Battlefield Briefing: Welcome to 2042
Update - September 3: We wanted to give you a heads up on a change we've made to Falck based on findings from our Technical Playtest last month. A big finding was that Falck's S21 Syrette Pistol was causing a significant enough imbalance in gameplay to warrant making some changes. Previously we shared that Falck's Gadget would Revive, and Heal at Range., but going forward the gadget will simply Heal at Range, and not Revive. REPORT FOR BRIEFING Get ready for the next generation of all-out warfare! You’ve learned a lot about Battlefield 2042 over the past few days, through our Reveal Trailer, Gameplay Trailer (which is still just Pre-Alpha footage, by the way) and via our website. We’ll have plenty more to discuss in the months ahead, but first it’s time to recap everything we’ve talked about so far. Battlefield is bigger than ever. Using the power of new generation consoles and latest PC hardware each match will feature up to 128 players on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation® 5 and PC. On Xbox One, and PlayStation® 4, maps and modes will be optimized for a 64-player experience. Three Distinct Multiplayer Experiences Within Battlefield 2042’s All-Out Warfare experience, fan-favorites Conquest and Breakthrough once again make their return. In Conquest, two teams fight to control various points on the map in order to reduce the enemy’s strength to nothing. Breakthrough pits a team of attackers against defenders, with attackers having to capture all sectors on the map to overcome the defenders and win. Conquest is bigger than ever, with multiple Sectors (each Sector containing several control points) ensuring battles are constantly happening all over the map during a match Using Battlefield 2042’s increased map scale, Conquest matches will now contain multiple smaller areas, called Sectors. Each of these Sectors consist of a grouping of control points, filling out each map with even more battles happening concurrently during a match. Expanded vehicle and traversal options have also been added into the mix to make navigating these large spaces fully streamlined. Also new is the introduction of AI Soldiers (Artificial Intelligence) to the series. As a multiplayer-only experience, it’s important for us to let you play Battlefield 2042 when and how you want. Here is what that looks like in the All-Out Warfare experience of Conquest and Breakthrough: Multiplayer – AI soldiers are used for server-filling capabilities, ensuring your matches remain full, no matter your location. Co-Op – Allows you to play together with friends, against AI soldiers. Solo – If you wish to perfect your skills for multiplayer, you can even play alone against AI soldiers. And lastly, a reminder on the two other distinct multiplayer experiences coming to Battlefield 2042. One is being built by our team in LA, which we’ll show you at EA Play Live on July 22nd. And finally, Battlefield 2042 will introduce Hazard Zone, a brand new Battlefield game mode we’re excited to talk more about later this year. Set in the near future, the world has changed. Both the United States and Russia are once again on the brink of war as nations struggle over resources. As entire countries collapse, people find themselves with no nation to call home. These nomads are known as the Non-Patriated (“No-Pats”), a diverse group of people who have bound together in various clusters across the globe in order to survive the new turbulent world. In Battlefield 2042, you’ll play as Non-Patriated soldiers with unique skills who’ve taken up arms to secure dwindling world resources such as food, water and energy. They are known as Specialists, tasked with trafficking intel and supplies, and carrying out military missions that serve No-Pat geopolitical interests. Each of these unique Specialists have their own specialty and trait that you can use to give yourself the advantage in combat. Specialists mark a change from the Loadouts of previous Battlefield games. Every Specialist now has a Specialty and Trait that ties into their class of either Assault, Engineer, Recon, or Support. These Specialties and Traits are unique to their respective Specialist, which for your Loadout means you can now fully customize it to your liking: Primary Weapon Equipment (items anyone can use such as a Medical Crate or Supply Crate) Secondary Weapon Throwable (such as Frag or Incendiary Grenade) Class type will no longer restrict what weapons, equipment or throwable you can equip, offering you more flexibility than ever before in the series when it comes to Loadouts. You can also save these custom Loadouts, and select them for any Specialist you’d like to play with. Similar to personalizing your Loadout, you will also be able to customize the appearance of your Specialist. You’ll have the freedom to choose how you’d like to stand out on the Battlefield. There will be plenty of customization options available to ensure your Specialist doesn’t look the same as other players, and you can expect more details on customization at a later time. "With Specialists, we're excited to offer our players more flexibility than ever before when it comes to customizing their loadouts and adapting to situations on the battlefield," says Daniel Berlin, Design Director on Battlefield 2042. Battlefield 2042’s maps are filled with countless tactical positions for you to use to dominate the battlefield. Just be ready to move at a moment’s notice since storms, powerful weapons, and other dynamic events can tip the scales of war. At launch, you’ll be able to play as 10 unique Specialists. We’ve selected four of them to give you a closer look: Webster MacKay Lone-wolf survivalist MacKay is all about traversal. His Grappling Hook allows him to maneuver around the map more freely, while his Specialist trait (Nimble) prevents a movement penalty when aiming down sights or ziplining. Wikus ‘Casper’ van Daele Technologically savvy and a practitioner of subterfuge, Wikus’ abilities and specialty equipment make him a huge resource to any team. His OV-P Recon Drone can designate targets for lock-on weapons, spot nearby enemies, and detonate EMP blasts. Wikus’ trait (Movement Sensor) alerts him about approaching enemies, both when on the ground or piloting his recon drone. This makes him an absolute master of situational awareness. Maria Falck The true medic of the group, Maria’s S21 Syrette Pistol fires a syringe that can heal or revive friendlies at range and with increased speed, or damage foes. Her Combat Surgeon trait sets her apart from other Specialists by allowing her to revive fallen allies back to full health. Pyotr “Boris” Guskovsky A necessity for any squad, Pyotr’s engineering skills allow him to place a SG-36 Sentry Gun to defend locations, while his Sentry Operator trait makes his Sentry Gun even more efficient in combat when he’s standing near it. Additionally, any enemy the Sentry Gun locks onto will be spotted for Pyotr. But that’s just a taste of Battlefield 2042’s roster of capable characters! We’ll have more Specialists to show you in the months to come. Alongside the increase in players, the spaces of these sandboxes are also growing, allowing for more vehicles and battles to be spread out across the entire map. With unprecedented scale and choices in gameplay, each map is specifically designed to provide a unique experience that directly impacts strategy for you and your squad. Battlefields have multiple distinct combat areas housed in a single playspace and this extra space means more variety and more meaningful vehicle gameplay. In Breakaway, you’ll be taking the fight to the ice with hovercrafts, helicopters, and more. Here’s a quick look at Breakaway, which is set on Antarctica. Tread carefully on this dynamic map, where oil extraction has turned the freezing area to a strategic hot spot. Take advantage of destructible fuel tanks and silos that create debris fields and permanent fires when destroyed. At launch, Battlefield 2042 will have seven maps for the All-Out Warfare experience. You can find out more about them by heading to our map overview. Battlefield has built its name on being a chaotic sandbox where you are encouraged to use the massive arsenal of weapons, vehicles and abilities at your disposal on a battleground rife with strategic opportunity and player freedom. Battlefield 2042 brings a host of new enhancements to the series. In Breakaway, you’ll be taking the fight to the ice with hovercrafts, helicopters, and more. Massive events, such as tornadoes capable of whipping Specialists across the map and exploding space rockets, will impact the map before you. Altering safe spaces and forcing you to adapt to the ever-changing battlefield with your gadgets and even use such powerful forces of destruction to put pressure on the enemy. "The enhancement afforded by the new generation of console technology has allowed us to make the world of Battlefield bigger than ever before,” says Daniel Berlin, Design Director. “Dynamic events will constantly encourage players to adapt to situations and create those Battlefield moments we've come to know and love from the franchise." Weapons and Attachments To succeed on the battlefield, every Specialist will need to utilize their entire arsenal, from powerful weapons to useful gadgets and a wide array of vehicles. Battlefield 2042 brings a new level of player agency to Battlefield, giving you access to the weapon modifications and tools you need at any given moment in a match. No matter where you’re at in-round, you can equip your weapons in real-time with modifications that the situation calls for via the Plus Menu. You will be able to wield assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs, DMRs, shotguns, sniper rifles, pistols and explosive ordnance. Weapons are no longer restricted by loadouts, with every Specialist capable of wielding any weapon. Depending on the weapon used, you have up to four categories for customization: Scopes/sights Muzzles/barrels Ammo types/magazines Underbarrel attachments Gadgets While every Specialist has their own unique specialty, like Mackay and his trusty Grappling Hook, classic Battlefield items will be accessible to every Specialist including the C5 Explosive, Anti-Tank Mine, and Frag Grenade. But a Battlefield game wouldn't be complete without some new hardware. We’d like to introduce you to Ranger, an agile and mechanized companion that can be called in to faithfully follow you into combat. Here’s a quick look at Ranger rushing across Kaleidoscope. Vehicles Vehicular gameplay remains an essential part of the Battlefield experience. And with Battlefield 2042, you will have access to vehicles such as jets, hovercrafts, tanks, troop carriers, armored cars, and the long-awaited return of helicopters. Also new to Battlefield 2042 is the vehicle call-in system, which allows you to airdrop vehicles to wherever you are on the map, instead of spawning into them. This system will allow you more freedom than ever before when it comes to navigating Battlefield’s massive spaces and terrain in search of a tactical advantage. We’re also going back to Battlefield’s roots where you once again can find vehicles on the battlefield, instead of solely activating them from the deploy screen. In Battlefield 2042, you’ll be able to call in any vehicle to where you are on the map, giving you more mobility power than ever. We’re taking a new approach to live service with not only a commitment to new content, but a goal of enhancing the Battlefield experience through Seasons that will continue to build the world of Battlefield 2042. “In Battlefield 2042 we’ll continue our commitment to keep the community together during the live service,” says Ryan McArthur, Senior Producer on Battlefield 2042. “In our first year, we plan to deliver four seasons, each evolving the sandbox, while delivering its own Battle Pass, Specialist, and more great content that you’ve come to expect from a Battlefield game.” We’ll be evolving our world and expanding on the fiction through Seasons, each one lasting for about three months. Every Season will come with a new free and paid-for Battle Pass, delivering new content to chase after. This also means everyone can progress towards earning all content that impacts direct gameplay such as Specialists, through natural play. In our first year of live service, we will deliver four Seasons, with four Battle Passes, four new Specialists, along with more fresh content. In The Next Briefing… And that’s all for today. Battlefield 2042 marks the start of a new journey for Battlefield and all-out warfare, and we’re excited to give you more updates and reveals in the coming weeks and months. We’re also looking forward to seeing you at EA Play Live on July 22nd, where we’ll talk more about the experience being built by our team in LA. Stay safe, No-Pats. END OF BRIEFING REFERENCE TO A PARTICULAR MAKE, MODEL, MANUFACTURER, AND/OR VERSION OF WEAPON, GEAR OR VEHICLE IS FOR HISTORICAL ACCURACY ONLY AND DOES NOT INDICATE ANY SPONSORSHIP OR ENDORSEMENT OF ANY TRADEMARK OWNER If you'd like to discuss your thoughts and comments with us, please join us here.Battlefield Briefing: What We Learned From The Open Beta
