BF2: If you thought EQ was a grind

[Hanzii]

Distinguished Service Medal
· 3000 Global Hours as a Commander
· 2000 Global Hours as a Squad Leader
· 2000 Global Hours as Squad Member
· Player Score of 53 in 1 Round (Total score in far left column of
Scoreboard)

7000 hours played? I'll be on Battlefield 3 by then...

This place is fun too, especially when it calculates, that I'll see my next unlock in 297 days...

[stray]

64 days for me (Lance Corporal now).

It says I haven't played since July 9, 2005, 1:18 pm. I'd probably be very close to ranking up if I had kept with the same catassing pace that I had when I started out.

Enrollment Date: June 30, 2005, 2:28 am

Total time played: 1d 10h 23m 21s

[Merusk]

291 days played....  that's fucking insane.

I played EQ for 5 years, and I did some bigtime catassing there.  If I total the /played days on ALL my characters in that 5 years I may have hit 9 months. 7000 hours is 3.8 hours a day, Every day for 5 years.

to repeat: fucking insane.

[Big Gulp]

291 days played....  that's fucking insane.

I played EQ for 5 years, and I did some bigtime catassing there.  If I total the /played days on ALL my characters in that 5 years I may have hit 9 months. 7000 hours is 3.8 hours a day, Every day for 5 years.

to repeat: fucking insane.

Yeah, it really is absurd.  By the time someone gets to that point the goddamned sequel will have already been out for a couple of years.

[stray]

And you can't even eBay your characters off at that 

At least in EQ you can make a profit off of your catassing. What do I get here?

Weapon unlocks.

Mmmm...k. I'll just make seven different profiles and unlock a new weapon for each one. It's quicker that way.

[Trippy]

And you can't even eBay your characters off at that 

At least in EQ you can make a profit off of your catassing. What do I get here?

Weapon unlocks.

Mmmm...k. I'll just make seven different profiles and unlock a new weapon for each one. It's quicker that way.

Rank is important if you like to command -- the highest ranking player that applies for the Commander position automatically gets it.

[Comstar]

I would expect if you ever get that medel, the producers of the game hire you as a full time QA dev....

[Furiously]

It seems most people don't like commanding.

It also seems most people don't like joining squads.

Luckily I've found a nice server where you get kicked if you bunnyhop or don't join one.

[Trippy]

It seems most people don't like commanding.

Yeah it's a thankless job made even more difficult by the painful UI and the negative points you get for TKing people with artillary. It's hard enough as a SL trying to get your squad to follow your orders -- as commander it's like trying to herd cats around on the map.

It also seems most people don't like joining squads.

This I don't understand. Even if you want to do the solo thing, by joining a squad (and ignoring orders) you at least can get an extra spawn point at times and if you make your own one person squad and lock it you can request supply drops (very useful as a Special Forces blowing up stuff behind enemy lines) and arty strikes from the commander.

Edit: fixed stuff

[stray]

I like joining squads, but I haven't lately (actually I haven't played at all lately either). The only thing worse than reading the random shit talking on chat is to hear it on VOIP.

[Trippy]

I like joining squads, but I haven't lately (actually I haven't played at all lately either). The only thing worse than reading the random shit talking on chat is to hear it on VOIP.

You can always mute them if they are annoying you.

[stray]

Actually it's not even just the shit talking that annoys me. It's the just the idea of hearing them period.

Anyways, it's just a gripe. I know about mute 

[Hanzii]

Actually it's not even just the shit talking that annoys me. It's the just the idea of hearing them period.

Anyways, it's just a gripe. I know about mute 

I've been playing a lot on TacticalGamer.com lately.

It's funny how the organization and use of voice makes it a completely different game (if you don't join a squad and folow orders, they kick you). It's so much better. On the other hand actually hearing the voice of some fat american saying "huhu, ya sure did kill him gud!" and "everybody spawn on me" at the same time takes away the feeling of battlefield realism...
But it's worth it, even though my ranking goes from always top 10 on normal servers to bottom 20 on these servers.

[Sky]

Next Rank: Lance Corporal
Global score: 697 / 1,000
At your current rate, you should earn 303 in 10.32 days (or 4h 59m 53s straight).
69.70%

Next Rank: Corporal
Global score: 697 / 10,500
At your current rate, you should earn 9,803 in 333.98 days (or 6d 17h 42m 40s straight).
6.64%

Next Rank: Sergeant
Global score: 697 / 25,000
At your current rate, you should earn 24,303 in 827.99 days (or 2w 2d 16h 54m 16s straight).
2.79%


Riiight...

