Counterproductive Inducement : Battlefield 1

I have been sticking with Battlefield 1 since it is included in my annual pass for Origin. Entering an “old” game is hard as you are around a lot of players who have been playing a long time. Games like Battlefield 1 have perks and benefits for playing their games (as they should) that are not pay to win. But playing over time gives two benefits: first is knowing the maps really well, which gives a historical and practised advantage and the second is due to special skills you get by unlocking the game. Some of the requirements of which encouraged me to play counter to the needs and goals of my team. More specifically, trying to actually win.

I want this. But the advanced version.

I tend to play medics in shooter games (as I often play healers in MMOs) as it is usually underappreciated, underrepresented, and a very powerful way to play. When someone kills you in BF1 it shows you information about them – their rank, what dog tags they have, your K-D ration with them for the round, and what weapon – how they killed you. It also shows what “perks” they had equipped at the time. This is how I learned that perks even existed, and I decided to do some research on which fit my favoured role the best.

The perk I fell in love with is the Concealed Rescue specialisation. One thing I learned from Coppertopper in a previous BF1 post that you can “spot” a downed ally which lets them know you are coming to revive them – encouraging them to wait a bit longer and not release so fast. It also gives them a handy tracker to see how far away you are from them. Concealed Rescue automatically pops smoke on them to conceal they body so you can revive a bit safer.

That’s amazing.

Due to my experience in Project Reality and other, better paced shooter games using smoke and cover as a medic is key, and something I do quite often. Taking out that step (and the supply step of running out of smoke grenades) is a dream. An amazing dream. I want that!

The pathway to it wasn’t so bad. I had to unlock three different “getting started” service assignments. Since I was primarily playing medic I was fortunate that I unlocked this through normal play (which I wasn’t even aware of). And also, since I am often happy to hop into a tank or APC I almost had that one done too. The other three – Assault Kit, Recon Kit, and Support kit I had nothing in. Time to bear down.

Much made sense. Resupply 20 different teammates. Perform 10 Suppression assists. Etc. Except when I got to the last one, which I HAD to complete, which was “Kill 20 people with crossbow grenades”. Which is something I didn’t use at all. And it was the barrier for to move on. (Get 20 kills in a tank was easy and part of normal gameplay). The crossbow grenade is exactly what it sounds like and challenging to hit from distance. I tried to be mindful of using it when it made sense only and completing map objectives. In 10 hours I had 1 kill with it. This was not going as planned. So, I bore down, and started using it exclusively. It still took me a long time, but I would get 2-3 kills a round. I would usually end up doing horribly with 2-3 kills and 15-30 deaths. The more I died, or more I just missed kills (did good damage but not enough for the kill and a teammate would finish them off) the less and less I cared about how I was doing for my team and more and more I just wanted to get it done. And when I did, I was ecstatic!

Until the next unlock revealed itself (which it doesn’t unless you unlock the step before).

Good news is, as you advance you don’t need all of them but just 5 of 6. So I had some room here.

The “bayonet charge” will result in more suicidal / waste of rounds for assault specialties.

There were 4 sensible and 100% applicable ones to the medic class and playing as a medic. Revives. Heals. Kills with a specific medic gun. All things you would get in the normal gameplay of being a medic. And then two which sucked big time. The first is win a game of RUSH mode. Which, each time I has checked, has had zero servers using. So there is the 6/6 I would have to skip. And the next is get 20 kills with a specific handgun. I have everything else I can get but that, and in all of my rounds I had 3 hand gun kills. So I did a few rounds that I “wrote off” and just used the handgun. Doubled my kill count. Up to 6. I will have to spend a full night to get there, I think.

The grind is bad because it’s forcing me to act counter to my team’s best interest in the short term to better support my team in the long run. It’s bad game design. The thing I hate is that I know I have another bad one in the next step to finalize – getting kills with rifle grenades – which means, as a medic, I have to drop either my ability to heal or my ability to revive (that ability only fits in one of those slots). So in order to be a better medic I have to reduce my capability to be a medic.

Even after all of this complaining I am still trying to get there, because the reward is worth it. The hours of gaming to get there will be un-fun and a writeoff for me though – and that is frustrating. They should have built in tasks that required you to be a great medic, to get great medic rewards.

Hopefully Battlefield V remedies this.

3 comments / Add your comment below

  1. I honestly did not know about that medic class perk lol – and don’t see it used a lot even though it’s infinitel valuable! You should know that there is some synergy between rifle grenade kills/pistol kills and specific weapon unlocks. So pays to choose which pistol you use if you have your eyes on a specific medical class weapon unlock (although you may already have figured that one out).

    1. I am finally on the final stages of. I didn’t know about the medical weapon unlocks, just found out about those!

      Goes to show how much better it is (sometimes?) to get into a game at launch. By the time I get up to full speed BFV will be out.

      But heck, it’s pretty fun. Still wish it was a bit more…. strategically paced but in a game where no one talks anyway it works out ok.

      1. Honestly most of the weapons to unlock came in the dlc – buying it cheap and getting everything was the way to go. Game is best it’s going to be now, servers are active, lots of maps and weapons to choose from. I paid full price and the first few months weren’t great until the kinks got worked out and some better maps got released.

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