User blog:3RDRANGER/Battlefest Kicks Off for Battlefield 4 and Hardline, Weapons Crate DLC Coming Late May

Today, news on Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline has been released on Battlelog, but I'm going to summarize it here in this wiki for those who want to read it right away. Let's get started!

''Note: The "List of Events" sections are from the Battlelog pages (linked in the sources at the bottom of the article). If you want the TL;DR of this post, go down to the "End Note" section.''

Battlefest for Battlefield 4
Battlefest has happened twice already for Battlefield 4, the first that happened from July to August of 2014 and the second in November of 2014.

From March 31 to May 4, players from all platforms will get sales on Battlepacks and Kit Shortcuts, free Gold Battlepacks, a screenshot contest, a new community mission, and a double XP weekend.

Battlefield Premium is not required to participate in Battlefest (applies to both Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline).

List of Events
MARCH 31 – APRIL 15 EASTER SALE ON BATTLEPACKS AND SHORTCUT KITS Battlepacks contain XP boosts, camos, knives and other in-game items. Shortcut Kits will let you unlock all the weapons of a specific variety such as grenades or assault rifles.

Now, you can get up to 50% off on Battlepacks and select Shortcut Kits in our Easter Sale. Restrictions and conditions apply. Check your specific gaming platform for details on the offers. Note that some variations on content and start/end times apply.

APRIL 15 – MAY 04 GOLD BATTLEPACK GIVEAWAY XP boosts, weapon attachments, camos, and more: login starting April 15 and you will receive a shiny Gold Battlepack.

APRIL 22 – APRIL 29 “BATTLESTEAL” CONTEST Time to get creative – and thievish. Capture your coolest “Battlesteal” screenshot, send it in, and you have a chance to be handsomely rewarded. Find full rules, terms, and conditions here.

APRIL 28 – MAY 04 ZODIAC COMMUNITY MISSION Show off your skills in the “Zodiac” Community Mission to claim a truly special “Aries” Dog Tag…

APRIL 30 – MAY 04 DOUBLE XP WEEKEND Ready to climb the ranks? Make sure to jump into Battlefield 4 between April 30 and May 4: your XP will be doubled in celebration of Battlefest.

Battlefield Hardline Battlefest
This is the first time Battlefest is happening for Battlefield Hardline, and it starts earlier than the Battlefest for Battlefield 4.

From March 26 to May 11, players from all platforms will get a double XP weekend, free Gold Battlepacks, weeks dedicated to celebrating the game's four classes with articles providing tips on how to play with them effectively and community missions related to each class, a competition (info unknown at the moment), play with developers from DICE and Visceral Games in different servers, and a community mission related to the Hotwire game mode.

One of the events in this Battlefest, however, is exclusive to PC players only, and that only applies to those who own a graphics card made by NVidia. The event is a screenshot contest, which requires players to send in screenshot taken through Shadowplay (a feature exclusive to those who own an NVidia graphics card that allows players to take screenshots and record gameplay without the use of an external device).

List of Events
MARCH 26 – MARCH 30 Double XP Event: This weekend, you’ll score double XP in Battlefield Hardline. Jump into the game, play the objective, and rank up faster than a speeding bullet.

MARCH 27 Gold Battlepack Giveaway: Login to Battlefield Hardline starting March 27 and you’ll receive a Gold Battlepack, containing in-game goodies like camos, weapon attachments and XP boosts.

APRIL 7 – MAY 4 Class Weeks: Operator, Mechanic, Professional, and Enforcer. We’ll celebrate each Battlefield Hardline class, serving great tips for each, and host class-related Community Missions where you can net exclusive rewards.

APRIL 7 – APRIL 30 ShadowPlay PC Contest: NVidia is challenging PC players to capture their most radical Battlefield Hardline moment for a chance to win modded PCs with branded Battlefield graphics. See the ShadowPlay Contest Official Rules (available April 7).

APRIL 16 Competition: Stay tuned for more information and details on how to participate!

APRIL 22- APRIL 23 Game with Devs: Visceral and DICE developers will play Hardline on specific servers and let fans compete with and against them. Get a piece of the action and show us your skills.

MAY 4 – MAY 11 Community Mission: Show how tight you are with your crew in the fast-paced Hotwire mode. Prizes await if this Community Mission is completed.

Community Map Project
DICE LA has released the results of the second poll done for the Community Map Project.

For anyone who doesn't know what the results of the first poll were, the first place result was a Jungle setting.

For the second poll, the top three Points of Interest results are a waterfall, the ruins of an ancient temple, and a ghost town.

Right now, DICE LA has been coming up with concepts on how the map would look like, which will be put up to a vote in a third poll coming next week.

Spring Update
The Winter Update for Battlefield 4 has come out a few weeks ago, but DICE LA is hard at work on another update for May, called the Spring Update, which will fix more of the game's problems and add more features for the game.

One noted feature that is being worked on for the Spring Update is an update to the game's weapons. First off, the weapons will use a new damage model (seen in this image) that will entirely prevent Suppression from being done at close range to make firefights more fair and less random. Second, 2-hit kill headshots will be implemented on certain weapons for close range. Third, the impact of weapons with high rates of fire will be reduced to give lower fire-rate weapons more importance. Next, weapon recoil, bullet spread, tracers, vapor trails (for sniper rifles) and sounds will be changed. Finally, shotguns will have more consistent behavior (presumably in terms of damage and accuracy).

Gun Master
Gun Master, a game mode that was added in the Close Quarters expansion pack for Battlefield 3, will make a return to the series in Battlefield 4

Weapons Crate
Five new weapons will be added to the game, including a lever-action rifle, and a fan-favorite Russian assault rifle (presumably the AN-94).

A DICE LA developer by the name of Julian, known in Twitter as @_jjju_, has posted screenshots on Twitter showing close-ups of the guns that are believed to be in the Weapons Crate DLC.

This tweet from March 23 shows an image that was taken in Hangar 21. However, the point of interest in the image is a barrel attachment at the far-right of the image, which is believed to be the muzzle of an AN-94. A special muzzle, in fact, that allows the AN-94 to fire two bullets at the same exact spot without any recoil.

This tweet from March 24 show an image (taken in Paracel Storm) of the end of a gun. Not much can be figured out from this screenshot, except that the barrel looks like a shotgun barrel. However, another tweet by Julian shows the trigger of the same gun, which looks like a trigger a lever-action gun would have, and a lever-action rifle is confirmed to be coming in the Weapons Crate DLC.

On March 24 and 25, Julian posted tweets of a set of iron sights, a receiver, and a stock, all from the same gun (all images were taken in Caspian Border). Rumor has it that the gun could be the OTs-14 Groza, a Russian bullpup assault rifle chambered in the 7.62x39 round.

So far, these three guns have been teased on Twitter by Julian, which leaves only two other guns that haven't been vaguely revealed to the public yet.

End Note
Long post, I know, but I can give the TL;DR here:

Battlefest is happening for both Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline, Spring Update (new patch) comes in May, the Gun Master game mode and five new weapons are going to come to Battlefield 4 (three of which have been teased on Twitter already.

Yeah, this Spring will be exciting for Battlefield fans, especially in the month of May for Battlefield 4 players.

Have a nice day, and see you on the battlefield, soldiers! Mess With The Best, Die Like The Rest 00:25, March 27, 2015 (UTC)