Hello,
I have written a letter to dice a few months ago, of course without any reply. I call upon you all to copy/past and print the text below, sign it and send it to the given address. If they don't read their forums enough, maybe they'll read the mail ( bags of mail impress far more than any post or e-mail can ever do).
I'll hope many of you will respond to this call, print it and send it. Maybe they will listen this time. Or if you have any other beef with DICE, you have their postal address. Or drop by if live close by
VISITING ADDRESS Katarinavägen 15 · POSTAL ADDRESS P.O. Box 20068, 104 60 Stockholm, Sweden
TELEPHONE +46-8-658 78 00 · FAX +46-8-658 78 99 · E-MAIL info@dice.se
Thanks!
Jobson
ps: On the EA forums the took my post out of the forum thread list, without any notice. I never broke any forum rule or used bad language. Guess they have some problem with criticism.
start of letter: print below.
____________________________________
To Mr. Mats Larsson, director
Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment
P.O. Box 20068
104 60 Stockholm
Sweden
From: The BF2 Community [or add your name]
Date: May, 2007
Reply adress: official BF2 website [fill in]
Subject: Battlefield 2
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you personally to request your attention to the following matter. I would like to urge DICE to make the necessary changes to the Battlefield 2 game, since many of the earlier requests of the community have been put aside and current patches have resulted in disappointment. Although you may have received letters and e-mails before, I am hoping that you’ll allow me to share my thoughts.
The new DICE website proclaims to make top-quality games. Such is true in the sense of graphics (which are in my opinion excellent) and game concepts. Bravo. But examination of the current (and last) build of Battlefield 2 however, does not do a proclamation such as yours any justice. To put it straightforward: Battlefield 2 is still plagued by too many faults and software bugs, of which some are to be classified as an absolute shame. It is a harsh comment, I admit, but the game feels it is still only 95% done, even two years after release.
Rest assure, the community is not requesting major chances to the game, it simply wants to keep enjoying BF2 and finally see those of the most obvious bugs disappear. I feel many simple requests and bug reports from the community were ignored, although BF2 was patched numerous of times (I will further discuss customer relations later on). I will try to prove that many requests are not unfair, quite affordable to repair and not particular painstaking to do (bugs all include software operation and game balance, none are of graphical nature). I’ve taken the liberty to attach a plan of approach to support my findings.
Many of us were surprised by the quick release of BF2142, often considered to as DICE/EA taking a quick bite out of the market due to the upcoming title Quakewars (there is no direct evidence to support this, it is rather only an opinion shared among the community). As you can imagine, many of us (like me) did buy BF2 as it was the successor to BF1942. However, many did not buy BF2142 due to experiences with Battlefield 2, simply being afraid to invest in another game of bugs. According to forums and fan websites BF2142 has bugs and multiple patches for BF2142 have been released already.
The fact that a patch was published for BF2, resulting in a huge increase in game crashes (as far as 4 out 5 friends were unable to play the game), is unprecedented. Sure, mistakes are made. Day 1 patches are becoming more and more common. Currently the crash-bug has been (partly) fixed, however earlier bugs have returned. This seriously questions operating procedures at your Q&A department. Some bugs are so incredible obvious to see, resulting in many strange faces as to how this could have been missed before shipping a patch. This strange patching policy is further underlined by the fact DICE is now publishing things such as ‘beta’ patches, which results in situations as ‘patching a patch’. In my opinion, testing and quality assurance is not the task of the paying customer.
In this perspective, I think it is more than fair to make a good and final patch to BF2, insuring a stable build with good enough game balance. BF2 is a fun game and many still love to play it. And I would like to remind you that there at least 1.000.000 registered BF2-players (source: bf2tracker.com), as opposed to 500.000 players in BF2142 (source: official BF2142 site), the latter group partly being formed by people who skipped BF2. I think DICE, maybe pushed or encouraged by EA, has failed here to take a great opportunity to permanently win the community for them. This is something to think about.
I am disappointed to see DICE has left interaction with the community about BF2 to EA, which due its size and many games it publishes, is based on mostly voluntary work and people unable to make ‘official’ statements. Since any ‘ official’ Battlefield 2 news dates from may 2006, many feel DICE has ‘left’ Battlefield 2. As an example of excellent interaction with their community and fan base, I am naming examples such as Valve software and Relic entertainment for their continued support, direct communication and dedication to make bug free and cheat protected software.
