Okay I got it now.
IFV guided missile (perk 11) locks on without SOFLAM. Not sure why I never understood this.
Tank guided shell (perk 8) locks on the same way. Duh. But it also locks on to helicopters!! And flares do nothing against it! (I wonder if ECM does.) I was dueling with a colonel-26 in a tank and I couldn’t destroy him. (Bitch got me with two lucky long range cannon rounds, so he was clearly an expert.) So if I ever have problems against helicopters or other tanks while I’m in a tank, I’ll switch to reactive armor and guided shell. But otherwise there’s no way I’m giving up the glorious canister shell.
Helicopter guided rocket (perk 15) is… tricky. I think you still need to “aim” with the crosshair and vertical bar rather than just putting the crosshair on the vehicle. This may be new to a recent patch. And I think you need to lead targets slightly if they’re moving. It’s like the game gives you a bigger window. If you get in it, the rockets home in for you. At least that’s my understanding so far. I might be completely wrong. It’s not too hard to work it out by feel. You know you’re dead on when every rocket starts hitting the target.
Anyway, I feel so outmatched against experts when I’m in air vehicles. I don’t want to invest the time to get better, so I guess I have to live with it!
Zuwadza
1822
Alright so I’ve been completely disappointed with my framerate in the game since I got back into it recently. I’m not sure if something is different but I feel like I was getting better framerates back when the game was first released. I’ve been getting sub-30 FPS in games with even a remote amount of action on-screen at 1440x900 and everything set to low. I’m running:
Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz
4GB RAM
Radeon 6870
Is this what I should expect? I know it’s not a great system, but I would expect it to be playable at low in a crappy resolution.
flyinj
1823
I’d imagine this game is more GPU than CPU intensive. The game is actually performing better for me after each patch, and I’m running a 6850.
Alt-tab out of the game and check your process monitor. I’m willing to bet that some flash banner on an open browser tab is taking up 25% cpu resources or something similar.
Zuwadza
1824
I don’t think it’s anything like that. There’s nothing else running, CPU is sitting at 99%-100%, RAM at 2.8GB. The game played fine until Back to Karkand, now it’s unplayable at even the lowest settings. I can stare at a wall in multiplayer and watch the framerate spike from 30 to 10.
I think I read it’s CPU intensive. I believe it responds to overclocks.
Are you playing B2K maps? They’re larger and might be taxing your PC a little more.
Zuwadza
1826
Enh, happens on all maps. After some more Googling it seems like a fairly common problem since Back to Karkand was released.
I had fun using the mortar on Rush attack tonight. It’s cute to watch the little blue triangles hesitating near the MCOM. Then it’s immensely satisfying to drop a smoke round on the MCOM, and see them bolt straight to it to arm it. At that moment I feel hope for my fellow random pubs.
Once it’s armed, I drop regular rounds on the MCOM. I’d say it’s only 40% effective. More often than not, the rounds don’t do enough damage to kill anyone disarming. And the cycle time is too high now after the patch. It’s still worth a quick diversion every now and then.
I’m becoming a tank champion on my quest to unlock the canister round. It always feels good to fire a tank round right into a choppers windshield.
I’m also having the hardest time winning squad deathmatch games to unlock that assignment, I usually have a good KDR, but I always end up in a squad where just one person is like, 2k 15d and we lose by maybe 5 kills.
I’m polishing off a few medals and kits as I get closer to quitting BF3. Getting a bit tired of playing. I cheesed the scout helicopter by capturing lots of flags. Then I did my first high ticket game on Metro. It was certainly different. I finished off my resupply medal with lightning speed, but it takes a little longer to get medical ribbons. Once I’m done with my short list of stuff, I’ll go back to playing normally.
I definitely missed the boat on shotgun frag ammo. Seems pretty useless now compared to regular buckshot.
Thongsy
1830
Squad DM seem to be the only mode I was good at. I’m not a great player but I’m not horrible either so the smaller teams benefited me since was I ever put in a squad with absolutely horrible players. Unlike in other modes where half the team was downright terrible or just playing for KDR and sniping from afar or something.
I think I’m done with this game. It was fun while it lasted, still is but I have just grown bored with it.
Why does my crosshair disappear sometimes? It makes using shotguns and PDWs really challenging.
But those weapons seem to be the key to Rush attack. I’m kicking ass now, with lots of MVP ribbons from arming. But I still can’t win without a good team. They have to push up far enough to guard the MCOM when it’s armed. I can’t always kill all the defenders running into the room. Maybe 50% of the time, depending on the nearby camping spots.
Servers with higher ticket count (100) make it even easier, and it makes defending a true nailbiter. Same thing as 24 player servers (or less). Anyway, I’m glad I get to enjoy a few wins on offense since I’m almost done with Rush.
Fuck. The risk of high ticket games is that the server might crash and take away everything you earned over the last hour.
Cobra
1833
Or that the match will take 3 hours and by that time you might get bored and be forced to quit.
I’m terrible with sniper rifles. What’s a good starter rifle, and what’s the best way to practice with them? Join a Conquest server and find a hiding place?
I’d like some tips with the SOFLAM too. I assume it has a maximum range so I can’t place it too far back. And will it designate targets even when I’m not using the handheld controller? The game says it works unattended but I wasn’t sure what that meant.
Houngan
1835
For rifles, there are two options. Either a semi that takes several shots to kill and has a lot of drop, or the sv98 that does a monstrous amount of damage and drops hardly at all. Honestly you seem to just be on a completionist bent so you could just do a tactical sniper and go shotgun. If you do want to snipe you’d better switch to hardcore, it’s a hell of a lot easier.
H.
Tankero
1836
For the SOFLAM you want to aim it at choke-points and the roads leading away from the enemy base… as far as range is concerned, it actually has a very, very long range. Not sniper rifle long, but close. And no, you don’t have to control it for it to designate. It won’t follow targets, but whatever comes in view will get locked onto. Also, the SV98 is an awesome rifle at all proficiency levels, but it’s a camper’s tool; you have to play that style to make it work. Otherwise, recons rely alot on sidearms/shotguns. Keep in mind that once you get the TUGS, you can get monstrous score bonuses in Metro, as long as you place it close enough to the action.
Yeah but I want to try sniper rifles just for the hell of it. I’ve been using the SKS but it’s probably a bad idea. It shoots fast enough that I’m tempted to start zipping around like I have an assault rifle. I’ll grab the SV98 or L96 and find a comfy rock to sit on.
I was going to try for the sniper rifle medal but I have 45 ribbons to go. It might not happen.
Wow I feel like a real sn1p3r now. I’m definitely picking it up. I even got an MVP 3 ribbon in deathmatch. Canals TDM seems to be a good map to get comfortable with sniper rifles. Lots of long alleys and high-contrast background. Just use the default 7x scope on the SV98.
I don’t seem to have much problem dueling with people that have “Recon” and “Sniper” in their nickname, so I guess that means I’m doing okay. It’s cute how people carefully avoid my T-UGS by sneaking. It’s also cute to get knifed now, instead of me doing the knifing like usual.
I still prefer run-and-gun, but I see why people flock to sniper classes. Headshots are satisfying.
I had no idea the AAV had a machinegun. It doesn’t come up if you press the F key to switch weapons. You have to press the number 2 (if you’re in the gunner seat of course). That will be really handy.
JM1
1840
That’s also how you switch the secondary weapons that you unlock for any of the vehicles (like the HMG/LMG you can couple to the main turret).
