BC2 Gets Improved Auto-Balance

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 gets improved auto-balance

April 9, 1:50 AM · Erik Johnson - DLC Examiner

EA has updated all Battlefield: Bad Company 2 servers, bringing an improved auto-balance system to the game.

The server update also brings a list of other changes, fixes and improvements to the all important multiplayer component of the game.

From the description:

admin.say command implemented
the output currently looks a bit funky on the game client, like so:
Player: [Server]: but with the next game client it will look like:
Server:

admin.yell to squad has changed (you need to specify both team and squad)
squad numbering has changed - the "no squad" squad has ID 0, and real squads are 1 and up.
Autobalance improved, it shuffles people both during and between rounds now, and does a better job. Note: There is currently no way to turn it off
mapList* commands reworked
banList* commands reworked
listPlayers command added
admin.listPlayers command reworked (GUID, kills, deaths, ping and score added)
Players have non-PB GUIDs now (these are distinct from PB GUIDs)
onChat event reworked
now it specifies target player subset as well
shows text before profanity filtering
client-originated chat messages starting with "/" make it to the server, and broadcast via onChat, but are not broadcast to other game clients
use "/!" if you want to be able to send commands to your homemade rcon tools without showing the commands to other players

player.onAuthenticated added (it's triggered when a player receives GUID)
player.onSquadChange, player.onTeamChange implemented
Couple of crash fixes
Support for server-side "region" setting (not yet used by the game client)
Ranked ON forces game-password OFF
Ranked and PunkBuster settings can only be changed during server startup
A server is marked as "hardcore" either when Friendly Fire is enabled, or when all the typical hardcore settings (hardcore killcam minimap etc) have been flipped
exposed number of rounds per maps in maplist.txt, and via the remote admin commands
Example maplist:
RUSH
levels/mp_012gr # runs with default number of rounds for the map
levels/mp_012gr 0 # runs with default number of rounds for the map
levels/mp_012gr 1 # run 1 round
levels/mp_012gr 2 # run 2 rounds
levels/mp_012gr 3 # run 3 rounds

Example console commands:

mapList.append levels/mp_012gr # add map with default number of rounds
mapList.append levels/mp_012gr 0 # add map with default number of rounds
mapList.append levels/mp_012gr 1 # add map with 3 rounds
mapList.append levels/mp_012gr 2 # add map with 3 rounds
mapList.append levels/mp_012gr 3 # add map with 3 rounds
mapList.list # get maplist
-> OK “levels/mp_012gr” “levels/mp_012gr” “levels/mp_012gr”

mapList.list magic_extra_argument_which_will_be_named_in_an_hou r_or_so # get maplist, including number of rounds
-> OK “levels/mp_012gr” “0” “levels/mp_012gr” “3” “levels/mp_012gr” “0” # get pairs of where 0 = default for that gamemode

serverInfo
-> OK “2” # After the current round finishes, there are 2 rounds left to play on the current map