Conclusively, many among the community appear to have become somewhat ‘negative’ towards DICE and the Battlefield franchise over time, although much hard work and dedication has been put in the game (which was underlined by the second prize at Gamespy game of the year award in 2005). Personally I think this fact is a shame and it does not do any justice to anyone working at DICE. The huge number of bugs, improper game balance and weak customer interaction two years after the official release of BF2, are still subject of heated debate among friends (on parties), forums and online message boards. I therefore call upon you as management to intervene. I hope you will appreciate my efforts in this matter.
I have attached a plan of approach with 65 points of interest to tackle the bugs and game balance issues within the software and to ‘revitalize’ the BF2 community. I have furthermore added an estimation of working hours for programmers and your testing department (bugs only), resulting in a cost which is under estimated under k€10 (54 working man hours plus an estimated 40 hours of testing at an average cost of €100 per hour, per person).
I thank you very much for your time and dedication.
Respectfully yours,
[add your name]
______________________________
Plan of approach:
Note: Bugs and improvements present in the current version are divided by topic into ‘menu’, ‘in game’ and ‘game balance’, followed by a suggested number of hours to fix by a single programmer (bugs only). All suggestions are for ‘vanilla’ BF2. P is a programmers' job, M is a mapmakers' job.
No. Menu bugs: Hours
1 The filters in the server list are not working properly, please add the use of wildcards (*) in the name filter. Also: if I type in the name filter ‘24’ and press enter, I do not get every server starting with ‘24’ (thus sowing 24/7 servers), instead I get nothing. I have to type in the complete name exactly to the letter. This isn't user friendly. Therefore it's never used. 0.5 P
2 There is no correct IP display in the connect screen. It still shows ‘(0’. We used this to inform our friends by teamspeak as to which server we were playing on. 0.5 P
3 The favorite menu is extremely sluggish. Instead of ‘live’ updates, favorites should be matched against the downloaded list of servers in the ‘join internet menu’. 3 P
4 Remove the ‘make favorite button’ in the favorites menu. Its absolutely useless. Make a server a favorite while it is already a favorite? 0.5 P
Menu improvements:
5 Version showing in the main menu should be exactly the same as patches published. I have installed patched 1.41 but my game version is 1.1.2965799.0. Isn’t that confusing if you need to find out if you need to patch? Maybe add '(1.41)' at the end of your internal version number. 0.5 P
6 The game mode pull down filter isn't actually needed. Almost all of the servers run conquest mode and single player is not a valid option (that's why its called singleplayer!). Please change in e. g. ‘vehicles’, ‘infantry only’ or other suggested game modes. This is better than the seperate checkbox 'infantry only' in the filter options. 4 P
7 When loading the next map, players can only recognize the next map being loaded by the background picture (which is very vague and shows only a screenshot of the next map). Please show: Nextmap [mapname]. This is useful if you want to stop the loading if you do not like the next map. 0.5 P
In game bugs:
8 The parachute drop allows players to get behind tilted walls (and sometimes inside buildings). It is frustrating to get spawnraped by someone who cannot be hit or seen (karkand, 3rd flag). Admins usually ban these players; still the exploit is used on a daily basis (add playerclip brushes to maps). See the many clips on how it's done on youtube. 8 M/P
9 When switching to the medic kit in game (e.g. from sniper to medic), secondly selecting the medic bag to heal yourself from a previous man to man battle (e.g. sniper vs. medic and you're pretty hurt), switching back too soon (99% health) to the sniper kit makes the annoying healing sound loop forever (until you die). This also applies to the ammo giving pack. Pling pling pling pling... 1.5 P
10 Looping and constant firing sounds from other players, even when they have stopped firing (sound stuck). This happens mostly with the medic, assault and support kits. 1.5 P
11 In vehicle mode, rockets (either mounted, shoulder fired or helicopter camera) sometimes pass through any vehicle, without exploding (resulting in a miss) ( please improve hitbox code). 4 P
12 A hit on back of the head (M24, L96A1) sometimes shows a clear hit (cross and dust puff clearly visible), but does zero damage (improve hitbox code). 4 P
13 Medic packs often fall through buildings (brushes) when dropped on the roof (improve hitbox code). 2 M/P
