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Battlefield 2142 is a very ambitious game.  Battlefield 2142 includes vehicles, large maps, and puts an emphasizes on teamwork with advanced squad/commander functions.

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Things to love about Battlefield 2142:

I like the upgrade paths.  I think they are very helpful and make the game fun.  The awards give people something to work toward and improve player skill.  By reducing the number of classes but increasing the options, players have to choose which kits to use when.  Ultimately, they retain a great deal of flexibility.  Players should be rewarded for investing time and energy in the game.  The rank/unlock system does this.  It sucks to be a noob though!

Hit box rather than blood.  No need for blood.  The hit box is cool.  This is not Resident Evil 4.  (Though RE4 rocks!)

Team play is definitely rewarded.  Good squad leaders and good commanders can make a difference.  A commander is only as good as the squads.  This leads to some frustrating play.  Yet, a great team is a uniquely rewarding experience.

The maps are deep and fairly well balanced.  

The combat system is fairly stable and evolved.  

Online content means that you can easily play the game for over 1,000 hours without getting bored.  Players keep the game fresh.  The maps offer new things to explore.  The game is INCREDIBLE.  

Free online play.  I can always find a FREE ranked PUB.  

Battlefield 2142 is one of the best games ever.  Still there is always room for dreaming.

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Cool features to add:

Could incorporate some features from Battlefield 2: SF.  Night missions/gas grenades/grappling hooks/lines.  I played BF2 and these features rocked.  I think they would be excellent in a BF2142SF add-on.

Double pistol unlock.  But new pistols should only increase damage of pistol by 1.5 times to keep pistols from being too powerful.  The current pistols are really weak.  You have two hands, so why not have two pistols?

Silencer for recon kit.  A silencer would be a better add on for pistol/sniper rifle than the stabilizer, IMHO.

Objective and CTF mode.  

To a certain extent, the question of what to do with Battlefield 2142 in a future expansion pack would be complicated. I do not know if it is purely a question of vehicle types, though I admit, there was an enormous amount of diversity in 1942. Still, I am pretty satisfied with 2142 + NS. And to be honest, while I learned to enjoy the Hachimoto, at first it was frustrating.

Let me begin by saying that Titan mode is a really great idea. Conceptually, I do not think it has its roots in a traditional FPS, such as Doom or even 1942. You basically have a commander who has some amount of wizardry (emp strikes, supplies, sat track). You have control points. You have a small army of creatures with different abilities (us players).

I think I would expand upon these features and continue to drive the game towards expanding the theme more and adding more features.

For example, right now silo control reduces your enemies’ powers. But what if silo control also increased your power. For example, controlling silos would actually allow for emp strikes, orbitals, supplies. In this case, a team with no silos, would effectively have almost no support from a commander who would only be able to issue orders and maybe do a sat track? This could be accomplished by introducing two types of control points (silo’s and generators). Or you could have “tributaries” which feed the commanders powers.

A modified CTF/Titan mode could have you capturing flags to increase “ tributes” while controlling silos to reduce your enemies power. (For example, 4 silos and 1 flag point). Both sides would obviously be trying to capture flags from the flag point while holding the silos. Or maybe you need 5 silos and 1 flag point. Maybe the flag would be the piece to a super weapons that, if you collected enough flags- say 5, would blast the enemy titan for 25% of its shields. Or maybe the flags would reduce the amount of time it took for the commander to utilize his abilities. So each flag takes a few seconds off of the recharge time. Or maybe the flags work like counters making it easier/harder to turn the other silos.

You could also introduce the waxing/waning cycles. Control points could cycle making different teams have different opportunities based upon the cyclical nature of some recurrent event.

You could expand the “spheres of influence” that made silos easier/harder to turn. For example, if PAC could place a “ sphere of influence” near Silo 1 maybe it would take less time for PAC to turn the Silo and more time for EU to turn the silo. Of course you would have to limit the number of squad leaders or make it like the drones (only available if you actually have 2 or 3 people in the unit). THEN PEOPLE WOULD DEFINITELY HAVE TO SQUAD UP. A sphere of influence would have to be close enough to the silo to impact it, but large enough to be discernable and destroyable by the opposing team. It could be a squad leader function-like a beacon you leave behind. Or maybe a “sphere of influence” could increase the rate of fire of a silo. Then the math would get really complicated. See also my flag suggestion above.

