64 player Team Deathmatch, anyone?

DICE has released the first draft of the admin manual for Battlefield 3 PC server owners. Beyond the technical details that don't concern most, it reveals a long list of server filters and options. Some of these you'll be able to toggle in the server browser, while others will be server-side only, so be sure to try out a bunch of servers to find ones that suit your preferences for favouriting when the game launches Tuesday.

Password - if set, players must enter this password when connecting to the server.



Friendly fire – when set, people can inflict damage on others in the same team.



Killcam – when set, a killed player gets to see a close-up of his/hers killer for a few seconds.



Minimap – when set, a minimap is available in the bottom-left corner of the screen during play.



HUD – when set, the hud is present.



Crosshair – when set, guns have crosshairs in the center of the screen.



3D spotting – when set, spotted targets are marked with icons in the 3D world.



Minimap spotting - when set, spotted targets are marked with icons on the minimap.



Third-person vehicle cameras - when set, 3rd person vehicle cameras are enabled.



Nametag – when set, nametags are rendered over players’ heads in the 3D world.



Health regen – when set, health regeneration is enabled.



Vehicle spawning – when set, vehicles will spawn in-game.



Vehicle spawn delay – controls the delay between vehicle spawn; specified in percent (100% =



normal).



Soldier health – sets maximum soldier health, specified in percent (0-100%; 100% = normal).



Player respawn time – controls player respawn delay; specified in percent (100% = normal).



Man down time - controls player man-down time; specified in percent (100% = normal).



Bullet damage – controls bullet damage; specified in percent (0-100%; 100% = normal).



Only squad leader spawn – when set, players can only spawn on the squad leader.



Round start player count – when the server is in pre-round, it waits for this many players to be



present until it proceeds to start the real round.



Round restart player count – when a round is going, if the number of players drops under this



number, the round will be aborted and the server moves back to pre-round.



We won't give details for console players as it comes from early, unofficial footage, but let's just say you're in good hands.

As you may have guessed, Hardcore mode is now actually a preset, so if you prefer some rules from Normal and some from Hardcore, you can certainly mix them. On the server side, certain rules will have to be turned on or off for the server to show up under a given preset in the browser.

One really juicy bit to end this off with: as of now, there is no enforced player count restriction beyond 64 players, so it is possible for a server admin to allow 64 player Rush, for example. As DICE has noted previously, though, it's not fun or balanced at all; however, they say Team Deathmatch should work well for it. This could well change later on, but with any luck, it wil be kept in for Unranked servers, at the least.