S087 infantry main with 400+ hrs and 50000+ weapon kills here. Map design has been an issue of concern in my stream chat for the past few months and I'm glad to see that DICE are not only committed to addressing this issue but are also reaching out to the community for feedback. I have 300+ hrs in 64p breakthrough alone as it lends itself more to infantry balance. Here's my two cents on everything related to breakthrough map design:
Which maps presently provide a poor opening experience because of the location of the Base Spawn?
- Discarded - 300m of completely bare grassland between the Attacking Base Spawn and A1/A2 (both 128 and 64p). Extremely easy to spawn camp.
- Renewal - 200m of open desert between Attacking Base Spawn and rocky outcrop near A1 (mainly 64p). Relatively easy to spawn camp.
- Kaleidoscope - 200-400m of relatively open grassland between Attacking Base Spawn and A1 (both 128 and 64p). Difficult to push between points of cover as an attacker.
- Hourglass - 150m of open desert between Attacking Base Spawn and A1 (64p). Relatively easy to spawn camp from hill.
Which maps are making it harder to get back into the fight in an all cap scenario?
How do you feel about the current balance between Infantry and Vehicles in Breakthrough?
- Infantry/vehicle balance is relatively well balanced in the 64 player BT mode (BT64). The small play area of each sector lends itself to a closer engagement distance, meaning that infantry is more likely to be able to C5/Recoilless vehicles. Specific maps would benefit from tweaks to vehicle numbers on BT64 to improve balance (i.e. permit 1 air vehicle on Renewal first sector to counter long-range attack heli 30mm spam).
- However, the 128 player BT mode (BT128) is heavily weighted towards vehicles. Although there are more players to contend with, the increased play area of each sector allows vehicles to engage from relatively long distances and retreat and repair with ease. Add to this the fact that 4 M5C Boltes can be called in simultaneously. As such, infantry (especially on defence) can suffer a constant barrage of long-range vehicle spam and have little ability to close the distance to the vehicle without exposing themselves to infantry or other vehicles (or the vehicle can simply drive away into the massive play area between Base Spawn and the objective).
Have you played 64 player Breakthrough, and do you feel that this is the better way to experience the mode?
Yes - I have 300+ hours in 64 player Breakthrough. It is my mode of choice due to:
- Improved infantry/vehicle dynamics (described above)
- Decreased 'chaos' and increased gameplay directionality (i.e. I can focus on what's in my field of view and worry less about being shot from 360 degrees at all times)
- Improved hit registration consistency
- Most importantly: Greater sense of effecting an outcome (i.e. no matter how well I play, my actions/plays feel meaningless in BT128 whereas I sense that I can affect the outcome in a situation in BT64)
On which maps and Flags do you see the most immediate need for more line of sight blockers?
From a breakthrough point of view:
- Discarded
- Most importantly: Area between the Attacking Base Spawn and A1/A2 (both 128 and 64p)
- Area between A1 and A2 (128p)
- Area between A1/A2 and B1 (64p)
- Renewal
- Area between the Attacking Base Spawn and A1/A2 (both 128 and 64p)
- Area between the rocky outcrop next to A1/A2 (solar panel station) and B (checkpoint in wall) (both 128 and 64p)
- Most importantly: Area between B and C (both 128 and 64p)
- Orbital
- Area between the Attacking Base Spawn and A1/A2 (both 128 and 64p)
- Open runway area between B1 and B2 (64p)
- Most importantly: Open runway area between B1/B2 and C1 (both 128 and 64p)
- Hourglass
- Area between the Attacking Base Spawn and A1 (64p)
- Area between B1 and C1 (64p)
- Most importantly: Area between B1, B2 and B3 (128p)
- Manifest
- Most importantly: Area between the Defence Base Spawn and A1/A2 (64p)
- Road between B1 and B2 (both 128 and 64p)
- Grassy hill behind depot on B2 (64p)
- Area between the Defence Base Spawn and C1 (64p)
- Kaleidoscope
- Most importantly: Area between the Attacking Base Spawn and A1/A2 (both 128 and 64p)
- Open concrete area next to A1/A2 leading to B1 (64p)
- Open concrete area next to water between A1/A2 and B1 (128p)
- Open area of C2 (128p)
- Breakaway
- Area between B1 and B2 (near C1) (64p)
- Most importantly: Area between A1 and A2 (128p)
- Gravel slope near B1 (128p)
- Most importantly: Open ice expanses near B2 (128p)
- Gravel hilly area near C1 (128p)
Do you have specific areas on maps that currently stand out to you as lacking cover?
See response above. Line of sight blockers and more cover can be used interchangeably in all areas mentioned.
Do you have thoughts on how we can better define traveling paths between objectives to keep combat focused?
I wouldn't mind seeing pathing on other maps be inspired by the drainage ditches on Renewal. I tend to use these as 'pseudo-trenches' between B and C2 and between C and D on BT64. Seeing something resembling these 'trenches' implemented on Discarded, Kaleidoscope, Hourglass and Breakaway would be highly effective at directing infantry in the map's intended flow due to the inherent cover they provide.
Do you see improvement opportunities to make it easier to understand how to get from one objective to the next?
Other than 'pseudo-trenches,' I believe that more solid cover needs to be added to the open areas mentioned such that the average distance between places of solid cover decreases. In this way, infantry will be more able to pick their own way from one objective to the next without feeling necessitated to take an extremely wide berth or throw wall after wall of smoke between the sparse points of solid cover.
I hope this feedback helps in some way!
Trigger
