Now, since it is finally out, what do you think?

Personally I hate that you can not see your own plane anymore on the "air radar". Also a single Stinger hits for over 70% on a A-10. Seriously? And the flare reload time is even increased?

Also its all Jalevin mayhem on the ground now.

I do not know. DICE seems to hate vehicles all of a sudden.

When it's out on 360 I'll weigh in.

They significantly reduced the draw distance on the IR scope, there is now a green haze that after a certain distance. It's so bad that you can spot a guy when not looking through the scope then look to through the scope to only see the guy hidden behind the green.

@Blackout62 I think everyone agrees that this is a good thing.

So PS3 users are experiencing the Back to Karkand DLC. I'm sure there are PS3 owners of BF3 Limited Edition and BF3 Standard Edition. I'm wondering what happens when you are playing on a server with a vanilla BF3 map and then it switches to a Back to Karkand map? 

@Evilmetal: I think servers will be one or the other, don't quote me on that - but I think servers running Karkand maps will only run those maps, and not have a rotation that includes vanilla maps.

I would tell you my thoughts if it wasn't a 4GB download after I had already downloaded a 2GB update. >_<

So PS3 users are experiencing the Back to Karkand DLC. I'm sure there are PS3 owners of BF3 Limited Edition and BF3 Standard Edition. I'm wondering what happens when you are playing on a server with a vanilla BF3 map and then it switches to a Back to Karkand map? 

IRNV - now completely useless. Mixed feelings.

Assignments - New guns. That's a win.

Cooperative guns unlocked - Everybody gets more guns. That's another win.

Karkand maps - Four words: Wake. Island. Drivable. Bulldozer.

The chat box is pretty well fixed. My day's made.

I couldn't play more than 5 minutes after the patch before the game froze and I had to literally hard-reboot my PC to do anything. Had a blast /sarcasm

@Skald said:

IRNV - now completely useless. Mixed feelings.

Good.

The chat box is pretty well fixed. My day's made.

I've played roughly about 3-5 hours today on the new patch. I've played mostly engineer today, some support, medic for a tad and recon until my deaths caught up to my kills. Because lets be realistic, only pussies play recon.

I didn't even notice that the points required for the unlocks in co-op dropped, so basically if you put in that time and only got halfway through, now you have a bunch of new stuff unlocked. I have yet to try any of the other co-op unlocks so I can't speak too much on them.

Lets talk about the important stuff.

INVR

I don't think it's completely useless, but it's not like turning on the easy button like before. To be quite frank I do believe that it was overpowered. It was always a matter of who was the more strategic camper and then using the invr to scope your objective before engaging.

Around the beta the invr looked like this.

And then after the beta and the game released it looked like this.

I think it's actually a tad worse than how it was in the beta, I didn't use it all that much in bf3 because I remembered how much I hated the damn thing in the beta, but they turned it into the "noob scope" Now that everyone has come back to reality and are back to using PKA's, holographics, and kobra sights the skill level of players is really starting to show. The only unaffected players are the recon guys really when it comes to aiming, but I heard that there was a "ninja nerf" on snipers quick scoping, I never really ran into that problem with my usas and it's frag rounds. Speaking of which, lets get into that.

USAS-12 + FRAG ROUNDS

I don't know exactly what was changed, but I can't roll up to a vodnik anymore and and blow it to shit with the usas. So in that regard it's been nerfed, but as far as against infantry TROLLOLOLOL!!! still the same pwn gun, just a lot less invr scope. Played some metro earlier and pushed the other team into a bitch cocoon and they had no life desire to get out of their spawn. So we all usas'd it up with 6x scopes and laid waste to their team.

ARMOR

I haven't had a chance to drive the aa all that much, as soon as I got into it I got shot to hell and died the 2 times I attemped it. Tanks the invr on the tank seems to be sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightly nerfed, a lot harder to see bodies from 20-30 feet away like before anything that bleed was a white dot from afar.

MAP BOUNDARIES

They tweaked the boundaries on the maps a bit so now you can slightly encroach the enemy's spawn a bit and get your rape on on certain maps, can't wait to see how it was tweaked in bazaar. Sadly that also is a two way street especially when the other team is hovering over your runway pretty much suppressing your air and armor.

