The Journey of Battlefield 2042 Continues
Hello there, We recently gave you an update on what to expect for the future of Battlefield™ 2042, and our transition away from regular Seasons. Now that we're nearing the end of Season 7, we’re back with a brief overview on what's next. Support for Battlefield 2042 will continue with regular game, balance, and Quality of Life updates, Portal highlights, and Friday Night Battlefield experiences. But today, we’re also here to tell you about new ways for you to play, through Vault Drops and events. Events - New and Returning Through our seven Seasons, we’ve seen you enjoy our events, such as the Arkangel Directive and fan-favorite mode Control. So we’ll be bringing them back as we rotate through past events, alongside returning rewards for those who missed them. This will start with the return of Leviathan Rising, later in July. We’re also going to be bringing new events to Battlefield 2042, over 4 weeks, with new ways to play, progression via an event pass*, with free and premium tiers, new cosmetics, and more. This first new event will be playable this coming Halloween period - stay tuned for more details. Vault Drops Vault Drops will be multi-week moments for you to unlock content in All-Out Warfare. You’ve seen us bring Battlefield Portal weapons across for use in All-Out Warfare. But we’ve heard you also want us to start doing that with vehicles… Vault Drops will start later in the year with a vehicle from Portal that we know you’ll be excited to get your hands on. These events will allow you to both try, and unlock the new hardware. Depending on the piece of hardware, it will come with Mastery, Attachments and Universal skins, and with additional balance changes to ensure their gameplay matches the existing All-Out Warfare roster. Community Calendar Our Community Calendar will continue to receive updates showcasing all of the weekly playlists and featured experiences that you can expect to play throughout the months ahead. We’ll be evolving it to include details on upcoming game updates, weekly missions, and new cosmetic bundles. And of course, we look forward to seeing you for more awesome Friday Night Battlefield sessions, where you can expect prime and chaotic Battlefield gameplay every week. We hope that this gives you a better understanding of what's next for Battlefield 2042. Thank you for playing, and we'll see you on the Battlefield! //The Battlefield 2042 team This announcement 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. *Free Event Pass content requires gameplay to unlock. Premium content requires Premium Event Pass (sold separately) and gameplay to unlock.
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 OWNEREA Anticheat and Battlefield 2042
Hello all, As part of our ongoing efforts to create a safe and fair experience for all players we're transitioning Battlefield™ 2042 over to EA anticheat with the launch of Season 6 in October. When we transition over to EA anticheat you won't notice anything different when logging in and playing, but this transition will enable our teams to be better equipped to find and remove players that don't play fair. When we say PTFO we also mean ensuring fair play across the Battlefield. The rollout of EA anticheat to Battlefield 2042 is part of this ongoing effort, and we'll continue making adjustments and improvements towards fair play. We've outlined a full FAQ for you below in case you have further questions. //The Battlefield Team FAQ What is EA anticheat? EA anticheat is a kernel-mode anti-cheat and anti-tamper solution developed in-house at Electronic Arts. PC cheat developers have increasingly moved into the kernel, so we need to have kernel-mode protections to ensure fair play and tackle PC cheat developers on an even playing field. As tech-inclined video gamers ourselves, it is important to us to make sure that any kernel anti-cheat included in our games acts with a strong focus on the privacy and security of our gamers that use a PC. Why are you moving to EA anticheat? Third party anti-cheat solutions are often opaque to our teams, and prevent us from implementing additional privacy controls or customizations that provide greater accuracy and granularity for EA-specific game modes. With EA anticheat we have full stack ownership of the security & privacy posture, so we can fix security issues as soon as they may arise. Why is kernel level anti-cheat needed? This varies on a game-by-game basis. For games that are highly competitive and contain many online modes such as Battlefield 2042, kernel-mode protection is absolutely vital. When cheat programs operate in kernel space, they can make their cheat functionally invisible to anti-cheat solutions that live in user-mode. Unfortunately, the last few years have seen a large increase in cheats and cheat techniques operating in kernel-mode, so the only reliable way to detect and block these is to continue to have our anti-cheat operate there as well. In addition to EA anticheat protecting our PC players from cheaters, our console players who match with PC opponents through Battlefield 2042’s cross-play features will also be protected from cheaters operating on PC platforms. Are the System Requirements for