A big first patch has been released for Battlefield 3 on the PC, with the console versions coming shortly due to the lengthier approval process. Included in the update are a variety of new features and a host of bug fixes.
Included will be general performance and load time improvements, plus several factors causing the game to crash have now been sorted. For PC gamers specifically, there’s now single sign-on from Battlelog to Origin, plus unranked servers if you fancy a more relaxing game of Battlefield, although there’s no indication whether this might lead to community modifications at some point in the future.
You’re also able to share profile and stats pages to Facebook, Twitter and Google+, but more important for most of us are the gameplay changes, which include fixes such as ‘You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM, SQDM or Conquest’, plus tweaks to damage and range on a number of weapons, and grenades now drop to the ground if you’re killed mid-throw.
The EOD Bot exploit has now been fixed, there are improvements to the ‘team kill kick’ configuration, and there are a lot of changes to the Squad and Platoon options, which are definitely going to improve the console experience shortly.
Battlefield 3 patch: Squad and Platoon changes:
Players can join empty Squads alone, and the ‘Find Me a Squad’ option has been removed. Instead, you’ll now be able to cycle through available squads, which will make it a lot easier to actually play alongside your friends, rather than spending one or two rounds messing around changing teams and constantly jumping from squad to squad to find them mid-game.
Empty squads will display in white to show there’s space available, occupied squads will be coloured blue, and although squad privacy flags will be disabled if you’re in a 1-man squad, two-player squads can still go private.
Update highlights:
Patch Notes:
General performance and loading time improvements
• “Black Screen” fix for an issue occurring on some PC configurations
• Stereo and rendering support for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards
• Fixed several crashes that occurred when joining multiplayer and co-op sessions
• Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement (aka “negative mouse acceleration”)
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it (dangerous in Hardcore mode!)
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM, SQDM, or Conquest
• A large number of damage and range tweaks on a number of weapons to fine-tune overall balance in the game
• Added round duration and ticket summary at End of Round screen
• Fixed a problem regarding key bindings while playing
• Significant changes to the Join Squad interface, detailed at the bottom of this post
Server side:
• EOD Bot exploit fix
• Several crash fixes
• Anti-stat padding measures taken, disallowing ranked servers to run obscure settings
• Improved team kill kick configuration
• Support for unranked servers. Unranked servers do not report players’ scores to Battlelog, but server administrators can freely control all settings
Battlelog:
• Ability to share your Profile and Stats pages to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
• User Profile and Stats pages on Battlelog can now be accessed without being signed in to Battlelog if you know a user’s URL
• Single sign on from Battlelog to Origin. If you’re not logged in to Origin and join a game server, Battlelog will automatically sign you in to Origin in the background and join the game server
Squad changes:
• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad Selection screen
• Players who choose not to join squads will also show up as Blue in the “Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white — if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text
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