BF 1942: Usefulness of classes

I can’t believe I missed the health percentage either. I guess I’m so used to looking for that little health bar (I was nearly always a medic in RTCW) that I just totally blew by it. I’ve still never seen anyone call for a medic in game, but if it shows up differently than the normal soldier calls, that’s great.

And I hope they’re more useful on other maps. Even so, it seems like a waste to have a map where two of the classes are much better than the others. Class variety is a Good Thing and should be encouraged. I understand they’re not going to put lots of artillery on every map to make scouts useful, but it seems like if they had just reduced the number of med lockers, medics would be a lot better on Wake. Not sure what’s up with that.

Of course, the game still rocks. It’s pretty much all I play now. I was salivating after reading the preview on IGN.

–Rywill

I played some scout last night to test the “follow the bullet suggestion”, but it seems limited in its usefulness. Holding the fire button down does allow you to keep your sights on your target, but unless you KIA them, you can’t really see where your bullet lands (which would help adjusting your fire).

I’m sick of the Wake map, just like I got sick of the Hunt map in MOHAA. Its gonna be great when it switches over to the Russian Front for the first time.

Also, it seems to me that Wake Island is ruled by the well played tanker. I get a good amount of my kills with the assault weapon, but to really rake in the kills I have to be plugging away with a tank. I had a great tank shot to take out an attacking sherman with my Chai Hai (Hai Lai?), where I was on the approach from the village, and he was well before the motor pool firing into the compound. I aimed about an inch above him and dropped it right onto his side armor. Poof! Later I charged the airfield and fired on a guy on one of the hills to the right, and he must have flown 50 feet into the air. Sweet!

I really like the way you can blow guys through the air with the tank. Even better is that you know if they didn’t die instantly from the hit, they’re helplessly watching as they zoom toward their certain doom. 8)

I’ll be playing Super Mario Sunshine tonight but even then I’ll probably have to jump into some BF1942 before I finally hit the hay.

–Dave

Something really funny happened last night. I was attacking some guy near a jeep with my engineer. Apprently the jeep was pretty damaged. So anyway the guy dodges my shot and it hits the jeep, the jeep explodes and its frame flies into the air, over a sand-bag barrier, and lands right on top of me.

So I was dead. Funny, huh?

hah

"I really like the way you can blow guys through the air with the tank. Even better is that you know if they didn’t die instantly from the hit, they’re helplessly watching as they zoom toward their certain doom. "

Giants (so-so game with nasty netcode but REALLY fun multi) had this in spades, kabuto could throw them like 2000 feet over the water, took you a good while to die.

Is it just me, or do the servers tend to reset a lot, or go off line? Usually I play on the EA servers, and pretty reliably once or twice an hour I get the dreaded “Warning! Connection problems detected!” message and get dumped. Often, the server I was just on is no longer available for the moment.

As for the lend-lease Kubels, that’s a good one. :P That’s what I like about this game, though. Who the hell cares if the Marines on Wake had Shermans, half-tracks, F4U Corsairs, and Army soldiers? Or that the Japanese had tanks of any sort, not to mention Kar 98s, StG 44s, etc? It’s a blast precisely because both sides have all sorts of toys to play with. It’s also a blast because the flying is SWOTL-style fun, tanks are arcadey without being dorky (and actually handle more ‘realistically’ than in Flashpoint IMO), and all the classes are actually useful.

I can’t wait for the other maps.

I have found that pretty much every class can be useful. I tend to play medic, engineer, or assault. As a medic I can shoot well on the run and can heal others and more importantly myself. Engineer is great on non-FF servers and even FF servers but you obviously have to be careful. If you notice the engineer carries the unscoped version of the sniper rifle (No. 4, vs. SniperNo. 4) which is why it seems to hit so hard, just with less range. In close I use the pistol a lot and even the knife when someone doesn’t realize I am there, plus the charges and mines are fun. The assault has the most anit-infantry power but it seems I have to stop and sight up to use it.

I occasionally use the anti-tank as well. I have found the best way to be effective is to move around in and around buildings and fire shots from windows/doorways at tanks, then immediately move to another spot. Most tanks have a serious problem finding me if I do this.

Tanks are great but 2 people with grenades can take one out with a little cover and savvy and 3 people with grenades can crush a tank not to mention the anti-tank guys and mines and explosive packs.

– Xaroc

I have come around on the medic. He’s not very useful at medic-ing, but he’s a pretty good soldier. The SMG is less powerful and shorter-ranged than the assault rifle (as nearly as I can tell), but it holds more bullets and recoils less. To me, that’s pretty much a wash. It’s better in close quarters but worse at longer ranges. Add in the ability to heal yourself without going to a med locker and he’s as good as the assault kit. I wish they would make him worse at fighting and better at healing, but there you go.

The scout is still pretty lame. I tried it several more times, and I was always wishing I was an engineer instead. The longer range on the rifle is fun, but not worth being useless in close combat and vehicle combat.

And the HW guy is still not worth taking unless the enemy has 2 or 3 tanks. Be an engineer instead.

See, I do quite well with the anti-armor kit, and I’ve even gotten pretty good at pistol kills. It sucks at long range, and kind of sucks at close range, too, but it’s better than nothing in a pinch.