There could also be a two round mode in which the events of the two rounds are carried forward in a way which would give teams different strategic advantages based upon their ability to achieve certain events. For example, you could have one round a conquest round, followed by a titan round in which the events of the conquest round impacted the structure or nature of the subsequent titan round.

Let us say that in round one your team captured and held comm. center. Maybe in round two you have access to UAV’s and your opponent is limited to sat track. Or you took and held a site called the “Air Strip”, maybe you could have gunships, but your opponent could only have transports. It would be very difficult to maintain parity in the game, so the developers would have to be careful to try to limit the features that were at stake. Then again, I can’t fly a gunship and other people can. We’ve all been in rounds where one team has the air wolf advantage, really good pilots, and the other team has zip. Makes it harder, but not impossible. That is to say, theoretically either side should still be able to win the subsequent titan mode, but one side might have more difficulty than the other.

On the issue of unlocks:

They could certainly benefit by reviving the gas grenade, make the dystek pulse meter more like an inverted camo (that is to say it should cycle a few times for a few seconds rather than snapshot, while you activated it- have it work a little more like BF2 night goggles, but with a much shorter “ battery”. Right now, it’s just a snapshot, I would prefer a couple of snapshots followed by a delayed recharge). Revive “grapple”/zip line feature.

Also a vampire feature would be really neat. Sort of like an EVIL medic that can drain their opponents health and heal themselves- like a wraith. Maybe limit the drain to 50% of health or make its effectiveness a function of distance. If it was a ranged sonic weapon, then maybe it could even strike through walls, but would have a much weaker effect (muffled). Could affect someone like an orbital strike- blurred vision, camera shake.

A phoenix shield would be really funny too. Let’s say that someone was coming for your dog tags, and you activate your phoenix shield would act like a flame thrower by touch. (Like they have shields on vehicles, but more like an electric eel). You could run around and set people on fire by activating your phoenix shield. I think the shield might only last 2 or 3 seconds at most. Also you would stand out like a sore thumb on the battlefield and be a highly visible target.

Also a “spider” mine. This would be like an emp mine for infantry. Just stun people for like 2 seconds or so, so they cannot move. Combination of apm mines/emp mines (Just enough to make them highly vulnerable and fearful.) Could you imagine if you could not move for like 2 seconds? Someone could just dog tag you and you’d be dead. It would be like the longest 2 seconds…Could be a projectile…like a taser.

And instead of just a decoy beacon, maybe a decoy beacon with a holographic projection of some useful item which might lure people towards it. Maybe it could be a booby trap. Lets say someone drops a holographic beacon. It might project the image of something very useful like a supply crate, while bouncing a false signature of your location a few meters away. Place your RDX near the image…you get the idea.

Finally, a voodoo feature. A voodoo feature could temporarily make a player unable to distinguish between friend and foe. A form of mind control. In this situation the player would see the wrong color uniform/tags and TK! Unlike for example, the disguise features prevalent where one player is disguised- the entire team would be disguised. The player would see points added just like he normally does. Everything would seem normal but when he awoke from the voodoo, the points would be reversed. I think your squad could help you maybe by verbalizing that you were under the control of voodoo through the mike. Maybe you disable their comm. functions too… how bad do the developers want to be? Or maybe its simpler than that, you get a squad leader order to “move to a certain location” only it does not come from your squad leader…and the person who issued the order or there squad is probably waiting for you. That would be a form of communication sabotage. It would be very hard to implement it though, it could either be like an emp mine (player crosses object, order issued) or a communication “bullet”.

Or maybe just a demoralizing ray- “propaganda beam” that the commander could issue which would give squad leaders rebukes they never earned. So an enemy commander blasts “propaganda” into a radius which broadcasts one of the squad rebuke messages.

I was also thinking on the line of a morale weapon- a widespread map beam that drains the entire opposing team 5 health points or adds to your team 5 points. Commander could use it like once every 5 minutes. (That would probably only be 4-5 times during a round). But, hey, I've had like 1 health point before, and a weapon like that could prove lethal.

The commander might have an advanced UAV that acted like a "sphere" of influence and impacted the silo turns.

Also, possibly an imprisonment ray that traps a player in stasis for 10 seconds, completely immobilized but unsubject to harm. Nice feature for a commander to have. Little more powerful than emp.

