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Alright, for those of you who have Battlefield 2, the latest patch advertised that the difficulty to get promoted would be reduced.

What was completely unexpected was how easy it now is. I was a Lance Corporal, at about 4100 points, with another 6400 to go to Corporal. I install the patch, log into a ranked server, capture a flag, and get instantly promoted to Corporal.

Ten minutes later, after simply tooling around a bit in a copter, I get my ass shot down, and I get promoted to Sergeant. Before the update, I was figuring Corporal would be about three weeks away at my present point rate, and here I just jumped two ranks up in less then fifteen minutes.

My roommate decided to see what would happen, so he logged in on his account. Shot a guy, promoted to Corporal instantly. Couple minutes later, captured a flag, promoted to Sergeant. Less then a minute after that, while simply walking down a street, he got promoted again to Staff Sergeant!

Anyone know what the hell is going on? Or what the hell EA was smoking?

If it works by scoring in a system where you gain points for doing something they probably left off a few zeroes. Or they could be idiotic.

Or they enlisted Captain Yossarian and the Catch 22 Officers' Corps for their promotion board.

Dunno, but I think I'll like it. Been at Corporal way too damn long.

Well yeah, it is a bit annoying to have huge point gaps between ranks, but when the game hands out promotions like candy for doing nothing, or even screwing up, then yeah, something is fucked up.

True, but have you run a series of tests? It's possible to get promotions for teamplay points, like healing, ammo-giving, or repairing.

Hotfoot wrote:True, but have you run a series of tests? It's possible to get promotions for teamplay points, like healing, ammo-giving, or repairing.

All promotions are point based. You get points for flag assists, killing the enemy, or team assisting.

Pretty much they dramatically reduced what it takes to get promoted. I found the new rank charts, Corporal went from 10,000 points to 800.

I haven't had the chance to try out the patch but the new promotion system seems really screwed up. I don't mind that some of the ranks have been lowered, but the lower ranks are insanely low. It only takes 150 points to go from nothing to the first rank. BS? What's the value in ranks then, if you have 1000 staff sargeants? I guess there was so much moaning from the gaming community that it would take forever to get unlocked weapons that Dice just chopped the whole system.

One thing that I will miss is prostating myself wide open like a $2 whore from Las Vegas in a BH on Mashtuur. I'll have to try the new patch this weekend after I'm done with my calculus exam....arg!!! I hate infinite series.

They're probably thinking they're making the game more accessible to more casual players. The original scheme was set up using some pretty big numbers because they were based off statistics collected which included some fucking dedicated BF1942 players racking up thousands and thousands of hours of total play time.

Its not just the rank system now.

Commanders no longer suffer TK penalty when they hit friendlies with artillery. That right there is annoying as hell, and it seems like most of the updates are just cosmetic things like sounds and stuff, and they actually screw around with things that were good.

Jadeite wrote:Its not just the rank system now.

Commanders no longer suffer TK penalty when they hit friendlies with artillery. That right there is annoying as hell, and it seems like most of the updates are just cosmetic things like sounds and stuff, and they actually screw around with things that were good.

So, what, the Commander should have to worry about some dumbass not clearing out of the line of fire?

Sadly I don't have the time or energy to keep with BF2 anymore, seeing as how I can't even play it now. But I for one liked the ranks how they were, maybe they were a tad excessive, but better than too easy. In the month or two directly after release, it was nice. Clear ranking "castes," with the typical player being PFC and after a few weeks, LCpl. The more dedicated players were Cpl, and those with absolutely no lives, education, or jobs whatsoever were Sgt and up. It was a good system, and one that was (well) designed to last years. Badges and ribbons served as good achievable awards, with medals being true commendations for long-time players.

Uraniun235 wrote:

Jadeite wrote:Its not just the rank system now.

Commanders no longer suffer TK penalty when they hit friendlies with artillery. That right there is annoying as hell, and it seems like most of the updates are just cosmetic things like sounds and stuff, and they actually screw around with things that were good.

So, what, the Commander should have to worry about some dumbass not clearing out of the line of fire?

