DuckyofDeath123

World cup, great sunny weather, and a severe lack of deodorant on some of the regulars... they'll come back when the DLC hits.

By the time this comes out, there'll be BF4 DLC with close-in warfare too. No point buying hardline there. And when BF4 gets old, DayZ will be in full swing and the mod scene there will be flying, so I'll just go stalk and murder people in that.

Just looking at available flight options. Nottingham is apparently not somewhere people want to go much, most flight are 23+ hours long with layovers. I guess I am driving then. Someone please warn the Englandese to stay off the road that weekend.

Good. I went from being in the middle of the score list on the US server to being in the top 5 consistently, surviving ambushes and actually killing people - that round went so much better than before, I was hoping it was the patch, cause it felt too good to be placebo. Nice

Was this on y'day your afternoon already? Cause we were playing on the us box and it felt WAY better than last times. But, were we fooling ourselves is what i am curious about.

Note that in the video they show the network delay of actions you do showing up on someone else's screen has gone from being absurdly ridiculously long to merely being industry breakingly shit, from a quarter second (the time it takes your assault rifle to fire 3 to 5 bullets - enough to kill someone with body shots) to half that (1~3 bullets, enough to kill in HC, not quite enough on softcore). For reference, if you do this test with an antique shooter like Half Life or indeed anything on the Unreal engine, the delay can be far lower than this. Also note they tested with a ping of 50. That makes no sense unless they're trying to hide the fact that ping 5 or ping 50 you're still waiting for 100+ milliseconds. Which is terrible for anything remotely considered a "serious" shooter. still, in the land of the blind... let's see what they broke

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/news/view/new-netcode-update-rolling-out/ The High Frequency Update is by default turned OFF in this release. You will have to enable this setting to take advantage of the improved networking. To support players with a limited bandwidth connection, we support three different levels: LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH. Most players with a connection faster than 1Mbit should be fine using the HIGH setting. If you experience any issues, lower or turn off the setting completely. Playstation 4 and Xbox One Server Performance The High Frequency Update will be rolled out to all 48 player servers and on a small set of 64 player servers immediately. We will then keep a close eye on the larger servers to make sure server performance stays good in the live environment. If all goes well, all servers will be supporting the high frequency update after 24 hours or rollout and testing. PC Server Performance On PC the RSPs are responsible for enabling the feature at their discretion, we expect most to do so as soon as possible. Video Comparison When testing our “High Frequency Bubble” changes to the network layer in Battlefield 4, we made sure to employ a measurable end-user experience metric. To do this, we have been using a 60fps video camera to capture two clients connected over the internet, and counting frames to get before and after results: Future Plans This is the first release to contain CTE-tested “Netcode” fixes and improvements. We are still hard at work with additional improvements and tweaks to better our network experience that did not make this release. We hope to utilize the Community Test Environment for future release to ensure quality and stability across all platforms. If you wish to take part in this testing, the CTE still has slots open. The current requirement is to own a PC copy of Battlefield 4 with a Premium memebership to sign up at http://cte.battlelog.com Update Details PC • Improved/reduced explosion induced camera shake • Character collision improvements • Fix to reduce object damage mismatch between client/server. • Fix explosion packs not being able to be shot sometimes • Improvements for client side packet loss • Client crash fixes • AMD Mantle multi-GPU improvements • Carrier Assault game mode reports bug fix • High Frequency Network update - Added High frequency “bubble” updating player movement, stance, rotation, damage and projectiles at a separate rate on foot and in vehicles - Added option to control client side update rate setting

I'll be sure by the end of the week, pencil me in.

