Battlefield 3 will have years worth of unlocks

[ArithonUK]

From EA Battlefield Blog:-

Battlefield 3 will be the deepest shooter in DICE history. Read  on for the full story on how we will reward skill and dedication, and  how our flexible unlock and customization system allows you to tailor  the game for your personal play style.

“Battlefield players are among the most loyal out there. Our games  are literally played for years by our hardcore fans, and we want to  actively support that. There should always be something left to achieve  in Battlefield 3.”
 
 Valerian Noghin and Fredrik Thylander are Persistence Designers on  Battlefield 3. They’re the guys making sure you will have as much fun  with the game in 2013 as on launch day.
 
 Back in 2005, Battlefield 2 was one of the first shooters to  introduce a deep persistence system to add that extra layer of tasty  rewards and unlocks to keep players returning to the battlefield for  hundreds of hours. With Battlefield 3, we are pulling all the stops.  Compared to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3 will have more  than 10 times the hardware unlocks spread over weapons, weapons  attachments, gadgets, and a huge unlock tree for vehicles alone.
 
 Skill and dedication equal rewards
On top of  these ingame hardware items, players will also be richly rewarded with  medals, ribbons and service stars displaying their skill, commitment,  and teamplay prowess. You will be rewarded handsomely in Battlefield 3  for exemplary skill, such as capturing X amount of bases in one round.  Excellent teamplayers who keep the team’s vehicles in mint condition and  revive fallen comrades will not go unnoticed either. These type of  skill-driven rewards are typically handed out in the form of ribbons,  and good players can often get more than one ribbon in a single round.
 

From top  left to bottom right: Assault Rifle Ribbon (7 assault rifle kills in a  round), Nemesis Ribbon (2 nemesis kills), MVP Ribbon (be the best player  in a round), Ace Squad Ribbon (be part of the best squad in a round),  Medical Efficiency Ribbon (5 revives in a round), and finally the Air  Warfare Ribbon (6 air kills in a round).
 
 Winning a round for the team should always be the priority, so we are  making sure that even when players are chasing their personal  achievements, they are contributing to the overall battle. You will also  be rewarded for true dedication and commitment, such as playing x  amount of hours as a U.S. soldier. These honors come in the form of the  much harder to get medals. They are typically given at specific  milestones in your career.
 
 There are a large number of ranks in Battlefield 3, similar to  Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Your rank badge is a quick measure of your  overall progress in the game. And even if you hit the max rank, there is  always more glory to strive for with the new concept of Service Stars  that we are introducing in Battlefield 3.
 
 Service Stars challenge the hardcore
Even getting  your first Service Star would be a major achievement. But keep playing,  and you will be eligible for even further promotion by getting Service  Stars added to your weapon skill badge, your vehicle, your kit, and your  overall rank. Anytime your kill card is displayed, everyone will see  exactly how experienced you are with your current equipment. The  ultimate bragging right would be for a player to be awarded the rank of  Colonel with 100 Service Stars attached, and to have 100 stars in all  weapons, kits, and vehicles. Getting there will be a massive task â€"  consider that a challenge!
 
 The design philosophy behind the unlocks in Battlefield 3 is pretty  sweet. We basically give you more hardware to play with for doing what  you love to do. Case in point: Using gun X will give you more upgrades  specifically for that gun. Playing with a kit and vehicle earns more  upgrades for that kit and that vehicle. In addition, all XP gained also  goes towards your overall rank, which in turn unlocks new weapons,  specializations, and camouflages usable by any class.
 

From left  to right: Maintenance Medal (obtain the Maintenance Ribbon 50 times),  Marksman Medal (obtain the Marksman Ribbon 50 times), and the U.S. Army  Service Medal (spend 100 hours in the U.S. Army.)

 
 Play Battlefield 3 your way
The mantra we keep  coming back to when designing Battlefield 3 is “play it your way”. What  that means is there’s an unprecedented flexibility in how you tailor  your kits. The playable classes are not rigidly defined in what they are  supposed to play like. While all four classes in Battlefield 3  (Assault, Engineer, Support, Recon) start out with everything they need  to be an efficient soldier in the field, it is totally up to you and  your personal preferences how you want to tailor them.
 
 Take the Assault class, for example. As you may know by now, this is  now the class that has the ability to equip both a defibrillator and  medkit for frontline medic abilities. But if you would prefer to switch  your add-ons to, say, an underslung grenade launcher with 40mm grenades,  go ahead! That will give you an Assault soldier with a more offensive  set of capabilities than the player who opts for the default medic  approach.
 
 Tactical unlocks force you to choose the right loadout for you
That’s  the way all of the unlocks and upgrades work. They are specifically  designed to be tactical in nature, forcing you to choose loadout based  on the map and situation. Do you go for the heavy barrel for your  assault rifle? It gives added accuracy for single shots, but at the cost  of stronger recoil in burst fire/full auto mode. A standard assault  rifle can be modified into a long range accurate weapon or for close  quarter, almost SMG-like, combat. For jets, do you go with Maverick ATG  missiles to take out tanks or AA missiles to dogfight airborne threats?  With your Engineer, do you bring your anti-tank or your anti-air RPG  launcher?
 
 In short, we think there has never been a better time to be a Battlefield gamer, no matter your play style.

[Naldo]

Noticed this after trying the Alpha, The unlocks are weapon specific and not rank.

Both sides use different weapons unlike BC2. Thats alot of unlocks and weapon combo's to get through.

From what I seen on the leaderboards. The G36C was the absolute firm favorite with everyone.

[Blunt]

I'm looking forward to BF3, but I hope it's not all in italics as they give me a neck-ache

[smilodon]

Ha, italics is a killer, agreed.

On a serious note I'm a little wary about a game with too many unlocks etc. The danger is that a player (me) might join a dMw server after the game has been out for a while or only play BF3 occasionally. I then find everyone running about in titanium exo-skeleton's firing nuclear machine guns. I'm there in a pair of green overalls firing a 1950 Lee Enfield. It's a skill to build a game that rewards loyal players but that doesn't unbalance it making new players feel overwhelmed and underpowered. Here's hoping DICE nail it properly and get the balance right.

[Gone_Away]

IIRC wasn't there an option for basic weapons only in BF2? I wonder if they will be bringing that back as well??

[TheDvEight]

IIRC wasn't there an option for basic weapons only in BF2? I wonder if they will be bringing that back as well??

Yes there was


Cool looking medals too!