BF2 Assault Mod v7.5 Released

[sickly]

Hello folks, been registered here for a while but just got around to posting now.

I noticed that people sometimes have trouble getting details on mods when choosing whether or not to DL them. So, I took some notes while playing the Assault Mod and put together a list of things that can be found in the mod.

[WARNING: Long list - falling-asleep-while-reading hazard.]

[Not a balanced list - just what I noticed when playing.]


Pros:

- Effectively deals with BF2’s massively unrealistic combat and tactical issues while keeping the original game’s simplicity.
- Improved AI.
- More toys to play with.
- A nice blend of PR/AIX features.

Cons:

- Not much new in terms of gameplay styles.
- Still retains some of BF2’s unrealistic elements.
- Some issues with textures.
- Not enough people playing it (i.e. no servers).


------------------------------------------


INTERFACE

No 3D map:

* Unlike PR, absolutely nothing appears in the main view HUD, not even teammate icons (it becomes very easy to TK).
* This adds the realism of not cluttering the view with icons but since 3D map can be toggled on or off, not having this data conveniently available in view makes the game a little less user-friendly.
* Still more user-friendly—if less realistic—than PR in that the minimap has not been removed, thus quick orientation is still possible.

Kit icons appear on map:

* Allows players to see each other’s kits on main map (but not minimap).
* Also reveals enemy infantry type when spotted.

No crosshairs in normal view (like PR):

* Prevents accurate fire without switching to ironsights/scope.
* Causes normal view to be extremely (unrealistically?) inaccurate when shooting at anything but very close range.
* Not a big problem because just getting one hit is already quite effective.
* Some indication of where the weapon is pointing would not be unreasonable though (in reality, a person can physically feel where the weapon is pointed; in a game one only has the screen to go by).
* Can see only veterans using this effectively—might get frustrating for less-experienced players.

Requesting Medic/Ammo causes minimap to zoom out:

* Merely a detail but convenient in that it allows players to search a wider area for medics without having to switch finger positions to press zoom key.

Bullet impact—suppression—effects (like PR):

* Similar to ‘shell-shock’ effect caused by grenades.
* Punishes players for being hit by causing blurred vision (no more returning fire like nothing happened).
* Not as extreme as PR so doesn’t leave player helpless (a logical effect that was oddly overlooked in vanilla BF2).

Can still use ‘spotted’ function to reveal hidden players:

* This was the reason the function was removed in PR, however removing it makes spotting less effective because enemy movements cannot be tracked by teammates on minimap (i.e. icon will not move with player if spotted using menu).
* Perhaps requiring that players must be looking directly at the target for x seconds or more before auto-spot will function (i.e. thereby preventing the above exploit without having to remove the feature altogether).

CHARACTERS

Different teams have similar uniform colours:

* Combined with the fact that player name tags aren’t visible, this makes it very easy to teamkill.

Stamina:

* Exhausted with a single jump.
* Player may not sprint until stamina has been replenished.
* Sprinting uses up stamina very slowly.
* Although this prevents players from doing repeated sprint/jump combos it does not prevent them from bunnyhoping.

Free health boost when hit:

* Player receives a small increase in health immediately after being hit.
* The effect is not instant, but given gradually at a moderate speed.
* This gives the player a fighting chance if he has time to heal.
* The addition of a small med-pack to each kit (a la PR) would seem to be more realistic than this, not to mention it seems like cheating to automatically heal while simultaneously engaging in combat.

Players can use parachutes:

* Convenient for quickly getting down from high places but blatantly unrealistic (especially considering that BF2 parachutes are effective at impossibly low altitudes).
* Less tactical (e.g. removes tactic of covering exists to a building that players may be hiding in because they can just parachute out the nearest window/off the roof—while shooting to boot).
* Also allows players to use aircraft as quick transports to get past enemy players as well as allowing players to escape transport helicopters that have been hit (thus robbing attacking player of multiple legitimate kills).

Switching stances seems slower:

* Decreases ability to almost instantly go from prone to standing stance.
* Difficult to establish if this is actually so or if it merely an illusion of the player view.

Commander can fight:

* This obvious and highly unrealistic exploit is easily dealt with by requiring the Commander player to enter the Command Post in order to use Commander functions (i.e. see PR and Forgotten Hope 2).

KITS

Kit names are more realistic (like PR):

* Since this mod is designed for a wider playership, the names may confuse players not familiar with military terminology.

