Nope, just the base game and the Karkand maps.

 

It's good that you have a joystick for jets, that helps a lot. I only started using a xbox controller for air recently and it is a big improvement.

In a Jet keep an eye on your altitude and speed, when you are doing 350 + your turn radius is a lot bigger and from about 800 height or so your jet will stall and make you a really easy target to anything chasing you.

If there is not much air to hunt as a jet you can get kills on ground targets easily enough, even without rockets or ATG missiles. Pick a tank that is in a fight and not moving too much then approach at like a 30-70 degree angle and blast away with the machine guns, you will usually get at least a disable in a single pass, and it helps your team out a lot. Same for snipers that get spotted, approach at a good angle, hit the breaks and blast them, the main gun on jets is actually quite powerful, it only takes about 2-4 shots to kill infantry.

Be careful about slowing down though, if somebody almost has you in their sights then they will surely get you

 

I've tried flying with a joystick, but I actually do better with keyboard and mouse. Just bind the pull up key to the space bar. I'm still not much of a pilot, especially in jets, but almost all of the good pilots I play with use keyboard and mouse.

The VoIP thing is annoying, but many servers have a voice server attached, and the best of those will even sync you up with your squad automatically. My favorite server for this is PureBattlefield. Only problem is that they run all of the expansions, not jusk Karkand.

The sunglare is pretty bad at first, but you eventually learn to deal with it and even exploit it (i. e. attacking out of the sun). I agree that tdm is the place to start. It gives you a chance to learn infantry tactics and level up your kits a bit without having to deal with vehicles. Then I'd suggest moving on to some if the smaller conquest maps like Grand Bazaar, Karkand, Canals, and maybe smaller Metro maps. Avoid 64 man Metro like the plague; it almost always ends in baserape.

Add me on Origin if you want to squad up. I'm out of town at the moment, but I'll be back on Saturday. Pretty sure my id is posted somewhere in this thread.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8Bh5iI2WY&feature=share if you ahevnt seen it yet, its a must. really. id really buy that if it was offered in retail.

 

Do you have 15 thousand dollars to blow?

 

For that, yes. I don't care how much it costs, because being able to do that while I play would be awesome beyond words.

 

Its kamikaze corpse run it. My slow grind to get the Jet to some semblence of usefulness was line up and blast away at another jet or helicopter without moving away.

yes. I ram. Sometimes you get a kill because lol Physics othertimes you blow up.

Yeah thats how I got IR missiles I blasted away nicked a helicopter, sent me into a 90degree turn and 100+ points IR missiles unlocked.

'Sweet'

honestly I feel real sorry for anyone trying to get into flying now. Everyone's got Stingers and IR missiles already unlocked and you have to unlock IR Flares.

Good luck!

Stingers got a pretty bad nerf last I played though reduced the range and if the heli or plane is under 10 meters from the nearest surface it wont lock on. Which is bullshit. It essentially gives good Heli or plane pilots a free ride to kill everything. Your only alternative is to hope to hell someone gets lucky with a dumb rocket or shoot the pilot out of the cockpit.


TDM is also a good way to just get kills with weapons.

No objectives, no useless sniper recons sitting on a hill near your spawn. No just spawn, turn a corner, shoot/get shot in the face.

Best TDM map I played was the one with the amphibious assault from the US carrier into a harbor or something.

TDM + Rush.

Conquest can sometimes be iffy. Conquest is great for servers that have things like "Air training" or "Fast jet, tank respawn" in their title. Other times Conquest can get you stuck in your base because your team sucks so bad and anyone who is good jumped server or switched to the other team.

Fun fact: You can drive any vehicle so vehicle killing is for fun. And profit. You steal their vehicle, it doesnt respawn until that vehicle is blown up. And even then.

So on Rush maps that only have a couple of tanks or even just one on each side, someone stealing the opposing teams tank is a great advantage.

Hell you dont even need to steal it all that long. Jump into a damaged tank being repaired. The welding tool the other guy's using will damage you and if its damaged bad enough you'll explode. Sure he gets a welding tool kill but you've deprived the enemy team of some serious firepower.

Seriously tanks are the bane of infantry. Even with Anti-armor support.


On that note, Recon tree has something called a Soflam.

This.... This will be awesome especially if you get to a choke point or a point overlooking such a chokepoint.

Soflam essentially paints a vehicle with an IR tag. Note that smoke or flares will temporarily "cleanse" the tag but since the soflam doesnt use ammo its a temporary measure at best. since I expect most people playing now to already have Javelins you'll be a credit to team if you set up the soflam right and just start tagging things left and right. tagging gets you 10 points and you also get a kill/damage assist if a jav hits or an IR seeker hits.

Nothing more delicious than the rage of a jet pilot going "OMG YOU CANT KILL JETS WITH A JAVELIN! REPORTING YOU!"

seriously Soflam + Jav = hax. Javs normally do a direct attack so its something like 50-65 depending on where you hit. Even if you get on top of a tank to hit its top armor thats still something like 75 damage. Enough to disable the tank.

Soflam + Jav?

