Deagle is OP? Fixed. Movement was better in BF3? Fixed. Something about netcode? Fixed. The latest patch for Battlefield 4 lists almost 200 fixes and tweaks, including some of the biggest complaints that have come from players in the past year.
Battlefield 4 has had an abundance of problems since it was launched last year, and DICE, the game’s developer, has been working on stabilising the game ever since. In May, they announced the Community Test Environment, which allowed fans to play on servers running versions of the game with experimental fixes. The game’s latest patch has fixed and tweaked a lot of bugs and game options, including issues raised by the community.
This isn’t the first patch since the CTE was announced, but it looks like it makes the biggest changes that players have been asking for. It includes changes to the game’s ‘netcode’, player movement, and even a new game mode:
Core Changes
Here are some of the tweaks and changes we’ve made to BF4 with this update. We’ll continue to listen to your feedback to see how we can further improve the BF4 experience so keep that feedback coming.
– Player movement has been improved to more closely match that of Battlefield 3, while still maintaining the animation fidelity of Battlefield 4.
– The High Frequency Network Update has now been added to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and is set to default. This makes the server update the client on what is happening with greater frequency, resulting in a smoother, more “correct” player experience.
– Reduced visual recoil of guns. This includes all medium and close range sights (except iron sights, IRNV and FLIR).
– The BF4 “netcode” has seen several tweaks and is now the fastest in the franchise’s history, counting client-to-client values. The delay is now lower than ever, and we’re also looking to improve hit detection.
Classic Mode
By popular demand, the Fall Update introduces a new preset called “Classic Mode”. Rules on these servers hone back to Battlefield 2/3 and are designed for skilled players looking for more of a challenge and seeking stricter rules.
For instance, you are able to spawn on only the squad leader in Classic Mode, increasing the challenge and need for greater tactical thinking as a squad leader.
The full list of changes is available here and it includes issues big and small. Here are a few notable points:
- Desert Eagle: Bullet velocity and minimum damage reduced.
This may be the most welcome change, as shown by clips like the Deagle Shark. My only regret is that I never unlocked it myself. 🙁
- MBT LAW: This underwent a big change based on community suggestion. You will need to aim slightly more accurately to engage the tracking. It is much harder to have it track a random vehicle between you and your target. It will no longer lock on targets behind cover. It has been slowed down slightly. It now begins tracking at 100m instead of 15, this gives the target slightly longer to react to the lock warning.
- SLAMs: Damage and blast radius reduced slightly. Three Slams will no longer take out a MBT on their own. The disabled MBT will need a single rocket to be finished off.
- Obliteration fix for an issue where the round would end while the bomb is armed due to the timer running out.
- Reduced initial capacity of RGO and v40 Minis by one.
Aside from all the general changes, medics are getting a very welcome new feature:
- Revive timer has been added. It will show timers on teammates so that the player can choose who to revive.
- Added a sound when defibrillators are 100% charged (giving the revived player 100% health back).
I recall originally seeing this first suggestion on Reddit, and it’s great to see that they put it in. If you’re running around as a medic, it’s really hard to know who to save when you walk into a room with three downed soldiers. Now the timer shows up to see who still has a chance to be saved.
The patch should be live now on all platforms, check out the post here or the full changelog here.
Comments
39 responses to “Battlefield 4 May Have Just Fixed That Thing You Hate”
So it’s out of alpha now then?
Edit: Seriously, negged for that? Which of you is defending DICE for delivering a semi-working game a YEAR after release?
Well, I thought it was funny….
Maybe cos the game has had a myriad of updates for over 9 months now? Plus most people that kept calling the netcode “broken” after March are actually just shit at the game.
EDIT: @screamface has written a really good post a few comments down about the netcode and opened my eyes a bit. I definitely have experienced some of those issues. I guess at the end of the day, maybe I’m just a bit over people blaming the netcode for their crap skill at the game. So yeah, knee-jerk reaction… I still think people who flame the game just for the sake of trolling are muppets ^^^
Where to begin? Firstly an update every few months if you are lucky is not a myriad. It had a range of quick hotfixes right at the start because a massive portion of the players weren’t even able to open the damn game and then after they made it semi playable it became a patch every few months. Just between the last vanilla patch in march and this one it has been 6 months.
Secondly the netcode was still broken after march and that was a MAJOR focus of the above patch, there are several items in the patch notes referring to fixes that they have made to make it suck less. Anyone who thinks it was not broken are most likely the ones who cant tell the difference between dying due to a mistake and dying due to some form of lag nonsense and therefore are more likely to be “Shit at the game” as you put it.
