Walkthrough EA’s Battlelog

  By Smoerble | 28. September 2011 - 10:18 | Battlefield 3, Generic Leave a comment

You heard a lot about it, but you can’t see it yet? Today I will give you a quick walthrough the functions of the Battlelog for Battlefield 3.

To play BF3 you need to create an account for Origin and install EA’s download manager “Origin” (details: http://www.3dshooter.eu) . This is your access to http://battlelog.battlefield.com/.

You can change your profile there, search for platoons (clans), modify your dogtag and check your statistics.

When you enter Battlelog you see this screen:

If you check your profile, you have a lot of stats about your profile:



Dog Tags:

During the Beta, the collected DogTags are NOT collected in Battlelog.

Still you are able to modify your own dog tag (your dog tag is always displayed, if you kill someone):

You need to unlock more and more images for the first dog tag, the second possibilities are all unlocked from the start.

Platoons (formerly known as clans):

It is possible to join  platoons in Origin too… currently it seems to be buggy to find the platoons, but everything else is pretty plain forward: list of platoon members, who joined last time, a logo and of course a description etc.

The clans have combined statistics as you can see in these two pictures:

Some important tricks:

Firefox Origin plugin:

  • This adds a chat bar to the bottom of your browser. As you start the game ONLY via the web browser, it’s a very handy tool
  • Displays chat function similar to Facebok (bluaaargs!)
  • You invite friends to your game by just dragging them from right to left

Avatar: You want to have your own photo in Battleog as avatar pic?

  • You need to create a free account at http://www.gravatar.com/ with the same eMail adress, you used to register for Origin. The same eMail adress is the key!
  • Now you upload your avatar pic. When asked for a rating, rate it with “G” (descriptions what rating is meant for what are on the site). In Battlelog ONLY avatars with the rating “G” are displayed! (Don’t upload sex pics and rate them G, this will result in a Gravatar-Ban = you never can change your avatar pic in Battleog again!)
  • It takes 3 to 10 minutes before your new avatar appears on Battlelog

 

If you want to play Battlefield 3 (Early or Open Beta), visit http://www.3dshooter.eu .

 

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How NOT to wake a soldier

  By Smoerble | 23. September 2011 - 12:55 | Fun Leave a comment

… well, just watch :)

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Your weapon in freezing environment

  By Smoerble | 23. September 2011 - 11:07 | Equipment Leave a comment

Soldiers who are on duty in very cold, freezing environments have to take a special care of their weapons:

  • Barrel: You have to avoid that snow and water enter your barrel’s front, if it freezes the barrel, you have a serious problem that can’t be solved easily in this environment
  • The chamber and the mechanical parts: you need to use special oils for low temperatures, but you also need to move the moving parts every now and then throughout the day
  • Ammo clips: not sure (yet) if you should have them already equipted in the weapon or outside. not sure (yet) how easily it freezes/jams due to the low temperatures
  • Tracks: you leave tracks wherever you go… not sure, what you can do about it though :)

This video below covers this topic very short:

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Tactics: enter roof from Little Birds

  By Smoerble | 23. September 2011 - 10:53 | Tactics Leave a comment

This video shows how special forces (which ones?) land with Little Birds to enter a house from the roof.

Notice: the helicopters touch the roof, but only with the first parts of their skids, about 70% of the skids stay in air. This is more difficult for the soldiers to “jump off”, but it’s way more safe for the helicopter to quickly touch ground and take off again.

Reason: as the rotor pushes the air downwards, landing and taking off is always a little difficult, as the air is pushed to the ground and moves up again. A roof is not that big, so it’s hard to estimate where the air will push back with how much force (it “falls down” from the roof or it’s reflected back due to nearby buildings or even a vent exit can make difficult upwinds).

If the helicopter stays with the majority of the rotor off the roof, it’s easier to hold it still and take off again.

Video:

Dakota Meyer

  By Smoerble | 17. September 2011 - 09:28 | Generic Leave a comment

On September 2011, the soldier Dakota J. Meyer received the Medal Of Honor. He is the first soldier from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan who received the medal and is still alive. According to the official message. Dakota turned the tide of the battle alone (though he wasn’t fighting/driving alone, it seems that mainly his behaviour and his personal actions really turned the battle).

He received the medal for his behaviour in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2009:

  • personally evacuating 12 friendly wounded soldiers (marines and Afghanistan soldiers?)
  • provided cover and so allowed 24 more marines and (allied/Afghanistan soldiers) to escape
  • extracting the corpses of the fallen brothers
  • killing “at least eight Taliban”

Here’s the full story:

On 8. Septmeber 2009 a team of the Marine Embedded Training Team was on their way to the village Ganjigal in Afghanistan to begin negotiations with the village elders. Before reaching the destination, suddenly all lights went out and the troup was trapped in an U-shaded ambush. surrounded by “roughly 50 Taliban insurgents” firing from their cover at the marines.At this time, Meyer was located about 1km away from the battle.

The whole fight took about 6 hours, four marines were killed.

The attacked soldiers requested artillery support several times, but HQ denied it. Dakota Meyer was asking several times the headquarter to support his troops., but HQ denied this too.

Luckily Dakota Meyer ignored the command and joined the fight: he mounted a truck gun (which one?), enlisted a marine soldier to drive started to support the surrounded soldiers.

He joined the battle four times:

His first attack:

  • his vehicle was attacked directly mortar, machine gun, rocket grenade and small arms fire
  • Dakota rescued 5 soldiers

His second attack:

  • Dakota evacuated 4 more soldiers

used a new truck, because the first one was too damaged

  • Dakota killed several Taliban attackers with the mounted gun (whcih truck, which gun?) at point blank range
  • Suppressed enemy fire, so 24 marines and soldiers (allied forces?) could break out

His fourth attack

  • Got support by three more men (marines? Allied forces?)
  • They got nearly surrounded
  • Dakota was wounded (when, how?)
  • Dakota dismounted the truck and searched house by house for the dead soldiers
  • Managed to recover all 4 corpses while under heavy fire

Open questions (sources not found yet):

  • The attackes talk only about 9 rescued wounded soldiers, during the ceremony they talk about 12?
  • The marines were not alone, they were together with Afghanistan forces. Which ones, how many?
  • What truck was used for the different extractions?
  • Is there a more detailed timeline available?
  • Dakota was wounded -> more detailes?

Sources:

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Welcome to Platoons.eu

  By Smoerble | 16. September 2011 - 23:40 | Generic Leave a comment

We will list interesting articles about special forces and platoons from all over the world. We will focus on today’s conflicts, though we might make some very rare exceptions.