Core Feedback - Maps, Next Steps | Discussion Thread

Traversal:

Removing traversal by foot was not a high demand.  Making it less painful to traverse by foot was.  Adding transport vehicles would be nice (not sure how implementing a jeep that carries 4 people kills a game’s performance, but this is DICE we’re talking about so I’ll buy that for a dollar), but shouldn’t be your sole solution.  I was able to traverse most BF maps by foot in the past with little problems/pain if a vehicle wasn’t available.  It is a map design issue more than it is a vehicle one.  Add a jeep….it’s that easy for the quick solution.  You are going from A to B through Z with this “motor pool mixup.”

Cover And Line of Sight:

Not sure what these pictures are supposed to be demonstrating.  All I see are randomly blurred out parts from small/vague screenshots.  If anyone can point out what I’m supposed to be noticing, that’d be appreciated.

Immersion:

Plopping down a dirt FOB in the middle of a Pristine city doesn’t make it more immersive.  If anything, I’m wondering why the city that had the funds to keep the rest of the area immaculate wouldn’t afford the PMCs providing them their freedoms with sufficient resources to build a base.  Don’t know about you but I’m more interested in preserving and fighting for civilian structures that could revitalize their economy or support their medical capacity….not some HESCO barriers.

Intensity:

Vehicle dominance caused by poor map design.  A killing lane from on high where vics can just camp and obliterate infantry was a huge problem on Breakaway where you decided to put a flag with no cover is a prime example of what I’m talking about. 

The chaos is because of the 128 players in and of themselves, let alone no way to communicate in conjunction with role confusion caused by the specialist system were the three big culprits.  This was exacerbated by map design.  Add to this the Helo murder fest that was the littlebird and the ineffectiveness of the MANPADs made it impossible to forge any direction as the foot soldiers were simply taking it from all angles (both laterally and vertically). 

Paths:

Again, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to get from this picture other than you removed a series of buildings and water recycling apparatuses.  Is this an out of bounds area now?  The pathing issue once again comes from map design choices due to the forcing of 128 players.  In order to accommodate that many people while having room to have large vehicular combat, there needs to be open space that does not help the cover-to-cover needs of infantry.  With the majority of the maps apparently wanting this level of “combined arms events” happening at every capture point on every map, you run into your infantry line of sight issues, cover issues, and traversal issues inherent with that choice.

Game Update Timeline:

    No one knows when Season 1 is going to be released with the exception of the vague “summer” time slot.  Is this June?  Is this the end of August?  If it is anything other than the first day of summer, you are in for a world of hurt.  With a steady 30% loss of players per month, you are looking at less than 1% of your player base remaining at its highest level of daily player numbers by the time June rolls around.  If you are content with the end of summer being the release of Season 1, you are looking at releasing a patch for your bots to play.  At that point, serious consideration should be given to holding all releases until you can soft-relaunch the game with a major patch that brings multiple maps, server browser, specialist removal, class system installment, and complete bug fixes.  You’ll really only have one chance to bring people back in large enough numbers to pull this game from the land of the dead.  If you do this release like it’s looking like you will, you will barely reach Season 2 with the legal obligation for burning resources (and whatever developer draws the short straw) for another 2 seasons to fill out the year’s sales promise.