Alternative fire in bad company 2

Question

This has bothered me for a while now... please forgive the noob question

How do I fire the alternative fire in vehicles? Or the Countermeasures for the heli that aperantly was in the last patch but I've yet to see. Now my right mouse button is supposed to be the alt-fire according to the settings but it doesnt seem to work. What can I be missing?

I've never been able to fire that second rocket as the pilot or the tracer dart as the gunner of the apache. I've only once figured out the secondary fire for the drone and the tank but havent been able to repeat either recently. I'm missing something fundimental here...

Answer

You need to equip this part of your class's vehicle specialization:

Alternate Weapon Package

A weapons package that upgrades the targeting systems of vehicles and helicopters. It extends the effective range and accuracy of mounted weapons. - Adds an alternate weapons to the vehicle. Such as the M1A1, will have a secondary machine gun that you can control along with your main gun.

Its a vehicle specialization and requires 10,000 vehicle experience points to unlock.

More details here.

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What weapon, vehicle, or explosive does the most damage?

Question

There are quite a few ways to damage things in Bad Company 2, but I'm wondering what does the most damage in the game?

While I guess c4 can be piled up to cause a ton of damage at once, I'm only interested in damage per one attack or usage.

Answer

C4 and AT mines with explosive spec equipped (x1.25) do the biggest blast damage - 362.5 points (soldier health is 100 points).

Tank shells with weapon upgrade spec (x1.25) do the most damage to tanks - 1093.75 points (tank health is 1250 points).

I don't know if any spec makes TOW shells stronger, but they do 900 damage to tanks by default (comparing to 875 from tank shells and 865 from C4/AT). So with 1.25 multiplier from a spec it would be the most powerful against tanks - 1125 points.

[Source]

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How to make a good start at Battlefield Bad Company 2?

Question

I am about to start Bad Company 2 and looking for tips on how to make the first games online not so painful.

So far I played CoD MW2 for quite some time but I heard that BC2 is a lot harder. Therefore I'd be glad to know one most important thing to know or do at the start of online play in BC2.

Answer

• Play to the strengths of the class you're playing. These rules bend a lot but you'll learn that with experience.
  • Assault - Drop ammo packs near teammates. Pick off guys at medium distance. Long distance works well too but that's best effective on defense. Shoot your grenade launcher at bunched up enemies.
  • Engineer - Repair friendly vehicles, blow up enemy vehicles. Shoot vehicles with the RPG-7, shoot soldiers with the Carl-Gustav. The CG does less damage but the rocket travels faster and has a wider damage radius. Your SMG is best used at close range.
    • Any class can use the tracer dart, but here's how to lock onto it. Once it's on the vehicle, look down the sight of your RPG at the red blinking square in the direction of the beacon. Once it stop blinking, you have about two seconds to shoot. You can even shoot straight in the air to curve it around buildings and terrain. You don't need line of sight to lock on. You do not need to stay aiming until it hits. Once it's locked, it's locked, but the next time you shoot you'll need to lock again.
  • Medic - Drop med kits near teammates. Revive dead teammates with your paddles (they appear as lightning bolts on the map and your HUD). Your light machine gun doesn't do much more damage than other guns but you have quite a bit more ammo per magazine. Best for medium distances.
  • Recon - Throw your motion mines, this reveals enemies in a small area as blips on you and your teammates maps. Use C4 to blow up vehicles that get too close (you can't throw them very far) and use mortar strikes to disperse camping enemies. Mortar strikes don't damage the M-Coms in Rush, but C4 does. Motion mines can also be an excellent offensive tool for rushing a building.
• Spot. Push the spot button like you're on crack. (Back on 360, Select on PS3, Q on PC) This puts a blip over the enemies' heads and on the map. This can also be very useful if visibility is low due to smoke or if you're not used to iron sights, since the blip is drawn on top of your weapon.
• Don't drive vehicles until you have some experience. This includes the UAV. It's fun, but you're not as invulnerable as you may feel and you can get blown up very quickly. Blow up a few before you drive one. You can practice flying helicopters in empty servers. You do not want to crash a helicopter full of teammates.
• Don't snipe. It takes a good sniper to be a benefit to the team. The problem is everyone wants to snipe and too many snipers on a team probably accounts for 20% of losses. In my opinion, sniping is most useful to your team at medium ranges since you can use your motion mines.
• This might be a given to some, but don't camp, especially when you're attacking. Camping is staying in the same spot for more than a few minutes. The longer you stay in one spot, the more likely the enemy is going to find you and throw a grenade your way or otherwise kill you. Be a moving target both in firefights and in the long term.
• Spawn on your squadmates. You can spawn directly behind them by selecting them in the spawn menu. If the server allows you to see your squadmate before spawning then make sure he's not in too hot of a situation before you die alongside him and waste a ticket.
• Shoot in short bursts. Each shot adds to the spread cone of your bullets. Just pretend it's a pistol and click a lot.
• BC2 uses bullet simulation instead of traces. So at long distances you'll need to aim high and lead (aim in front of) your target.
• Did I mention you should spot?