Our Open Beta was a special moment for all of us who work across the project – you all finally got hands on with our game. Before we get into the various learnings, takeaways, and improvements that we have in motion for the launch of Battlefield™ 2042, and beyond, we have two special thank yous. Thank you for jumping in and playing! We know how much you all look forward to a new Battlefield game, but we saw more of you on that first day than we could possibly have imagined. Watching you each discover the tools of our sandbox, and the different ways in which you can use them to Play the Objective was truly very special for us. Thank you also for taking the time to talk to us, and share your feedback. We don’t take it for granted. First Things First… Let’s Talk About Specialists Today we are happy to reveal the final five Specialists for Battlefield 2042 at launch, bringing the total to 10. Armed with a unique Specialty and Trait, we see Specialists as the next evolution of the classic Battlefield class system that will not only enable individual players to have a bigger impact, it will elevate teams that cooperate to newer heights. During the Open Beta we heard some feedback that Specialists were limiting team work, and we wanted to address this concern head-on. There were multiple factors in play during the Open Beta that we feel contributed to the perception of how the Specialists role contributes to squad play in Battlefield 2042. First, we recognise that numerous improvements to the user interface, identifying between friend and foe, the ping system, and in-game team communication that were missing during the Open Beta (and are all explained in detail below) are vital to team play. You didn’t get to experience all of those, and so today we want to help talk you through the many different changes that you’ll experience in the full game. Second, you weren’t able to go hands on with all Ten of our Specialists, and see them all in action on the Battlefield. Now that all the cards are on the table, let us know what you think! What we learned in the Open Beta Over the past few weeks since the Beta, we’ve shared some limited insight into some of the changes that are coming in time for launch, relative to the experience you had playing Conquest, on Orbital: Increased the number of Tanks that you’ll experience on Orbital. It’s up from 4, to 8 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Made changes to movement, adding strafe input to sliding, adding the ability to vault on moving objects, and toning down jump spamming. A nearby Grenade Indicator has been added. Entry and Exit animations are now shorter, with some being removed entirely. Elevators have been fixed so that you see less funky behaviours with doors. But there’s much more beyond that, and we want to give you insight on the opportunities an Open Beta presents us when we invite the world to come and play an early look at our game. Firstly, we can test how our technical systems behave in the wild, bringing forward with us the learnings we had from the Technical Playtest in August, to ensure that the solutions we developed were successfully applied in the real world. Secondly, we get to compare the behaviors of how we see things behaving internally, with how they behave in the hands of you, the players. Finally, an Open Beta on this scale provides us with the opportunity to hear directly from you on how the game feels. There’s plenty of good discussion below covering some of our thoughts on the feedback that we’ve read, and seen shared and discussed across various Battlefield Communities. What we all appreciated seeing most was just how much joy you were having living your best sandbox life. We heard lots of positives about the gunplay, the fidelity, and the welcome return to our modern setting. We also heard plenty of constructive feedback around Performance, Team and Squad play, and the User Interface. An overview of Vehicle vs. Infantry hotspots across the entirety of Orbital. Click to see in High Resolution! Below, we’re helping to summarize that feedback, to let you know how it performed against our designs, and to give you a look at where we’re at today, as well as where we may yet go with the quality of the experience in Battlefield 2042. Performance We’ve previously talked with you about the age of our Open Beta build, but haven’t talked with you about why it is that you experience something older compared to what we’re playing, testing, and polishing every day across our studios. In order to ensure that we can have an Open Beta, we do something called Branching, where we identify our most stable build, and split it off from our active development branches that receive daily check-ins, new content additions, and bug fixes. This took place back in August, where we were in the process of compiling what we have today, internally, as the complete package of Battlefield 2042. Branching allows us to strip out all of the unnecessary systems, content, and mechanics that are still under various forms of testing, and polish up what you sometimes hear referred to as a Vertical Slice of the game. We work hard to optimise it, stamp out critical bugs, and drive for maximum compatibility and performance on known hardware. By stripping out other content and systems, we remove potential conflicts that keep things running in the best possible manner. We knew that the Open Beta build would therefore not showcase where we’re at today with polish and how the game plays, not benefiting from all the additional work that’s been done on the game since we branched in August. In addition to what you’ve seen today from our full line up of Specialists, and many of the updates that you can read about and see here, expect more Battlefield 2042 updates over the next few weeks that let you get a glimpse on the great progress that the teams have made. Servers We gained a mountain of valuable data about the performance of our servers, and the processes we use to keep them successfully scaled, right across the experience. Through the Open Beta, we sustained multiple pingsites, in central locations all over the world, and took some important learnings from that. Bot heavy servers were too prevalent across those first few hours for many players. Too many of you were being dropped into games that weren’t being successfully backfilled, and left you fighting against Bots. Our Bots are designed as a good way for new players to learn how to play Battlefield, and to provide new options for veterans of the franchise to take new players under their wing and show them how to PTFO. Bots are not designed as a replacement for other players. Throughout the Open Beta, we were able to dedicate a great deal of time into looking at why the servers were sending certain groups of players into predominantly Bot populated matches. Our teams were then able to make real time changes to the behaviours of Matchmaking to ensure that servers were being stood up with heavy majority human players, and that appropriate backfilling was happening where we expected it too. We were also able to monitor the behaviour of Matchmaking and study why it is that players were sometimes being sent to servers outside of their region. With full appreciation that some players didn’t have the optimal experience, we want to thank them for persisting as it allowed our teams to breadcrumb trail the way back through our systems to understand why they were being sent out of their region, and experiencing higher pings than expected. We’ve ironed out a great deal of those creases in time for launch, and will be as agile as we were during the Open Beta in helping address anything new in real time during launch of the game. User Interface (UI) Stepping aside from our review of how the technology of our game performed, let's get into the experience side of the Open Beta, and start talking about the systems that you were interacting with. Our User Interface in the Open Beta wasn’t fully representative of the final experience. It was missing some essential components, some of which we disabled to remove debilitating (and now resolved) bugs, and some of which we chose to continue to focus work on for launch from when we branched in August. Big Map as we refer to it internally, was disabled. Some of you spotted it in the Key Bindings, and many of you simply expected it based on past behaviours in Battlefield games. We have it in our builds today, and you can see it in action below. You’ll be able to pull this up at any time during live gameplay, by pressing the View/Touchpad button on Console, or M on PC. It provides an immediate overview of where the battles are taking place, where your squad mates are fighting, and the live breakdown of how the flags are flying inside of each sector. We’ll keep you updated on when to expect this in the game, there’s a chance it makes it into the start of the Early Access start for 2042, and there's an equal chance that we hold it back to make sure its inclusion isn’t disruptive to the performance of the game. But what use is Big Map, if you’re without the ability to then help communicate with your squads on how you intend to react to the battle? Commorose was also absent from the Open Beta, but is very much present in our builds today. This is a staple of in-game communication for Battlefield games, the ability for you to hold a single button, and use quick actions to give an indication of where you’re at, and what you need. This is how that looks today. We want to ensure that you’re best equipped with the right tools to communicate with your Squad. As a further example with this, we’ve modified the default behaviour of the Compass that appeared whilst aiming down the sights. At launch, you’ll see that this is now always on, so that you have the ability to easily communicate with your squad on nearby dangers and opportunities. We know that Battlefield plays best when you’re coordinated. In addition to our Ping System, the ability to quick tap an input to give contextual indicators, we have some great tools to hand over to you at launch. Ping wasn’t working as well as we would have liked during the Open Beta, but at launch, you can expect it function more responsively when you’re pinging locations, assets, and enemy soldiers. Elsewhere in the UI, let's quickly talk about the Heads Up Display, and the information that's presented to you during minute to minute gameplay. We’ve moved the score events, visible on the right side of the screen, into its final state, centrally beneath the crosshair. It provides you with that more traditional kill confirmed dialogue, that affirms who you’ve killed, healed, and helped across the experience, and how it's helping to show you the rewards you’re getting for doing so. Speaking of which, a note for regular Support-style players. There were multiple scoring events related to Transport Assists, Spawn Support, Resupply, and Heal support that were absent in the Open Beta build. They’re in our full game, we’ll always reward strong teamplay in Battlefield. Over on the left side of the screen, the kill log is now more readable, with highlighted colors denoting friend or foe killed. There is also more appropriately sized messaging on the status of sectors and flag capture events. These changes help to prevent UI elements from diverting your attention away from the crosshairs, and the battlefield in front of you. We’ve also performed significant performance passes on our colorblind settings to help support those with color deficiencies that were struggling to have the colors used across our UI properly distinguish themselves, and we’ll continue to take feedback on the application we have around this, and all of our final suite of accessibility options through live service. A special note to close out this section on UI – let’s talk about the Critical Alert messaging which appears at key moments at the top of the screen. We hear you, it's too big. We’ve reduced it in size, lowered the frequency of the alerts, and will continue to take feedback on it from you all once you get hands on with the full game. Team and Squad Play There are improvements that tie into both Team and Squad Play discussed in the previous section. Both Commorose, the Ping System, and the Big Map all play significant roles in changing up the experience you had with the Open Beta, and will have in the full game. There are other systems that were either in the Open Beta, but only partially represented, or in the final stages of development in the full game, and so not part of what you got hands on with. First up, let's talk loadouts. In the Open Beta, we unlocked more of the sandbox than is experienced when you first start playing the game, as an important way of testing the behavior of certain gadgets in a live environment. For the first 4-6 hours in the full game, expect to be working with a reduced array of gadgets for your open gadget slot, with your journey through the ranks slowly introducing new ones for your loadouts. That traditional experience of a Battlefield game, where classes fulfill traditional roles is an experience that you graduate out of through the first ten levels. Your Specialists will have the options to choose from a Medical Crate, Ammo Crate, the Recoilless M5 Launcher, and our Repair tool as starting gadgets, and enable the experience of playing in ways that allow players to feel the benefit of playing in more supportive roles. As you progress beyond those levels, you’ll gain access to more specialised hardware, and Specialists, that help to solve scenarios you can encounter, and we expect you to be regularly interacting with your loadouts on the deploy screen to react to the ever changing nature of Conquest and Breakthrough gameplay. Loadouts are fully customizable. In the Open Beta, we set you up with four loadouts, that mirror that traditional class structure of Assault, Medic, Support, and Recon. They’ll be there at launch too, for all players as default, but there’s actually a much bigger suite of tools available to you to help speed up the act of switching to different setups, and let you get right back into the action. From the Collections screen of the main menu, you’ll be able to define what your loadout is, and to provide your loadout with custom names that can allow you to quickly switch between your best setups. Diving deeper, a frustration we saw shared from the Beta was feedback around inconsistencies you experienced with our plus menu, and the need to reset your best setups on each of your weapons on each round, and in the case of the AK-24, unintentionally on every respawn. We wanted to share this deeper look into the complete behaviour of the plus menu, and to showcase that you have more control over this function than you got hands on with. There are multiple slots per attachment type that you can assign different items into, drawn from an extensive pool of weapon specific attachments that unlock as you play more with the weapons. Anything assigned into slot 1, those closest to the centre, is your effective spawned setup. When you deploy with the weapon in hand, you’ll always be set up with your preferred attachments. This can be accessed from the Collections Screen on the main menu, and from within the deploy screen during gameplay. Moving away from loadouts, let's talk squad composition. We hear you loudly on this topic. Squad comp matters. You each experienced four of the ten specialists coming to Battlefield 2042 at launch, so we can appreciate that experiencing the full diversity of our gameplay, nor variety of customisation, wasn’t accessible for you during the Open Beta. In Hazard Zone, we’re keeping