It initiates the characteristic top down attack for a full 90 damage when it hits. Pretty much enough to insta gib the tank or any vehicle for that matter. Jets, ATV, Hummers, BMPs, Bradleys, Abrams.

You name it the Jav and Soflam can kill it.

 

They tweaked it back the other way again - people bitched that stingers were OP for a while, then everyone adjusted and got over it.

Au contraire, this is 90% of TDM, especially when you're new to the game. It gets better fast though.

That would be Canals, and I (and 99% of the BF3 community) agree that it's the best TDM map, though you don't do the amphibious assault in TDM. That's a Conquest thing.

Soflaming only really works if you have a dedicated Javelin squad. Get on voice coms, get one guy with a soflam, one with ammo, and two with javelins (the ammo guy can swap kits later once he drops his ammo box), find a good spot, and get cracking. With randoms, it's more difficult. Most engis don't carry javelins normally because they take time to lock on, can't be fired from the hip, have low ammo, and can be easily fooled by smoke. So you might get lucky and have someone playing with a javelin in a random game, or you might not. I've tried soflaming in random games and 80% of the time, no one uses it.

Pretty sure no one does this anymore. It only took about a week or two for news to get around that soflams could lock aircraft.

Unless you have at least 2-3 people coordinating javs and/or idiots in the opposing vehicles, it's not that easy.

 

Better? Thats how i like it!

's why you announce you've got soflam and to break out the javs.
At least I did. Took a bit for people to die and take em out when they realized there were IR tags all over the place.

noobs amirite?

It really is... at least on caspian sea.

hell you really dont even need a vantage point just stick it next to a road near some debris. Chances are someone isnt paying attention and you can just tag away.

 

Try £500000.
Now imagine that simulator but add in the Microsoft Illumiroom. Now that would be ridiculous.
Edit: Link for those who don't know what I'm talking about. http://youtu.be/re1EatGRV0w

 

Oh and another thing.

Conquest Metro 24/7. Assault Class. Once you get the defib just watch them medical/revive ribbons roll in.

Yeah yeah its not Battlefield blah blah. But for newb easy and quick way to get points.

Just stay out of the grenade zone.

 

Or if you have Close Quarters or Premium load up a cq 64 player hardcore map. That will really rack up points. Medic is nice for getting health pickup ribbons and support is a good class since you will get ammo resupply ribbons. And you want hardcore because it is a lot easier to kill someone in hc.

 

Both of these are great for free points, but neither one teaches you anything about how to really play the game. I was a Metro whore for the first 6 months or so and got pretty good at it, but when I tried to play other maps, I discovered that I still sucked. Since I stopped playing Metro, my accuracy is better, my SPM is better, my KDR is higher, and I can actually coordinate with a squad properly rather than run around blindly shooting at things.

I've never played more than a couple minutes of 64-player CQ maps (and those only by accident), but they're essentially the same as Metro. They don't teach you anything apart from blind rushing, spray-and-pray, and 'nade spamming. The reason is that none of these maps were designed with 64 players in mind. 32-man Metro is a whole different animal, and CQ was designed with 16 players in mind. With more people, they get too crowded and tactics and teamwork become essentially useless.

 

No arguement there. But like I said for quick and easy points there you go. After you unlock of some of your basics then its time to move on to Caspian Border, Kharg Island, or if you like the Urban environment, Seine Crossing.

 

I can't get into Metro at all. Nonstop smoke spam, hold the top of the stairways. Poor layout, they need more ways to get at the points on top of the stairways. Caspian Border, is that the one where you always have 20 snipers up high on the buildings that you can only get to via parachuting in? I loathe that one with a passion.

I'm winding up in TDM Canals, or Karkand, or Wake Island most of the time. I'm still fairly low level because I rage quit after a map or two, you just drop too fast to do shit at low level playing against people with full unlocks. Same with the airplanes, I give up trying to use my shiny new joystick in it, I take off, and I can dodge all I want, but I just can't kill enough things to get unlocks I need to be competitive.

 

Metro is great when you have a max of 32, and even better when the server disallows explosives. Then it's a great map and well worth a round or three. But with grenades and 64 people? Not fun at all.

The map with snipers on the skyscrapers is probably Gulf of Oman. They're only a problem if you're after the control points in the desert. But the four points on the city side of the freeway are mostly irrelevant to them.

Having to unlock missiles in a jet was the worst idea. I've spent maybe 10min in a jet and I've got about 150 points to show for it. There's no way to be competitive until you get them.

 

Mmm like I said Aircraft are a pain to level as all of the good shit is locked and everyone else has stingers and AA missiles to screw with you.

Your best bet to aircraft is to find a server that has "Fast Vehicle respawn/Air maps"

Jump into a jet as soon as it respawns(you can spawn in one if its empty on the airfield). Fly up high.

Find a enemy helicopter hovering. Dive bomb attack, blaze away with the main cannon and slightly tap the helicopter with your wingtip. Do it right/Get lucky and you'll make em explode. It'll send you in a 90 degree spin though.

If you get accused of ramming just say you're a noob and trying to learn how to fly.

Then again most of those servers are pretty explicit in existing so that people learn how to fly.

