Battlefield 2042 - DICE Goes Back to the Future, Just Not the 2142 Future

Games
#831

There’s been a lot of negativity for some time and it has been frustrating as someone who actually enjoys the core gameplay. I do think however that the messaging and recent updates from Dice has been abysmal. That last update… woof.

Anyways here’s my list of prioritized items that I’d like to see as opposed to a lot of the hot takes that are more “throw everything out and start over”:

  • Fix crashes (this has been happening more frequently)
  • Fix performance issues (mostly PC/XS)
  • Fix PS4/X1 latency
  • Fix disappearing characters / vehicles
  • Fix lock on issues
  • Let players actually hear Boltes/Choppers coming a mile away so they aren’t silent but deadly.
  • Let players know how many players are waiting in a lobby and how many are required to start a game.
  • Let game lobbies carry over from one match to the next so there’s no re-matchmaking.
  • Add squad voice chat (Squad leaders chat would be cool too)
  • Let players earn more points:
    • Following Squad commands credits
    • SOFLAM credits
    • Vehicle damage credits
    • Assists count as kills
  • Let players spawn on team vehicles at start of match.
  • Balancing fixes

That should be top priority IMO. After that we can discuss further balancing classes like potentially not allowing all characters have all items. I would love to see more maps. I personally don’t have a huge problem with the open spaces as there are usually “paths” that infantry can take from one objective to the next without being completely out in the open.

As for bringing players back? I would say first fix all the glaring issues above. THEN have a major season update with new maps, weapons, and characters. Have infantry only maps. Have some radar off modes. I would drastically change or remove the end of game quips (I hate them so much). Let the final screen reflect more than just one dumb data point for each squad mate and show more meaningful data.

#832

That’s kind of the problem though. They need to fix a lot of stuff and they need to add basic stuff that’s still missing from the game and they need to crank out the live service stuff and they need to bring back players. They need to do all the things.

They’re on the hook to deliver at least 4 battle passes with a new character each, but after that? Well, this is EA and they seem to be all-in on Respawn right now while DICE has gotten their hand slapped pretty hard. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a repeat of the way they shorted Battlefield V’s support and live service map.

#833

You’re right they do need to do all the things. But the order needs to be: Fix, balance, then add. They can’t bring anyone back if the game is still borked.

#834

I’m not disagreeing. I doubt execs see this and think the same though.

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That’s 163 on the list below Kenshi, Squad, and Hell Let Loose.

BFV has 16K players. BF1 has 7K.

#835

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Someone took time to make these, lol.

#836

That’s so depressing. I know a few lapsed players that loved 2142 and stopped playing with that incarnation after playing 1942 and BF2 as well.

#837

What a fall Dice has taken. Used to be my favorite FPS. shame…

#838

Season 1 delayed to Summer.

Highlights:

  • In-game voice chat, scoreboard, and player stats are highest priority
  • Map design feedback taken to heart and future maps will be discussed with community
  • Ultimate and Gold edition buyers will receive a bundle of cosmetic doodads
#839

So a MP game with 7 months of no new content, a bold move.

#840

Challenge everything!

#841

This has echoes of Anthem post-release, where they really needed to rework their itemization and add some new content. And as the months of nothing happening dragged on, the playerbase continued to dwindle.

Arguably, I think BF2042 is going to require more work to get up to speed than Anthem did. And they never bothered with actually doing anything with Anthem. Given that BF is an established IP and they sold a year one pass I’m guessing they’ll do more than nothing but I’m doubtful they’ll be willing to put in the work required.

#842

I think they’ll do exactly what they did with BFV. People will get some big fixes/additions that are critical like the voice chat and scoreboard, then 3 anemic seasons of barebones content. The 4th will be an attempt at a soft relaunch like the BFV Pacific update but it will end the same way.

#843

I’m impressed that they managed to do this again with BF2042 after BFV. It’s like they learned nothing. I’m kind of glad I did EA Play so at least I can potentially play some other things.

#844

Yeah, that’s something.

#845

EA’s on the hook for the year one pass content but you can tell they’ve already stuck a fork in this one.

I sure picked the time to come back to the Battlefield franchise after a decade hiatus, eh? :)

#846

Me too. I gave up and uninstalled it a couple of days ago. The market is so saturated these days, who has time for such mediocrity? I really regret buying it, in retrospect I should’ve just subbed to play pro for a month. Lesson learned.

#847

From the BF reddit:

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#848

One of my good friends is a Battlefield super fan. Every time they release a new version he tries to get everyone on board and relive his glory days of Battlefield Vietnam, which I think was his favorite in the series.

Every time we try it, it sucks and we all quit after like 2 or 3 sessions. It’s so bad some of us disappear from gaming for months. He got us all to try BF 2042 because there was a 10 hour demo and it left such a bad taste in our mouths we haven’t played an FPS together since November. We played for maybe 90 minutes.

I don’t understand how Dice keeps churning out the video game equivalent of Matrix 4 or Season 8 GoT over and over and over again and EA doesn’t make changes. Their dumb Frostbite engine has not only ruined their own franchise, it ruined Mass Effect too and I hate them for it.

#849

As I understand it, DICE forked off the BF2042 engine as soon as BFV was complete. So all of the improvements and additions made over the years to BFV never made it into 2042. And since BFV was so relatively feature incomplete at launch, BF2042 was in the same boat at launch.

But if the Next Battlefield game engine was forked off of BF2042 as soon as it was completed, and BF2042 is so feature incomplete…

It’s the definition of insanity.

#850

Hahahaha. Oh man.

EA said in January that the 3.3 update featuring the “refreshed scoreboard” would roll out in mid to late February, following a smaller 3.2 update that would bring in changes to Battlefield Portal’s XP system and a number of performance optimizations. But the 3.2 update also introduced stability problems, which developer DICE attempted to stamp out with a hotfix released today.

“Our next update after today’s hotfix will now roll out in early March,” EA said via the Battlefield Direct Communication Twitter account, after the hotfix went live. “This is a change from our last message to you all on its intended release. The extra time will help to ensure we improve the quality of our updates, and include additional changes.”