things tight and deliberate on squad comp. Specialist selection will be unique, and we’re not running with duplicates inside the squad. In All-Out Warfare, we’re not using the same restrictions; we’ve been learning since Battlefield 1942 that our game just isn’t fun when you can’t play to your strengths, and there’s been lots of iteration done in this area in all of our games across the franchise’s history. In Battlefield 2042, you’ll enjoy the freedom of moving between the Specialists and loadouts that you need to support the Squad, and there are parts of the experience that we have in our builds today that help to reinforce that. First, there’s our Insertion flow. Your squad mates will be shown your Player Cards, where you’ve got the chance to personalize, and flair it to show off your playstyles. There’s then additional time in pre-round, which was disabled during the Open Beta, to chat and make further changes to your squad comp so that you hit the ground running straight out of the gates. Better still, we’re celebrating our strongest team players at the end of the round in our full End of Round (EOR) flow. Again, this one didn’t make the cut for Open Beta, but expect that when the round wraps up, we’ll be paying tribute to the best squad players, and recognizing the contributions folks made to capturing objectives, reviving fallen teammates, and keeping ammo stocked up. To help you achieve this acknowledgement, there are UI elements that help you to know who’s in need of healing, repairs, and resupplies coming to the game for our worldwide launch on November 19. There’s also been changes made to Health Regeneration, slowing down the time it takes for the healing effect to start, and helping to increase the need to work with your Medics. To help support those changes, you’ll find that Maria Falck’s Syrette Pistol has received enhancements and tweaks to improve the feedback you receive when you’re successfully healing an ally, and making it easier to land a syringe on a friendly target by having the Syringes magnetise to friendly targets. We’ve also worked to make revives faster, across the board. More things we heard from you We’ve covered a lot today, and there’ll be plenty of room between now and launch to talk more about where things are at, and the finer details of the experience that you’re yet to encounter. Some closing remarks though on key topics that we saw you talking about during the Open Beta. We use the term IFF to describe the approaches we take to ensure that you can always, and easily identify between friend and foe. IFF is being improved. In our current builds, we’ve adjusted the behaviour of the systems we use to improve the experience. Our IFF lighting is in the process of being further enhanced to enable enemies to more readily stand out on the battlefield. We’re also adjusting the tint that applies to enemy soldiers, and made changes to the UI so that when you’re inside of 10m, an icon is now present above the heads of enemy soldiers, provided they wouldn’t be otherwise occluded by any terrain, or map objects. Similarly, we’re working to ensure that friendly icons will no longer be occluded through walls within 40m to address instances of our systems failing to represent a player as a friendly team mate before they’ve entered your field of view. You’ll see some of these changes active when the game goes live in our early access window on November 12th, with more changes taking effect for our worldwide launch on November 19th. Controller players, we want you to know that we already have improved mapping in our final options suite that will provide you with better overviews of the controls, and options that enable total controller mapping if ever you think we’ve got the default preset wrong. We really appreciated all the nuanced feedback that we got around this topic during the Open Beta, including the specific examples of how managing the Hybrid Scopes on the Legacy Mapping was causing you to crouch each time you changed the setup. Thanks for helping to flag this stuff to us! We’ve also heard your feedback on Aim Assist strength on controllers. You helped to show us that it was too low, so we’ve worked to improve this experience, making it more familiar to players who played with us in past titles. Another improvement coming to consoles is the ability for you to engage with Text Chat for the first time. Now that we’re Cross Platform, we know how important it is to sustain accessible options for communication, and we’ve got you covered here. As we discussed recently in our Commitments to Healthy Play in Battlefield 2042, we’ll be arming you with all the tools you need to help keep this function useful, and usable on the battlefield, including the option to hide the feature outright if you’d rather not see it, or make use of it. We know that many of you prefer to use. For many of you, we know that you’ll prefer to use VOIP to keep the lines of communication open during gameplay, and a heads up that this is presently set to come in after launch. Cross Platform invites for squadding up will otherwise be in at launch. This was again absent from the Open Beta, and something we know helps to make sure you’re playing with your best squad, and PTFO’ing right to the last ticket. That’s all for today. Thanks again for playing during the Open Beta, and sharing your feedback with us. We’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and any new questions you may have. We’ll see you soon, No-Pats.Battlefield Briefing: Answering Your Reveal Questions
On June 9 we revealed Battlefield 2042, and gave you an extensive look at All-Out Warfare, one of the game’s three core experiences. Your reactions to our unveiling have been memorable for the entire Battlefield team, and we look forward to sharing even more with you in the near future. We’ve since read your feedback and sat down with Daniel Berlin, Senior Design Director for Battlefield™2042 to answer your questions. In this post, you can expect to learn more about the following topics: A closer look at Specialists, Maps, Vehicles and AI Soldiers Why we’re moving the Technical Playtest to later this summer How we’re building cross-play and cross-progression functionality for Battlefield 2042 And as a bonus, we added an interview about how the much beloved penguins of the map Breakaway came to life. Let’s jump in! In Battlefield 2042 you will step into the boots of Specialists, an all-new type of playable soldier for the franchise. Inspired by the traditional Battlefield Classes, Specialists will be equipped with their own unique Specialist Trait and Specialty, and will have fully customizable Loadouts. At launch there will be a total of 10 Specialists. So far, we’ve shown you 4 of them: Boris, Casper, Falck and Mackay. You can expect further details on the remaining 6 later this year. How do Specialties and Traits work? The Specialty and Trait of each Specialist is unique to them, and can’t be changed. So as an example, we’ve noticed your excitement for a certain Specialist using a Wingsuit to navigate around the battlefield. That Wingsuit is their specific Specialty and cannot be used by any other Specialist. As for Traits, let’s take a closer look at Falck, equipped with the Combat Surgeon Trait. Combat Surgeon allows Falck to revive allies to full health. This gives her an advantage over players using Squad Revive, which we’re bringing back to Battlefield 2042. Squad Revive takes longer and does not bring players back to full health. How do customized Loadouts work? Class no longer restricts which weapons you can bring onto the Battlefield thanks to a fully customizable Loadout. As a Specialist, you’ll be able to customize the following: Primary Weapon Equipment (items anyone can use such as a Medical Crate or Supply Crate) Secondary Weapon Throwable (such as Frag or Incendiary Grenade) Here is what a customized Loadout could look like: Primary Weapon: M5A3 (Assault Rifle) Equipment: Supply Crate Secondary Weapon: G57 (Sidearm) Throwable: Frag Grenade As with all Specialists, Mackay’s Specialty and Trait are unique to him and cannot be changed as part of his Loadout: Specialty: Grappling Hook Trait: Nimble Will all players have RPG’s / SRAWs / SMAWs? All Specialists now have the ability to fully customize their Loadout, which means you have to make a choice about your focus on the battlefield. For example, you could opt for a Carl Gustaf M5, which is a unguided rocket launcher effective against vehicles at mid range. Or would you instead like an anti-air approach via the FIM-33 AA Missile? Choosing a more explosive approach for your Equipment slot would mean you won't be able to carry a Medical Crate, or a Supply Crate, and thus leaves you without health or ammo replenishing options. So choose wisely. Whenever we introduce a feature such as Loadouts, we also think about balancing the individual mechanical elements, such as missile ease of use, or range and effectiveness against vehicles or infantry. We then also introduce counters and scenarios, such as against rocket launchers, where you may have been better off picking something else. Battlefield is all about player choice and freedom to play however you want, and your decisions are vital to your squad and ultimately, team's success. Can Squads use any combination of Specialists? In Battlefield 2042, a Squad will consist of a maximum of 4 players. In Conquest and Breakthrough, squads can contain more than one unique Specialist. How can you differentiate between Specialists on your own and enemy team? The series icons highlighting your team (blue) and squad (green) will make their return and also help you differentiate between a friendly combatant and an enemy. There are also other options and systems we’re still testing that will assist you in distinguishing enemy players on the field. One last note on customization: There will be plenty of options available to you in the form of skins, which can alter your appearance and allow you to choose how you’d like your Specialist to stand out on the battlefield. The same two Specialists can look vastly different when wearing different skins. Is Ranger a Trait or Specialty? We can confirm Ranger is neither a Specialty nor Trait and won’t be unique to any Specialist. Instead, everybody has the opportunity to call-in them when in need of support. However, when you make that choice, you are choosing Ranger over other options available within the call-in system. There is of course also a limitation on the amount of Rangers available at any given time. Once safely on the ground, Ranger will follow and protect you and even put your life above their own! You’ll also be able to issue orders such as scouting a location, having them return to you and follow you. If a situation becomes dire, you can also command Ranger to self-destruct. This gives you several new interesting tactical options, such as do you send Ranger into the line of fire, or maybe as a decoy in order to flank the enemy? Your choices are critical, as Ranger is a light unit designed for anti-infantry combat but can easily be knocked out by enemy fire, explosives or EMP. And yes, before you ask, you can place a C5 Explosive on Ranger and send them into an enemy squad… We’ve shared that you can expect 7 new maps at launch for the All-Out Warfare experience of Battlefield 2042 (be sure to check out our dedicated Maps section if you need a refresher on each individual map). In terms of gameplay opportunities and land mass, this is the biggest and boldest Battlefield we have ever built. So what does that mean for you? Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular questions about maps you’ve asked. How does Clustering and Sectors optimize gameplay in Conquest? For Conquest we’ve made two distinct gameplay changes for Battlefield 2042 that will optimize larger-scale battles while preserving the classic essence of the experience: The first is called Clustering. We’ve introduced this to create deliberate areas of activity and capture areas for players to engage with. We’ve also added Sectors, which changes how players gain control of an area. In order to successfully capture the Sector, teams must seize and maintain control over all flags within a Sector, otherwise it will be treated as a neutral and contested area. Here’s an example of more fluid and targeted combat in a Conquest match. You are attacking a Sector and you capture the first flag. Previously, you and your squad would immediately be on the move towards another flag. But due to the Conquest changes in Battlefield 2042 you’ve now established a foothold in the Sector and can spawn and confront the enemy to take further flags. This creates a higher intensity fight for the full Sector. Only when the full Sector has fallen do you make the decision on where to go next. This reduces the back and forth running between flags and puts focus on the Sector itself. And lastly, different game modes will use different areas of our large maps. For example, when playing Conquest you’ll fight on certain areas of the map that aren’t available in Breakthrough and vice versa. This is one of the strengths of our massive play-spaces where different game modes bring more variety of experiences. Optimizations and differences between the 64 and 128-player experiences On Xbox One and PlayStation®4 you will have access to the same gameplay features that we’ve announced for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation®5. Weapons, Vehicles, Specialists and Gadgets all remain the same no matter what generation of console you’re playing on. Dynamic Weather events such as tornadoes, or Environmental Hazards like EMP storms will also be experienced by all players. Our intention is to ensure that nothing detracts from the overall experience of playing Battlefield 2042. The main differences between console generations is that we’ve made adjustments to the playable area on the maps to ensure a fluid play experience for Xbox One and PlayStation® 4 consoles. Can you fight on every floor of skyscrapers? You will not be able to play on every level of a skyscraper. But you can expect lobby and rooftop combat, which can be accessed via elevators and ziplines. As fighting on all levels of a skyscraper would be an entire map of its own, this prevents detracting from the rest of the map. How does increased map size impact limits such as going out of bounds? We have taken onboard feedback from past