14 Your are hindered (slowed down) while running or sprinting and you are crossing a 8 cm high pavement edge. Like you always trip over the smallest objects (add playclip ramps?). 1 M/P
15 Knifing downward while kneeling on top of a prone enemy results sometimes in mulitple misses (improve hitbox code). 2 P
16 Ability to fast spin turrets (360 degrees) the (tank)turret, sometimes pushing players into buildings (earlier fix does not always work). Suggestion: use for mouse turret speed 50% of normal first person weapon mouse speed (and delete separate mouse speed for vehicles). 1 P
17 If you zoom with a scope weapon while prone close to a ledge, you will zoom out zoom in zoom out. Also, when zoomed and on/against a ledge, your crosshairs will vibrate once in a while. 1 M/P
In game improvements:
18 Remove/fade dead bodies that cannot be revived (sometimes you’ll try up till 3 revive attempts). 0.5 P
19 After disconnecting a server, then reconnecting and disconnecting again, any following reconnect to another server will result in a program crash (crash to desktop). ? P
20 Rubber grenades: bouncing properties in grenades too strong. Also, grenades en C4 fall through buildings sometimes. 0.5 P
21 Option to silence the commander voice messages such as (‘roger’,‘enemy spotted’, etc.). This is especially painful for the ears is a commander repeating ‘ enemy spotted’ while he uses the scanning device. For snipers it is impossible with all the radio chatter to hear enemy footsteps or concentrate on the shot. 1 P
22 Improve footsteps sounds (increase sound level). 0.5 P
23 Lack of punk buster updates (increased reports of cheating). 2 P
24 Block C4 and Claymores placement in cap zones. Since it's hard for sniper to get enough kills (they have no second mode of getting points), claymore spamming at flag are the preferred method of getting kills. 4 M/P
25 Prevent the ability to crawl into walls (thus exposing yourself less), If you hide close by a fence, your legs stuck through and you can get killed from the other side. 2 M/P
26 Players able to bunny hop/instant diving/rolling. It is impossible for snipers to make head shots (opponents are already in duck/prone mode) and it's nearly impossible to make body shots (M24, L96A1, M95) on 'rolling' enemies. 5 P
27 First person reload animations are often not playing (sniper kit, M24). 1 P
28 Dolphin diving is still present. There is absolutely no penalty in accuracy when diving, especially when rolling. Those who stop and aim In fact, those who dive will win the encounter. Suggestion: add delay 1 P
29 Ingame menu: server name and ip of the server you currently play on isn't often displayed at all. 2 P
Total of estimated hours for necessary bug fixes 55
Considered maybe not as a bug, but these are suggested urgent changes (exploits):
30 Prevent C4 ‘jumping’ /boosting on FF-off servers (or allow access to every roof). Remove or decrease 'push power'. 1 P
31 Prevent artillery and radar repair by supply drop (else there is no work for the engineer). Alternative: make the repair by supplydrop go slower on artillery. 1 P
32 M95 rendered useless by server rules/admins: thou shalt not camp the enemy base. So there is no shooting through cockpit glass.Also M95 has sometimes a 'rubber bullet' effect, taking 3 or more hits to kill an enemy. Some obvious hits are registred as complete misses. ? P
33 When sprinting, players press fire while running towards an enemy. Subsequently, letting go of the sprint button results in direct fire. This also works for jumping (scripting to fire a single bullet between jumps). Ignore input while sprinting (like strafe left and right are ignored). 0.5 P
34 Servers are plagued by base-raping. Suggestion: Attacking a player within his uncapable base should result in 'self-damage'. 4 P
35 Base-rape at flag points: Notorious is the first flag at Karkand (US side). Park your tank in the street behind the arc and have 10 kills in a row. Suggestion: move spawn points further away from flag points (first flag at Karkand: behind the wooden fence) 2 M/P
36 Roger that' flooding by teammates or the commander by pressing rapidly page up or page down. Please add a delay of 1,5 seconds. 1 P
Game balance suggestions/ exploits:
37 You should add an option, no airplanes or jeep only (due to the current unemployment of the engineer and rocket kits in infantry online game mode). 1 P
38 Let the engineer build/construct AA sites (so they can be randomly placed). 5 M/P
39 The accuracy of machineguns is disproportioned. E.g. at 150 meters a machine gunner can kill a sniper before he had the chance to place a second shot. 1 P
40 Make snipers invisible for radar, not for scan. You are so easily spotted, so your ghilli suit is actually useless. You are 'forced' to get close to the battle, because of the fog. Sniping only really works well in non- fogged maps. 1 P
