20 Hz STR, 64 players and hybrid maps issues

2...

Vehicles need balance and defined roles. I won't talk too much about that. For instance, jets feel unkillable by infantry, and it seems like there are not enough dog fights for pilots. Then they seem like they have no defined role. 

Hinds and condors are flying fortresses and have too much attack power in comparison to attack helicopters. 

With the dumb fire rockets,.there is not weight on the decision chosing between these rockets or AGM if the jet wants to support infantry. The dumb fire is the gun to go for both Air to Air and Air to ground fights. 

Helicopters around buildings, playing the objective and supporting infantry should not bother with jets flying high and vice versa. Those niches should not mix. They do because jets are too easy to maneuver, and since there are not enough dog fights (they don't last long enough), what are they gonna do? So perhaps two jets for each team would be better than one, and a more defined role for the rockets is needed. There can't be one silver bullet for all issues. 

So, vehicle needs some balance and defined roles (MAV and Brawler are too good with AA for instance, and not as good for fighting infantry as the RAM.

So here is where the map design flaws are more evidently crossing over with vehicle balance: WILDCATS

The wildcats are good examples of how they are not fit for the 64 player maps. They have too much range, so they camp on the spawn/HQ. 

Wildcats are camping too much. Since their range increase to 700 m on the mini guns somewhere on Season 2, when DICE also made them weaker vs tanks, they have been camping in the spawn/HQ forever, making them virtually indestructible, and very annoying. Wildcats do not play objectives and barely take advantage of the many seats they have. So what is the point of having more seats available?

In maps like the 64 player Kaleidoscope and Exposure, Wildcats spawn aiming directly at all other air vehicles, destroying them without leaving their spawn area. Then they stay there. 

Both sides start the game with air vehicles within the other Wildcat's reach, HEADS ON IN A STRAIGHT LINE!!! 

These 64 player maps reveal HORRIBLE MAP DESIGN FLAWS (Kaleidoscope and Exposure), but it wouldn't be so abd if the reach of the 30mm cannons wasn't 700 m.

Whoever made the decision to buff the reach of the 30mm guns did not consider the size of the 64 player version maps.

Finally, with Stranded, Spearhead and Flashpoint being designed for either 64 or 128 players, the Wildcats must move up a little bit, but barely. They are still annoying, camping, and it feels so frustrating that they can do so much damage from within the HQ area, where you can't use a rocket against them, much less use C5 if you are infantry and you feel like the wildcat is ruining your team's aerial support. There is nothing we can do against those wildcats. 

Not that I mind the infantry game with less helicopters around, but when the opposite team is doing that and my team has no helicopters to deal with the helicopters, we get destroyed by helicopters. 

So it is imbalance on top of imbalanced. 

The wildcats must come out and play. Get some sun, meet people... Not stay in their spawn/HQ forever (or too close to the HQ).

WILDCATS MUST BE ENCOURAGED TO PLAY THE OBJECTIVE.

First, the range of the 30mm guns and maybe the overheating and spread need to be nerfed. The AA rocket range has to be reduced. 

To encourage this behavior and make this difference evident, perhaps the the firepower of the second and third seats should be increased vs infantry, to show that the wildcat has a strong infantry fighting potential. As a 4-seater, it should be used alone. And the wildcats will be used with more than one soldier as soon as the second and third seats players feel compensated to do that, and I'd the wildcat is around a flag moving up to the next flag as a transport, where they should then clash with attack and transport helicopters within 1 to 2 flags up reach. 

Or the wildcats could be different on the 64 and 128 player version. 

Anyway, I spoke a lot to show that:

• - the 64 player maps should not be smaller versions of the 128 player.
• - some maps need review.
• - Hybrid maps (identical for both 128 and 64 players) are usually too crowded with 128 players and too empty with 64.
• - Tailoring on vehicle respawn time should be in agreement with map size.
• - Just reducing # of tanks by 2 is not sufficient for the 64 players maps. The # of engineers per area to deal with tanks is much smaller, as well as the are they cover, so vehicles, although sparse and more slowly, will be more dominant in the 64 players maps. 
• The 128 player maps BECAME too chaotic with vehicles now with classes. But the Hybrid maps, became excessively chaotic. 
• - MAV, brawler etc. are more annoying on the 64 player version.
• - Vehicles need to have more defined roles
• - - - Example: decision on AA-12 vs AA vs AGM must have some weight. No silver bullets! Teamwork. This will help balance their presence vs infantry.
• - Wildcats must stop camping. All vehicles must stop camping. Some people camp with boltes and LATV recon, so, review distance of the 30 and 50 mm cannons, or reduce the vertical movement freedom from these turret so they shoot more straight and focus on infantry and not double down as anti airs. These vehicles gotta be more like the EBLC-RAM, wich puts in the work running around and supporting infantry.
• Putting 2 and 2 together, after the classes were reintroduced, vehicle presence must be back on the discussion table. 
• 20 Hz STR is way too 1950's, telegram, dial up internet tech. The difference from 20 Hz to 45 Hz with lag makes the guns play differently in both versions.
• The old gen version of BF2042 feels 8 bit ports of 16 bits and arcade games. 

20Hz and 45Hz are arguably some of the worst tick rates to use in a game like BF. High RoF weapons with fast TTK with high-speed vehicles and aircraft. Nothing syncs with 45Hz (22.22ms) and 20Hz (50ms) is WAY too slow for a FPS in 2023. 

With 20Hz, so many updates are bundled, it is not even funny. With 45Hz, since it is not a divisible value, even though the updates are faster, bundling still has to occur, just not as often as 20Hz.

At a minimum, it should've been 30Hz for last-gen consoles and 60Hz for current-gen and PC, but DICE.

@AdamonicYes. And we understand the limitations from 60 to 45 in costs with 128 players per map for the 300 k players they expected simultaneously, but now, with the actual numbers being 10 times lower than the projections, the LEAST they could -- because I don't want to have brutal expectations -- is up the 20 Hz to 30.

The BEST they could do is put it at 45 Hz. We would appreciate that. 

Well, I wrote a lot about vehicles balance, I just want to show DICE that I presented reasons to review:

64 vs 128 players maps design choices

How classes changed vehicle presence

Why vehicles need to have more defined roles (changing repairs won't cut it)

How hybrid maps don't work well for both 128 and 64 players. Too crowded and too empty. These maps could be fixed by removing the first two flags on each side on the 64 p version, and the vehicle rebalance would fix the excessive chaos on 128 p version.

Vehicle presence must be toned down again.

@Straatford87 Could you, please, bring these topics to your next development round table?  

@EA_Atic 

Despite the broken Ingrish and long sentences, can someone, please, give me a nod? 

Just toss in the balance discussion the wildcat range in 64 p maps (in Kaleidoscope it won't matter), 64 p in general, and hybrid maps, 20 Hz and vehicle balance, vehicle role and overall vehicle presence, which feels very different after classes. Just a few lines in the whiteboard. 

Some solutions are really simple and won't take more than a man before it is tested, and there you go, you got something to do for Season 5 (or after that) to keep the game alive and refreshed.