Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta Changes Detailed

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Offering players a look behind the scenes of game development, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 developer DICE has published a list of the hundred-plus changes it has made to the upcoming shooter following the now-concluded PlayStation 3 beta. Another beta test, this one on PC, is slated to kick off January 28 and run through February 25, with the completed game planned to hit North American shops in PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 form March 2 and a multiplayer demo due around then.
Completely reskinned the weapons and scopes for much improved visual quality.
The reddot sight no longer has a FOV penalty compared to iron sights.
Pistols now have the same FOV level as other weapons in iron sights.
Tons of weapon tweaks to improve the balance of play.
Increased accuracy when stationary and aiming for better first shot accuracy.
Decreased accuracy when moving and aiming, especially for sniper rifles.
Several gun specific balance tweaks to bring them in line with the other weapons of that class.
Lowered the damage of the XM8 and F2000 at close range.
Lowered the damage of the AN94 at long range.
Raised the accuracy of the M16's burst.
Lowered the damage of the Type88 LMG.
Raised the damage of the MG3.
Raised the damage of the M249.
Fixed the recoil of the M249 when equipped with a reddot sight.
Lowered the damage of the SMGs and Carbines at extreme range.
Lowered the accuracy on the move for the SCAR-L, AKS-74u, and the XM8c.
Raised the damage of shotguns, especially for the pump shotguns and slugs.
Semiauto and Auto snipers and slug shotguns cannot 1 shot headshot at extreme range.
Fixed the Knife's stab animation and improved the reliability of Knife attacks.
Lowered the long delay between Knife attacks.
Fixed the animation speed for switching to the grenade launcher on assault rifles.
Fixed the too huge blood splatter effect for sniper shots at long distance.
Fixed the minimap disappearing if you switched weapons while aiming a sniper rifle.
Removed the fade to and from black when aiming a sniper rifle.
Adjusted graphics for sniper rifles and RPGs when zoomed.
Bolt action sniper rifles will chamber the next round if the trigger is pressed twice while zooming.
Fixed the close range damage of bolt action sniper rifles. Now a 1 hit kill on unarmored infantry in 5m.
Raised the damage of the VSS but lowered accuracy when moving.
Grenade carry limit with the Grenade Vest lowered to 2 hand grenades and 4 40mm grenades.

Tweaked the airstrike missile called in by the UAV so it gives a longer warning to victim vehicles.
Exiting the UAV now also exits the UAV ground station.
The UAV station no longer self destructs when the attacker's base changes.
The UAV station can no longer be destroyed by friendly fire if friendly fire is off.
Lowered the direct and splash damage of UAV's airstrike.
Lowered the damage of the UAV's alternate fire LMG.
UAV station screen shows offline when the UAV is waiting to respawn.
Many additional UAV bug fixes.

Lowered the splash damage of tank rounds. 1 shot kill radius is smaller now.
Raised the damage of the gunner's 50caliber machine gun and added a visual effect when it overheats.
Tweaked the damage tanks take to be more consistent. Tank front armor especially is more consistent.
It takes 2 to 5 RPGs to kill a tank with no specializations. (was 3 to 8)
Tanks should no longer get stuck on destroyed terrain or inclines.
Increased the precision of tank turrets.
All armored vehicles have new engine sounds.
Added environment specific camouflage to all vehicles.

New vehicle control layout: R2 and L2 for accel and brake, fire on L1 and altfire on R1.
Or lefty vehicle control layout: fire on R1 and altfire on L1.
BFBC1 style vehicle controls are still available as an alternate.

Jeeps now burn when hit by tank shells instead of instantly detonating. This effect is the same as with RPGs.
Raised the damage of the jeep HMGs and added a visual effect when it overheats.

Shielded heavy machine guns now have a bullet proof glass front. Flank these guns or blow them up.
Raised the damage of the stationary HMGs and added a visual effect when it overheats.

Fixed the name of the UH-60 and corrected the caliber description of the miniguns.

Raised the launch speed of the RPG7's missile for better long distance shots and less drop.
Raised the splash damage of all infantry launched Rockets and 40mm grenades.
Improved the visual feedback for locking onto tracer darted vehicles, this is be much clearer now.
Note that TOW/Kornet and M136 missiles are wire guided and cannot lock on to tracer darts.
Fixed wire guided missiles sometimes going erratic (even though this was realistic yet unintentional).

Improved the trail and blinking effect of Tracer Darts so they are more visible.
Vehicle Smoke Launchers and 40mm smoke remove tracer darts and spots on friendlies in the effect.
Targets which have been unspotted by smoke are immune to spotting for a few seconds.

