# For the Battlefield Players



## KenM (Jun 2, 2005)

http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/home.jsp

  Battlefield 2 has gone gold. Will ship to US stores on June 21. Really looking forward to this one.


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## Lazybones (Jun 3, 2005)

*puts Call of Duty CD back in the rack*

Excellent.


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## Captain Tagon (Jun 3, 2005)

Yeah. I'm excited.


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## Lazybones (Jun 4, 2005)

Courtesy of ArsTechnica, here are some links to comments from folks who have played it: 

http://www.aef-hq.com.au/aef/viewtopic.php?t=1978
http://www.totalbf2.com/news/tbi1.php
http://dr.ausbattlefield.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1784
http://www.mandrake.dk/content.php?article.29


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## Lazybones (Jun 11, 2005)

Thought I'd post here rather than the "kiss my ass" thread, which seems to have turned off topic some. 

Finally got the BF2 demo through a 3rd party and played for about an hour last night.  The commander mode seems to be off, but I played a few SP matches and a MP match before turning in. My initial thoughts:

Graphics are very nice. I haven't even tweaked my settings yet or updated my drivers. Definitely cutting edge AFAICT. They say the game demands a lot of memory but fortunately I have 2GB, so I didn't see any lag whatsoever. 
I only tinkered a bit with the squad mode, but this seems to have a lot of potential. I like the tactical options of the squad leader being a roving spawn point, and the VoiP within squads is promising for clan play (don't know how it'll pan out on the pubs). 
Most people don't bother with SP for this kind of game, but the AI appeared to be decent. At the low level the bad guys pretty much just ran into my gun, but they seemed to be working in squads, and if I killed 1-2 the third often got me.  And I was impressed by the ally AI; in one case my humvee driver edged slowly toward an enemy spawn point, letting me cover with my .50 cal, and in another a medic followed me to the front and revived me when the enemy picked me off. 
I only tried the sniper once, but I noticed what others had: very stable scope. Hope this doesn't make the sniper rifle the BF2 n00b-cannon. 
I'll offer some more comments after I've chewed this thing over for a week. Until then, going back in...


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## KenM (Jun 11, 2005)

I like it alot. The commander mode takes a little getting used to, and I need to figure out how to move the map around in commander mode. I'm having trouble setting up my joystick for flying though. I'm glad they have seprate helo and plane control settings.


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## Allanon (Jun 12, 2005)

For the moment the game seems nice enough, a real upgrade from BF1942. The only nagging issues are the fact that vehicles seem awfully slow (to the point that on slight inclines a Abrahms stalls out  ).

The sniper seems underpowered, the weak scope makes headshots very difficult and body shots take on average two to three shots to kill someone.

The assault class is whack, the weapon is the same as a medix gets but a medic get's to heal and revive, the grenade launcher is woefully underpowered and the single smoke grenade is laughable since it doesn't really produce any smoke.

But the commander mode and squads are showing promise, as soon as clan based warfare erupts the tactical and strategic benefits of those two enhancements should show through ingame.

All in all, looking good but I sure hope for some final improvements. Or a nice update on the way.


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## KenM (Jun 12, 2005)

My only real beef with the demo is the rounds are set at 12 minutes. But there is a work around for it on the PlanetBattlefield fourms.


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## Allanon (Jun 12, 2005)

There also seems to be a workaround which allows the classes to acces their 'upgrade' weapons, the weapons which are unlocked in the normal game by gaining enough points. Haven't seen a server which had them unfortunately.


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## KenM (Jun 13, 2005)




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## KenM (Jun 13, 2005)

So, can someone tell me the logic of being able to heal your fallen team mate with shock pads to get his his heart going even though he is down because of a bullets and blood lose?


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## WingOver (Jun 13, 2005)

KenM said:
			
		

> So, can someone tell me the logic of being able to heal your fallen team mate with shock pads to get his his heart going even though he is down because of a bullets and blood lose?




Because it looks cooler than carrying around an operating table?


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## Allanon (Jun 13, 2005)

Besides they make a fun ad-hoc weapon (yes it works   )


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## KenM (Jun 14, 2005)

Anyone know the console command to show/ not show your frames per second? I know the ~ key opens up the console, but the FPS command from BFV does not work.


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## Allanon (Jun 14, 2005)

KenM said:
			
		

> Anyone know the console command to show/ not show your frames per second? I know the ~ key opens up the console, but the FPS command from BFV does not work.



 From what I heard the console command "renderer.drawfps 1" should do the trick. I use ATI traytools to keep track of my FPS so I've not tested it.


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## Anime Kidd (Jun 15, 2005)

From how the game looks on all Low settings, I wonder just how much 'puter power one need for a 32-player game on mid-level settings. Or even high-end, 64-player game.


