Battlefield 1

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Heres my rant on BF1. The progression in BF1 is terrible because the only progression is tied directly to the amount of time you play the game as opposed to what you actually accomplish in the game. All BF1 has for progression is class unlocks and level unlocks aka warbonds. Battlefield 4 was the superior game. I'm still enjoying BF1 but I'm on the fence about buying premium for the DLCs unless a new progression system is implemented. BF4 triggered my OCD in a fun and enjoyable way. I put 144 hours in that game because there was always something to do. I could pick a random assignment I'd like to accomplish and go for that, meanwhile if it impeded me from playing the objective, I'd still play the objective because everything I did progressed my account in some way. I could unlock some new shotguns by using shotguns more, if I liked a specific weapon I could keep using that weapon and unlock new addons for it. I could capture a flag and get bonus XP by getting ribbons and medals. I know its been a long time since me and DX played BF4 and probably a year+ for others out there, but heres a reminder of what BF4 had for progression:

1) Use a specific weapon type to unlock more weapons of that type:

2) The more you used vehicles the more stuff you unlocked for them. This really encouraged players to get in every vehicle in the game, even as a passenger because you could unlock great upgrades. In BF1 there is no incentive to ride passenger in a vehicle.

3) The more you use a kit the more you unlock for it. We have this in BF1, but its locked behind class levels as opposed to a long progressing XP bar for each class like in BF4.

4) Assignments. These were my bread and butter of the game. Whenever I felt bored with any aspect of the game I'd focus on specific assignments. And these assignments encouraged everyone to play as a team.

5) Look how many battlepacks I have to open for not even playing the damn game.

6) Bonus XP for playing the objectives and working as a team.

7) Weapon camos aka skins. BF4 did this right. You could unlock skins via gameplay aka leveling up, assignments and battlepacks. Once a camo was unlocked you had it for all guns. This was enjoyable. I also did not get a screenshot of the soldier camos. I was one of those people that liked to change my camo based on what map I was on to try to blend into the environment more. In BF1 the end game is gun skins locked to specific guns and are only awarded through RNG.

With all these different styles of progression I was on an OCD trip of fun with BF4.

In BF1 we have only 2 forms of progression. Leveling up a class and buying the weapons with warbonds that we get from leveling up. And these crappy medals we can only track one of at a time and only within a certain time period:

I miss BF4. DICE dropped the ball in longevity with BF1 in my opinion.

The thing I loved most about BF3 and BF4 was vehicle combat and unlocking the upgrades. With none of that in BF1 and the lack of vehicles I'm disappointed overall. I say lack of vehicles because in BF4 at any point in time there would be 4 helicopters in the air, 2-4 jets, 2-4 tanks a mobile AA, rocket truck, regular trucks, motorcycles, etc. People say that vehicles could be destroyed way too easily in BF4, but with that many vehicles it was balanced and enjoyable. In BF1 I can almost never spawn into a tank in conquest and if I do I last about 30 seconds once I get anywhere close to an objective. If I was working for DICE I'd make huge changes to vehicles in the game. I'd make the artillery trucks and light tanks spawn at specific flags only so land ships and heavy tanks will always spawn from the bases. I'd put anti tank grenades on support and reduce their throwing range. Remove self heal from all vehicles (has anyone used the repair tool outside of the campaign? I know I've never seen it used once in MP.) and make every flag in conquest spawn one specific vehicle in the open instead of from the spawn screen only. Theres no reason why there shouldn't be more vehicles in this game.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Historically speaking there's plenty of reasons for not having that many vehicles and that's one thing I give DICE, they're going for historical accuracy here (which is why a lot of the battles we're doing take place in 1917-1918, tanks weren't around for the first half of the war). Due to the scarcity of tanks on the battlefield it makes sense we only see 2-4 at a time. Planes on the other hand should be extremely abundant as should armored cars. I constantly use self-heal when I'm in a tank as I understand the need to keep the tank in combat for as long as possible (which is why you'll constantly see me attacking objectives and backing off so I can repair) and since very few Supports actually carry the mechanic tool it's almost a necessary to use it. They should leave it in but give people more incentive to use it instead of driving into a point and letting it get destroyed like so many other people do. Honestly I think Support is fine where it's at, it doesn't need the Anti-Tank grenade. A proper Support player should be making sure their Assault teammates are constantly supplied so the need shouldn't even be there (plus Limpet Charges are extremely effective, people just need to quit using the mortar so god damn much (yes I know I love the mortar but I think I'm going to start carrying the limpet charge from now on)). I do agree though that Light Tanks/Artillery Trucks need to spawn on specific flags and not be able to even be chosen from spawn (in certain game modes). Landships and Heavy Tanks are always needed and should always be a priority when choosing a tank.

