Battlefield 2: Is there some secret to this game? How can I get better at it?

Cafe Society
1

I just bought Battlefield 2, and have been playing it a lot online. It has great graphics and detailed environments, two of the big things I always look for in a game. But I’m not adjusting too well to the gameplay, I guess, because every time I join a new game I always seem to get killed a million times. I’m usually the lowest or second-lowest player on the list, in terms of kills and deaths. When I first started playing, I just chose the Sniper role, and would hide in out-of-the-way places and pick off guys. I racked up a lot of kills this way, but it got boring fast and I wanted to be more into the action. So I typically do “Assault” now.

But, like I said, I always seem to get killed. I try crouching, hiding, and staying out of the open, but either explosives or enemy bullets find me every time. On the player list, there are always guys with a million kills and a million points - how do those guys get that good at the game? Do they have some kind of technique that they’ve figured out, or is it sheer muscle memory and reflexes from playing over and over and over again? If I keep on playing, will I get as good as those guys from sheer amount of time spent, or do I need to be actively trying to figure out strategies?

I’ve got a few other questions too:

  1. How do you fly the damn helicopters? Every time I try, I crash and die. It’s frustrating as hell. Same goes for the jets. Is there a practice mode that allows you to learn to fly these vehicles?

  2. The server rules always say “no car-tillery” and no “ramming.” What do these two things mean?

The airstrikes that are constantly falling - who is calling these in? Do you have to be the commander of the squad to do it?

I appreciate any and all feedback. Specifically, what should I be doing to get killed less and kill more of the enemy?

2

OK, I know bumping is looked down on but I’m going to do it once before I leave. I have another question, too. I was just playing on a no-vehicles, infantry-only server, as a medic (for the first time.) I found I was actually pretty good at it and I revived about 15 guys with a defibrillateur. I won some kind of medic award, a medal or something. After an hour or so of this, I disconnect from the server, and on my profile screen it doesn’t show the medal nor any progress made towards the next rank even though I had 11 kills and 35 points. Do you have to play a round all the way to the end in order for anything to count towards your ranking experience?

3

  1. Flying is tough in BF2, I returned to BF1942’s mods Desert Combat, & DCX (xtended) due to this issue.

  2. Cartillery is nothing more than placing c4 on your car, heading into an enemy base at full speed, bailing out, and blowing the c4 (and your enemies) up. Dirty pool IMO. Ramming is intentionally using your vehicle (plane/ground vehicle) to “ram” into an enemy vehicle. Also Dirty Pool, as it wastes the vehicle, which is limited in availablity due to it’s re-spawn time.

  3. Airstrikes - You need to be the commander of the team (not the squad leader). most commanders use the UAV or radar to figure out the best place to send their arty strike. You can reduce the damages done to your team by either blowing up the artillery, UAV control, or Radar site (or all 3).

Argent Towers - awards take a while to show from the master server. You need to be playing on a ranked server as well. There may be minimum play times on a map, so I generally would play the map through to the end to make sure that my award/promotion goes through to the master servers.

4

I strongly recommend you use a joystick (ideally one with a twist control for the rudder) if you’re not already. Flying with the keyboard is extremely difficult in all the Battlefield games.

I still play BF1942 and its mods (esp. Desert Combat), but I did try the BF2 demo. The flight physics were different, but not that hard to get used to with a decent joystick that’s configured properly (IIRC, the default joystick settings for the BF2 demo were backwards somehow, and had to be remapped before I would stop crashing on takeoff). I use a Saitek Cyborg Evo, which was cheap and hasn’t given me any of the problems my last two Logitech joysticks did.

Don’t know about a practice mode, but you can always start your own game or log into an empty server and just practice flying around.

As to your other questions, no idea. I’ve been playing the Battlefield series for years and have had a lot of fun, but I still pretty much suck.

5

Team Leaders can request artillery strikes, subject for the Commander’s approval, but only he can place them indiscriminately. However, doing so would be a full-time job so in most cases Team Leaders’ suggestions go through.