41 Make the M24 and M95 crosshair thinner and add a second level of zoom to all sniper rifles (50 meters is not a sniping distance, 300 meters is!). This is actually preferred above shorter recocking times. Maybe add bonus points for a hit above a certain distance? 1 P
42 Secondary function on for every class should result in 1 point (thus reviving a teammate should be 1 point). This makes kits more even and game play much more fair ( now being medic = top score). 0.5 P
43 Make repairs go faster (medic scores 4 points on 2 revives in 2 seconds, engineer takes 30 seconds to score 1 repair point). 1 P
44 Limit number players with the same kits (to prevent medic squads who are impossible to kill). 1 P
45 Delay ability to fire when pronediving (now resulting in getting shot by a gunner who is on one 1 hand rolling upside down). Now it is a game of ‘who dives first’. At a 'one-on-one' encounter, he who dives first wins (since the roll animation severely limits chance of getting hit, diving is almost ‘instant’, both movements come without any recoil penalty. You’ll get shot by someone ‘floating’ in the air). 2 P
46 Prevent bunny hopping by limiting number of jumps to 2 (and add 3 second delay for new jumps). 1 P
47 Prevent reloading when jumping (great way to reload and dodge bullets). 0.5 P
48 Make the M95 one shot 1 kill on nonkevlar wearing players, reduce movement speed while holding M95 (it is a heavy weapon). Alternative: improve the M95 damage on jeeps, choppers, jets and equipment (it is an anti material weapon). At the moment, the rifle is useless (it does only 10% damage on a jeep...this should be at least 33%).. 1 P
49 Allow Euroforce (or expansion pack owners) choose European player models (EU+US versus the enemy). 4 P
50 Frontal shots on prone players (sniperkit) should result in headshot / instant kill (the only place you actually can hit is the head or top of the shoulders, the head makes 50% of the exposed surface). P
51 Remove instant kill by HS by e.g. L85A1, SVD, etc. What good is are the slow firing M24/M95/L96A1 then (please compare shots/second)? 1 P
52 Make artillery do 95% damage on prone players (no it just instant kills everyone in the zone, which feels ‘lame’). 1 P
53 Let the engineer build the radar/scan post freely in the map (making it fun for Special Forces to find them). 5 M/P
54 Jets are too fast for AA site rockets to catch up (they simply fly away when they hear the beep). Fixed AA positions are too easy targets and bombed constantly (rendering AA useless). Suggestion: Let the enginer construct AA sites anywhere on the map. Keep fixed AA sites away from trees. ? M/P
55 AA guns close to trees become useless, since the trees block your shot and view. Most helicopter and jet pilots use the tree side approach, rendering them invincible. ? M
56 Vehicle drop is pointless. Hardly any dropped jeep is used. There are enough jeeps at bases and they spawn at a regular interval. The drop-jeep option could actually work on infantry only servers! (Hint). ? P
57 Load out the rocket kit with portable AA as a alternative option for the antitank rocket. ? P
58 Equip rocket kits with a second fire mode to the rocket, resulting in straight firing (no lead, then no beep can be heard in tanks and helicopters). Alternative: Add the rebelrocket from Special Forces as a weapon switch option. ? P
59 Rockets do too little damage to choppers (if 2 AA rockets can kill it, so should 2 antitank rockets). ? P
60 If one team has no or bad jet pilot, the other team’s jet pilot dominates the game completely (they’ll even bomb a single player in the field). ? P
61 Medics should only be able to heal themselves by holding the med pack or picking up a bag from someone else. Now, they get shot, drop a bag, heal themselves and still kill their enemy. On infantry only servers, this is hardly to be considered fair. Suggestion: make a picked medic pack heal the player slowly, not 'instant' like it is now. ? P
62 Helicopter pilots who fly a gunship alone are able to fly real high, switch to the second seat, fire a tv- guided missile, make kills and switch back again to continue flying. During their action they fly so high, they cannot be hit by any AA (fixed or the AA tank). Suggestion: let the chopper drop from the sky or add a 'roof' (maximum hight to fly) for the chopper. ? M/P
63 Bugs that may still exist out of previous versions:
64 When a medic is killed by friendly fire and quickly revived by a teammate, this results in a full magazine for the medic that was shot, plus leaving additional kit bag on the floor (1.4 bug). See youtube for examples. ? P
65 Constant artillery attacks (no ‘reload’ time for artillery). ? P
I have written a letter to dice a few months ago, of course without any reply. I call upon you all to copy/past and print the text below, sign it and send it to the given address. If they don't read their forums enough, maybe they'll read the mail ( bags of mail impress far more than any post or e-mail can ever do).