[Merusk]

This grind DOES explain why I'm starting to see servers with 'global  unlocks' enabled rather than disabled, however.  People starting to wake-up and realize it's rather a lot of bullshit.

[Lemming]

I can't get that Ubar site to load up.  Anyone know of a place that tells you exactly how to get medals?  My friend just got himself a purple heart by doing nothing but being a walking bullet magnet and I'm jealous as hell.

[Nazrat]

Purple heart is a 1:4 kill to death ratio.  Nothing to brag about.  Yes, I have one.   

[Merusk]

Purple heart is a 1:4 kill to death ratio.  Nothing to brag about.  Yes, I have one.   

Hey I don't. I'm jealous. I'm not good enough to get some spiffy medals, but I don't suck enough to get one either? I'm dissapointed.. headlong charges into enemy fire, here I come.

[Trippy]

291 days played....  that's fucking insane.

I played EQ for 5 years, and I did some bigtime catassing there.  If I total the /played days on ALL my characters in that 5 years I may have hit 9 months. 7000 hours is 3.8 hours a day, Every day for 5 years.

to repeat: fucking insane.

There are some serious catasses playing right now, though. The top 10 players are averaging around 280 hours played and the game has only been out for 42 days so that's an average of around 7 hours a day. The biggest catass of them all has logged almost 457 hours so far.

[Merusk]

You made my brain bleed.  You know that, don't you?


Oh, and I got my purple heart, finally.  It seems you have to do the 4:1 thing in one round.. so I just killed a few guys then spent the rest of the round bum rushing the opfor and getting chewed-up.   I'm a medal whore.

[schild]

Medal Whore, Catass, Poopsocker, Lewt Whore, Munchkin - all different members of the same family.

[Toast]

Medal Whore, Catass, Poopsocker, Lewt Whore, Munchkin - all different members of the same family.

The medal whore thing is more like "gotta catch em all". Many medals don't require a time investment. They just require focused effort, ie "I'm going to use nothing but my knife until I get the basic badge/medal".

Many medals are designed with the long run in mind. I played the earlier BF games casually for years, so eventually I could get some of the crazy medals without catassing.

[Sky]

I think it's silly the way people see getting these extra perqs as mandatory. I like to look at it almost like an rpg, the awards and stats are the natural outgrowth of me playing the game, I don't alter the way I play just to get them. That's silly. There's a war on, for crisssakes, and everyone seems to be Klinger from MASH.

[Miasma]

Medal Whore, Catass, Poopsocker, Lewt Whore, Munchkin - all different members of the same family.

The medal whore thing is more like "gotta catch em all". Many medals don't require a time investment. They just require focused effort, ie "I'm going to use nothing but my knife until I get the basic badge/medal".

Many medals are designed with the long run in mind. I played the earlier BF games casually for years, so eventually I could get some of the crazy medals without catassing.

Most of the medals seem to want about 3000 hours played in a certain way (like in an airplane).  That's 125 full 24 hour days /played.  Madness.

[Merusk]

I revise my 'medal whore' comment to 'badge whore' then. I've managed to get some silver, gold and bronze stars (which is easy, even if you suck.  Find a 16-man server and actually do objectives or command instead of playing it like a deathmatch like so many others do.)  and a few kit badges.  Those are all fairly easy to get.. fuck the medal shit after I read that page.  Holy hell.

[Furiously]

Yea - they really have not made anything skill based - It's mostly just time based.

3000 hrs = 125 days = not going to ever get a single one.

Heck - given my growing lack of patience with dealing with the asstards gaming the game, I'll be lucky to unlock my 2nd weapon. Although sniping helo pilots sounds like a lot of fun.

[Sky]

It's only a matter of time before ranked servers wilt in popularity as people realize the sheer catassery involved (not to mention the rank whoring effect on gameplay) and start looking for unlocked servers. I like having the stat tracking, just to see how I'm doing for my own personal benefit, I like to get better, play stealthier, etc. Not for the stats, but just some gauge of how I'm doing/improving.

[Toast]

The ranked servers are bittersweet. I really like the sense of urgency that comes with knowing that everything I do goes on my "permanent record".

It really sucks when I log on and can't get anything going. A round with more deaths than kills, a loss, and a low global score makes stat jesus cry.

[Furiously]

I agree Sky, I thought I sucked when I started, and my kill to death ratio was about 1:2, it's closer to 1:1 now, but really, I have yet to see a character that consistantly gets a ton more kills then deaths as infantry.

