BFVietnam - First Impressions

[Rick Thompson]

If you are still reading this list Peter, thank you for your hard work in 
getting the server working. That thanks is extended to everyone else at EA 
involved as well, outstanding job!

We had a request for this game already and I had found a hack to make BBO 
4c work so I decided to buy the game yesterday and install a pub for 
testing. This method works well btw, 
http://bfvietnam.lightcubed.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8922

In 10 mins I had the server installed and running under BBO, no surprises. 
Thanks should go out to all the early installers for that :) I killed a 
1942 pub to run it and did not open any additional ports. Are there any 
ports that have to be specifically opened for BFV not already open on a 
1942 server?

I can't report on the cpu usage over 30 players because the most we have 
had on was 6 so far. However, at idle and with those few players, the cpu 
appears to be about line to line with a 1942 server, again no surprises. I 
can say that we don't see the reported memory leak on an smp kernel dual 
xeon... after about 18 hours anyway.

The consistent reports of higher loads over 30 players concerns me a bit 
but I am confident they will work it out. Historically games have been more 
efficient under nix but the latest Valve servers exhibit the same problem. 
If we do see that problem at 32 players we just not offer more than 24/28 sots.

Overall, great job on the server and thank you for not making us wait 
months after the game release to get it!

That said, the game itself has me a bit torn between a love/hate thing. 
This part probably belongs in the forum but here goes anyway.

The in-game interface has some nice enhancements but the join/settings 
interface is a step back from 1942... just a visual thing mostly but wheres 
the favorites function?

The vehicles and weapons are good. I am not a flyboy so not sure what DC 
and EOD chopper pilots are going to think of the new, "arcade-ized" controls.

I like the dual modes each class can play but some are overbalanced. The 
engie torch works way to fast, no way does it take a tank out faster than a 
few cannon rounds. You can pour .50 cal into a tank for hundreds of rounds 
and barely touch it but a torch is going to kill it in 12 seconds? The 
other new engie gear is cool.

How about the anti-armor class, do they really need a squad automatic as a 
secondary? I mean, the con of being a rocketeer always was that you lost 
the ability to be real effective against infantry, that was the tradeoff 
and it was fair. Forget the improbabilities of carrying a squad auto plus a 
rocket launcher plus ammo for both in the field, this combination is just 
an imbalance. If your going to give that guy a secondary it needs to be a 
12 guage or semi-auto in my opinion.

This is a new engine? The graphics are so-so, I don't see any improvement 
from 1942 and that surprised me. Maybe I have not found the best vid 
setting yet but this machine is a 2.4 with a gb of ram and a 128ddr vid 
card and it has frame rate problems at 1024 x 768.

I have to say that I am most disappointed with the terrain, foliage and 
maps in general. They need to go play some EOD to see what the atmosphere 
should be like. A round of stream or closefire makes you feel like your 
feet are getting jungle rot and I don't get that with BFV, not at all. 
Actually, the terrain seems more like eastern Europe than Vietnam.  I have 
not seen all the maps yet, maybe I have just not found the good jungle and 
river maps yet... that is my only hope. Seriously though, EOD has the feel 
and foilage down pat for all areas of operation, it is almost worth giving 
up the new features for.

I don't hate the game, I like it and it will probably take some time to 
grow on me. None the less, I think it met only about 50% of my expectations 
and I am looking forward to improvements.

Rick
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