Thoughts on Infantry and Vehicle Balance

Game balance between infantry and vehicles has been swinging back and forth, stuck in a vicious cycle of overcorrecting: add flour when there’s too much water, add water when there’s too much flour. In the end, both vehicle players and infantry players end up frustrated, and nobody has fun.

Here is my approach to balancing infantry and vehicles. Instead of nerfing vehicles endlessly, we should give vehicles better mobility while keeping the current out-of-combat self-recovery. Many vehicle mains complain that vehicles feel sluggish and have lost the thrill from older Battlefield titles. I understand the dev team’s concern: high mobility could make vehicles overpowered.

But there is another way. Give vehicles high mobility and heavy firepower, paired with clear, critical weak-point penalties that open short windows for infantry counterplay:

• Hit the turret: turret rotation speed reduced by 50% for 6–10 seconds. Quick repairs can remove this debuff early.
• Hit wheels or tracks: mobility reduced by 70% for 6–10 seconds. Quick repairs can restore mobility.
• Hit the rear engine: the vehicle is fully immobilized for 10–15 seconds. Quick repairs shorten the immobilization duration.

The core idea: when left uncontested, vehicles act as fast, aggressive raiders and breakthrough units — mobile steel that can strike and reposition freely. This delivers the fun vehicle players want. But once a vehicle takes critical damage, it becomes a temporary stationary target. This brief window lets infantry use their anti-vehicle gadgets to finish it off. When crippled, the vehicle player must switch to a defensive playstyle: deploy smoke, use quick repair, activate APS, and survive the vulnerable period before infantry can burst them down.

I also suggest reworking engineer mines. Right now, engineers in vehicles get a bright UI highlight showing all placed mines, which renders this classic anti-vehicle gadget nearly useless. My proposal: remove forced mine UI highlights. Make mine textures distinct enough that players can spot them visually. Add a passive warning for vehicles: an audio cue with directional information when mines are within 15–25 meters. No world marker or minimap icon. The driver must locate and clear mines by sight, guided only by the sound.

This brings mines back as a viable ambush tool without completely shutting down fast vehicles.

This design creates mutual counterplay: vehicles are powerful and fast, yet constrained by combat damage and environmental hazards. Vehicles are strong under the right conditions, but not unstoppable. Infantry gets reliable ways to fight back. Instead of one-sided dominance, infantry and vehicles counter each other.