Stealth is the key to doing well as anti-armor–you need to sneak around and find a good position before you engage. Tanks can take three or four shots on their front armor, but two will take them out from behind. If you get behind them and fire when the gunner(s) are looking the other way (be sure to duck under cover while you reload), they often have no idea where you are. The driver will stop and start swivelling the turret around like mad, trying to find you, and you can finish him off. It also helps to have some backup–an anti-armor character escorted by an assault or two is much more formidable than an anti-armor alone.

Engineers can kill tanks pretty effectively if the driver is an idiot, i.e. he rolls into combat with no top gunner and no foot troops for support. I think I’ve only been killed once by an engineer while driving a tank, though. With proper support, you can make it really difficult for them to get close enough to pose a threat.

It seems like all the classes are pretty viable. I still play mostly assault, for the pure stopping power, but I dabble in engineer, scout, and antitank. All of them have very satisfying kills when you can get them (brew a tank, pop a jeep in a minefield, head shot from across the bay).

I played some of those annoying, but in the long run satisfying because it keeps the tkers out (although some a-holes we using it to steal vehicles) blowback servers and had a good time. The Allies were quite good at keeping each other informed of axis attacks and putting men where they were needed. The axis (i played some of both) were good at massing their early attacks, but later on they would get watered down, and the allies would capture all the spawns. I think the winning strategy for the axis is to spawn hop, using the destroyer as a big hammer for each new spawn attack. Also, 1 assault and 1 engineer should be left behind at each spawn to stop spawn bandits. I’m thinking clans will rule these maps.

I agree that the anti-tank is great against tanks (hence his name). My point is just that the engineer is almost as good against tanks (an AT guy isn’t going to do much against a tank with infantry support and a top gunner, either–he’s much better off than an engineer, but still in some trouble) and much better at everything else.

It’s definitely very satisfying to get a great AT kill or a great sniper kill, or set up the perfect artillery barrage as a sniper. But my experience has been that those “BOOYAH!” moments are very few and far between and separated by many deaths.

Engineers just have way more use in all kinds of situations.

The previous message was brought to you by the MrAngryFace Campaign For Engineers Being the Best Unit In BF1942.

MrAngryFace, please give us another post on the abilities of the Engineer Rifle.

Chet

Which, as has been previously pointed out, is the sniper rifle without a scope. Kind of dulls the uber engineer rifle-thing when you look at it that way. However, my new favorite kind of kill is the mine. It would be the claymore mine thing (hidden tnt in bushes for infantry kills), but I’m never patient enough to actually get any. I did play one game tonight with a good server, no tkers, and a situation where the axis were holding the northern village against successive attacks. My mines played a crucial role, and my teammates actually listened when I told them there were mines in the road.

Engineer rifle just has a friggin punch. Granted, it IS a MID-RANGE rifle, but there’s nothing like nailing someone who is running with a powerful shot that knocks them on their ass.

Plus there is the whole repair thing that other players don’t use enough, and I use A LOT. One of my favorite things to do is hide out in the north guard towers at the air base, when I see enemy units coming towards the entrance from either side I toss a detpack over the side and blow it. This removes the chance of them seeing the pack and avoiding it.

Great class. More people should use it.

The nice thing with the airfield, you can hide behind the building and resupply your ammo through the wall. Handy when the enemy hasn’t spotted who keeps killing them.

I like hiding there with plenty of mines. Mine the runway when there are no planes, you get to know where. Hide behind the hill. Hear plane engines, start laughing…

Chet

In my experience, very few people check guard towers. EVER. I once spent 10 minutes sniping the enemy from the guard tower, and just got out and left when I ran out of ammo.

I mean duh. Check the guard towers :wink:

Ah, but the tower is a deathtrap once you’re spotted.

Has anyone seen the allies group all three tanks to start a game? All three with an engineer or two behind them and an assault to bodyguard the engineers. That would be damn effective. Sort of reminds me of Bill Pullman escorting Randy Quaid into position in ID. “Clear the way boys!!”.

Also, I’m reading the perfect book for BF 1942: The Naked and the Dead.

What a book!!! I didn’t think it could top the Thin Red Line, which is the most gripping fictional account of men in combat I’ve ever read. But the N&tD is just so much more NOVEL! That Mailer guy is talented. It is also nice that so many characters have ties to Boston, but whatever, he wrote about what he knew (and a lot of what he didn’t - but he faked it so well). If you want to read some great WW2 Pacific campaign fiction, I recommend both the Naked & the Dead and the Thin Red Line.

-Rob

I think MrAngry is using the guard towers as I do, not to shoot out, but to shoot back inside the base. Laying down and shooting between the little opening by the stairs.

It sounds like BF1942 at my house right now. The air show is down the shore a little today and my house just got buzzed by some prop fighters. They got the sound down. It actually sounds nice.

The blue angels are a different story.

Chet

Interesting tactic, but I think once more people realize that the game shows you who just killed you after you die, it won’t work as well. This is the bane of the scout’s existence, and I wish they would take that feature out. You can already try to locate snipers by muzzle flash and sound.