Commander Mode on Unranked Servers
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 3:04 pm
note: I've cleaned up the OP so that all pertinent information is easily understood, accessible, and accurate. If you're reading this now, please skip to page three for discussion. Jokerle's findings on vars.unlockMode can be found here, and my findings on factions and unranked/private server settings are located here.
We all know that Battlefield 4 multiplayer has a feature called commander mode where one player can observe and direct the flow of battle from a bird's eye view. This could really change the way that battles are executed in GC, but one of the requirements for accessing this feature is that the commander must have a rank of ten or higher. This isn't seen as a crippling issue for gameplay on ranked and official servers where prior experience is valued, but GC battledays have traditionally been waged on servers using unranked settings where all weapons and attachments are unlocked. The server setting that allows for this, vars.unlockMode, has an unfortunate side effect of also setting players' ranks to -1, which is less than the rank of ten required by commander mode. This means that if vars.unlockMode is enabled, all weapons and attachments are unlocked by server, players will not be able to use commander mode. On the other hand, if vars.unlockMode is disabled, the server will use player statistics from their progress on ranked servers to determine which weapons and unlocks they can use. This also allows players that have attained the rank of ten or higher to become their team's commander. This may not seem like a big issue, but not everyone at GC is willing or has the time to grind for weapons and unlocks in multiplayer servers and would rather just be able to use whichever weapon they like. Because these two options are currently mutually exclusive, the community needs to discuss how to approach this problem and what to do in the event that this bug is not addressed by DICE in the foreseeable future.
We all know that Battlefield 4 multiplayer has a feature called commander mode where one player can observe and direct the flow of battle from a bird's eye view. This could really change the way that battles are executed in GC, but one of the requirements for accessing this feature is that the commander must have a rank of ten or higher. This isn't seen as a crippling issue for gameplay on ranked and official servers where prior experience is valued, but GC battledays have traditionally been waged on servers using unranked settings where all weapons and attachments are unlocked. The server setting that allows for this, vars.unlockMode, has an unfortunate side effect of also setting players' ranks to -1, which is less than the rank of ten required by commander mode. This means that if vars.unlockMode is enabled, all weapons and attachments are unlocked by server, players will not be able to use commander mode. On the other hand, if vars.unlockMode is disabled, the server will use player statistics from their progress on ranked servers to determine which weapons and unlocks they can use. This also allows players that have attained the rank of ten or higher to become their team's commander. This may not seem like a big issue, but not everyone at GC is willing or has the time to grind for weapons and unlocks in multiplayer servers and would rather just be able to use whichever weapon they like. Because these two options are currently mutually exclusive, the community needs to discuss how to approach this problem and what to do in the event that this bug is not addressed by DICE in the foreseeable future.
