Beep beep! Battlefield 3 PC update live: Improved commo rose and minimap, lots of fixes, shortcut items live!

03.28.12  | 641 comments

The PC Battlefield 3 update is now live. It includes a smattering of fixes, tweaks, and additions. Read on for the full details.

Today, we rolled out the big Spring game update for Battlefield 3 on PC! The focus of this massive package is to make the game more stable, fairer, and more balanced. You can find a comprehensive change list in this earlier post. The ~1.6GB update is available now. Below are some of the highlights.

New and improved commo rose

This update sees a number of improvements to the commo rose on PC, partially based on feedback from the community. Some of the tweaks we have made are detailed below:

New global call-outs
We have added a number of new commo rose call-outs that you can make to the entire team whenever you want. Where you previously had to look at a Support player to get the option to request ammo, you can now use the commo rose at any time to request ammo, health, or repairs. Using these requests will trigger appropriate icons on the minimap.

Moved orders to commo rose
We moved orders so that they are now exclusive to the commo rose. This means that you will no longer accidentally place an order when you in reality wanted to spot an enemy standing near a flag, for example.

Improved mouse handling
The mouse movement is now always tracked from the center of the commo rose, to make navigation more intuitive.

Quicker activation
You now activate a call-out simply by releasing Q, which should be snappier than the previous implementation. 

Improved readability
We tweaked the layout and design of the commo rose to improve readability and give clearer and quicker confirmation of which call-out is currently highlighted.

Look for these flashing icons on the mini map. They mean your team mates are trying to tell you something!

The available call-outs in the commo rose is context sensitive and will change depending on what you are currently doing in the game – for example, vehicles and infantry each have separate call-outs. Each function should trigger appropriate voice messages as well as icons on the minimap for increased team play possibilities. Players should keep an eye on the minimap for these icons. If you see them flashing, a team mate is requesting aid via the commo rose.

Improved minimap
After listening to community feedback, we have implemented alternative new ways to display the minimap. You can now choose between Map, Satellite or Hybrid view mode.

Map mode shows the most important tactical geometries such as buildings, objects, roads and water.

Satellite mode displays a top-down photograph of the level for increased terrain detail.

Hybrid mode combines the Satellite view with a Map overlay, offering a mix of quick tactical awareness and terrain detail.

You can change the minimap mode on the fly by pressing [B] (this key is mappable). You can set your preferred default map mode in the Options menu, where you can also alter the opacity level for the satellite textures. See below for an example of how these map displays compare.

Select the minimap display that suits your map and play style.

Beep beep! We have horns!
Yes! We have added horns to all jeeps in the game! Nothing says “Get in and man the machine gun so we can take back the airfield!” like three short beeps of the horn. Just press [SPACE] to make your presence known to friendly forces. Warning: Beeping also heard by opposition. Suggest limiting beeping when in enemy territory to keep vehicle in working order. This feature is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday (activated by L1).

Giving all players IR flares
To balance the battlefield and give budding pilots a fighting chance from day 1, we are now giving IR flares to all players. These will be automatically available to you in all air vehicles in the game. So if you’ve had a hard time staying up in the air previously, it should be easier to dodge incoming threats from now on. We hope this small but significant change will mean more players take to the skies and mix up their play style. This feature is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

More awards for skillful heli flying
One of the balancing items we have done in this game update is to better reward skillful heli pilots. To do this, we have increased the pilot’s score for transporting passengers who make kills from the heli. The assist score for heli pilots is now 50 points/kill. In a fully loaded transport, four passengers who make 1 kill each will give the pilot a sum total of 200 points. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

Making the SOFLAM a passive income gadget
The Recon gadget SOFLAM (laser target painter) has been given a new feature. Now, when a Recon player places it and then leaves it, it will continue to paint targets entering its area of control, continuously giving the Recon player a passive points income. This means a Recon player can place a SOFLAM in a strategic position, then leave it to find a good sniping spot. Combined with fixing a few scoring error in the SOFLAM, it should now be a much more viable source of experience points for Recons. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