Battlefield 2042 changing? We still support Windows 10 and 11. Will EA anticheat degrade gameplay? No. We’ve conducted extensive internal and independent performance and stability assessments to ensure EA anticheat is as performant and lightweight as possible. EA anticheat will have negligible impact on your gameplay. Does EA anticheat run when I start my PC, or only when the game is running? EA anticheat only runs when a game with EA anticheat protection included is running. All anti-cheat processes shut down when the game does. Does EA anticheat stay on my PC if I uninstall Battlefield 2042? Can I uninstall it if I want? If you have uninstalled all of your EA games that have EA anticheat protection, EA anticheat will automatically uninstall and remove itself from your PC. It can also be manually uninstalled by you at any time you choose and will be completely removed from your PC. Please note that if you uninstall EA anticheat , any games that require EA anticheat protection (like Battlefield 2042) will not be playable until EA anticheat is reinstalled. If you would like to reinstall EA anticheat we’ve made it as easy as possible to do so, with simple prompts in the game launch process. Does EA anticheat let EA see my browsing history, personal files, or things like that? Player privacy is a top concern of our Game Security & Anti-Cheat team - after all, we’re players as well! EA anticheat will only look at what it needs to for anti-cheat purposes in our games and we have limited the information EA anticheat collects. If you have a process on your PC that is trying to interact with our game, EA anticheat could see that and respond. However, everything else is off limits. EA anticheat does not gather any information about your browsing history, applications that are not connected to EA games, or anything that is not directly related to anti-cheat protection. We’ve worked with independent, 3rd party computer security and privacy services firms to ensure EA anticheat operates with data privacy top of mind. For the information that EA anticheat does collect, we strive to maintain privacy where possible through a cryptographic process called hashing to create unique identifiers and discard the original information. Overall, EA anticheat use of your computer and data collection is consistent with EA’s User Agreement and Privacy and Cookie Policy. How do I know that EA anticheat is not introducing any security vulnerabilities to my PC? Our Game Security & Anti-Cheat team is composed of some of the best security engineers in the world, and we are passionate about ensuring that our software does not cause any security vulnerabilities. Our anti-cheat engineering team performs daily testing and we continuously run security and penetration tests against EA anticheat internally. But don’t just trust our word on this. We’ve also worked with independent, 3rd party security and privacy assessors to validate EA anticheat does not degrade the security posture of your PC and to ensure strict data privacy boundaries. Although we’re confident that we’ve taken every possible precaution, we are monitoring and listening to any reports received to make sure that potential issues get addressed as quickly as possible. I think I found a security vulnerability with EA anticheat, who can I contact? If you believe you’ve found a vulnerability, please let us know by following our Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure process by emailing secure@ea.com right away. We take potential security issues seriously, and will work to fix them as quickly as we can. Where can I get help if I run into issues with EA anticheat? If you need help to install and troubleshoot EA anticheat on your PC then you can visit our EA Help page. This announcement 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.Battlefield 2042 - November Check-in
Hello there, As we work towards the release of our next 6.2 Game Update in early December, we wanted to check-in with a list of your current hot topics that are the top priority for our team to resolve. Black Screen during End of Round Some of you are currently benefiting from changes we've made for this issue with Update 6.1, but our work towards a resolution for the remaining reports continues. We're now working towards a resolution as part of Update 6.2 in early December which aims to resolve the majority of occurrences for you who are still experiencing it. As always, we will continue to monitor the situation closely once the Update goes live to make additional changes when we’re able to do so. Hit Registration Issues We’ve seen your comments about hits sometimes not registering. While a rare occurrence on most maps, this was particularly felt on some areas of Redacted during heightened moments of conflict where defensive gadgets are being stacked. Hang tight! The team has identified the cause and will include a fix in the next game update. Out of Bounds Combat on Redacted Thank you for your continued help in highlighting areas of Redacted where out of bounds combat could happen. This will also be addressed in the upcoming game update. Invisible Hardware No, the penguins haven’t stolen your hardware! We are aware that some of you occasionally experienced