BF:BC2 Client R8 / Server R15 are coming this wednesday

[M8DNanite]

Next week, if all goes according to plan, the Battlefield:Bad Company2 R8 client update and the R12 server update will arrive for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. This may be the patch that many have dreamed of right here, especially for server admins. The client patch alone will be roughly 500MB in size.

Highlights includes: Knifing is back to normal, crash fixes, lag/latency improvements, chat while dead and also points while dead.
Server Idle kick is controllable.

The changelog is long, so if you're reading this from the main page, be sure to click on "Comments" for the full list!

[M8DNanite]

Changelog:

Server - Some potential sources for lag/rubberbanding have been eliminated
Server - The old reserved slots has been replaced by a kick-on-demand system like in BF2
Server - Log file for server admins: all remote admin interface commands/events are logged
Server - Log file for server admins: major server events + all chat messages are logged
Server - Idle kick is controllable
Server - Profanity filter can be disabled
Server - Teamkill-kick system is controllable
Server - Ticket counts and bleed rate are controllable per-level
Server - Infantry only mode available per-level
Server - Initial spawn delay and respawn delay are adjustable
Server - Server description can be up to 400 characters, and use "|" for line breaks
Server - Banlist can contain up to 10.000 entries
Server - reduced latency in packet handling

Admin Interface - fixed the player.onKill spam that occasionally happened
Admin Interface - ensured that player.onJoin events always report the player name
Admin Interface - events triggered when people spawn
Admin Interface - much more info on kills
Admin Interface - detailed stats are reported at end-of-round

Gameplay - Various minor level bugfixes
Gameplay - Helicopter handling has been tweaked
Gameplay - Weapon tweaks have been implemented based on PC public feedback
Gameplay - Tracer dart gun speed has been changed from 300 m/s to 200 m/s
Gameplay - Fixed technical hang when a crate was armed outside of the combat area
Gameplay - "Victory is near" message was shown for the wrong team on Valparaíso, this has been fixed
Gameplay - Countermeasures can be fired when driving a helicopter
Gameplay - The brightness of the pilot view in the Russian helicopter has been reduced
Gameplay - Advanced Spotting scope works better
Gameplay - Knifing people in the back works again (we backed out the change that we had done for Server R11)
Gameplay - Hit box for moving targets expands based on the speed of the targets movement
Gameplay - G36 now has crosshair when in Hardcore mode

Server Browser - Servers are sorted into 3 categories: Normal, Modified, Hardcore depending on their settings
Server Browser – Added support for retrieving update progress
Server Browser - Now refreshes information
Server Browser - Join queue system when attempting to join a full server
Server Browser - all settings are automatically saved between sessions
Server Browser - Pings are sent via an alternate mechanism, which should work for non-Administrator users as well

Client - Fixed DX9 issue, which likely caused graphics glitches and perhaps crashes
Client - Fixed some crashes
Client - Toggle/hold crouch is user controllable
Client - Toggle/hold zoom is user controllable
Client - Vsync bugfixed for DX10/DX11
Client - Rewritten how settings are written to disk; this should reduce/eliminate the spawn lag
Client - Fixed bug where a player could join a server before the stats has been downloaded causing faulty stats in "EOR- unlock progression"-screen
Client - New chat system allows chatting when dead (but not during end of round) and keeps a 100 lines log
Client - Improved Play Now functionality
Client - Removed K/D ratio and Skill Level filters in the leaderboards
Client - Any points you get while being dead will be added to your score
Client - Reduced negative mouse acceleration
Client - Increased health on the Cobra to match other vehicles
Client - More informative disconnection/kick reasons
Client - Support for Map Packs so PC gets future VIP maps at the same time as consoles

The Balance tweaks are as followed:

Slightly increased the damage of the UZI at long range.
The AKs74u now has more felt recoil when aiming.
The G3, VSS, and all SemiAutomatic rifles now settle slightly faster between shots when aiming.
The PKM, Type 88LMG, G3, An94, and 40mm shotgun have returned to their former glory.
Increased the damage of the MG3 to bring it in line with the rest of the LMGs.
Fixed a bug where the Saiga12 with slugs would do too much damage at long range.
Fixed a bug where the SVU would do too little damage at long range.
Fixed a bug where M95 rounds would not kill armored targets with headshots.

[M8DSkizza]

Server - The old reserved slots has been replaced by a kick-on-demand system like in BF2
Server - Idle kick is controllable
Server - Profanity filter can be disabled

Client - Any points you get while being dead will be added to your score
Client - New chat system allows chatting when dead (but not during end of round) and keeps a 100 lines log
Server Browser - Join queue system when attempting to join a full server


Gameplay - Knifing people in the back works again(we backed out the change that we had done for Server R11)

Hurry the @&!# up and release this @}?% you bunch of £$%£" incompetent %$"£$.
Especially the profanity filter I'm even using it in real life now.

