something I found on blues news


The DICE team are hard at work supporting Battlefield 3. To date, we have implemented several server updates to improve stability and performance. Next week we are publishing a significant Battlefield 3 client update for the PC. Console patches take a bit longer due to the certification requirements for console content, but it will follow shortly after the PC update.

So what’s in the PC patch? You’ll see improved polish, stability, weapons balancing, squad control functionality, user interface enhancements, and several feature enhancements that address feedback the community has provided to date – plus we’re removing the so called “negative mouse acceleration” that some of you have experienced.

Regarding cheating and boosting, we continue to analyze data to identify and hold accountable (ban, wipe stats) players that cheat or boost. We’ve received questions about what to do when faced with unsportsmanlike conduct in Battlefield 3 – the best course of action is to click the warning sign next to their profile name in Battlelog, or head to the EA Help Desk and report your issue. These leads will enable us to follow up on the report.

We appreciate all the feedback. Keep it coming to help us with future improvements. Check back next week to confirm the patch launch date and the detailed fix list. Thanks for playing and sharing your feedback with us!

Patch is rolling out now

As promised, DICE will be rolling out a big Battlefield 3 patch tonight, and they’ve released the full change log/fix list, which you can find below:
Visual and performance fixes

General performance and loading time improvements
“Black Screen” fix for an issue occurring on some PC Configurations
Stereo and Rendering Support for Nvidia and AMD Graphics Cards
Adjusted the “stuttering” encountered on some PC configurations.
Fixed several Crashes when joining MP and Co-Op sessions
Fixed multiple problems when using multiple monitors (Eyefinity / Surround).
Fixed visual corruption issues on certain Nvidia Cards
Improved loading times for certain textures
Added console command “GameTime.MaxVariableFps” to limit max FPS
Added console command “UI.DrawEnable” to hide UI for screenshots / videos

Balance and gameplay adjustments

Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement
Added back some missing Growlers on Kharg Island Conquest Large
Added back EOR sound for SQDM and TDM
You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it(note the affect this will have on Hardcore mode!)
Spawn protection now should work in Conquest. You should no longer spawn on points too close to enemies
You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
Combat areas on Kharg Rush tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after 1st base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
Fixed a problem with revived players not suffering suppression
Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in COOP
Added joystick deadzone setting
Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
Fixed an issue with some weapon sounds in first person
Fixed a swim sound loop error
Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns, AA guns, and Jet Cannons against infantry
Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns against jeeps.
Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and Jet Cannons, players under attack from these weapons should no longer lose control.
Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly.
Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex.
Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons.
Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R.
Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range.
Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles.
Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons.
Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft.
Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds.
Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against Helicopters.
Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells
UI Changes (PC)
Added round duration and ticket summary at EOR
Advanced squad polish – should be more intuitive
Significant changes to the Join Squad functionality (see below)
Fixed a problem regarding keybindings while playing
You should now get a better error message when being disconnected via Battlelog

Server updates

EOD Bot exploit fix
Several crash fixes
Anti-stat padding measures taken, disallowing ranked servers to run obscure settings
Improved team kill kick configuration
Support for unranked servers. Unranked servers do not report players’ scores to Battlelog, but server administrators can freely control all settings

Squad changes

Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 squad members
Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
Disable Privacy flag when 1 man squad
Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when squad drops to 1 player
All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad Selection screen
Players who choose not to join squads will also show up as Blue in the “Not in a Squad” line
Squads that are currently empty will display as white — if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text

The patch will be released on Nov. 22nd 7:00 AM UTC / Nov. 21st 11:00 PM PST. You can find the full patch release note and changes on Battlelog.

Sounds like good stuff.
Sasquatch, some server side changes too you should read up on, looks like.

Patch is here and applied to FSK405 Server. I can no longer change the minimum players as a result :( but they did lower the default minimum players from 8 to 4 .. which is better... but frustrating when you in a game waiting for others to join.
Copied from Battlelog;

If you are a server administrator that run ranked servers, then you should take note that a few settings are no longer changeable for ranked servers.

The most notable example here is that you are no longer able to set the min # of players to start a round to less than 4. This is to prevent statspadding.