Kit items have been switched:

* Tends to mix roles.
* Players will have to get used to these changes (e.g. AT kit get Mines instead of Engineer kit—again, names have also been changed).

No Timed C4 or Binoculars (unlike AIX):

* Timed C4 is ideal for Engineer kit in that it is difficult to use offensively like Spec Ops’ remote-triggered C4, but has the same demolition effects. [And to be honest, Timed C4 is bloody fun as hell! ]
* Binoculars give all players the ability to make out distant players, thus giving players with scoped weapons less of an edge.
* Lack of these is odd considering the work has already been done in AIX (and PR to a certain extent).

WEAPONS

High hitting power:

* Assault/sniper rifles can kill with single torso shot.
* A bit over-powered considering the high accuracy of weapons (zero view sway).
* This certainly prevents the sprint-through-fire Rambo-style type tactics of vanilla BF2 but it also slows down the game for careful players or turns into a respawn fest for careless players.

Dramatically reduced (non-existent?) ‘inaccuracy cone’:

* Allows for moderate suppressing fire.
* Some issues with unrealistically high recoil when in prone for platform weapons (e.g. LMG).

Multiple ‘primary’ weapons:

* Some kits have up to 3 different rifles/SMGs.
* Option of using silenced SMG or heavier rifle is interesting but highly unrealistic.
* This may add to blurring of kit type distinctions (i.e. overlapping combat roles).

Anti-Tank changes:

* Now called ‘Anti Armour’. (A stickler for details I see. ;p )
* Has fewer rounds but they are more effective (places more importance on accuracy) and splash damage is increased so they can effectively eliminate tight groups of infantry.
* Kit equipped with AA weapon as well (not effective because it doesn’t use guided missiles; they lock but only onto a fixed point, not the vehicle—actually more effective at killing tanks).
* Adding an AT/AA dual role to this kit is a logical step but could be further simplified by simply merging both functions into one weapon.

Silenced Weapons:

* Equipping most kits with alternate silenced SMG gives most players the ability to make silent take-downs.
* Silenced US Sniper Rifle combined with absence of UAV, tags and the ability to get 1-shot torso kills makes the Sniper (i.e. “Designated Marksman” kit) a bit too effective for a game that is only meant to be moderately realistic.

Increased sensitivity on Sniper scopes:

* Allows players to make minute adjustments to aim, while retaining normal sensitivity in normal view.
* Essentially reproduces the effect of a DPI-adjustable laser mouse without having to own one <highest marks for that> or for those like me who do own one, it adds convenience of not having to continuously change settings.

Mine doesn’t instantly kill tanks:

* Gives players in tanks the chance to survive and be repaired.
* Unfortunately, Assault Mod doesn’t include PR’s vehicle component-specific damage (i.e. damage to treads doesn’t affect tank’s movement in any way), so tank can still engage as normal.

Grenade Launcher:

* ‘Ironsights’ view is just magnified normal view (i.e. the only way to gauge ranges with it is to guess).
* Splash damage has been dramatically increased (no more having to hit a foot away from a player to get a kill); it seems a bit overpowered now—I was wiping out wads bots with it like they were made of paper. [Boy you should see the bodies fly!]
* Also more effective against tanks.

MG tilts up while shooting in prone stance:

* Prevents ‘saw’ effect of mowing down players in continuous stream of bullets.
* Not realistic in that weapons with bipods (platform allows it to be supported on the ground without having to hold it up) do not lift off the ground (same goes for Sniper Rifles).

Shotguns quite accurate:

* Even in normal view they can be lethal at more than just very close range.
* In the hands of the AI they dominate (much like they do in vanilla BF2).

VEHICLES

Helicopters have fixed accelerator:

* No need to tap the ‘Accelerate’ key to keep the ship in the air (i.e. it stays at more or less the last level it was at when you stopped pressing the key).
* Feature appears to be unique to Assault Mod (i.e. does not appear to be in PR or AIX).
* Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t appear to be implemented in (fixed wing) aircraft, so you still have to tap away or go full throttle when flying without a joystick.

Helicopters have better control response:

* Significantly higher roll than vanilla BF2.
* Steering (i.e. rotation) still a bit sluggish though.

Vehicles are not hyper-sensitive to damage:

* Impacts with other objects result in minimal damage.
* Although allows players to concentrate more on combat rather than avoiding damage from bumping into minor objects, it can be to the point of absurdity at times—you can slam a helicopter into the ground and it losses a couple points at most.