I'll hope many of you will respond to this call, print it and send it. Maybe they will listen this time. Or if you have any other beef with DICE, you have their postal address. Or drop by if live close by
VISITING ADDRESS Katarinavägen 15 · POSTAL ADDRESS P.O. Box 20068, 104 60 Stockholm, Sweden
TELEPHONE +46-8-658 78 00 · FAX +46-8-658 78 99 · E-MAIL info@dice.se
Thanks!
Jobson
ps: On the EA forums the took my post out of the forum thread list, without any notice. I never broke any forum rule or used bad language. Guess they have some problem with criticism.
start of letter: print below.
____________________________________
To Mr. Mats Larsson, director
Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment
P.O. Box 20068
104 60 Stockholm
Sweden
From: The BF2 Community [or add your name]
Date: May, 2007
Reply adress: official BF2 website [fill in]
Subject: Battlefield 2
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you personally to request your attention to the following matter. I would like to urge DICE to make the necessary changes to the Battlefield 2 game, since many of the earlier requests of the community have been put aside and current patches have resulted in disappointment. Although you may have received letters and e-mails before, I am hoping that you’ll allow me to share my thoughts.
The new DICE website proclaims to make top-quality games. Such is true in the sense of graphics (which are in my opinion excellent) and game concepts. Bravo. But examination of the current (and last) build of Battlefield 2 however, does not do a proclamation such as yours any justice. To put it straightforward: Battlefield 2 is still plagued by too many faults and software bugs, of which some are to be classified as an absolute shame. It is a harsh comment, I admit, but the game feels it is still only 95% done, even two years after release.
Rest assure, the community is not requesting major chances to the game, it simply wants to keep enjoying BF2 and finally see those of the most obvious bugs disappear. I feel many simple requests and bug reports from the community were ignored, although BF2 was patched numerous of times (I will further discuss customer relations later on). I will try to prove that many requests are not unfair, quite affordable to repair and not particular painstaking to do (bugs all include software operation and game balance, none are of graphical nature). I’ve taken the liberty to attach a plan of approach to support my findings.
Many of us were surprised by the quick release of BF2142, often considered to as DICE/EA taking a quick bite out of the market due to the upcoming title Quakewars (there is no direct evidence to support this, it is rather only an opinion shared among the community). As you can imagine, many of us (like me) did buy BF2 as it was the successor to BF1942. However, many did not buy BF2142 due to experiences with Battlefield 2, simply being afraid to invest in another game of bugs. According to forums and fan websites BF2142 has bugs and multiple patches for BF2142 have been released already.
The fact that a patch was published for BF2, resulting in a huge increase in game crashes (as far as 4 out 5 friends were unable to play the game), is unprecedented. Sure, mistakes are made. Day 1 patches are becoming more and more common. Currently the crash-bug has been (partly) fixed, however earlier bugs have returned. This seriously questions operating procedures at your Q&A department. Some bugs are so incredible obvious to see, resulting in many strange faces as to how this could have been missed before shipping a patch. This strange patching policy is further underlined by the fact DICE is now publishing things such as ‘beta’ patches, which results in situations as ‘patching a patch’. In my opinion, testing and quality assurance is not the task of the paying customer.
In this perspective, I think it is more than fair to make a good and final patch to BF2, insuring a stable build with good enough game balance. BF2 is a fun game and many still love to play it. And I would like to remind you that there at least 1.000.000 registered BF2-players (source: bf2tracker.com), as opposed to 500.000 players in BF2142 (source: official BF2142 site), the latter group partly being formed by people who skipped BF2. I think DICE, maybe pushed or encouraged by EA, has failed here to take a great opportunity to permanently win the community for them. This is something to think about.
I am disappointed to see DICE has left interaction with the community about BF2 to EA, which due its size and many games it publishes, is based on mostly voluntary work and people unable to make ‘official’ statements. Since any ‘ official’ Battlefield 2 news dates from may 2006, many feel DICE has ‘left’ Battlefield 2. As an example of excellent interaction with their community and fan base, I am naming examples such as Valve software and Relic entertainment for their continued support, direct communication and dedication to make bug free and cheat protected software.