[M8DNanite]

Slightly increased the damage of the UZI at long range.
The AKs74u now has more felt recoil when aiming.
The G3, VSS, and all SemiAutomatic rifles now settle slightly faster between shots when aiming.
The PKM, Type 88LMG, G3, An94, and 40mm shotgun have returned to their former glory.
Increased the damage of the MG3 to bring it in line with the rest of the LMGs.
Fixed a bug where the Saiga12 with slugs would do too much damage at long range.
Fixed a bug where the SVU would do too little damage at long range.
Fixed a bug where M95 rounds would not kill armored targets with headshots.

These weapon changes are coming to XBOX360/PS3 May 11th and to PC in the 'Very near future". Again the DICE console player / game balancer is at it. And very vague info when it comes to PC so we dont know if these are in the next weeks patch or not.

Source:
http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/batt ... oming.html
Notice this is from the console forum not PC.

[M8DSkizza]

Every one of those changes look like a code change, even if they add 10,000 lines of new code that's a tiny update (in terms of file size), the whole programme exe file is 20MB. The update is 500MB.

We could have some new maps

[M8DNanite]

I think the map bug fixes can make it bigger. Last update was 360MB and didnt have any new maps but had some map bug fixes.
The new player/weapon models DLC might be in it too.

The patch is delayed a bit:

Not yet, we have some last minute issues we are working on so it might be a bit delayed and released later in the week.

https://twitter.com/Bazajaytee/status/13717611493

[M8DNanite]

Patch delayed to next week.
http://twitter.com/Bazajaytee/statuses/13843964223

[M8DSkizza]

Latest news on the patch:

Bazajaytee: Niclas is doing BFBC2 final steps on the patch.

@Bazajaytee: Any chance we'll see the bc2 pc patch before the weekend?

@MrSkelter Nope, we wouldn't release a patch on a Friday. We always do patches early/mid week so we can support them if the worst happens.

[M8DSkizza]

Some details/screenshots from R8 were leaked to a Russian server:

http://badcompanytwo.com/news-post/bad- ... 8-preview/

[M8DSkizza]

lol at how old this thread is now, here's the latest from Barrie:

Hey everyone, yep I'm still around.
Just to let you know the patch is currently sat in QA but due to some kind of striking in Romania we won't get results until tomorrow at the earliest with our server fixes.

[M8DNanite]

The patch will be out this wednesday.
Updated changelog in second post. New things since first changelog are in bold.
Expanding hitboxes based on target is quite interesting. Lets see how this messes up the hitreg and re(un)balances weapons.

After a lot of trials and tribulations, all versions of the game client has now completed QA successfully.
We will do no more testing on it.

All game servers will need to be taken down for updates. The maintenance period starts on Wednesday Jun 30th at 07:00AM (GMT+2). Most of them should be back up by 11:00AM (GMT+2).

During this time window, we will also release the new game client.

Check back after 11:00AM (GMT+2), and try out the new game client!

Still no working gfx card here, so no gaming for me.

[M8DNanite]

Changelog updated with balance tweaks. The silly console weapon tweaks introduced in last patch are removed now finally.
Personally cant wait for the improved VSS.
Rambo Wookie time!

[M8DSkizza]

Damn start saving for a card Nanite

The VSS is either the best gun in the game or the worst depending on whatever hit detection problems are going on at the time, I've noticed hit detection seems to really badly affect certain guns, usually the ones that need good aim. The Engy guns never seem to miss.
Sometimes the VSS, the M14, the T88, all the non-auto shotties etc are AMAZING weapons that you want to use forever, the next round you can't hit a thing with them point blank. I doubt the patch will fix any of this but it will fix a lot of the other terrible crap that should have been sorted before the game was released.

[M8DSkizza]

Early reports are the chatbox turns half the screen blue (but you can make it smaller) and if people spam chat messages the whole server lags (not a problem when you can kick players ). Most people are saying the hitreg is way better now.

Had a very quick go in the chopper on Valparaiso this morning, it seemed to bank a lot faster/further but still turned quite slowly.

[M8DNanite]

Dunno if our server lags but if it does there is discussion about it.

One lag causes might be is running more than one admintool (all kinds of rcon apps) at once (I dont have it on btw).
Ban messages should be disabled.

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/batt ... ution.html

[M8DSkizza]

Dunno if our server lags but if it does there is discussion about it.

One lag causes might be is running more than one admintool (all kinds of rcon apps) at once (I dont have it on btw).
Ban messages should be disabled.

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/batt ... ution.html

Yeah there was terrible lag last night, one or two regulars who usually have no problems had to quit the server, tonight I didn't have BC2 Guardian running later on and it was much better.

Battledude's connection dropped early on when it was half full + Guardian running but it was fine after I turned it off. Still a bit of lag/rubber-banding when it got to 32 players but nowhere near as bad as it was. Also PBBans wasn't streaming so that may have helped too.

I've edited the startup.txt file on the server so there's no need to use Guardian most of the time (which in reality is almost never), there's no profanity filter / idleKickTimeout by default now.