Battlefield 2042 devs have outlined where they think the map design went so badly wrong. In the same feedback post, also they announced their plans for improvements and future content.
When asking, why was Battlefield even worse than Cyberpunk, we could point to a number of problems: the Specialists, the weapons, or even the lack of a campaign. But the biggest single target is probably the poor map design. EA have owned up to that mistake in a recent feedback post. Here's where they said they went wrong, and the plan going forward.
The Problem With Battlefield Maps According To EA
In a recent feedback post, EA devs outlined what they saw as the five main problems with the current Battlefield 2042 maps, and gave a little detail on how they hope to improve those issues. Here's a quick overview of what's apparently wrong with the maps right now:
- Traversal: the maps are too big, even for 128 players.
- "We’ve seen you use terms such as “Walking Simulator” to describe how this feels in-game. We understand that this isn’t a satisfying experience and agree that there’s too much overall travel time."
- Intensity: combat is focused on to one or two chaotic areas, rather than being spread across the map.
- "We know that during certain pushes for the objective, it can get too chaotic when fighting over flags; either there are too many players, or vehicles, and sometimes the overall chaos can make it feel overwhelming when accurately trying to assess what’s happening around you."
- Line of sight: because you can see everything on the map so easily, there's very little reason to use anything besides snipers.
- "We feel, and have heard from you, that there are presently too many open and flat spaces on some of our maps, which puts too much focus on direct long-distance combat between objectives."
- Paths: there are no lanes of play and too many angles, so you never experience short-range combat.
- "Without a clear intended path, enemy fire is more often coming in from all possible angles."
- Cover: the maps don't have any - they feel like boring, open fields.
- "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-degree angle, and to take away that Hail Mary feeling of running onto no man’s land between objectives."
How Will The Battlefield 2042 Maps Change?
The only map they gave details about improving was Kaleidoscope, which they hope to rework for Conquest and Breakthrough by repositioning the flags. You can see their blueprints for the rework beneath.
Here's how it will look in Conquest:
Bringing the objectives closer together should help, but this isn't exactly the rework we were hoping for with new buildings and such.
And here's how Kaleidoscope will look in Breakthrough:
Again, the idea here is to bring objectives closer together. This should resolve quite a few issues, but we still need them to actually design new pieces of cover to create lanes of play.
When Will The Battlefield Map Reworks Be Released?
The first map change to Kaleidoscope is apparently coming during Season One, which won't begin until June 2022. It's a shame that such fundamental changes won't be implemented in-game until six months after release, but the bigger concern is whether EA will lose their lawsuit and be forced to refund every copy of the game...
We'll keep you updated, until then why not try a finished product, like 2022's (potential) game of the year?