Squads, Vehicles and Bullet Drop | Battlefield 3 Tips: The Bunker
dmcdonagh
2013-07-23
Hello and welcome back to The Bunker; a new blog covering tips, tricks and other developments in the Battlefield community. Whether you’re a Battlefield beginner or a grizzled veteran, we’re here to keep you up to date on the latest tactics employed by UK Battlefield experts, and answer your questions on how to get the best out of the game.
In the second part of our chat with Battlefield player Toby Connolly, we touch on more tips for novices and advanced players alike.
You can read the basic tips for beginners on squads below or jump ahead to Toby’s toughts on vehicles and bullet drop.
Beginners’ Tips: Squads
Being part of an effective squad is the key to winning in Battlefield 3, whether you’re spawning next to them, highlighting targets or coordinating an attack.
We often see squads consisting of only two or three people, who aren’t getting the benefits of being in a full squad. On the most basic level, being in a squad of four gives you the maximum number of people to spawn on, making it easier for your entire team to advance on any given objective. 
Sadly, teams of one particular class of soldier are also a common occurrence. The ideal squad features a mixture of skills, with at least one assault class soldier for reviving fallen squad members, and at least one support soldier to keep resupplying the team. Of course, while having a balanced team is ideal, you don’t want to take all the fun out of it.
"We try and make sure our squad is fairly balanced at any given time," says Toby. "But we won’t be shouting at each other to be in specific roles, because that would take the fun out of it. And then what’s the point of playing!?"
The ideal situation is that you have a regular squad to play with, but if you do end up playing alone, make sure your voice settings are set to squad or team, so you can at least speak to other people who also have a mic. It also helps to have a really good worldview when it comes to Battlefield, so pause the game every now and again and bring up the map so you can see where your team is, what vehicles are available, and where the objectives are.
Vehicles
Always spawn on your squad when possible, but keep an eye on the other respawn points to see if vehicles are available. If they are, use them.
The CITV (Commander’s Independent Thermal Viewer) Station is a real bugbear of Toby’s; he claims that the games he plays in, no one ever seems to use the so-called "third seat".
"I was playing with another gamer a short time ago. There were two of us in the tank, but the other player kept changing gunning positions to use the SOFLAM (a laser targeting weapon), and we completely dominated the game because no one could get anywhere near us. People seem to neglect the fact that the gunner in the tank can jump into that seat quite easily."
Bullet Drop
One of the key differences between Battlefield and other shooters is that bullet drop and rate of fire are a key part of the game. There seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to bullet drop; art and science.
Certain players go into depth on websites such as Symthic, which detail the precise measurements of bullet drop, along with everything else you would want to know such as spread of fire.While it can be too much depth for some, there are occasions when every player should factor in the effects of bullet drop.
"Bullet drop, in my opinion, is only really going to affect people in tanks, and those playing as recon class with sniper rifles," says Toby. "Yes, it will have an effect on all the other weapons as well, but the kind of ranges where bullet drop will really come into effect won’t have much of an impact on assault classes or engineers, unless they’re using RPGs or SMAWs (Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapons)."..
So, take into account bullet drop when you’re using the guns of any tank, sniper rifles, RPGs and SMAWs.
And finally...
Thanks for reading this second entry on the Battlefield blog, we hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. We’ll be back again next week with more tips, but if you have any questions that you want putting to one of our experts, please leave them in the comments below.
