Gunship Tweaks

[i NatrlKilla i]

With the latest server update, Dice has tweaked the Gunship. It's getting some love in Conquest, while being nerfed for Rush. (Rolls out tomorrow)

Dear everyone,

Thank you very much for your feedback on our forums and social channels. We receive an immense amount of messages per day — and although we don’t have time to answer each and every one of them, we do take time to read them and address the most important issues you bring to us.

Battlefield 3: Armored Kill has been a huge hit, but we know that the gunship we introduced has been a bit overpowered in some situations. The bulk of our next server update on September 20th is directly based on community feedback from the past two weeks, aimed at re-balancing the gunship.

Following this server update on September 20th, there will also be a short planned downtime at 8:00 UTC where online gameplay on PC will not be available. We expect this outage to be 15 minutes long.

Gunship balancing in server update R31 on September 20th (all formats)
• Stationary and mobile AA cannon damage has been reduced by 30% versus the gunship.
Rationale: This fixes an issue where it was too easy for players to use stationary or mobile AA to shoot down the gunship from the other side of the map.

• Jet cannon damage has been reduced by 50% versus the gunship.
Rationale: In Conquest mode, jets have been able to single-strafe a gunship and destroy it. This re-balance will require more skill from pilots to take it down.

• The delay before moving the gunship forward to a new base in Rush mode has been increased from 15 to 30 seconds.
Rationale: Previously, the gunship was moved to the next base so quickly that it was possible to parachute from it into the base before defenders were able to prepare. This tweak will give defenders time to fall back and protect the valuable M-COM stations as intended.

• The Delay between gunship spawns has been increased from 90 to 120 seconds in Rush mode.
Rationale: After destroying the gunship in Rush mode, it reappeared too quickly to be well-balanced. With a 50% increase in spawn time for the gunship, defenders will now have more time to focus on the crates and less of a constant overhanging threat from the gunship.

• Initial delay before the gunship spawns in Rush mode has been increased from 15 to 60 seconds.
Rationale: Before this update, the gunship gunners could find the enemy before the round and instakill them when the pre-round timer ran out. Now, it will take a full minute before the gunship will spawn, giving defenders ample time to prepare.

Other changes in the server update
• Fixed a bug where a new squad leader wasn’t chosen when the current squad leader left.

• Fixed so that MK1A3 uses flechette rounds instead of frag rounds in Gun Master mode for Premium members (non-Premiums already have flechette rounds).

• Fixed a bug with Squad Rush on Sharqi Peninsula where the user was spawned outside the combat area if they deployed shortly after the first M-COM was destroyed.

[Opiate42]

• Jet cannon damage has been reduced by 50% versus the gunship.
Rationale: In Conquest mode, jets have been able to single-strafe a gunship and destroy it. This re-balance will SIMPLY require more STRAFING from pilots to take it down.

There, fixed that for them. Well, all in all lets see if this makes the conquest gunship more a gunship and less a tomb.

[CGPsaint]

Originally Posted by Opiate42

Well, all in all lets see if this makes the conquest gunship more a gunship and less a tomb.

My thoughts exactly. It's bad enough that there is nobody to shoot at, and even worse that the short amount of time that you have to find someone is all the time it takes to shoot the Gunship down.

[Rapturous Rich]

• Fixed so that MK1A3 uses flechette rounds instead of frag rounds in Gun Master mode for Premium members (non-Premiums already have flechette rounds).

Just HOW did they manage that? God damn it DICE, I love you, but you're fucking stupid.

[secretkaos187]

Seems fair, I think the Gunship needed a belly/tail gunner as well. Why hasn't Dice seen the big blind spot that thing has. I also think that its silly that if I am in a helicopter flying next to the gunship and it deploys it's flares and I've got inbounds that it should distract my threat as well,it freaking rains flares!!! I also think that it should be an option that can be turned off if you own a server. this patch does make it possible to look at the battlefield and not having to focuse on the spectre. what happened to the proxy defense for the Mobile Arty fix?

[B A R 4 D]

Nice the jet cannon damage % has gone down the shitter!

[Opiate42]

Originally Posted by Rapturous Rich

Just HOW did they manage that? God damn it DICE, I love you, but you're fucking stupid.

Think this is a universal sentiment among us towards DICE.

[CGPsaint]

Originally Posted by Rapturous Rich

Just HOW did they manage that? God damn it DICE, I love you, but you're fucking stupid.

Originally Posted by Opiate42

Think this is a universal sentiment among us towards DICE.

Haha! This is pretty much how everyone feels about DICE using EA servers to run their games!

[Merch]

The gunship initially spawn and movement delays hopefully will make a big difference in rush.

Originally Posted by B A R 4 D

Nice the jet cannon damage % has gone down the shitter!

I'll just murder it with rockets instead then.

[GIitch]

I thought they would have nerfed the cannon damage for the Gunship, but all they did was increase spawn times and make it stronger against AA and Jets.

[ZingZitang]

I think DICE is Trolling us. . . I mean, they Have to be!

ALL of this Shit would have been discovered and Corrected had they just ONE Mother Dicking Test Game! Let alone actual development testing.