Sure, a lot of people seem to flock into that red circle, but its pretty open for abuse now. One person on the EA forums mentioned his commander dropped artillery on his own spawn three times to kill one sniper, and TKed 14 times to do it.

I'm loving the new patch. I only have time to play, on average, a couple of rounds of BF2 a day. Playing since the game came out and unlocking only one weapon is a bit obscene, IMO. There was no reward to play. Now, with the patch, I'm gone up in rank and gotten new weapons and medals - something that should had been happening all along. The hardcore players are going to keep playing long after the rewards run out. The causal folks, like myself, need something to keep us interested, or we're not going to bother buying the expansion packs.

Arrow Mk84 wrote:I'm loving the new patch. I only have time to play, on average, a couple of rounds of BF2 a day. Playing since the game came out and unlocking only one weapon is a bit obscene, IMO. There was no reward to play. Now, with the patch, I'm gone up in rank and gotten new weapons and medals - something that should had been happening all along. The hardcore players are going to keep playing long after the rewards run out. The causal folks, like myself, need something to keep us interested, or we're not going to bother buying the expansion packs.

With the new rankings however, "causal" players will be Staff or above after a few "casual" months. Meanwhile BF2 is designed for a year minium life. Not three months, its one of those games like ol' Quake III that have multiple years of life in them.

Mr Bean wrote: With the new rankings however, "causal" players will be Staff or above after a few "casual" months. Meanwhile BF2 is designed for a year minium life. Not three months, its one of those games like ol' Quake III that have multiple years of life in them.

So as a causal player I should not be rewarded for the time I invest in a game? Fuck that. I want to feel that my time investment has gotten me something; and before the patch, I was pretty damn close to giving up on the game. Playing three months with getting nothing new was a slap in the face, as far as I'm concerned.

If the hardcore players are going to breeze through the game, then make the officer ranks harder to get (and if there aren't officer ranks - add them) and add more metals and ribbons. And they can add more weapons to unlock, while they're at it.

Jadeite wrote:Sure, a lot of people seem to flock into that red circle, but its pretty open for abuse now. One person on the EA forums mentioned his commander dropped artillery on his own spawn three times to kill one sniper, and TKed 14 times to do it.

So mutiny against the commander. And if the server's too stupid to do that, find a better server.

I like the new patch, particularly because hitbox detection is much improved. I never could hit anything with my M95, now I am getting up to 65% accuracy with it when not taking pot shots at choppers.

Arrow Mk84 wrote: So as a causal player I should not be rewarded for the time I invest in a game? Fuck that. I want to feel that my time investment has gotten me something; and before the patch, I was pretty damn close to giving up on the game. Playing three months with getting nothing new was a slap in the face, as far as I'm concerned.

If the hardcore players are going to breeze through the game, then make the officer ranks harder to get (and if there aren't officer ranks - add them) and add more metals and ribbons. And they can add more weapons to unlock, while they're at it.

If you've played three months and gotten nothing new, its not the game, its you. Badges and medals aren't that hard to get. I've unintentionally gotten them without even trying, even before the new patch.

When then either I suck, or it was because I played support most of the time.

But the weapon/rank advancement was by far my biggest gripe.

Arrow Mk84 wrote:When then either I suck, or it was because I played support most of the time.

But the weapon/rank advancement was by far my biggest gripe.

Support's easy; just resupply your squad and toss bags down when everyone's full on ammo.

They've finally fixed the US attack copters minigun, you can now kill people with it.

And both me and my housemate leveled up twice in 5 minutes, i'm guessing they've added soething in the patch that says after you've played a certain amoujnt of time you get promoted.

All they did was cut the number of points each rank gets, by a large margin, and there is nothing stupid about it. The reason some of you leveled up multiple times was because you already had enough points amassed to reach those levels under the new requirements, the game just doesn’t make all the promotions instantly.

You needed fucking absurd numbers of point to reach the higher ranks before and chances where NO ONE was ever going to reach them. You’d have to play 12 hours a day for years on end to do it. This also allows you an actual decent chance to unlock more then one or two of the alternative weapons.