Secondly, the idle timeout mechanism is always on, and set at 300 seconds on ranked servers. This is to prevent people idling for long swathes of time on ranked servers. Having idle kick at 5 minutes is harsh, and we will revisit the max timeout for Server R10 - however, we do not plan to allow for turning of the idle kick altogether.

If you are a server administrator that run unranked servers, notice that you should set the server to unranked by having a 'vars.ranked false' at the top of your Startup.txt. You must set it to unranked during the server startup; once the server is present on Battlelog, it can no longer be switched between ranked and unranked status. Once it is set to unranked, all other settings can be controlled. And yes, the setting for unlocking all weapons & gadgets (vars.allUnlocksUnlocked) is back.

new patch coming out dec. 6th

Back to Karkand release dates set

DICE has confirmed the arrival date for the “Back to Karkand” expansion pack that was part of the Limited Edition version of Battlefield 3. Per EA’s deal with Sony, the PlayStation 3 will be getting it first on December 6th , while Xbox 360 and PC players will have to wait till December 13th.

Karkand is a re-imagined map from Battlefield 2 that has been totally redone using the new Frostbite 2.0 engine for Battlefield 3. The videos that have showcased the expansion pack have looked great, with more of just about everything that we can think of. It should again prove to be one of the most popular Battlefield 3 maps after it is released.

If you didn’t happen to latch onto one of those “Limited Edition” versions of Battlefield 3, it is going to cost $15, or 1,200 Microsoft points, to buy it as DLC.

Interesting things I see in today's patch (But not all of them)

Tweaked the chat, it should now be a bit easier to read (Yay)
Increased the Spawn protection radius on TDM (Yay)
Fixed a problem with smoke on land vehicles, Missiles should now miss more often
Fixed a problem where users could end up with IRNV scope in any vehicle
Fixed a problem where player dies if vaulting over a ledge and into water while sprinting (just happened to me this week!!)
Fixed several crashes and increased general stability (Hope!!!)
You can now reassign cycle weapons
Fixed so the weapon zooms automatically after bipod deploy is gone when using zoom toggle (yay, annoying bipod problem fixed)
Fixed a problem where the parachute would stay stuck in air if the owner was killed (LOL, i thought it was cool seeing empty chutes!)

Fixed several weapons so they are properly suppressed and hide the player on the minimap when fired.
Tweaked Tactical Light so it is not as blinding over longer ranges. (Wish u could shoot out a teammates tactical light!)
Tweaked the IRNV scope so it is limited to usage only at close range. (BOO!!)
Reduced heat masking effectiveness of Spec Ops Camo (Eh)
Fixed so AT mines only live for 20 seconds after a player dies to prevent infinite mines. (We want to make a different fix in the future, it’s in JIRA) (Darn)
Fixed Laser Guided Missiles missing their targets if the target is moving too fast.
Reduced the effectiveness of Stealth on Air Vehicles.
Reduced the damage done to Armored Vehicles and Infantry from AA guns. (Now we can destroy that blasted AA gun!)
Increased the damage RPGs and Tank shells do to AA vehicles.
Slightly decreased the accuracy for all weapons on fully automatic, burst fire is now preferable at mid to long range.
Increased the effective accuracy of long bursts for LMGs when using a bipod.
Increased the reload time of the Mortar from 3.5sec to 4.8sec and increased the time it takes before a shell hits the ground. (Yay, too effective before)
Decreased the effectiveness of 12g FRAG ammo when equipped on semi-automatic and automatic shotguns. (Haven't used this yet)
Slightly Increased the power of Fighter Jet Cannons against all vehicle targets, especially Helicopters.
Decreased the power of Miniguns against Jets and Helicopters.
Increased the power of Stingers against Jets.
Flares reload times for Jets and Helicopter Gunners have been increased. (yay)
Tweaked the AN94 so its burst fire better conveys the real world advantage offered by this weapon.
Added Single Shot to the AN94 as an available fire mode.
Slightly increased the recoil on the M416 and removed the Burst Fire mode (this weapon incorrectly had burst fire, which was not authentic).


Complete list here - http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/7794071.page

Patch R11 has been applied to our server. The download is available now.. and you will need to apply it to connect to any servers that have applied R11. The update is 4 GB.

Holy shit! That's quite the patch... I guess I won't be playing tonight after all.