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## Allanon (Jun 15, 2005)

Anime Kidd said:
			
		

> From how the game looks on all Low settings, I wonder just how much 'puter power one need for a 32-player game on mid-level settings. Or even high-end, 64-player game.



 Well I play the game with graphics settings all at mid level, no anti-aliasing and resolution 1024x768@100hz and my PC is as follows:

Pentium 4 2.6Mhz@3.1Mhz
1024 Mb ram Corsair@2-3-3-8
Ati Radeon 9700 Pro (slightly overclocked)
2x80 Gb Maxtor SATA drives in RAID-0 (The game is installed on this drive)
1x250 Western Digital SATA.

The one thing which has suprised me the most is the ammount of memory BF2 needs  even with 1 Gig of ram it reads from my harddrives at times, which leads me to the conclusion that for large maps with 64 players 2 Gigs of ram is needed for perfectly smooth playing.


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## KenM (Jun 15, 2005)

EA banned servers that hacked the time limit in the demo. They no longer show up on the sever list. EA said it violated the EULA. I don't understand why. A 12 minute time limit sucks. as soon as you get your rythem, the round ends. I want to play a game on my computer my way, not by some comapny that thinks they are God.


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## Arnwyn (Jun 15, 2005)

I have no idea what your complaint is, considering it's a _demo_...


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## KenM (Jun 15, 2005)

arnwyn said:
			
		

> I have no idea what your complaint is, considering it's a _demo_...




   The orginal BF42 demo and the secret weapons demo did not have a time limit like this. With that time limit, it really does not feel like a real BF game. I should be able to play the game on my computer the way I want to, not with a time limit set by the game company that want to control everything.


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## Lazybones (Jun 16, 2005)

I agree with KenM. EA is rapidly moving up to pass Atari (i.e. Infogrammes) to the top spot on my all-time most hated publisher list. While it is a demo, and I have already preordered the game, little petty stuff like this is just annoying. 

I think there are two things at work here. The first is that when BF1942 came out, many people just played the Wake Island demo for months, instead of rushing out to buy the game at once upon release. Since computer games have a sharp initial price curve downward (at least relatively so; I usually see the first step from $50 to $40 within a few months, and the next $10 drop within the first year), they want people to buy soon after release. I'm sure being able to show high initial sales figures have something to do with it as well. By crippling the demo (Wake Island was essentially a complete game in itself), they push people to buy the final version soon after release. 

Second, from what the company reps on the EA UK forums have been saying, I think that it's just a play to justify their policy of mandating official EA servers (available for a fee to those willing to host) in order to gain ranking points. Calling the removal of the timelimit a "hack" is just stupid (IMHO), bit it allows them to claim that this policy is necessary to give them control by mandating official servers in order for people to participate in the ranking system. This is also why they require official "accounts" to play online, which many people have been griping about on the forums. 

I think EA just wants a bigger share of the pay-to-play market, and since FPSes aren't historically included in that category (_Planetside_ being the exception), this is the way they are going about it; going after the dedicated server hosts who are such a big part of keeping a game alive over the long-term. Claiming that they are trying to save the public from unfair "hacks" to justify their official-servers-only policy post-release is pretty insulting to the public. Again IMHO.


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## KenM (Jun 16, 2005)

I heard you can rent a ranked server from EA for something like $500.00 a month.    EA says they fully support the mod community, but when someone mods something the EA does not like, EA calls it a hack. 
Anyone know that if you rent a ranked server for stat tracking if you have control over the settings? Or will EA control that since it is a ranked server? Not that I have intention of getting on, just curious.

 EDIT: I found out on Planet Battlefield that EA will charge $8.00 a month/ per slot for the ranked server. So if you want to have a 64 player server, thats $512.00/ month.


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## Anime Kidd (Jun 17, 2005)

Allanon said:
			
		

> There also seems to be a workaround which allows the classes to acces their 'upgrade' weapons, the weapons which are unlocked in the normal game by gaining enough points. Haven't seen a server which had them unfortunately.




I've been on such a server, but there was only a single different weapon for each kit. The only real difference I saw was that the upgraded M95 sniper rifle had a longer zoom and seemed to have a bit more power to it but not enough for one-shot-one-kill everytime.  The rest of the new weapons seemed to be about the same really, though I didn't use them all. Wish I could find that server again.


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## Bobitron (Jun 17, 2005)

That seals it, I'm dl'ing the demo tonight.


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## The_lurkeR (Jun 18, 2005)

Bobitron said:
			
		

> That seals it, I'm dl'ing the demo tonight.




You should, for all our moaning and groaning about EA and the limitations of the demo, it's really a fun game 

The addition of the whole 'squad' mechanic really adds a new feel. It's cool to be on 64 man server with a 32 vs. 32 chaotic battle scene, and yet you're a member of a tight 6 man squad on one side in this big battle. Talking to eachother with the built-in voice chat, and actually having fierce sustainable battles since you can pick your squad leader as your respawn point    (Which makes protecting him an additional goal.)