invisible hardware models, such as weapons. We can confirm that this is a client side issue which has no impact on the gameplay of those around you - they’ll still be able to see the models. We’ll also have a fix for this in this game update. Matchmaking with AI Soldiers As we’ve previously indicated on BattlefieldComm, we are aware that sometimes players are matchmaking into matches where AI Soldiers take up too many slots. While AI Soldiers will always be there to ensure that matches remain full, no matter the player count, we will continue to improve this experience over time. – Our work towards resolving these listed hot topics in Update 6.2 means we're skipping the smaller Quality of Life Update that would've normally taken place around this time, but we'll be back at the start of December with a full overview of changes via our patch notes. In the meantime, keep an eye out for further news via BattlefieldComm. Lastly, we’re incredibly happy seeing so many of you join us during Season 6, and your continued feedback and highlighting of improvement areas to us! //The Battlefield Team
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.An Update on Battlefield 2042 and Welcoming Motive Studio to the Team
The team expands as we set our sights on what’s next Battlefield Community – When Battlefield 2042 launched, we promised to bring four seasons of content to the game, including new maps, additional specialists, weapons, vehicles, and more. As our seasons continued, the feedback we received made it clear your appetite for more Battlefield 2042 remained strong. We took the opportunity to evolve the game to make it even better for you and continue to learn valuable lessons for our own developmental processes. Last month, we released the seventh season of Battlefield 2042 – Turning Point, which added an intense new urban map set in Chile as well as several weapons and a new gadget, with a revamped map based on the Stadium location from Hourglass, two themed events, and a new weapon and vehicle to come. While we’ve enjoyed and are proud of creating these seasons of additional content for Battlefield 2042, it is now necessary for us to turn from the present to the future. What this ultimately means is that Season 7 will serve as the final season for Battlefield 2042. After Season 7 concludes, we will continue to support the game with new in-game challenges, events, modes, and of course, ongoing maintenance, but we are moving away from delivering official seasons. We know this news may be disappointing. However, as we looked at what the future of the series required, it became clear it was time for us to shift our resources and focus to be fully dedicated to what comes next. As I’ve mentioned in previous updates, we have an ambitious vision to embrace and unlock the vast potential of the series’ class-based squadplay and immersive, intense battles. To that end, Motive Studio – the talented developers known most recently for their work on the critically acclaimed remake of Dead Space and Star Wars: Squadrons – are building a team focused on Battlefield at their studio. We’re tremendously excited for Motive, as they are bringing their expertise with Frostbite and compelling storytelling to the fold, joining DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect in building a Battlefield universe across connected multiplayer experiences and single-player. Battlefield 2042 has been an important chapter of the series we all know and love, and your feedback has been important in helping us build this game into something special while also assisting us in laying the foundation for the future. Battlefield is an experience that is defined by the passion of its community as much as its team-driven tactics and explosive battles, and I look forward to the day that we can tell you more about what’s coming next. Thank you. Byron Beede (General Manager, Battlefield)Dev Notes - State of Vehicle Gameplay
Hello there, Early this week the team got together for a new Inside Battlefield Podcast episode to look at the current state of vehicle gameplay, and changes we’ve made throughout the Seasons of Battlefield™ 2042. While we encourage you to listen to the full discussion, we’ve added a short recap below for those of you who’d prefer to read instead. State of Vehicle Gameplay At launch Battlefield 2042’s new vehicle call-in and deployment features, alongside the increased map size and player counts opened up more freedom than in previous Battlefield titles. This allowed for new gameplay opportunities versus the old structure many of you were used to. For the team this also added the challenge of having to make more frequent balance adjustments to ensure gameplay remained fun and fair. Throughout the Seasons we’ve continued making those balance adjustments based on your feedback and gameplay behavior, as well as ensuring all vehicles fit into their intended gameplay roles such as transport, or combat Overall the team is now happy with the status of vehicle gameplay in Season 6. There is of course always room for improvement! Please keep sharing your feedback with us. Vehicle Changes Throughout the Seasons Frequent feedback we’ve heard from the Community was around the prevalence of explosive