REPAIR POINTS

How frustrating was that to waste a round in a transport chopper as an engineer and repairing it from the inside with no reward although it's filled with your teammates. Well guess what, you get points for repairing transport choppers from within now (as long as your crew members are in there) I got a shitload of ribbons earlier working the canals map with my crew

INCREASED CEILING ON CANALS

Holy balls how nice is that to get into a jet and not get killed because you went 275 feet in the air and got caught in a stall. I didn't get to fly much on this map I did gun for someone who was actually relevant in the chopper it was nice to see that going 50 percent wont render the chopper or jet a hunking piece of shit anymore. I think the bleedout is 20-30 percent now.

IN CLOSING

There are a lot more things other people will bring to attention, the game has ran pretty stable for me, the spec ops camo looks a little funny in the camo selection screen as opposed to the other camo's will probably stop worrying about it now since the INVR scope isn't relevant anymore. Someone mentioned that Dice thinks they overdid the nerf on the INVR so expect it to come back after all of the emo crying and tears just like the 2 players to stat pat start a server rule. But I cannot find anything to confirm nor deny that comment.

I am really enjoying this patch so far, especially since the chat box isn't in my damn face anymore. And finally flight sensitivity is separate from mouse sensitivity, as well as inverted look is separate from flight inverted.

Looking forward to see what else you guys have noticed about the patch.

I hope they go back to Bad Company's 2 system of having a mine limit per player rather than having them die out 20 seconds after a the mine layer's death. As it is now, it suggests the mine player to be much more conservative/cowardly to get the most out of the mines. Well, I guess a mine layer should play smarter and predict enemy vehicle paths.

The changes to the IRNV swung too hard the other way and made it useless. The problem was that it made enemies stick out too much. Now, you can hardly see anything. I like how it looked in the beta with players and other light sources sticking out. That seems to be a balanced pro and con to the sight.

I've noticed the Recon's Radio Beacon, TUGS, SOFLAM, and MAV don't last like before. I wonder if they now operate like the Engineer's AT Mines. If so, that's a bummer. I liked starting a round as the Recon to place a Radio Beacon in a good spot and have it persist in the round while I play other classes.

@Eribuster: I agree with you on the mines. Regarding the Recon gadgets this is probably a good thing, Since laser targeted vehicles now take insane damage over extreme ranges form Javelins/Guided Missles. Though I never got the TUGS. Getting a ribbon there seems insane.

Sniper rifle rounds disappeared after 950m before patch. Now they live much longer. Seen brag posts with video proof for kills over 1,5 Km. That's insane.

Oh - initial loading times are FREAKING ME THE FUCK OUT. Getting worse by the patch.

As long as the chat doesn't pop in my face like before, I am a happy camper.

@CL60 said:

@Skald said:

IRNV - now completely useless. Mixed feelings.

Good.

It's not completely useless, it's meant for short range now, that's a good thing.

M416 still the best gun in the game.

@Mikemcn said:

@CL60 said:

@Skald said:

IRNV - now completely useless. Mixed feelings.

Good.

It's not completely useless, it's meant for short range now, that's a good thing.

Kind of. I tried using it on Metro and couldn't even see because of all the dust.

Still, it's better than it was before.

The IRNV is how it should have always been, it still works fine in short range but not letting people be able to see your toe from 100m away is how it should work.

USAS with frag rounds is still a walking tank and the USAS with normal rounds is impossible to beat at close range.

PDW, especially the MP7 are now actually usable and now shoot bullets instead of tickles.

Best thing is the tweeking of the spread when firing at auto over range. It now takes a bit of skill and controlled burst firing too kill someone at medium-long range.

I'm having a hard time adapting to the patch. Something feels off and I have not yet pin-pointed why. Opposite to what I thought, I bloody hate the changes to air combat balance. I'm getting locked-on much quicker and from much farther distances now and it's sucking the life out of me. Didn't die to an IGLA/Stinger in forever. Now IR-flares are a must-have again. Good bye extinguishers. Guess I'll be angry for a some hours until I figure it out again.

Oh - and shaking locked-on rockets... borderline impossible now, where-as before the patch, it was quite easy. Since I hate all lock-on warfare (skillfree noobcrutch), I'm quite pissed about that.