I can't wait for the full game.


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## KenM (Jun 18, 2005)

Gamespy has a review up. 5 stars. 

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/battlefield-2/626911p1.html


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## Anime Kidd (Jun 18, 2005)

That's one of the things that I like (and hate) about BF2, the Commander's seat!  I like the idea of using UAVs for scouting, calling in artillery, and dropping supplies to those in need. But as with any public server, barely anyone actually tries to play as a team. Besides that, having a few as a team is real fun. I am sure clan matches would be one helluva fun time.


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## Lazybones (Jun 18, 2005)

Anime Kidd said:
			
		

> That's one of the things that I like (and hate) about BF2, the Commander's seat!  I like the idea of using UAVs for scouting, calling in artillery, and dropping supplies to those in need. But as with any public server, barely anyone actually tries to play as a team. Besides that, having a few as a team is real fun. I am sure clan matches would be one helluva fun time.



That's the brilliance of the game design, IMO. While I agree with you about team play on pubs (already evident from the demo), the game _pushes_ you to be a team player. I've already seen close-knit squads school a group of unaffiliated players with twice their number, and then later saw some of those same n00bs in a squad, learning how to fight together. Plus, giving points to medics/support/engineers for performing their supporting roles is a great addition, allowing people to rack up high scores without firing their weapons. 

Initially I'd thought that the demo map was a bit biased against the MEC, but as I played more, I saw that really the quality of the teamwork is the #1 determinant of the outcome of the battle. Thus this is another way of reinforcing team behaviors; players that refuse to work together will get owned, and owned badly.  Thus those that absolutely refuse to play nice with the other kids in the sandbox will likely lose interest and move on to another game before too long. 

And that too, IMHO, isn't a bad thing.

But I still hate EA.


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## KenM (Jun 18, 2005)

Ok, I was playing a game with autobalance on. I get TK'ed. When I respawn, I'm on the other team so I can't choose to forgive or punish the person that TK'ed me. I can't switch back to the other team because auto balance was on. This needs to be fixed. Server admins might find an exploit.


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## KenM (Jun 20, 2005)

more embarassing then death buy shock paddle is death by supply drop. I was on top of the hotel roof, my squad leader called for supplies, the supply box landed right on me, crushing me and killing me. No warning, nothing. The commander did not even get a TK for it.


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## KenM (Jun 24, 2005)

OK, now that the retail has been out for a few days, a couple of gripes:
1. They need to fix the server browser ASAP. It is really slow, does not update sometimes. 
2. They need to get faster on the updating of the stats to BFHQ. Right now they have a 12 hour back up becuase EA basaclly said. "we did not think that there would be a demand for this after we hype up a game for over a year." 
3. Most inportant, they need to fix the game so it will run on servers with large number of people. Most people, including myself have major issues if we are in a server with over 40 people. EA said it would run 64 players no problem. What I think happened here was the same thing that happened with Battlefield Vietnam last year. When that came out, servers that had lots of people were laggy. EA after a couple of months said "sorry, we screwed up on the server specs. You REALLY need 2x the CPU and RAM for the number of people you are running." If this is true, this is the second time in a row EA did this. BF2 was suposted to come out in March. It got pushed back for tweeking. They did not have time to test the server settings in real internet condtions? They just tested on LAN it looks like.


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jun 26, 2005)

Yet another typical EA release, half done and no doubt they'll jump right on the support tortise to get things fixxed.

Server browser is the worst yet.  The first day I could acutaly expect the filters to work, now they're totaly useless, I select most options but it'll list empty servers as well as full servers, and non-full servers that turn out to *be* full as soon as I try to log in.

The ping listings are 100% unreliable, I've lost count of how many times I've logged into a server that listed under 100ms ping, only to find that my in-game ping is well over 150 (unplayable).

Then again, there's no real _point_ to thier putting in an accurate Ping rating, as the servers all apparently suffer from not only a lack of ping restrictions (ie: keep those with 150+ off), but they're usualy suffering from a nasty (and oh-so-typical) memory leak issue that nobody seems to want to fix with an occational reboot.

I don't know if it's a pitty or a good thing that I got the game right away on release day.  The first night was fun, before everyone had a copy and the servers were totaly over-crowded.  Not to mention before the memory leak issue had time to make most servers simply unplayable.

Anyone want to buy a very slightly used copy of BF2?  I don't know if I'll live to see EA pull thier heads out far enough to get this crap fixxed (I may only live another 40 years).  Well it's not like didn't see it coming when thier first two BF titles _*had the very same damned troubles*_ when they were released.  Nice to see EA's learning from thier mistakes... <sigh>


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## Lazybones (Jun 26, 2005)

I agree with some of the complaints folks here and elsewhere have made.


