Battlefield 2042: DICE Releases New Blog Post Addressing Map Complaints And Feedback

Since the release of Battlefield 2042 last November, DICE and EA have been in an uphill battle when it comes to making fans of the series happy. The game launched with bugs – read about how that affects the overall experience in Game Informer’s Battlefield 2042 review – and since then, players have asked for changes to the scoreboard, map, overall performance, and more. In fact, some players have created a petition for a Battlefield 2042 refund that’s been signed by over 70,000 people. 

DICE has been open in its discussion with players on how to fix the game and now, it’s released a lengthy blog post addressing five main topics of feedback in regards to the maps of Battlefield 2042. 

“Based on your feedback, we’ll outline 5 main topics we’ve identified around the current problems that we face with gameplay on maps, their cause, and our current thought process and proposed changes on addressing these problems,” DICE community manager Freeman writes. “Our intent for this is to be an open discussion with you, so we’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback about our updated design goals for maps to ensure that we’re making the right calls to bring improvements to the gameplay experience.”

Let’s break down those five main topics: 

Traversal

DICE states that it understands players’ frustration with the travel time from flag to flag or when it takes them to reach their destination after being spawned at a base. DICE claims these large distances can be attributed to the huge maps that were created in order for 128 players to use. However, it also understands the impact on overall gameplay. The studio even agrees that “there’s too much overall travel time.” 

As for how it plans to fix it, it’s looking to reduce the overall travel time between flag and base sapwns on some maps, moving both to help with that. DICE requests that players share their frustrations with the maps they are having trouble traversing. 

High intensity

DICE claims that the 128 player modes in Breakthrough are responsible for the match’s intensity. Sometimes, it is difficult to push for an objective when too many players are involved, making things chaotic. This happens even more when vehicles or objectives are added. 

“In terms of improvements, we are presently reviewing if it makes sense to keep Breakthrough as 128 players vs 64, or if we feel that a reduction of the total number of vehicles that can spawn ensures that their presence isn’t as overwhelming,” Freeman writes. “In the leadup to the Holidays, we introduced 64 player Breakthrough, and recently made some changes to the ticket values across the mode based on behaviors we were seeing in the final objective phase. Right now, we feel that Breakthrough on 64 players provides the best experience of Breakthrough.” 

DICE however wants to find out what players think and how they would improve the mode. The DICE wants to see if Breakthrough is a good choice for the moment. 

Line of sight

When DICE refers to Line of Sight, it’s in regards to how often you’re takin fire from enemies at a distance. DICE believes that the game’s maps are not sufficiently flat and open for players to play in. It also places too much emphasis on close-quarter combat between objects. DICE’s current plan for improvement is to ensure there are more opportunities to hide yourself from enemy line of sight while traversing from objective to objective, with an overall goal to reduce the big focus on long-range combat present in the game at the moment. 

DICE claims it has already begun to address this issue and that improvements are being made to maps. DICE wants to find out which flags and maps players have the greatest need for line-of-sight blockers. 

The Paths

DICE stated that Battlefield 2042 lacks clear routes to objectives. DICE acknowledges that enemy fire can come from any angle, and DICE is aware of the challenges this creates when protecting an objective. 

“We’re presently looking to bring improvements into the paths that we have on our maps, to make clearer and more defined paths while traveling between objectives in order to keep combat focused, and to make it easier to understand how to get from one objective to the next,” Freeman writes. “If you have thoughts or example that align to those goals, please don’t be shy to show us.” 

Protective Cover

The fifth and final topic of feedback DICE is looking into regarding Battlefield 2042 maps is cover, or rather, the lack of cover across the game’s maps. The company claims it is working to reduce long-range, direct combat among objectives and to provide sufficient cover when traveling between the objectives. 

“We are looking to address this by reviewing the need for additional cover in places where we feel that they’re needed,” Freeman writes. “In line with what has been discussed in some of our other focus areas, our intent is to reduce the likelihood of being fired at from a 360-degee angle, and to take away that Hail Mary feeling of running onto no man’s land between objectives. If you have any specific areas on maps that are currently standing out to you which lack cover, then we’d love to hear from you.” 

Here’s a look at two examples of what all of these changes could look like in-game one day: 

As for when to expect changes addressing these five topics, DICE says it will take “substantial development time” and that as a result, “not all of these proposed changes will be available to you in-game simultaneously across all of our library of maps.” The immediate priority areas of focus is to make improvements to Kaleidoscope on both Conquest and Breakthrough. 

“We know that we have the most opportunity to improve gameplay on this map, and this is where you can expect to see the first updates to land,” DICE community manager Freeman writes in the blog post. “We’re currently planning to deliver updates specifically to Kaleidoscope during Season One, and your feedback will help us to not only optimize the changes that we’re making to this map, but best inform us on where our focus on improving maps should move to next.” 

DICE goes into a lot more detail for not just these five main topics of discussion, but the future of 2042’s map design so if you’re interested in that, be sure to read the full blog post. Continue reading Game Informer’s Battlefield 2042 review and then check out this story about how Respawn’s Vince Zampella has become the new head of Battlefield amidst wider franchise changes. 

Is Battlefield 2042 still your favorite game? Comment below to let us know your thoughts on it!