Added a short cooldown to the Repair Tool after repairing 50% of a tank's health.
Lowered the repair speed of the Repair Tool but raised its range.
The Repair Tool can only repair or damage vehicles and stationary weapons.

The Mortar Strike is now called in via a pair of binoculars.
Lowered the number of shells in the Mortar Strike barrage, but raised the damage of each shell.
Raised the effectiveness of the Mortar Strike against armored vehicles.
Fixed a bug where the Mortar Strike would fail to begin to reload.
Switching kits no longer instantly reloads the Mortar Strike.

Fixed a bug where the Defibrillator would not reload unless held in the player's hands.
The Defibrillator icon on downed squad members now appears in green.
Soldiers who suicide from the menu cannot be revived.

Lowered the amount of Motion Sensors carried to 2 and limited each soldier to 1 deployed sensor at a time.
Deploying a new Motion Sensor before the previous sensor expires will replace the previous sensor.
Motion Sensors no longer detect players and vehicles sitting perfectly still.
Motion Sensors now beep when deployed and detecting a target.

The Vehicle Motion sensor now beeps for all occupants of the vehicle when it detects a target.
Vehicle Motion Sensors on the UAV and other Airborne vehicles now detect targets at all altitudes.

Fixed an exploit where players could deploy unlimited Ammo Boxes, Medkits, C4 and Mines.
Fixed a bug where players could detonate Detpacks placed the previous life upon respawning.
Detpacks can still be detonated if player's kit is picked up with in 15 seconds of his death.
Lowered the damage Detpacks do to crates.

Fixed AntiTank Mines not detonating when driven over at medium speeds.
AntiTank Mines should now properly persist after the player has died.

The Ammo Box, Medkit, Defibrillator, Repair Tool, and Motion Sensor are now unlocks for each class.
Players new to Battlefield will be introduced to these teamplay items when they are unlocked.
Battlefield Veterans will automatically have these teamplay items unlocked from the start.

Lowered the duration of spotted targets. Aiming at a close target will refresh the spot timer automatically.
Lowered the effectiveness of the Sniper's Spotting Scope, targets must be tracked longer before spotting.
Fixed so the player can properly spot from the UAV.
Added an overheat to spotting to prevent spot and order spamming.
Spotting now requires the player be aiming significantly closer to the target.

Added Destruction 2.0 to the Guard Towers around the first Defender Base on Arica Harbor (and all other maps).
Fixed buildings collapsing without any warning sound or effects.
Moved M-COM station A into a Garage at the second Defender Base on Arica Harbor.
Fixed collision issues on the Patio in the upper level of the Town.
Fixed sometimes spawning underneath the Patio in the Town.
Fixed the collision problems with the Train Car containing M-COM stations on Arica Harbor's 3rd and 4th base.
Train Cars now have more specific destruction zones to encourage mouse hole tactics.
The Attacker's first base is now a protected spawn zone that defenders cannot enter.
Added additional alternate spawn points to all bases for both Attackers and Defenders to counter spawn camping.
Added a system that disables individual spawn points if enemies are within 20m. Does not apply to Squad Spawn.
Players can still spawn at a base if all spawns points at that base are blocked.
Spawn protection will be disabled if the player aims or fires during the short timer.
Wrecked civilian cars now have secondary explosions when hit with explosive weapons.

The Attackers now recieve 75 reinforcement Tickets to start instead of 100.
Taking a base restores the attackers to 75 Tickets instead of adding 50.

Improved soldier collision vs objects, especially for crouching under obstacles.
Fixed issues with certain objects popping into view as the player approached.
Reduced the amount of screen blur when in ultralow health.
Increased the visual and audio feedback for low health, healing, and returning to full health.
Out of Combat healing now starts sooner but takes longer to fully heal.
Slightly increased the healing power of medkits to increase their usefulness.

Improved the sensitivity of soldier controls. Adjusting sensitivity should have a much greater effect now.
Sensitivity when aimed is now consistent across all weapons.
Turning while sprinting is now more responsive.
Reduced forward input needed to sprint to 50% from 90% to smooth the transition to sprint.
Tweaked aiming and turning curves to be more responsive from the hip and more precise when aiming.
Fixed several issues with switching weapons and being unable to shoot or aim.
Fixed the player's control setup reverting to default when entering and exiting vehicles.
Fixed bugs when going to swim while sprinting.
Sped up the deploy and undeploy animations for the parachute.
Improved the precision for switching weapons on the Dpad.

Fixed several stats padding exploits.
Fixed various awards that did not work as designed.
Tweaked rank and class unlock progression based on data gathered in the beta.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 11, 2010 1:40 PM

    That is a long list of fixes. Cannot wait to play it.

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