Battlefield 1 Game Feedback (Quality Assurance)

Battlefield 1 Game Feedback (Quality Assurance)

Hey to all at DICE, I'd like to start off first by congratulating you all on your most recent 25th Anniversary! It’s been a pleasure to play all your games’.  Now, down to business.

Battlefield in my personal opinion is one of a kind, I’ve always enjoyed immersing myself within the Battlefield Universe and having those “wow” moments that you’ll never forget… The amount of care, detail and time that goes into Battlefield is jaw dropping, with the sick sense of realism from the first to third person animations, to the sick sound of explosions and gun fire, and who could forget the graphics, Battlefield is one game that’ll always be remembered. But! Sadly, DICE has dropped the ball over and over again over the years and I’m getting concerned for the future of Battlefield. Over the years since DICE’s huge release of Battlefield Bad Company 2 the quality control of Battlefield has fallen exponentially over the years, although DICE did eventually make up for it with the release of Battlefield 4, even though it took some time for the game to get on its feet, it got there. But now with DICE’s over growing titles, I’m lead to believe DICE is flat out and stretched, with Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield 1 and Star Wars Battlefront all being in development at the same time, I can understand why shortcuts were made, but that does not go without saying. As a lot of people know, Battlefield has a non-linear release date schedule, but what a lot of people don’t realise is that’s not necessarily true, yes indeed Battlefield 4, Hardline and BF1 did come out a year apart from the usual 2 years apart, but there is a simple reason for this, and that is what a lot of people don’t know, is that Battlefield Hardline was a “filler” title, meaning technically speaking if BFH ceased to exist there’d still be a 2y break between each BF title. Now you’re probably wonder why am I saying all this, but stay with me there is a reason. Now, as we all know BFH was the least successful Battlefield to exist, and this was mostly because it was a rushed title and of course Cops and Robbers. But with DICE having to Build a quick title of BFH in 2015, and whilst putting most of their time effort and expenses into Star Wars Battlefront for the 2015 release, DICE was already running short, but to top it all of BF1 was also still in development for the 2016 release, so of course as anyone would do when stretched out and running low on options, yes shortcuts had to be taken, but with all the big hype of BF going WW1, a lot of people missed finer details on things from previous DICE titles such as SWBF and BF4. Now this is where I come in, as you already can tell I admire DICE for their unreal devotion to their games, and I’d hate to see otherwise. But not only this, I have unconditional love for the Battlefield franchise and this too I’d hate to see go downhill, so today I’d like to give some feedback on what I think needs to be changed, fixed, bug and glitches report and so on. I have decided to lay this out in dot points to make It a little easier to understand.

• 3rd Person Animations – Running – Sprinting- Jumping - Crouch and Prone

Now although this may not be crucial to some it is to others such as I. Since the release of Battlefield 1, the running, sprinting, jumping, crouching and prone animations have taken a huge tumble compare to other DICE titles such as BF4 and Star Wars Battlefront. First seen in BF4, your character not only moved his head and looked at his surrounding, but he reacted more accordingly, this was further enhanced in the later on title Star Wars Battlefront, where in this title you were able to transition between 3rd and 1st person view, giving you the opportunity to show case how your player reacts to the environment which surrounds him. But since the release of BF1 this has all been forgotten and replaced with a more cheaper, short cut look, looking more staggered and frozen as you’d see a lot of in older games due to the lack of technology back then. Now like I said, although this may not sound crucial to some there are a lot of people out there that agree with me, as remember it’s always the smallest things that make the biggest difference. But not only this, the jumping over obstacles has taken a huge hit since the previous titles with there being only one jump animations for all obstacles all different sizes, and when it comes to smaller objects the whole leap over it with your arm effect looks ridiculous, as compare to old titles such as BF1 there was around two or three sets of animations for different size obtiscles and one of them being like a bunny hop animation, so why get rid of this? Also, the crouch and prone animations need to be cleaned up a little more to match the ones of Battlefield 4 in my opinion.

