BF2142 Beta Testing Begins

projectmayhem

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Ponster, what sort of spec are we (realistically) looking at, to make this game playable?

given it's the same engine and all, surely if you run bf2, you'll run 2142?

Ponster

Private, At the moment there are about 500 people testing the beta. It's in it's 'tuning' phase to iron out the bugs before the real testing begins later. At the moment some servers are crashing like 1.3 but there have been several fixes since Thursday already.

News week people who are subscribers to Fileplanet get their hands on it, and then not everyone, just the ones that filled in their question sheet with the 'right' answers.

In 2-3 weeks the beta will be a full, open beta for everyone to download and try. The current phase is just to find the big bugs.


Project, I'd say it's pretty much the same minimum specs but the recommended are higher to follow the fact that BF1 1.0 runs better than BF2 1.3 "Recommended" specs refer to 1.5Gb of memory if I remember correctly.

projectmayhem

Ponster wrote:

Project, I'd say it's pretty much the same minimum specs but the recommended are higher to follow the fact that BF1 1.0 runs better than BF2 1.3 "Recommended" specs refer to 1.5Gb of memory if I remember correctly.

pretty much what i was thinking tbh

i'd say if you're a regular bf2 player you already have the 1.5GB+ ram and the fancy graphics card... because god knows that games needs it

Ponster

Exactly. If you have no probs with BF2 then 2142 will be fine. The TITAN mission though requires you to be in buildings and there it's just like SF. FPS will take a big hit if you don't have the hardware to run it.

d22ontour

Ponster wrote:

Private, At the moment there are about 500 people testing the beta. It's in it's 'tuning' phase to iron out the bugs before the real testing begins later. At the moment some servers are crashing like 1.3 but there have been several fixes since Thursday already.

In 2-3 weeks the beta will be a full, open beta for everyone to download and try. The current phase is just to find the big bugs.

So it's living up to BF2 then.

:rolleyes:

PrivateSmokey

Cheers Ponster;)

Ponster

Well even though it's got a couple of CTD issues it's still difficult to stop playing

The scoring system makes it much more fun. if an AT guy pumps 3 shots into a tank yet someone else finishes it off the fist guy still gets Kill Assist points.

The better a squad plays together the more 'squad points' you get. Get to a certain amount and all the members of that squad get a free unlock each that lasts until you either leave the squad or the round ends.

Squad leaders get special unlocks. There are 3 tiers of SL unlocks. In order to take advantage of them a SL needs to have people in his squad. So is a SL wants to use his portable spawn-point goodie he must have someone else with him. If he wants to use his drone-like object that protects him then there must be 3 others in the squad with him.

Cool Unlocks :

Recon (sniper) : Camo kit
Engineer : Portable AA
Assualt : Shotgun attachment. Imagine an ak with a DAO strapped on
Supply : Sentry device. Take a silo, leave a sentry behind to defend it and get the points for what ever kills it makes.

projectmayhem

well dice are providing the gamers with a lot of cool things, but i wonder, after 6 months of this being out, will the whole community dismantle the same way bf2 has? (rarely get great squad-play these days, etc.)

the same applies to qw too....

Static M.e.

Can you tell us a little more (without breaking your agreement) about the game?

What you like / dislike, cool things you have noticed?

Whats it like to drive a Mech?

Thanks

PrivateSmokey

Ponster wrote:

Imagine ak with a strap on

AK did ya here what he said
only kidding it sound cool.......not AK with a strap on:rolleyes:
the special unlocks:)

po0k

Sgt. Politeness wrote:

Can you imagine if EA never relased patches though? The games shelf life would be about 6 months shorter for one thing, as people would get sick of the problems with the games and give up.

And EA would either fade into history (á la Hitler, Stalin, Thatcher) or realise that testing is as important as tits4hire in the tradeshow booth and that developers are also people, not unit-stamping automatrons.

But we're always going to have patches. That is the nature of software. It's fluid and dynamic, particularly on the PC "platform".

Retail launches are straddling the lines between finished product and thinly veiled beta-test.

Ponster

Something I just discovered this morning :

When you first log into BF2142 you use your EA account to do so (the one you use to log into EA.com or the Ea Downloader) then it gives you a list of your current BF2 nicks associated with the EA login that you can use.

You can't change the country associated with your BF2 nick (mine is stuck on France) but you can with the EA login and that's the one that counts. This is handy as the game has a stat section just like BF2S.com where I can see that there are 6 beta testers from Ireland and I'm 2nd on that list.

My e-penis is massive !

Ponster

Static M.e. wrote:

What you like / dislike, cool things you have noticed?

Whats it like to drive a Mech?

The mech reminds me of the mechs in Mechwarrior. You're pretty high up, lots of firepower, but slow-ish to turn around 180°. Very powerful. It'll take a few tanks to take them out or just one hover-tank and a good driver or the good 'ol gunship. They are VERY powerful up close but weaker at long-distance. One recon guy wih C4 and active-aco will take a mech down easily (as long as he doesn't get stood on!)


It's the only thing I can see that only requires 1 person to pilot and fire. Everything else needs 2 (tanks/APC/gunship)

Tanks now *need* 2 people as the driver doesn't have a machine-gun so you need a 2nd person to take care of infantry.

I like :

It takes seconds to log in. No more scanning all the servers in your list of favourites when you log in.