Suppressing is team play, too!
Another balancing change that reflects how we want every player to be able to contribute to the overall effort is the lowered threshold for achieving the Suppression Ribbon. From a previous requirement of 7, players now only need to perform 3 suppressions in a game to be rewarded the Suppression Ribbon. This means the Support Kit player can rack up scores by skillful use of his LMG. We’ve always know suppression helps  – now we are more generously rewarding those team players who help disorient the enemy so we can move in for the kill. This balancing change is also present in the PlayStation 3 update that went live yesterday.

New to the game? Get a flying start with our new shortcut items

Today, we are also offering 10 different shortcut items for sale for Battlefield 3 on PC. If you’re new to the game, this is the perfect way to gain some ground on the veterans online. Or if you’d love to get your hands on those AA missiles for jets instantly, this is for you.

The 10 shortcut items are available now from Origin and include:

Kit Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items unique to the four playable classes
Vehicle Shortcut Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items for all vehicles
The Ultimate Bundle: Immediately unlocks all items from all other available shortcut packs

We hope you enjoy the contents of this game update. As always , had to the Battlelog forums or discuss the update with us right here on the blog. See you on the battlefield!

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  • Trillseeker82 04.02.12 at 22:25

    thanxs for nerving the Aek971 now it’s a bad weapon to shoot with :)

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  • Piteros2 04.02.12 at 21:45

    DICE with there be a Console patch or should I buy a PC to play a multiplatform game?

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  • Dubious 04.02.12 at 16:26

    Where is the commo rose for consoles? thanks

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  • Tepac 04.02.12 at 15:35

    FFS,atleast make a response to the community!

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  • illius_swe 04.02.12 at 15:33

    What about adding colors?

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  • 6xSnake6x 04.02.12 at 14:54

    At this point I would also love a rollback. The game is that sad now, I mean before, you know, you had some issues with it, but it was playable even fun on so many occasions and epic, now it’s overall frustrating, it’s like the new features, actual fixes don’t even matter that much compared to how broken it is. I think things need to be straightened out in a more organized fashion.
    Here are a couple of SOLUTIONS I can think of:
    Number one: make a feedback format/formular and encourage CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK, that way you don’t have a lot of clutter (“dis patch is bull****”). Heck I go for that myself when frustrated by the game, but we need to focus. People should detail on what they like/hate/what is broken/etc.
    Number two: things are how they are right now… but don’t let US (the players) be the playtesters; Hire some skilled people from the community to do this (I can think of a couple, this one’s not hard to figure out). PLAYTEST YOUR PATCH !
    Number three: don’t change the entire game, go incrementally with the fixes, this will allow you to focus on certain aspects at a time and do them well. Less is more. Then you have the community feedback (whether in an efficient form as I suggested or as it currently is). So you keep the pace right.
    That’s my three cents :D Good luck !

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  • Zerberus_v 04.02.12 at 10:18

    It has literally been proven that giving elitist rewards to noobs kills online games.
    How do you not know this?

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  • awesomedude6994 04.02.12 at 06:43

    WHERE IS XBOX’S UPDATE COME ON DICE!

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  • xyet_againx 04.02.12 at 06:38

    HAHAHA…and as I’m reading this blog, it seems like whoever wrote it genuinely believes that this is the best thing to EVER happen to this game. It’s like DICE truly believes they bent a knee for their community. This is pretty pathetic…38 pages of community are telling you that you just screwed the pooch…BIG TIME! What are you going to do about that. Is there some back office, short notice meeting being held till a solution is agreed to. Do we have to tell you that some of us ARE Share-Holders…and that you work for us? I think a collective head-out-of-ass party needs to happen at EA and DICE. Giving unlocks away for a few bucks just to raise a few points on stocks is pretty pathetic! A better strategy would be to make a WORTHY game, at least 95% issue free at launch (as advertised), let people fall in love with it, then EVERY month (or close to that) market new DLC…pretty sure we’d be willing to pay for that! By the way, I’m looking for a new job. If this post is enough to be considered my resume, I’d be happy to come school whatever retard is working there now on how to listen to community feedback!

