Battlefield 4 Q & A with David Sirland on ESL One Finals
We had the unprecedented opportunity to get in a round last Sunday together, which was so far unique. The Q & A with EA shooter Community Manager Andreas Koch and Battlefield 4 Producer David Sirland DICE LA, which we were allowed to meet in person, from the perspective of information was a real success and only the beginning of a completely new information strategy, which finds its beginning with this event so Other cooking.
Were present except the finalists of the second Battlefield 4 ESL One representatives of the communities Scene gamers, shooter scene, gamed! De gameserver and Nitrado. Also, two players from the console and eSports area were present.
First, everything revolved around the theme of "Fix the fukking netcode". The theme is also the most important issue, in fact, since it affects all players equally. After the topic discussed just before the hour, but there were all sorts of information on the upcoming patch, the Community Test Environment, the consoles and the game server, and also news about the Battle Recorder.
We have compiled the information for you based on our notes and want to deprive you of anything.
Netcode
The netcode is not a system that can be replaced as a module easy. Therefore, DICE has made some changes that will improve the game experience and have already been tested in the framework of Community Test Environment.
David Sirland explains the changes and measures in great detail and describes that every player is in a kind of bubble, by the High Frequency updates now update all the data around the player faster. Play information that are in the range of 200 meters, an important role. For example, sounds, projectiles, and much more. But only the information that was for a self-important, too. In this case, the sorting of the queries have played an important role.
In the end, you have found a good smart solution to not require more computing power from the PC or the console. What is already changing with the upcoming patch, learn it below.
Official content of the upcoming Battlefield 4 Patch:
- It is raised the tick rate. DICE calls this changes the "High Frequency Updates." The changes will initially be available only on the nextgen consoles generation and for PC players. For Playa station 3 and Xbox 360, such a change is planned, but not yet been adequately tested.
- It is in the game options other than the network smoothing factor also give the option to set the refresh rate. This benefits players with small bandwidths.
- There will be changes to the network interface of the game and a new sort of events. So the damage to the player, for example, after the patch added first, and not the effect created thereby, if a player is shot.
- DICE has reduced the update factor for the entire connection from player to player 1.5 seconds to 1 second. This change should have been contributed by the players in the CTE very positively to the game experience.
- The hit detection should be much improved.

- The vibration or shake effect will be significantly lower.

- The SCAR-H can not kill a player in a frame.
- There will be shortly after the netcode patch a gameplay patch for which the Balancing the focus is, as there are many weapons that now shoot too quickly and dish out too much damage.
- Release date in May but not in June. Currently there is the patch in certification with Sony and Microsoft.
- Creating a patch for all platforms takes about 5 weeks.
- DICE in Sweden has completed the work on Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 4 has passed into the care of DICE Los Angeles. DICE LA will now continue the care Battlefield 4. The team in LA consists of 60 people and is expanded when there are other games that need to be looked after.
- Competitive obliteration is not included in the upcoming patch. It is further optimized in this game mode.
- The game server received an update. But server owners do not have to worry because by optimizing the game server DICE was able to keep the load on the test systems almost constant in spite of more and faster queries.
All kinds of information and your questions:
For many questions of you we were able to respond via Twitter. Information on new titles but was not answered. Nevertheless, we have some very interesting news for you.
New information on the Rent-a-server program
Pinganzeige on consoles:
It was asked why there is no Pinganzeige on the consoles. Sirland explains that he can not say exactly why this element is missing, but he is of the opinion that it is not possible on the basis of Sony's and Microsoft's restrictive rules. When asked why titanium case has a Pinganzeige, he explains that this is a One Xbox and PC only title with titanium case. In the case of Battlefield 4 and the fact of the multi-platform goal is to create equality on all consoles.
RCON Console Server Since there is the "rent-a-server program" on the consoles, players want more options than Admin David Sirland tells us in the Q & A that there will be improvements, but never will be possible Procon or other Admin tools to use as on the PC. This is in turn also to the rules and security levels from Sony and Microsoft, and the fact that DICE is not the owner of the entire network, which is needed for the consoles.
Availability of the console server
DICE is working to provide more console server. Currently you have actually no capacity. However, once the first server to expire, it will also reflect server. In addition, DICE is issuing server in different locations and to expand the capacity.
Battlerecoder
For a long time it has been quiet around this topic. The silence on the subject but we have terminated under the Q & A and have surprisingly get a detailed answer. According Sirland the Battlerecoder is in fact one of the main points on the agenda. They follow different concepts. However, these are not as they used to look like Battlefield 2 or Battlefield 2142.
It would be possible, for example, that there will be an external program that makes the recordings. Alternatively, it may be possible to a scene, which is not long ago, jump back and take this. Such a feature, there are already at least in some games and is especially useful for scenes that absolutely happen randomly.
Too many hopes for a comeback of the Battle Recorder in Battlefield 4 but we should not make us. The theme is indeed very high on the list, but is very extensive.
Rush game mode should be better
The Rush game mode has Battlefield Bad Company 2, which David Sirland has enjoyed playing, a great success. Sirland but also acknowledges that the implementation is implemented at the Vanilla Maps of Battlefield 4 partially unbalanced. So you will keep working in future updates to provide more coverage options and to lay goals.
Information for Community Test Environment and a patch
The CTE platform currently has a limit of 40,000 players, who have used the platform at the time of the interview, about 27,500 players. The idea for CTE had DICE already in August 2013 and began implementation in December 2013. In the interview we talked about the fact that the particular version of Battlefield 4 has already received 4 four patches and the fifth patch already this Tuesday or Wednesday, depending is published on the time zone. This will include content from Dragons Teeth. Currently the contents of Dragons Teeth are on a very old standing. The update, which will be released on Wednesday is supposed to be primarily a preparation for Dragons Teeth and the gameplay patch for the retail version.
Our conclusion:
Our conclusion to the Q & A was contrary to expectations well. David replied knowledgeable and friendly to our questions and others. Players who had problems to understand something, because the Q & A was in English, were supported by Andreas Koch. Even in a private environment with no questions about Battlefield and the problems in Battlefield 4 we got to know quite a pleasant man, who with his team is doing everything to ensure that Battlefield 4 after approximately six months after the release a success. We look forward to E3 and Gamescom, because there can we expect a lot - so we certainly have interpreted the statements.