PDA

View Full Version : EA / DICE, BF2 and ranks,points, etc...


g6am3
5th September 2005, 09:47
My hope is that many if not most of you will give this a good read and possibly send your own version of this to EA / DICE.

Games are meant to be fun, but lately for ones of the MMO or BF2 types we are given more of a second job then a game.

Here is an email that I sent to EA. Use it as you wish.

My points have changed of course and so has the top players as well, but i think the point it shows is still more then valid.

Anyway....begin rank:


To Whom It May Concern:


It has recently come to my attention the requirements for promotions, awards, and ribbons for your online game Battlefield 2. The source of the majority of this information I have been reading is the http://www.totalbf2.com/strategy website.
It is not only my opinion but the opinion of many others whom I am sure will be emailing you as well that many of the requirements are so high to the extreme that they may never be obtained by anyone, at least not anyone playing the game as you intended.

I say this on the premise that I as the most playing member of my clan have had the game since its release and am just now about to hit 7500 global points. I feel as well as many others that the ranks for promotion need to be reduced significantly. This will entice players to play more knowing that promotions are more obtainable. This will also reduce the amount of exploits and cheating that is currently taking place. I mean after all this is a game and is meant to be fun and enjoyable and not like a 2nd job that you must put in X amount of hours etc to even advance in rank, let alone certain ribbons, badges and awards that REQUIRE huge amounts of time in game, and even then in certain classes.

I give to you as an example of one such ribbon. For one to earn the expert medic badge or the expert support badge you must play each of those classes separate for 1000 hours for a total of 2000 hours. Why not make it just an overall global time of having played the game period, yet leave the other requirements where they are????

On the ranks for promotions I give you the following example: for Corporal rank at this time you need 10500 global points, 25000 for the next and 50000 for the next. Why not lower this to say 5000 for corporal, 10000 for Sergeant, and 15000 for Staff Sergeant, then on in this order, 20k, 30k, 40k, 60k, 80k, 100k+??? A five thousand point spread is a lot more friendly to the player community then 10000, 25000, 75000 and 100000 leaps to make rank. I already have clan members talking about leaving the game because requirements are not realistic for game and I tend to agree.

Another point of interest is the experience point system. We lose 4 points for any team kill whether we are forgiven or not and there are no opposite experience gainers to counter it. The beset we can do to gain is capturing a CP for +2. If the current rank promotions table is not reduced what about a revamp of the experience point gaining system? The team kill portion of the game itself is an area that many feel needs a serious looking into, for there is nothing more frustrating that someone who is not paying attention to what is going on to drive over a mine you placed and blowing up giving you -4 points or a group of people running \ driving into an area where artillery is being dropped sometimes placing you even into the negatives despite your efforts to keep them back or away until the artillery stops.

In the end all I ask is that you take a second look at the current requirements for all ranks, awards, badges, ribbons and global points in general. I think you may see as well the point I am trying to make. The highest point player in the game at this time is 46000 and I can tell you that many of us even question how that person or the others are already in the 20-30 thousand point range without cheating, exploiting, padding etc. Will EA be looking into these players with such high points already? It is traceable since all stats are tracked and should be fairly easy to verify if someone has worked their way to such high points or exploited their way to the lead. The perception given by EA at this time is that several exploits will be removed with the 1.3 patch, but nothing will be done to the accounts which have been using these exploits to gain such high points.

I implore you to think on my suggestions and maybe unlike the recent incident where the stats server was hacked we all can avoid future issues for one could easily say that it was due to the high requirements and exploiting players the stats server was even hacked and not because it was vulnerable.

Thank you for your time,
Vr,


End Rank!

Shazz
5th September 2005, 09:57
This is true, also some of the mdels, what they require seems far too over the top

LozB
5th September 2005, 10:25
there is life outside of bf2 apparently ;)

HEAD-d^_^b
5th September 2005, 10:33
As DICE stated in one of there first interviews BF2 is designed to have a 5 year life. The amount of ranking points needed to advance is designed with this in mind.

Sure it would be nice to have all the medals and all the unlocked weapons, but if within the year everyone has reached to top rung of the ladder the system will become meaningless.

JeRkY
5th September 2005, 11:02
ranks suck any way,, the real joy of this game isnt in ranking up your ultimately meaningless stats, it is playing in clan games, as a team and using tactics/skill to overcome the opposition.

clan games are always played with ranking turned off, and no unlocks available. So you may be the biggest baddest general in the world on the publics, but could well find your self continually out classed by a lowly PFC in aclan game situation.

LozB
5th September 2005, 11:13
good point jerky.

but as most people play on Ranked public servers then ranks / unlocks are probably percieved as being more important.

for example, a low ranked player is always beaten by a high ranked player when attempting to become the commander.
wrt unlocks, certains weapons have real advantages.