As for your vehicle/helicopter skills, why not try honing yourself against the nice and docile bots on the single-player modus? (Instant battle, or whichever it’s called now) Good for exercise and starters, but of course the best thing is to be taught it by a pro. A clan would be a good help for such things, I guess, so why not try to find one that’s hiring mid- to low level entries? (Basically, by not being a smock-faced 12 year old retard, you’re qualifying for near-mid entry already)

Regarding your gameplay issues . . . I really can’t think of anything but play and see. Staying still for more than a few seconds usually means you’re dead, but so does running around like a chicken with your head chopped off. Close quarters play is reserved for those with happy-go-lucky reflexes in public games, but most kills are also racked up that way.

6

The guys with the insane kill ratios are usually flying jets or helicopters, they are really good at what they do but they are not unstoppable killing machines like Rambo on the ground. If you want to get good at it you simply have to put in the time, the game has been out almost a year now i think so the average player is going to be a lot more experienced than you. Sadly being cannon fodder discourages newer players from sticking around long enough to get better, but i can’t think of a solution other than maybe having “newbie” servers for people below a certain rank.

7

Are there a very limited number of ways to damage artillery, UAV, and Radar? I can’t ever blow them up, except maybe a detpack or two worked?

8

I’ve only ever found c4 packs to do the job. 2 to an arty piece, possibly more for the radar/UAV control.

9

That’s been my experience too. Except you’d think that rockets and tank shells would be able to damage them, but apparently not.

10

It’s also worth noting that Battlefield, played properly, is about POINTS not Kill/Death ratio. You get points for a lot of stuff like healing/reviving (as medic), repairing (and Engineer), transporting (your gunner gets a kill while you’re driving), etc.

If you find that you’re dying a lot, it’s probably because you’re trying to solo. Yeah, going off and camping somewhere as a sniper is fine, but as you mention gets boring after a while. If you want to be Assault or almost anything else, YOU NEED TO BE PART OF A SQUAD. You’ll die less, and even when you do die you’ll be revived. Play as a medic and stick close to your squad leader (but not too close!) and revive him if he gets killed. This will be a HUGE service to your squad and your team.

I was a little unexcited with BF2 for a while until I discovered true squad combat. Unfortunately, public/random servers generally have a lot of people running around solo doing the rambo thing, or when they do have squads they’re not very well organized. If you want the height of teamwork and organization, check out TacticalGamer.com. Squad members follow squad leaders orders. Squad leaders follow commander orders. It’s actually the way the game was designed to be played. They’re a pretty advanced (and mature) set of players, but they are very friendly and welcoming to new people looking for a refuge from the public server chaos.

11

I’d chip in, but I only have B2142. Not sure how different it is from the others.

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Is it possible to join a squad without being invited? I’ve joined squads before but only after being invited to them. How do I ensure that I spawn near the rest of my squad?

13

When you join a squad your squad leader becomes one of the available spawn points, if he is alive at the time which makes Jayrots advice about reviving him extremely good. I think you can join a squad without being invited but i haven’t played in a while.

14

I haven’t played in a long time (I dropped it when BF2142 came out), but I used to play quite a bit.

Cartillery is when the commander uses the air-drop car feature to squish things that don’t move much, like snipers, the other commander, and commander’s assets.

15

Dammit, got a phone call and missed the edit window.

Anyway, flying is much easier in that game with a joystick that has a throttle and rudder inputs - it almost becomes too easy. I could easily stay aloft an entire game in a hind or apache on Ghost Town when I was playing, and rack up a pretty good score if I had a gunner who knew what they were doing. I wasn’t the only one. Combine that with the fact that all of the AA weapons were completely useless, and you’ve got a recipe for frustration.

As for living longer, practice has a lot to do with it - some of those guys have been playing this game every day since it came out as beta. Playing with teammates is a really big factor too. You can join squads that aren’t locked in the capslock screen - up at the top there are two tabs, one for squads and one for kits.