If they can rework the progression system into something that actually rewards players for what they do I would be more gung-ho about playing this game. I miss the old ribbon/medal system and the old way we unlocked guns. This war bond shit needs to go and an attachment system needs to be implemented as I'm not a fan of this 3 different loadouts for guns thing we got going on. Let us decide how we set our guns up not do it for us. I feel DICE is just getting lazy and is afraid of being ridiculed for recycling tried and true systems (though I will admit the attachment system in BF4 was extremely flawed and needed some serious work to rebalance it properly).

Honestly I'm surprised you're not burned out yet DX. With as much as you play I'd of thought you'd be sick of it by now, especially considering you have every class at 10 now. The only joy I get out of playing now is with you guys or if I'm playing Domination (and the Domination thing is quickly becoming a less fun thing every second because of that damn Model 10). As I said Operations are getting boring because it's the same 4 sets of maps all the time (and at least for me it always ends on the first map, I haven't seen Argonne is so long I'm beginning to think it doesn't even exist (and it's my favorite map besides Monte Grappa)) and everything always plays out the same way (either attack steamrolls defense or defense steamrolls attack, there really is no middle ground).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I think dice took it too much to heart with people saying they were overwhelmed with choices. That's why assignments are gone. BF4 had a lot of MMORPG elements that I think appealed to people like us, but not so much to the causal FPS player at large. Especially when you lock a gun around a task that only high skilled players can perform ala finish top 3 in Gun Master. 

If DICE let us choose attachments they'd have to rebalance the entire game. All you'd ever see is the Seb with foregrip and telescopic sight. They handicapped each weapon by denying them certain attachments for reasons,  but the lack of customization is grinding on people. 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I'd rather be able to choose my own attachments and let DICE rebalance the game.

19 hours ago, Strider Hiryu said:

(yes I know I love the mortar but I think I'm going to start carrying the limpet charge from now on)

If we could throw the limpet charge farther it'd be much more fun. I love using the thing because it doesn't show up on the screen as an explosive like a grenade or tripwire does. If you think you're being followed, throw one down on the ground and look for that kill credit. I'll jihad myself into that bunker on monte grappa with limpet charges. If 2 people can get in there and throw one, almost everyone in that bunker will be dead.

18 hours ago, DeathscytheX said:

Especially when you lock a gun around a task that only high skilled players can perform ala finish top 3 in Gun Master.

That was the shitiest thing DICE ever did imo. It was the same with the UCAV being locked behind that bomber assignment. High powered weapons and gadgets should never be locked off like that.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I forgot what gun you even got for that. I just remember the rage inducing moments of finishing 4th multiple matches and getting hung up when I got to sniper rifles on a cqc map. I hated gun game in COD and I despise everything about the game mode and its clones in other games. It wasn't rewarding to get and I was still pissed after i finally got it. I don't know why DICE thought they needed a COD game mode. 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

If you actually think about it there are maybe only a handful of attachments in this game (Optical Sights, Marksmen Sights, Sniper Scopes (aka 10x scopes), Foregrips, Bayonets, Different Iron Sights (and AA Sights for LMG's), and maybe a few others) they actually wouldn't have to rebalance much at all since the game is already balanced around most of these. All they would honestly have to do is slightly modify damage dealt by certain weapons pending on attachments (I mean not every Scout Rifle can carry a scope, that's understandable so you can limit which guns get what. Same with not every weapon can take a foregrip, etc.). I mean they can keep these limitations on what guns can use what attachments but let me pick what attachments I want on my guns in those categories, fuck this 3 different types for 4 different guns (depending on class). Its aggravating that I can only choose what DICE wants me to instead of customizing the weapon to my liking (seriously you rarely saw the same setups on guns in BF4, everyone ran what was personally better for them based on their play style). They only handicapped the weapons because they were to lazy to think about how to balance the game around the limited amount of attachments (there weren't that many options during this time frame) and because they fucked up royally with BF4's attachment system (compared to 3's 4's was a nightmare if you didn't go to sites that gave you the run down with what attachments did what with you're guns using actual hard numbers).