Server browser is probably the worst for any online FPS I've ever played. No favorites, lots of hangs, filters don't work, no friend search. 
Ranked servers all lag to hell, slow stats updates.
Bugs (allies showing up red being prominent), occasional CTDs.
Woefully understated specs. I have a P4 3.4ghz, 2 gigs of RAM and a 256MB 6800GT card, but even on my machine the game gets a bit choppy when riding vehicles (medium settings). I think a lot of the poor performance people are getting is due to machines that meet or even slightly exceed the minimum specs. 
Some poor design choices. E.g. instant kill by being tapped by a vehicle, the ability to "heal" artillery by dropping a supply crate on it (essentially nerfing the spec ops class). I do prefer weak snipers myself, but I know a lot of people gripe about this choice as well. 
Helicopters that can take 122mm sabot shells or AT rocket hits without flinching. 

Even with all that given, when it works right, BF2 is the greatest MP FPS experience I've ever had. Just the built in voice and the squad/commander functionality pushes this beyond anything I've played before. The other day I was part of an efficient 6-man team in one of the urban maps (the one with a dry riverbed in the middle). We were running all over, taking out the enemy arty, hopping into a Blackhawk and dominating the battlefield, setting up and holding a last flag and cutting down platoons of the enemy while medics rushed about healing people. The ebb and flow was insane; over a half-hour the tide of battle rushed back and forth, with each team reduced to only one flag several times. I remember at one point we were pinned down behind a low wall, with red dots all around us; it was intense. I ended up with over a hundred points, only about 3/4 of which were from kills. Other times I've gotten over a hundred with only a dozen or so kills. 

I do hope that EA listens to all of the legitimate complaints and patches swiftly, without ruining the balance of the game. But I think this one will have a long life on my hard drive.


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## KenM (Jun 26, 2005)

When it works right and you are in a good server with no lag and in a good aquad with everyone working together, its the best FPS multiplayer game I have played. EA needs to fix it ASAP.


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jun 27, 2005)

Lazybones said:
			
		

> I agree with some of the complaints folks here and elsewhere have made.
> 
> 
> Woefully understated specs. I have a P4 3.4ghz, 2 gigs of RAM and a 256MB 6800GT card, but even on my machine the game gets a bit choppy when riding vehicles (medium settings). I think a lot of the poor performance people are getting is due to machines that meet or even slightly exceed the minimum specs.
> ...




I have a 2.8Ghz, 1 Gig of (DDR2) and approx the same card (at least 6800, not sure GT) as you and I have no graphics glitches that aren't related to serve-side issues.  

I have to say that 'tapped' by a tank is a nasty proposition, so I can't gripe too much (otherwise too easy to get away).  

The 'Crate at the Artillery' thing doesn't bug me TOO much, since I just load EVERYTHING with tons 'o C4, reload at the crate and then set it all off  

 I haven't had much luck with using the Sniper rifle, but I figured it was realy just inexperience as *others* have demonstrated time and time again how they can do a head-shot on _me_ >.<

The rocket-to-kill ratio is always a problem in these sorts of games, mostly becuase making it accurate would essentialy alienate too many potential customers when they find out that they're not a l33t Battlefield Gawd in thier chopper.  On the other hand I will point out that the AT kit has proven far more effective than in previous games.  I've often killed 'fresh' Tanks with 2 rockets (in the right spots), and I've BEEN killed by single missles from helos overhead.  Overall an improvement, and I quite honestly don't see it getting too much better outside a realism mod.

Just don't get me started on the M16A2's 3-round burst 'feature', as that's gotten me killed far too often for me to ever realy enjoy the US side's Assault kit again 



			
				KenM said:
			
		

> When it works right and you are in a good server with no lag and in a good aquad with everyone working together, its the best FPS multiplayer game I have played. EA needs to fix it ASAP.




Amen


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## KenM (Jun 27, 2005)

Hatchling Dragon said:
			
		

> Just don't get me started on the M16A2's 3-round burst 'feature', as that's gotten me killed far too often for me to ever realy enjoy the US side's Assault kit again





  I usally play spec ops. Yesterday I played US assult for the first time. I could not belive the assult class could not set they're main gun to full auto. I like full auto. Until I get more comfortable with the different guns, I NEDD full auto to make sure my target goes down. Surn my hit/ death ratio will be high, but I don't care. At least my enemy is down.


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## Allanon (Jun 27, 2005)

Lazybones said:
			
		

> [list[*]Woefully understated specs. I have a P4 3.4ghz, 2 gigs of RAM and a 256MB 6800GT card, but even on my machine the game gets a bit choppy when riding vehicles (medium settings). I think a lot of the poor performance people are getting is due to machines that meet or even slightly exceed the minimum specs.[/list]




A couple of posts above yours I posted my specs, and I can play smooth with an average fps of around 30 to 40. Have you enabled antialiasing or forced anisotropy in your drivers? Turning that down of off should help because your PC should beat the crap out of mine and play this game silky smooth.


