If a map from the beginning is flawed, it will always be flawed and have issues.
All the maps provide poor opening experience on breakthrough just because you can launch a damn jet into a crowd of 30 people, like come on,
this is a direct line of sight to the defending/attacking team depending on map (orbital). Jets should be locked behind a timer,
maps need to spawn players inside of buildings not right outside of the objective in the open. The game is lacking very very easy changes
that seem to take for ever to "figure out and test".
All the maps are lacking in every area, games like Squad and Arma have large maps due to being more realistic in certain aspects, and slower movement.
Battlefield is not realistic at all. You need to take in account of Lanes, pathing, mirco terrain cover (squad uses this in some of their
map design).
As someone who mod's in my free time outside of work, the maps are lacking major cover, there is no lanes to separate infantry and
vehicles. You need to account lanes, more variation in landscape scultping, take a look at operation outbreak from BF4.
This has a good flow, you have multiple height variations for infantry vs vehicles, and china rising has better balance compared to BF2042
You need to overhaul not just the objectives but the actual geo of the maps, you need to add more cover in the empty spaces, more area's
for infantry (hour glass im looking at you). There's too many dunes, and less interior spaces for infantry to find cover from vehicles.
Kashan Desert from Project reality had a great combination of Infantry vs vehicles despite being a open desert. You had bunkers that led
underground for infantry that gave them a break from combined forces. Start adding things not just in the open due to destruction but
underground. Stop putting objectives on buildings and remove the ability to put vehicles on top of them. Thats insanely bad map design.
Maps are lacking any type of cover, any type of "safety" for infantry, and any balance of ticket count (tickets stacking on top of each other in breakthrough)
maps are mainly lacking flow, there is literally no flow to any of the maps, none. You just run in a straight line to the next objective on breakthrough
no flow for vehicles, no flow or lanes for anyone. Its empty, no matter how much you move objectives on any of the maps, there is no flow
and thats the problem, this issue from what i can tell began since the map layout and design.
To me it doesnt seem like there was any account of High level design documents or any level documents at all. You need to rebuild these maps from the ground up,
moving objectives on a map that had flaws since blockout will not fix your issues.
"Do you have specific areas on maps that currently stand out to you as lacking cover?" im sorry but what, really? Hour glass, that entire
dumpster fire of a map of just "dunes" literally has no solid cover, and barely any concealment for majority of the map. You need to go in
and redesign the base maps, they need lanes, they need "structure" right now, its not even being held up by duct tape and popsicle sticks.
Most maps are missing any kind of cover, from interiors, to rocks, to cliffs. Breakaway is basically the only one that has somewhat decent
cover, and thats just because of icebergs and some buildings littered here and there. You need to go back to the board and draw up
new lanes, and you need to adjust maps to play counts. If they're objectively bad for 128, they're gonna be bad for 64 based on the lack of
any cover and balance between vehicles and infantry.
Infantry is always in the open, some maps like renewal have some interiors, but thats it. Add some conquest points in between the giant portions of maps
like on hourglass, there needs to be a bit more points to spread out the fighting, and those points just cant be in the open, they need actual
interior's that give infantry a break from dying in the open constantly.
"Do you have thoughts on how we can better define traveling paths between objectives to keep combat focused?"
Yes. YOU NEED TO TEST AND TEST AND TEST. Take a look at BF4 had some of the best level design for a BF game, alleys break away from streets
streets that lead to a building complex that has a big parking lot.
Natural foliage, cliffs, rock reveal creating lands with hills (Operation outbreak good example with a mix of tree's rocks and higher elevation
that allows infantry to run through. Make maps with smaller "maps" in them, like little lanes)
Movement in general is not longer fluid and feels clunky, get BFV's movement back, that was really really good. It felt smooth and fluid between running and going to ADS. Now it just feels clunky and like a mess to just run.
DICE Team
