Any player count is the right player count if the maps and game are designed properly for them. Current Battlefield game rules play better with a lower player count. 12v12 - 16v16. 64 players feels pretty messy and lack of gameplay facilitated organisation, I always felt 64 players was stretching it.
128 players could work but they would need to rework the fundamentals of Battlefield gameplay, squads and communication for it to work.
@DuaneDibbley wrote:
@Noodlesocks
I personally don't see any way to make 128 players work. If you think it can be done, what exactly would they have to change in your opinion to make this work and still feel like a Battlefield game and not Squad or Hell Let Loose with huge capture zones that you would most likely never be able to clear (I don't play HLL or Squad myself and can only speak from watching gameplay footage)?
And also: even if those games CAN achieve it with 100 players, BF should not try to copy them of course (as the copy approach failed with trying to be an Apex Legends clone in the first place).
One thing that comes to mind would be huge capture zones, so that there will be less chaos in case there is one contested flag left where all the action will focus on. I still think it will be chaos, but this could be at least one approach to make it work.
I have always felt that the squad system that Dice Sweden has been using since Bad Company has held Battlefield back. The squad spawning system was designed for a game that was max 24 players and was designed for Rush (conquest not even being available in BC1 until after launch) which was a more linear, head-on affair. With the greater freedom in conquest, the wider maps and 360 degrees of approach to an objective, I feel the squad spawning system favours the attackers more than the defenders when the advantage should be with the defenders.
On small conquest maps; linear conquest maps it works okay but as maps get bigger and objectives spread further apart, it actually becomes more beneficial to the team for squad members not to play together because spreading out across the map provides better spread of spawning options. If a squad sticks together, that's essentially just one area to spawn from between the 4-6 members in the squad. If they spread out, play together with other non-squad members then that's 4-6 entirely separate spawn options across a map. Essentially, if no squads are playing together with their squad mates, that's 32+ different spawn locations the enemy has to deal with in 64 player games. 64+ different spawn locations in 128 player games.
In pre-frostbite games there was no squad spawning. In 2 and 2142 you could spawn on squad leader only and squad leader and squad leader beacons in 2142. Before those games there were no squads at all so players could only spawn on flags. What this provided was very clear front lines between objectives. There was less of this round about, flag hopping gameplay that has plagued frostbite conquest because your path to the next objective was the enemy's path to yours. Flanking was still possible but it was also riskier because if you lost your squad leader and he hadn't placed a beacon, you'd either be cut off or you'd have to start again from the previous objective if it was still yours.
What it did was provide structure not only to squads but the game itself. Conquest played how it was designed to play because the rules of the game was designed specifically for conquest. It's why even if you played on the modded 128 player servers, it was still a very structured experience and less of the zerg type of gameplay that frosbite conquest has suffered from.
To be clear, I'm not saying that 2042 needs to bring back squad leader only spawning. There isn't any one factor of design that is the singular cause for conquest or 128 players not working well. The point is is that the rules of those games were written and designed specifically for the game mode. The game rules were built entirely around conquest. What Dice Sweden doesn't seem to understand is that you can't just copy paste gameplay mechanics from one game mode to another or expect gameplay mechanics designed for 12v12 to play the same as 64v64. What Dice Sweden needs to do is build a set of rules designed specifically for conquest. Specifically for Breakthrough or Rush or whatever game mode they want to make. If they want Battlefield to be 128 players, they need to design the game from the ground up for 128 players, not just copy paste game design intended for 12v12 rush, smash 128 players into it and call it a day.
Seems like nobody really cares for or is in favor of 128 player modes (or at least nobody that has a good reason why this mode is better).