weaponry, and unclear combat roles across vehicles. During Season 5, we fully overhauled all vehicle loadouts to ensure combat roles were once again clearly defined. This largely meant that some vehicles such as the LATV4 Recon which was meant as a transport vehicle, no longer had access to explosive weaponry. The handling of ground vehicles was also a big topic in the community, recently with Season 6 we added improvements to steering, acceleration and overall feel while handling them. Additionally, most vehicles have received a physics upgrade which makes vehicles feel more grounded when traveling, but also includes changes to turn rates so steering feels better. For the pilots out there we also made several handling and camera adjustments to jets and helicopters that allowed for much tighter gameplay opportunities. We’re happy with those changes and we feel the gameplay now feels more responsive, reactive, and fun! The team is also happy with how the changes to the EMKV90-TOR have been received by the community, and how it moved away from being a notorious vehicle for sniping from afar. We felt reducing its long-range combat potency was necessary, but to compensate we also increased its close combat power to allow for a more aggressive role. We think it's more fun, and what we wanted to see for the TOR! Lastly, another big change we made based on your feedback was to adjust vehicle counts across all maps and modes to ensure vehicle gameplay felt unique and fun based on what you are playing. Upcoming 6.2 Changes We’re still working on the full Update Notes which will include all 6.2 changes, and we aim to have them in your hands tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a sneak peek of some upcoming vehicle changes. The aiming system of air vehicles will receive an update. This should help players with their accuracy when shooting. Due to the way weapons on the sides of vehicles work, we’re making changes to increase their accuracy by using computed impact points that are influenced by drag, gravity, projectiles and velocity of the vehicle. We’re also bringing the rotational HUD icons back for pilots and gunners. This will increase the ability to communicate more clearly between the two and should lead to a better combat feel. Community Hot Topics Q&A The team often takes the time to read and discuss your feedback internally, so we also wanted to answer some of the questions we’ve seen you chatting about. Q: Why do we have weapons coming over from Battlefield Portal but not vehicles? A: A considerable amount of work is required to ensure Battlefield Portal vehicles fit within the All-Out Warfare roster, and the team preferred to instead focus on adding new vehicles throughout the Seasons to bring you new and unique gameplay opportunities. To confirm, that means right now there are no plans to bring over vehicles from Battlefield Portal. Q: Why aren’t jets as competitive for ground combat as in previous games? A: In previous Battlefield titles, jets could dominate an entire match by themselves. We didn’t want that for Battlefield 2042 and changed their role to focus on air combat, while making ground support capabilities secondary. Q: How do you feel about the Nightbird, and can we expect further changes? A: While we’ve identified some areas where we feel the Nightbird can slightly overperform, we’re happy overall with its performance and we currently don’t have any immediate changes planned. Q: Are you planning any changes for stealth helicopters? A: Our current intent for the stealth helicopters is to be a more casual gameplay option versus their attack helicopter counterparts, which offer higher risk vs reward type gameplay. We feel stealth helicopters fulfill that casual role well by making it easier for players to avoid being targeted. Q: How do you feel about the current gameplay of Lis vs vehicles? A: We've observed that Lis is currently one of the most visible anti-air gameplay elements, while also knowing that it isn't always a fun experience to be taken down by her unexpectedly. While we don’t have any immediate changes planned for Lis, in the future we may adjust her kit to tone down those areas. Simultaneously, we’d also like to increase anti-air effectiveness for general soldier gameplay. Q: Are there vehicle changes the team would like to make in the future? A: No changes are locked, and nothing is set in stone for the future, but there are some areas that the team would love to get to. Top of mind are thermal vision for tanks, and removing their turret aiming delay. We also see room to improve the vehicle deployment screen functionality, and the general balance and defensive capabilities of vehicle versus soldier gameplay, and vice versa. That’s all we have for you today! We appreciate your continued feedback and we hope you enjoyed this sitdown with the vehicles team! //The Battlefield Team This announcement 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.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 – Dark Protocol