Conclusively, many among the community appear to have become somewhat ‘negative’ towards DICE and the Battlefield franchise over time, although much hard work and dedication has been put in the game (which was underlined by the second prize at Gamespy game of the year award in 2005). Personally I think this fact is a shame and it does not do any justice to anyone working at DICE. The huge number of bugs, improper game balance and weak customer interaction two years after the official release of BF2, are still subject of heated debate among friends (on parties), forums and online message boards. I therefore call upon you as management to intervene. I hope you will appreciate my efforts in this matter.
I have attached a plan of approach with 65 points of interest to tackle the bugs and game balance issues within the software and to ‘revitalize’ the BF2 community. I have furthermore added an estimation of working hours for programmers and your testing department (bugs only), resulting in a cost which is under estimated under k€10 (54 working man hours plus an estimated 40 hours of testing at an average cost of €100 per hour, per person).
I thank you very much for your time and dedication.
Respectfully yours,
[add your name]
______________________________
Plan of approach:
Note: Bugs and improvements present in the current version are divided by topic into ‘menu’, ‘in game’ and ‘game balance’, followed by a suggested number of hours to fix by a single programmer (bugs only). All suggestions are for ‘vanilla’ BF2. P is a programmers' job, M is a mapmakers' job.
No. Menu bugs: Hours
1 The filters in the server list are not working properly, please add the use of wildcards (*) in the name filter. Also: if I type in the name filter ‘24’ and press enter, I do not get every server starting with ‘24’ (thus sowing 24/7 servers), instead I get nothing. I have to type in the complete name exactly to the letter. This isn't user friendly. Therefore it's never used. 0.5 P
2 There is no correct IP display in the connect screen. It still shows ‘(0’. We used this to inform our friends by teamspeak as to which server we were playing on. 0.5 P
3 The favorite menu is extremely sluggish. Instead of ‘live’ updates, favorites should be matched against the downloaded list of servers in the ‘join internet menu’. 3 P
4 Remove the ‘make favorite button’ in the favorites menu. Its absolutely useless. Make a server a favorite while it is already a favorite? 0.5 P
Menu improvements:
5 Version showing in the main menu should be exactly the same as patches published. I have installed patched 1.41 but my game version is 1.1.2965799.0. Isn’t that confusing if you need to find out if you need to patch? Maybe add '(1.41)' at the end of your internal version number. 0.5 P
6 The game mode pull down filter isn't actually needed. Almost all of the servers run conquest mode and single player is not a valid option (that's why its called singleplayer!). Please change in e. g. ‘vehicles’, ‘infantry only’ or other suggested game modes. This is better than the seperate checkbox 'infantry only' in the filter options. 4 P
7 When loading the next map, players can only recognize the next map being loaded by the background picture (which is very vague and shows only a screenshot of the next map). Please show: Nextmap [mapname]. This is useful if you want to stop the loading if you do not like the next map. 0.5 P
In game bugs:
8 The parachute drop allows players to get behind tilted walls (and sometimes inside buildings). It is frustrating to get spawnraped by someone who cannot be hit or seen (karkand, 3rd flag). Admins usually ban these players; still the exploit is used on a daily basis (add playerclip brushes to maps). See the many clips on how it's done on youtube. 8 M/P
9 When switching to the medic kit in game (e.g. from sniper to medic), secondly selecting the medic bag to heal yourself from a previous man to man battle (e.g. sniper vs. medic and you're pretty hurt), switching back too soon (99% health) to the sniper kit makes the annoying healing sound loop forever (until you die). This also applies to the ammo giving pack. Pling pling pling pling... 1.5 P
10 Looping and constant firing sounds from other players, even when they have stopped firing (sound stuck). This happens mostly with the medic, assault and support kits. 1.5 P
11 In vehicle mode, rockets (either mounted, shoulder fired or helicopter camera) sometimes pass through any vehicle, without exploding (resulting in a miss) ( please improve hitbox code). 4 P
12 A hit on back of the head (M24, L96A1) sometimes shows a clear hit (cross and dust puff clearly visible), but does zero damage (improve hitbox code). 4 P
13 Medic packs often fall through buildings (brushes) when dropped on the roof (improve hitbox code). 2 M/P