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jun 27, 2005)

Well I have found that playing on non-ranked servers lets me actualy PLAY!  So if you're on a non-ranked (till they patch it) and run across *CannonBait* don't forget to say hi, be it with an ammo pack or grenade, depending on which side we're on 

Hatchling Dragon


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## Truth Seeker (Jun 27, 2005)

Well that seals it...I am not buying it, especially too...it is EA.


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## KenM (Jun 28, 2005)

Truth Seeker said:
			
		

> Well that seals it...I am not buying it, especially too...it is EA.





  I'd at least wait for a patch or two.


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## Arnwyn (Jun 28, 2005)

Truth Seeker said:
			
		

> Well that seals it...I am not buying it,



Yeah, that goes for me as well. 

Not to mention the fact that my 128MB GeForce 4 Ti4400 is unsupported. Forget it.


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## ender_wiggin (Jun 29, 2005)

What are the minimum and recommended specs?


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## Lazybones (Jun 29, 2005)

Allanon said:
			
		

> A couple of posts above yours I posted my specs, and I can play smooth with an average fps of around 30 to 40. Have you enabled antialiasing or forced anisotropy in your drivers? Turning that down of off should help because your PC should beat the crap out of mine and play this game silky smooth.



I'll fool around with those settings. My main point was that many, many people whose specs exceed the minimum are having real problems (up to 30 seconds a click just to navigate menus, etc.).


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## KenM (Jun 29, 2005)

ender_wiggin said:
			
		

> What are the minimum and recommended specs?





   Battlefield 2 has the following minimum requirements.  If your computer does not meet these requirements, the game will not run properly if at all.

Windows XP (32 bit version) with Administrator rights.
1.7 GHz or faster processor.
512 MB or more RAM.
Supported 128 MB video card with the newest manufacturer drivers.
CD Version, 8x or faster CD/DVD drive.
DVD version, 8x or faster DVD drive.
2.3 GB free hard disk space plus space for the Windows swap file and save data.
If you would like to take advantage of the higher detail video settings Battlefield 2 offers, we recommend the following specifications.

2.4 GHz or faster processor.
1 GB or more RAM.
Supported 256 MB video card with the newest manufacturer drivers.
Supported Processors:

Intel Pentium 4, Xeon, Extreme Edition, Celeron D.
AMD Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Athlon 64-FX, Sempron.
Supported Video Cards:

ATI Radeon

X700 (PCIe), X600 (PCIe), X800 XT Platinum Edition, X800 PRO, X300 series.
9800 series, 9700 series, 9600 series, 9559 (RV350LX), 9500 series, 8500 seies.
NVIDIA GeForce

6600 (PCIe), PCX 5900 (PCIe).
5800 series (AGP).
6800 Ultra, 6800 GT, 6800.
FX 5950 series, FX 5900 series, FX 5700 series.

  I have an Althlon 2400 CPU, runs at 2.0 Ghz, 1.5 GB of DDR RAM, a 256 MB Gforce 6800 GT video card and I still have issues to get it to run at high. I have my video settings set to 1024 x 768, 2x anti allissiang, everthing on medium  except geometry, thats on high.  I can run Doom 3 at 1280 x 1024 everything on high, 2x AA with no problems.I have not played Half Life 2, so I don't know how that will run on my system. But I heard the new BF2 engine is based off of the HL2 engine.
  Tonight when I tryed to play, I kept getting kicked from severs, most I stayed on a server for was like 10 minutes. SO I just got frustraded and stopped. EA best fix this, and fast.


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## The_lurkeR (Jun 29, 2005)

Lazybones said:
			
		

> I'll fool around with those settings. My main point was that many, many people whose specs exceed the minimum are having real problems (up to 30 seconds a click just to navigate menus, etc.).





You can help speed up loading the game and navigating the menus by turning off the movies.
Unfortunately EA/Dice didn't give an option for this, but you can still do it easily. Locate the folder

... (wherever you installed it)...\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Movies

Right-click the "Movies" folder and choose rename. Name it anything else, I chose "Movies_off". That's it you're done. Load Battlefield and you'll go straight to the login screen, and you won't have the movies playing in the background of the menu system.  


Another easy way to speed up the game play without sacrificing too much is to turn down the Dynamic Shadows to 'low' or  'off'. Or also the 'Dynamic Lighting'. (ALthough I like leaving that one on, since it plays smoothly for me at 1024x768 with everything else at Medium.

(Athlon XP 3000'ish (Overclocked) 1GB PC3200 DDR, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 meg.)


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## ender_wiggin (Jun 30, 2005)

Would it be possible to play this game on a laptop? That is, a new laptop.

Without too much chunking.


