The Lowdown on Weapon Customization

Battleblog #8: Build your weapon of choice

 
We have well over 50 weapons in Battlefield 3. But each weapon in itself can be tailored to wildly differing play styles and combat roles. Read on for the full details on our deepest weapon customization ever.

 

Two weeks ago, we detailed the general design philosophy behind the gun play in Battlefield 3 together with Senior Designer Alan Kertz. Today, we are delving deeper into the thousands of weapon customization options you will have in the game.

 

Basically, each main weapon in the game has three accessory slots, where you can attach weapon accessories you have unlocked. Weapon accessory unlocks are received on a per weapon basis, meaning that the more time you spend with a particular weapon, the more options you will have to customize that weapon to fit different your combat role and play style.

 

A rifle in Battlefield 3 can be customized for wildly different combat roles. The carbine directly below has been equipped with a heavy barrel, bipod, and a 4X magnification combat scope. This would be ideal for a soldier who wants to engage targets at medium to long range and use suppressive fire to support his team mates.

 

 

 

In the picture above, the same carbine has instead been equipped with a suppressor, foregrip, and quick acquisition holographic scope. This setup would be well suited for Close Quarters Battle, especially indoors where stealth can be a vital factor.

 

The unlockable weapon accessories include an assortment of optics, suppressors, bipods, barrels, underslung grenade launchers, underslung shotguns, foregrips, flashlights, laser sights, and more.

 

While the class and model of your weapon will determine a number of basic values (like muzzle speed, energy, and fire rate), you can always modify it to tweak it towards anything from long range to close quarters combat.

 

So. Are you a long range sniper or a close quarters combat type of player? The neat thing is, in Battlefield 3, you can easily switch between both. With our powerful weapon customization features, there are no limits to the types of gameplay we support.

Sounds great. Hope they manage to keep the guns balanced.

The thought of actually having a use for a flashlight in a multiplayer shooter makes me wet.

Sounds good, wonder how it will work in practice.

Hell yeah, more customizability for the win.

When MW2 let me put 2 attachments on a gun, my mind was blown, this is even better, unfort

@Three0neFive said:

The thought of actually having a use for a flashlight in a multiplayer shooter makes me wet.

Its what keeps me coming back to Counter Strike. I intend to have a flashlight on all guns at all times, incase shit gets dark, or for whenever im in the mood to light something up.

I wonder how easy it will be to switch the parts around. In my experience with BFBC:2 on 360, I found it somewhat clunky and time consuming to quickly alter my weapons between lives. 
 
For instance: Rolling as assault, if I wanted to switch scopes and attachment (smoke grenade exchanged for shotgun), I tended to fumble through the menu. The concept of loadouts will likely rub some people the wrong way, but I think I'd prefer it. Especially if there's even more variables to account for.

I wonder how easy it will be to switch the parts around. In my experience with BFBC:2 on 360, I found it somewhat clunky and time consuming to quickly alter my weapons between lives.  For instance: Rolling as assault, if I wanted to switch scopes and attachment (smoke grenade exchanged for shotgun), I tended to fumble through the menu. The concept of loadouts will likely rub some people the wrong way, but I think I'd prefer it. Especially if there's even more variables to account for.