@Seppli said:

I'm having a hard time adapting to the patch. Something feels off and I have not yet pin-pointed why. Opposite to what I thought, I bloody hate the changes to air combat balance. I'm getting locked-on much quicker and from much farther distances now and it's sucking the life out of me. Didn't die to an IGLA/Stinger in forever. Now IR-flares are a must-have again. Good bye extinguishers. Guess I'll be angry for a some hours until I figure it out again.

Oh - and shaking locked-on rockets... borderline impossible now, where-as before the patch, it was quite easy. Since I hate all lock-on warfare (skillfree noobcrutch), I'm quite pissed about that.

I am definitely having an easier time hitting aircraft with engie AA, but the reduced rocket count should balance that out I think.

"Didn't die to an IGLA/Stinger in forever." exactly... I was playing with them a bit yesterday. I felt the lock on time might be slightly faster now (or might correspond to distance) But I didn't feel like lock distance was increased. I didn't notice pilots having any increased trouble in flaring them away either. Most of the time aircraft are out of range and I'm waiting for them to come back. My best hit% with either stingers is 25% (other

@Blackout62: Death to all IR and Tac Light users

@Evilmetal: I think servers will be one or the other, don't quote me on that - but I think servers running Karkand maps will only run those maps, and not have a rotation that includes vanilla maps.

MAP BOUNDARIES

They tweaked the boundaries on the maps a bit so now you can slightly encroach the enemy's spawn a bit and get your rape on on certain maps, can't wait to see how it was tweaked in bazaar. Sadly that also is a two way street especially when the other team is hovering over your runway pretty much suppressing your air and armor.

@Eribuster: I agree with you on the mines.

@GenghisJohn said:

@Blackout62: Death to all Tac Light users

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight you in the metro, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, we will shine glaring LED flashlights in your eyes until you collapse, and if you should strike one of us down two more will rise in their place.

@Extreme_Popcorn said:

PDW, especially the MP7 are now actually usable and now shoot bullets instead of tickles.

The MP7 was good before the patch, you just had to treat it right, I unlocked everything for it and got 2 service stars with it pre patch, the PDW-R is now my favorite gun though.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@137 said:

MAP BOUNDARIES

They tweaked the boundaries on the maps a bit so now you can slightly encroach the enemy's spawn a bit and get your rape on on certain maps, can't wait to see how it was tweaked in bazaar. Sadly that also is a two way street especially when the other team is hovering over your runway pretty much suppressing your air and armor.

Seriously? What maps? That's awesome! No safe base should be untouchable, never liked the new out-of-bounds bases.

Terran highway we were able to get a bit deeper into their spawn, not completely but you can get pretty close to the sniper look outs rather than getting a grey screen when walking past the rocks on both ends... I haven't tried on bazaar yet because we don't always have a complete rape round that keeps them in the spawn, but metro. good god you can get behind some barriers to keep the RU side choked in from the sides, and you can get a bit closer in the subways if you push them past their A spawn.

@LibertyForAll said:

"Didn't die to an IGLA/Stinger in forever." exactly... I was playing with them a bit yesterday. I felt the lock on time might be slightly faster now (or might correspond to distance) But I didn't feel like lock distance was increased. I didn't notice pilots having any increased trouble in flaring them away either. Most of the time aircraft are out of range and I'm waiting for them to come back. My best hit% with either stingers is 25% (other <10%) which is ridiculous for something that take 5+ seconds of open exposure, supposedly locks on and completely gives away your position and can only be fired at aircraft. If I could dumb-fire a stinger at something (a tank) without locking, I'd be a lot more accepting of it's anti-air capability. Meanwhile it just seems inevitable that aircraft are going to kill me at least a few times every round no matter what I do. Aircraft have the same 'noobcrutch' lock on stuff and routinely instantly blow away the vehicle I'm in after I've put tons of machine gun hits into it. Sometimes I can scare away a chopper with the t-90 machine gun now (could sometimes shoot them down before prior patch), but of course your totally at risk to ground troops if you're looking up. You pretty much have to have 2 people both fire a stinger at an aircraft that just flared in order to bring it down (or hope there are good pilots on your team). I respect that there is skill in being a better pilot, but as a mostly non-pilot I want nothing but to seem them fall from the sky in flames :) As an aside ..the auto-heal on vehicles makes no sense to me

Yeah - IR-Flares work (unless it's a laser paint job javelin or guided tank shell one hit kill, which is a no-go to begin with). Before the patch though, evasive manouvers were much more effective, allowing for specializations other than IR-Flares or Chaff.