• 3rd Person Reload Animations

Now this I must say is the worst of all, the 3rd person reload animations in BF1 are horrendous, with there being little to no effort being put into them compare to previous BF titles. The reload animations look so horrific on some of the guns and In some cases reloading the guns like a looney tune cartoon with a fast unrealistic reload, not only this, they were so rushed they don’t even match the first person perspective of the character. I do encourage you to not only change but polish these animations to the once known quality of the Battlefield universe.

• 3rd Person Animations when holding shotguns and LMG’s

Till this day I still don’t understand for the sake of me why the player in 3rd person holds shot guns and most of all LMG’s like RAMBO style, holding it below the waste as if you’re going all out RAMBO. But also with recognition of the “copy and paste” action happening here with not only the Shotguns and LMGs but the Pistols, holding the guns in the exact same formation as you do in Star Wars Battlefront. Now the pistols I can live with, but holding a shot gun or LMG from the waist down as if you were a 1915 version of Rambo just isn’t going to do, please do take inspiration from your previous titles such as BC2 and make the character hold the gun properly.

• Sound Quality/War Tapes

Since Battlefield 4 the loss to sound quality has hit an all-time low from other Battlefield titles, with there being little to not enough sounds being produced on the Battlefield, but a usual fix to this issue to further enhance your war experience would be to turn on War Tapes, but this also does little to none when playing the game to previous titles. Don’t believe me? Put Battlefield Bad Company 2 in and play without war tapes then play with, you’ll not only notice that it adds to the feel of the game, your ear drums where already being blown away just from the outright sound quality. Still not convinced? Put BF4 in and play something like operation locker, notice anything? Yes, that’s right you can barely here yourself think let alone talk over the gun fire, then most of all put BF1 in, and then you’ll notice a huge deflation and sound quality even with war tapes active, so yes, I do request for this to be not only changed but yes polished.

• Bullet Tracing

Out of all my years of playing Battlefield, BF1 had the most visible bullet trace I’ve ever seen as if you were shooting little white bolts out of your gun. Honestly, I don’t know why this is other than making the assumption they were still stuck on the whole Star Wars games with the big red laser bolts and forgot they’ll making Battlefield instead, but all jokes aside please do sort this out even for tanks shells & etc, it just looks ridiculous, but with the exclusion of snipers as keeping it the same as BF3 and 4.

• Speak My Language voices (English)

Now you may or may have not known there is an option in every battlefield since BFBC giving you the option to make the Russians speak your language, in my case it would be English, and it was beautifully done with the Russians still sounding like Russians with their Russian accent and all, but with the release of BF1 this all changed. Now I honestly only realised this option was possible a few weeks prior as I forgot all about this option since BC2, and of course I wanted to activate it to see how DICE successfully managed to get a German soldier to speak English with a German accent, and what am I surprised with you ask? DICE just literally dubbed over the British call outs over the German and I was flabbergasted, shocked to see that DICE have become so cheap to do something like that. So, without saying CHANGE IT!

• Voice Commands not matching faces

Now this without a doubt bothers me, for the simple fact as it makes no sense, as for one, the British medic looks like a Hindu right, but yet he talks like a white British guy, this without a doubt annoys me as it looks like no care went into it… I do request to either change the Indian medic or alter voice.

• Animations when opening closing doors

Now this too also is another thing that annoys me a lot. As we all know the implantation of opening and closing doors on the go became a thing is Battlefield Hardline, but compare to Battlefield 1 and Battlefield Hardline, more care was put into the animations of Hardline with not only there being more than ONE animation to open and close doors, the animation was also determined by which side you were opening and closing hence giving it a more realistic feel. I do request that DICE follows the same animations onto BF1 rather than just being one, as it looks so cheap.

• The repeating of sounds on different floors

As a lot of you probably didn’t pick up on, there is quite a few different surfaces on a bunch of different maps you can walk on in BF1 with the exact same sound implemented over it, this is not only cheap, but shows no care compare to old titles. As for references it’s the sound that sounds like your wearing tap dance shoes for some reason.