The Boreas facility has been breached and AOS, the Boreas artificial intelligence, has hijacked communication centers around the world. You are the Ascension Company. Your mission: Shut down the emerging threat within the facility. Join us on the Battlefield for Dark Protocol, a Limited Time Event between October 31 - November 14*. Get ready for tight, claustrophobic close-quarters combat… with a twist, where new and unexpected threats lurk around every corner. Killswitch – Secure The Objective, Contain the Threat Killswitch is our new limited time game mode. Your objective is to secure AOS nodes, and to use the on-site Forge to create a swarm of synthetic soldiers: Geists, who'll fight alongside anyone that spawns them. Defend your objectives, survive the onslaught, and stop the AI's spread. Complete the protocol: this is a test you can't afford to fail. It’s a tightly focused, fear-inducing mode where you and your squad will have to master your fears while danger lurks around every corner. Killswitch is played as 12v12 across Redacted, Manifest, Hourglass, Spearhead. Secure - AOS nodes are objectives around the level that activate one at a time. Enter the node and hold it until captured, interrupted or otherwise, to score the node, and 1 point for your team. With no capture speed multipliers, a single teammate can hold the point and make capture progress, freeing the rest of the team to set up ambushes and prepare for a counter-attack that is sure to come. Synthesize - The AOS nodes aren’t the only objective. Boreas’ Geist spawner – the Forge – is online. If you can’t seem to break through the enemy’s defenses, or need more muscle to fortify a held point, interact with the Forge to deploy a small squad of Geists to ambush any enemies foolish enough to engage them. Survive - Once you take an AOS node, you score 1 point, disabling the node, and activating the next one. Race the enemy to it, and try to hold it as best you can through the barrage of gunfire and Geists. The first team to score 5 points wins. Master The Switch to Victory Control the Forge: Geists are key in reversing any advantage the enemy team has. Once a Forge is active, it will spawn a wave of Geists every few seconds, regardless of who owns the Forge. You have up until the very last second of a wave being synthesized to change the allegiance of the imminent horde, and turn them to your side. Hidden Threat: Geists are killing machines forged for the hunt. Use a newly synthesized swarm as cover to assault an objective, or to sniff out any enemies in their path. As allied Geists seek enemies, you are free to pick off any distracted foes foolish enough to not pay attention to the hidden predator: You. Fortify: Killswitch is played on some of the smallest objective points across all of our modes. Use your tools to your advantage. Shootdown Sentinels, Insertion Beacons, Claymores, Incendiary Grenades, and Smoke Grenades will all prove vital in a successful ambush or defense. Know your goal: Killswitch objectives, known as Nodes, work differently from Flags. Both teams simultaneously have capture progress, and the first team to hold the Node for the assigned time will take the point. This means that if your team makes 50% progress on a point, and then are pushed off it, you will retain that 50% while the enemy makes their own progress on the point. A comeback is always on the cards, so never let your guard down. New Rewards New rewards are available to earn, claim and purchase. Earn Ribbons by playing Killswitch to unlock unique gameplay rewards available during the Dark Protocol event, alongside new purchasable store bundles. Gameplay Rewards - Week 1: Clawed Ascension - Rare Weapon Charm Sharp Sting - Epic Vehicle Skin Yellowcake - Epic Sundance Specialist Set Gameplay Rewards - Week 2: Hardcase - Rare Player Card Tag False Dichotomy - Epic Weapon Skin Swift Trust - Epic Weapon Skin Store Bundles: No Antidote Bundle - 2000 Battlefield Coins Black Light - Legendary Dozer Specialist Set Vector Logic - Legendary RM68 Weapon Skin Rational Agent - Epic Weapon Skin Pincer Movement - SU-57 Vehicle Skin And the Frog - Rare Weapon Charm Closed Circuit - Rare Weapon Skin Reach / Grasp - Epic Player Card Background Hardcase - Rare Player Card Tag Hot Spot Bundle - 2000 Battlefield Coins Panacea - Epic Falck Specialist Skin Grim Trigger - Legendary Weapon Skin Venomous - Epic Vehicle Skin Control Flow - Epic Weapon Skin - Rare Weapon Charm Filtered Out - Falck Epic Headgear Envenomate - Rare Player Card Tag Ascension Company Bundle - 3500 Battlefield Coins The “No Antidote” and “Hot Spot” in a combined bundle. Join us this Halloween, and use everything at your disposal to contain the threat during the Limited Time Dark Protocol Event starting October 31. You’re going to need it. PTFO, and stay alive. //The Battlefield Team *Includes in-game purchases. Requires Battlefield 2042 (sold separately) and all game updates to play. Free Battle Pass content requires gameplay to unlock. Premium Battle Pass content requires Season 6 Premium Battle Pass (sold separately) and gameplay to unlock. You must log in each week and claim your weekly reward. Failure to log in and claim during a week will result in forfeiting that week’s reward. NO WEAPON, MILITARY VEHICLE OR GEAR MANUFACTURER IS AFFILIATED WITH OR HAS SPONSORED OR ENDORSED THIS GAME. This announcement 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.Dev Notes - Redacted
