Post by Eorl @ 03:46pm 19/08/11 | 104 Comments
"DICE’s Alan Kertz has confirmed that in order to switch servers, you have to exit Battlefield 3, and use Battlelog to find another server and join.
Granted, Kertz points out that BF3 “starts up really fast”, but we can’t imagine it being more effective than having an in-game server browser, which has been the norm in PC games for decades — in fact, there’s no other game that requires you to exit in order to switch servers."
Read more over at BF3Blog. Also, a twitter response has confirmed that BF3 apparently starts up extremely fast.
Another tweet from Alan Kertz "Battlelog IS the PC main menu. You go straight from Battlelog to playing. No splash screens, no menus. Just straight to the playing."
More tweets from Alan Kertz, somewhat clearing certain features of this new "browser".
"Finally, you can use all the features of Battlelog while playing via alt-tab. So you can check stats or browse servers in play (unlike BC2).
Yes! And you can keep checking stats, etc while the game loads in the background. Then go right to playing when it's ready.
The game is designed to support alt tab to Battlelog. It works wonderfully.
Battlelog on the web also makes it easier for us to support you the players. We can build a better Server Browser on Battlelog.
Nope, because that's the way the game is designed, we can skip loading a menu this way and reduce the time."
Also, another little golden egg, apparently "players and vehicles in smoke when it detonates are spot immune for a few sec." Meaning? Well, the usual BC2 spotting means you can spot anyone anywhere, no matter the LoS (Line of Sight). This system seems to be enforcing the LoS mechanic. promoted forum item
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Posted 03:49pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:50pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:51pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:53pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:55pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:57pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:57pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:57pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:59pm 19/8/11
Posted 03:59pm 19/8/11
Yes, but it sadly doesn't work like that. You have to exit the game, according to the twitter response.
Posted 04:04pm 19/8/11
headdesk
Posted 04:06pm 19/8/11
at least now i won't have to fire up the game (and sit thorugh the typical "EA GAMES" logo s***) just to see if its worth jumping into a multiplayer game or go to work that day (i expect to get a pretty sever cold around the BF3 release date)
an option for both really should be on the cards though, but for dice i hardly think its going to make much of a difference to their bottom dollar.
Posted 04:12pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:13pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:15pm 19/8/11
EA had to take the ONE GUY they usually put to work on the in-game server browser code and put him to task writing the dedicated server code, so now we're stuck with launching games via a web browser!
GOOD ONE!
Posted 04:15pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:17pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:26pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:31pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:32pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:32pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:35pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:38pm 19/8/11
LOLOLOLOL!
Ah I'm sure they'll have this figured out, surely they aren't that stupid. Quake Live runs off a browser and you don't connect to other servers in game. No one really has an issue with that system.
last edited by Python at 16:38:42 19/Aug/11
Posted 04:37pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:42pm 19/8/11
On the plus side it might slow down rage-quitting if it's a pain in the arse to drop out and re-join.
Posted 04:46pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:51pm 19/8/11
Posted 04:59pm 19/8/11
Posted 05:08pm 19/8/11
Posted 05:08pm 19/8/11
Posted 05:14pm 19/8/11
Posted 05:19pm 19/8/11
Posted 05:48pm 19/8/11
Posted 06:01pm 19/8/11
Wow. They could have avoided a whole lot of rage if they had explained themselves properly the first time. I image a few people might have cancelled internet preorders over this issue.
Posted 06:09pm 19/8/11
Posted 06:17pm 19/8/11
- Finally find decent server that's not full
- Join server
- Load game
- Server is full message
- game quits back to server browser
This doesn't sound that s*** though. The MW in game browsers have been utterly useless at launch and still are rather iffy. If this server browser works, then I'm content
Posted 06:28pm 19/8/11
Posted 06:45pm 19/8/11
Posted 06:53pm 19/8/11
Posted 06:54pm 19/8/11
Which is stupid because console gamers will never be as good as pc gamers.
Posted 07:18pm 19/8/11
1)no steam
2)Forcing people who buy retail to use orgin
3)Heaps of s***** little dlc
4)Now this
This has now got me thinking on whether or not to buy the game...
Posted 07:23pm 19/8/11
This. F*** you EA if i didn't already pre-order you fkfkfkfkkfkfkf
Posted 07:26pm 19/8/11
Posted 07:39pm 19/8/11
Posted 08:53pm 19/8/11
Posted 08:55pm 19/8/11
Posted 09:08pm 19/8/11
Posted 09:13pm 19/8/11
Posted 10:11pm 19/8/11
Posted 10:14pm 19/8/11
Posted 10:15pm 19/8/11
Posted 11:09pm 19/8/11
You know this doesn't somehow justify your decision to pirate the game, it still makes you a bottom feeding waste of oxygen. I wonder if you tried "I didn't agree with Holden's policies, so I decided to steal a Commodore to show them I'm not into that s***" as a defense in court, whether it would fly.
I hate to sound like the stupid anti-piracy ads you see before movies, but seriously, grow up.
Posted 12:01am 20/8/11
This cant be worse than other bf server browsers.
Still buying..
Posted 12:53am 20/8/11
Posted 08:35am 20/8/11
Posted 09:07am 20/8/11
Posted 09:22am 20/8/11
Posted 12:45pm 20/8/11
Posted 12:45pm 20/8/11
Posted 12:41pm 20/8/11
Origin will be a buggy POS that im sure will not b able to handle the capacity of players and will bottleneck somewhere. + will be having the usual EA problems.