What if you could hack the enemy command system and tamper with the orders? Then the commander would have to verbalize, comm. center infiltrated, need engineers at comm. center. In the meantime, no one could follow the commanders orders because they might not be the commanders orders.

Finally, I would like to see a situation in which players can challenge each other for the commanders role before the round starts. Right now it is simply settled by rank. This kind of blows when you are a total noob. Admittedly, most privates should not just jump into the commanders chair, but at the same time, it would be nice if at a certain rank you could challenge the higher rank to a knife fight for the right to command. It would be a timed match (no more than 20 seconds) and if the lower rank failed to tag or was tagged within the time, then the higher rank retains his commandership. Probably limit the challenge to the top 2 ranks which apply for commandership. Needs to be a very small arena- a mini ring so players cannot just run away and hide and are within knifing range a lot.

These features would definitely need serious play testing to maintain parity though.

Also a new mod tool would be nice.

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Things which should be improved:

The global ranking system and decay ranking system encourage unnecessary stat padding.  Get rid of global ranks as well as the last few ranks, such as SC.

Working towards awards is sometimes counterproductive with team goals.  Need to find a way to balance the awards with team play.  You can earn 15 repair points in a single round, but you are probably just repairing titan guns instead of fighting.  A more reasonable goal would be easier to achieve and not detract from the team’s performance.  Likewise, having losses for disconnects you cannot control makes some awards implausible.  

Podding out of transports leads to unnecessary deaths after patch 1.25.  I understand the concern over pod surfing, but it is tiresome to get tk penalties when players pod out before landing.

Cannot effectively police hackers/glitchers. The only solution is to build an "ethical" wall.  Punkbuster can only do so much.

Do not like in game ads.  Constantly have to delete radial files to keep game loading.  It would be worse to be in a WOW scenario where you have to pay $20 a month to access the content.  Maybe splash loading ads or summary screen ads is a better compromise.

Northern Strike maps tend to be laggier than the stock counterpart.  

Titan lag needs to be fixed.  (Also, I have noticed ram stutter when boarding/defending a titan initially.)

Increase spawn randomization on maps to reduce spawn camping.  Central camp on Camp Gibraltar is a particularly bad map.

Modify the vote kick.  Should have "for cause" voting which explains the reason for the vote.  E.G. "MNtoothpick initiates a votekick against PappaChubby for excessive team killing" or "PappaChubby initiates a votekick against MNtoothpick for hacking/glitching".   Could include things like language/racism as well as a generic vote kick.  The log could be kept like PB logs so that abusers might eventually be investigated.  System could be abused, but current VTK system is weak.

Remove the disc check.  That is what the EA account is for.   

Stats update.  The problem with tying awards to stats is that sometimes there is stat lag and you do not get an award you have earned.  This happened to me for the pistol commendation badge where I got 23 kills ISR and was not awarded badge because server did not update.  If you are going with an awards system, you need to make sure there is regular stat updating.  

Kit swapping.  The kit save feature is buggy.  Almost preferred the old 1.25 kit, where I knew I had to customize each time.  

Terrain features.  Some features, like the rails in Camp Gibraltar, force jumps which interfere more with game play than would be suggested.  Even with boots, I sometimes take damage for falls which seem reasonable.

Some glitches have not been fixed such as the sentry gun through the walls glitch.

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Community involvement.

The EA forums are an excellent resource for news and community information.  EA held some great events, like the Dog tag challenge as well as free unlock weekends.

It would be great to see more Dog Tag challenges, free unlock weekends, a free NS weekend, a map design contest, and a mod design contest.  A mod design contest should include real rewards.


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We are taking action.

One of the most effective ways of contacting people is by sending a personal letter or e-mail to their attention.  Letters do make a difference!  Game makers want to hear from players about issues important to them.

If you're new to this kind of writing, here are some general tips for writing an email to your Dice Community Manager:

I found that Colin Clarke is listed as the current community manager.

Here is a possible sample letter, which we sent on February 14, 2008.

To:  Colin.Clarke@dice.se

Dear Colin Clarke,

I am very interested in learning about any possible expansion packs in Battlefield 2142.   There has been a lot of discussion about possible expansion packs in the Battlefield 2142 series on the forums and many people would be interested in Battlefield 2142 patches and booster packs. 

