Go back to how it was.

Yeah, the situation is almost the exact opposite of what you've written.

There was a massive exodus of players specifically because of specialists after the honeymoon period of BF2042 wore off, hundreds of thousands of posts detailing why specialists / hero shooter mechanics do not fit the Battlefield franchise. There were other missing features / changes that were also highlighted such as a lack of server browser for AOW, no squad systems, the state of the maps and so on. However, specialists were probably the most hated of all the changes.

By April 2022 the game was down to a fifth of the current number of players we have now, probably even less as it wasn't on gamepass.

It was saved in part because of "legacy features" such as improving the scoreboard and then the start of season 1.

Easy mode is being able resupply, heal, anti tank and recon all by yourself which is what the game was before.

I am very happy they have gone back to classes and I hope they never ever ever ever try anything like specialists again.

They're all bad players, that's why. BF finally took a step forward and the 'class clowns' insisted on dragging it back. I can name another franchise that copy/pastes every year and I never touch it.

The specialists were fine, you had the flexibility to choose your playstyle. It's a sandbox shooter. Now that tools are removed or restricted the tank campers can hide and you've discarded any teamplay we had. Even the maps weren't THAT bad, maybe some areas that were empty like Discarded.

When you play with randos you have to adapt. No one player can win an entire game so the whole team has to work together loosely.

So my vote is for the end of classes and a return to the better version of the game we had pre-patch. If you want the old game, play the old games.

I'm not sure if this is satire, or if you are trolling yourself.

You claim that everyone who criticised specialists were bad players - that is calling most people who took issue with the game upon release as bad players, which was pretty much the entire player base.

To quote yourself "When you play with randos you have to adapt. No one player can win an entire game so the whole team has to work together loosely." which is why they had to go back to classes.

There was barely any semblance of teamwork because no one had to adapt; everyone could be kitted out to handle any possible situation without the need of anyone else, or the need to change their setup. As a result everyone just ran around like isolated headless chickens searching for kills.

As said, you could play as Medic, Support, Anti-Tank and Recon all in one kit, so you could one man army the server.

In all the games I've played since the patch the difference in teamplay is night and day and where there was basically no team play before, the game is now playing much closer to previous titles with players sticking together and supporting each other.

I've been playing Battlefield for quite a while. The only time I've seen actual teamwork is when I'm with friends using some sort of voip. Playing with groups of friends is the only answer to teamwork. There's too many players on the field with a lack of directional roles to coordinate teams. BFV did a pretty good job of incentivizing players to coordinate to gain points that you could spend, which was a fantastic idea. That's a better design in my opinion then Classes.

The amount of teamwork has been the same before and after that patch, that's my experience with over 1,000 hours in 2042. Classes will not fix that. It's just an annoyance at this point. It's one thing if the game was built on that foundation, but it wasn't. The game was specifically designed and balanced around Specialist. It was advertised one way, which I bought knowing that, and now we've gone a step backwards to try appease people complaining. Which we don't have any actual statistics to back who wants what, or why the game has essentially failed to retain players. There were 4.3 million copies sold in the first week apparently. The game sold well, how many of those people are on reddit and here complaining? Probably not the majority. Everything is speculation, and only Dice actually knows. A week after this update, watching Steamcharts, it hasn't improved much at all. People were more excited leading up to the patch if anything.

I personally was able to be a better teammate prior to the patch. The only reason you're seeing more "teamwork" is because they made parts of their kit that actually contribute outside of themselves permanent equipment in their load-outs.

I know many "vets" will argue with me on this, but Battlefield isn't about the Classes. It's a sandbox, arcade military themed shooter, and conquest has been the main mode since I've been playing. It's about working as a team to win, but not just because of the Classes and the dependencies they create. While that has been a part of the game for a long time, BF2042 did feel more modern in that aspect. I've done the Class thing forever at this point, I'm bored of it. I want to choose my load-out.

