Dev's Need to Learn From PS3's MAG

There are a lot of people that are complaining about the number of players in a game, vehicles being OP or being demolished instantly, an ungodly number of snipers, and a whole host of other issues.

But that's really not the root of the problem. As an example, I'll point to MAG. It launched on PS3, and lasted until shortly after the release of the PS4... and the kicker is you had modes with 256 players at once. It didn't have issues with player count, or too many of a specific weapon, vehicles, or the fire support abilities. In fact, the biggest issues it faced were unbalanced factions - because you were locked into the one you chose, and the Raven kiddies sucked.

Bigger isn't always better. BF2042's maps are entirely too large. When players are suiciding to respawn somewhere else, there's an issue. They're entirely too open between objectives. MAG's maps were setup so that players were mostly fighting over a handful of objectives at a time, and so that there was always a way to approach or defend the area without you being sniped every time you spawn, or being blown to pieces by rockets or mortars.

And that gave squad leaders (and platoon leaders) purpose. They'd call out objectives - or talk to their team through voice chat - and support their team with calls for smoke, mortar strikes, etc. What purpose does a squad leader have in BF currently? Sure, you can mark an objective. But let's be real. With the current map design an objective is either being mobbed by half the team, or it's a desolate wasteland.

And while we're on a lack of purpose and identity, let me point to the perfect example in the loadouts. The 45-70. The only reason the gun is there is because it was cool in CoD. That's it. It's essentially a DMR with less damage and capacity than the other options. Why? Because it's not even based off a 45-70, it's based off another game's implementation of one, so what you get is a weapon that has no flavor, no purpose, and no reason to use it over anything else. That's a far cry from what current 45-70's are. They're brush guns. Faster than a bolt action, slower than a semi-auto. WAY less range than both, but more maneuverable than both - and capable of killing anything in North America and some of Africa in a single shot. Translated to a game, it's high risk high reward. Hit your shot, get the kill. Miss, you get mowed down by an automatic - cause you'd mainly be using it under 150 yards. Instead of actual flavor like that - it's like all the rest. Headshot = kill. So why gimp yourself on fire rate and magazine capacity? There's literally no reason to use it when there are other better options.

That extends to virtually every other piece of equipment. Throwing out respawn beacons and sensors... why? Almost every objective on the map is only being assaulted by crickets. The other 1 or 2 are swarming with players and vehicles which makes anti-vehicle and c4 the best option. Even if you're just camping a rooftop with the other 20 people sniping.

Which again brings us back to map design. If it didn't take 5 minutes to trek across the map to assault an objective (assuming you aren't wiped out in the open field first), there might actually be a reason to stick around and defend, and set up early warning sensors. Or to flank and setup a respawn beacon. But if you aren't in the one contested objective, you aren't getting XP. You aren't unlocking attachments. You aren't doing anything really. At that point, you're playing a walking simulator or killing yourself to spawn somewhere else.

We had large player count shooters 11 years ago. It was a blast.  Every weapon and item had it's own flavor and purpose. Every map was balanced enough that any weapon could be used where you were and were going. You were never a minute away from the action unless you made the Raven kids rage quit. Even with BF2042's mediocre gunplay, if the devs learned from a handful of things done right in other games, BF2042 would be a better game than it is today.

The problem that needs to be addressed isn't the XP farm servers. It's the design that's the problem. XP farms, like all the other issues, are just a symptom.