Things that are mandatory to change for a succesful game

As a context: I have played BC2, BF3, BF4, BF1, BF5, BF2042

Most hours I have put in were in BF3 (PS3 and PC) and BF4 (PC).

For BF1/BF5 and BF2042 I have under or close to 100 hours.

My biggest concern is the map size, the maps which are offered are all catered around CQC, which by default is anti-vehicular. This is a complete tone shift from for example BF3, which had a CQC dedicated DLC, due to the base game maps being large scale aka core Battlefield experience. BF6 having CQC as base style caused gameplay issues that I will address later.

1. MAPS

The current maps that we have tested are also un-interesting, with no key discerning features from (insert FPS title here). 

Liberation peak - scenery is nice, but the actual map is a random area in the hills, with no points of interest in them. Feels like watered down BF4 Final Stand maps. Large maps usually had some sort of an "interesting" piece, most Iconic probably being Caspian tower alongside the checkpoints and Siege of Shanghai's tower.

Siege of Cairo - generic Middle East FPS map (yes I am aware Egypt is in Africa, drawing a comparison on the theme)

Iberian Offensive - absolutely nothing interesting about this map, in addition C point probably is the most convoluted, uninspiring and boring centrally placed piece of the map out of these three.

With the remaining maps that we are about to get, only two of them sound like Battlefield - Mirak Valley and Firestorm (which is a remake anyway). New Sobek as described sounds like Liberation peak, so not expecting to be surprised

As insane as it sounds, BF2042 maps feel like Battlefield more than what we currently got. It doesn't feel like Battlefield, more like Battleneighbourhood or Battlearea.

2. BASE GAMEPLAY

A lot of feedback given on the game was that it feels like COD too much. I am assuming there was some intention to have it that way, which is not necessarily a bad idea, but the size of the maps completely compromises the Battlefield feeling that Battlefield games have.

This alienation of what the franchise is supposed to feel is again, primarily caused by the map size, but however is extremely exeggerated by a lack of mechanics that innately decrease the speed of the game. As I have no hope that the map sizes will be revised, in order to keep the COD appeasement but actually keep it a Battlefield experience, the game NEEDS to.

1. Have slower reload speeds
2. Have slower health regeneration
3. Have higher spawn times
4. Have a longer out of combat delay for spawning on players/vehicles/etc.
5. Suppression needs to penalize accuracy and/or recoil
6. Keep autospotting ONLY for Recon
7. Sprint to ADS transition should penalize accuracy or recoil for a split second
8. Reduce base sprint speed a nudge

This will take the pressure off from the feeling that you are always getting shot from behind, always dying and being overly exhausted and frustrated.

Recoil is another thing that is heavily discussed. I currently see the recoil as overall fine myself, however recoil definitely could be increase if you are using a <2x zoom sight, ACOG style sights have enough of a kick for them to feel fair.

TTK/TTD discussion is mostly a misunderstanding. TTK is completely fine, TTD is ridiculous, but from my understanding that is already being addressed by developers. I myself had some interesting encounters, where a guy absolutely beams me mid air while jumping out of a window or peeking a corner and having the feeling of being one tapped with w Deagle  by a CS pro holding an angle.

3. CLASS SYSTEM

The class system simply needs to be returned as the old iteration that we had before. Allow shotguns, PDWs, and (a compromise) Carbines to be multi class. What we have right now is not Battlefield and will never be Battlefield.  What is the point of the classes to begin with if their weaponry isn't restricted - gadgets? The only relevant defining feature of a class is a feature they rarely use upon every single respawn. You should feel restrictive and pick and choose based on the situation - getting rinsed by vehicles, swap to Engineer and rocket them down, with the consequence of being forced into short range encounters. Want to revive people in CQC maps - you should feel restricted by carrying a LMG against swathes of SMGs.

I am fully aware that it is entirely false hope to expect changes here, because if the weapons are more universal, you will be able to sell more skins for them. There is no other rational explanation for it, however if more people point this out, maybe we could have some change. Maybe as a compromise we could have locked weapons in the base game as a matchmaker queue option and have it toggleable if you host a server?

The "test it for yourself" idea on the Beta is pretty much a sham, being comically highlighted that locked weapons CQ is way further to the left as base CQ, seems like the decision is already made to be pushed on the playerbase.

4. VISIBILITY

The game is following in the footsteps of BF5/2042 in terms of visibility - it is bad. It is even worse if you are on a SDR monitor.

Liberation Peak is the best one we have, visibility issues are mostly being caused by snipers sitting on the cliffsides around A and C, which is more part of the map itself.

Cairo and Iberian has it REAL BAD. For starters Cairo - you simply cant see **bleep** in this map, you are constantly being overexposed either by blinding lighting or eye adaptation mechanics. This simply makes the game unenjoyable, even if it makes sense logically or IRL etc. - as a game mechanic it is bad. Midsection of Cairo is like Amiens lack of visibility tuned 10x. You are left off with flabbing around and hope for an autospot and then you can try to spam the dorito down.

Iberian is a map with extremely drab and bland colours, which leads the player characters either blend into the environment (which again, might be realistic, but is not fun in a game). Indoor areas, especially C, have AWFUL visibility as everything is overly dark.

As the visibility is bad, you can't even enjoy the extra attention of detail that is given to the maps (indoor areas and courtyards in Cairo are beautifully designed from purely a visual angle).

5. SERVER BROWSER

I guess we are conceding this one, it is pretty blatant why they do not want to host dedicated servers - its a cost-cutting mechanism to maximize profit for EA at the cost of gameplay experience. I am hoping/coping that the matchmaker works well enough and hopefully has base features like selecting of what sort of a map you want to play and whether to toggle the time preference of an ongoing map (so you dont join into something that has like 100 tickets remaining) or the playerbase saves the game with their own server hosting.

That is of course if the server browser is actually added under normal circumstances and not hidden away like it was in BF2042. Something like BF1/BF5 implementation is completely fine. There is absolutely no reason to tuck it away like you are intentionally trying to not have that area trafficked by the user base (I work in IT development myself, where you put **bleep** really matters).

I really want this game to succeed, but at the moment it seems like this game is a 5/10 at best, 7/10 at most, if the map philosophy remains the same but base mechanics of the game are improved.

It almost feels as it is Battlefield, but in the end feels more like inspired by Battlefield. It does not cater to the fans of the franchise.

The game doesn't feel like COD enough to attract COD players en masse.

In the end you are left with trying to appease both communities, while satisfying neither and then you have a situation like you had with BF2042.