Hello there, This week, we begin the countdown to Season 6: Dark Creations*, and throughout, you will be hearing about everything that is on its way once the season launches next week on October 10th. Today, we will be diving further into the creation of Redacted, the upcoming Season 6 map and bring to light some of the Dark Creations on their way… As we begin to unpack Redacted, we are also inviting LevelCap, veteran Battlefield™ content creator with a passion for informative driven content, to be a part of the process. He will be exclusively interviewing members of the development team that were involved in the construction of Redacted, and show more gameplay moments surrounding the map. Keep your eyes peeled for his coverage later on in this Dev Note! Bringing Close-quarters Back. In its most simplistic form, a “battlefield” can take place at any moment, any time, any location and Battlefield™ 2042 represents this through the maps, tone and themes that we have aimed to achieve, from the desert dunes of Doha, Qatar to the shipping ports of Singapore. Through looking at the experiences that Battlefield 2042 currently offers and assessing feedback and requests from our community, it was evident that there is a particular type of experience that our players had been wanting more of… Close-quarters. But we didn’t want to just create any standard Close-quarters experience, and with Redacted we wanted to push boundaries and create a map that is truly unlike anything we have on Battlefield 2042. Redacted is our answer for relentless infantry-only, close-quarters combat fun alongside a full narrative-driven theme from start to finish. Pulling off this unique location, however, presented some very interesting creative challenges to the team both on a gameplay level and visual perspective. Evolving from Operation Metro & Locker. It was clear that we wanted to create a pure infantry map as our next location in Battlefield 2042, and throughout the entire ideation process we frequently looked back to our previous maps that were known for this particular experience as inspiration. Redacted is inspired by fan-favorite maps from Battlefield’s past like Operation Locker (Battlefield 4) and Operation Metro (Battlefield 3), experiences that have resonated with so many over the years. Evolving from those experiences comes a brand new map that is tight and frantic, with an emphasis on claustrophobic and chaotic infantry-focused combat. A map which also asks you to work with your squad to communicate the location of the enemy, through your selection of Class, Specialist and Loadout in order to achieve perfect win scenarios. Feedback surrounding Redacted’s spiritual ancestors were frequently around the linearity and relentless chaos that it brought, and this feedback became top action points for what we wanted to improve upon with Redacted. And while we still encourage extreme action that challenges you to act on evolving combat scenarios, it’s important that there is ease of flow and opportunity to flank at every moment. LevelCap recently sat down with members of the Development Team to discuss how we are making steps to improve upon that, and also goes hands-on with Redacted to highlight some of the improvements, take a look below! Our World. Your World. Most of our maps are derived from real-life locations or themes and, as part of the development process, we often go on reference or scanning trips to capture content for the maps we are making. Redacted was no different, but since the map takes place in an underground research facility, situated in the remotest parts of Scotland, we had to get creative in where to draw inspiration from. After all, it’s quite difficult to find hidden underground research facilities. As we collected references for our initial mood boards, we realized that many of the images we had gathered actually came from the same place, one of the offices of Swedish internet service provider, Bahnhof. Their office, or bunker, has been used as a filming location for several movies and TV shows due to its remarkable architecture and atmosphere. Before being turned into an office-space and server hall, it served as a command center for the Swedish military during the Cold War era, capable of sustaining a direct hit from a nuclear warhead. Discontinued in the 90s, it was later repurposed by Bahnhof to serve as a data center. We used this facility as a key inspiration for us at the start of production since it reflected the modern, yet mysterious, underground facility that we wanted to recreate, and it fit perfectly with the look and feel of Redacted. Bahnhof was kind enough to let us visit, take photos and even record some audio. Going on reference trips together is not only a good team-building, but also a great way to experience what a place really looks, feels and smells like; using all of the senses to pick up the little details that you might otherwise lose out on if you are just looking at images online. Creating Darkness. As mentioned previously, we always look at and utilize the real world as much as we can, in order to deliver an experience that feels authentic and immersive. One way we do that is by using a technique known as photogrammetry, commonly