Limpet Charges go pretty far if you arc it enough when you throw it (at least in the campaign you could). Honestly I don't think you're even supposed to be able to throw them, DICE just made it that way so they're slightly more useable.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I will say I've never enjoyed flying in battlefield until this game. I was a decent chopper pilot in BF3, but in BF4 choppers were so weak and easily taken down. I was never good at flying jets. I love keeping pressure on points with bombing runs in BF1. You can really cause problems for the other teams on open area objectives. I was flying around on Sinai the other night in a sandstorm. I was at a total advantage as the AA guns couldn't see me and I used the markers to judge where to release bombs. The spot flares are beastly as well. I just wish they'd fix the bug where someone can take your vehicle when you're changing the load out. I guess I'll need to just keep my app handy to swap to rockets while the next round is loading. The rockets on the attack plain put a hurting on the airship. half of a salvo will destroy the gondolas with ease. No one uses this loadout because people just spam mash the button hoping to get in the plane before anyone else does. This is the biggest issue the game has, because no one is picking what is actually needed, they're just trying to get whatever they can first.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I've been playing some more Overwatch this week because some more friends bought it when it was 40% off. They've made some big changes to the game in the latest update. Quickplay now has a 1 hero limit, which is great. The old quickplay is now in a Arcade playlist called "No Limits" along with 1v1 and 3v3. I bring this up because playing arcade lets you progress a weekly rewards track in which you get 3 loot boxes. Every 3 wins grants you a box, and after 3 you have to wait for the weekly reset. I think this would be great for BF... but with how battlepacks are, it would be better if they were distinguished battle packs, that or give more than 3 regular battle packs on a weekly. 

Right now Blizzard is killing everyone with progression rewards. Battlepacks and COD's supply drops don't even come close.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

The lack of progression in BF1 is whats killing my desire for the game. Aside from leveling up my classes to rank 10 each for the final guns I have no in game goals aside from just PTFO. As long as I have a friend or brother online to play the game with its a blast, but solo is loosing its appeal to me like battlefront did.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

So I got on tonight just planning on seeing if the Premium Battlepack had dropped (it has, got the Legendary Bodeo skin out of it) and ended up playing a round of Operations on Kaiser (I'm not going to attempt to spell the whole thing) which had us getting pushed back to Amiens (was defending). We won but while doing so I got the most awesome Pentakill ever on a Heavy Tank with old Lumpy himself and I have a clip of it to show as well (finally figured out how to use ShareFactory to edit videos and upload, yea I'm slow but I honestly had no interest in posting vids till now. When I do get around to it I'll post that kill I got on an airplane using the landships side cannon).

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Great kill! But how did you have 2 limpet charges? Were you standing at an ammo crate? I got on for a couple rounds last night with my brother and he got a huge tank kill with dynamite. I have to walk him through sharefactory so he can upload it.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

I had my own ammo crate near me. It's hard to see because we bottle necked C so there were like 5 other ammo crates on the ground due to the amount of people we had sitting there (I believe that was their second attack when I got that, was freaking intense at C). It was probably one of the most intense matches I've had in Operations in a long while.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I got the MG15 legendary which is the same lame ass camo that most the legendaries carry, so I scrapped it and got an XP booster that I scrapped as well. I'm tempted to blow my 1700 scrap on distinguished boxes to get that martini skin, but I know next week's revision will have the legendary with my luck. I know its a golden one, because levelcap had it in a closed event... the video should start where it has it.