14 Your are hindered (slowed down) while running or sprinting and you are crossing a 8 cm high pavement edge. Like you always trip over the smallest objects (add playclip ramps?). 1 M/P
15 Knifing downward while kneeling on top of a prone enemy results sometimes in mulitple misses (improve hitbox code). 2 P
16 Ability to fast spin turrets (360 degrees) the (tank)turret, sometimes pushing players into buildings (earlier fix does not always work). Suggestion: use for mouse turret speed 50% of normal first person weapon mouse speed (and delete separate mouse speed for vehicles). 1 P
17 If you zoom with a scope weapon while prone close to a ledge, you will zoom out zoom in zoom out. Also, when zoomed and on/against a ledge, your crosshairs will vibrate once in a while. 1 M/P
In game improvements:
18 Remove/fade dead bodies that cannot be revived (sometimes you’ll try up till 3 revive attempts). 0.5 P
19 After disconnecting a server, then reconnecting and disconnecting again, any following reconnect to another server will result in a program crash (crash to desktop). ? P
20 Rubber grenades: bouncing properties in grenades too strong. Also, grenades en C4 fall through buildings sometimes. 0.5 P
21 Option to silence the commander voice messages such as (‘roger’,‘enemy spotted’, etc.). This is especially painful for the ears is a commander repeating ‘ enemy spotted’ while he uses the scanning device. For snipers it is impossible with all the radio chatter to hear enemy footsteps or concentrate on the shot. 1 P
22 Improve footsteps sounds (increase sound level). 0.5 P
23 Lack of punk buster updates (increased reports of cheating). 2 P
24 Block C4 and Claymores placement in cap zones. Since it's hard for sniper to get enough kills (they have no second mode of getting points), claymore spamming at flag are the preferred method of getting kills. 4 M/P
25 Prevent the ability to crawl into walls (thus exposing yourself less), If you hide close by a fence, your legs stuck through and you can get killed from the other side. 2 M/P
26 Players able to bunny hop/instant diving/rolling. It is impossible for snipers to make head shots (opponents are already in duck/prone mode) and it's nearly impossible to make body shots (M24, L96A1, M95) on 'rolling' enemies. 5 P
27 First person reload animations are often not playing (sniper kit, M24). 1 P
28 Dolphin diving is still present. There is absolutely no penalty in accuracy when diving, especially when rolling. Those who stop and aim In fact, those who dive will win the encounter. Suggestion: add delay 1 P
29 Ingame menu: server name and ip of the server you currently play on isn't often displayed at all. 2 P
Total of estimated hours for necessary bug fixes 55
Considered maybe not as a bug, but these are suggested urgent changes (exploits):
30 Prevent C4 ‘jumping’ /boosting on FF-off servers (or allow access to every roof). Remove or decrease 'push power'. 1 P
31 Prevent artillery and radar repair by supply drop (else there is no work for the engineer). Alternative: make the repair by supplydrop go slower on artillery. 1 P
32 M95 rendered useless by server rules/admins: thou shalt not camp the enemy base. So there is no shooting through cockpit glass.Also M95 has sometimes a 'rubber bullet' effect, taking 3 or more hits to kill an enemy. Some obvious hits are registred as complete misses. ? P
33 When sprinting, players press fire while running towards an enemy. Subsequently, letting go of the sprint button results in direct fire. This also works for jumping (scripting to fire a single bullet between jumps). Ignore input while sprinting (like strafe left and right are ignored). 0.5 P
34 Servers are plagued by base-raping. Suggestion: Attacking a player within his uncapable base should result in 'self-damage'. 4 P
35 Base-rape at flag points: Notorious is the first flag at Karkand (US side). Park your tank in the street behind the arc and have 10 kills in a row. Suggestion: move spawn points further away from flag points (first flag at Karkand: behind the wooden fence) 2 M/P
36 Roger that' flooding by teammates or the commander by pressing rapidly page up or page down. Please add a delay of 1,5 seconds. 1 P
Game balance suggestions/ exploits:
37 You should add an option, no airplanes or jeep only (due to the current unemployment of the engineer and rocket kits in infantry online game mode). 1 P
38 Let the engineer build/construct AA sites (so they can be randomly placed). 5 M/P
39 The accuracy of machineguns is disproportioned. E.g. at 150 meters a machine gunner can kill a sniper before he had the chance to place a second shot. 1 P
40 Make snipers invisible for radar, not for scan. You are so easily spotted, so your ghilli suit is actually useless. You are 'forced' to get close to the battle, because of the fog. Sniping only really works well in non- fogged maps. 1 P