But no servers in game for pc users is the biggest palm in the face.... There is absolutely no point other than to be total c****tains.
im betting you will need to log in to some special EA site to view these servers aswell, just another level of s*** that can f*** up so you cant play a game you paid for.
Posted 12:54pm 20/8/11
This.
Posted 01:12pm 20/8/11
Conquest up to 64 Player / 64 Slots
Rushmode 32 Player / .... yes i have rented a 64 Slot
Team Deathmatch 24 Player / .... yes i have rented 64 Slots.
Welcome to the new BF World.^^
Posted 01:21pm 20/8/11
Posted 01:24pm 20/8/11
Seriously F*** you EA.
Posted 06:26pm 20/8/11
Posted 06:36pm 20/8/11
Posted 07:20pm 20/8/11
The main screen on your browser is a splash screen of your soldier and his rank/stats/unlocks and latest forum posts you have made on the official forums.
To say there is no server browser is quite deceitful. There is a full functioning server browser that allows you to filter by region, ping, full, empty and all the usual s*** and it was 1000x more responsive and useful than BC2's ingame browser and even BF2's.
There is a quick match thing you can press and it reserves you a slot instantly and connects you, from clicking quickmatch to spawning was around 40 seconds max.
If anyone has anymore questions I can try to remember and answer.
Posted 08:12pm 20/8/11
40 seconds though sounds like an awful long time.
Posted 08:31pm 20/8/11
You're telling me you can start bc2, login to your soldier, find a server, join it in under 40 seconds?
People are freaking out over nothing.
Posted 08:38pm 20/8/11
Posted 09:59pm 20/8/11
40 seconds was a probably a overstatement. I was probably spawning in around 20 seconds. But my pc is pretty sick. It used to take me around a minute to load bf2 maps back in the day and this was worlds quicker and smoother.
Edit: For performance junkies, I was able to close my web browser while in game it and had no effect (apart from freeing up memory i suppose). I do not know if this will be the same in the retail version but I cant see why closing the browser would sever your game connection.
Posted 09:56pm 20/8/11
Posted 10:14pm 20/8/11
It is quite seamless with no intro movies and other annoying s*** you are used to from EA games.
Edit: I'm not trying to be some EA suck up or whatever, I would love a quick, smooth functional in game server browser but what they are offering is not bad. It works rather well.
Edit2: Also keep in mind this browser service has to work and work well. They can't sort of put it on the back burner like they did with BC2. This is a core function and if it isnt very functional on release EVERYONE will spew, not just aussies because we cant sort servers like in bc2.
Posted 10:27pm 20/8/11
Posted 11:01pm 20/8/11
EVERYONE RUSH TO CONCLUSIONS 2 MONTHS BEFORE THE GAME IS RELEASED
Posted 11:26pm 20/8/11
Posted 11:41pm 20/8/11
Posted 12:12am 21/8/11
Posted 12:17am 21/8/11
Posted 10:19am 21/8/11
Moving the game info s*** into the web would make it easier to maintain and manage it (often no need to patch the client) but if done badly it could be very s***.
If it has "Windowed full screen" mode then it could even be BETTER for the multi-monitor crowd than in game stuff.
Posted 10:43am 21/8/11
Posted 12:42pm 21/8/11
Does that get picked up as file tampering in MP?
Posted 06:54pm 21/8/11
Posted 07:06pm 21/8/11
Posted 07:26pm 21/8/11
Posted 07:46pm 21/8/11
I've never noticed a huge hit when playing other games that have full screen windowed support, a few frames at best?
But even so, your second monitor doesn't black out or stop updating when you play a fullscreen game, and alt-tabbing to the browser window should be snappy anyway if its been built with alt-tab in mind...
Posted 08:03pm 21/8/11
I'm soo disappointed.
Posted 08:14pm 21/8/11
Posted 08:24pm 21/8/11
Posted 09:40pm 21/8/11
Posted 09:53pm 21/8/11
Posted 10:25pm 21/8/11
Cos it seems like a step backwards. Even if it works, and the web-based server browser is great, it still feels like a step backwards from an in-game integrated server browser to me. Everyones talking about how its like Serverquery, or its like All Seeing Eye, but thats kinda whats wrong with it, its like 10 year old tech when it should be like current tech.
I'm with-holding my final opinion till I've actually tried it, but thats the impression I'm getting atm. It might be perfectly functional, but it feels like a weird step backwards.
Posted 11:35pm 21/8/11
Posted 11:55pm 21/8/11
Posted 12:03am 22/8/11
Although I did kind of enjoy the campaign of MW until I got bored of it and quit.
Posted 12:05am 22/8/11
Posted 12:06am 22/8/11
Posted 06:36am 22/8/11
Posted 08:10am 22/8/11
Posted 08:33am 22/8/11
Posted 08:59am 22/8/11
though they did 'consolise' the LD42 one.
I was building a mod with a mate using our own server and it just got to be too much of a pita just to get onto it.
things may have been fixed since then but we just quit the project after weeks of frustration.
last edited by koopz at 08:59:37 22/Aug/11
Posted 09:29am 22/8/11
Huh? Seems perfectly forwards-stepping given how much s*** is going into that webcloud thingy these days..
Posted 09:34am 22/8/11
Posted 09:35am 22/8/11
Maybe they are intending to but just haven't explained it yet, it seems like such a no-brainer to integrate the game with their online portal better.