That’s a complete lie. The netcode is still shit and it is still worse than BF3’s which had crap netcode.
Really? Care to link me to your Battlelog soldier report? I have no problem being proven wrong…
I don’t know, you’ll probably just be one of those people that trolls the profile and pick the worst stat to claim I am bad.
I have a positive k/d, 1.12, SPM is 777, played for almost 400 hours.
You could just link your profile.
Link yours and I’ll friend you.
Be it netcode or other this game is still broken.
I am still experiencing the same problems the game had when it was released such as tanks driving on one track and no sound when new maps load, spawning without weapons, weapons flying around without soldiers attached, and dying before the person who killed you is even on screen.
trying to promote the next game in the battlefeild series while the previous game is still clearly broken is retarded and i hope it falls flat on its face because of it
Fans couldn’t take a joke. I have a friend that plays BF4 constantly and accepts the fact that the game is so broken.
Ahhh, you have been redeemed. Rightfully so.
Can you explain what made it broken? Don’t want to disagree for the sake of it, it’s just I played it for about a month solid, and the only real problems I had were either already present in BF3 or related to performance. I don’t really see why people keep saying it’s semi-working.
Players animation, position and rotation were often not displayed accurately. So that player over there not looking at you, actually is and is shooting. This also went to things such as muzzle flashes not being displayed until after you had been killed. So you get not visual indication you’re in dange. Until you’re dead and as you die the player has snapped to you, often with the gun pointing no where near you. Or you die, there was someone obscured right in front of you, not in a clear position. You shadow play it, no indication, yet on the kill came they haven’t moved and there’s a massive big muzzle flash which would have given you a visual indication.
Instant deaths, the game was not sending out information about someone shooting at you in a meaningful time frame. It would then send the information all at once and you instantly or very quickly die with no chance to do anything. This problem is still there in the latest patch, they weakened guns so the time to kill is longer.
So guns with the same fire rate and amoung of damage in BF3, that game you could get fairly accurate representations of being hit by them. They can’t update the information to you in BF4 as fast. So they weakened the guns to lessen the appearance of the problem.
The whole shot behind cover thing was also worse from this.
This also has the problem where guns handle, take more time to kill someone from the shooters end, than the player experiences.
Bits of destruction are also done locally and not server side, leading to inconsistent cover. So you may be behind something, but on the other persons end that is long destroyed.
There was also inconsistent damage markers. So you’re shooting someone, seeing blood, explosions on vehicles. However this never happened on the server end.
This is also a disconnect between the priority of updates. No idea if this has been fixed. This is the grenade throw bug. So you through a nade, watch it fly away. If you move too quickly and too much is going on in the game. The server registers you throwing it from a different position than you did. Often resulting in it going to the wrong place than on your machine and worse, often bouncing back and killing you.
Then there’s all sorts of other problems. The visual recoil was a major issue for many. That is fixed and works a treat.
The head bobbing was fixed. Where someone is poking out of cover, you shoot at them and the animation and hit box goes flying away as they game shows them flinching. So you can’t hit them, yet on their end they are still in the same place and can shoot you no problem.
There is still sound problems. The engine doesn’t prioritize sound correctly and this leads to crap indication of what is going on. It often won’t display sound of other people shooting if you’re engaged in combat. So you can hear and are engaging to the left. Unaware, not getting the sound of someone shooting to your right.
Damage indicators are still terrible. In BF3 if you’re being hit, the sound, the indicators and everything make it clearly known where you’re being hit from. You get hit and know exactly where to turn and open fire. In BF4 you predominately have no idea. Often it displays it in the wrong place and plays the sound coming from the opposite direction. So you’re running, start getting hit, all indication it is from behind. You spin around and no one is there. Then you get killed by someone who was directly infront of you. Of course with the aforementioned issues of it not displaying the person shooting at you, delay in updating their actions and movement or muzzle flash, you had no visual indication.
You got sent the information you’re being hit. You weren’t yet sent the information there was someone in front of you firing, either visually or through audio. It displayed the hit information as coming from the opposite direction. You die and then on the kill cam the person that kill you is camping, not moving but there’s a great big muzzle flash and sounds of them shooting.
I spent a lot of time shadow playing the game with my frustration, these things were common.
I really liked this response. I didn’t realised so much of this happened, but I have had experiences with bad on-screen indicators, grenades bouncing off things I wasn’t aiming at and also disappearing rockets that are in-air when I get killed… oh and random death… yeah.