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## KenM (Jul 1, 2005)

ender_wiggin said:
			
		

> Would it be possible to play this game on a laptop? That is, a new laptop.
> 
> Without too much chunking.




  If your laptop meets the specs, it will run.


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Jul 1, 2005)

ender_wiggin said:
			
		

> Would it be possible to play this game on a laptop? That is, a new laptop.
> 
> Without too much chunking.



 It runs great on my year old laptop. Obviously, though, its the specs that really matter.


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## KenM (Jul 1, 2005)

Most of the chunking, IMO are due to overloaded servers, and a poorly tested netcode from EA, IMO.


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## ender_wiggin (Jul 1, 2005)

I'm no expert, but I noticed that the supported processers don't take into consideration the differences inherent in "mobility" laptop processers.


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## KenM (Jul 1, 2005)

http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp?src=communityupdate_063005

  At least they are working on a patch.


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jul 1, 2005)

First off, thanks to *The lurkeR* for his fast-start suggestion, I never ever can figure out how to do those things, and the last time I tried that 'remove the offending material' trick I got a no-load issue and had to re-install (Yes, I scare easily) so I haven't tried anything similar in years.  Whatever happened to the good old days of putting flags in the start-up line of the desktop icon, a simple '- nosplash' or some-such.  Hell, I _know_ who made the bloody game, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered buying it, I don't need to be told every single time I want to fire it up.

Nobody wants to share favorite servers or on-line call-signs?  I think it'd be great if I could _finaly_ find the type of people that *KenM* was talking about in his 'pefect day of play' remark earlier.  I rarely ever bother to join a Squad now, and I don't want to start one becuase I frankly don't want to 'waste' it without knowing what to do with title/power.

I convinced a server to let me try Commander, and when they wanted to Mutiney I gave it up (wasn't accomplishing much, even as 100% commandering).  That was a mistake as the next guy was totaly incompetent and wouldn't even drop supplies after 15 requests in a row (boy can you go through C4 packs in a hurry).

I'd thought about trying out for Clans, but they seem to fall into two categories, neither of which I care for.  You have the typical Elitist pr*cks, you're not worthy to even see thier text, let alone be allowed into a Squad with them (This is how I learned you can lock squads, heh), or they're so loosly run that there just isn't a point to it.  I can get that sort of disorganized nonsense without the hassle of Clan obligations.  If anyone is in a Clan that's interested in a fair pilot (helo, I don't do planes) that prefers support type roles (including flag defense) lemme know.

Anyone know a decent forum for BF2?  I've tried Googling, but my Web Skills aren't even good enough to be called pathetic.  Every one I've seen shows only the barest signs of life, and nothing I've seen on any of them has been of much use.


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## Lazybones (Jul 2, 2005)

Hatchling Dragon said:
			
		

> Anyone know a decent forum for BF2?  I've tried Googling, but my Web Skills aren't even good enough to be called pathetic.  Every one I've seen shows only the barest signs of life, and nothing I've seen on any of them has been of much use.



Planet Battlefield is busy but full of 14 year olds (or at least it sounds like it), and the forums are molasses-slow. I've gotten some good info at the EA UK forums, which are fairly busy, but about 80% of the posts are bitching about the game. 

http://forum.eagames.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=bccb353e810859311e6ab34cffaa74b6


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## KenM (Jul 2, 2005)

Are the EA UK fourms better then the EA US fourms? The EA US BF2 site does not have they're fourms up yet. But the BF42 and BFV EA fourms were the worst messageboards I have seen, ever. First of all, it was not moderatied, so there was flame wars with some colorful words. Also, they were slow as heck. Sometimes a page would take 5 minutes to load, with my broadband connection. They are also a just a text fourm, not like here where people have alot of diffeernt sigs/ avatars to load. 
I would think that EA, a computer software company would want to have they're very own message boards run good.


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## Lazybones (Jul 2, 2005)

KenM said:
			
		

> Are the EA UK fourms better then the EA US fourms? The EA US BF2 site does not have they're fourms up yet. But the BF42 and BFV EA fourms were the worst messageboards I have seen, ever. First of all, it was not moderatied, so there was flame wars with some colorful words. Also, they were slow as heck. Sometimes a page would take 5 minutes to load, with my broadband connection. They are also a just a text fourm, not like here where people have alot of diffeernt sigs/ avatars to load.
> I would think that EA, a computer software company would want to have they're very own message boards run good.



The UK forums are better; I remember the EA US BF2 site and it was pretty miserable. 

Most of the time when I see someone posting there along the lines of  EA u suXX0RS my sn|pr riffle SUX I kant get oneshot kilz no more I want my money$ back you sux EA!!!!1!111!, it comes out a few posts later that he's American...