I'd say try Rush Air maps(Rush Caspian Border is the only one that springs to mind) because the Jet there is the A-10 for americans and the equiv for the Russians. The main cannon there is actually quite powerful and a full dive bomb and spray on a tank will make it explode. Or at the very least disabled.

And yeah Metro Conquest 64 no restirictions is a clusterfuck of explosions, smoke, and "What the fuck? What the fuck killed me?!"

Rush Metro is much better if only because the objectives are better placed.

Like I said. dont go into Conquest Metro expecting moving battlefields and "special tactics" You go into Conquest Metro for one reason and one reason only. To farm medical/revive, resupply, Motion sensor ribbons/medals.

Not the 'right' way to play but when you're a noob I'd take any points I can get.

Maybe try Hardcore. Hardcore brings low level players and high levels onto a bit more level playing field since it doesnt matter if you've got stock weapons vs the last weapon in your unlock.

You tend to die in 3 bullets anyways no matter the gun.

 

This is truth. I principally play Hardcore, because I prefer the challenge, and Hardcore TDM on a small map with high tickets is like a Blitzkreig. Farm away.

 

I play on Xbox, so my max player limit is 24. Still, I've also been a Colonel 100 since April, so I know what I'm talking about.

The whole jet ramming idea isn't based off of getting lucky, it's based off of disabling. If you don't disable the enemy aircraft, don't ram it. You'll just end up causing a double/triple suicide and piss admins off. Instead, keep doing loops until you disable and then wing clip away.

It's probably the most annoying thing in the game for chopper pilots, but it's a way to get new players points in the jet. Remember that you hit your highest Gs, about 10, when at 313 speed. You also maintain cruising speed as you fly, which is above 313, so you should only use your boost and down throttle. Up throttle is entirely useless after take off.

Your set up is generally Air Radar (because every pilot is useless without it), ECM Jammer (because it'll force you to get below radar as often as possible), and either Rocket Pods (super overpowered when you do strafe runs at about an 80 degree angle from the ground) or Heat Seekers (when your main worry is that ungodly chopper pilot or jet master).

_____

Choppers are all about map awareness. You need to be able to know that there's a pole in front of you as you're flying towards the ground. And you learn to play low a lot as you progress as a chopper pilot because AA is constant and the ECM Jammer is the only viable option. Stinger missiles and Jav/Guided Shells tend to still lock even after you fire the jammer, but spin around you in circles for about 5-7 seconds. During that time, it's your job to get as close to the ground as possible to allow the missiles to hit a rock or building wall. Then, you ascend again for another salvo of sidewinders.

The primary set up for a chopper pilot is Guided Rockets (for accuracy) or Laser Painter (for your gunner's Guided Shell on enemy air targets), ECM Jammer, and Heat Seekers. The Gunner uses a mix of Stealth (in case your pilot can't fly below radar well) or Auto Loader (more 30 mm cannon!), Thermal Optics, and TV Missile (takes skill, allows pilot to use Guided Rockets) or Guided Shell (used with Laser Painter if your gunner/pilot is bad).

______

Tanking set up is almost universally a team effort. The driver has Reactive Armor, IR Smoke or his preference of vision Perk, and the LMG. They nerfed Canister Shell, which used to be the primary third Perk for top 10 tankers. The gunner/repairmen pulls Proximity Scan, the IR Smoke in case his driver doesn't have it, and guided shell for when you're at a distance and your driver wants to hop into the CITV station for you.

The CITV station is the most essential portion of a tank for the gunner/repairmen. The trick to it is that, as long as no one is in the seat, the station will always point in the opposite direction that the driver's AP turret is facing. That way, you can quickly switch to the CITV station and you'll always hop out in the opposite direction of enemy activity. Well, unless you're surrounded, but then your driver is bad and they should feel bad.

 

I agree 100% on Metro. It's annoying as fuck. Caspian is the big open map with the radio tower. There are usually a couple snipers on the tower, but it's not too hard to shoot them off with a tank/chopper/jet, so they tend to not last too long.

You don't need all that many unlocks to be competitive. The base guns are decent to top-tier (M16 and M4 are definitely top-tier weapons, and the AKs aren't bad. The RPK is excellent, and lots of people still use the SVD and Mk11). Just pick a gun for each class that you really like and play with it until you master it. The first few kills will be a pain in the ass until you can unlock some actual sights (iron sights in BF3 are generally shit), but then you're good to go. The only truly important unlocks for infantry are very early on - defibs, TUGS, C4, mines, Stinger. Everything else, you can live without. Land vehicles are pretty easy to get points in, and the unlocks come pretty fast overall. The only one that you'll really miss is Reactive Armor, and you just have to slog that one out. Smoke is the other important one, but it's the first unlock.

Air vehicles are another matter. I can't offer much advice for jets, because I'm utter shit with them, but for helicopters, try starting out in the gunner seat and racking up some kills from there to get your chopper score up and unlock some of the important things. For general flying practice, find an empty unranked server with air vehicles and just fly. Practice hitting targets, practice maneuvers, and get a feel for the controls.

Again, I'd be happy to squad up with you. My Origin ID is schmectite.