I WILL EDIT MY POST!!
No worries. This is PC. Reading through what I wrote I should have proof read. I played a bit today and yeah, so much better.
Have to admit played last night, movement does feel much better.
Upset at the Deagle changes, and the SLAM changes neither was needed.
Still having death trades and being killed around corners, but nowhere near as bad as it was.
Trigger delay removed from revolvers is an excellent change.
Overall its been improved, but further testing needed tonight i think 😛
Yeah, I didn’t see anything wrong with the SLAM as it was – I never heard anybody complaining about that. So will 3 SLAMs not kill a tank at all anymore? Or just mean it won’t be an instant kill i.e. disable it / set it on fire so it will eventually explode if it doesn’t get repaired?
Yeah so will take 3 Slams to disable now, and then a rocket/c4 possibly even a nade to kill it, if no repair.
It’d be nice if SLAM did more damage if attached directly to the tank i.e. have 3 SLAMS attached still kill it, while driving over/past 3 SLAMS do the disable thing. I reckon if you manage to get that close to a tank and survive long enough attach 3 SLAMS then you deserve the kill 😛
Did you notice a lot of ‘headshots.’
When they first added this indicator in a lot of people complained that suddenly every third kill was a head shot. With the suggestion being it was something displayed when instant deaths occurred. Not really head shots. I believe people also tested and confirmed this. They toned it back.
However last night, it felt a lot better, still those problems you mentioned. Lots of headshot indicators though. Although maybe that’s purely because you can now aim your gun.
Thank Jebus Deagle got nerfed. Game was literally turning into Deaglefield 4.
EDIT: And yes, I do have one, so I’m not crying because I’m getting owned by a gun I don’t have access to. It was just crazy OP.
Egh it’s a .44 MAGNUM round for Christ sake. That bullet can kill a fricken water buffalo. You take one wearing an MTV and then try and explain to me the size of the hole in your chest.
It was not OP, it was an accurate depiction of the pistol’s firepower.
Having actually shot one IRL i can say that they actually felt right, in fact i said to the guys i play with the first few rounds after i unlocked it, “holy hell a game has finally gotten the Deagle right”.
And even for its size/power, they are surprisingly accurate IRL, not while firing blindly in a panic to win a gun battle, but when used right.
Nerf the range a bit sure, but not the damage FFS
I see your point but unfortunately competitive multiplayer games are a balancing act; one must sacrifice realism in order to create a level playing field.
Do you play on console? I haven’t really seen much Deagle spam on the PC. I have seen a few videos on console where because of the aim assist you can just blow people away with it easily.
The last DLC is releasing soon.
BF4 has another year until BF5 is released (Hardline doesnt count).
Maybe this patch was BF4.5?
Whats on the schedule for the second year?
BF5 beta will be Juny/July next year. Whats happening until then?
Oh, and Ive got five days off work right now, so I played BF4 until 4:30 this morning, lol.
Might finally be time to jump aboard! 😀
Meh BF5. you guys must be brain dead. the game has done nothing since BF2, except some Graffix. Same with COD. the only reason these companies still buy them is because all the kids of today barely have IQ’s over 20. (insert retard voice) they play it because of their friends do and they are cool)
What should have DICE done with the series then?
FYI; I started with 42 back in 2002 and also play ARMA; ie: not a kid.
Don’t feed the troll.
Incremental improvements are still improvements. Why don’t you just play doom forever?
Too late, moved on
Have they fixed the infuriating rubber banding yet?
5 ping + High end system = Massive rubber banding.
Though agree with Trex – Too late, moved on
It seems to be server dependant, serious rubber banding on some servers and none on others.
I’ve been playing 4 or 5 times a week since Dragon’s Teeth release in July, and the rubber banding has improved significantly. But it will be there every once in a while (less than once a week, but more than twice a month).
I still enjoy the game a lot, but these fixes have not changed the game dramatically in my opinion, so you’re not missing much if you’re moving on.
Stop playing after a month and lost all intrest due to how bad it was, won’t be back, glad I didn’t put in for the premium.
IM TOO BUSY PLAYING THE BLOODBORNE ALPHA TO NOTICE
Seriously though, I look forward to returning to BF4 soon, now that I’m pretty much over Destiny.
Just installed patch but now when i try to launch the game on my xbox one all i get is a lack screen with the into playing underneath then a small loading screen, then it repeats…need help asap
lmfao nope still broken