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Color clan tags in BC2?

Question

Is it possible to add color to the clan tags in BC2?

Answer

Not at present, and to my knowledge it's not planned.

Personally, I certainly wouldn't mind it if it were restricted to clan tags. Bad Company 2 uses colorization of the name, though, to distinguish between squad/friend/enemy so I can see why some would consider even colorized clan tags to be distracting.

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Do high resolution or game detail level affect Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer ping or lag?

Question

Do resolution or graphic details affect data that is sent between game client and server?

Answer

As a general rule of thumb: Graphics do not affect network Latency.

That said, poor graphics (especially games which blit to and from the graphics card a lot), can eat up CPU cycles on processors with a low number of cores (or games which don't separate rendering into a separate thread). If you are CPU bound (limited by your CPU, which rarely happens) because of poor graphics design (like rendering on the CPU), then it is possible that your graphics will affect the latency of your network data (which must also be processed by the CPU).

This is a rare set of condition, and unlikely in any modern game.

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How to earn SPECACT in Battlefield - Bad Company 2

Question

There are SPECACT Insignia and also certain SPECACT Efficiency/Excellency PINs to achieve in Battlefield Bad Company 2.

How can they be achieved?

I guess this question includes a metaquestion: "What is a SPECACT?"

Answer

The SPECACT parts were added together with a DLC, the SPECACT Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon individual DLC's, as well as a bundle DLC that included all four.

The SPECACT DLC for a particular class gave you an extra weapon, basically a "SPECACT" version of one of the better weapons for that class, unlocked and ready for you to play with. It also gave you a "Kit" which is basically a different Camo-suite for you to wear.

On the menu, after installing the DLC, you can select either "Assault" or "Assault+" class to select which kit to use. The weapon is available to both classes, but not all game modes.

For the four classes, the weapons are:

• Assault: M16 SA
• Engineer: UMP SA
• Medic: MG3 SA
• Recon: M95 SA

The excellency pins are awared for reaching a kill count of 8 in any round with the specact weapons.

The efficiency pins are awarded for reaching a kill streak of 5 in any game round with the specact weapons.

The Insignias are awarded for reaching a total kill count across game rounds of 100 with the specact kits.

On Xbox 360 and PS3, there are achievements and trophies that are awared for getting all 3 awards (excellency pin, efficiency pin and insignia) for a particular class. On Xbox 360 these are worth 15GP apiece.

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How do I fly the chopper with the keyboard?

Question

No matter how boldly and self-confident I hop into a helicopter in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, it takes only 5 seconds for me to lose control and crash the vehicle.

How do you control the choppers with just the mouse and the keyboard? I don't want to use a joystick or a pad.

Specifically, what is the typical keyboard layout? Do I need to use keys for both turning and yaw?

I also need to see it in action, so a video of the screen and ideally the keyboards would be extra nice.

Answer

I had the same issues starting out playing all Battlefield games. Flight in Helio type vehicles have been mostly unchanged on PC. The best way I've been able to control a helicopter (not using a joystick) is by using the Keyboard only. Using the mouse can be very tough, and sensitive.

Put both hands on the keyboard, left hand at WASD and right on the arrow keys. One hand will control propeller speed and yaw I believe. While the other hand will turn and tilt the chopper.

With some practice it should become a lot easier! This was all made with no modifications to key bindings.

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 online disconnecting

Question

I got Battlefield Bad Company 2 last night on Steam and I was trying to play online, but I get disconnected within 5 minutes of joining and usually get an error saying: "You have lost connection to the EA server".

I have read that BFBC2 uses port forwarding so I went to www.portforward.com and there was a guide to set it up for my DLink router, however I still get disconnected. I don't believe its an issue with my internet because I have played other online games fine on it, and can download things such as movies with sufficient speed.

I am going to give it another try this evening, but I was wondering if anyone else who came across this problem possibly had other suggestion on what I could do to possibly fix this?

Edit: I tried updated my punkbuster as well as playing server without punkbuster along with other troubleshooting steps but the disconnection continued, I then contacted ea and they got me to run a program that traces packets, and they told me the problem is with my internet service provider and that I am losing packets.