I mean Come on DICE! I work in IT, and If the projects I released had this many things wrong with it and I still Released it I'd be Fired on the spot. Absolutely Ridiculous. Sure its great that they're Responding so Quickly, but seriously.

[head0r Inc]

Screw the gunship, I freakin hate it.
They should remove it from the Rush gametype and leave it only in Conquest, I found it to be so much more annoying in Rush due to the "small place of camping" from the defenders. You will just simply get totally owned. And if your team got too many pioniers with IGLA's.. there won't be many left for the groundvehicles.. and of cource, no medic / sniper / supporter at all.

It's simply ridiculous... with a random team which players brains are as big as an atom you won't be able to hold one base just any second. Attackers win most of the time due to the pure ownage. Rush sucks on armored kill

[A Garden Shed]

I wish they had made it easier to destory the gunship. I am new to the game and i just keep getting spawn killed by it

[CGPsaint]

Originally Posted by ZingZitang

I think DICE is Trolling us. . . I mean, they Have to be!

ALL of this Shit would have been discovered and Corrected had they just ONE Mother Dicking Test Game! Let alone actual development testing.

I mean Come on DICE! I work in IT, and If the projects I released had this many things wrong with it and I still Released it I'd be Fired on the spot. Absolutely Ridiculous. Sure its great that they're Responding so Quickly, but seriously.

Online gaming is partially responsible for this mentality. It used to be that you couldn't fix things once the game was released. Now developers are able to go back and tweak things after launch and they are abusing the shit out of that crutch. Get it right the first time or don't bother! Maybe they should have a Beta Server running where people can play new content early and give feedback so that this can be avoided...

Originally Posted by head0r Inc

Screw the gunship, I freakin hate it.
They should remove it from the Rush gametype and leave it only in Conquest, I found it to be so much more annoying in Rush due to the "small place of camping" from the defenders. You will just simply get totally owned. And if your team got too many pioniers with IGLA's.. there won't be many left for the groundvehicles.. and of cource, no medic / sniper / supporter at all.

Assuming the gunners aren't idiots who deploy flares early, how many Stingers/IGLAs does it take to destroy the Gunship? 2 to lost to flares + ???

[head0r Inc]

Originally Posted by CGPsaint

Online gaming is partially responsible for this mentality. It used to be that you couldn't fix things once the game was released. Now developers are able to go back and tweak things after launch and they are abusing the shit out of that crutch. Get it right the first time or don't bother! Maybe they should have a Beta Server running where people can play new content early and give feedback so that this can be avoided...



Assuming the gunners aren't idiots who deploy flares early, how many Stingers/IGLAs does it take to destroy the Gunship? 2 to lost to flares + ???

Pre update I needed 4 (not sure if a Jet was shooting at it or something, but I know for sure that I shot often exactly 4 until it exploded), don't know if that has been changed. It's almost impossible to take that thing out on your own as you will get permanently spawn owned. If we are counting in the flares it might be 6-9 rockets of the IGLA.

Originally Posted by A Garden Shed

I wish they had made it easier to destory the gunship. I am new to the game and i just keep getting spawn killed by it

Don't worry, same for me. I am not new to the game and enjoy myself being blown up by the gunship too.

[WickedD365]

Glad to see they are increasing the spawn times on it again.
Go ahead and nerf jet damage on it, I'll still shoot the damn thing now no problem.
They didn't touch the javelin damage to it so that's a win for me.

[CGPsaint]

Originally Posted by head0r Inc

Pre update I needed 4 (not sure if a Jet was shooting at it or something, but I know for sure that I shot often exactly 4 until it exploded), don't know if that has been changed. It's almost impossible to take that thing out on your own as you will get permanently spawn owned. If we are counting in the flares it might be 6-9 rockets of the IGLA.

Interesting. I haven't been able to figure it out because most times I can only get 2 rounds off before the Gunship is out of locking range.

[Rapturous Rich]

Originally Posted by CGPsaint

Online gaming is partially responsible for this mentality. It used to be that you couldn't fix things once the game was released. Now developers are able to go back and tweak things after launch and they are abusing the shit out of that crutch. Get it right the first time or don't bother!

There is that aspect to things yes but the gaming community can be put to blame also.
Self-indulgent, selfish gamers with a false sense of entitlement and a "WANT IT NOW. HERE AND NOW!" mentality are to blame for developers rushing games out that are bug ridden and not thoroughly tested. That mentality, paired with annual/bi-annual releases from competitors puts devs in the position of whether they would rather be fucked standing up or bending over and they end up being pressured into tossing a game together.
If gamers and, let's say, oh I don't know, Activision, took a little breather from demanding so much of development teams, maybe games would come out that need little-to-no post-launch support.

Until then, and if they're clever, they can con Sony into buying one-week timed exclusive DLC deals so PS3 owners can beta test for them for a week and they can hot fix issues for general release on PC and Xbox.

[Zeppelin 856]

To be honest, if you use teamwork to take the Gunship down with stinger missles and areial vehicles on the defense side on Rush it isn't that big of a problem. Because, teamwork IS how you play this game...right? I feel as if people that play this game forget such a notion

Use your effin' mic!