titles where the airspace is considered to be too cramped and expanded upon this to allow for more dogfighting scenarios. With the improvements made towards map scale, you can expect to be running or driving much longer before you hit an out of bounds warning. Will there be more maps? At reveal we talked about the 7 maps for our All-Out Warfare experience, and the addition of further maps through our live service. But that’s not all we have to share about maps! Be sure to tune in to EA Play Live on July 22 as we dive into the experience created by our Ripple Effect team (formerly known as DICE LA). We’re highly excited about this one! Vehicles are more easily available and more squad focused than ever before. We looked at how we can both balance out the scales between vehicle and infantry-play and create an anchor point for conflict. Earlier we mentioned the importance of balancing your Loadout (having a Medical Crate or Ammo Crate vs explosive ordinance for your Equipment slot). As infantry this boils down to how you engage with a vehicle, how you help others to do so more effectively, or how you stop the enemy from destroying too many of your team's tanks. When in a vehicle, the situation is about providing recon for your gunner, triggering defenses or even knowing when to hit the gas and boost off to freedom. How does the vehicle call-in system work? While you can still spawn directly into vehicles from the Deploy screen, one other important change we’ve made to accommodate the increased map scale is to make it possible for you to call-in vehicles when and where you need them. The vehicle call-in system can be accessed via a tablet interface and is available to all players, no matter which Specialist you are playing. There’s some further things to keep in mind: Use of the call-in system is dependent on map, mode and will have a specific budget assigned to each team. You still spawn into Air vehicles such as Aircrafts and Helicopters from the Deploy screen. Once you’ve called-in a vehicle, you will incur a cooldown so everyone has a fair chance to call-in support. Do the Factions have their own vehicles? Yes, the iconic vehicles you’ve come to know and love will still be faction-specific. The No-Pats taskforce that you follow in Battlefield 2042 will team up with either Russia or the US depending on the location in the world. This means that you will get to utilize either the iconic Russian or US hardware as you go into battle. As an example for Tanks, Russia will get to play with the T28 versus the M1A5 on the US side. You can also still expect to encounter vehicles that anyone can play with, such as the MD540 Nightbird Helicopter, or the EBAA Wildcat Heavy Ground vehicle. Will there be naval vehicles and sea warfare? You can expect to see naval oriented vehicles such as the LCAA Hovercraft, however there isn’t a focus on naval specific warfare right now. We’ve seen your comments about how excited you are about naval warfare, so stay in touch with us about what you’d like to see in the future! So far we’ve told you about the three distinct experiences where we’re introducing AI Soldiers, and how you can play with them: Multiplayer – AI soldiers are used for server-filling capabilities, making it easier for you to matchmake when you want to play. Players always have priority over AI when playing multiplayer. Co-Op – Allows you to play together with friends, against AI soldiers. Solo – If you wish to perfect your skills for multiplayer, you can even play alone against AI soldiers. If you’re new to Battlefield, AI soldiers are a great option to learn the mechanics of Battlefield 2042 at your own pace without the pressure and competition that comes with multiplayer. So how will AI Soldiers actually play on the Battlefield? AI Soldiers are intended to play the game like how you would play it yourself. However they are not designed to be Specialists and cannot use Traits and Specialties. You will see them undergoing certain tasks such as using the vehicle call-in system and engaging with vehicles, or capturing objectives. Whilst they can’t use the Wingsuit, they do have the intelligence to decide between engaging with you via enemy fire, flanking, throwing grenades or even reviving a downed squad mate. Can you completely opt-out of using AI Soldiers? In the All-Out Warfare set of experiences of Conquest and Breakthrough, AI Soldiers are used to backfill servers and you cannot opt-out of playing with them. However, there is a cap to how many of them you can encounter in a multiplayer match. In general, you will not experience more AI soldiers than players unless the match is still filling-up, or almost empty. Players will always have matchmaking priority over AI. As an example: if there are 120 players out of 128 players currently playing in a server, 8 AI Soldiers will join the match to help even out the teams. Should a player leave, another AI Soldier will temporarily replace them until a new player joins the game. We’re providing them as a helpful option to ensure you won’t have trouble matchmaking and can fully enjoy the all-out warfare chaos you can expect from a Battlefield match. Since AI Soldiers can be used in Solo mode, does that mean I can play offline? Battlefield 2042 is a multiplayer-only experience. So while you can play Solo against AI Soldiers if you’d like to practice, it will be in an online setting. One of your most frequently asked questions is about cross-play. We can confirm it’s a function we’re looking to build and test for Battlefield 2042. To accommodate that, we’ve made the decision to move the Technical Playtest to later this summer so we’ll have the opportunity to test the cross-play functionality. This means a few thousand participants will join us to help us test some of our new features and functionality that we’re building from the ground up for Battlefield 2042. Do keep in mind that the Technical Playtest is purposefully not intended to be the full experience you will see in the Open Beta, or at launch. It is a development-led environment with only a subset of features, focused on technical performance. How can I join the Technical Playtest? No need to contact us, we’ll contact you! The Technical Playtest will be in a closed environment and under strict NDA. Only a small group of participants will be able to join. If Playtesting is something that interests you, then we recommend you update your EA Playtesting profile. Registering for EA Playtesting will not guarantee you access to this, or other Playtests. Testing cross-play during the Technical Playtest We’ll test a subset of cross-play functionality during the Technical Playtest. This means during this test, PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation® 5 consoles will be able to test playing together. Cross-play in Battlefield 2042 beyond the Technical Playtest We are still building cross-play functionality, and the first opportunity for us to test it with a wider, invite-only group will be within the Technical Playtest. Right now, we’d like to give you an understanding of what we’re looking to achieve as final functionality beyond the Technical Playtest, so here is an overview of what you can expect that to look like: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation®5 system (PC and console can opt-out from playing together) Xbox One and PlayStation®4 systems Cross-progression and cross-commerce Alongside cross-play we’re also building cross-progression and cross-commerce for Battlefield 2042, which will be shared across all platforms and travel with you wherever you go. For example, your unlocked progress and purchases in your PlayStation® copy of the game will carry over onto the Xbox or PC version, and vice versa*. One of our favorite reveal reactions is the surprising popularity of a new set of waddling friends first seen for only a brief moment in the Reveal Trailer. It was definitely love at first sight between you and the penguins in the new Battlefield 2042 map, Breakaway! We’ve since followed your fan art, memes and further penguin related discussion with much enjoyment. We felt this was a perfect moment to recap and sit down with the person who brought these lovely penguins to life. Meet Joel Zakrisson! Can you tell our penguin fans more about your role at DICE? Hi! I’m Joel Zakrisson, a 3D artist at DICE and I’m mainly focusing on environments. We have both level artists and 3D artists here at DICE, so the 3D artists are doing most of the hard surface art, like anything that’s man-made on the map such as the oil rig on Breakaway. The level artists make most of the nature assets, such as rocks and trees as well as the placing of props and sculpting the terrain. How did you get into this role? I first decided I wanted to make games when I was 14 and built Little Big Planet 2 maps in my spare time. I then did a game design orientation program in high school, but was torn between art, design and programming. After testing out each field I ultimately landed on art because of the creative aspect, and 3D in particular since it would give me a better chance to work on the AAA games that I'm a fan of, such as Battlefield. After that I went to university, finished some art projects and published them online. They got quite a bit of attention with even companies like Rockstar contacting me, which was crazy! But I really wanted to work at DICE, so I ended up talking to DICE’s Head of Art about open positions, and that’s how I managed to get in! Can you give us an example of something else you worked on for a map? On Breakaway we have an oil rig for instance, so I’m creating that one. Like building it from scratch, composing it and building the systems that we use to construct it. The building blocks, and the entirety of it pretty much. I’m managing most of the 3D art on the map, which includes an oil port with architecture such as small living quarters for the workers who work there. As well as a research station up on the glacier. Oh, and I also made the huge mountain base you can see in the beginning of the Reveal Trailer. So, let’s talk about how the penguins of Breakaway came to life? When I first started on Breakaway I thought... we’re on Antarctica, I just have to do this! I love adding these little things that add more soul to the game. While resource extraction is still at the core of the map, adding these little fellows and adding more life to the environment was a no brainer for me. Adding something like penguins to the map isn’t easy, though. Once I was done with the models, I handed it over to the VFX artist Tobias Ahlgren, who did the animation and implemented their behaviour in game. In the end, it’s worth it and I love that myself and the team can add personal touches. We hope you get to see our passion when you play! What has your overall reaction been to all the penguin hype? While I’ve added Easter Eggs to games before which received attention through Reddit etc, nothing blew up like the penguins. That was a total surprise to me! So I feel a bit overwhelmed I guess? I love it. I love all of the tweets, and all of the fan art that I’m even getting, that’s just crazy. I love it all. It’s really fun to interact with the community. Anything you’d like to say to the community? So what I’d like to say to the entire community… I hope that you like the penguins and will have fun seeing them when you’re playing Battlefield 2042. It really means a lot to me. We’d love to thank Joel for being here with us today. We’re looking forward to you seeing the penguins in their full glory when Battlefield 2042 launches later this year! Up next… We know there are more questions that you would love us to answer right now. We’ve read them, and we want to thank you for staying in touch with us. We’re still only at the start of our journey unveiling Battlefield 2042 to you, and still hard at work to finalize the exciting features you can expect to see at launch. We’ll check back in with you once we have more details to share with you. At EA Play Live on July 22 we’ll show the next feature we’re ready to talk about and we’re looking forward to seeing you there! Be sure to visit our EA Play Live website to learn more about the upcoming event where we unveil the brand new mode that the Ripple Effect team in LA has been working on! *CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS APPLY. SEE https://www.ea.com/games/battlefield/battlefield-2042/disclaimers FOR DETAILS. REFERENCE TO A PARTICULAR MAKE, MODEL, MANUFACTURER, AND/OR VERSION OF WEAPON, GEAR OR VEHICLE IS FOR HISTORICAL ACCURACY ONLY AND DOES NOT INDICATE ANY SPONSORSHIP OR ENDORSEMENT OF ANY TRADEMARK OWNER.Our Next Update, and this weeks Weekly Mission
Hey Folks, Just a quick note to share that we are now expecting our next game update (Update 3.3) to drop next week. We had intended to release it later this week, but made the decision to hold it back so that we're best positioned to support in case of any issues that might have cropped up over the weekend. Our decision to release the update next week will mean a further suspension of Weekly Missions, and the system will remain inactive this week. Next week's update will provide new content that will allow us to reenable this feature. Update 3.3 will introduce a refreshed Scoreboard, incorporating requests from across the Community to update our format to display Deaths alongside Kills, and a team split to help differentiate leaders per team. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions on this, it's deeply appreciated by us all. Gold Edition, Ultimate Edition, Year 1 Pass Holders, Upgraded edition owners, and EA Play Pro subcribers will also be receiving the Steadfast Exclusive Legendary Bundle as shared last month, when this update goes live. We'll also have a small range of additional fixes live as part of the game update which will be detailed in our Update Notes next week. I will keep you updated on our deployment schedule here, and via @BattlefieldComm on Twitter. Freeman // @PartWelshAn Important Update From The Sims Legacy Team
Sul Sul Simmers! We recognize some fans are currently experiencing various issues with The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection. We are currently investigating these issues and hope to have more information on fixes soon. To help with our investigations, please ensure you're including screenshots, videos, dxdiags, and (for TS1) vulkaninfo.exe files in your bug reports.