Answer

I contacted ea and they got me to run a program that traces packets, and they told me the problem is with my internet service provider and that I am losing packets. If anyone else comes across this problem I first recommend the punkbuster solution, then doing the port forwarding and if all else fails contact ea, and it may be the same as my issue. Its rogers internet but its through techsavy

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Do any of the unlocks modify the sniper's mortar strike?

Question

The sniper's mortar strike is a favorite of mine, and I was wondering if any of the unlocks upgrade it. For instance, there are unlocks for more missiles, ammo, or grenades.

Are there any that reduce the cooldown time, give you a second mortar strike, or increase the damage/size of the mortar strike?

Answer

I am pretty sure demolition spec improves mortar strike damage by 25% as well.

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BFBC2 "Unable to login" when entering serial number

Question

So I installed this "Origin" crap, bought, downloaded and installed Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Now, when I launch the game and login with the same account I use to buy it in Origin, I'm asked to enter my serial number, which I do, but after hitting the submit button I get the "Unable to login" error, every, single, time.

I can't seem to find out where to enter it on the Origin or EA site, so how am I supposed to register my game?

Edit: Okay, so I found the "Redeem product code" in the Origin app, but now when I try to login to BFBC2 with the same account it still asks for the serial, but then says it's already in use, what the hell is going on here?

Answer

Searching this error message on the EA support center gets me this article. In a nutshell:

1. Turn off 'remember password' and log in again.
2. Delete the BFBC2 folder that should be located in your Documents folder and log in again.
3. Open a ticket if all else fails.

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Can you call for a medic? How?

Question

I asked in game about how to call a medic and someone said that you press 'Q'. But I couldn't get it to work, so maybe this person was pulling my chain.

How do you call for a medic?

Answer

On PS3, you have to target a medic of your team and press Select. I suppose you're on PC and Q is the right key, so, you first have to target a medic of your team with your crosshair and instead of shooting, press the key! They have to be close enough. If it works, you'll hear your guy screaming out for help.

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How do you circle strafe with a chopper using an Xbox 360 controller?

Question

I can't quite get the hang of this. I've been in a few maps where a pro was just demolishing everything like this. I'm asking for specific instructions with an xbox 360 controller.

Answer

To circle strafe with a helicopter in any game you have to understand some things about helicopter controls.

There are three main controls, the cyclic, the collective, and the pedals.

• The cyclic tilts the helicopter to the right, left, forward, and backward. (Like leaning in a direction.)
• The collective makes the helicopter go up and down. (Like climbing or squatting)
• The pedals rotate\turn the helicopter to the right or left. (like turning your head)

To circle strafe (or orbit while facing the target) you will need to tilt the helicopter to the right with the cyclic, while using the pedals to keep the helicopter pointed at what your circling.

To orbit to the right you would tilt the cyclic right, while turning the pedals left. In human terms, you walk leaning to the right(cyclic), and then keep your torso turned to toward what you are circling (pedals).

I'll try to translate to controller controls later.

Update for Comments: If the bird just spins like a top and falls to the ground then you are using to much pedal, and need to tap it less often. More likely you are loosing altitude as you strafe pointing at the target. This is normal helicopter behavior; I'll explain.

When a helicopter tilts in a direction, some of the force used to lift the helicopter is taken away to be used to shift the helicopter. This means you also have to increase the collective, or make the helicopter go slightly up while you execute the maneuver.

In most games there is a balance point of strafe and lift. This means you tilt(cyclic) the bird enough that full throttle (collective) keeps you at the same altitude. After that it's just a matter of rotating the bird (pedals) to keep it pointed where you want it.

Sorry, I haven't been able to translate to xbox controls yet.

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Can I use my Battlefield 2142 account to play Bad Company 2 multiplayer?

Question

I had a blast playing Battlefield 2142 and all this recent hype for Battlefield 3 made me go out and get Bad Company 2 for PC. I've tried logging in to BC2 multiplayer with my old 2142 account, but the BC2 interface uses an email instead of the plain username that 2142 accounts used.

Can I convert my BF2142 account into a BC2 account?

Answer

Yes and No - yes you can use your old EA account to play BF2 and no you cannot connect with your 2142 account. Before there were 2 accounts: EA account for game-support etc and 2142 account to log in the game. Now it is just one - EA account (your email address is used a login).

You can access battlefield veteran page and use your 2142 account to get a veteran status for your EA account.

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Other than by firing, are there any visual cues that a UAV has reloaded its hellfire missile?

Question

The UAV control screen has a lot of meaningless data and numbers on the screen, so it's hard to tell if any of that information is useful. After I fire a hellfire missile, I can't figure out how to tell if the missile has reloaded yet.

