Does EA hate vehicle gameplay?
One of the main reasons I play battlefield and not COD is the world of possibilities you have for vechicular mayhem in a Battlefield game that simply isn't present to the same degree in most of the other alternatives. I've long enjoyed using the various tanks, quads, choppers, trasnports of various kinds and aircraft that are part of this game, however BF2042 has dampened this quite a bit for me with a few decisions they have made.
I will mention that according to my T1 achievement for the Wildcat, I'm one of only .8 % who have a Tier 1 mastery of a vehicle. I will soon have several vehicles at Tier 1. The ONLY reason I mention that is to show that I enjoy and spend a lot of time in vehicles so that hopefully will give some weight to my feedback concerning vehicle gameplay in BF2042.
- No limit to the number of people who can take anti-armor kits because there are no limits on spawning with a particular class. Yes you have to spawn as an engineer to have access to the recoilless but If everyone in your squad wants to go engineer to have access to the recoilless and soon to be added RPG, this is allowed. You can also of course destroy vehicles with C4 though getting up close enough to do that is more tricky so recoilless is preferred for most.
Why does this matter? When I get in a vehicle these days it is pretty common to be hit with an overwhelming number of rocket attacks so that my vehicle is destroyed very quickly no matter the smoke, countermeasures, or repairs I use. There are SO many people running around with recoilless that after they pummel any people so foolish as to get into a vehicle, they have recoilless left over to recoilless snipe you as well as infantry. If the threat from a barrage of incoming recoilless isn't enough there's always mines and C4 and soon anti-armor grenades. This has gotten so bad these days that I've found no matter how good a person might be in a vehicle, they have a longer in game lifespan on foot than in a vehicle typically, save jets which are still very hard to take out without a squad dedicated to anti-air or a skilled Wildcat pilot. To avoid this I often take what I call the "Sniper tank" and use it at great distance to take out vehicles, both ground and air. I also prefer the Wildcat since it is rarely used that well to defend against enemy air power. - Damage on many of the armor weapons vs infantry is paltry. I think it's the secondary gunner position in the CAV that's labeled "Anti-air" I think, but the gun will literally overheat before you can kill an infantry with it's ridiculous pitiful attack, though it does ok damage to a chopper. This is just ludicrous. I used to love the 30MM pods on the stealth chopper but they nerfed that vs infantry so much I never use it any more. Now in the new season 5 update they are apparently removing most of the offensive firepower from many vehciles, particular those they apparently designated as transport only e.g. LATV4. I used to enjoy using the upgraded gun on the LATV to snipe other vehicles and sometimes infantry. Another option the devs have now removed in favor of infantry only battles. And I hate to imagine how much weaker the MAV, CAV, and other vehicles they intend as transport only will soon be in season 5l.
- Spotter only seats in vehicles are virtually NEVER used. We play Battlefield to have fun and NO one enjoys taking a spotter seat in a vehicle. Waste of a seat. Everyone wants to enjoy the seat they take and so this seat is almost always empty.
- Too many indestructible building corner posts that remain and cannot be traversed by any vehicles, often causing them to get stuck when navigating around the obstacle course that remains after destroying particularly wooden structores. This also includes tree stumps which always remain after destroying a tree.
- Can't even destroy turrents or other enemy placed items by running over them with a tank
I hope this plea to the devs of BF2042 to consider the fun factor for vehicular gameplay not just infantry. I know balance is very difficult but I'm hoping they can at least take these thoughts into consideration in future updates as it is one of the things that makes Battlefield distincitve from other well-known shooters.
Thanks