Squad Mechanics
Is there a squad leader that squad members can “deploy” on?
Yes, Squad members can deploy on the Squad Leader or Control Points. Time to redeployment (respawn) is 8-10 seconds, like BF2 vanilla.
There is no beacon like 2142 or deployable spawn point like in PR. It is spawn on SL or CP held by your team.
So, like BFx the goal is to keep the squad leader alive as you advance and get the squad leader in cover near the CP as the spawn point.
What's the maximum squad size?
Four members, including the Squad Leader.
How are SL orders issued and how are they seen by the squad?
SL gives the orders currently by using the commo rose. Squad members see it floating on their screen. Orders consist of attack here, defend here or regroup here.
Currently, you cannot set an order using the mini map, however that may change as there are many beta testers who have asked for this ability.
Is VoIP going to be built into the game? Are there squad comms?
According to Kaos, there will be VoIP in the final game. However, the VoIP is delayed and will be released in a patch. In the meantime,
the TG Frontlines team has prepared a TS solution. See it here.
If anyone in your squad has a drone deployed, do all members get target info from that drone in their first person view ?
Your whole team can see the people on the mini map and as highlighted red triangles on your HUD with the recon drone.
Will SL to SL communications will be key to epic games?
Hopefully there will be a VOIP channel for SL to SL or a team wide VOIP channel. Then SLs can coordinate roles and responsibilities. SLs do the overall army coordination rather than a commander.
Player Kits and Roles
Is there a 'commander' like position?
No commander. UAV is in the hands of the infantry with recon drones . This is a role ability. Arty is in the hands of the infantry as airstrike. This is a role ability.
Resupply is from ammo crates near Control Points. Repair of vehicles will be from: 1) engineer role repair tool 2) repair bay (drive on it to be repaired)
As a point of interest, KAOS people were the subcontractors who did the early R&D work for BF2 vanilla, they designed the original command structure in BF2
Will there be a medic class?
There is no medic class, so no revives on squad mates or squad leader. They have an automatic self-heal in the game. There is no bar for health. If you are hit, the screen goes red,
hit more goes black & red, hit more, then you die. Once dead there is no revive, just respawn (redeploy in frontlines). In terms of how many bullets to die, it’s about the same as
BF2142 or BF2 vanilla. If you are hurting and you find cover from fire then the self-heal automatically kicks in and takes about 5 seconds to return to normal screen.
At that point you are back to full health
Do you go up in role ranks in-game or do you do it outside of the game? (I mean is it like BF where you build-up your points and get a rank-up, or like COD4
where you get the airstrikes and helicopters and stuff from kill streaks in the game, and then you lose them when you leave the game, like Field Upgrades in 2142)
They are in game. It is like how Quake Wars does it, upgrades last for a campaign and are reset after the campaign is over (which in this case is the map)
See more about kit roles here.
Squad kit vs. role loadout?
In pre game set up time the SL’s will allocate CP attack/defense and SL to allocate kits/roles. Roles have 3 tiers. You start off with tier 1 which is ok, as the game goes on
and you get kills you will rank up to tier 2. This is when abilities improve. For example, you can go from a precision airstrike that destroys one vehicle to
cluster bomb that clears an area of vehicles or infantry. People want to concentrate on one role and get to tier 3 in one game.
In the 5 round series of each game, it seems like people have the greatest abilities in rounds 3-5. Roles = gadgets and can be combined with any kit (kit = gun).
Any imbalance you can see with kits/roles?
Right now I think the Assault kit is quite powerful. The Assault Rifle is very accurate so it is good at all ranges. The grenade launcher in the right hands is also very powerful.
Also, I find the Sniper class overpowered since they can two shot you very easily in open areas, but then again that is their role.
The weakest kit right now is the Close Quarters kit (shotgun) since you are limited to short range only and gain no additional benefits (like C4 or special attachments).
Ordering the kits from strongest to weakest I would say: Assault->SpecOps->Sniper->Heavy->CQC . Air Support role seems
overpowered at the moment, but in the beta you see more people countering it with the EMP role. The drone role the first time you play seems overpowered
(probably due to everyone using it), but once you get use to the sound you won't get killed by drones as much.
Many of these roles and abilities were modified in the update. See this thread.
You only rank-up roles not classes right?
