They can't, it is an asset count limitation in the game engine.
If they add cover, they have to get those assets from somewhere else on the map. So the only way to do that is to shrink the map. Then you can only have so many assets in a specific area, or the game will become unplayable.
So there are development constraints.
Also, comparing BF1 or BFV maps to this is not really a good comp. Look at some of the larger BF3 and BF4 maps. Take Golmud Railway for instance. There is a ton of open space with no cover.
Maps should have cover, and a route with cover to and from points, but there needs to be open space for vehicles as well.
BF2042 seems to fail on both parts. Some maps have so many random rock outcrops that you can't drive 10 feet without hitting one, yet not enough cover for infantry where it counts.
@Adamonic The asset count limitation never made sense to me. Sure there may very well be a limitation but then at some point, the person in charge of map design should've said "we need to radically rethink how we design maps so that there will always be enough cover with our limited assets" it seems like this was never said, hence how flat and cover-less the maps were at the game's launch. Only after launch were map remakes considered with this philosophy in mind but even then, moving some assets around can only do so much if the maps remain incredibly flat, like they were copied straight out of Google Maps.
A flat map done right I would wager is Operation Firestorm. Each objective had enough cover. Each objective was it's own small plateau, some slightly higher than others. And then you had a mountain by each base. So it's not to say flat maps are inherently bad map design but that 2042 did them in the worst way possible.
And just for argument's sake, the out of bounds part of the maps are huge! Like ridiculously huge before reaching a point where you'll fall off the map into the void! All that wasted performance rendering land you'll never walk on.
I don't understand this asset count limitation. The old Frostbite engine could do large maps with destruction all over the place, are you telling me that the year and a half DICE spent reprograming the engine damaged it in some way?
We have heard this before, in previous titles, where all kind of issues couldn't be changed because of "engine-limitations".
It is a bad excuse and they need to up their game, we don't want to hear "whining" of why they deliver a sub-par-product to the players.
Instead of improving Frostbite, they waste their time on stupid things like tornadoes (V2, Behemoths etc) and totally changing up the game-play between each title.
Dice just fails in every possible way, bad engine, bad game-design and they again disappointed the player-base with 2042.
Dice and Frostbite has become a bigger and bigger problem for EA, they perhaps need to remove both and try to move forward. I can't see the BF-franchise survive another disaster like BFV and 2042.
@Adamonic wrote:
They can't, it is an asset count limitation in the game engine.
If they add cover, they have to get those assets from somewhere else on the map. So the only way to do that is to shrink the map. Then you can only have so many assets in a specific area, or the game will become unplayable.
So there are development constraints.
Also, comparing BF1 or BFV maps to this is not really a good comp. Look at some of the larger BF3 and BF4 maps. Take Golmud Railway for instance. There is a ton of open space with no cover.
Maps should have cover, and a route with cover to and from points, but there needs to be open space for vehicles as well.
BF2042 seems to fail on both parts. Some maps have so many random rock outcrops that you can't drive 10 feet without hitting one, yet not enough cover for infantry where it counts.
Or the entire Armored Kill expansion in BF3
The whole "asset limitation" thing, to me, sounds like an excuse and bad design. I mean, how can a 10 year old game like Planetside 2 keep adding new stuff that alters the map (mobile base building specifically) and not have issues? And with DOUBLE the player count and utterly massive maps by comparison to even the largest of what's been found in any BF game?
