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How DICE is still improving Battlefield 4

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46

Stop letting them pull the wool over your eyes

You can joke all you like about Battlefield 4 still being in beta nearly a year after release, but the truth of the matter is that Battlefield 4 really is still in beta; the game is more of a continually evolving service than it is a single, static product. That’s what EA and DICE would  love for you to believe, but truth is they shipped an unfinished product. Still, it’s getting better, and thanks to the Community Test Environment, players can help DICE fix their game. Here’s what’s being added and changed.

Battlefield’s Community Test Environment lets those who’ve signed up to Battlefield Premium play around with upcoming changes to the game to help DICE fine-tune upcoming changes. Somehow, they’ve managed to convince consumers that paying extra money to beta test for them is a great value proposition.

Evolve Battlefield together? You cheeky bastards.

Here are the new changes to CTE, that you can pay money to play around with. In addition to regular netcode improvements, DICE is making core changes to the game.

”The core gameplay initiative has started, and in the first phase, we’re looking at making improvements and fixes related to the new Dragon’s Teeth expansion pack,“ says DICE on the Battlelog site, listing the following changes to core gameplay.

    • Shield bash damage has been tweaked, it is no longer possible to one-hit kill enemies. The Ballistics shield now better matches with the initial design intent.
    • Single tank AP-rounds now kill those carrying the Ballistics Shield, something that previously wasn’t possible.

In addition to that, and some changes to the rush mode, this is what those of you conned in to shelling out more money to help fix a game you’ve already paid money for can expect:

  • General Weapon tweaks/balance.
  • Weapon Suppression tuning.
  • 3P Head-flinch dampening.
  • Visual recoil ADS tuning.
  • Vehicle tuning/balance.
  • Game modes: Rush, Continued tweaks to Obliteration Competitive and Conquest small.
  • HUD improvements and bug fixes.

I know it’s starting to seem like all I do is moan about EA – but I’m really starting to feel like many of its practices – which seem to be done for the sole purposes of extracting extra income from gamers – are doing long-term damage to the industry as a whole.

Last Updated: June 30, 2014

46 Comments

  1. oVg Panzaboye

    June 30, 2014 at 11:33

    Is this the one with the flying robots, or robbers and shit or the old one that they still need to patch after the share holders sold up?
    I dont know anymore.

    Reply

  2. Rince&Shitity

    June 30, 2014 at 11:34

    I’m sorry, let me get this straight. You PAY for the privileged of MAKING their game to sell to other people?!

    Reply

    • oVg Panzaboye

      June 30, 2014 at 11:35

      I think after Skyrim they have come to realise that all gamers are willing to pay full retail to become BETA QA testers and not worry about our names not being in the credits.

      Reply

      • Rince&Shitity

        June 30, 2014 at 11:36

        More like full retard. And people are willing to do this? How much more stupid fanboy must you be?

        Reply

        • oVg Panzaboye

          June 30, 2014 at 11:42

          I was about to say that maybe 20 years ago a couple of man children were asking the same same thing while we blindly supported NINTENDO.

          Then I realised that it was impossible to release broken games because they were all incased in a cartridge and had a FCUK OFF BIG NINTENDO SEAL OF QUALITY stamped on the box.

          P.S. No loading screens required.

          Reply

          • Rince&Shitity

            June 30, 2014 at 11:44

            It makes me sick. And the worst thing is these people will clamor to be the first. Lunatics.

          • oVg Panzaboye

            June 30, 2014 at 11:47

            I blame the internet. Now they can sell you a service.

          • Rince&Shitity

            June 30, 2014 at 11:47

            I blame stupid fucking humans. The internet is a tool, it’s what you do with it that matters.

          • oVg Panzaboye

            June 30, 2014 at 11:48

            LOL

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            June 30, 2014 at 11:50

            Shut up you internet!

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            June 30, 2014 at 11:50

            That want to sell you services because you can’t sell a service 2nd hand, you have to buy a new service when they shut the old one down & subscriptions are a great idea.

          • Rince&Shitity

            June 30, 2014 at 11:58

            *That want? 0-O

  3. Viking Of GabeN

    June 30, 2014 at 11:37

    TL;DR version: They’re not 😛

    Reply

  4. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 30, 2014 at 11:40

    It’s EA. I’m sure DA:I won’t have any issues though… right?

    Reply

    • Kromas

      June 30, 2014 at 11:41

      It better not!

