OK. A few things.
- The maps are too wide-open for infantry, almost without exception. Hundreds and hundreds of meters of open space where infantry are completely exposed to helicopters and armor. And it doesn't help that all of the "transport" vehicles are also fantastic at killing infantry. Hourglass is the worst about this but all seven Conquest maps have far too much open space where infantry is completely exposed. As an infantry player, this makes it no fun. These maps need to be reworked. You can't fix these maps by shifting Conquest flags...improve, *maybe*. But fix? No.
- INFANTRY. ONLY. MAPS. Give us a Metro. Give us a Locker. Give us a Pearl Market with a couple of MAVs and no air. Or at least give us large areas of mixed-mode maps that are not accessible to vehicles (indoors, underground, etc.) where we can have infantry vs. infantry fights. The infantry-only maps on BF4, for example, are STILL the most populated maps and servers eight years later. I genuinely do not understand how you did not grasp this during development, and came up with seven maps that play virtually identically.
- Yes, BF2042 is basically a jogging simulator if you play infantry, are not with a squad, and can't coordinate to mount a vehicle. Would it be possible to add extra cap points on the main lanes between current cap points on some of these really big maps, with the new cap points having buildings and some cover for infantry? Ideally we should not have to leg it for 600m+ to get to a fight.
- I know a lot of people love 128-player Breakthrough. I don't. It's just a giant clusterbleep repetition of spawn-die-spawn-die. There are certain areas (Respawn A area for example) where you can be sniped or blown up from spawn, on either side, plus Nightbirds and Boltes will be on top of you in SECONDS after the start of the game, before you have any chance to prepare. That's unacceptable. The problem with 2042's 128-player Breakthrough is that, unlike the fantastic Breakthrough mode in BF1, it's way too easy to flank. BF1 Breakthrough was a grind, you had to force a wedge into the enemy defense and push them back to open a hole to the flag. In BF2042? Farm the cap point with Nightbirds while a couple of Sundances jump out of Condors and set up insertion beacons 100 meters BEHIND any coherent defense you can set up. Every flag defense is instantly a hedgehog instead of a defensive line. And with the huge amount of vehicles and their ability to be on top of you in mere seconds, it's nothing but Infantry Farming Simulator 2042. You MIGHT be able to fix that by dropping to 64 players, although if you do that, I expect the maps will need significant adjusting or else things will get too spread out. However, you'll still have the issues with the modern mobility you have in this setting making it incredibly easy to flank any defense, and with a lack of cover around the points making it way too easy to just use HE to solve all your problems. As weird as this sounds, the same maps that are way too big for 128-player Conquest are almost--almost--too *small* for 128-player Breakthrough. At least in their ability to provide defenders any breathing space.
- Nowhere near enough destruction/levelution. Not even close. I know this doesn't pertain so much to flow between control points in either game mode, but still, there is a pitiful amount of the classic Battlefield destruction when compared to even BF4, much less BF1/5. Plus the maps need to be much, much, MUCH grittier and dirtier. Everything's too clean and polished. Where's the trash? Where's the slums? It feels like we're fighting on a soundstage compared to every previous Battlefield since BF3. And I'm sorry, the tornado might've been cool in trailers, but in practice it's the epitome of "meh." It's an annoyance that adds nothing to gameplay.
- One small thing--review each map to see if there's points you can get rid of or even whole areas. That cliffside point on Breakaway...why is it there? Does anybody ever fight over the thing? It just get shadowcapped back and forth from what I've seen.
In short...I appreciate that you are listening to us now and giving us this opportunity to provide feedback. But you don't need us to tell you now. We've been telling you since November. Let's be honest, you knew this TWO YEARS AGO. And still you gave us seven of the worst maps in Battlefield history. If your execs didn't know what was wrong with this game 12 months ago, they shouldn't have been developing a Battlefield game. It's that simple. Look to the past to see what worked, then build on that for the future.