Is there any way to tell if the UAV is reloaded other than by firing?

Answer

Yes, there IS a visual cue! The red guidance square disappears. That means you can fire again.

There are also auditory cues. The crew (not sure why it sounds as though there is a mortar crew, since it's a UAV, but anyway) let you know when you're ready to go again.

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What can I do to earn experience faster in Bad Company 2?

Question

I currently own Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on my PS3, and was just getting started on the game. It seems that between each level there is a HUGE experience gap, making leveling very difficult. I'd like to unlock more weapons, but getting a few thousand XP can take me up to two hours. What are some tactics that will help me to gain more XP as an assault or recon player?

Answer

Not sure what your previous Battlefield experience level is, but the biggest thing that sets it apart from most other multiplayer FPS is its focus on teamwork. Stick close to your squad, and work together to accomplish the given objectives for a map. Killing enemies will net you points, but unless you're lucky or the Angel of Death, it's unlikely that kills alone will be able to net you points quicker than playing strategically. I've listed some general information and some more specific class tips below.

General Tips:

Stay near your squad

While you generally get points for helping out your team, you get more if the person you helped was also in your squad. For example, a squad kill assist is worth more than a normal assist.

Spot enemy players!

On XBox this is mapped to Back, so I imagine it'd be Select on PS3. When your crosshair is over an enemy, press this button. This will drop an orange arrow over their head, showing their position to your team. You get points for spotting, and if a teammate kills somebody you spotted, you get bonus XP for a Spot Assist.

Go for objectives

In Conquest and Rush, objectives are huge sources of points. Capping a base in Conquest nets 150 points for the first person to start capping, and 75 to each person who joined later. Always a good idea to stop and help cap, as the more players capping the faster the process. Similarly, planting or disarming explosives when playing Rush can net you a ton of points as well.

Get in a vehicle

Kills are easy to come by in vehicles. You'll also get assist points for kills made by others in your vehicle. They're great at locking down choke points, or securing an objective. Watch out for mines and Engineers, and players running close to plant C4.

Get some bling

If you perform a certain action enough times in one round, you'll be awarded a pin. For example - repair a vehicle 7 times, get the Vehicle Maintenance Pin, worth 200 pts. Go on a kill streak of 5 or more, get a Combat Excellence Pin. Work well with your squad and best the squad with the most points at the end of the match, and the Best Squad pin is yours. The points from these pins get added after the match is over, and are not added into the scoreboard standings you see in-game. You'll see a list of them in the breakdown screen when switching rounds/maps.

Class Specific

Assault

Drop ammo like it's candy! Supplying your teammates is essential to victory anyway. Engineers with love you for this, since their rockets can only carry limited ammo without sacrificing a perk slot. Same goes for Assault/Recon classes who take C4.

Engineer

My personal favorite. Hang out near vehicles. Repair friendly vehicles, shoot enemy vehicles. Hop in a friendly vehicle, snag some kills, then hop out and repair once it takes some fire.

Recon

Spot like crazy. If you use a sniper rifle, being able to spot from miles away is great. Throw motion sensor mines for automatic spotting. Use C4 to blow up buildings, objectives, and enemy vehicles. If you're a crack shot, headshots from beyond a certain range award bonus points. I play as more of a saboteur when I play recon, opting for a shotgun instead of a sniper rifle. Wide open vistas make for some good sniping vantage points if you feel like camping all match, but this is generally frowned upon, and isn't the fastest way to do things, either.

Medic

Drop those medkits! Revive players as needed. Medics are one of the easiest classes to level up, because people are always getting shot and/or killed. Lay down suppressing fire for some assists and to give your squad a chance to maneuver. Try to avoid reviving somebody in the middle of a crossfire - while it may be good for points to chain-revive the same person, nobody likes getting revived only to immediately go down again.

Hope this helps. Happy fragging!

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Smoke causes FPS to drop to almost unplayable levels

Question

While everything else runs very smoothly, any kind of smoke (from smoke grenades, mortar, tank guns, collapsing buildings) slows graphics down to single digit FPS. The effect is proportional to the relative area of screen covered by smoke.

I've tried turning down every graphics setting there is (both in-game and driver) to no avail. Is this a common problem (or even a "feature" of BC2) or is there a way to fix it?

Relevant specs: i5-760 2.8GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI HD 5770 1GB.

Answer

It would be a good idea to look into the Catalyst Control Centre for graphical settings. You can use the CCC to override (or even compound) graphical settings for games, and this may be the case for you. You should try finding the settings for anti aliasing, anisotropic filtering and texture quality settings (to start). Try turning those down, and they should directly help you out.