9th Anniversary Details
Hello Holotable Heroes! First and foremost, HAPPY 9th year anniversary of Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes! Another year of awesome in the books all because of you amazing folks! Thanks for being a part of this journey of ours. When is the party? 11-18 - 11-24 What activities will there be? Double Drops 11-22 to 11-26 Light Side Battles Dark Side Battles Cantina Battles Fleet Battles Mod Battles Party Favors? Anniversary Inbox Gift The Myth the Legend, CHEWBACCA 3 Ability Material Omicron 2 Ability Material Zeta 25 Ability Material Omega 20 PAZ VIZSLA 10 IG12 10 KELLERAN BEQ 10 BOKATAN 10 THE MANDALORIAN 10 STAP 10 PADAWAN OBIWAN 10 MASTER QUIGON 10 Credits 1,000,000 Ship Building Materials 1,000,000 Mk 7 Kyrotech Shock Prod Prototype Salvage 30 Mk 9 Kyrotech Battle Computer Prototype Salvage 30 Data-cache Currency 250,000 Mk 3 Carbanti Sensor Array 5 Mk 5 A/KT Stun Gun Prototype 5 Mk 5 Arakyd Droid Caller 5 Mk 8 BioTech Implant 5 Fragmented Signal Data 40 Incomplete Signal Data 20 Carbonite Circuit Board 100 Bronzium Wiring 80 Chromium Transistor 20 Aurodium Heatsink 5 Electrium Conductor 5 Zinbiddle Card 5 MK 1 Bonding Pin 60 MK 1 Fusion Disk 60 MK 1 Power Flow Control Chip 60 MK 1 Fusion Coil 60 MK 1 Amplifier 60 MK 1 Capacitor 60 Mk 2 Circuit Breaker Module 15 Mk 2 Thermal Exchange Unit 10 Mk 2 Variable Resistor 10 MK 2 Pulse Modulator 25 Mk 2 Micro Processor 10 FREE - 9th Anniversary Mystery Chest (Web Only)[Collected Daily] FREE - 9th Anniversary Calendar (Web Only) New Player Anniversary Calendar (Claimable for Levels 10-84) Anniversary Portrait & Title Deals: Special Anniversary Crystal Offers! In-Game Crystal Promos Buy Anniversary Bag of Crystals at 25% More Crystals Unlock purchasable Anniversary Box of Crystals at 30% More Crystals Buy Anniversary Chest of Crystals at 25% More Crystals Unlock purchasable Anniversary Crate of Crystals at 30% More Crystals Webstore and PC Crystal Promos Buy Anniversary Crystal Container at 25% More Crystals Unlock purchasable Anniversary Crystal Chest at 30% More Crystals Buy Anniversary Crystal Coffer at 25% More Crystals Unlock purchasable Anniversary Crystal Treasury at 30% More Crystals What has been your favorite SWGOH moment this year? Share it with us in the comments and leave your Ally Code (Don't tell the PMs I'm doing this)Battlefield Briefing: Welcome to Battlefield Portal
No-Pats, Earlier this year we shared with you a first look at Battlefield(™) Portal - our love letter to Battlefield fans that allows you to define the experience you’ll have in Battlefield 2042. Alongside classic content from Battlefield(™)3, Battlefield Bad Company (™)2, and Battlefield(™) 1942, you’re able to create new ways to play, whether that's recreating classic experiences on reimagined maps, or combining the world of 2042 with our past. Today we showed you your first look at the Battle of the Bulge, El Alamein, Arica Harbor, Valparaiso, Noshahr Canals, and Caspian Border. Starting at launch, we’ll have default experiences live in-game that allow you to relive these classic maps, alongside their classic factions, equipped with the weapons, gadgets, and classes that brought them to life. Within Battlefield Portal, you’ll be able to jump right into those modes from inside the game, or if you prefer, you can use these experiences as starting points that you can edit to create something more personal. You can make simple edits to weapon loadouts, tag in more maps to the rotation, or you can start to tweak things as finely detailed as bullet velocity, health regen rates, and if a player takes more damage when they’re hit in the head, or to the torso. If you want to go all out, and start to create something truly unique, the Rules Editor will provide you the deepest level of control over the kind of Battlefield experience that you wish to create. Let’s show you how it’s done. The Battlefield Portal experience starts on the web. No matter what device you want to use, your phone, your tablet, your laptop or your PC - you can sign into an EA Account and get started creating your mode. You won’t need to own Battlefield 2042 to access the website. If you have an EA Account that’s in good standing, you’ll be able to login and play around with our tools in full. You can later share the experience you create to friends via a share code, and if they’ve got the game, they can fire up a server to run the experience. From the homepage, you’ll be able to see the experiences that you’ve created, as well as browse a range of pre-made experiences crafted by the teams at Ripple Effect. These modifiable templates provide a great starting point for the modes you wish to create and will allow you to move more quickly through the process of creating an experience. If you’re someone who prefers to start fresh with a blank canvas, you can hit Create Something New, and get to work. Game Mode Your first choice is deciding what Game Mode you want to use as the basis of your experience. At launch, you can choose from: Conquest Large Conquest Rush Free-For-All Team Deathmatch Conquest Large, Conquest, and Rush can each be customized/tweaked using all of our inbuilt modifiers and toggles that you’ll learn about shortly. Free-For-All and Team Deathmatch are adjustable with the same tools, but can also be further built upon with the Rules Editor, our powerful visual programming tool that allows you to visually code something truly unique. The choices you make on this screen inform what you’ll be able to select in our next screen. Map Rotation If you’re picking Conquest Large, you’ll be able to choose from all of our 128 player Maps in Battlefield 2042, and if you’re picking either Conquest or Rush, you’ll be able to also add any of Battlefield Portals classic maps into your rotations. If you’re instead selecting one of our Rules Editor enabled templates of FFA, or TDM, you’ll also have the option to choose from predefined smaller variants of our existing maps, providing you with more variety, and more opportunity to find a map playstyle that best suits your vision. These maps are presented to you with a representation of the available playspace, with our smallest options being derived from existing maps, and helping to provide a more intimate play space for FFA and TDM style experiences, our medium maps being well scaled for a recommended maximum of 64 players (using the layouts otherwise available on PlayStation® 4 and Xbox One), and our largest maps being suited for up to 128 players (only available to players on PC, PlayStation® 5, and Xbox Series X|S). Most importantly, we’re not defining that limit for you. If you want to take the Noshahr Canals: Container Area map, and crank it up to 128 players, have at it. We think you’re mad, but it's your Battlefield, and your rules! Here’s a list of all different layouts of our maps that are accessible via Battlefield Portal at launch: Note: Large Maps are not available on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One editions of Battlefield 2042. Game Mode Details Before you get into applying your modifiers, the Core section of the Builder invites you to change the fundamental rules of your game mode. If you have your mode set on the Conquest ruleset, you can make adjustments to the maximum number of human players you want in your experience and simultaneously determine if you want that to be an asymmetrical experience or not. If you choose to keep that number below 128, you can later decide if you want to add in Bots to your mode up to the overall player limit. What else you see on these screens will otherwise differ depending on your core ruleset. In Rush and Conquest, you’ll be able to modify the Game Time, the Reinforcement Multiplier, the Reinforcements removed per kill, as well as the Per-Squad Character limit (up to a maximum of 4), and the rules for Squad Spawning. In TDM, and FFA - you won’t need to edit all of the same options, so you’ll see a more streamlined set of sliders, toggles, and menus that focus on what makes the most sense for those modes. If you want to mix things up further, the Rules Editor will be the place to go, and you’ll find plenty more to tweak about the experience in the second stage of the Builder. Gameplay If you’re really keen to personalise the core ruleset, there are many options to choose from across the Modifiers section. Starting with Gameplay, you’ll find simple options that enable you to set on or off the following: Friendly Fire Extreme Weather Events (applicable maps only) Stationary Weapon Emplacements Classic Soldier Weapon Tuning Aim Assist Aim Assist Zoom Snap You can then adjust sliders, or type in custom values within our limits that enable you to change Multipliers for Projectile Speed, Global Damage, Headshot Damage, and Body Shot Damage. There’s also a final option that allows you to determine if a player's weapon and ammo drops, ammo only, or if nothing drops on a kill. All of these options can be made asymmetric as well, so if you’re looking to give one faction an advantage over the other, you can start to determine some of those effects here. Soldier With the Core of the Gameplay designed, you can then start to manage the behaviour of Infantry on the servers. There are 9 on/off toggles at play here: Prone Strafe while sprinting Sprint Aim Down Sights Health Regeneration Traversal Sprint Slide Squad Revive These options are great for helping to recreate some of the behaviours of our past titles, as well as allowing you to bring some of the more modern experiences to Battlefield games which never originally had some of these options. Modifiable Multipliers are tweakable in the areas of Fall Damage, Move Speed, Maximum Health, Health Regeneration Rate, and Redeploy Delay. The Man-Down type field will allow you to choose from Downed, Crawl (unique to Hazard Zone), and Instant Death. Vehicle If your mode utilizes vehicles (which you’ll be able to further define later on), you can establish the behaviours of them here. There are On/Off toggles for Vehicle Health Regeneration, and whether or not a player can exit a vehicle once they’ve jumped in, as well as Multipliers for Vehicles Spawn Delay, its Maximum Health, and the Vehicle Health Regeneration Rate. You’ll also have control over how it is that Combat Vehicles are spawned into the game. If you like call-ins in Conquest, and map spawns in Rush, you can leave this modifier alone and let the game mode determine how combat vehicles will spawn, otherwise you can select from: No Combat Vehicles On-Foot Call-ins Only Deploy Menu Only On-Foot Call-ins and Deploy Menu Spawn on Map A special note that if you’re choosing On-Foot Call-ins options from the drop down, this will work across all eras! If you want Battlefield 2042 to have vehicles spawned in the world, go for it. If you want 1942 Soldiers calling in air-dropped vehicles, fill your boots! User Interface If you’re keen to control the amount of information that players have access to on screen, you can decide which teams are able to see which elements of the UI. On/Off Toggles are available for: Compass Minimap (including Big Map) HUD Soldier Weapon Modification Plus Menu Ally Identification You can also make adjustments to the behaviour of our Ping system, using the 2042 default of Pinging Targets, or opting for the classic option of 3D Spotting. Alternatively, you can fully disable this system before leaving this screen. AI Depending on whether or not you maxed out the player count in earlier modes, you have the option here to determine how Bots can be leveraged to enhance the experience of your crafting.* After deciding whether or not you want Bots active in your experience, you can then define if you want to set Bots as PvE, or PvP. Selecting PvE will ensure that the PVE AI Count stays locked in at the designated number, whereas if you set this option to PvP, Human players are able to take these slots away from Bots. If you are using Bots, you’re able to either synchronise your settings with the options you’ve set for Human players previously, or you can separately define the behaviours using many of the same modifiers available for Human players you previously set. *If at any point the gameplay experience goes above a total of 64 Human and AI, your game mode will not be accessible on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One editions of the game. Don’t worry though, we’ll keep track of the maths and flag this to you once you’ve gone beyond that limit. Teams With the Core of your mode established, and your Modifiers set – you can now determine which Eras of Battlefield will compete in your experience. If you’re looking to sustain variety, and have the factions change across your map rotations, you can select Map Defaults by clicking on the Battlefield Portal logo, left of the tile for Battlefield 2042. This means that if you’re playing on El Alamein, the faction will default to 1942, and then rotate to Battlefield 3 if the next map was Caspian Border. If you go for this option, it will prevent you from determining any restrictions to Characters, Weapons, Attachments, Vehicles, or Gadgets. So if you’re looking to fine tune things, make sure to lock in a dedicated era specific team for use across all maps. Characters Depending on what you chose in the previous section, you’ll then be able to deselect which classes (or 2042 Specialists) are playable. You’ll also have the options to denote which factions show up in-game. The UK, US, and German factions are available for 1942, with the game appropriate versions of the USA and Russia available for the rest. Weapons In total, there are over 75 Weapons available across the entire experience of Battlefield Portal at launch. Now that you’ve chosen your factions, you’ll have the ability to manage what weapons are available. If both teams are from the same era, you can also make use of our unlink teams function to customize exactly which weapons each team is gaining access to. To make things easy, there are filters you can use to refine what’s displayed, and global switches that enable quick deselection for each of the classes of Weapon. Disable all of the Weapons, and players will spawn with melee weapons instead.