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.
@Noodlesocks wrote: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.
Exactly right @Noodlesocks !
Unfortunately then the map designs across all maps in BF2042 are of such poor quality that even down at 64 players it will still be just silly chaos. "Chaos" can actually be really fun in the properly designed and weapons/vehicle balanced Battlefield sandbox, but anything and everything in the BF2042 pack is still so far away from making that possible.
The map design, its size and contents, flanking routes and alternative attack lines all need to come together to make it ever lasting fun gameplay. And all these parameters and more (like the weapons and vehicles and their numbers) all in all decides then again what is the max player number still to make it fun long term on any given map.
Also the game mode plays a big role in this, as we know from previous great games of aka Rush or Obliteration plays often very differently versus Conquest on the very same maps and with same weapons/vehicles.
I know many may detest some of the all time favorite 'only infantry' maps like Locker or Metro. But if you have tried playing on them in different game modes and also with different max player numbers, you also recognize how dramatically different the game strategy and game play is. Aka Metro is very different with less than 32 players on it, more like just running and guinning, while when getting up to around 40-50 it tightens up and team play across the friendly squads then suddenly becomes determination in who wins the battle. And when going all the way from 54-64 players max, it becomes choked bottlenecks with brute force and extreme push on the flanks winning the game.
The reason for the research done by EA/DICE team back in the BF3 days found that 128 Conquest was not so much fun as the 64 player version was actually also due to another aspect that is very hard to control and takes supreme map design and spawn rules/mechanics to truly master.
It is because of the way the vast majority of players decide to play (if they are allowed to do so). Namely that players by default tend to prefer to spawn in with or just behind their own friendlies. And also to seek towards hot spots where any other friendlies and enemies already appear to be in combat with each other. And this is thne here where a certain number of teammates and enemies at a certain max number tend to become too many for the sake of 'fun' gameplay comes in. As when it starts to be overpopulated, then strategic gameplay/teamworks starts to be thrown out the window, as the shear magnitude of players simply overrun all options/alleys/sideways/flanking routes non stop all the time anyway.
Its maybe "fun" for a very short while but it suffocates strategic gameplay/variation from happening from one round to the next. Hence, the gameplay quickly becomes stale and boring, and no fun to play long term at all.
Many of you who have played prior BF games knows well the ultimate challenge of maybe pushing the enemy team all the way back into their spawn base. Its maybe 'fun' from time to time, but the gameplay for both the defending teamside trapped in their spawn as well as the attacking team side actually is very poor and boring.
And that is the same problematic situation we have on most maps when the player count goes up over 50-60. It is no easy feat to make good maps and game mechanics to serve a fun game with 128+ players on board.
