Battlefield Core Feedback - Maps - Feedback Thread

3 years ago

These are my (lengthy) thoughts on the AoW maps of 2042 as a primarily CQL player.

tl;dr The general issue with the 7 ‘All-Out Warfare’ maps in Battlefield 2042 is a lack of variety in terms of gameplay, frustrating vehicle spam resulting from the poor vehicle categorization and overall, an uninteresting experience both from an aesthetic and gameplay perspective.

AESTHETICS AND DETAILING

All of the maps have a very barebones aesthetic which makes it very uninteresting to play and interact with the environment. Every single object in the game is far too pristine and squeaky clean which ruins the immersion that had become a staple of the franchise since Bad Company 2.

Understandably, this might be a direct response to the visibility complaints from Battlefield V where some players complained about not being able to spot enemies due to the highly detailed environments, but with the increased spotting abilities in Battlefield 2042 and some lighting improvements, this probably wouldn’t have been an issue.

The maps in previous games felt a lot more alive and 'war-like', especially with the environmental effects (both audio and visual) that have been lacking in 2042. Smokes and distant gunfire in the background, visual changes to the levels as the round progresses, additional props like destroyed armoured vehicles, abandoned civilian vehicles, etc.

DESIGN AND LAYOUT

Personally, I don’t find the scale of the maps to be a problem. I fully believe that Conquest plays better when the combat is focused in and around the capture points, with the area in between restricted to smaller skirmishes and mostly travelling.

Travelling between objectives should be supported efficiently with transport vehicles but it should also take time and effort to reach new points in order to better balance the attack/defend flow of Conquest, something that has been missing in games like BF1 and BFV because the capture points were too close to one another, leading to the awful zerg-rushing meta. The dead area between objectives also needs more permanent cover to minimize situations where travelling on foot becomes a death sentence

The biggest issue however lies in the capture points themselves. A lot of the capture points are weirdly placed, and they’re quite uninteresting from a gameplay perspective.

D1 on Hourglass CQL is a good example of a poor capture point. It’s pretty much just a flat bit of land surrounded by houses that are outside the capture radius. Fighting on this capture point is boring because there is nothing interesting going on here. Even if you’re in a vehicle, you are still prone to getting ambushed and attacked from all angles with no way to protect yourself. I would love it if the area was condensed so the houses are part of the capture zone, with more permanent cover scattered in and around the objective.

Other maps face the same problem on various capture points. Some other examples of uninteresting/poor capture points (all on CQL) include:

Kaleidoscope B/C sectors (far too open and copy/paste in terms of layout)
Discarded B1/C1/D1 (extremely open and bland)
Orbital E1 (tiny and restrictive 2 tier layout surrounded by flat ground with zero cover to move around)

Capture points in Conquest should be treated as genuine points of interest and it should make sense to fight over them instead of fighting over a random house. Renewal is one of the maps where you genuinely feel like there is a ton of variety, where each sector has a strong identity and offers a fairly unique experience.

VARIETY AND IDENTITY

The levels in 2042 suffer from a lack of identity, unlike previous games where there was a clear distinction between infantry/combined arms/vehicle maps, offering something for everyone. Right now, every map is dominated by vehicles and it is pretty much a nightmare for infantry players. However, this isn’t necessarily down to the map design but rather the extremely poor vehicle categorization.

Almost every vehicle in 2042 has powerful weapons and because of the vehicle organization, it results in a high level of vehicle spam. Vehicles like the M5C Bolte are sectioned within the ‘transport’ category, which means there can be anywhere between 5-9 Boltes per side depending on the map. That’s an awful lot of firepower and it results in extremely frustrating moments for infantry players. The same applies to air vehicles.

Instead of nerfing vehicles into the ground and making them useless, I would prefer if the vehicle categories were re-assessed and looked something like this:

LIGHT TRANSPORT

Most abundant class of vehicles mainly focused on smaller scale transport
Quadbike / Hovercraft / LATV4

HEAVY TRANSPORT

Focused on larger scaled transport and moderate firepower
MAV / Condor

ARMOURED VEHICLES

MBT / LAV / Bolte

MBT has the most endurance and firepower to deal with vehicles. LAV acts as a multipurpose vehicle. M5C Bolte acts as a Light Tank with powerful anti-infantry weapons

HELICOPTERS

Attack Helicopter / Scout Helicopter

AIRCRAFT

Stealth Jets

Apart from the vehicle category issues, the maps also suffer from having every vehicle type available on each and every map. Tailoring vehicle types based on maps would really help give the existing maps a strong identity and provide a far more unique experience.

By mixing these vehicle type restrictions, there could be a greater variety of experiences such as Infantry Focus / Tank Focus / Ground Combat / Combined Arms / Vehicle Focus.

Maps like Kaleidoscope and Discarded are obvious candidates for an infantry-focused experience and the current number of vehicles on those maps are extremely frustrating to play against. Having a fewer number of vehicles and limited vehicle types would allow infantry to breathe and move around more comfortably.

Manifest suffers from air vehicle spam and would fare much better if it were a ground combat map that mostly involved tanks and LAVs instead of all vehicles.

Orbital, Renewal, Hourglass and Breakaway would be great choices for more combined arms/vehicle heavy maps. Hourglass in particular could become a tank focused map while Breakaway allows for a greater number of vehicles due to its size and layout.

An example of an ‘Infantry Focused’ vehicle layout