* *Many of Battlefield 2042’s weapons unlock as you progress in rank, with many experiences in Battlefield Portal able to reward you with XP that help you level up, even when you’re not using 2042 Factions. If a player hasn’t unlocked a certain weapon that you’ve selected for use in your mode, you’ll also be required to select at least one default weapon so that new players can spawn with a weapon. All Battlefield Portal Weapons, Gadgets, and Attachments from our classic Battlefield games are otherwise unlocked from the start. Attachments You’ve experienced a selection of Battlefield 2042’s attachments during our Open Beta and had an early glimpse of how many more there are to unlock through progression. If you’re keen to restrict any of those attachments, and keep to a specific style of weaponry, you can choose which attachments can be enabled in gameplay. We’ve also worked to include a huge range of attachments for the weapons that we’ve carried forward from Battlefield 3, Bad Company 2, and 1942. Depending on what you selected in previous menus, the Plus Menu will also be accessible, though if you prefer this to be kept to a strictly classic experience, you can unset this option and ensure that attachments can only be changed on the Deploy Screen, or from Battlefield Portals Collection menu. As with Weapons, we’ve ensured that you can deselect classifications of attachments en masse, and work through our filter system to get through to what you’re looking for, faster. You can also run asymmetric attachments in case you want to force one team to stick with Iron Sights, and have the other team dialed in at range with scopes. Vehicles Unless you’ve previously disabled Vehicles in a prior menu, you’ll now have the option to define which vehicles are restricted from the pre-selected Era’s chosen in the steps before, leveraging the same toolsets available when defining your Weapons, and Attachments. Gadgets Your final set of decisions now lie with deciding which Gadgets are equippable in your mode. Keen to keep it to launchers only? Fancy a Dynamite vs. Claymore face off? How about the David and Goliath setup of Launchers on Team 1, vs. Helicopters on Team 2? Here’s where those dreams come alive. How it works If you have selected a compatible Core ruleset, here’s where you can go wild. Using the toolbar, you can start to build out the scripting that governs the conditions and behaviours of your Battlefield Portal Experience. Not sure what a function is, and can do? Right click on it, and choose Help. We’ll show you details about the behaviour of the function, and share insight on how to use it. Need some inspiration? You can save the experience that you’ve built so far, and load up one of our Experience Templates from the main Hub of The Builder. Using those as a reference, you can Duplicate the templates to make them yours, then tweak or rebuild them to your heart's content. Looking for help? The URL that's active while viewing your experience is reflective of the current state of your Mode. Save your experience, and send the hyperlink to a friend, and they’re able to work on it independently of you. They can view your Experience and give you pointers, or Duplicate it themselves and make their own edits independent of your original Experience. Sharing URLs is very powerful -- it lets other players see your game and make a copy for themselves. When you’re ready to publish your experience, you can create a title and description of the mode and generate an Experience Code. Use this in game, or share it with others so that they can start up servers that run your experience. On publish, we’ll help to validate that the server is good to go, and assign it a selection of appropriate tags. The Experience Code that you create in The Builder is otherwise unique, and more importantly, it’s protected. Experience Codes won’t allow others to make modifications or changes to your mode (they’ll need the dedicated URL for that), so for those that seek it, they can establish themselves as leading creators in Battlefield Portal. The tags that generate for your experience are your source of truth as a player, browsing through Battlefield Portal. If the tags say that an experience is asymmetrical, it's definitely asymmetrical! If you’re confused why that tag has appeared in your own Experience, this is your chance to quickly check back through your settings to see what slider, or toggle you’ve inadvertently set that could cause this. Otherwise as a player, you’re able to use these tags to learn some quick and easy information about the server, outside of its name and description. If after sharing your Experience Code with the world, you start to get feedback that makes you consider updating your experience to a new version, your changes will be loaded up the next time someone uses your Code, so that players can jump right in! Featured Experiences If this all feels a little overwhelming, don’t worry. We’ll be regularly publishing, updating, and rotating featured experiences inside Battlefield Portal that you’ll be able to quickmatch directly into. When you’re looking for something more bespoke, you can tab over to the Server Browser to search for the perfect Battlefield Portal server, and if you’re looking to check your loadouts across the classic Battlefield experiences, a bespoke set of Collection menus will allow you to setup your loadouts, similar to how you can in All-Out Warfare. You can otherwise browse your experiences, or input an Experience Code to start your own server. These servers are free, and spool up relative to your locale. Once loaded, you can manage your server via the Pause Menu, enabling you with the ability to execute the following commands: Broadcast Message Kick Player Ban Player Unban Player Restart Map Next Map Take Down Server Found a bad egg that’s spoiling the experience for others? You can Kick or Ban them from your server. Your banlist is persistent, and travels with you across Battlefield Portal, so if you’re concerned about them showing up when you load up a new server, please know that they won’t be able to join so long as the Ban is active. We want Battlefield Portal to be the best destination for playing in fair and safe environments. If you discover servers that aren’t playing by our rules, make sure to use the available reporting functions to let us know, and we’ll take care of it. The server will remain active so long as there’s one Human Player on the server. Once that’s no longer true, the server will shut down. Be sure to share your experiences to your friends if you’re keen to keep the server active and searchable for friends to join. We hope that you’ve enjoyed this detailed look into the world of Battlefield Portal. We’re beyond excited to open up the experience to every Battlefield fan across the world, and can’t wait to see what you make with it. It’s been a dream of ours to establish this toolbox for you, our fans, and this is just the beginning of this journey. Battlefield Portal will grow with Battlefield 2042, and we look forward to shaping it alongside you. Not long to go now No-Pats. See you real soon. The details listed in this article may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. NO WEAPON, MILITARY VEHICLE OR GEAR MANUFACTURER IS AFFILIATED WITH OR HAS SPONSORED OR ENDORSED THIS GAMEEpisode Update
Hello Holotable Heroes! We’re excited to share some upcoming changes to Episodes that will be arriving in a pre-holiday update. Thank you for your feedback! We’ve been carefully reviewing your feedback and analyzing data on the initial release of Eras and have some improvements we want to make to better your experience. What’s Changing in Episode 2? Increased Episode Currency Cap: The maximum Episode Currency cap will be raised from 30,000 to 100,000. Episode Track Changes: The first 4 milestones on the Episode Track will have the amount of required Episode Points reduced. Milestone 1 requires 1000 EP Milestone 2 requires 2000 EP Milestone 3 requires 3000 EP Milestone 4 requires 4000 EP All other milestones continue to require 5000 EP as before Quest Changes: Recurring Episode Quests have shifted in the schedule based on player feedback. For example, the quest to complete 5 Galactic Challenge feats will now appear the day before a new GC starts, instead of the same day, letting players who complete the GC immediately when it starts complete the Episode Quest without having to wait 3-4 days for another GC to start. Another example is that quests to earn 10 keycards in Conquest will appear on the day Conquest starts, instead of the second day, so you maniacs who reach the red box on day 1 won’t have to eke out a few more keycards on day 2. The recent change increasing the EP reward from 300 to 350 for each Daily Quest will also persist into Episode 2. Shipment Adjustments: Two new shipments will be added to the Episode Shipments tab: One additional shipment containing 2 more Omicron materials One additional shipment containing 16 more Micro Attenuators (a.k.a. Mod reroll materials) The existing Kyrotech Salvage shipments will provide 10 pieces of Salvage instead of 2, with a corresponding price increase. Updated Character Shard: Character shards will be updated to focus on characters that will be helpful in the current and future Episodes. Episode 2 Characters Hunter Wrecker Tech Echo Omega Ahsoka Tano (Fulcrum) Saw Gerrera Nightsister Zombie Ezra Bridger Galactic Challenge Adjustments: The “Complete the battle” feat will return to Galactic Challenges, and GCs will have 5 feats from now on, instead of 4. Removing it was definitely something we misjudged, and we apologize to players who felt left out of GC content in the meantime. While we recently adjusted the EP rewards in our GC feats, they will change again to accommodate 5 different feats and to make the math towards reaching the end of the Episode track easier for all players. Three types of feat will reward 300 EP apiece: Complete the battle Complete the battle with a full squad of a specific faction Complete the battle while accomplishing something specific in combat Two types of feat will reward 450 EP apiece: Complete the battle with a recent Marquee character at a set Star level Complete the battle with an active Episode pass These EP rewards will be consistent across all tiers of the GC, making EP more front-loaded across all GC tiers and easier for players to earn. A F2P player who completes their available feats in any tier will now always earn more EP than when they had completed that same tier before. As Episode 2 will have no Marquee unit releases, the feat to complete the battle with a recent Marquee character will be replaced by an additional in-combat feat for each GC in the Episode. Therefore GCs in Episode 2 will have 4 feats that reward 300 EP and 1 that rewards 450 EP. This will be the expected format for any GC that has not had a featured Marquee character within the previous 2 weeks. Again, we appreciate all your feedback, so please keep it coming. See you all on the Holotable! UPDATE: What will you replace the New Marquee Shards with on the Episode Pass for Episode 2? For this Episode, the Episode Pass will have 20 shards each of Night Trooper, Death Trooper (Peridea), and Captain Enoch. We have rearranged some Zinbiddle Cards and Impulse Detectors to accommodate the above, but the total amounts of those two items remain the same.Battlefield's Commitment to Positive Play