Flying is hard enough as it is. With almost instantly respawning jets, the opportunities to actually take part in the overall war effort are few and far between. There's a difference between handling aircraft effectively and just roughly pointing your Stinger/Igla or whatever vehicle platform you're using at the aircraft and fire and forget. The skill ceiling for lock-on weapons is exactly ZERO. Point it, fire and forget. I hate lock-on warfare more than anything, because it ain't fun. Right now, with active evasion being practically useless, even more so. Blech.

I do pretty much agree with you. I think air balance is probably one of the trickier parts to perfect. The last time I tried to get better at jets I was on a semi-empty server and was always being locked on to within 5 sec of leaving the runway (by the other jet), but as long as the pilots are mostly battling it out between themselves I'm happy. It's true about the respawning also, it's almost like what's the point of killing them it will just be back 10 sec later. I've come to the conclusion that I just need to become more skilled using the T-90 tank round to shoot down aircraft, because that puppy will knock em down. Last night I killed the passenger out of a heli with a m320 grenade as it circled the building I was in and had to smile.

On I different subject I believe my tank landmines were still persisting after death (more than 20 sec). I didn't really research having more then 6 though...

Why does it show my ping to the server on the Battlelog server browser, but I can't see it in-game? That's so silly.

@Seppli said:

Oh - initial loading times are FREAKING ME THE FUCK OUT. Getting worse by the patch.

Yep, and this. Also, why do I get the feeling that the game isn't loading the next map in the background during the end-game stats rundown? I mean... why would they not do that?

@Mikemcn: PDW favorite gun

I noticed a lot more people killing me with this running PDW+laser. I think this was allowing them to no scope and thus always get the first shots

I haven't noticed map load times except for once when it seemed stalled. But the server browser was looking pretty broken in firefox for me last night...

I get disconnected all the time, it's an ordeal just to get into a game. Then when the server changes maps, I'm stuck on an endless black loading screen. It's pretty bullshit, it makes me not want to touch the game.

@mosdl: @Seppli: As I am playing more and more. I like it less and less. Air warfare was fine the way it was. You maybe rarely could shoot down a jet as infantry but certainly deny them participation in the ground combat. It took some skill to shoot down a jet with the AA main gun. Attack helicopters where maybe a bit hard to kill. No sniper really used the soflam on choppers.

Now with the damage increase on the locked Air-to-Ground/Javelin missiles, choppers and Infantry are way to deadly to tanks. You can disable an AA with a scout chopper with a guided missile just outside the effective range of the AA. An attack helicopter can basically one hit kill anything way outside the range of ground vehicles.

Useless IRNV? Sweet!

That scope was forged by Lucifer himself.

Useless IRNV? Sweet!

That scope was forged by Lucifer himself.

@Wuddel: yeah, jets have too much of an advantage over vehicles right now, though it does make the mobile AA no longer overpowered in the Battlefield - you can't just roll around in it as a jet and one engie can take you down fast.

I've played about 30 hours until the patch came out, got to lvl 29. Couldn't get to a vehicle without blowing up instantly, constantly geting raped by IRNV. Now the patch is out and I can't get a score below 4000, my K/D and W/L ratios went through the roof and I went from lvl 29 to 37 in two days (9 hours of gameplay). Classes seem even more balanced now. I get to see exploiters getting f***** in the @ss.

I guess it's like @137 said, skills count a lot more now.

Game play seems more balanced to me. Except one metro map where multiple defenders were usas-fragging :) I didn't think the IRNV was all that bad before. I mean it was definately semi-disgusting, but so are half the weapons in the game when used correctly. I didn't feel like I couldn't compete against it without it. I get the feeling that they reduced the field of view in additional to making the optics way crappier is that right? I would have preferred just a reduced field of view and/or extended the scoping time rather than destroy the optics. Do you guys feel the same way about the thermal optics on the tanks?

The only real use for IRNV now is for the tunnel in Damavand Peak and in close quarters when folks are using smoke. That makes sense and all, but in general, I'll just pop on a reflex scope and call it a day.

Overall, I like what the patch has done. I look forward to BtK.