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I had some horrible rounds tonight. I don't know if some of my guns got stealth nerfed or if my game bugged out. My Model 10 A factory had the largest spread circle reticle I've ever seen. It was spread out like I had just brought it up to aim from sprinting, except it was like that at all times. I couldn't hip fire kill anyone with it and when I did damage someone it was only doing around 24-48 damage. I could only get a kill with it if I ads at close range. I haven't unlocked the hunter version to try it yet tho. I tried sniping on Sinai in a conquest map and I couldn't zero my rifle anymore. I kept lobbing shots at snipers while they simply pointed at my head and killed me repeatedly. x_x

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

A nerf without a patch is pretty unlikely. DICE is pretty good at being transparent with gun nerfs and changes and they would of let us know. I did notice the servers were being extremely finicky last night for me (hell I wanted to play Conquer Hell but I couldn't connect to any server for it that's why I did Kaiser) so it might be a server thing (I've noticed that the servers have been really bad lately. Well for me anyways). Based on the problems you had with enemy snipers I'd definitely say it was a server issue or a connection issue (I've been having a lot of those lately as well) but I didn't have any trouble with zeroing my Russian last night while I was sniping on Amiens.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

It was driving me nuts. I made me second guess myself and I watched a couple of my youtube clips to confirm that the rifle does have zeroing. I must have been bugged out.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

The Model 10A-Hunter has been like that since a few days after the big update. You can't put on the gas mask and run around anymore. Hip fire rarely nets a instakill. Its been stealth nerfed or its a bug no one is going to comment on. The circle increased, and I noticed it, and even went back to my old videos to confirm that the circle use to be a lot tighter.

I played one round on Kaiser today, and the first 2 waves we failed to cap the first sector. I went 45-23 with the Sweeper/Martini-Henry. No matter what i tried to do to help my team spot people who were just standing out in the open, it seems nothing worked... I guess black Friday brought in the noobs full force and they haven't gone away yet. with 250 tickets, there just isnt any excuse not to cap sector 1, ever.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I could tell my team was full of noobs. I had a couple squad mates that would spawn on me while I was prone and sniping.. and they'd stand there next to me shooting their LMG into the distance. I started getting sniped at and didn't realize at first how someone at a different angle found my position until I stood up and saw this guy shooting. With the issues I was having I felt like a noob myself. x_x

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I was playing overwatch and just wrecking people with D.Va out of her suit. The custom controller gives me a bigger advantage on OW than BF1 since jump shooting is a tactic. I could tell I was throwing everyone off that played an DPS character, because they couldn't hit me worth a shit. I stopped a Hanzo's ult 3 times before he finally was able to get it off. I guess COD is so bad this year, the noobs aren't going away. I wish they would go back to COD.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

OK, now that I saw that Zulu skin on levelcap's R7 video, I want it. I'll be buying those boxes when I get home and try to roll it. The ivory and silver is just too beautiful. 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

10 kill streak... I love this gun

[Sledgstone 8,672]

That gun is ridiculous. One shot body kills is too damn nice. Once I finally get it, it'll get nerfed.  

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

They'll never nerf the damage, if they ever nerf it, it will be the reload time between each shot, which I still don't see them nerfing as you can get 2 shots off with a SMLE before you can get another round chambered with the Martini.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I played a huge round of operations for over an hour last night with my brothers. At one point we got a blimp and as I was trying to get into it I accidentally spawned into an artillery truck instead. I went with it and sure as hell it was the best time I've had in a while. I didn't think about it at the time, but when playing as attackers, an artillery truck is great support for taking out the endless planes trying to destroy the behemoth. So I sat back and farmed them all. I was in the truck for more than 20 minutes so the video ends abruptly because I wanted to make sure I got about a 15 minute clip. I got at least 15 kills and I know I was pissing those pilots off. lmao. I love the 7:10 mark on the video where a guy parachutes out and I explode his body into a flaming corpse.

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Support is getting the grenade crossbow starting next Tuesday the 13th for premium and the 20th for everyone else. Yay. Now they'll be more viable in smaller maps. I won't be able to try the new map until the 20th, but thats fine because GW2's wintersday event starts the 13th anyway.