41 Make the M24 and M95 crosshair thinner and add a second level of zoom to all sniper rifles (50 meters is not a sniping distance, 300 meters is!). This is actually preferred above shorter recocking times. Maybe add bonus points for a hit above a certain distance? 1 P
42 Secondary function on for every class should result in 1 point (thus reviving a teammate should be 1 point). This makes kits more even and game play much more fair ( now being medic = top score). 0.5 P
43 Make repairs go faster (medic scores 4 points on 2 revives in 2 seconds, engineer takes 30 seconds to score 1 repair point). 1 P
44 Limit number players with the same kits (to prevent medic squads who are impossible to kill). 1 P
45 Delay ability to fire when pronediving (now resulting in getting shot by a gunner who is on one 1 hand rolling upside down). Now it is a game of ‘who dives first’. At a 'one-on-one' encounter, he who dives first wins (since the roll animation severely limits chance of getting hit, diving is almost ‘instant’, both movements come without any recoil penalty. You’ll get shot by someone ‘floating’ in the air). 2 P
46 Prevent bunny hopping by limiting number of jumps to 2 (and add 3 second delay for new jumps). 1 P
47 Prevent reloading when jumping (great way to reload and dodge bullets). 0.5 P
48 Make the M95 one shot 1 kill on nonkevlar wearing players, reduce movement speed while holding M95 (it is a heavy weapon). Alternative: improve the M95 damage on jeeps, choppers, jets and equipment (it is an anti material weapon). At the moment, the rifle is useless (it does only 10% damage on a jeep...this should be at least 33%).. 1 P
49 Allow Euroforce (or expansion pack owners) choose European player models (EU+US versus the enemy). 4 P
50 Frontal shots on prone players (sniperkit) should result in headshot / instant kill (the only place you actually can hit is the head or top of the shoulders, the head makes 50% of the exposed surface). P
51 Remove instant kill by HS by e.g. L85A1, SVD, etc. What good is are the slow firing M24/M95/L96A1 then (please compare shots/second)? 1 P
52 Make artillery do 95% damage on prone players (no it just instant kills everyone in the zone, which feels ‘lame’). 1 P
53 Let the engineer build the radar/scan post freely in the map (making it fun for Special Forces to find them). 5 M/P
54 Jets are too fast for AA site rockets to catch up (they simply fly away when they hear the beep). Fixed AA positions are too easy targets and bombed constantly (rendering AA useless). Suggestion: Let the enginer construct AA sites anywhere on the map. Keep fixed AA sites away from trees. ? M/P
55 AA guns close to trees become useless, since the trees block your shot and view. Most helicopter and jet pilots use the tree side approach, rendering them invincible. ? M
56 Vehicle drop is pointless. Hardly any dropped jeep is used. There are enough jeeps at bases and they spawn at a regular interval. The drop-jeep option could actually work on infantry only servers! (Hint). ? P
57 Load out the rocket kit with portable AA as a alternative option for the antitank rocket. ? P
58 Equip rocket kits with a second fire mode to the rocket, resulting in straight firing (no lead, then no beep can be heard in tanks and helicopters). Alternative: Add the rebelrocket from Special Forces as a weapon switch option. ? P
59 Rockets do too little damage to choppers (if 2 AA rockets can kill it, so should 2 antitank rockets). ? P
60 If one team has no or bad jet pilot, the other team’s jet pilot dominates the game completely (they’ll even bomb a single player in the field). ? P
61 Medics should only be able to heal themselves by holding the med pack or picking up a bag from someone else. Now, they get shot, drop a bag, heal themselves and still kill their enemy. On infantry only servers, this is hardly to be considered fair. Suggestion: make a picked medic pack heal the player slowly, not 'instant' like it is now. ? P
62 Helicopter pilots who fly a gunship alone are able to fly real high, switch to the second seat, fire a tv- guided missile, make kills and switch back again to continue flying. During their action they fly so high, they cannot be hit by any AA (fixed or the AA tank). Suggestion: let the chopper drop from the sky or add a 'roof' (maximum hight to fly) for the chopper. ? M/P
63 Bugs that may still exist out of previous versions:
64 When a medic is killed by friendly fire and quickly revived by a teammate, this results in a full magazine for the medic that was shot, plus leaving additional kit bag on the floor (1.4 bug). See youtube for examples. ? P
65 Constant artillery attacks (no ‘reload’ time for artillery). ? P