Like it or not, the Hero Shooter element in FPS games is sorta an evolution, it adds something new, but I understand if it's not everyone's cup of tea. Just like extraction shooters will probably be the next big thing, and I'm all for it. BF2042's take on the Hero Shooter thing was really tame as well, and fairly balanced. Most abilities and gadgets were in previous title's in some form. There were a couple outliers, like the grapple and wing-suit, but nothing too crazy. Everyone freaked about Paik's "wallhacks", but it was pretty underwhelming, and again balanced. It's how things are implemented. If she could see someone clearly through walls while they moved for instance, that would be pretty busted. 

I'd love to see some actual data backing up all these claims of the game didn't do well just because of Specialist. If that's the case, why did it sell over 4 million copies in the first week?

Hey, if I'm right... I didn't have much trouble getting into games so let them run off to their older games. Like I said, lots of the early bashing was against EA and nothing the game was actually doing. Meaning they aren't gonna come back either way.

Ha! You must not play much. They had to work together to remove vehicles and win rounds. Regardless of kit you're only allowed one tool/gadget so you can't literally do everything. At least with loadouts and no class restrictions you could alter your strategy between spawns. I was glad to play support to drop crates. C5 let me set traps or remove shielded enemies (it's not just for tanks). And I had the added bonus of reviving players. Now that I don't have the tools I guess you're not getting ammo or revives anymore. Others who lost their kits are gonna go right back to rockets. Classes are a negative towards teamplay. You're not gonna attract players by telling them they can't use anything. Don't think the bad players are enough to keep the game afloat.

There's nothing wrong with one man army. Sometimes going solo is easier to get an objective than running 4 players in. Stealth-like. Back in BF3/4 I had a few great plays where I broke a stalemate. I would never win the round by myself but setting an mcom behind the enemy is a great way to rattle them. So in the end we need to drop the class BS, ignore everyone who demands them necessary (like they have any right to tell anyone else how to play), and get the game moving forward again. If the class clowns want their tanks to live longer then get better.

This is so true. At best you can communicate with 3 other players. When teams are 32+ you have no way to coordinate anything. There's no commander. A game is still won or lost on teamwork, which classes have no effect on. I'm sure most people are like myself, joining in alone and getting put on a team. And we all know how games with randos go. It's better to have the tools to adapt to the situation. Or keep the classes and just allow flexible loadouts, that's all.

I've asked why they wanted classes. It either boiled out to vehicles, or they want to be able to see what's a threat which assumes all the players are standing out in the open. Stupid, right? The teamwork angle is baloney. The specialists can't even be called 'heroes', their perks were all based on realistic things. Not like we had jetpacks or infinite grenades.

It'd be interesting to see how many people LEFT the game after the patch. I know I've given it way less time than I used to.

Man I can't believe how hard you guys are rewriting the launch of battlefield. It was a massive disaster, the devs, producers, and EA have all said it was disappointing and most of the first few months was damage control because of the bad reception and drop off in players. This was followed by angst by the community due to lack of communication by the dev team as to how they were going to try and fix everything.

It got to a point where I literally couldn't get into a game at what should have been peak time because there weren't enough players in my region on conquest crossplay.

You say you can't one man army and then go onto say there is nothing wrong with being a one man army.

First, pre patch you could one man army - as in be every kit, there were quite a few options for this.

The first that comes to mind is Angel, M5 recoiless, loadout crate, prox sensors - resupplies ammo, revives, antitank, spots with prox sensors, and can change out gadgets whenever they want to drop a loadout crate, but you wouldn't need to because you already had literally every class in one kit.

Hell you can still go Falck, Angel, or Irish, get a defibrillator and an ammo box with a grenade launcher to clear shielded enemies, as Angel you can switch between an ammo crate and a claymore for setting traps. So you can still do everything you said you'd want in one kit, except without C5.

You also say "we need to drop the class the bs and ignore them" and then go onto say "like they have any right to tell anyone else how to play". Dude, the hypocrisy in that sentence is crazy!

I'm not demanding anything, I said I hope specialists never return, and yet you are demanding that a very large section of the community be completely ignored. Good work.