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TheFireOfTitan's avatar
TheFireOfTitan
4 years ago
Solved

Why just Orbital?

This question has been bugging me since the Beta.

Why just Orbital?

EA/DICE announced that they were ahead of schedule and development was and is going pretty good. But then why was Beta, just one map and one mode? 

They knew people would judge the future game based on the Beta. For sure. Then, was the Beta, the best representation they had at that time?

What about other maps? Haven't seen anything more about them. Was Orbital the best map they could showcase or the map that had all the elements they needed to test the game? 

I'm just confused. Doesn't make sense to undersell your game if you had other maps ready. It would have helped to smooth out issues with other maps as well. 

I do understand that a Beta is not a demo but the launch is very near, if the other aspects of the games aren't ready yet, then we have a problem. 

So I don't know. Would appreciate someone explaining me why they did just one map and one mode? Thanks 🙂

discussion
  • FawKa's avatar
    FawKa
    4 years ago
    @TheFireOfTitan Because the beta wasn't about testing how a certain map flow runs or balances. It was to gather intel on what we think of the overall large aspects of the game.
    Like UI - which they have changed around a lot from our feedback.

    Separating it all to 3 maps and 3 gamemodes wouldn't have done much outside actually making it into a demo (a demo of an old version of a game that is not yet fully done yet).

    Have to remember the beta wasn't just for us but more so for the dev team. We help make this game better running a beta.

9 Replies

  • FawKa's avatar
    FawKa
    4 years ago
    @TheFireOfTitan Because the beta wasn't about testing how a certain map flow runs or balances. It was to gather intel on what we think of the overall large aspects of the game.
    Like UI - which they have changed around a lot from our feedback.

    Separating it all to 3 maps and 3 gamemodes wouldn't have done much outside actually making it into a demo (a demo of an old version of a game that is not yet fully done yet).

    Have to remember the beta wasn't just for us but more so for the dev team. We help make this game better running a beta.
  • carsono311's avatar
    carsono311
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago

    @TheFireOfTitan
    @FawKais pretty much correct here. Much like any other testing / prototyping / experimentation, you want to eliminate as many unnecessary variables as possible.  Having just one map and game mode allowed the developers and players to be more focused on the the real goals of the test. 

    This was much the same for the Technical Playtest. It was actually more constrained in many ways.

    The unfortunate correlation is that the Orbital map will be the most refined and polished compared to other maps due to various bug reporting and other changes made during testing… but maybe it will be fine.

  • Fringerunner's avatar
    Fringerunner
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago

    @carsono311And oddly, less constrained in others, though i suspect that was due to weapon balancing not being a particular priority by the beta.

    (not that it was in the tech test either, but maybe they wanted less variables there too)

    I agree that the one-map solution was probably just due to what it was they wanted to test and keeping variables to a minimum, and since there were so many leaks during the tech test, re-using orbital also probably helped to douse some of the tinfoil stuff about "this looks like garbage" and all that that came after the tech test.
    (I've got my own gripes with 2042, but some of the stuff said after the tech test was just completely failing to grasp the point of said test).

    I'm not terribly worried about map quality myself, it almost falls under "expected" issues on any BF launch (some glitches here and there, maybe a few spots where you end up staring up at the world while falling to your death, some physics bugs knocking you through objects into said falling death, etc), i think other design choices will be on the forefront a lot more.

  • TheFireOfTitan's avatar
    TheFireOfTitan
    4 years ago
    @FawKa I would agree with this, but I guess you're missing my point.

    Why would they give out a broken build that is incomplete knowing people will compare it to the final product. Did they think that Conquest/All Out Warfare is more anticipated that other modes?

    And I agree, beta is only for testing the flow and server loads. But they did find multiple issues with the map itself as well. I hope the other maps are well tested.

    And other modes too.

    It just feels odd for them to deliberately give out a broken build if other stuff was ready already.
  • TheFireOfTitan's avatar
    TheFireOfTitan
    4 years ago
    @Fringerunner Yeah, true. Minor bugs here and there are pretty okay. Every single BF had them.

    I understand minimum variables to deal with. This might be the reason. But I still don't get the choice of the map.

    This was the best map to showcase? or the best mode? I don't know.

    I guess we'll find out.
  • Trokey66's avatar
    Trokey66
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago

    @TheFireOfTitanPerhaps they put to much faith in the 'community' understanding that it was an old build even with a list of known issues.

    Again though, the 'community' totally missed that and here we are.....

  • FawKa's avatar
    FawKa
    4 years ago
    @TheFireOfTitan Yea I absolutely agree with you that the beta was a build that was too old.

    A lot of the obvious bugs had already been fixed and I do wonder why it had to be THAT old as well - I give you that haha
  • xxxCoOlBr33zExxx's avatar
    xxxCoOlBr33zExxx
    Hero (Retired)
    4 years ago

    Conquest has always been their core mode for the game so it only makes sense that it would be the game mode they would use for the Beta.  

    As for the map choice, who knows why they chose that one. Maybe its due to the multiple events that are triggered on the map, ex: hurricane and rocket launch,  or maybe its just the first map in the rotation....no idea.

  • Buzzfunk's avatar
    Buzzfunk
    4 years ago

    Any Beta really, never had more than one map. And why complain now? its 3 weeks til release anyways. 

    And we all know that there will be issues upon release. There isn't a MP title released that didn't have problems upon launch. My guess is they are working already on a day 1 patch. 

    but you answered your own question. This wasn't a demo, it was a beta. 

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