Why dice put an arrow to their own knee when it comes to balancing BF2042

In this post I will try to explain my view on the balancing topic and also why I think we will never see a good balancing around the game until there are major changes:

I read a post about vehicles being godlike and way to unbalanced. Well so many people argued wether or not that is true. But in my opinion thats just the tip of the iceberg. It is part of a problem that have its roots way more down into the abyss.

Reason number one of course is the specialist system. Having specialists with unique skills alone makes it more difficult and complex to balance the game. BUT aside of that we now also have the freedom to use whatever gadget we want in combination with whatever specialist we want for the sake of player freedom in a sandbox game. And you dont look at the gadget for a specific class to balance it. No. That would be easy right? Since you can use every gadget with every specialist you have to evaluate every possible combination. C5 seems to be broken on casper when using it on his drone. Or on sundance when flying over a tank and dropping it right on it. But is it really overpowered when using it on Falck or Irish for example? Think about it.

So while it seems for some people vehicles are utterly broken and unbalanced it all comes down to the players and its behaviour and the current meta. Until boris got nerfed and also angel with his super annoying armor plates which in my opinion shouldnt be in a battlefield at all people played both of them a lot.

Now is the opportunity to play other specialists. Imagine for a second that Rao gets a buff in an upcoming patch that reduces the cooldown to hack targets and increases the duration a vehicle is hacked. Exactly. Vehicles will become completely useless since Rao is the number one predator to bring them down. Just take the FXM Missle Scope or an MX5 and you can easily shoot them down. Imagine half the enemy team running around with them because meta. Since vehicle respawn time is not that high people can repeat this again and again. Rao doesnt even need a buff to abuse this. Players could do this right now if they all want to hunt those annoying vehicles.

A class system always gave the game some boundaries that made it easier to balance the game since not everyone played the same class. But now you can choose your favorite specialist AND a gadget you want to use in combination without any sacrifices.

I have to say however when there is a squad playing with VoIP or sitting on discord well sure.. this team has the opportunity to destroy with a condor/super hind and their 50mm cannons while a random team without that much coordination will be easier to shoot.

So a solution that I always thought about back in BF1 and BF5 already was not only a class system but also to limited the amount of a class type for each team. Which of course will never happen.Ever. I know. (Flashbacks on Iwo Jima in BF5 in an attackers team on BT mode with half the team being snipers instead of attacking the objective..)

As a result of the specialist system balancing the game is even harder than ever. Take a look into the patch notes. For every specialist there are changes so many times. So much work and ressources and data is needed to properly balance them. Which in my eyes will never happen.

Reason number 2 is the map design. While DICE already told and showed us some reworked maps those are super super super important aspects of balancing. Wide open fields to farm infantry with a little bird, condor, tanks and bolte (which finally got moved into the tank category). Maps not only have to be way smaller but also need way more cover for infantry. And cover doesnt mean to copy paste containers all over the map and some barbed wire. (Fun thing is in BF2042 even cover deals damage to you! I think about the generators on renewal on breakthrough and other buildings..). I talk about geography. Fields that are not flat, trenches, tunnels, bunkers, forests, stones, mountains, villages, cities with urban elements and so on.

All of those assets would help infantry. DICE could also rethink the whole "we reduce the amount of vehicles per team" crap because when playing on a map with a modern city (lets take rotterdam in 2042) infantry wouldnt care if there are 2-3 chopper ond 2-3 tanks on the ground. They have COVER! They can hide behind a corner, in a house, behind trees, in a trench. It makes it so much harder for vehicles to farm enemies. Which I really loved on BF5 maps like rotterdam, solomon islands, iwo jima, provence, pacific storm, devastation, twisted steel and so on. WHY are those maps the most popular maps in this game? Because infantry focused. Even with some vehicles because they were not able to just chicken shoot infantry.

Map design is KEY for a balanced shooter game that inherits vehicles. Period.

Reason 3: Destruction also is key for balancing battlefield. We already lack on cover for ALL maps but destruction as much as people would love to have the ability to crush whole cities into the ground is a double edged sword. Look at hourglass. The small village. Once you use 3 bolte to drive through all the buildings yeah cool destruction! Its awesome! But what about cover after 10 minutes ingame? There wont be any cover left for infantry. Its all destroyed. So while I personally love the destruction aspect of battlefield I think its better to limit destruction.

But how can we limit it and also make sure that players feel destruction is better than ever before in a new battlefield game? Again a simple example: Battlefield 5 Rotterdam.

When a V1 comes down we see huge chunks of bricks, walls and other stuff crushing down on the streets giving players the feeling "what the * it feels like Im actually on a battlefield!". Same with Battlefield 1 and its artillery, tanks, mortars and behemoths etc. Limit it but dont remove it completely. And this goes in line with map design. Because if you have open fields and undestructable containers copy pasted all over the map there wont be this feeling like walking through a street of a citiy with walls collapsing cause of a bomb..

Weather effects with limited visibility because of rain and storm effects by the way could be reason 4 and I could still keep going. But I guess you guys got my point when reading until this point.

So as long as specialists have their own abilities, can use every gadget without limits, huge maps without any cover or cover that even damages the player exists we wont see any positive effects on balancing. It will just shift the balancing problem from one problem that got solved in patch X just to unveil the new broken aspcet that will be present until patch Y. It is a never ending loop.

Of course you will have the same problems with good maps and a class system with limits. But its way easier to balance with much less ressources. Thats not rocket sience.

And we all know that DICE is not that flexible when it comes to balance patches. They dont bring any hotfixes for weapons or vehicles like the bolte or PKP or AC42 or K30 etc. Those balance fixes come with major updates we have to wait for weeks before they drop.

And we have just a hand full of weapons and vehicles. We didnt see any new content right now. Imagine what happens when season 1 comes out. New specialists will arrive too by the way. They have to be balanced every patch too..

Cheers.