Battlefield 3: The Multiplayer Experience

[Remus3]

Battlefield 3 has been out for a few months now and the internet is teeming with videos and guides depicting every aspect this game has to offer, but why should you buy this game?

Where does it shine the most and what makes it shine so brightly? This is where I come in, everything laid out is only the introduction to a series of topics that will get you going and ready to jump into the maps and figure out your own play-style. This game, like many other has so many options, that it may be overwhelming in figuring out your role on the field. Everything from sniping, to Close Quarters Combat (CQC), and from air support in jets / helicopters to land support keeping things running... it will be hard for you to not like at least one aspect of this game.

I have played countless hours in First Person Shooter (FPS) titles across the board and enjoyed damn near every minute of it, ranging from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six to even Call of Duty. My personal favorite is the Battlefield franchise; don't go blowing me off just yet, for I am by no means a "fanboi". There will be no bashing here, just straight up tips and tricks to pure information on my personal experience without a single thought of how it compares to other titles.

This does not mean that FPS games can't be placed into their own sub-categories. Some games cater to a different audience about how the gameplay revolves, but no matter the diversity of the game, they each have their own pros and cons depending on how you wish to play. In my personal experience, the Battlefield series has been and always will be centered around team gameplay: you can succeed as a solo artist of war, but for me it is the friendships you strengthen and create through team play that makes the game experience ultimately rewarding.

Team play versus the Lone Wolf

If I said it once, I said it a thousand times, and will say it a million more times: Stick Together. If trouble comes your way, would you rather try to stick it out 2v1 or more, or 2v2? The extra set of weapons and eyes could be the difference from getting a knife in your back or taking out the ambushers. Bring a buddy or attach yourself to someone in your squad, this will foster a companionship with the person and they will in turn help you out if they can do anything.

Just remember to not stick next to the sniper unless you plan on spotting or sniping for yourself... the brush out in the middle of nowhere can be boring as a medic.

If you prefer to play alone in some fashion, please remember that you are not Rambo at all times. Taking objectives on the appropriate game modes are just as important as rolling the enemy under your booties of pain, not that it isn't fun as all get out to exude your prowess. Excluding the Squad/Team Deathmatch modes, there is likely always an objective to take or defend. Be mindful of them and support your other teammates if you know something dark goes that way.

When it comes down to it, if you're on the sweep and clear frontlines, you will want someone watching your back. Rocking the vehicles? Keep an awareness about for pesky Engineers and their toys, as C4 packs a punch and those RPG's hurt like no tomorrow. More on this later.

Above all else, this is the second biggest thing I say, Map Awareness. Know your surroundings and expect the enemy's approach at every corner. Running gun ho' in this game only goes so far, and that's when you're dead at every turn you make. Keep a third eye on the minimap and occasionally glance if you don't have that luxury. It will save your life, the life of your squad mates, and even give you glimpses of exit procedures so you don't attempt to escape right into the enemies fortified location.

Every rose has it's thorn.. but these are good thorns.

If you fancy a shotgun/rpg wielding frontlines man then so be it, I will stress however that not every situation will that setup be desirable. The enemy team may be better coordinated than your team and that will call for a change of tactics often as the battles continue to engage. Keep an open mind on situational awareness and a good setup on your other classes to counter what they have to offer.

Inside and out there is so much metagame that can be seen that even a dozen broad sentences could still glimpse over so many areas of interest. Go to the store and pickup a cheap headset for your console/rig and communicate. Man up the $30 and bring yourself to a deeper level of coordination and execution of plays, you may find that one of your squadmates is really cool to hang with in-game. The flip side is, please don't be a person of "special" interests and be coarse, rugged, insensitive or generally the type of person you would believe that can't make friends. Giving great communication and teamwork criticism will be beneficial in the long term and offer better results from your squad.

Doing the dirty work could often get you killed, but learning from those encounters far out way the slight loss on KDR as you progress through the levels. If you make a mistake, read from it briefly on what caused you to do that action that led to your mistake. Rethink what you could have done differently and put it into practice. Running the same route that you end up dying in over and over should be corrected.