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## KenM (Jul 6, 2005)

The first patch is finally out. Hopefully this will fix alot of issues. I have not tryed it yet.

http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/downloads.jsp


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## Droogie (Jul 7, 2005)

I tried the patch, but now I can't bind the keys the way I want them. I usually bind 'crouch' to the left shift key, but now it says I can't because there's a conflict with that key in the Helicopter controls. Funny thing is, left shift IS NOT BOUND TO ANYTHING in the copter controls. Odd.

And everytime I try to get online, it says 'CONNECTION ERROR' and kicks me out. Thats a problem I've had since the beginning, though.

Damn shame.


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## Arc (Jul 9, 2005)

It's plagued with minor problems (weird spec requirements, bad netcode, server memory leaks)... but damn, BF2 is probably the most fun I've had online in a long time. The ranking server lag got (mostly) fixed in the first few days, and now that it's working... it's awesome. Getting various badges, medals and ribbons, not to mention ranks and unlocks, is so much fun it's scary, and the "highest ranks get priority for commander" feature makes it so most commanders are competent at the minimum. It helps if you play on good servers (I prefer the CAD/8BT ranked servers, just search for CAD), but most pubs are pretty fun if you join squads and communicate with your squad (Hit L to chat with them. Too few people know this).

I've heard lots of gripes about the requirements... but they're really not that steep. Even "Low" is absolutely gorgeous, if you don't mind a few jaggies, and I can't imagine what higher resolutions look like. I'm on an Athlon XP 1500+, 512 of ram and a Radeon 9700 Pro, a system that was good but not amazing 3 years ago, and I haven't run into any stuttering or system hangs, even in the most heated of firefights, and I've got most settings up to "Medium."

As far as weapons go, the 3 round burst of the M16 is suprisingly effective. The shot grouping is much tighter than you'd think, and if you take a half second to really truly aim, you'll get many more kills than spraying away or even burst shooting with a full auto gun. Good practice for this is to switch to single shot mode with any rifle for a match or two and working on solid aiming. Once you get that down and switch back to auto or 3 round burst, you'll be amazed at how accurate you are.


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## KenM (Jul 9, 2005)

http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp?src=communityupdate_070805

  They want people to unistall the game and not install the patch. They are working on a fix.


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## Lazybones (Jul 9, 2005)

KenM said:
			
		

> http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp?src=communityupdate_070805
> 
> They want people to unistall the game and not install the patch. They are working on a fix.



For chrissake... gah, EA's going to have to do something damned special to recapture my faith in them as a publisher. Free expansion pack might do it. Don't get me wrong, BF2 has great potential and I'm having fun when I can get it to work, but... _damn_.  Not QAing a critical memory leak that affects EVERY server?  Crap, all they would have had to do is run a beta server for a freaking _day_, and they'd have seen it.


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jul 11, 2005)

How do you get that stat-block in your sig?  Nifty.

So, they've (sorta) fixxed the lag on the Ranked Servers, thus letting us all accumulate rank.  This of course means that we start to get un-locks.  Now I'm curious what kits others have unlocked, and in what order, including reasoning for choices.

I found out the hard way that you only get *one* kit unlocked per rank, and I chose the Assault (G3 rifle) Kit for mine.  This turned out to be a good choice though.  I like the heavier-hitting bullets, the full-auto is good in close quarters, and I don't care for the Grenade Launcher when city fighting.  With those heavier bullets the 20 round mag doesn't seem quiet the limitation I first thought it was.

I'm thinking of going with the *Medic* kit next, again partly because I'm not a real fan of the 3-round burst (I tend to get into close quarters).  That and it just looks very cool.  The regular weapon doesn't seem all that accurate, so the upgrade will definately help as well.

I've had real trouble hitting much of anything with the Sniper Rifle, so I rarely if ever play that kit.  Has anyone given the .50 cal a try?  Is that the good old '1 shot 1 kill' sniper weapon of old?


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## Arc (Jul 12, 2005)

Hatchling Dragon said:
			
		

> I'm thinking of going with the *Medic* kit next, again partly because I'm not a real fan of the 3-round burst (I tend to get into close quarters).  That and it just looks very cool.  The regular weapon doesn't seem all that accurate, so the upgrade will definately help as well.
> 
> I've had real trouble hitting much of anything with the Sniper Rifle, so I rarely if ever play that kit.  Has anyone given the .50 cal a try?  Is that the good old '1 shot 1 kill' sniper weapon of old?



I unlocked the G3, and while I use it on occasion (when I'm playing as Chinese), I still prefer the M16A2 and the AK101 to it. The bigger clip is very useful, and I really like the 3 round burst on the M16.

Unfortunately, there is no "One shot, One kill" sniper rifle. The M95 takes your target down to 3 bars, so that's usually either a kill or kill-assist, but it's somewhat unnacurate (possibly a bug that will be fixed in upcoming patch, as the .con files describing it are kinda weird). The only guaranteed kill is a headshot with any weapon, but that takes a bit of practice (and a little luck). To my knowledge, they intentionally reduced the power of the sniper rifle to promote teamplay, and while that may annoy some, I'm very happy with the decision.