By the way, if you want to tap-fire, you seem to have three decent options in the LMG world. LSAT, as discussed, is great at tap firing. The u100 mk5 (base LMG) fires very slowly but has low recoil and spread so it might do this, and the 1960 have sent their M60e4 since apparently this thing still isn't dead yet. Listed are the LSAT (hvy barrel vs no barrel mod) the U100 mk5 (no barrel mod) and the M60 (hvy barrel vs no barrel mod). All of them have the angle grip since that halves 1st shot recoil, and tap-firing only has 1st shot to worry about. All three of these are appalling shits compared to the other weapons in the game, especially as closer ranges. You're going to need to sit still and tap-spray the pants off people to work these well. First: Hvy Barrel adds accuracy but ads recoil up. The LSAT's up recoil becomes 0.375 x 2/3 = 0.25 M60: 0.9 x 0.335 = .3015 While that certainly isn't a lot, it's enough that you need to slow your firing rate right down to DMR speeds to stay on target, or work on manually controlling that recoil since you are going to notice this at a distance. And since "at a distance" is where this tapfire works, and what the hvy barrel was meant to improve... so don't use the hvy barrel. Then, without the barrel mod: LSAT recoil is .25/.25./25 and the M60 is .6/.4/.3 which is less so LSAT wins, right? Well, no. The M60's first shot recoil is multiplied by .335, and the LSAT is multiplied by .67 So the final result is: LSAT .17/.17/.17 M60 .18/.13/.10 That is a big difference. While it's true that the up recoil on the M60 is a tiny bit larger, the sideways drift is far less. Since the bullets have the same spread from either gun, that makes the M60s first shot as accurate, and the second shot more accurate, than the LSAT's. Also, unless you're really good at aiming at heads, you're goign to be aiming for the center of masss, and having the gun kick up won't put it off target - the bullet just hits a little higher. Which won't hurt (you). The spread on the M60 climbs quicker, weapon takes a little longer to recenter after each shot, and the bullet speed is lower. But, the LSAT is a faster firing weapon, so the chance of firing a second shot by mistake are way higher (which I noticed to my cost playing for the attachments on all these LMGs) and the fact that you're tapfiring will bring your rate of fire down to your tap speed anyway, in which case the lower 1st shot recoil of the M60 means it's done centering faster than the LSAT. Add to this consideration the M60's increased damage, and you have a clear winner for 50 -> 200 meter engagements which is not the LSAT. Beyond that range, you have two issues with the M60: the slow bullets become tricky to put on moving targets, and DICE hasn't fixed, and won't fix, the bug that the barrel-end iron sight stays on the weapon when you put on a scope, obstructing your view. So you can't see what you're aiming for with the scopes - it's 1x optics, IRNV, or FLIR with this gun. That makes the LSAT the better of these two guns than the M60 at ranges over 200 meters. But at that range, you're going to get your ass handed to you by anyone even halfway capable with a DMR or bolt-action. And the lowly U100 mk5 that everyone begins with and which seems, by its spread, recoil and bullet velocity to have found a thing it can do? Did I put it in the middle of that sheet to show that it does have some use? That first-shot recoil even with the angle grip means that, sadly, the U100 can't do this, either. It's still complete shit, outclassed by literally every other LMG in pretty much every possible scenario. So, when you are out there tapfiring that LSAT, dying constantly and in need of a better gun, remember: the sixties are here to help.

The screams of helpless Johnny Dosses as I shoot them with my fungun.

The LMGs are properly easy to use in close quarters in BF4. Pretty much all of them canb e used full-auto for 10+ shot bursts at under 50 meters, the exceptions being the high caliber specimens. Pretty much all BF4 maps can be mastered with LMGs. I've bee done with the LMGS for months and am using explosive shotguns now to make it more of a challenge.

come on ed...

I didn't say they were OP, but given that they're always a good choice, and in many cases the best choice, for most maps, they still have the "easy-mode" problem that the m16a3 had in BF3. I just can't enjoy playing with them, because I know that when I play well with them, it's down to the gun.