Game modes, a little insight into strengths and weakness' for your play style.

Conquest: 3 points to control, 4/5 on specific maps. The match starts off with neither team owning any. The goal being to get more than 50% of the flags captured, this in turn causes the enemy to bleed tickets. As you kill the enemy their tickets will lose 1 count every time they jump back into the fight. *Tip: helicopters can take points as well, just be careful of RPG's*

Rush: 2 points, 3-5 stages. The goal of the attacker is to destroy M-Com stations for whatever reason. I personally like to watch things explode. Once the 2 objectives have been reduced to smoldering ashes and metal, there will be a slight delay and then the next stage will be open to attack. As a defender, kill the enemy as much as possible while standing guard at the objectives.

Team Deathmatch(TDM): 12 soldiers per side, no vehicles, this is an all out kill fest. The object is to whittle the enemies tickets down to 0, or run the timer down. This option is best for solo play, but again teamwork hurts nobody.

Squad Deathmatch(SDM): Team oriented deathmatch. 4 squads containing 4 players each against each other to get the highest score (usually 50), first. No vehicles to cause an imbalance but keep an earnest eye on that minimap and a friend close-by. Flanking happens a lot here.

Conquest Assault: Only available on Back to Karkand maps. An interesting twist on the Conquest theme, 1 team holds all the objectives at match start. The attackers have more tickets than the defenders at the start and the goal being to regain control a bleed the enemy dry. Flank often and backdoor the other objectives if the defenders are centered on a specific point.

Analysis of composition playing(Team play)

Hitting up the tank all the time not working out? Are the snipers nailing you every time you try to bring down someone foolish enough to walk in front of your sights? Change your gameplay to counter them, I know... I know, I said to play the game as you want to, but when you start to get infuriated at the one jerk who does nothing but camp in the northwest hills covering 'B'.

Change your pace up and take care of the problem, anything from hopping a quick ride to flank him or to counter snipe him, remove the problem and go back to business as usual. You may find that you like doing these excursions as a relaxation method, every trip out of the norm will bring your experience in other aspects up and broaden your field of knowledge of the match.

The weapons make all the difference

The right weapons for the job matter as much as dealing with the threats from on high or nearby, cater your loadouts for different circumstances no matter how brief you think you will play them. Just don't bring a knife to a sniper fight unless you're within 3 feet of the enemy. CQC, Mid range, Long range, Anti-Vehicle. The most basic of the enemies arsenal, each have their strengths in weaponry for situations that crop up.

Problem Solving

Running in blindly is a fools death, specific situations that I will cover later are conducive to slim options, however learning to hit and how will net you extra points while pinned down or in a rather shitty place. When confronted with a problem, you must become a problem solver and analyze what the most basic factors are and counter them, are you constantly dying to RPG backsplash, or grenades & launchers? Swap out the sprint perk for flak, remove the position alert (laser / nova light) hardware from your guns and flank the rpg nut hard.

Take each situation in a slow way though, rushing about will get you killed more often than not, pepper the enemy up with some grenades and peekaboo in and change locations... wait for their head to poke out or get behind them from a different direction.

Anti-Vehicle Warfare

There are two routes here:
1) Support engineer, your main goal is to keep the machine operating in the best condition possible, you may die doing your duty but sure as shit you were able to help your teammates remove the threat.

2)AT Engineer, planting mines around popular routes to force bottlenecks or standoffs, flanking the tank and dropping C4 and watching the fireworks.
Both will net you deaths and points alike, either or will be conducive to team play could spell out the demise of the enemy on their objective defense.

No matter which road you decide to wander into, keep your buddies nearby. Know when to do your duty and when to retreat to clean up the mess. As a support engineer, your goal is to keep the AT engineers dead, and to jump out in between shells from attackers to repair the vehicle.

AT engi's lay down a strip of 4 across a wide path and 2 down the path closer to the objective, if they make it through one set they will surely hit the second or at least be too scared of hitting them to attack properly.

