How Battlefield 4 attempts to encourage team play and class diversification
Not everyone that played Battlefield 3's multiplayer mode bothered to be a cooperative type. Many players opted to go Lone Wolf, sticking to the default Assault class, and playing DICE's game like Any Ol' Shooter. To encourage a bit more variety, DICE is attempting to communicate the game's various features more clearly to players in Battlefield 4.
Not everyone that played Battlefield 3's multiplayer mode bothered to be a cooperative type. Many players opted to go Lone Wolf, sticking to the default Assault class, and playing DICE's game like Any Ol' Shooter. To encourage a bit more variety, DICE is attempting to communicate the game's various features more clearly to players in Battlefield 4.
"I think only a fraction of our players have tried all available gadgets or vehicles in multiplayer," lead multiplayer designer Thomas Andersson says admits. "I think we can do a better job in BF4 of letting players make more educated choices in their kit loadouts and combat roles."
Admitting that "some players" only played with the default Assault loadout, BF4 plans to educate players in BF4. "We're clearly displaying what gadgets can do for you, how different weapons compare, and how they affect your options on the Battlefield," Andersson said in a blog post.
Lone Wolves also went against the cooperative design that DICE had intenced. The plan is to "highly encourage team play--but never force it" by reintroducing Field Upgrades. Similar to the feature in Battlefield 2142, Field Upgrades reward individual players by helping out the team. "You earn them through squad scoring such as squad healing, completing objectives with your squad members, squad resupplies, squad repairs, and other squad actions," Andersson detailed. And you'll be able to choose different upgrade paths, each containing four specializations.
Of course, the addition of Commander Mode is another boon for team-based play: having a Squad Leader literally issue commands to the rest of the squad should make objectives more clear. And, everyone that participates in the command chain will be rewarded. "This creates an eco-system that I believe will take team play in Battlefield 4 to new heights," Andersson added.
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Andrew Yoon posted a new article, How Battlefield 4 attempts to encourage team play and class diversification.
Not everyone that played Battlefield 3's multiplayer mode bothered to be a cooperative type. Many players opted to go Lone Wolf, sticking to the default Assault class, and playing DICE's game like Any Ol' Shooter. To encourage a bit more variety, DICE is attempting to communicate the game's various features more clearly to players in Battlefield 4.-
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I mean on the one hand, we aren't in battlefield to have it be IRC and have horrible typers stop during a firefight to TYPE. that's dumb.
also dumb is enabling VOIP in a game where 10 people are waiting for a tank and will inevitably scream at each other following whoever gets it and doesn't get it. or someone who screams REZ ME every 5 seconds. or someone that continually says "THEY WERE RIGHT THERE, NO HELP, WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE USELESS".
so I wonder if there will be easy VOIP management. If they just throw in FFA all team voice, I'm going to be really pissed off.
I want more in-HUD style capabilities to mark/unmark objectives moreso than VOIP to be quite honest. and I hope the commander's version is really good. -
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Yes according to https://twitter.com/Battlefield/status/344513817784500226
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Also cool thread with lots'o info
http://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield_4/comments/1g7qls/bf4_running_list_of_things_weve_learned_so_far/
Very excited for BF4. Can't wait.
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true, but it's a double edged sword. they'll have to include a one click "mute all" function. communication with strangers is often quite vile and overall useless. it detracts from the game more than it adds to it.
what they really need is better Q support so people actually MARK TARGETS and objectives, in place of assuming VOIP is the better way to communicate.
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it was weird to see the reversal of the "Battlefield structure" they had going, to end up in FFA mode as Andrew says... any old shooter. It used to be commander -> squad leaders -> troops, and I wonder why they scrapped that in BF3. They need more tangible bonuses to encourage squads. But lots of servers just turned on the FORCE SQUAD flag because people just don't give a shit and often want to sit in the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back and try to snipe. Alone.
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IMO, remove the k/d on the scoreboard. Was never there and never should have been implemented. Too many people nurture their ratio and thus, go against what the game is all about.
I have OK stats and I don't give a damn, because if I have to spawn and die 5 times to defend a crucial objective (which will in the end make us win the game), then I will take the hit.
I wish my teammates would think like that sometimes. Hopefully BF4 really brings teamplay back.-
I would guess they are more about the points going forward. All of those old school multipliers from squad and commander coming back... and of course, given there's a commander who might not ever fire a weapon, they gotta find a way to get on the scoreboard.
I think there are game modes where you can glorify the DM skills, and that's fine to have a K/D posted in there. But for conquest and rush it should just be the points. -
It was there in BF2, so saying "it was never there" is kinda just wrong.
Also, the notion that focusing on K:D can't be beneficial for team play isn't totally true. If you're in the general vicinity of objectives, having a really high K:D ratio means that there are fewer opponents for the rest of the team to deal with, making it easier to capture them. Obviously, this requires a bit more thought on the part of the people just deathmatching to keep moving to hotspots where thinning the opposition will be helpful (something most of them won't be doing, especially if they can't figure out how to change their loadout). -
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