referred to as photo scanning. Photogrammetry is a process in which you take photos of objects and use computer software to generate 3D models and textures. This is the only way to make an object look truly photoreal, as you are re-creating it digitally from photos you’ve taken! We started using photogrammetry during the production of Star Wars™ Battlefront. Since then, we have used photogrammetry in every game we have developed, both for characters and environmental assets, including vegetation, buildings and props. Another technique we use, which is similar to photogrammetry, is laser scanning. Where, instead of taking photos of an object, you scan it with laser pulses to generate a 3D model. When we start working on a new map, we usually scout for real-world locations we can travel to, that will allow us to scan either architectural and/or nature assets to use when building the level. 3D Printing The Future Looking at the narrative of Redacted, we are exploring the Boreas facility in the Hebrides. A subsidiary of the Arkangel Corporation, Boreas is a R&D laboratory invested in the future of cybernetic combat enhancements, improvements to prosthetics and neural-linked military support. It houses first-in-class laboratories and training grounds for augmented soldiers. To help make our prosthetics more believable, we were lucky enough to visit an orthopedic clinic in Stockholm called Aktiv Ortopedteknik. They gave us a tour of their workshop, explained how their prosthetic limbs are made and even allowed us to laser scan a few prototypes to use as a base and reference for our prosthetic limbs. Being able to visit and speak to experts who are working with the very thing we were trying to digitally recreate was such a great experience. Holding the object you are 3D modeling in your own hands helps massively when you are trying to make it look as real as possible. It helps you understand how it’s constructed and how each piece fits together. We then took the scans we captured during the visit and made a lot of functional and aesthetic changes to ensure they fit with the visual style of Boreas, heavily featuring the signature “Boreas blue” color that you will see throughout Redacted and on our Specialist cosmetics. We also used our modified prosthetics to create in-world advertising for the lobby area of the map, showcasing how Boreas are marketing themselves as a benign manufacturer of medical equipment, while the public is none the wiser about the forbidden research they are actually conducting behind closed doors. Zipped-up Secrets Another element we added with the intent to dial the atmosphere up even further, as well as explain what had happened in the facility, were the bodybags. These bodybags contain failed test experiments that have been produced and later eliminated during the horrific testing they’ve been subjected to inside the facility. To help with making these assets, we bought a bodybag online (yeah, you can do that apparently!), stuffed a mannequin inside and scanned it with the laser scanner. Despite odd looks from our fellow colleagues, the end result turned out really well and gave us an incredibly detailed model to work with! Modeling and sculpting fabric with folds that look believable is a very time consuming process, so scanning a real-life version both saved a lot of time and increased the quality of the final asset. As you play through Redacted you will start to detect visual differences depending where you are within the map, bodybags are one of many visual cues that will help you situate yourself in your map and prepare you for what’s around the corner. The Writing on the Floor Another detail we wanted to include was blood, both to hint at the struggle and fighting that had occurred in this location, but also for written messages left by the human test subjects. While the blood is fairly easy to make, the hand-written look is more difficult to recreate digitally. To help with that, we bought some fake theatrical blood, and wrote messages by hand, which we then scanned with a custom-built photometric stereo rig. This camera rig takes a series of 8 images, each one with the light coming from a different angle, which we then use to create a texture that we place on surfaces such as the walls and floors in the level. We also used this approach to scan medical supplies we had acquired which we use as litter scattered across surfaces, further hinting at the sinister medical experiments that have taken place. And that’s it for our behind the scenes look at Redacted, what techniques like photogrammetry and laser scanning gives us, and what’s in store for you once this map launches. Alongside this Dev Note and our LevelCap’s exclusive interview with members of the team, keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming Inside Battlefield Podcast where we continue our coverage of Redacted! We are incredibly proud of the work we have done with Redacted, and we cannot wait to see you experience it on October 10th once Season 6: Dark Creations arrives! As always, see you on the Battlefield! //The Battlefield Team *Requires Battlefield 2042 (sold separately) & all game updates. This announcement 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.
