Feedback: Battlefield 6
This feedback reflects only my personal opinion, but I know many other players share the same or a similar perspective on the points I raise below.
TLDR
No, we are not "back". Battlefield still hasn’t moved away from its modern, mainstream focused design. Players claiming the franchise has returned to its roots are often those, who started with Battlefield 4 or even later. But in my view, the decline began with BF4 itself, when the series started catering to the broadest possible audience instead of preserving what truly defined Battlefield.
After BF4, simplified gunplay, vehicles that barely deal any meaningful damage to infantry units and features that undermine tactical play and teamwork only reinforce this direction.
About Me
I have logged over 10k hours combined in Battlefield 2 (2004) and Battlefield 3. In the later titles of the series however, I spent well below 500 hours on each title. That alone says a lot about how their quality felt to me.
Core Gameplay Mechanics
Squads
The minimum squad size should be increased to six members, and spawns should only be possible at the squad leader.
What I do appreciate is, that players can once again create their own squads and even lock them if they wish. This is a welcome return.
Revive Skip
The revive skip feature should be removed. New mechanics such as dragging wounded teammates are barely used, because players can simply skip the revive. While I understand the utility of the skip in some situations, the overall impact hurts teamwork and diminishes the tactical value of eliminating an enemy.
If it remains, there should either be a five second delay before skipping, or an additional five second penalty before respawning after skipping.
Mini Map Zoom
Bring back manual control over the minimap zoom. The automatic zoom should be removed entirely.
Automatic Spawn
The automatic spawn at the beginning of a round should be removed. Players should always have control over when and where they enter the battlefield.
Team Switching
It should be possible to switch sides during a match.
Commander Mode
We need the commander mode/role again. UAVs in particular should only be deployed by the commander.
Realistic Mode
Instead of adding another Battle Royale or Extraction mode, a realism focused mode with own maps similar to Project Reality or Squad would be far more meaningful and appealing to players.
Dedicated Servers
It would be great to have proper dedicated servers again, instead of relying solely on Battlefield Portal to fill this role.
Vehicles
The heart of Battlefield lies in the interaction between vehicles and infantry. Vehicles should always dominate infantry as they did in BF2 and BF3 and destroying them should require deliberate teamwork. Currently, this balance is only partially true for tanks in the beta.
Tanks
Main Battle Tank
The splash damage should be increased by 15 percent and the splash radius by 20 percent.
Do not bring different shell types to the game.
Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs)
The "magazine reload" mechanic should be replaced. The main cannon should allow up to 12 to 15 continuous shots before overheating, which would trigger a five second cooldown. Small bursts should not cause immediate overheating. Alternatively, allow a manual reload and treat it more like a real magazine.
The splash damage of the main cannon should be increased by 10% and also the damage radius by 10%.
General
Smoke screens should be deployed by the driver, not the secondary gunner.
Reactive armor and APS (Active Protection Systems) from BF4 should not return.
Jets
There should be a single jet type, capable of both air to air and air to ground combat as in BF3, instead of separating them into Attack and Fighter jets like in BF4. I know that Battlefield 3 had the A-10 and the SU-25, but they primarily fought each other without a second jet type interfering.
Flight Model
The F-16 feels poorly designed. The controls strongly resemble those introduced in Star Wars Battlefront 2 for spaceships, which were then carried over to later Battlefield titles.
Jets in Battlefield 3 remain the benchmark, especially when it comes to dogfights.
Armament
The main cannon should be effective against infantry. At the moment, killing infantry with it is harder than roadkilling them with the jet.
The PIP (Predicted Impact Point) system should be removed and replaced with a normal HUD crosshair, especially for air to air combat.
The damage radius of dumb bombs should be increased by 15%.
Jets should also have Hydra rockets instead of AGMs.
Balancing (if the points above were applied)
Weapon regeneration while airborne should be removed.
Ammunition should only be resupplied at HQ bases.
The machine gun should be limited to 350 rounds.
Visibility
The visibility of infantry and ground vehicles should be significantly increased for jets in the air.
Helicopters
Flight Model
Helicopters currently feel like the weakest vehicles in the beta. The flight model and controls need major adjustments.
Weapons
Smart rockets should be replaced with Hydra rockets (2x16). After 16 rockets are fired, a reload cooldown should occur.
The gunner’s weapon should have 250 rounds with overheating after about 15 continuous shots instead of fixed burst fire with a "magazine".
Splash damage and radius for the gun and also the rockets should be increased by 10%.
The Hellfire missile should be replaced with the classic TV guided missile from BF2, BF3, and BF4.
Balancing (if the points above were applied)
Like jets, helicopters should only be able to resupply at HQ bases.
Infantry
Assault
There should be an option to carry two additional magazines for the primary weapon instead of a secondary weapon like a shotgun.
Shotgun balance currently feels fine to me.
Recon
UAVs should not be part of the Recon kit. They belong to the commander.
The throwing distance of C4 should be reduced by at least 3 meters.
The lens glare should be tuned down a bit.
Engineer
RPG ammo should be reduced by one round, but splash damage should be increased by 10 to 15%. Stinger/IGLA range should be reduced by 200 meters, or their damage should be halved.
Gunplay
The gunplay feels much closer to Call of Duty than to Battlefield. It is too fast and often comes down to whoever presses left and right mouse button at the same time first, wins the gunfight.
I also dislike the sliding mechanic in general, as it does not fit the pace and identity of Battlefield.
Maps
Infantry focused maps feel repetitive and lack unique structures/buildings.
Destruction feels heavily limited, with far too many indestructible walls.
Collapsing facades currently deal minimal damage, which should be increased significantly.
There are far too many lanes, which makes maps confusing and lacking in overview.
Allowing legitimate access to rooftops would be controversial, since it could further reduce clarity, but it would still improve gameplay by adding variety and tactical options.