      Reply

    • oVg Panzaboye

      June 30, 2014 at 11:46

      Just lots of BABY OIL 😛

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        June 30, 2014 at 11:52

        It’s so shiny. I must have it. I hope it comes with extra hair DLC.

        Reply

        • Rince&Shitity

          June 30, 2014 at 12:01

          You would *Runs

          Reply

        • Kensei Seraph

          June 30, 2014 at 12:05

          Those will be mods if you get it on PC.
          Master Race perks.

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            June 30, 2014 at 12:43

            They’ll probably try to charge for enabling mods.

          • Kensei Seraph

            June 30, 2014 at 12:52

            God I hope not.
            Mods allow for some of the greatest content within a LOT of games.

            Without mods I wouldn’t even be able to play Dark Souls!

  5. Sk3tz0

    June 30, 2014 at 11:47

    EA playing with loaded DICE.. and the punter losing.

    Reply

  6. Xx_-Gaben_of_Gamen-_xX

    June 30, 2014 at 11:47

    Call of Battlefield

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      June 30, 2014 at 12:09

      SUBSCRIBED!

      Reply

    • Rince&Shitity

      June 30, 2014 at 12:32

      Brilliant!

      Reply

  7. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 30, 2014 at 11:48

    So basically the game is levolution in action?

    Reply

  8. Sageville

    June 30, 2014 at 11:52

    Is this on PC only… cause you paint a picture of a terrible half finished game and I have not had that experience on PS3 or PS4.

    Reply

  9. Kensei Seraph

    June 30, 2014 at 11:54

    I give this 18 months before it becomes entirely subscription based.

    Reply

  10. Hammersteyn

    June 30, 2014 at 12:06

    Somehow, they’ve managed to convince consumers that paying extra money to beta test for them is a great value proposition. = SUCKERS!

    Reply

    • Maxiviper117

      July 1, 2014 at 14:27

      The Premium was to get all the map packs in one bundle, and other in game stuff, so if you already bought Premium, you got access to this CTE for free, because it only got released recently. so i don’t know what your talking about.;

      Reply

  11. Labey-Kun

    June 30, 2014 at 12:07

    I stopped playing the game waiting for it to get fixed, playing the game two weeks ago , I found that the servers were lagging for like whole week, man this game frustrating to enjoy.

    Reply

  12. Sk3tz0

    June 30, 2014 at 12:09

    They telling the poor gullible bastards that they fixing the game, just to keep them interested untill hardline comes out. then its just rinse and repeat.

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph

      June 30, 2014 at 12:24

      And then when Hardline does come out they’ll announce that BF4 is fixed and there is no need for further work.

      Reply

      • Sk3tz0

        June 30, 2014 at 12:45

        true dat! because Hardline will be as broken as the ZAR, and they’ll be working to fix it untill next BF game.

        Reply

  13. CypherGate

    June 30, 2014 at 12:55

    whoever decides to PAY to beta test have way too much money to waste and are purely stupid.

    Reply

  14. MakeItLegal

    June 30, 2014 at 13:01

    I love battlefield 4 , but ya even with 13 ms ping some random “net code ” glitches keep it from bein almost perfect , also There is only like one server with the dlc maps , it’s only 48 players as well , how about a dedicated dlc sever dice ?

    Reply

  15. alcatraz5953

    June 30, 2014 at 13:08

    Do you really think its going to continue being improved once Hardline rolls out? Then we will all have played an unfinished game for a year long, wasted our time and money, and yet most people will still ten to one buy Hardline. COD here i come…sigh cant believe i said that

    Reply

    • SlasherZA

      June 30, 2014 at 13:22

      BF4 is really not THAT broken or that bad. It has had some funky bugs introduced with patches that should never have been missed by QA, but it has for the most part all been fixed.

      Whilst BF4 might not have been perfect, I have managed to get nearly 300 Hours of gameplay out of it and 95%+ have been really enjoyable. With 2 more expansions and another year before BF5 (or whatever next one will be after hardline), I will also be getting another 100-200 hours of gameplay from it at the very least.

      When you consider the price for BF4 + Premium at around R1000 (Already down to R3/hour, will end at R2/hour or less before BF5 launch), the value per hour I get from this as a game is considerably more than buying most other games when new. Heck, even games I buy on sale rarely get more than 10 hours worth of gameplay time if I get it for the singleplayer. (R100 for something like Tombraider on sale, 10 hours for the SP campaign = R10/hour).

      I have yet to experience a game where the noticeable impact of playing EU servers with around 200 ping is so low (BF has client side hit detection) that it is really worth playing (I don’t play competitive, our local gaming community has taken all the fun out of it when I was playing TF2/CS etc competitively).