• Running out of breath when bayonet charging.

I understand the whole idea of running out of sprint after charging, but it seriously needs to be polished, with let’s say you the player accidently setting of the bayonet charge for less than a mill second, leads to you not being able to sprint for 30 seconds, it makes no sense, it shouldn’t be until you use up most or all of your bayonet charge before it results in a penalty

• Operations Server Browse Option

I could not understand for the sake of me why this has not happened yet, it is a necessity, as the so called “Quick search” option isn’t working, even with the new option of “Join Any Game”, it still fails to put the majority of people in the one server. Please DICE, please listen to your fans and do what’s right.

• The Lack of War Noise on Spawn Menu

I honestly can’t understand why they got rid of background noise on spawn as compare to older titles, I think this defiantly should be implemented on the spawn screen, being able to here faint bombs and gun fire as your up in the air would add to the games sense of realism.

• In Need for a Yes or No Revive Option on Spawn.

Another thing I honestly don’t know why they got rid of other then making short cuts is there being a yes or no option to spawning, yes, I know you can now skip kill cam, but it wouldn’t hurt to have this option still available to us again, as indeed yes BF3 was a bit glitchy when it came to the yes or no revive option but that was all fixed in BF4 with an instant reaction to the press of your button.

• Radar

It wasn’t until not too long ago I came to relies that the once known traditional  radar had changed in BF1 and there’s a lot of counteressay on whether it was for the worst or the greater good, but what I think is your better to know the devil you know rather then the devil you don’t know, in other words I’d change it to go back to then once known traditional Rader were firing will put you on the Rader, as that’s been the go for a lot of games other than previous Battlefields and it worked, so why change it.

• 3rd Person Option for Vehicle Gunners Preferably Tanks.

Pretty much the sub headline says it all, once again I don’t understand why it’s not an option particularly when in single player you operate all gunning seats from 3rd person. Please do consider implementing this into MP.

• Damage Reduction on Spawn

Now don’t we all hate it in Battlefield were you either spawn in or get revived and your instantly dead sometimes even quicker than the game registering your alive, well I’ve come up with a fix to this problem. At first, I was possibly thinking a 2 sec invincibility, but then I thought this would coarse too much disruption to the play of the game, so I thought, why not a small damage reduction on spawn, as this will then give you the player time to react and assess your surroundings, I’d suggest this more so on revives then spawn in, although both would be fine in my opinion.

Now I’d like to point out some other things worth mentioning,

• You should not be able to jump over obstacles and reload your gun at the same time as it couldn’t be done in previous games nor is it logical with one hand being occupied leaping over the obstacle.
• The Squad option on the pause screen should always be accessible when on the field, I am unsure whether it is a glitch or not when it fails to show up but it does need to be fixed.
• There without a doubt needs to be an on or off option for background music in game whilst playing as like DICEs other title Star Wars Battlefront.
• The ‘Medic Create’ Animation seriously needs to be rethought and re done, as it looks cheap and rushed compare to other medic create drop downs in previous Battlefield titles.
• 1st and 3rd person grenade Animations need to be redone especially the stick grenades, with not only failing to show you pulling a pin off the grenade, but throwing a stick grenade like a ball with a cupped hand…
• There is a Margination Glitch on some guns being 1x being 2 x and 2x being 1x…
• RSC gun needs a small fire rate increase
• The new SMG08/18 Factory needs a slight damage boost to stay up to scratch with every other weapon
• Dolphin Diving or quick prone animation needs to be fixed in 1st person where when landing your gun should be horizontal
• A bug where jumping over big obstacles will lead you to go prone instead

And That’s about all, please do take this light hearted as the game is still a for nominal game even with these few flaws, but to see these things fixed would not only mean the world to me but mean the world to so much others, and not only them fixing these things will prove to me that you do not only care for the Battlefield universe, but you are willing to devote your time and effort to make it a better place for everyone.

Thank you to all those that read this to the very end and I hope what I said will make difference in the months to come.

Kind Regards Cameron.