Blogs - Super747

Lets continue tweaking Battlefield 2:

Tank:
A good add to the tank I saw in POE2:
1 Guided Missile.
2 Canister Shell (convert your tank in a giant shotgun)
Also in POE2 they add some smoke when you fire the main cannon, this make the shoot more realistic and looks more powerful.
Make sure your tanks has at least 2 types of munitions: AP rounds and HE rounds. (Like in AIX)

Vehicles in general:

Remember, is always better one vehicle with multiple munitions, than various vehicles with 1 or 2 types of munitions.

1 vehicle with multiple types of ammo = multiple tactical options = fun = good mod
1 vehicle with 1 or 2 types of ammo = poorly tactical options = boring = bad mod
Multiple vehicles with 1 or 2 types of ammo = poorly tactical options = boring = bad mod
Multiple vehicles with multiple types of ammo = multiple tactical options = really funny = OUTSTANDING MOD

Music!
In AIX you can turn on the radio and listen some music.
Also in Alpha Project, in Pripyat map has some ambient music. The music from COD MW 1, that's is a nice detail!

In the air:

The slight movement of the cabin in SOW2 make the piloting experience more real.
If you think that the Minigun of the A10 in AIX is little bit exaggerated, you can use the Minigun of the A10 in AIX MiniMod, also in this mod the machinegun of the jets in general do a lot of damage and overheat very quickly, forcing you to think when pull the trigger.

Smoke:

The smoke should no disappear so quickly. This increase the chaos in the battlefield.

REMEMBER!
To make a good mod, keep in mind:

1 Nametags: Use the system of Alpha Project
2 Sound: this is VERY IMPORTANT.
3 Effects: Improve the effects of explosions, countermeasures, etc. (even a slight improvement change lot the game)

Littlebird:

In POE2 the Littlebird has a turret for the co-pilot. This is a really good complement for this chopper.

Arcade Vs.. Realistic

Maintain your mod semi-realistic. If you made it arcade, becomes boring. And if is to much realistic, becomes tedious.

Ok, lets continue:

INFANTRY:

When you are a soldier you need to be able to do a lot of thing, e.g. in AIX the special forces or sniper class allows you climb buildings, put different types of claymore, use a ziplining, use timed c4, etc. That's is fun, various tactical options.

MAPS:

In City Warfare maps (my favorite), the best scenario is achieved with tall, large buildings. An example of this you can see in BF4, check out this gameplay Youtube.com. Yes, I know, that's is big ass map to do it, but we got something similar in BF2, e.g. "Refinery" in AIX, when you choose the map for 32 players. Also in Karkand, Jalalabad, Minsk (in BF2142), etc.

SIGHTS

I think Project Reality do a good damn job in this aspect, these sight looks really in HD, e.g. the M4A1.
Also in Alpha Project, these distortion around the sight is fantastic.

COUNTERMEASURES:

In AIX MiniMod you can throw 3 round of countermeasures before need to reload, that's is great and give you a chance when you are making a gun run behind the enemy lines.

AMMUNITION:

REMEMBER: In the air you need infinite ammo, like in BF3/BF4.

In AIX all the ammunitions of the air vehicles are explosive, and that's is right. You have just a few seconds to destroy your target before these strange situations that occur only in BF2 crush your chopper.

MINIGUN:

If you game don't has a Minigun, you don't have a game, you got anything else, but not a good game surely.
Ok, and how should sound? Well, if you see a Minigun in real life you probably be disappointed because sound like a giant rattle. So you simply need to use the sound of AIX Minigun, I think is better than the sound used in AIX MiniMod.
Also you can place a Minigun in tanks, buggies (like in NAW), turrets etc.

An example of good achieved weapon:

The AUG-A3 assault rifle in SOW 2. (Medic Class)
This weapon has perfect sight animations, sound, walk animations, balanced damage, etc.

THE CHOPPERS:

Pilot: as a pilot, you need: Hydra rockets, Hellfire, Minigun/Machinegun/Cannon and A.A. missiles,

Gunner: TV guided missiles, turret cannon, and thermal vision. (In BF2 you only have the thermal for TV missiles), and that's is bad; you need thermal and night vision for the cannon too.

HUD: in AIX, when you fly a Littlebird for example, the enemy vehicles appears inside green squares, THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!. Otherwise, fly becomes a boring task because you don't see what is happening.
This applies to airplanes too.

Fire from the sky:

The Airplanes are pretty good in AIX, the massive machinegun of the Harrier or the minigun of the A10, are great!, when you are in the ground, man, you don't now what the hell is going on.
The sound of the miniguns of the F16 in AIX MiniMod are perfect, considers use it.

AMBIENT:

Remember when you go in to your first battle in COD 1, the paratroopers arrive, and you got 5 MG42, who knows wow many enemy soldiers raining bullet around you, and these sensation of chaos and bewilderment? Yea you remember it, and that's exactly what we want in BF2 Mods.
And how we make this?

Well, considering various factors:

-good explosions and countermeasures: e.g. in AIX MiniMod the effects of the explosions and countermeasures are slightly improved, and that change a lot the atmosphere of the battlefield.
Good explosions also are found in Project Reality, it is really fun blow up things in that mod.

