I don't, and here's a few reasons why...

• Most apparent root-problem of every unbalanced server. Every server with just 1 of 2 commander slots occupied is on a fast track to being a one-sided mess. One guy can ruin the fun for at least 32 players, just by being there, respectively not being there. One side has UAVs, a gunship or cruise missiles, quicker spawns, the benefit of the HVT-debuff, supply drops, and god knows what else.... whilst the other side? Is fucked!
• Doesn't add any strategic depth in-game to the players on the server, but adds lots of frustrating deaths and situations.
• The new rules for the HighValueTarget-debuff are the worst. Since the most current patch, you only need to kill one foe to qualify for the HVT debuff, which shows your position to all enemies via a highly visible 3D mark, through geometry and everything. Essentially giving your foes the benefit of a wallhack on you. I'm a high risk frontline player, always pushing, often behind enemy lines - I am the cursed HVT all the frigging time, it's fucking horrid. The official wallhack Commander debuff is the worst skill mitigator that has ever been introduced to FPS videogames in the history of videogames. Laughable design. It was a bitch being tagged HVT before the patch, but at least I was already on an epic killstreak at that point, and not just at the start of putting my plans in motion.

Overall, I think Commander mode is the worst. I liked it a lot better, when the kits had Commander-like abilities. Pointing my finger at something, saying *BOOM*, and 10 seconds later a barrage of hard rain comes down on it? That's the kind of authority I like.

The worst thing is, I suspect most players don't even understand how fucked their efforts are, when only one commander is on the field, and how all the UAV spamming and whatnot interfers with their gameplay, even if both Commanders are present. Guess why your K/D sucks this round? Because you're constantly lit up on the minimap. I fear Commander mode doesn't get enough hate, and might make a return in whatever comes next for Battlefield. Ugh!

Be advised. Commander mode is the worst thing that ever happend to Battlefield. Even worse than lock-on warfare. You might just not have realized it yet. Feel free to call me out on this, but I can't see any good arguments trumping the fact, that it makes BF4 unbalanced way too easily - since the HVT debuff change, often gamebreakingly so. Even if it is akin to boiling a frog in a pot, and is hardly ever felt by the masses (unless you are deemed the HVT all-the-time).

Commander was introduced in BF2. It was revered. It works fine in BF4.

I really like it. Its a good amount of fun to play as the commander and I don't really think it shoves the tide of a battle that much anyways.

Other than UAVs, most commanders haven't been a factor in all the games I've played.

I like the Commander functions in 2 a bit more because it was a lot more fun to be the commander. This one feels a bit too passive even when you're making a pretty big difference. Still, it's fine. I was excited to see it was coming back and still pretty cool with it.

Sure, debuffing dudes with the HVT mark must be good fun these days - kinda like trolling. You ruin somebody's strategy. All the while you can't get clobbered for it. Completely removed from the action.

It's annoying and completely worthless to me. I don't plan on using it ever and when others are using it in game it causes the match to be lopsided.

Maybe use it for professional matches where things are actually coordinated but in a normal ranked match it's gotta go.

The commander does not seem to be as impactful as it was in BF2. I remember the course of entire battles turning on one or two well placed artillery strikes and a supply crate on the main tank.

I mean would anyone say it's good gamedesign, if you were lit-up on the minimap all the time? Like a gamedesigner said that in one of them *Talking Heads* trailers. "You will be visibile to the enemy on the minimap 100% of the times". Nobody in their right mind would want that, but here we are. It's just, few players seem to actually be aware of it now.

Hopefully the concurrent HVT nonesense wakes more players up to how influental the Commander Mode really is. Not in terms of tactics and strategy, just very detrimental to balance and skilled gameplay.

When commanders are on the field, you pretty much are always lit-up in any match-revelant situation. Sure, they can counter each others UAVs, but many Commanders don't know what they're doing in the first place, and are incapable of countering their opposite. Often there is but one Commander in any given round anyways, running unopposed.

