Members of the Battlefield 2042 development team at DICE sat down to talk about a variety of topics today. Among those topics were some art passes coming to both maps and Specialists, adjustments to Specialist dialogue, changes to animations, and some of what is coming throughout the game's first season of content.
In addition to announcing that they are ditching Hazard Zone support, today's briefing held a treasure trove of worthwhile information for fans or those who would like to once again become fans of the latest in the Battlefield franchise. DICE says that they are still focusing on four key areas at present: Maps, experience & modes, core gameplay, and new content.
Today's briefing can be either read online or watched via video.
Maps
Though a new map is coming in Season One, DICE says that they are working on some art passes to the existing maps. From what they showed off, it looks as though they are adding various objects across several maps. This looks to add additional cover as well as kind of make the maps look a bit more like there's a war going on. Imagine that.
Here are some of the changes coming to Kaleidoscope.
Cover has been added not only with the placement of new assets, but also in the raising of terrain to help break sightlines and let infantry move more purposefully around the map. Most importantly, these new assets bring more tactical destruction which help to ensure that the map evolves throughout the duration of each round, and provide both Attackers and Defenders with new options when playing in key areas.
We’ve also introduced new areas onto the map, adding a Forward Operating Base into the park, with a second command post added close to the Tower. The Data Center has similarly received multiple passes from the teams to help ensure that there are more cover points, and new war torn looks to certain areas that help make the map more faithful to 2042’s setting.
There is now more cover at the Solar Station including concrete barriers, sandbags, and other assets. The terrain between the Solar Station and the Security Checkpoint has been raised and changed to provide better cover for players. More gifs and additional information on changes can be found in the latest Battlefield Briefing update.
Experiences and Modes
We already know that DICE is doing away with the 128-player Breakthrough in favor of 64-player Breakthrough. Conquest is also getting some big changes, though the 128-player count will remain intact.
Conquest experiences will at times feature less Sectors and Capture points as we introduce new content, and update some of our existing content. This is a change that helps us to better control the flow and pacing of combat, making sure that you’re spending more time engaging on the flags, and less time checking your phone while you wait for the capture to confirm.
Core Gameplay
Specialists aren't going away, but DICE is at least changing them up a fair bit. First off, DICE has started to do art passes on the Specialists in order "to better reflect what we feel their place to be in the world, making them feel grittier, and closer to the more serious tone that we want to come across in our narrative."
You can see a couple of quick comparisons on the changes coming to Mackay and Borris in the image at the top of this article.
DICE is also updating the voice lines for each Specialist to make them a bit less tone-deaf. Some lines are getting removed completely while others have been re-written and re-recorded to be more tonally appropriate to the fact that there is a war supposedly going on.
Outside of cosmetic changes, the Specialists will also continue to get "regular balance changes." They cite recent examples of the nerf to Borris's turret in 0.4.1 and the change made to Rao's passive in 0.4.0. Bigger changes are still something that they know fans want, but DICE admits that focusing on these changes would delay other content even further.
How Specialists fit into the game today can be improved. We’re sensitive to, and grateful for the feedback that we have received so far from all of you, but we recognise that making a sweeping change to Specialists would cause significant delays to our development, more so than we already have in our work to improve the experience ahead of the start of our Seasons. We do intent to make changes, but want to ensure they do not impact the other improvements, fixes and content that we’re bringing to the game.
There are initial ideas that we have, and when we’re on sturdier ground with the vision we have for the Core Gameplay of Specialists, we will come to you to share those ideas and solicit that feedback. The Core Feedback Loop for Specialists will come later than planned, but we invite you to continue sharing your thoughts around improvements that we can make here. We’re not walking away from Specialists, they’re a key part of the Battlefield 2042 experience, and we just want to make sure that we get this right.
There are initial ideas that we have, and when we’re on sturdier ground with the vision we have for the Core Gameplay of Specialists, we will come to you to share those ideas and solicit that feedback. The Core Feedback Loop for Specialists will come later than planned, but we invite you to continue sharing your thoughts around improvements that we can make here. We’re not walking away from Specialists, they’re a key part of the Battlefield 2042 experience, and we just want to make sure that we get this right.
More wean balancing is coming in addition to the improvements to attachments that were made in 0.4.0. Changes to visual recoil are also being worked on to help improve the weapon firing experience. New weapons and gadgets are also coming beginning with Season One.
Beyond this, we have new weapons and gadgets coming with each Season, and we’ve started work on a new initiative that will see us further add to our pool of Weapons and Gadgets, by introducing some of our Classic eral arsenal into the All-Out Warfare experiences. This isn’t a simple or fast change, it’ll take us some time to do. We need to ensure that these weapons are mapped properly to progression, that they’re appropriately balanced to the 2042 model of gunplay, and that they’re supported with appropriate mastery and cosmetics, but we’ve started work on this and we’ll have more to share further down the road.
The last thing DICE touched upon here is with regards to performance. DICE says that they "took a big step" towards addressing performance for Minimum Spec players in 0.4.0. So far, DICE has said they have seen players experience "better CPU utilization, improved latency on input, and a smoother experience with less hitching than seen at launch." However, they will continue to work on this in Season One.
New Content
Season One for Battlefield 2042 is still apparently on track to be released in June. This will be the first of four planned seasons for the game. Each season will add in a new Specialist, new maps, new weapons, and new gadgets.
Yes, there will be a Battle Pass also released at the start of Season One. This "will give players the chance to earn new gameplay items, all of which are on our free tiers, and new cosmetic items across both the free and premium tiers." Season One will arrive alongside another title update for the game that includes even more Quality of Life improvements, fixes, and "improvements that demonstrate our continued commitment to Battlefield 2042 and our mission of restoring the trust that many of you feel was hurt when we launched back in November of last year."
Expect to see more about the actual new Season One content soon once DICE shares that publicly. Until then, here is a look at the current roadmap for Battlefield 2042.