They did muck with the squad joining thing a bit a while back - I think now you need die and respawn before you see the squad leader show up as a spawn point. I also think you need to be alive to join a squad. You used to be able to join while dead, spawn on a squad leader, and then leave the squad, thus letting a whole team to quickly spawn in a rear area or at some key location, usually resulting in a rapid defeat for whichever team didn’t have a non-cappable spawn (Wake Island was unplayable for that reason).

There are other things you can do to increase your odds, like always making sure you have a full mag in your gun, have full health, and have friends nearby. If you’re wounded or low on ammo, make getting more a higher priority than shooting everyone you see. Same goes with using vehicles.

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[SIZE=1]Disclaimer: I haven’t played in a long time (not because of 2042, just because I got sick of it) but I had a HUGE learning curve when I started. I was probably down a couple THOUSAND deaths before I was even good enough to keep a 1:1 ratio.[/SIZE]

Some people who play BF2 have NO LIFE, and you’ll likely NEVER be as good as they are.

…you can close the gap through smart play though.

Unless they’ve tweaked the weapons again, I wouldn’t play as Assault or Engineer at first (unless you’re a armor prodigy). The Assault gun is OK, but no better than either the Spec-Ops, Support, or Medic, and all of THOSE have extra perks (C4, ammo, and healing respectively).

Spawn according to what your team or squad needs. Brutal firefight? Spawn as Medic or Support cause they’re going to need health, revives, and ammo (and you’ll gladly take the points). Tank griding you guys up? Spawn as Anti-Tank.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you many tips for not getting killed other than “kill them first,” and this will only happen with experience. Running around a corner and coming face to face with the enemy will happen on a very regular basis. At that point it’s all reflexes and experience. (If they’re in a vehicle…duck, there’s nothing you can do :frowning: )

Experience will also teach you the nooks and crannies of each map; where the hiding places are, where the GOOD hiding places are, and where the INVISIBLE hiding places are :wink: . It will also show you what people’s tendencies are, common tactics, etc. On Karkand, or example, a US squad almost always, ALWAYS high tails it to take your back flag (and all your armor). Lose that flag for more than a couple minutes and you never had a chance.

Go to the graphics screen and turn off shadows. This allows you to see in many nooks where a person may have previously been under cover.

Outflank! Sharqi almost ALWAYS turns into a sniper battle between the construction site and the TV station. If the urge to be a sniper becomes too great and you decide you would like to do some killing of your own DON’T SETUP WITH EVERYONE ELSE. I loved sniping from the hotel patio at the very bottom of the hill if we were attacking the TV Station. Their attention was so focused on the construction site they never even considered someone sniping from other locations.

I haven’t played since the “Infantry Only” patch so I don’t know what’s been nerfed, outlawed, added, etc. since then. But that’s what I remember.

17

Wow.

I’ve been playing by the tips people have posted here, and my gaming experience has just increased by 1000%. I’ve been absolutely kicking ass since joining the squads. The last round I played I was the third highest on the list in terms of points (35 I think) and had 7 or 8 kills. I always play as a medic, and get lots of revival and healing points, but I also got 2 flag capture assists, 1 flag capture and several neutralize assists over my past 2 or 3 games.

Since I’ve begun playing the way you’re supposed to, I cringe even thinking about how badly I was doing it before. All the advice has been extremely helpful. Thanks everyone! By the way I’ve been playing on the “Christian Gamers” server, so if you play on it you’ll probably see me there under the same name I use here. (I’m not religious but I clicked it at random and the people there are extremely mature and insanely proficient at leading squads, so that’s my regular server now.)

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I think that’s the server from which I was banned after repeatedly running into groups of enemies, shouting “JESUS IS LORD!” and blowing myself up.

19

How do you blow yourself up?

20

Running with hand grenades or the C4 insta-detonate glitch.