Bommando

I'd like to get a review of everyone's gripes and suggestions for improvement in the game, so I can write up a detailed review in the next couple of days.

I want to split them into the following categories:

• Interface: Server browser, game overlays, HUD.
• Gameplay: Roles, map dynamics, balance and overall enjoyment.
• Weapons / Vehicles: Balance, effectiveness or lack thereof.
• Immersion: Sound, visuals and game feedback which puts you in the action.

My observations so far:

Interface:

Minimap needs cardinal directions. Most of us know the layout of the maps, but NSEW would really help.

Squad join requests / invites need to be at the bottom of the screen and follow a PG UP, PG DN system instead of the obtrusive rose that inevitably gets you killed.

Server browser needs to show IP and allow for smooth scrolling. It should also refresh only when you tell it. Right now, it seems to do so periodically, which can be quite annoying when you're browsing. You should be able to join a game by double-click and search by server name with open-ended wildcards. Of course, favourites and the ability to join on friends is a must.

Painted enemy triangles on the UAV are way too big. They should mark enemies consistently and maybe even indicate the enemy type. A triangle pointing downwards just above the enemy would suffice. The triangle could scale with proximity. At the moment, the triangle can obscure your visual on the target, making them difficult to hit.

Friendly and enemy name tags should be sharp like the kill ticker rather than fat and anti-aliased. They are too big right now and make the game feel "cartoony".

The kill ticker messages should have a small sharp black drop shadow or stroke to better define them from the background. They should also not wrap when long, but each be on its own line.

Chat messages need to be separated from kills just below.

Squad members on the minimap need to show facing instead of just appear as squares. It helps a lot to know where your team mates are covering and where they are not. Squad Leader should be in yellow. I'd also like to see arrows at the edge of the minimap showing the direction of your squad mates, much like in the HUD. The HUD arrows should be smaller.

My squad member loadouts and roles need to be visible on my HUD, so I know what they have available. Recharges would also be great. Maybe not progress for each upgrade, but a yes / no for availability.

Gameplay:

Enemy vehicles should not be capturable. It makes no sense to be able to enter enemy vehicles and make off with them. If you run across enemy vehicles, you should have to destroy them and wait for your own to spawn. Seeing people run around with the express purpose of sneaking off with vehicles seems silly.

You should not be able to kick over tracked drones as easily. At their size, they seem like they'd be reasonably heavy and should interact as such. Right now, I find my squad mates are my worst enemy when they spawn on me as they stumble over my poor R2-D2. Likewise enemies under fire can just jump on top of one and you have no chance to kill them while they laugh at you, playing Soccer with your robotic friend.

You should be able to control all drones while prone. Having to stand leaves you very limited options to stay safe from enemy fire.

Weapons:

The grenade launcher is ridiculous right now and reminiscent of early BF2 days. Either drop the ammo to 2 rounds or reduce splash and minimum range. Minimum range should be 10m anyway. Shooting grenades at your feet is ridiculous. I'd also like to see the crosshair match every other FPS in history as a notched inverted triangle. The circle makes no sense and the notches to the left of it mean nothing.

Give us a reason to choose something other than Assault, Sniper and AV.

The SMG should beat an Assault Rifle at close-medium range with a high rate of fire, but a high damage drop-off at anything greater than say 20m. Right now, especially with the GL, the demo charges don't mitigate the poor bullet performance.

Heavy Assault needs greater stopping power when prone and horrible accuracy when standing, with only a little improvement when crouched. It should be brutal when prone and set up, with a high mag capacity. Its counter is obviously its lack of mobility. Right now, it can't out-shoot an Assault Rifle at any range and its lack of use is testament to its weakness.

Aiming crosshairs don't feel right. The converging lines don't fit with the rest of the hud and are too large. I'd like to see a better animation when bringing the weapon up to ironsights rather than just that faded black zoom. I'd also like to have a little peripheral vision and still see the rest of the HUD.

Immersion:

I'd still like the weapon firing sounds to be a little louder and more visceral. In-game VOIP which auto-lowers the effects volume would be a big plus.

Directional sound doesn't seem to work. I'm not really able to pinpoint enemy movement like I was in other games. Footsteps should be audible.

Commo rose is essential. We need canned comms to be able to communicate with people who aren't on voice comms outside our squad. "Gimme a ride", "Follow me" etc. Hearing comms from your team mates also helps give that more authentic feel to the battle.