I own Battlefield 2142 as well as Northern Strike.  I have supported the Battlefield series since 1942 and own BF1942, RTR, SWWII, BFV, BF2 Complete Collection.  I am excited about new products but also want to see the game I enjoy playing supported more.  I expect BF2142 to be improved and supported.

As a gamer, I really enjoy playing BF2142.  The game is very unique and provides hours of quality entertainment for me.  It is a relaxing and enjoyable past time which provides my friends and I with a lot of entertainment.  We even have a fan site for 2142.

http://1541.freehostia.com/1541home.html

The site is not much, but we spend more time playing than on the site itself.  

It would be great if we could get a commitment about upcoming booster packs and/or patches.
 

Sincerely,


MNToothpick

As of April 1, 2008 we never recieved a response from Colin Clarke.

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The following letter was sent to Diceinfo@ea.com

From: mntoothpick@bigstring.com [mailto:mntoothpick@bigstring.com]
Sent: den 13 februari 2008 23:00
To: DICEINFO
Subject: 2142 Updates.

 

Dear Dice:

Battlefield 2142 is an absolutely fantastic game, but improvements can be made.  Many players are asking for small patch fixes to some problems which still plague the game, like the sentry gun through the wall glitch.  Other players are demanding a whole new booster pack and more vehicles, more unlocks, more maps.  I am echoing the sentiments of my fellow gamers who are simply, “asking you to give the gamers reason to buy this game, and continue to play a great game,” and “asking for “public updates on your work”.

There is a huge demand for patches and many great ideas for possible feedback on your own Battlefield forums.  Gamers demand more support for BF2142, new patches to fix minor problems, and most importantly we want a new booster pack.
 

Please let us know what your plans are.
 

Sincerely,
 

MNToothpick

We received the following response:

Thank you for your email. We at DICE have a Live team that is dedicated to work on the games we have released. Although we cannot disclose any information about upcoming Updates and expansions at this point in time we are still working on making sure you as a player get the best possible experience when playing Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield 2.

 

Kind Regards

DICE

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On March 20, 2008, we sent a follow up to Diceinfo@ea.com

I was reading the official forums and there is extensive discussion about what still needs to be fixed in BF2142.

According to recent posts on the forums, here is a list of some of the top problems which people are complaining about as needing patch fixes according to the forums: 

1)      People can still glitch into walls

      2)       People can still pod surf from one side of the map to the other.
 

3)      Podding out of an Air- transport if you're the pilot will get you instantly killed as you can not steer the pod enough to dodge the falling chopper.  (People complain about bailing pilots too, though.  Maybe pilots should not be able to bail.)

4) Gunship pilot missiles often miss their target even when you're flying and shooting directly behind an enemy gunships. The missiles fly towards their target then mysteriously circle it then miss.  Gunship shields often don't work. When you're flying head to head with another gunship and raise your shields, the enemy gunship missiles pass right through it and kill you. 

5)  Server instability still causing crashes

6) Unable to spawn on titan on new round

7) Titan shields won't go down after enough silo missiles have supposedly taken it out.

 
      8) Sentry guns firing through titan walls

 
      9) Unable to spawn on titan on new round

      10) Motion mines fly off into the distance when "bouncing" back up to the surface

Full discussion here:
 
http://forums.easports.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=346577&tstart=15

 Are you aware of these problems and are you planning on fixing them?


Thanks,

[MNToothpick]

* * *

Here is the response we received on April 1, 2008:

Thank you for your email. We at DICE have a Live team that is dedicated to work on the games we have released. Although we cannot disclose any information about upcoming Updates and expansions at this point in time we are still working on making sure you as a player get the best possible experience when playing Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield 2.

 

Kind Regards

DICE

* * *
Sadly the last two emails appear to be generic responses and do not give us anymore information.
So that is all we know so far.

***UPDATE!!!***

Patch 1.50 has been announced and the forums are a buzz with new information about the Battlefield 2142 suggestions.  

We sent a letter of thanks to DICE and received a nice surprise:

Hej Tore!

Thank you for your email. The team really appreciate it, and we will continue to do our best to support you and all the other Battlefield players.

Please let me know if you have an X360 and I’ll supply you with a Beta key for Bad Company.
 

Sincerely,

 
John Hargelid

Producer, DICE Live

* * *

We do not have an XBOX 360, so we will probably not be taking them up on the offer.  We are just glad 2142 is being supported!


CHEERS!

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