Not the Ace 23, the AWS or the MTAR for sure. Those guns, they're the best in their class for pretty much every map. They have too little recoil, not enough spread, too high a rate of fire and too short a time to kill to be any challenge. I get 6 kills in one clip with an AWS, that doesn't make me feel like I did something special - with that gun, you don't NEED to do very good for that sort of slaughter. The ACE-23 is effectively an "I win" button for infantry fights - unless pointblank versus a shotgun or over 150 meters versus a DMR or bolt action. So 90% of the time, you have the upper hand simply by the gun you're using. I don't like that feeling. I didn't play with the m16 in BF3 because of it and I won't use those guns in BF4 beyond needing to unlock all the toys for them. So my favorite weapons are the ones that are only good if you play to their strengths and work around the weaknesses. On my list would be the M60. Slow firing, inaccurate at full-auto and absurdly unlikely to hit stuff on the move, it forces you to play more tactically, more carefully, and one step slower than your enemy to ensure you're in a good position to surprise them and to get your gun talking at the perfect time. It makes finding a good defensive position or flanking stealthily a priority, because if you just run around a corner and start firing at some guy with another gun, he's going to win that fight despite the advantage of surprise. And yet, my kills per minute with this gun are higher than pretty much anything else. If you can't use the M60, or want something more run-and-gun, I am right now using the SG553 carbine, which though low damage is pretty easy to keep on target. You won't win a head-to-head with it, but you can use it over a fair distance at decent firing rates, making your victim suppressed, wounded, and then dead, without them ever getting a chance to get a good shot off themselves. If long range won't do, or you're playing Assault, I like the FAMAS for it's insane one-second mag dump. 1000 rpm so you don't so much aim this thing as you point and spray. It's not much good for groups and it's absolutely shit at range, but unless you've got some guy with a shotgun against you, you're winning the face-off stuff. Run and gun works well with this, despite being out of ammo all the damn time. The DMRs have their uses, especially if you're a crap sniper like me, and I prefer the M39 for being decently capable of putting your bullets where your aim is at range while on the move. Fire a little slower than the maximum firing speed and you've got a very decent sniper rifle in your hands with this. Again, don't face off with people - shoot them in the ass, hit them from the flanks or keep them at a distance to take advantage of the DMR, or you die. And, because we can't always be bothered to play for keeps: the USAS shotgun, with explosive shells. If you need to ask why a rapid firing, full auto shotgun with explosive ammunition is good, even though you will likely need 6 or 7 hits to down a player, you and I are never going to see eye to eye on this "favorite weapon" thing. When there's no USAS to be had, the DBV12 takes its place. But by far and away, with hands down no contest, the weapon everybody should bow down to is C4. Stick it on a car, stick it on a ceiling, stick it to a wall and stick it under bushes, then BOOM. Stick it on someone's tank, then hit that with a shotgun with slugs or explosive shells. Or a hand grenade, or a flash bang grenade. Snipe the C4 bricks you stuck on a wall and watch as people ragequit because you blowing up their vehicle with a sniper rifle MUST be a hack. Go into pistol-only servers, deck the halls with boughs of C4, lalala, then hit it with the Rex when someone shows up for the fireball from Hell that takes your opponents component parts and smears them across four surfaces, leaving them with a killcard saying they got shot with a handgun. There is no better way to troll, and I prefer it over RPGs for taking out vehicles quickly.

Eh, boys, before you get all excited... this is for consoles only. "...note that Squad Join Beta is available for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One." No PC.

Toying a bit with new drivers, settings and various video capping and editing toys. If you're an EU HC BF4 regular, you might be in this.

Today huh. That's cute.

Switch browsers and/or turn off the cinematic background in the Battlelog options.

Also, you can get a VIP slot, which lets you do the queue-barging thing: it shows 7th in queue but as soon as, for instance and at random, SOB ragequits, you're going in and 6 suckers get passed over. And vip slots give you 3 mapvote votes, so you have more chance of playing the maps and modes you like. I almost never wait for more than one minute to join, even when it had a queue of 8+.

Having the load-out open prevents you from having th eBattlemap open. I change loadouts twice a round, maybe. I look on the map every other second, more often than that when flying. I'm with Hicks on this one, and if you want to improve your awareness in game, I suggest you try the map instead of the loadout panel as well

Patch notes and first impressions? Or are you all hiding behind " work". And "real life" againg? :-)

I'll try it.

you made me return to recording my gaming sessions Hicks. Please buy me a 4 tb harddisk and enough time to cut and paste. Oh, and with the past BF4 patch I can now record at 60 fps in 720p or 30 fps in 1080p while playing in 2560x1600. You may want to mess with your settings a bit if you're still recording, you might get much better quality out of your existing pc now :-)

Is this on the US server only? I would love the option to try this in EU HC also, since it can be laborious at times to collect straggling XI members into a single squad, esp. if the guy is new to battlefield and still staring in awe at the tanks, scenery, or multi-tiered options menu.