The history list shows you the date and time you last played on a server. Handy when you get a 'lost connection' error and want to reconnect to the qsame server.

I find myself logging in just to see if a 'buddy' has sent me a messge

Titan is an objective map which means that you don't defend, you can't win. To encourage this you get points for defending silos and what seems extra points for defending the titan (from within). It means that more often then not, when you try to cap a 'silo', there's be somewhere there defending it.

It's possible now to disable commander chat 'Enemy Mech Spotted' x 10,000,000 for example

irlrobins

Ponster wrote:

It takes seconds to log in. No more scanning all the servers in your list of favourites when you log in.

Could that also be because there are very few servers to scan anyway?

Ponster

It's true that there are only 26 test servers up but AFAIK they changed the way it works so that you log in faster.

It's pointless to tell you good/bad things about the server browser as there are few servers so it's not yet under strain but it does seem 'smoother' and doesn't have the look that it was coded by 10-year olds anymore.

jesus_thats_gre

Surely 2142 is based on the existing BF2 engine and the core game is effectively the exact same but with new units? If this is the case, the number of bugs will likely be on par with those that exist already in BF2?

Static M.e.

The mech reminds me of the mechs in Mechwarrior.

Sweeeeeeeeet thanks

Ponster

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

If this is the case, the number of bugs will likely be on par with those that exist already in BF2?

It's more glitches and exploits that are being tracked down as opposed to bugs. People are using the pod-jumps in APC's in ways that DiCE never imagined that could be considered an exploit.
I think their plan is to make their mind up on what is and isn't an exploit so as to avoid serious gameplay changes later on in the life of the game.

Keyzer

The more I read of this the more I want a go...
How did you get involved? Did you have to pay a subscription fee?

Ponster

I tested the 1.4 beta patch for about 4 weeks. Sent concise, constructive posts to the devs at DiCE and got chosen for the VIP team by the admins at EA UK forums and Colin Clarke the DICE Global Community Manager.

Luck really as there were only 500 or so of us chosen that didn't have to pass by the FP subscribed system.

Cunning Alias

Ponster wrote:

The mech reminds me of the mechs in Mechwarrior.

Are we talking mech 3 or mech 4 in terms of control?

po0k

Ponster wrote:

I tested the 1.4 beta patch for about 4 weeks. Sent concise, constructive posts to the devs at DiCE and got chosen for the VIP team by the admins at EA UK forums and Colin Clarke the DICE Global Community Manager.

Luck really as there were only 500 or so of us chosen that didn't have to pass by the FP subscribed system.

That's what I like to hear.

Nice one mate

Zillah

How can you have mechs without lasers!? I'm upset and confused...

Static M.e.

Ponster;

As our newly elected 2142 representative I firmly believe you should be spending alot more time telling us poor mortals about 2142!

What else do you like?
How do you find the different classes?

Ta

Ponster

There are 4 classes of soldier :

Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon.

Here are most of the unlocks. I've left out the ones that I haven't found yet.


Assault Unlocks

Defibrillator (yes, the assualt guy is alos a medic !)
Smoke Grenade
Baur H-AR (Heavy Assault Rifle)
Voss L-AR (Light Assault Rifle)
PK-74 AR-Rocket (attaches to Assault Rifle)




Engineer Unlocks :

Koenig H-AVR: (Heavy Anti-Vehicle Rifle)
PDS-1 (personal UAV for engineers that displays vechicles to all squad members
Motion Mine (AT mine) - weaker than BF2 mines but they do track targets.
EMP Mine
AV-18 Anti-Vehicle weapon (haven't unlocked it yet).
Mitchell SAAW Personal AA rocket




Support Unlocks

EMP Grenade
Shotgun
Ganz HMG: (Heavy Machine Gun) (gets more accurate the more you fire it)
IPS Shield:



Recon Unlocks

Lambert Carbine
Heavy Sniper Rifle
RDX Demopak (fancy name for C4)
Claymore
IT-33 Optical Active Camoflage
Scope Stabilizer




Unlockable for all (unlock once for every class)

FRG-1 grenade
Sprint boosts



Squad Leader:

SLSB

---

Squad leader spawn beacon
SD-8 Accipiter

---

Gun drone
???- It's a personal UAV. can't remember the name.




The important thing to remember is that there are unlock 'trees' and 'tiers'. In order to unlock the heavy snipers rifle you need to have the medium first. that we're used to with BF2 but we also now have a notion of 'unlock trees'. Each class has about 6 unlocks split up into 2 trees so you can unlock a claymore which gives you the right to unlock the medium sniper rifle and then the heavy. This is for the sniper profile. Someone else with the same kit (recon) can decide to unlock the claymore and the camoflage tree first making them more of a spec-op. Of course with enough points you can unlock everything.

Instant Karma

i just cant see this game working in any kind of competitive format. I'm led to believe that unlocks will be avaliable even during locked games, I really hope this isnt so as it will just be a game for the pub-allstars.

Ponster

Unranked servers have no unlocks available atm.

Shouldn't be any problem for clans. Even if all the unlocks were available you just say 'no unlocks'. Someone is found using them and the clan gets kicked from league.

Zillah

Ponster wrote:

Ganz HMG: (Heavy Machine Gun) (gets more accurate the more you fire it)

Say wha?

projectmayhem

Zillah wrote:

Say wha?

*ominous whispering voice*it's the future

Zillah

lmao