Failing that try uninstalling your graphics card drivers, rebooting, then installing new graphics card drivers from amd.com .

What it sounds like is that your graphics card is applying texture improvement processes to the smoke textures, processes such as anisotropic filtering, and it's simply set way too high.

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Earning Experience Faster in BC2

Question

I currently own Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on my PS3, and was just getting started on the game. It seems that between each level there is a HUGE experience gap, making leveling very difficult. I'd like to unlock more weapons, but getting a few thousand XP can take me up to two hours. What are some tactics that will help me to gain more XP as an assault or recon player?

Answer

Not sure what your previous Battlefield experience level is, but the biggest thing that sets it apart from most other multiplayer FPS is its focus on teamwork. Stick close to your squad, and work together to accomplish the given objectives for a map. Killing enemies will net you points, but unless you're lucky or the Angel of Death, it's unlikely that kills alone will be able to net you points quicker than playing strategically. I've listed some general information and some more specific class tips below.

General Tips:

Stay near your squad

While you generally get points for helping out your team, you get more if the person you helped was also in your squad. For example, a squad kill assist is worth more than a normal assist.

Spot enemy players!

On XBox this is mapped to Back, so I imagine it'd be Select on PS3. When your crosshair is over an enemy, press this button. This will drop an orange arrow over their head, showing their position to your team. You get points for spotting, and if a teammate kills somebody you spotted, you get bonus XP for a Spot Assist.

Go for objectives

In Conquest and Rush, objectives are huge sources of points. Capping a base in Conquest nets 150 points for the first person to start capping, and 75 to each person who joined later. Always a good idea to stop and help cap, as the more players capping the faster the process. Similarly, planting or disarming explosives when playing Rush can net you a ton of points as well.

Get in a vehicle

Kills are easy to come by in vehicles. You'll also get assist points for kills made by others in your vehicle. They're great at locking down choke points, or securing an objective. Watch out for mines and Engineers, and players running close to plant C4.

Get some bling

If you perform a certain action enough times in one round, you'll be awarded a pin. For example - repair a vehicle 7 times, get the Vehicle Maintenance Pin, worth 200 pts. Go on a kill streak of 5 or more, get a Combat Excellence Pin. Work well with your squad and best the squad with the most points at the end of the match, and the Best Squad pin is yours. The points from these pins get added after the match is over, and are not added into the scoreboard standings you see in-game. You'll see a list of them in the breakdown screen when switching rounds/maps.

Class Specific

Assault

Drop ammo like it's candy! Supplying your teammates is essential to victory anyway. Engineers with love you for this, since their rockets can only carry limited ammo without sacrificing a perk slot. Same goes for Assault/Recon classes who take C4.

Engineer

My personal favorite. Hang out near vehicles. Repair friendly vehicles, shoot enemy vehicles. Hop in a friendly vehicle, snag some kills, then hop out and repair once it takes some fire.

Recon

Spot like crazy. If you use a sniper rifle, being able to spot from miles away is great. Throw motion sensor mines for automatic spotting. Use C4 to blow up buildings, objectives, and enemy vehicles. If you're a crack shot, headshots from beyond a certain range award bonus points. I play as more of a saboteur when I play recon, opting for a shotgun instead of a sniper rifle. Wide open vistas make for some good sniping vantage points if you feel like camping all match, but this is generally frowned upon, and isn't the fastest way to do things, either.

Medic

Drop those medkits! Revive players as needed. Medics are one of the easiest classes to level up, because people are always getting shot and/or killed. Lay down suppressing fire for some assists and to give your squad a chance to maneuver. Try to avoid reviving somebody in the middle of a crossfire - while it may be good for points to chain-revive the same person, nobody likes getting revived only to immediately go down again.

Hope this helps. Happy fragging!

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How can I deal with repeat teamkillers in BFBC2 Hardcore mode on PS3?

Question

I've experienced that killing people in the own team becomes more and more common. Sometimes it's because they want to have the vehicle you're taking, sometimes I guess just for fun (I've even seen someone named "Teamkiller...") or as a revenge for being (possibly unintentionally) team-killed.

This is no fun at all and can turn the whole game around.

Losing a few points and having team kills in your record doesn't seem to scare many people off. For example, experienced players can easily compensate for -100 points for shooting a team mate before entering a helicopter, by then taking that helicopter and destroying tanks.

How can I remove teamkillers that are ruining a game from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Hardcore games? How can I keep them from coming back?

Answer

This might be harsh but you can get TK'ers PSN accounts blocked

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