Part 2: Small Details

Before we get too far into the multiplayer side of things:

The small details

There are things in Battlefield 4 multiplayer that a veteran of a few hours would understand pretty solidly, but a new person may be confused by. Below I cover a few of the items I've more or less brushed over in more detail in case you were wondering what I'm talking about.

First, get used to seeing . It's a reference to Digital Illusions CE, better known as DICE, the developer of this game. Each of their releases has been buggy or had weird quirks either at launch or introduced in patches down the line. If you have fun bug stories from this game or previous games feel free to share, but don't use this as a place to bitch about the state of BF4 at launch, there's a couple threads for just that in Games.

Battlelog

I never said I was great at this game. My KDR and SPM took a nose dive when I started recording primers on the classes for this LP

Battlelog is your server browser, stats page, loadout menu, Friends list, IM Client and update center all in one website. Launched with Battlefield 3 shortly after Activision attempted to launch its Call of Duty Elite website, Battlelog was both well loved and vilified. For one, everything was free, unlike Elite. However, some people didn't like the idea of having to use a webpage to browse servers instead of doing it in the game client and others experienced Browser compatibility issues. For the most part the kinks have been worked out in the new Battlelog Coming from console games and their clunky interfaces that attempted to approximate something like this, it seems pretty great to me. Being able to edit your classes without launching the game is also pretty great.

Battlepacks


Battlepacks are more or less rewards for playing the game and reaching certain levels. Despite what's on display here there are three types: the gold, silver and bronze on display and weapon packs. Weapon packs are earned every 50 kills with a weapon once you've earned enough kills to cycle through all the attachments with the gun. They will contain weapon specific attachments instead of the random assortment the three "medal" (clever, right?) packs earn you along with the XP boosts and camos. Before the game was released there was concern that people would be able to use micro transactions to buy battlepacks, but that never came to pass. You can earn them by snapping into a Slim Jim, though.



Above is an example of the contents of a Gold Battlepack. Battlepacks will offer different unlocks depending on the level. Gold packs are good for alternative attachments and some desirable camos as well as upper level XP boosts, while silver and bronze are less likely to produce the really good items/camos and will offer less valuable XP boosts. You are generally better off unlocking attachments for your guns by using them instead of hoping the medal packs will give you the attachments you want, so keep that in mind.

Grenades


Maybe better listed as "throwables," considering the handflare. Grenades are a fun mix of luck and skill as the kill radius isn't great on every one of them and mastering the arc presented isn't always easy. But once you have those down you still rely on players more or less standing in the right area to let you blow them up. In Battlefield 3 you only had access to the M67, but in BF4 the list is greatly expanded. Not all of them carry the same number into a fight. The V40 mini lets you carry three, the RGO lets you have two at a time and so on. Each grenade is supposed to have different uses and for the most part they do. The issue is that as of this writing the V40 Mini is the undisputed king of grenades due to a bug with the deadly blast radius that makes it equal to that of the M67 when it is supposed to have a smaller radius. Blame

Knives


RIVERSIDE, MOTHERFUCKER! When you get tired of shooting people with guns or tanks or helicopters there is always the original embarrassment kill: a simple knife to the throat. Knifing in the Battlefield franchise works a bit differently than melee attacks in a number of games. In BF3 you could earn one hit kill animations by knifing a standing person from the sides or back, but knifing in the front would do 50 damage and put you in trouble as it took a long time for a follow up swipe or to pull out a gun. On smaller maps a skilled knife user could earn as many kills as someone using guns the entire game if they were smart and had good support. In BF4 connecting with a knife swing always plays and animation, but it introduces counter knifing. If you attempt to knife a standing person from the front they have a chance to hit the melee button during the animation to reverse the stab and kill you with your own knife. Counter knifing is incredibly easy to do, so it isn't really advised. What is your reward for knifing someone successfully?

Dogtags


If someone killed me with a knife these would appear at the top of their screen. They could then go into Battlelog and see how many times they've taken the right tag. Both are customizable, but the right is more for flavor while the left is more informative; giving you a choice of countries or memberships to proclaim to people who kill you.