Yes, you build abilities over the 5 round series. If you change roles during the series, you must start over to build new abilities.
Weapons
What are the weapon systems like? I saw the classes on the wiki, but there wasn't much info about the weapons - like how many shots from a
'standard' assault rifle does it take to kill an infantryman?
You carry plenty of ammo and I mean lots. I would estimate it takes 25% more bullets to kill infantry from standard assault rifle, maybe 7 bullets to the torso instead of 5
Use flying drones for recon, rather than killing?
The recon drones put the enemy on the mini map + main map + in players 1st person view. For example, they can see a red triangle on a wall indicating someone behind a wall.
There is no Q-spot in the beta, and no word on whether it will be in the release.
Are a lot of the gadgets best for clearing areas of people?
Whether its airstrike or little robot with machine gun, these gadgets clear an area of people, clearing the area is the key, not necessarily getting kills.
If you are defending, and they are on the CP, push them back and clear that area quickly with the gadgets (+ with C4 that in a kit and not part of a role)
Or attacking, to get across that open ground to the CP, an airstrike is good cover (there is no smoke grenades in the demo) If you are attacking down tight alleyway,
send in the gadgets to soften them up.
Are rocket weapons easily used against infantry?
Rocket Weapons easily used against infantry? Somewhere in the middle where it's not incredibly easy as the rockets are not guided and don't have a tremendous splash damage.
See information on splash damage testing here.
Can your own weapons harm you if you are too close to the blast?
Grenades, C4 and rockets to the feet, yes. Splash damage testing demonstrated most damage was within 1 meter. See this thread.
How do the sniper rifles feel? Is there much deviation? How many shots to take down a soldier and how many in a clip?
Good range? Is it like COD2 where you can use snipers as shotguns?
Sniper rifles are dangerous. Two shots kill. Deviation is quite low and you can do two quick shots fairly accurately. Range is high.
Is the close-range (shotgun) kit very useful? Seems the assaults are best for mid-close range infantry...?
Right now the shotgun is semi-broken. It is supposed fixed in the next version. That being said the shotgun is my favorite gun, it is quite devastating (when it works).
It is sort of like the Clark from 2142 before the last patch. *please note the shotgun damage was updated on the most recent update.
How do the sniper rifles feel? Is there much deviation? How many shots to take down a soldier and how many in a clip? Good range? Is it like COD2
where you can use snipers as shotguns?
Sniper rifle is satisfying to use, even maybe a bit over powered. It is the king of long range and has good zoom. Two shots to the body kills.
Close range the sniper zoom is too powerful and confusing so sniper rifle at very close range is no good.
Is the close-range (shotgun) kit very useful? Seems the assaults are best for mid-close range infantry...?
Assault kit is the best all round infantry killer. All the other are specialized to a distance.
For example, the sniper is king at long range and the shotgun kills in 1 shot at very close range.
Will there be lots of rocket-infantry running around blasting you in the face and running away unscathed?
Perhaps you will see some but I don't think it will be a big issue. The guns are fairly effective whereas the AT rockets are not ideal against infantry.
Something I would like to point out: Grenades, Grenade Launchers, Mortar turret, Mortar Drone are all based on low splash,
precision damage. You have to hit the target directly to one shot kill them with a grenade.
See this thread regarding splash damage testing
Gameplay Mechanics
How do map sizes compare?
I have played 3 maps, the two in current beta and another one in a previous beta version. Maps feel about the same size as BF2142/BF2 vanilla for the number of players.
However, the play mode "frontlines" concentrates the action. In conquest all CPs were in play. Not in frontlines, if there are 8 CPs on the map then there are 4 in play.
For instance, imagine a map, there is a north you hold and are defending and a north point they hold and you are attacking. Same for the south, so the CPs come in pairs for attack/defend.
In POE2 there is the push game mode, it’s like that but 4 in play rather than 2.
What's the pace of the game like? (Most of the promotional videos show frenetic, explosion-filled insanity - but those videos are more squad based.
Does the "frontline" feature really put all the players in the same spot?
I would say its 2142 pace, or pace of POE2 Orel defending a central flag; it’s pretty fast paced.
How are the tactics for this game? Are they fast paced or slow and methodical?
Early in the beta, there was a lot of lone wolfing going on as players explored the kits. As abilities progressed, players saw the value of joining squads with a good balance of roles and abilities.
