Battlefield 3 patch to nerf tactical lights, rebalance anti-air vehicles

Battlefield 3 - tactical flashlight nerf

DICE have been talking about the balance changes they're considering for the next Battlefield 3 patch. Battlefieldo have spotted a couple of tweets from DICE's Alan Kertz showing before and after shots of the planned nerf to every Battlefield 3 player's worst enemy, the tactical flashlight.

The lamp attachment can be added to machine guns and pistols, and currently has the capability to blind a man at ten metres in broad daylight. Kertz told the Don't Revive Me Bro community podcast that DICE will be making some changes. The intensity of the flashlight's blinding effect will stay the same, but it will be effective at shorter range. See the before and after shots below.

Kertz also says that DICE are also considering changes to the effectiveness of mobile AA guns. Their damage output is less of a problem than the projectiles' effects on jet and chopper trajectories. It's thought that the storm of anti-air ordenance can too easily throw airborne vehicles off course.

In addition, DICE are aware that the inability to repair jets puts them at a distinct disadvantage over other vehicles. Choppers can land and be repaired by engies from within, but landing a jet is a far harder task. Short of strapping engineers to the wings of each jet, it's hard to see how DICE will get around this without giving planes a limited self-repair ability.

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Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.