Learning to fly

Beyond trial and error with strafing runs in the jets, the rest is team play oriented in the helicopters. A good rule of thumb is to carry at least one engineer in your crew that can have their torch out to repair the bird as it takes shells. Two on board will allow the driver to take usually fatal flying mistakes and recover in a mere couple of seconds. Having the bird up long and on the go is paramount to learning, while also forcing the enemy to either deal with you or suffer dire consequences of being too scared to move.

Situational Awareness

Most games this is lackluster, we all do it on occasion; ya know, not watch that orange arrow heading to us from half a mile away, then chasing that one guy that got away into the middle of a death trap. It pays off to know where you allies are and what is happening to them before you engage. Rambo may work, most times it will result in your death. Bullets ricocheting around you can tell you the direction of the shooter, be mindful and move accordingly.

A good trick to learn and use is to go full prone in the opposite direction of the bullet travel, is it striking you from behind don't bother swinging around- dive to the left or right to cover and deal with it after a split second-- or continue your escape and booby trap your path with a grenade. From the left/right, move forward and counter with a timed burst and leave. The attacker usually has the advantage til you disappear, corners are you friend.

Weapon Enhancements for the situation

Scopes: From the 3.8x to the 12x, usage should be based on the map openness.

Sights: Holographic is great for shotguns but not too hot for certain guns, play what you like but understand how the recoil affects your aiming.

Shotguns: Frag rounds dominate(+blast damage), with buckshot coming in second and slugs a close third. Flechette rounds are very iffy, you need to be CQC for their full effect anything beyond 15m they are useless as they just give away your position without too much damage.

Being proactive...

Don't get stuck in the groove, if your teammates aren't being up to par take matters into your own hands and bring in clear plans to fix the situation. Tanks keeping you in spawn, or enemy medics reviving everyone you kill... get the rpg's out and shred them.

Being positive even when the shit is hitting the fan, keep a clear mind of what is going on around you and your chatter precise. Use the cardinal directions and relative objective positions on mind for enemy forces. Be mindful of possible flanks and either keep an eye out or cover the section of land as if you were defending your family. If you are caught out in the open, retreat to close quarters and go the less obvious choice to surprise your foe.

Dynamics of goal oriented game-play

The good, goals are set.. let's do this. Stomping the enemy at every turn through good coordination and keeping your squadmates alive. Remember to actually remember what you guys did to do so for future matches.

The bad, team isn't doing too hot, how do you fix it? Is the enemy heli' destroying your vehicles, bring it down or at least wound it enough they have to jump. Small arms fire won't affect the aircraft much- either snipe/rpg the bird and get in one yourself to clear out their front lines. Don't be afraid to offer up ideas to other people to correct the situation, they are in the rut just like you.

The ugly, I'm doing bad, what should i do differently. Think of what keeps getting you killed, and decide how you are going to remedy it. Rushing in, not retreating early enough, ADS off center while cornering? Learn to fix it and your game will improve not just for yourself but for your team as well.

Conclusion on success or failure

Bettering yourself checklist:

• Practice makes perfect.

• Research your weapons, understand them.

• Getting into a group and learning your squads movements.

• Learning more than just doing, bust out a notepad and write what you've improved.

• Stat sites, whether you care or not because you play for fun, be mindful. (Battlefield 3 Stats - All stats about BF3)

• Sharing your knowledge. Not everyone may have read what you have read, or understands everything as they play.

Try to mentor your friends and remember that you can have bad games as well so don't berate them or drive a point home too much.



More soon covering everything BF3, stay tuned.

[Ground Zero]

An interesting read, and it covers pretty much all of the online aspects, wouldn't mind seeing some tips or tricks on weapons/attachments in more detail or map specific guides and what classes to use and when.

[Remus3]

Thank you, it's going to be next once I've posted the mode types and jump straight into class selection based on the situation.

[Reflection]

Thanks for the good guides man, interesting read!

Ah, got to spread some reputation before giving it to you again.