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jul 13, 2005)

Can anyone tell me how to make the game *not* log in to an actual game server every time I start it and log-in to the Account Server?  It takes forever (up to 5 minutes at a time) and I end up on random servers each time.  I'd _like_ to pick a few servers I know to have good connections, decent performance, and hopefully a group of regulars I can get to know and count on (or avoid in some cases).


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## KenM (Jul 13, 2005)

Hatchling Dragon said:
			
		

> How do you get that stat-block in your sig?  Nifty.




  You go here for the stat block:  http://bf2stats.ausgamers.com/

  Sometimes the sight is down, but you can view your stats (or anyone elses if you know they're player ID.) It tells you how to do the stat block. 
   I choose the medic for my first unlock. I like it better then the default medic gun and I love full auto.
   Something weird happened to me last weekend that i'm not happy about. I was playing on a ranked server and I got a medal and a ribbon in one game. I finish the round. A few hours later I'm playing on a different ranked server and I get a purple heart. The next day I go to check my ststs, the purple heart was there, but the earlier ones were not. 
   Also I called EA tech support, you will have to uninstall the game and reinstall without the current patch when the hotfix comes out. They won't just relase a patch to fix the patch. So I renisntalled without the patch. Had to totally remap my controls again, ect.


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## KenM (Jul 13, 2005)

Hatchling Dragon said:
			
		

> Can anyone tell me how to make the game *not* log in to an actual game server every time I start it and log-in to the Account Server?  It takes forever (up to 5 minutes at a time) and I end up on random servers each time.  I'd _like_ to pick a few servers I know to have good connections, decent performance, and hopefully a group of regulars I can get to know and count on (or avoid in some cases).




 Are you clicking on the "play BF2 online now" icon or just the BF2 icon. I click on the BF2 icon, the game starts, then I click to log in with my account, but then I can pick a server. 
BTW, has anyone figured out what the "auto ready" check box does?


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jul 14, 2005)

KenM said:
			
		

> You go here for the stat block:  http://bf2stats.ausgamers.com/
> 
> Sometimes the sight is down, but you can view your stats (or anyone elses if you know they're player ID.) It tells you how to do the stat block.




Much appreciated!




> I choose the medic for my first unlock. I like it better then the default medic gun and I love full auto.




That's going to be my next, for those same reasons, as well as it's (hopefully) improved accuracy.



> Something weird happened to me last weekend that i'm not happy about. I was playing on a ranked server and I got a medal and a ribbon in one game. I finish the round. A few hours later I'm playing on a different ranked server and I get a purple heart. The next day I go to check my ststs, the purple heart was there, but the earlier ones were not.




I've played on a server where the Admins said that happened, you could accumulate medals, but they wouldn't show up on your official record.  If I'm not mistaken the points would show up, just not medals.  They'll fix it eventualy, and while I don't object to points (I want unlocks!) I play mostly for fun anyhow.


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## KenM (Jul 14, 2005)

I think EA is blocking the 3rd party stat view servers. So I put my clan sig on because stat sigs are no longer working.
The have the first info on the first expansion already:  http://pc.ign.com/articles/632/632446p1.html


IMO they need to fix the game first before they worry about expansions.


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## Allanon (Jul 15, 2005)

3rd party stats seem to be working again. See you around on BF2


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## KenM (Jul 16, 2005)

The hot fix is out.  http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp?src=communityupdate_071505


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jul 17, 2005)

Patch installed, as I've seen most servers already have it in (thus it's been at least partly tested )

Now if I could only find a way to get this POS game to let me bind the keys how I *want* them, instead of this 'that key is already bound' type messages, even though I'm _in_ that panel and have previously removed that key binding.

I need my right mouse (Mouse 1) to be Jump, and SPACE to be Crouch, but it's always telling me that SPACE is already being used, even after using ESC to clear the default Jump.  I've tried using Apply to 'set' the keys after un-binding the SPACE, but no luck.

I can use the defaults, it's just taking my edge off.  I'm old and I need every advantage I can get to whup on all you whippersnappers


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## Hatchling Dragon (Jul 17, 2005)

Ok, after many pages on another forum the problem is 'tenatively' found and fixxed.  I'll be testing this as soon as I've posted here.



> go to My Documents/Battlefield2/Profiles/00001 (or huh ever it is) and look in the controls.con
> 
> look in the helicopter section & delete the line that has the key you want to bind in it.....then go back & bind like normal




Well after trying it out I can say this fixes it, but you might want to do what I ended up doing, just deleting the SPACE useage from _every_ grouping.  From what I'd seen in the binding it was all to useless commands anyhow, and they weren't listed in the in-game controls, so it was just causing trouble.


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