      Yes, they should have fixed it prior to launching, but that might have taken another 6 months in which we would not have been able to play the game – and then the gamers complain in any event because something is delayed?

      Reply

      • alcatraz5953

        June 30, 2014 at 13:39

        Look BF4 has brought me a lot of pleasure, I myself have have well over 300 hours on BF4, I bought my premium as any loyal Battlefield fanboy would, and I enjoyed the game, as broken as it is, I never bitched and moaned. In all honesty, non of it really bothered me.

        But, the problem arises when a new game pops out. As soon as Hardline rolls out our servers are slowly going to empty out, less maintenance will take place on our servers, and eventually not too long after, BF4 will be put “on the house’ in origin and then everything will go to shit before BF4 was even finished. That,s what pisses me off.

        I love my BF4, broken or not, but DICE/EA could have really given us a bit more time with it before they started releasing cops vs robbers games. That,s just my opinion

        Reply

        • SlasherZA

          June 30, 2014 at 13:48

          True.

          I was very happy when they were on the 2 year release cycle (except if they do BF2142 follow up on a in between year, that I won’t mind).

          Hardline just feels like shorter rounds and too small a map for me to be fun. Vehicles is nice, but not enough to convince me to buy the game.

          Dice themselves wont stop supporting BF4 (it is theirs, Hardline is not), but EA might stop caring, unless Hardline doesn’t do well and players go back to BF4 afterwards.

          If you look at BF3, US/EU still has a couple of servers that fill up daily, so at least it is not exactly dead yet.

          Reply

          • alcatraz5953

            June 30, 2014 at 14:02

            BF3 only has a few servers that fill up because of the ‘on the house’ availability, and those servers are so full of hackers its barely unplayable. A 2 year cycle is perfect, but as with everthing else in this world. Money is king. I personally will not be getting Hardline. And Advanced Warfare really does look good…So maybe COD will be seeing me for a bit

          • SlasherZA

            June 30, 2014 at 14:12

            I can easily do with just BF4 for another year – especially with what seems to be coming from Dragons Teeth DLC. Just doing something like taking a buddy on a bike in Silk road and doing C4 bikes (have probably almost 2000 kills with c4 alone, my brother has 400 odd roadkills with the bike) has given us so much ‘random’ fun in doing that that we have spent at least another 50 hours on that. Once that gets boring, pick something else (Currently using SMAW to shoot air vehicles down, starting to get a surprisingly good hit rate, even taken out a frogfoot on lost island map and another jet on silk road (this time as passenger in z11).

            Game supports so many playstyles and approaches you can do something new every 50 hours and still be busy trying to learn things 2 years later.

            COD looks good, but I will only play SP on that, so will most likely wait for a 50% off sale before getting it. If however I wanted to hear school children swear at me (and mah mama) I’d still be playing CS, have started playing DOTA or go back to COD MP…

          • alcatraz5953

            June 30, 2014 at 14:26

            Had a good chuckle at your children comment. That’s the only thing that has kept me away from COD – it’s a kiddies game. But as long as BF4 keeps improving, if the servers are maintained once Hardline rolls, I will most definitely still be playing BF4. Haven’t had much time for gaming of late, still settling into new place, but looking forward to a leka BF session soon.

            All that being said, I will never touch DOTA, CS maybe if I’m desperate.But like you say, BF4 has so many different ways to keep you busy and entertained. Dragons teeth should be plenty fun. Some sweet new tech coming our way in the next 2 expansions.

  16. loftie

    June 30, 2014 at 13:54

    well, I cant say that I haven’t had fun playing a BF4 because I’ve had shitloads of fun, crashes and all…now, back to borderlands 2…

    Reply

  17. HisDivineOrder

    June 30, 2014 at 15:50

    Oh. I thought the Battlefield Hardline game was the new Battlefield 4 beta. Perhaps it’s the Battlefield 4.1 beta instead.

    Can’t wait for next year’s Battlefield 4.1 Update 1.

    Reply

  18. Charl van der Merwe

    July 2, 2014 at 08:33

    Lol have you armchair critics even PLAYED BF4 ? I did, just last night and the whole of last month, guess how many times it crashed or a I encountered a bug, ZERO.So seriously, I see a patch full of BALANCE TWEAKS, and you see a beta patch?

    I wonder sometimes if the whiners(even the writers) on this site even play the games they love to bitch about, I have noticed it on many games.

    Reply

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