Air-to-Ground Missile Lock System:

* Helicopters can lock on to heat signature of tanks (i.e. missile will guide itself to the target).
* Additionally, preset message triggers when locked on followed by another when missile is fired.
* Ineffectiveness of tank counter-measures makes it virtually impossible for tanks to survive this (minus when AI controls them, in which case their guns become annoyingly effective—and highly unrealistic—anti-air weapons).
* Oddly, there doesn’t appear to be an air-to-air missile lock function for helicopters.

Aircraft/Mobile AA have “radar”:

* Same effect as UAV.
* Good in that it effectively places recon role in hands of helicopters (i.e. as UAV is not available in this mod).
* Bad in that it allows vehicles to reveal everything in the area, thus negating any attempt at hiding from them.
* Giving ability to Mobile AA allows it to reveal hidden units all around it, which makes it too powerful.

Players can spawn directly into vehicles:

* Saves time travelling from spawn to vehicle.
* Also allows players to take control of abandoned vehicles.
* Benefits outweigh costs of obvious exploit as mobile spawn point (insignificant in that only drivers/gunners may spawn there, not passengers).

Can still switch vehicle views:

* Unrealistic and gives player unfairly unobstructed view—penalty for using vehicle is that you can’t see all around.
* Should never have been allowed in BF2 IMO.

Vehicle acceleration increased:

* Added torque allows for less sluggish manoeuvres.

Can use enemy vehicles:

* Acceptable with light vehicles but highly unrealistic in the case of tanks.
* Generally speaking, this allows lone wolfs to steal vehicles, which mainly serves to degrade tactical realism.

Instant tank kills:

* Hitting tanks in the right place can yield an instant kill (e.g. turret flies off).

Increased tank round splash damage:

* Rounds can effectively wipe out large groups of infantry.

LEVELS

Some maps are quite good as far as balance is concerned but most appear to be quite conventional and do not offer new gameplay styles.

Some vanilla maps like Gulf of Oman have been altered.

* Most notably flag capture rates have been changed (some take ages to cap).
* Ticket loss ratios have also been altered (e.g. holding 50% of map will result in moderately quick defeat).

Vehicles respawn very quickly:

* Convenient for testing purposes but results in attrition battles (i.e. destroying a vehicle yields only a few seconds-worth of advantage).

Commander Assets:

* No SCAN allows for much-missed stealth tactics but also makes it more difficult to prevent rear flag capture on maps with few players (i.e. can’t see lone wolfs sneaking past lines); one can’t expect players to sacrifice their fun sitting around rear positions waiting for possible lone wolfs.
* No UAV also allows for more stealth but is made up for by giving air and AA vehicles the UAV’s ‘radar’ ability.
* No Artillery is odd considering that the option is usually only removed on infantry-only servers and is a perfectly acceptable and realistic battlefield element.
* Vehicle Drop parachutes in a tank instead of a jeep (allows for alternate surprise tactics but highly unrealistic).
* Supply Crate heals faster.

Most maps are medium-sized:

* More conservative than PR but results in less lag (e.g. PR’s 4km sq. maps with lots of objects and heavily populated suffer low frame rate).
* Requires that number of bots be reduced on slower systems—but this would be the case with any mod.

AI

Bots are more effective at using Helicopters.

* Will actually kill tanks.
* AI doesn’t seem to use heat-seeking function though (not a big problem because the AI is quite accurate).

SOUND

Background combat sounds (soundtrack):
* Very persuasive—actually sounds like battle raging (in addition to player fire).

Tank engine sounds are louder but helicopters are the same as vanilla BF2.

Nice music fade out like PR).

GRAPHICS

Explosions are much brighter—to the point of being blinding sometimes—than the vanilla grey ‘dust’ explosion effects:

* Improves long-range hit confirmation.

Gunfire Effects:

* Highly visible tracers (a bit too visible IMO—it’s a light-show even in day maps).
* Bullet fly-by sound volume increased.
* Bullet impact sound volume increased.
* Smoke trails (particularly for sniper rifles.
* More dust gets thrown up where bullets hit.

New textures:

* Some good, some…less so. ;p

ISSUES

Penalty Zone is tilted in small Gulf of Oman map (looks odd).

Player gets blocked when firing missiles in rapid succession (i.e. multiple “missile way” messages).

US truck in Gulf of Oman slides of its start coordinates (triggering the abandoned vehicle self-destruct function; so you get this Hummer blowing up throughout the game—assuming no one uses it, and even then they get a damaged vehicle).

Supply Crates seem to slide around a lot (even on slightly slanted surfaces).