I had the worst helo pilot yesterday - they would turn the helo so you couldn't hit the grunts on the ground and just cap flags. I think I died 4 times in a row and just gave up. I should have moved into the back and started lobbing grenades.

[Sky]

I'm just a bit worse than 1:1 myself. In bf1942, I used to be a stone cold badass, though, with 10:1 not being uncommon k:d. It wasn't that I was just a good shot, I also used cover and tactics to avoid death as much as possible. 2+2=badass. Wish I still had those skills. I wonder how much playing on the big screen hurts my gameplay, I probably miss a lot of stuff.

[Merusk]

I had the worst helo pilot yesterday - they would turn the helo so you couldn't hit the grunts on the ground and just cap flags. I think I died 4 times in a row and just gave up. I should have moved into the back and started lobbing grenades.

Hey I think I had that same helo pilot as my Squad Leader!  The whole squad spawned on him and the dumbass wouldn't fly to unoccupied rear lines bases.  It was a beeline for the closest uncapped base, ignoring the red mass the UAV was showing.  As soon as we were in sight he'd spin around the flag while we were shot-up with AT rounds.  We died so fast we didn't even get a cap, yet he kept doing it, every death, every round, and the entire squad stuck with him.  ( Yes, I was a dumbass and stuck with him for about 4 deaths of that nature before joining another squad, but I watched them do it after that until the SL logged off.)

[Miasma]

I had the worst helo pilot yesterday - they would turn the helo so you couldn't hit the grunts on the ground and just cap flags. I think I died 4 times in a row and just gave up. I should have moved into the back and started lobbing grenades.

Hey I think I had that same helo pilot as my Squad Leader!  The whole squad spawned on him and the dumbass wouldn't fly to unoccupied rear lines bases.  It was a beeline for the closest uncapped base, ignoring the red mass the UAV was showing.  As soon as we were in sight he'd spin around the flag while we were shot-up with AT rounds.  We died so fast we didn't even get a cap, yet he kept doing it, every death, every round, and the entire squad stuck with him.  ( Yes, I was a dumbass and stuck with him for about 4 deaths of that nature before joining another squad, but I watched them do it after that until the SL logged off.)

Me too! Either that or perhaps it just describes 75% of all pilots.

When I logged in I joined a squad to spawn with them, I appear at the heli pad with five others.  I had accidentally spawned into a flag hopping group.  I decided to stick with it and went medic because that was what they needed.  It worked really well on the FuShe pass map, I think that was the most points I have ever scored.  Our team also lost, probably because a full squad was contributing almost nothing to actually win the game.  Then the map changed to Dalian Plant, a flat wide-open map with nothing for a chopper to hide behind and lots of jets and AA.  The squad leader refused to change tactics, out of morbid curiosity I didn't leave (even after four deaths) just to find out when he would give up.

He never did, it was like he had no ability to learn from his mistakes.  I got the purple heart medal that round, you know the one where you have to die twenty times and only get five kills.

I wonder how much playing on the big screen hurts my gameplay, I probably miss a lot of stuff.

I want to use a bigscreen eventually too, how do you use the keyboard and mouse on the couch though?  Are you hunched over a coffee table or do you have a more advanced equivalent of a tv tray?

[Sky]

That's a pretty frequent question. I'll be putting together a guide to my system at some point, because I get a lot of questions...and everyone should be gaming on big, wide screens if they can afford it (ffs, I gave up BEER, my lifeblood, for 6 months to get my tv...and don't even regret it!).

I have a logitech wireless duo, I sit the keyboard in my lap. For the mouse, I have a nice firm pillow that I rest a 1/2" book on, the book dimensions are that of a generous mousepad, since it's an optical mouse, I forego the mousepad. My right arm just rests on the pillow. The coffee table is for foot and leg support as I recline in comfort :) Going to be getting new living room furniture sometime soon, will probably move to a recliner...and I'll be bringing in my keyb/m to test all the recliners in the store :)

[Furiously]

Was playing with Wayabvpar tonight and this smacktard kept running into people with a carload of C4. So - he runs into my tank and kills me. (and himself). I think I killed him 5 times in a row leaving the base with my tank. He was doing it still after I got bored.

[WayAbvPar]

How does that work, exactly? Does he still have to trigger the C4, or does the impact trigger it? The SOB was racking up tons of armor kills with it. I wonder if you could time jumping out of the car to save your life, but still get a kill?