They were able to be more effective as a cohesive unit whether on offense or defense. A good squad has the ability to have drone recon, anti-vehicle, anti-personnel,
air strikes and EMP countermeasures. Overall fast pace like 2142. Not slow paced & detailed like PR.
Is there crouch/prone accuracy bonus?
Yes, just like other games or real life the more immobile & steady your posture the better your accuracy. The normal in-game experience seems to be crouch and fire,
except if they are literally right next to you then strafe and spray.
What's CP capping like? Same as BFx, stand in the zone?
Frontlines are denoted by control points that are in a line. Capture the CPs, and you move the frontline.
You do this by standing next to them. In the beta, we have seen anywhere up to 4 flags in play (2 of yours, 2 of theirs) but in a couple of the videos we have seen up to 6 (3 and 3) although
I am not sure if this is in the game or not. The flags are noted on your HUD by those yellow circles. There are the occasional control point where you have to access a computer terminal to capture it.
One player has to sit on the terminal holding down the E button while everyone else has to cover him/her. There is also a point where you plant and explosive to destroy and capture it.
I believe CPs can come up as 1 of 3 objectives, destroying, capturing or killing (clearing the area), but I'm not completely sure...?
Those are the three methods I know. Most points are capture radius CPs.
Is friendly-fire on most servers?
It was on the couple servers I played on but not sure what the implication is for when the game is released as opposed to the beta now.
Do you take significant damage from falling from buildings?
Yes, and your chute will only activate if you walk off a building and if the building is over 30(?) feet in height.
Is there any penalty to weapon accuracy when you jump around? (Will there be a lot of bunny-hoppers?)
On the beta servers, there were many bunny-hoppers. You do suffer from a nasty drop in accuracy while jumping. I don't imagine this will be an issue
on the TG server though since it is against the rules. See server rules here.
What are the player numbers on a server, I could only find 32 person servers. Are there larger servers?
The beta servers that you have played on are capped at 32 players, the release will have servers up to 64 players.
Can you take kits of opponents/teammates?
No.
Can't you kill people while they're using drones?
Well, you can exit "control mode" for the drone and it just hangs out (hovers/parks) where you left it. The only reason I could think
of that being useful (why they'd take time to add it to the game) is so that you could do something like this: launch multiple drones,
fly them to where you're going be attacking/defending, then switch to your rifle and move in with your squad mates.
Will Xbox 360 players and PC players be able to play together?
No, at least initially, the console and PC games will be separate. I guess they're looking at Live Anywhere (or whatever it's called), but haven't figured it out yet.
How many buildings can you enter? Is it like vBF2 where they are there only for cover, or like PR where you can go into only one room?
I haven't come across any buildings that you could enter through a doorway , just
buildings that have been blown open. Some of these have ways to pass through to other harder to reach areas.
Mostly I think they are there for cover.
What about wall cover? I've seen a trailer where some guys are hiding behind a low wall and doing that 'blind fire'
thing (like in Rainbow 6 Vegas) where they just stick their gun over the wall and spray away. Is this in the game or just for show, and if so, how is it done?
I haven't seen anyone do it and there is not an option in the controls to do it so unless I'm missing something.
Destructible buildings- are they fully destructible, partially destructible (always blow up in same way, like PR) or not at all?
From what I have seen only some structures are destructible. The more fragile buildings like motor pool cover buildings
(like something that would be at your local gas station covering the pumps) , concrete walls for cover (like road dividers and stand alone walls), etc...
What about vehicle damage? Are you able to blow the tracks off a tank, puncture the tire of a jeep, or disable the turret of an APC?
From what I have seen there are not separate damage models for different parts to the vehicles. So as you damage a vehicle
it may start to show the damage with outside effects like smoke or catching on fire but it doesn't affect performance until you go boom.
staremo a vedere questo qua. approposito esce fra 10 giorni?
, detto questo l'unica mia perplessità era sulla fanteria, ma mi sono ricreduto, ieri c'erano solo server USA ma da questa mattina anche i K-PLAY e in uno di questi server c'era una mappa di fanteria in formato ridotto, proprio come a bf2, tipo modalità da 8, eravamo in 11 sul server ma era bilanciatissima la mappa, che dire, molto bello!!!!!!!