So yeah, you're lit-up on the minimap constantly. I don't know how that can stand as anything but bad gamedesign.

I've got an analogy for you...

Boiling frog

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A frog sitting on a saucepan handle

The boiling frog story is a widespread anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.^[1] According to contemporary biologists the premise of the story is not literally true; a frog submerged and gradually heated will jump out.^[2][3] However, some 19th-century experiments suggested that the underlying premise is true, provided the heating is sufficiently gradual.^[4][5]

I agree the UAV is bullshit. It basically nullifies any stealth aspect of the game. The number of times I've been killed and thought to my self "How the fuck did that guy know I was there" only to realise that I'd probably been spotted by a UAV is insane. Also, its never fun being killed by a cruise missile or AC130, its just cheap.

I haven't played around with it much myself, but if anything they seem a little underpowered for the role. I remember being blown into oblivion by Commanders in BF2 and it was kinda neat. Now all anyone seems to do is put UAVs up. I don't think one team having a commander and the other team not having one is necessarily a one sided affair. I've definitely defeated teams that had a commander while my team didn't simply because they weren't effective, and I frankly haven't come across many that were decent.

I know what you mean about the HVT debuff, all last night I was getting it while trying to be sneaky.

@seppli: Never has bothered me. And honestly I rarely see anyone even playing commanders anyway.

I haven't even really encountered them a whole lot, and only tried it myself a couple of times. To me it just seemed sort of gimmicky and not that fun.

Proficient Commanders are more common now, and there's barely any servers left that haven't at least one Commander in them. Especially now since the HVT-debuff change, there's a lot more direct interferences. UAV spamming isn't obvious either, but it definitely changes how the game is played. By my standards, pretty much everything Commanders do is to the detriment of my moment to moment gameplay, even if I often am unaware of their influence.

Empowering the kits more makes much more sense to me, rather than having a Commander Mode. BF:BC 2's *Commander Drone* emplacement is also a preferable angle on the concept of a *higher power*.

We have that in BF3/4. It's called the MAV.

i've never used it

Never had any desire to use it. It is nice when you get a field promotion though, and I like the idea of being guided by someone with a bigger picture of the overall battlefield.

Can it one-hit tanks? Or chase down camping snipers with mounted guns?

No, but if it did, it would be totally off-balance.

I'd be totally fine with Commander Mode in BF4 if it didn't require closing the game and rejoining a server to do. (PC)

C'mon, DICE, just let people become Commander (and stop) without having to quit and relaunch.

I find it to be boring as fuck.

I just got out of a match where I was constantly being spotted and killed from all different directions because the other team had a commander. I went 3 and 10......THAT SHOULDN'T HAPPEN!

No, it literally adds nothing good to the game, it does not make it more fun, and anything that can call in an Ac-130 is bad in my eyes. I mean it sure is fun to get harassed by something that you have no ability to escape. And it's a waste of a player on top of that because it is so infective at actually killing anyone.

I never thought about it, but you raise some convincing points.

Also HVT is even worse now, it's pretty frustrating, I feel like I'm marked for half of every match I play. It used to be flattering in a way, like 'awww little old me', you could even use it to your advantage by leading groups of players into chokepoints to hose them down but now... Now it ridiculous. Hell now that I'm at 110 I get it after my first kill in a round just because of my rank!

High Value Target seems terrible. Would the experience be vastly improved if just that feature was removed, or that the requirements were raised significantly?

It was like 10 kills beforehand (not sure how many kills exactly), and was rarely an issue, since you were usually sitting in a vehicle when you got tagged. Dunno why they changed it. Guess they felt like the Commander needed something with more immediate impact to do. A more directly felt influence. Well - I think the Commander needs to go away... albeit I guess for BF4, Commander Mode is here to stay. Ugh.

The rules for calling out a HVT will definitely change again soon. As it is right now, it cannot stand.

I thought it was like 5 kills in a row before, now it's 1 kill.