally develops and doesn't share is gonna be a little hard to stop.
The whole anti-cheat movement turning to software has always struck me as a little strange. Gamers as a community decided that their privacy - a real world tangible thing with consequences - was less important than stopping someone from cheating in an intangible game. Today there are three major programs (VAC, Warden, PB) that snoop the shit out of your PC and have interweb access. I'm afraid someone is gonna put words in my mouth on this so I have to add this disclaimer. I'm not saying creating some massive database at this moment. I'm just pointing out that it is the very nature of the software and it could be abused.
Tell a gamer he has to surrender access to his PC for anti-cheat and he's okay. Tell a gamer he has to surrender access to his PC to verify he doesn't have a peg leg and watch out for the rage.
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Their site looks like it was designed in 1998 by a 15-year old.
It really wouldn't surprise me if the issues we are seeing stem from having too many interacting services: you have DICE writing the game code, EA writing server code to handle the unlocks/ranks, and EvenBalance writing shitty software that doesn't do anything the anti-cheat stuff. I can see several places where that could go wrong.
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Trace buster buster BUSTER BUSTER! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw3G80bplTg
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Does this = cheaters?
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I worked very hard to unlock my rocket pack, what are you talking about? >:(
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Doubtful. But if so, I may get a chance to use the BAN tool in our admin panel... it has been tempting me so...
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I see. I have been lucky enough to avoid PB related connectivity issues.
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All of us are using gameservers thus far. They are decent. I suspect that sometimes they oversell their boxes, but you can complain and they usually move you to another box. The online admin stuff is clunky but functional. So overall, basically just like any other game server company...
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read here: http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=22369010
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www.artofwarcentral.com is awesome in my past experience, I've not used them for BC2 though.
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Variable.
I've hosted the Shack DoD:S, UT3, MW:LL, L4D and now BC2 with them. They do seem to have problems with new games and tend to oversell their boxes initially. But on older games it hasn't been a problem. Support has been relatively fast and painless. They are also cheaper than most hosts even when they aren't doing their half price specials. If you do ending up getting a server with them and have issues, request for a server/location change and they'll do that free of charge.
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The latest official tweet says they are rolling out a server update (R6) that fixes the problem now, so maybe this isn't even necessary?
http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2
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JonhathanParkerBedrava and I are jumping on Chicago now, if anyone would like to join. Assuming we can get in, of course.
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SQUAD LEADERS: There seems to be no way to find out who is squad leader, other than going into the Squad menu and trying to click the "lock" icon if it highlights then you are the squad leader.
As squad leader you can hit "Q" on defend flag/mcom and attack mcom/flag spots. This gives your squad more points when you do it, also that Pin "attack and recieve squad command" or whatever it is.-
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I've spammed Q on objectives and it does nothing , then other times i can hear my guy talking so obviously it does work so I must of been squad leader or its broken
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Well it's not tied to who has been in the squad or alive the longest because I've joined squads and spawned on others and spotted targets with no problem. It might be buggy is all, but from my experience anyone can do it. It might take some time after the first orders are given before it can be done again.
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And I've done many times by accident and had it work after spamming the key 20 times while it did nothing. The only thing I can say for sure is there is no rhyme or reason to it. There is no squad leader either. What Iwanna talks about when highlighting who locks the squad is just that, showing who locked the squad.
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0wned!
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Forum searches suck. It took too long to track that down, I was starting to believe I had imagined it.
Whatever the official word is, I'd still say it's inconsistent and buggy, but that could be said for many things battlefield related. He even says it's not obvious how it works, so why not make it clear and easy to understand? :( -
yea, but I'm 100% certain that I was trying this last night and neither of the points that we were attacking were tagged for attack, and I was unable to set a specific point to attack myself.
This was on Valpraiso on one of the shack servers last night - right before it crashed (about 9:15 PM PST). -
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Point at objective A/B, press spot. Now your squad gets bonus points for anything done around that objective.
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As much as I enjoy getting knife kills, I think it's a tad too easy to get them. Honestly, there is little point of attempting to kill your enemy with your weapon if you are < 10 feet away from them.
I've noticed the majority of players instead just sprint forward and go for the knife kill, and are usually successful while their opponent is attempting to spray their fully automatic weapon into their face.-
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I sadly disagree. I would think 3-4 bullet hits in the torso and face should interrupt or at least slow a knife attack.
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not in the games I've played. It's no MW2 knifey stabby but still annoying.
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you are truly a master of the art of fast cutlery. You should start a dojo. ;)
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It may not be real life, but the knifing is out of hand. If you want balance then the knife shouldn't be the counter to the long range guns, the pistol should be. The knife should only be effective when you sneak up behind the guy in the turret, UAV hood, or scoped sniper. I have a major issue with me full auto firing a M-249 and someone is able to jump in front of me and then knife me.