-the camera shake, when a explosion occurs nears you, this improve the sensation of "be in there". Its a little detail but has a lot of effect.

-tagnames (as I sad previously), this is important, I don't how to emphasize enough, these tags ruins the game, specially when you are using a thermal vision.

-of course the sound

-the voice of the commander: it would be good reduce how often he speech, is really annoying.

-smoke, destroyed vehicles,etc. This things should not disappear so quickly.

-bullet impact: Project Reality has a good effect when the bullets impact in a wall for example.

-suppression sensation: when you are under fire, you should feel under fire, not like in BF2, where looks like they are throwing rocks on you instead firing a 50 cal beast.

TANK:

In Project Reality when you are driving a tank, you feel these tons of metal moving, it feels like a tank!
A tank should cannot be stopped by a tiny wall of wood, this is complete ridiculous, and it happen in BF2. Hope fully in Forgotten Hope 2 this bug was fix, and you can trespass these obstacles. This looks insignificant but is not, remember, fix it.

Next Update: Next Sunday!!

You want ideas? Just leave me a message!

-Exactly what we need in BF2 mods?
-Are you and your team moving forward in order to make a good mod, or just wasting time in pointless modifications?

Here I wrote a few things to keep in mind when you are modding BF2, I hope you find it useful.

1) Vehicles: Ground Warfare:

-Polish the vehicle warfare: adding new HUD, making them more like in BF3 or BF4, with the thermal (like in AIX MiniMod), night view, zoom (like in Aplha Project) etc.

-One Sight for Each Weapon: e.g. In Alpha Project when you change a weapon pressing "f", selecting the main cannon or the machinegun of the tank, the sight should be change too, like in BF3.

-The Bots and The Hand Grenades: is necessary to tweak the IA to not throw grenades on the tanks and other armored vehicles, or at least, that these grenades do not cause damage on the tank, because is ridiculous.

2) In the Air:

-Infinite ammo, this great to add fun in the mod. Is annoying have to back to airport to rearm.

-All the choppers should got a machine gun for the pilot, this is needed to increase the dynamic of piloting, especially when you do not have a gunner. E.g. In AIX the Apache got a nice machinegun.

-The Jets: in BF2 piloting a airplane is a boring task, you have a few A.A. missiles, a inoffensive machinegun and a couple of very inaccurate bombs to destroy the enemy, hopefully that was fixed in AIX and you can rain hell on the ground bastards.
You as a pilot should be able to access an a extended arsenal in your plane, different rockets, missiles, bombs, etc. VARIETY, that's needed.

This principle of strong aircraft (and fun) should be respected in order to make a good mod.

-An idea from Vietnam: I remember in BF Vietnam the chopper has weapons for the pilot, and the co-pilot; would be nice to see a Littlebird with a machinegun and missiles for the pilot and other machinegun and missiles for the co-pilot, this last, being able to aim independently of the moving of the chopper.

-The Littlebird: is the most fun vehicle, should be a couple of Littlebirds in each map, especially in City Warfare maps like Karkand, or Jalalabad.

2) The most important thing in the world: The Sound

A mod with bad sound is condemned to failure.

BF2 mods should use the sound of BF3 and BF4 (or other game with good sound).
An a example of what not to do, is COD MW 3, I like that game but the weapon sound is so sad, cheek out this comparison: Youtube.com

Some mods are making an outstanding job in this point, like in Global Storm, e.g. the bulwark RPK-74 has an amazing sound, and if you press the right mouse button, allows you aim only with the tracers, that's a nice detail.

-You can get the most beautiful weapon, with the best animations, but if the sound sucks, all the the weapons sucks. Of course, the same principle is applicable to vehicles.

-The sound is particularly important in the sniper rifle, all the fun in this rifle is in his sound, and the sensation of being shooting a powerful weapon. (One shoot, one kill damage is important too).

-A Good SOUND IS IMPORTANT!!

3) The second most important thing: The explosions.

Last week I saw an explosion effect in a BF2 mod who blow my mind, all the explosions should be as good as that; and I am talking about the beta mod, Counter Warfare: Ghost Protocol, cheek out this: Moddb.com

4) Don't Waste Energy (and time)

-Polish what we got, we really no need new weapons, already there a lots. We need to use the existing material and making something good of that, no waste time making from zero a new weapon that probably already exist. Just tweak the weapon and give the corresponding credits to his author, we are a team, we share things, and give the credit those who correspond.

5) TRACERS!!! Brilliant, beautiful tracers bullets, in all weapons like in BF3, specially for the snipers rifles.
This improve a lot the game, and I don't see anyone working on this in a mod.
Focused on this, is important.

6) Weapons: rather than make a new weapon, take a existing one, and make his aim animation good, realistic. Take the red dot sight (or whatever) and make it beautiful. That is far better than a new weapon with ugly sight and a bad animation.

7) Tag Names: the best system I saw so far for this, is in Alpha Project, you don't see the names above the players, instead you only see the names of you comrades when you aim them. This make the game more realistic and good looking.

To be continued..

If you want more suggestions for BF2 mods just contact me, i am not a modder, but a i have a lots ideas to make a good mod.