Rounds seem to come right out of weapon’s scope and very visible (looks odd).

Anti Armour kit’s AA weapon doesn’t have guided missiles so ends up being more effective at taking out tanks than aircraft.

Different tracks for each map takes up a lot of memory and serves no other purpose than to act as background sound while maps load.

Menu movie is a bit long—takes up memory unnecessarily.

Lack of servers makes it temporary SP entertainment but soon becomes repetitive and boring without MP (i.e. there are very strict limits on what the BF2 designers allow modders to do with the AI so internet play is a must).

Equal number of bots for all maps (i.e. map says 16 but there are always more). [Requires that player manually alter game files to reduce number.]

Installation is a bit patched-together (i.e. does not self-install and requires player to manually set up shortcut). [And fix the spelling for God’s sake! ]

Some maps are a bit too dark—makes them virtually unplayable against bots (i.e. lighting doesn’t effect AI accuracy in BF2).

SUGGESTIONS

- Increased sensitivity to turrets (shouldn’t have to do multiple mouse slides to do complete rotation). [Shouldn’t have to change DPI on mouse—for those that have this feature.]

- Suggest starting all weapons in automatic/burst mode (more appropriate to game conditions; you will be more likely to need immediate repeated fire than single shot). [Also it’s easy to forget this setting when you need to go full-auto.]

- Suggest changing illuminated (i.e. red) crosshairs on scopes to something a bit less distracting; although they help on night maps, they interfere with aiming (BF2:SF x-pack makes default crosshairs light red, so you get the same image only in a different colour - personally, I didn't think the SF look was realistic but it did the job).




I think that's most of it. (There's more that can be said about specific kit/map layout but I'll leave that to somebody else.)

If you like PR but also like AIX, then this mod will give you a bit of both.

[spartan117gw]

this is great information. lots of details i missed! thanks for the input man

[DeadSmile187]

I dl the game and i installed , but i got the Problem if im starting it its Crashing , if you can help me at this would be great.

DeadSmile187

[sickly]

Np man; this is the kind of mod I've been looking for for a while so a I figure I should do my part. You've done a nice job there.

(Sorry about the lack of tabs in the bulleted list but I forgot that forums don't allow repeated spacing--hope it isn't too cluttered for people to read.)

I really wanna see servers hosting this mod.

Don't get me wrong, I like PR but unfortunately I don't always have the time to play PR's larger maps (which servers tend to host mostly), so being able to play this faster-paced mod online would be great.

BTW, please do comment on anything in the list: I've been interested for a while in the idea of a BF2 mod that goes for more realism while at the same time retaining the 'arcade'-like feel of the original franchise, so if you feel like posting some background on the mod's design, that would be awesome. (For a start you could correct stuff I said, as I typed it up pretty quick and there was some guesswork involved.)

[spartan117gw]

one of the reasons the turrent speed is a lil slow. or atleast trying to make it that way is lol. the thing isnt that quick to turn in real life. and besides it puts out some firepower. so slow to turn. but when its facing u it will tear stuff apart.

[sickly]

Oh I see. I'm assuming the engine won't allow fixed rotation (i.e. where turret rotation will always turn at x degrees per second regardless of mouse sensitivity or how fast you slide it--so you can aim at a target immediatly with the mouse but still have to wait for the turret to follow through) right?

[Never understood why DICE didn't implement that, as it's pretty standard these days.]

I find that a) it gives people with DPI-adjustable laser mouses an advantage, as they can increase sensitivity when using a tank/APC to compensate for the low default sensitivity, and b) it's rather tedious to have repeatedly slide the mouse to rotate the the turret (also gives unfair advantage to players that are good at that, when the turret is mechanical and should supposedly be the same for everybody).

Yes, the firepower is awesome (I've been in prone behind a barrier with a wall some 7 meters behind me and get fragged by the splash damage from tank rounds shooting over the barrier and hitting the wall--which is how it should be).

How'd you get that 1-shot tank turret flying off thing to work? I was blown away (no pun intended) when I saw that.

[spartan117gw]

i think thats just the tanks specat damage state explosion effect.

[sickly]

Right, I should've guessed that.

Any luck with servers?

[dpq06]

grrr i downloaded this mod and i cant find the friggin shortcut or anything that will actually start the mod. offcourse i installed in and i can find it in regular bf2 in community then custom games thing. i can find all the random files in bf2/mods folder but no shortcut or anything. im running vista if that helps

[Nozium]

Pretty cool mod,having fun with it.