Control points should have context-sensitive commands. I'd like to be able to point at a control point as a SL and tell my guys to head over to it. Doing so directly on the minimap would also be a bonus.

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Snail

great write up Bom...pretty much everything that needs to be addressed you have. Its funny, but after reading that i realized how awesome BF2 was. Sure there were bugs but damn they had their shit together when it came to playability and "feel"

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BHack

Interface:
If you turn off map rotation in the options, cardinal directions aren't really necessary. I would love a compass on the HUD though, with actual degrees on it so I can be specific when calling out directions.

I don't have a problem with the painted pink triangles, everything else I agree with.

Gameplay:

Needs a server setting to increase ticket counts, if there isn't already one.

assault/sentry/mortar drones seem to be far too difficult to kill now. In the beta it wasn't like this. I'm not sure why they did this, I'm guessing to make AV a useful kit even on mostly infantry maps? With the upgraded damage mortars do now, it makes the mortar drone a complete terror.

It takes something like 3 clips from an assault rifle to kill one. That's ridiculous. At least make the assault drone weaker than the mortar drone.

Kicking over drones is annoying.

The artists went a little overboard on some of the level designs. What I mean is: too much geometry. I try to turn around in an alleyway and get stuck on some random pole or wire or rickshaw or who knows what the fuck. Goddamnit I'm getting shot at!

Weapons:

Yep, fix the GL. It's not that the other weapons are terrible per say, the problem is that you have no reason to choose them because the assault gun + GL is almost always going to be better. Also, take away hand grenades from the assault kit. That will give the other kits a little more reason to pick.

Immersion:

Yep all that stuff. Need bigger squad size... just do.

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Secretary of Keepin it Real

WhiskeySix

- I want to be able to place SL-orders on the map, instead of being limited to SL's line-of-sight.

Zoopy

The circle and notches for the grenade launcher's crosshairs are for air bursting them.

The only things I hate are the physic collision. if your prone and crawling on a bumpy mountain side or near a wall you'll bounce madly causing your aim to go way off.

DaddyOfThree

Perhaps someone could confirm this in the release/retail version of the game (I've only played the beta version).

If you were a person that played with the Y axis reversed (available in the "Controls" menu), the R2-D2 gun drone's Y axis would not be reversed, neither would some of the vehicles even though it was turned "on" in the "Controls" menu. The general player controls would be work as expected.

Zoopy

Still a bug, it may have a workaround here.

Tarheel

My main gripe with the gameplay is the spawn system. It seems very spawn-camp friendly at the moment, with you spawning in somewhat slow and out in the open. Hey, I just spawned. Hey, I instantly got noob-tubed. Great.

BF2 seemed a bit more friendly about spawning you behind a building or something so you didn't just get repeatedly killed. Sure, it happened sometimes, and I had more than a few guys spawn right in front of me while capping a flag.

How to fix it? Probably some combination of more spawn locations at a point that are in better cover, faster spawning, and perhaps a second or two of invulnerability when you spawn.

As for weapons, gee, this is a tough one - NOT! NERF THE NOOB TUBE! - it's worse than what I remember BF2's being in the early days, which is saying something. It sounds like they need to put it somewhere between where it is now and where it was in the beta.

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Zoopy

For the Anti-vehicle kit:

You shouldn't lock onto unmanned vehicles. Destroying a friendly tank while he's outside repairing it is bad.

Anti tank shouldn't lock on to Ground Support deployed turrets (the sentry is fine to lock onto). They are hard enough to survive in already.

Landmines shouldn't kill infantry when they walk over it. It seems buggy now.

Assault:
Besides the grenade launcher, the assault rifle should have a smaller clip. It currently has 50 bullets per clip (with about 10 clips in reserve).

Heavy Assault:
Needs more damage at medium - long range. Right now it seems like an inaccurate assault rifle.

Ground Support:
Turrets should have more protection on them. At least the front should be close to 100% cover considering you can only turn 180 degrees and your back is exposed. Add leg and head cover like the map machine gun encampments (if this is the case then you can keep the missile lock on as opposed to the above suggestion).

Squad Leading:
I should be able to set way point markers through my scope. Since you can have markers stick to enemies it would make assigning targets much easier. It is very hard to set an accurate way point when not scoped.

UnDeaD

The range on the grenade launcher could be reduced some, I don't think the actual grenade has that much splash damage, you almost have to hit someone perfectly with it, I've shot, and hit the ground next to a player, and did not kill them. Either that, or its just inconsistent.