BC2 suffered from the relatively low player cap of 32 players and the maps had to be scaled accordingly. Heavy Metal, the largest BC2 map, always feels sort of empty, even when the servers are full.
I think we can all blame consolitis for that.
MAG, a Game exclusive for the PS3 has 256 Players per Server.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAG_%28video_game%29The number of players is mostly limited by the server, and by the amount of information needed to send to each player.
I don't doubt what it would be possible to play with 128 or even 256 Players at one Server...
If DICE takes out the Jets and the destructible Buildings and Landscape, to reduce the amount of information needed to send to each player.
In fact, servers with 128 Players are possible in BF2.
http://planetbattlefield.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=164203It's also possible to use a lot of destructible objects in a BF2 Map, but it lags like hell if you play online (and Buildings still cast the same shadow after destruction).
Great Maps can be fun even with few players, if the game mode is right. Bad Company ( and BF 2/BF 2142 ) don't have a game mode like Flag to Flag / Supply line, were you have to capture the flags in a specific order.
That game mode works well in some BF2 and in the BF 2142 Star Wars Mod First Strike to keep the players concentrated, allowing intense battles around the flag.
64 player CQ maps is what BF games are about.
I think once BF3 is released we should start demanding they patch the PC version for 128 players. Who's with me?
IMHO for DICE & EA is BF3 about the Singleplayer Campaign.
The whole marketing spins around the Singleplayer and who much better this campaign will be compared to Call of Duty.
Oh, and the other thing that makes BF3 better as CoD is the destructible Environment, something CoD doesn't have.
And the GFX ist better as CoD, and the game is more realistic as CoD, and CoD, and CoD, and...
So I don't think they will patch BF3 to 128 players, especially if it's necessary to cut down the destruction to get a higher player cap.
Remember: CoD doesn't have 128, so why should BF3 have such a high player cap ?
Most of the Maps would be optimized for 32 players, an some game modes like rush or squad death match have a player cap of 32 ( even if you run them on a 64 player server )
The other thing is that they don't have the BF2 Commander in BF3, so there is no change to coordinate the squads.
So BF3 will have the same problem as Bad Company 2: Every Squad does his own thing, without coordination.
Half of the squads will camp as Snipers in the hills, the rest will run without plan from flag to flag, leaving the former captured flags without defence.
And at the end of the round your team is the looser, because in the other team is a clan with 3 full squads in the same teamspeak.
The best game for large battles with many players wouldn't be Battlefield 3.
It's MAG, or the upcoming Planetside 2, or ARMA II ( and the upcoming ARMA III)...