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  • d3rkad3rka 04.02.12 at 00:37

    I honestly believe that DICE needs to roll back this update until they can come up with something better. The re-balancing they did has made the game so incredibly frustrating for me and my friends that our BF3 experience has been tarnished terribly. They say they are trying to “give budding pilots a fighting chance”, yet they made the jet’s default gun so incredibly overpowered, not even veteran chopper/jet pilots can survive a half-second blast.

    On top of this, most of the most annoying bugs have not been fixed, or have been replaced by worse ones.

    Buying this game was one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time, but now I am seriously considering dropping the game. Anyone want to petition/boycott?

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    • Futtawuh 04.02.12 at 00:40

      Ayes, The Jets are really stong now. I used to SUCK flying the jet. But now im a f*cking God. 1 sec burst and the enemy is disabled.

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      • d3rkad3rka 04.02.12 at 00:49

        I had 5 service stars for the helicopter, now I’m safer and more effective in a jeep, what the hell we’re they thinking?

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    • Tachikoma333 04.02.12 at 00:45

      I can’t imagine what they where think when they made this update. They managed to turn a few minor bug fixes into a full game over haul. They took everything that worked and broke it. Well, not jets. Jets get a main cannon that can now kill just about anything. I have no complaints about shortcuts, except for money-grubbing, but how do you manage to make a update so bad that no one likes it? the petition idea is good and i think for the next week, until the eighth, that we should boycott BF3 and not play it. If enough people do it maybe DICE/EA will roll-back some of the things the update broke. I.E everything they ‘fixed’.

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      • poeleloele 04.02.12 at 12:36

        I agree on the boycott. They made this game suck like monkeyballs..
        I even think about selling the game because it makes me aggresive and anoyed. I am not a player who is a bad looser or someone who curses behind the PS3 butt the past 3 days i have had my thoughts of throing my controller trough my LCD screen.

        After the update i encountered a shit load of trash:
        - Suddenly mines become invisible now and then. I played seine crossing, driving tank, and got killed by invisible AT mines in one game for like 14 times!! Whenever i drive a tank i always pay attention to my mini-map and i look on main screen for AT mines. Now the become invisble and i get killed instantly…

        - The rapid switching between targets is NOT fixed. When i select “guided shell” on my tank, and i have multiple targets in front, i get killed most of the time because that stupid crosshair keeps switching between the target, thus sellecting nothing…

        - Famas seems to have more recoil and horizontal muzzle drift than before… Sucks cause it was my favorite weapon as was the Usas-12.

        - Suddenly the maps are crowded with guys who have C4 and javelin missile. Because of the option to buy the unlocks, i now have no chance driving any vehicle on maps like Firestorm and Caspian Border.
        I played for like 80 hours to get my unlocks and now any noob can buy them because Dice has a hunger for money??! Shame on you…

        - Because lack of distance the stinger missile is completely useless.

        - Making weapons balance sucks and does no good to realism. I understand why they did it because when you can buy the unlocks all weapons should be equal, aint it Dice…..

        So far about the complaints i can remember right now…

        You make the game suck and i wont play or recommend the game to anyone anymore.
        I even thought of starting a “Boycott Battlefield” facebook fanpage…

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        • nova_styler 04.02.12 at 14:55

          BOYCOTT……will be too tough on them…………….but we should definitely start FB for old update rollback……………………….

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      • nova_styler 04.02.12 at 14:51

        I am with you…………..i already left BF3 the day new update game ………………because they changed & broke everything just for sake of bug fixing…………:):) they made BF3 as a business now ……..i have never seen such kind of massive game update in my life……………..but original BF3 was the legend of all ONLINE GAMES………………

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