Battlefield 3 Teamwork Frustrations

I played Battlefield 3 for several hours today, which is pretty common for a summer day off for me. Some ups, some downs. I played with some randoms who, surprisingly, all had mics on, and we ended up having a blast of a time together.

A common headache I always inevitably run into when playing this awesome game for any stretch of time is the lack of common teamwork. I don't mean the kind of "let's all put head sets on, and plan on how to attack the hill top on a sand table" kind of teamwork. I mean the really simple kind of stuff that involves pressing a single damn button. Like throwing down medkits and ammo boxes, or spotting enemies. Whenever I play as an Assault or Support class, I'm constantly throwing down ammo boxes and medkits everywhere. They recharge really fast (on the order of like 10 seconds). Most frustrating is when I really need it, and I call for it with the in-game request mechanic and don't get any help. The only explanations can be a simple lack of attention to the situation for the sake of need for kills and sprinting head first into the breach, or that people simply don't realize some of the mechanisms built into Battlefield 3. Honestly, I think it's mostly the latter.

This is why I was asked how good I was

I think that's the case because earlier today, when I teamed up with the randoms I spoke of, they were really impressed with how well I was doing and went so far as to ask me how I was "that good". I don't mean to seem vane, but I get that a lot. I guess I just "get" this game better than most. It just makes sense to me and I notice things and think about how to move and position myself to survive and be most effective in my role in the game. Furthermore, if one examines the Battle Report pictured at right, you'll see that I got 57 kills, and 13,000+ combat score. This means that 5,700 points of this score came from kills. That is less than half. It is true that one can accumulate a lot of points from suppression assists, kill assists, and headshot and multikill bonuses. But even taking that into account, That is still, at most, only half of my score. The other half came from reviving teammates (which earns points equal to that of a kill, and more than that if you revive a teammate), and healing teammates with medkits. Just think about that. DICE has structured this game to heavily reward teamwork, and they've weighted the teamwork aspect as an equal to the "shooting at bad guys" aspect.

So I think I've noticed these things in Battlefield 3, where others haven't. The thought came to me to try to hold Battlefield 3 clinics with Google+ hangouts or something. But I'd have to drum up interest first and that's something I just don't have. I've wanted to make some YouTube videos similar to the work of channels like Matimi0 or dontblink, but I neither have, nor can afford, video capture equipment. So I'll speak to the dark void that is the Internet in the hopes that someone hears these tips to improve their score and experience in Battlefield 3:

When playing with any class:

• The game has a contextual communication function. If playing on Xbox or Playstation, this is used by pressing the Back button, or Select button respectively. The following tips will refer to this.

How to deal with healing and first aid for both the injured and the healer:

• If you get injured, any teammate who has a medkit will now have a box with a medical plus sign over their head, and will appear on your minimap as this symbol as well, making it very easy to seek out a medic. Not all Assault class teammates will have medkits, because they can opt to trade the medkit for the M320 or M26, which tailors their loadout to killing enemy infantry. But the game is smart enough and will not make any teammate without a medkit appear as such. Furthermore, medkits that already exist on the ground will appear as a circle with an oblong diamond shape inside. This makes it easier to seek out aid, as you may not have to bother trying to get a response out of a friendly medic. If you want to request a medkit from a teammate with one, look at them, and press the communication button (Back or Select on consoles). In-game, your character will yell out "Hey I need first aid", and you will now appear on the minimap of the medics on your team as a blinking first aid symbol, which really helps in trying to get the attention of your team.
• If you're playing as a medic, and by that I mean you have opted for the medkit instead of the M320 or M26, it's important that you use it as much as possible, because it can really rack you up some serious points. You should be constantly throwing it down. It recharges every 10 seconds, so throw it as you come to objectives, common choke points, and when you spawn on a squad mate (healing a squad mate will earn your 30 points instead of 20). A heal of a teammate will earn you 20 points several times over, depending on how much healing your medkit does. It will heal multiple teammates, so throw it at groups. I always find myself throwing it down at pretty much every piece of cover I take in preparation for a firefight, because it works on yourself as well and can make the difference if you're exchanging volleys with enemies. If you hear someone's character in-game cry out for a medic or first aid, take the time to throw one. You don't even have to stop running toward your objective. Just throw it. If you glance at your minimap and see a flashing medic symbol, try to make your way to the injured teammate.
• Don't get too greedy for easy points, however, that you run out into crazy obvious danger to get them. You're gonna be no use to your team as a dead medic. The same goes for revives. DO NOT revive teammates if there are enemies right there. Kill them first, then worry about healing and reviving. Nothing is more frustrating than to get revived only to get gunned down immediately. It adds a lot of time to a teammate's spawn, and will only frustrate your team.

How to deal with ammo:

• The same principles from above apply. Ask for ammo from support class players if you're out or running low.
• The symbol for an ammo box on the minimap is a circle with three lines in it.
• Support class teammates will have a box with three cartridges (bullet plus casing) symbol above their heads if you're less than full on ammo. Likewise, if you're support class, teammates who need ammo will have this symbol over their heads and on the minimap. They will blink in the same way on the minimap if they call out for ammo.
• Ammo boxes will refill any kind of ammunition, including frag grenades, SMAW/RPG/Javelin/Stinger/SA-80 rockets, gadgets like radio beacons and SOFLAMs, anything!

I tried getting picture examples of the minimap symbols and such, but nothing exists on the Internet for this apparently, and as I mentioned before, I don't have recording equipment to capture it myself. I hope these tips help to understand the mysteries of Battlefield 3.