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yea, if I see someone charging into a base and i'm sitting in cover - I can usually time it so that by the time you're in front of me, my knife swing is already 90% complete - and you JUST saw me pop up from my cover. I will get you 99/100 times, unless you dodge at the last moment.
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Bullshit, no they shouldn't. Knifing should be an absolute last ditch effort. Not some super hero Rambo invincible kill you from 10 yards away bullshit.
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I got Gold 5 knife, 200 knife kills, and a 5th dogtag on the same kill (15,000 points) for knifing Sling Blade after swimming out to him for 60 seconds on Isla Inocentes, had no idea it was coming but it was a nice surprise.
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24. Most of my knife kills are luck and someone else not paying attention.
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Still trying for one of those, I got a defib kill last night though.
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Someone landed a helicopter on my head one time :(
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LOL! holy crap, that's great.
I'm trying for the "flip the enemy chopper with the UAV trick" a lot.-
The guy did it intentionally, I'm pretty sure.
Dropped right down on my head and popped back up and took off after I died.
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Did you know if you knife someone above rank 20 you get silver dog tags.
So knifing me will yield you your very own silver version!-
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lolol hahaha
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The best is when you're getting shot at as you round a corner and you just know they're running in to finish the kill. Instead of continuing to run away i'll stop, turn 180, wait a second, hit knife just in time for them to round the corner and run right into my knife. On the flip side I've died so many times recklessly trying to get knife kills. The most frustrating is when you're going for a knife and the other guy gets the knife kill even though the complete animation and sound plays out on your side. I guess the lag makes it seem like the kill was stolen from you.
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We're subconsciously reminding you to put on your [shack] tag before entering the server.
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How much allowance do you guys give for bullet drop? Is it even a factor unless you're sniping from distance? Early on, i think I overestimated how much they dropped even at relatively close distances w/assault rifles and SMG's, so now I'm just pretending it doesn't even exist..
I haven't played recon at all. how much drop do you guys account for for long distances?-
it depends on the gun. I was counter sniping with the M1A1 last night just the way I used to do it when I played PixelhuntDelta Force a long time ago: Cover the enemy with the upright of the sight and fire in bursts. Ended up with 5 headshots and kills across the map. Annoyed the hell out of those snipers too. Other guns seem to have more or less drop (and it could also just be luck AFAIK)
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I'm pretty much doing the same thing. Bullet drop seems nearly nonexistent for the engineer weapons.
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I aim up a bit for long distance kills with my LMG weapons, I can never hit anything that far in the distance with any other class :)
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I am terrible at this. I think I overestimate all the time as a sniper. I suck, but I keep trying. The bad part is I get no feedback on whether it was over, under, or on target. Someone mentioned yesterday that a sandbox or practice system is required because there are too many elements to this game that give zero feedback.
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This is one of those games that is chock full of tidbits like this, thanks!
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it's because the UI is terrible
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lol two posts with link failure... who are you, Chris Faylure?
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Anyone have any idea why I can't connect to any of the shack servers?
"Please check your network connection and try again" message. -
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are the people who are on chicago right now with [shack] in their name actually shackers? or full time gamers?
they are all lvl 25+-
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Xevo is 2pro4u
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I can usually blow that out of the water with all the bonuses I accumulate with the Engineer. I've topped 14k+ on a few occasions. I've got the medic pack right now so I'm throwing them around the map and getting a few points but I don't see myself getting huge bonuses until I finally level up enough for the defib.
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don't spam medkits... you can only have one out at a time, so try to put it where you have the most people congregating... near choke points on defense are good, behind indestructible cover where squads can spawn on offense is a good spot. obviously if there's a bunch of people that need healing (look for the crosses on the minimap) in another spot, then drop a kit there.
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really, half of my points are from raping people from tanks and helis... a good vehicle driver and a decent engy gunner are a force to be reckoned with.
the key to my success is knowing when to move and when to sit tight... when I see another vehicle, I never stop moving, and I do my best to circle-strafe other tanks when possible.-
Last night I got lucky and had a badass Blackhawk pilot, we circled the enemy base for like 5-10 minutes straight strafing the shit out of everyone.
Watching the people on the ground below running for cover reminded me of the Jesus scene in Platoon, it was so fucking awesome. We were dodging RPG's the whole time,when I would see a puff of smoke I would swivel my gun over to the shooter and tear him apart, so much fun.-
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I almost always tag them with my tagger gun but since I usually don't have a chance to fire at them directly.
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You're the exception rather than the rule, Mr Terminator.
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Yeah, because you're a machine, EFF YEAH.
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Looks like GS rolled out R6 versions of the server software. If you guys experience crashing please let us know.
I do not know if Dallas DOS or FHITA HARDCORE have been updated yet. -
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