Now that the open beta for Battlefield V is wrapped, it’s time for the team over at DICE to dive head first into all of the feedback and make some changes in the name of optimization. With a new video from the dev team detailing what they’re planning on making better, you can check out a brief recap of new changes down below.
In their most recent blog post, DICE opened up about balance changes to War of Attrition, how they are approaching death, more vehicles, and more. There’s a lot of feedback they had to sift through, but with the release coming in November – it’ll all be worth it.
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War of Attrition Changes:
War of Attrition is a mode that does require a bit of strategy. With the limited ammo and health available, players must be a little creative before taking to the battlefield. DICE opened up about the ways they are planning on making it better, including changing up spawns:
“In community-created polls following the Open Beta, we’ve seen that most players want us to tweak the attrition – which we are doing. In general, players are going to spawn somewhat more capably in the final game. For certain weapons, you’re going to have more ammo, and other weapons will see an increased max amount for ammunition. We’re also considering letting you start your fight with a Health Pouch that can be used one time.”
They added, “When it comes to Supply Stations, we’re removing some. They won’t be completely cut from the map, but instead of being pre-built, they will need to be constructed by players. This provides more opportunities to score points from construction and adds something fresh to the flow after spawning beyond just sprinting towards the enemy.”
Visibility Issues:
Visibility was also a huge complaint, which is something else they are looking to tackle. “Seeing both enemies and friendlies in the heat of a fight is, of course, vital. As you may know, Battlefield V won’t have the tortilla chip-shaped spotting icons on the top of players’ heads, making you rely on your vision (or the spotting-specialized Recon Class) instead. This is forcing us to create the best player visibility system Battlefield has ever seen.
On the Rotterdam map in particular, we noticed that a clearer separation between the background and the foreground was necessary. We’re adding a distance haze, which makes other players pop more, and you’ll also see fixes to lighting levels and visibility bugs in general.”
Death and How to Deal With It
After a few tweaks already made, there’s now even less time between getting struck and bleeding out. Not only is death more imminent, but the “parrot camera” squad cam has also been reduced, creating a higher sense of emergency in the game. “The revive icon and audio for revive shouts will be polished to make it easier to see and hear squad mates calling for help.”
The team added, “On top of this, we’re adding a new functionality. When shot down, the length of your bleedout time will be taken into consideration when you get to the squad follow camera screen. If you’ve spent a lot of time bleeding out, the waiting time in the squad follow camera before spawning will be shorter. This will make for a tighter experience and benefit Medics, since players won’t hesitate to shout out for help.
It’s important not to overdo alterations to respawn and bleedout times, since they affect how busy a match is. If players were able to come back to the battlefield immediately, there would be chaos on the map, so moderation is key.”
But what about Time to Kill vs. Time to Death?
“TTK and TTD are naturally tied to how powerful the weapons of Battlefield V are. Thanks to the tons of telemetry data – literally billions of kills – from the Open Beta, we’ve been able to balance the strength of certain guns. Some weapon types are pretty much exactly where we like them, but others stand out in their power – especially the fully upgraded ones. We’ll do changes to these weapon types to make sure the time it takes to kill enemies feels just right.”
More Vehicles
In the spirit of choice, the devs are making much needed changes to the in-game vehicles – including a bigger selection. This will allow players to choose how they arrive in style as well as choose their tactical advantage.
“In the Open Beta, players got to pilot the medium tanks and heavy tanks in their Grand Operations and Conquest matches. If you thought the selection was slim, don’t worry – the full game will feature many more exciting World War 2 vehicles.”
They also addressed survivability, stating “We also got some feedback that the Open Beta’s tanks felt too heavy, but when the more agile light tanks arrive at launch, the vehicle characteristics will make more sense. There were community comments on survivability, turret speed, and how lethal tanks were against infantry. These aspects will see further tweaks but, again, different tank types are good for different things: the heavy and medium ones can sustain damage and hold an area better, while light tanks are better at defending against infantry. Medium tanks can be used for both depending on how you specialize them.”
Battlefield V
You can learn even more about vehicle damage and pilot help in the video at the top of the article to learn more. Needless to say, the Open Beta gave them a lot to mull over and hopefully the changes implemented will make the experience even greater.
Since this will be the most immersive Battlefield entry to date, there is a lot riding on the success of this title – especially with the introduction of Battle Royale for the first time ever in the franchise’s history.
Players will get to see all of the customization changes and more when the game launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 20th.