Whilst most folk probably dont play in clan based games where everything is locked, rankings mean a lot..

I play clan based matches and most of the time we unlock weapons...

g6am3
5th September 2005, 12:27
Well it has been my experience that most do not want to play on unranked servers as it is time lost towards earning points.

5 year life span for a game, yeah right. This game will be lucky to last a year for I would say 95% of the current players.


Ultimately it comes down to money I think. They make these huge requirements in the hope it will hold people to the game longer, but in reality it only increases the urge of the masses to cheat and exploit thier way to the weapons they want.

Notice the old #1 guy had his account reset by EA and DICE already for stat padding.

Oh and about the medals. 3000 hours, sure... 125 days non-stop playing to earn?? Please...........

Wildc@rd
5th September 2005, 15:07
i dont agree, the weapon upgrades i feel are purely based upon percieved performance

It all comes down to practice for instance the standard sniper rifle in comparison to the barret50 is identicial, it just requires better shot placement, even in a m20 barret 50 standoff the barret user must have a well placed shot otherwise it gives the m20 user the time between reload to place a perfect shot killing the player

The Sa80 medic upgrade is crap on full auto, bu awsome on single shot, in comparison the original 3 shot burst rifle can kill faster than the sa80, but lacks a scope

its all swings and roundabouts IMO

I believe its like with cs and re skinning the guns, with a skin you like the look of often you play far better.

Its purely psychological

however i agree the tk punish rules is pure Suxxorz.

Wildc@rd


oh and feel free to disagree!;)

andyf
5th September 2005, 15:54
I'd like an answer to this question:

Will we, at some point in time, be able to play clan matches with the unlockable weapons in use, without the need for all players to have unlocked the items ?

Am I right in thinking that EA will 'clamp down' on any server, ranked or unranked, that runs any sort of mod designed to circumvent the rank-for-unlocks system? Because I'm sorry EA, but I don't have 6 hours of my life to devote to playing your game every day to get the required points.

K
5th September 2005, 16:12
Unlikely.

oxy
5th September 2005, 16:16
most leagues dont allow this as a rule...

there is a work around but ea said they would punish those who do it :P

no friends
5th September 2005, 16:18
Originally posted by andyf
Am I right in thinking that EA will 'clamp down' on any server, ranked or unranked, that runs any sort of mod designed to circumvent the rank-for-unlocks system? Because I'm sorry EA, but I don't have 6 hours of my life to devote to playing your game every day to get the required points.

Totally agree with you there.
I only play BF2 abuot once a week, i play in unranked servers, normally get kicked for tank whoring, for me, i like to play the game for a couple of huors. I would woulod like to see what the other weapons are like within the game, but i don't have that much time for the game...
poo you ea.

g6am3
5th September 2005, 18:40
This reply is to Wildcard.

First, and not to stir anything i fail to see the point you are making. My posting has nothing to do about comparing weapons. Which by the way your example is flawed.

Aiming is aiming period, but the different weapons do make a huge difference in the outcome. missed perfect shot with M95 still equals about 1/2 health loss, while missed m24 equals only about 1/4.

Medic rifle is best used in single fire unless you are in close quarters and even there it out performs the m16a2 dramatically.

You ay that it is all in a persons head and that skinning makes all the issues go away. how so????? one guy has a skinned a m4, another has a skinned a g36c, they both are equal skill, they meet around a corner and who lives???

Or m16a2 assault, bullet mode, verses assault with g3 on same corner. Or m16a2 assault against same g3 guy at very long range with single shot.

Saying that skinning makes game is like saying if you were to skin the jeep to look like a tank I could take on the real tank and win??

I say this not as a braggered, I have 3 weapons unlocked, hoping to have four, but that will be a long while. The point is that the BAR that has been set is not in the best interest of the gamer. I go back to saying that this whole 500, 1000, 10500 promotion deal is nothing more then a cheap second hand thought of EA and Dice to try and hold gamers to the game as long as they can.

Also, back to the post about 5 years was the goal of the game. Look back over the past 5 years. What games have held on till today. Now out of those, how many have a ranking system that is like a second job for folks if they want to play with all the toys that can be unlocked?

Aardvark
5th September 2005, 18:46
If you want to use all the unlocks, you could create multiple accounts and play to the first 2 unlocks of each. Not too hard, but then again I wouldn't be surprised if this is also banned...

K
5th September 2005, 18:55
What you are missing is this is innovation. They have taken longevity parts from MMOG's and injected it into FPS genre. Love it or hate it that's whats happened and yes they are trying to stretch out the longevity of their game that's only common business sense.

The bar may well have been set incorrectly but going by the number of players on the ranked servers its something that people will aspire to and as such it is serving its purpose.

As for whats in the future for the ranked system only time will tell :)