Our community is the core of Battlefield and we’re excited by how much it’s grown since we first released Battlefield 1942, nearly 20 years ago. With Battlefield 2042, we’re strengthening our commitment to ensuring Battlefield remains a welcoming experience that encourages Positive Play. As part of this commitment, we wanted to update you on the initiatives that we’re developing to ensure our community remains a positive space. We want you to be proud of being a part of the Battlefield community – a globally inclusive and diverse community where any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, or country of origin are welcome. For that reason we’ve created Community Guidelines outlining our expectations for members of our community that join us on the Battlefield: Treat Others as They Would Like to be Treated - Squad up and play the objective, together. We won’t tolerate players who negatively disrupt or engage in harmful behavior towards others. Keep Things Fair - Be on the right side of the fight. If you see players breaking the rules, report them. Share Appropriate Content - Don’t fight dirty. Make sure whatever content you’re sharing is appropriate for Battlefield players. Keep Things Honorable - Protect your squad. Keep it legal in Battlefield, and do not participate or encourage in dangerous or illegal activities. We take our commitment to Positive & Fair play seriously, and won’t tolerate bad actors on the Battlefield. As a community, we play the objective, together. Visit our website to read the full Battlefield Community Guidelines. Positive Play is about ensuring you’re able to refine your social experience while playing Battlefield 2042. This comes in the form of several tools and features to help you define that experience for yourself. You are able to block or unblock players in-game, ensuring they cannot message or voice chat with you. An in-game text profanity filter will always be active. The option to mute in-game text or chat is available. You can select to mute either individuals, or all players or chat. You can report a player directly from in-game, so that you don’t need to tab-out. Battlefield Portal will also offer players several admin tools such as the ability to apply persistent bans across Community Experiences that you’ve created. We ask you to be on the right side of the fight when it comes to keeping things fair. If you see players breaking the rules, report them so we can investigate. It helps maintain a healthy community and we appreciate your help. With Battlefield 2042, we’ve streamlined our reporting process to make it more efficient so you can report the player and get back to the game. To make sure you understand the different reporting tools that will be available to you, we’ve outlined them here: In-game Reporting a player is faster than in previous Battlefield titles, and can now be done directly in-game as follows: From the Player and Squad List or Social Menu, select the player you wish to report Select Report Select the reason for your report Abusive Text Chat, Abusive Voice Chat, Cheating/Exploiting, Gameplay Sabotage, Offensive Player Name, or Harassment Select Send Report You can add an optional comment if necessary EA Help If for any reason you can’t report in-game or need to report something that happened online, you can also give us the details on EA Help: Click Contact Us from any page on EA Help. We recommend logging in to your EA Account. Select your Product. Select your Platform. For Topic, select Report concerns or harassment. For Issue, choose from Real-life threat, Report player, or Report website. From here, you’ll open a webform to let us know more about what happened. Xbox and PlayStation® If another player has sent you harassing messages in a chat or voice on Xbox or PlayStation®, you can report them directly to PlayStation and Xbox. Find out how to do that on their websites: PlayStation™ Network - How to report inappropriate behavior. Xbox Live - How to file a complaint to report a player. So you reported a cheater, what happens next? You told us it was unclear what happens next when you report a cheater. So we’ve made a few changes for Battlefield 2042 to ensure you’re kept in the loop once you’ve submitted your report: If you report a cheater, we’ll let you know in-game that we’ve received your report. If we’ve taken action based on that report, we’ll let you know via email that action was taken on the cheater. Ensuring Fair Play for anyone that steps onto the Battlefield is something we take seriously at DICE. In short, that means we don’t tolerate cheating, and we have teams dedicated to preventing, identifying, and sanctioning cheaters. In Battlefield 2042 our first approach to ensuring Fair Play is that we’ll use Easy-Anti Cheat (EAC) as our anti-cheat tool of choice. EAC already has a proven track record in identifying cheaters, such as within Apex Legends and STAR WARS™: Squadrons. It is also proven to be effective in ensuring your privacy, and security. Another change for Battlefield 2042 is that due to cross-play functionality, when a cheater is sanctioned it will cause them to be instantly disconnected mid-match and permanently banned across all platforms. As before, we still have the ability to apply IP and hardware bans if necessary. To keep our community a fair place, we have a no tolerance rule in place. There are no warnings and no suspensions when it comes to cheating. If you don’t play by the rules, you’re out. Any actions made on your account can be appealed via EA Help. Lastly, ensuring Fair Play and combating modern cheating solutions is an ongoing commitment that doesn’t end at launch. While not always visible to you as a player, this means that post launch we’ll continue to invest in developing internal capabilities and technologies that augment 3rd party anti-cheat solutions, provide multiple layers of defense, and ensure our games are fair and fun for everyone. Easy Anti-Cheat will be in place for both the Open Beta from October 6th to October 10th, and for the full release of Battlefield 2042 this November. Console - Mouse & Keyboard Support We’ve heard your questions about mouse and keyboard support for consoles. We can confirm that we won’t be supporting this on consoles at the launch of Battlefield 2042, but we are still investigating the various options about making that available, and how it may impact cross-play. If that ever changes, you’ll hear it from us first. Lastly, we’d like to reiterate that Positive Play is an ongoing commitment which we’ll continue to work on when Battlefield 2042 launches on November 19. If you have any further feedback, we’d love to hear from you. Stay safe, No-Pats.
Battlefield Briefing: The World of 2042
Battlefield™ 2042 is the next generation of the series’ exciting sandbox gameplay, containing three distinct multiplayer experiences. We’ve spoken about All-Out Warfare, and Battlefield Portal already, and we’re still to reveal Battlefield Hazard Zone, an all-new, high-stakes, squad-based game-type for the Battlefield franchise that we can’t wait to tell you about. But before we get to that, we’re going to be talking about the narrative of Battlefield 2042 and how we’re telling the story of that world. Multiplayer is the core of Battlefield, however, we’ll also be telling a compelling narrative through a new lens for the series. The World of 2042 will play a vital role in how we tell the story, and it's one we plan on unraveling over time. You'll learn more about the world through the eyes of the Specialists that you play as. Each one has their own story that connects them to our ongoing narrative, and to the world itself. Discoveries you make in the game will also expand upon the narrative, while stories that exist outside of the game itself will aid you in piecing together the pieces that make up the World of 2042. The world of Battlefield 2042 is chaos. Resources are dwindling as violent climate change takes hold and the United States and Russia are on the verge of war. As entire countries collapse, people find themselves with no nation to call home. These nomads are known as the Non-Patriated (“No-Pats”), a diverse group of people who have bound together in clusters across the globe in order to survive the turbulent new world. In Battlefield 2042, you’ll play as Non-Patriated soldiers with unique skills who’ve taken up arms. They are known as Specialists, tasked with carrying out military operations. In-game, each of these unique Specialists have their own specialty and trait that you can use to give yourself the advantage in combat. The World of 2042 has been ravaged by unpredictable and volatile weather. The city of Doha (AKA the map Hourglass) knows this all too well. Each map in Battlefield 2042 has its own story. For Hourglass, we wanted to tell the story of a city that’s not only been ravaged by sand but one where life has ground to a halt. Extreme conditions have become part of daily life for the citizens of Doha and you’ll see these highlighted throughout the map on advertisements informing citizens what they should do in the event of a storm. Lining the streets are signs detailing evacuation procedures. You’ll notice cars that have been left behind, in the process of being claimed by the sand their inhabitants were once trying to escape. Now they lie still, providing you with potential cover from enemy fire. Throughout your journey across the World of 2042, you may notice signs and logos on buildings and vehicles. Some of the organizations and businesses we’ve created for the world will be present in multiple maps. Within Hourglass you may notice logos of Synseco, an agricultural company based out of Egypt, featuring heavily on Renewal. What are the reasons for Synseco’s presence in Hourglass? Only time will tell. Other organizations you will encounter include Daesong Electronic and Four Sec, a private security company whose growth increased rapidly as the world plunged into turmoil. Some are quick to point out that they have the backing of numerous wealthy private investors, while American media outlets would likely call out their close ties to Russia. These are just a few of the fictional organizations that you will encounter in the World of 2042, with many being specific to various maps and geographical locations. As you make your way through Battlefield 2042’s maps, you may hear broadcasts from the America United News Network or you might hear the same story from the Russians’ point of view. Each of these voices aims to give you something to reflect upon and will help to give context to the events that are unfolding within the world we’re creating. Definitely keep an ear out... With Battlefield 2042, we’re dedicated to building an engaging world for you to experience. All of these in-game elements will help push our story forward, playing a part in building the puzzle that is the World of 2042. Look beyond the boundaries of the game, and you will find even more of those puzzle pieces. You know what the No-Pats are, but just who are they? How did they come to be? Why and how do they fight? This past week we published The Journey of the No-Pats, a multi-chapter narrative piece written by journalist Kayvan Bechir about his experiences while traveling with the No-Pats (as well as several Specialists) while the world’s nations fall to scarce resources, greed, and violent climate change. Alongside answering questions about the No-Pats’ fight for survival and how they operate, this piece takes readers on a journey through a series of locations across Battlefield 2042. Why is Doha drowning in sand? Bechir lays out the hard facts of the city’s failure to fend off desertification and the suffering of its people: bankruptcy, famine, and political strife, all culminating in a cataclysmic sandstorm assaulting an unprepared metropolis at the same time you’re waging war in the city streets. If you want to know more about what Doha and other locations you’ll be fighting across in Battlefield 2042, be sure to read The Journey of the No-Pats. At the conclusion of The Journey of the No-Pats, we released an original cinematic piece called Exodus that explored the final chapter of the story in greater detail and reintroduced an old friend. Battlefield™ 4’s Kimble “Irish” Graves returns in 2042 as one of the prominent leaders of the multi-factioned No-Pats and as a playable Specialist. Michael K. Williams, the original actor for Irish in Battlefield 4, has also returned to help bring the character to life once more. In Battlefield 2042, Irish finds himself at a crossroads with the mysterious Oz, another leader amongst the No-Pats. Irish wishes to tend to his people and keep them out of wars fought by the superpowers of the world. Oz stokes the flames of war, believing that the old world must burn for the new one to be born. Irish, as the leader of one of the groups of No-Pats, gives commands and expects them to be followed without question. He’s a man who’s been hardened by great loss who chooses to pay his respect to the fallen by using his skills to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Class: Engineer Specialty: Fortification System Trait: Veteran As an Engineer, Irish is a great asset to any team. His specialty is the Fortification System, which allows him to place two separate items into the world – the DCS Deployable Cover and APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel. DCS Deployable cover You can place the cover on nearly any flat surface, creating a small protective barrier that allows your allies to see out through its bulletproof glass. This barrier can protect you and allies from incoming fire until its health pool is depleted. As Irish, you can place multiple covers on a map. Need to revive someone? Protect yourself against a sniper attack in the open? Hold the capture point for just a few more precious seconds? Using multiple covers, you can create your own small outposts to help you buy time. Obtaining some medical and ammo crates and teaming up with Boris and his SG-36 Sentry Gun will allow you to build your own castle-like fort. APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel The APS-36 is a rocket’s worst nightmare. Once placed into the world on nearly any flat surface, it eliminates incoming explosive projectiles within proximity (grenades, rockets, etc), turning a once deadly weapon into a puff of smoke. Placing the APS-36 next to a vehicle will give it automatic protection from incoming missiles while placing it behind cover can force the enemy to reposition in their attack. But beware: an EMP or savvy hack attack can put the system out of action. Veteran Irish’s Veteran trait allows him to dig in and stay alive. He will always spawn with a small amount of body armor that can be replenished whenever he collects dropped ammo packs from defeated foes. To celebrate the return of Irish, we are excited to announce that as an added incentive in pre-ordering Battlefield 2042, you will receive his exclusive Battle Hardened legendary skin. The Battle Hardened skin showcases the outfit he wears in the short film Exodus! In Battlefield 2042, we’ll be telling you stories in a new way for the franchise. We decided to sit down with the Narrative team at DICE to recap (and go a little bit more in-depth) into the World of 2042 and how we’ll be telling its story over time. Grab a drink, sit back and without any further ado - it’s over to the Narrative Team! Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your role at DICE? Justin Langley: Hello! My name is Justin Langley, I’m a Narrative Designer at DICE. I help develop the narrative for characters and game modes. Michael Hartin: Hi, like Justin, I’m also a Narrative Designer on Battlefield 2042 working on world-building elements. I focus on the physical world - that starts with the maps, but also goes into details like in-game organisations and media outlets. If it’s a map (say for example, a city) then I’m also responsible for what advertisements, and other world building elements, that are displayed there and what they can tell you about that location. Eric Holmes: Hi, I’m Eric Holmes, World Director on the game. I get to work with talented people like Justin, Michael Ben, and the rest of our team, and what we try to do as a group is contextualize everything in-game. So our work is ultimately about establishing and answering questions like Where are we? and What’s going on? And we’re also helping the Battlefield 2042 team at large do what they do. We work together as a narrative team, but we also have to function as a kind of network to the rest of the development team as well. In a lot of ways, narrative is something that helps tie all the different aspects together through context. Ben Walke: I’m a producer and I work closely with Eric, Justin, Mike and the rest of the Narrative team. In terms of what I do: I help solve problems, work on priorities and do my best to ensure we are always hitting the quality targets we set ourselves. There’s also a lot of wrangling and acting as a shepherd at times. In short, I try to make sure that the team has everything they need to deliver on the fantastic work they do. How did you start writing the narrative for Battlefield 2042? Langley: We started with the central theme of adaptation in the face of crisis. Knowing that we wanted it to be in the future it had to feel realistic and grounded, which is why we ended up in 2042.. Once a timeframe was chosen we began to look at the state of the world today. We started looking for things which seemed interesting to us and began to expand upon them. Always asking ourselves, where would that thing be in 10, 15, 20 years time? Once we hit that point, we then started diving into the ideas of certain kinds of events,if they continued, how would that change the world? We explored different avenues of how we wanted to approach that and what kind of things we wanted to do. What we found is that one event in the world, it’s a crisis; you only see it on the news for a few weeks. But when it’s multiple events happening all at once, everything becomes chaotic. It’s that chaos which creates a fun sandbox to play in, and pull from. It gave us a lot of opportunities to make the World of 2042 feel like it was changing — maybe for the better or in some cases, for the worse. One thing that is interesting to us is how one event can seem completely different when filtered through three entirely different perspectives. In the game we have Specialists, and they all come from varying backgrounds. Although they’re all aware of these events, some have different perspectives, and some of those perspectives might differ and there might be some conversation about that in the game as well. I think it’s important you get a lot of different voices on the ideas of these cataclysmic events because it’s so easy to get locked into a singular, superficial perspective. One of these things we’re trying to show here is that a broad spectrum of people are affected by the events in-game. And particularly with the No-Pats and the No-Pat Task Force you’ll be playing as, it’s about bringing those perspectives together and kind of unifying them to do something about it. And I think that’s a powerful message. Hartin: One of the interesting challenges was to go with the idea that the in-game outlets don’t have to tell the truth. There’s obviously a conflict between the United States and Russia but neither side has to tell you the truth about it. If they want you to align with their point of view, they’re definitely going to hide things that they don’t want you to know about. So there’s texture there that I find interesting. Holmes: I think we’re in a world right now where the media has never been more confusing in a global sense. Our sense of reality is diminished and there’s a cacophony of voices, and people finding their own truth. I think the real kind of genius of Michael’s work is that it lets you be in a vivid version of this game world. You can subscribe to different perspectives while you’re sharing a reality with other players because you’re on the ground seeing what’s happening. Langley: Exactly. That’s the most exciting part to me because you’ll hear these outlets talking about something and you’ll be able to look around, see what’s going on and say, “that’s not what’s happening at all.” But that’s the perspective they’re giving the general public, who isn’t there as an eyewitness like the player, which is a good allegory for a lot of military conflicts in the real world. That element just gives this a sort of touchstone of reality. Hartin: For example, we have the perspectives of the Americans, the perspective of the Russians, and then we also have a conspiracy outlet that has their own sort of fun perspective on everything. It’s a really different and fun way of storytelling since it’s all built into the level; you’ll find the narrative if you want to find it. If you’re less inclined to do that, you’ll just shoot the enemy team and move on. We tried to build the story in a discoverable sense. So, if you’re walking around the map… maybe keep your eyes and ears on alert for some visual and audio cues. What goes into building out the lore of a location and infusing it into the map? Langley: That can be determined by what kind of map it is and how big it is. If you’re doing something in a dense city, you really have to start digging for all those little road signs and shops. Everything in a city tells a story. Hartin: Yeah, exactly. The cities are some of the hardest ones. For example, on Hourglass you have the stadium, which has advertisements for events that never happened due to the city’s evacuation, like a soccer tournament coming up, a band performing, and so on. You need that to create a sense of immersion and reality. Walke: It’s definitely a task you don’t finish in one go either. We can’t say “Okay, we start today and within three months we’ve done it all.” A lot of the work continues to evolve over the production timeline of the map. Langley: And when it comes to sculpting characters and their backstories, we want to make sure these characters fit into the wider narrative but also in the minute-to-minute story. Michael and I take the elements and work together to make sure there’s some cross-pollination occurring. The end result is one where characters of the world don’t feel like they’re from a completely different world than the one they’re going to be fighting in. They belong here. It’s a lot of fun. How do you go about building new characters? Langley: Once we have a character design to work with, the next step is to ensure that the character fits into the world. We'll take a look at the timeline of events that we’ve put together and see if there are any natural points that pair up nicely with the new character. Some of these events are the ones you’ll see in-game, others you might not, while some might appear later in the game’s life. Our timeline is a narrative roadmap that we utilise to ensure that things fit authentically. We then start to consider the other characters we already have in the game. It’s also important that not only does any new character fit within the world, but they also need to have a good dynamic with our existing characters. Everyone is different in the world and we want to make sure we represent that aspect with different perspectives and personalities. Some people are aggressive, some people are friendly. Some are optimistic, others pessimistic. We want to create this broad range of characters that can play with one another in a dynamic way. Once these pieces start coming together we then begin to work at a more granular level on the character. What kind of personality do they have? We’ll start diving into their background, their histories, the country they’re from, their age. It ends up being a long time in spreadsheets and documents trying to map everything together. It’s important for us that none of our characters end up feeling like a stereotype. If anything, we try to break that stereotype where we can. We’re just trying to make the strongest character possible, and then presenting that in an interesting way. Walke: As an example, going back to the reactions from players first learning about the Specialist, Navin Rao. Seeing the validation from players from India or with an Indian background letting us know we’ve done this character justice and we’re not just leaning on stereotypes. It validates getting these characters right, and the importance of it. What are you most excited about for players to experience in this world? Langley: One of the things I think is the most fun is that because this takes place in a fictional future, I’m excited to see players explore that idea of What If and that they get to experience that. It was really fun to create that kind of fantasy for them to play in. I really hope they look at the map and wonder about the story behind it, the reality behind it. That What If factor is something I love to invoke in our players. Hartin: There are seven locations at launch but it’s a massive world that we’re in, with possibilities in every single location. My hope is that we capture our players’ imagination and they say “What’s happening at X or Y?” Because obviously we’ve thought a ton about what’s happening inside the world but I’d love to see more requests like “show us what’s happening at this location” and then having the chance to do that is what I’m most excited about. Holmes: It’s about creating a world with possibilities that you haven’t seen before. We have a blank page. We still want to have all the same value of previous Battlefield games: immersion and believability, but as a part of answering what we want on that page, we can surprise people in a new way. This world, this setting, what we’ve got going on in 2042 with our environments and characters lets us do things you haven’t seen before. And that’s exciting. Walke: For me, it’s going to be really exciting to see how players start to pull all our interconnected threads together as they play the game. I’ve always thought the best stories, and at least the best worlds are those that leave a little hidden behind the curtain. I like that we’re not coming out and saying everything. You’re not going to load up the website and see a full wiki breakdown of the world, although I’m confident someone out there in the community is already working on this. As a narrative team, is there anything you’d like to say to the community? Walke: CT When? Or would that be BB When? In all seriousness though, we’ve seen the reactions within the community so far and the entire team has been blown away by them. Launch is getting ever closer and we can’t wait to step onto the battlefield with you all. From a narrative point of view, we’re incredibly excited to be telling the story of our world in 2042, the setting, characters and everything in between, we hope you enjoy it. That’s all for today. These past weeks we’ve given you a closer look into the World of 2042 with Journey of the No-Pats and the Exodus Short Film. The story will continue unfolding as we head into Battlefield 2042’s release and live service, and we can’t wait to see your reactions to the world we’ve built for you. Stay safe, No-Pats. REFERENCE TO A PARTICULAR MAKE, MODEL, MANUFACTURER, AND/OR VERSION OF WEAPON, GEAR OR VEHICLE IS FOR HISTORICAL ACCURACY ONLY AND DOES NOT INDICATE ANY SPONSORSHIP OR ENDORSEMENT OF ANY TRADEMARK OWNER
