Core Feedback - Specialists - Next Steps [ Edited ]

[Straatford87]

Hey folks -

We recently published our Core Feedback for Specialists in which we outlined our design plans for improving your experience with Specialists in Battlefield™ 2042.

You have since shared thousands of comments with us across a variety of Social channels such as Reddit, Twitter, Forums and Discord. So first and foremost, thank you -- for taking the time to share your thoughts with us and maintaining a constructive discussion. This is something we value deeply.

Alongside our Core Feedback blog we reached out to some of you to join us for several Playtests to experience the return to Class gameplay in a live game environment. Today, we’ll outline your feedback, and what we learned from those of you who joined us for gameplay. Alongside that, we’ll talk through further changes as we progress on our design reworks within Battlefield 2042.

Class Identity

Previously, we shared how we envision each Specialist to fit within each Class category for the upcoming return to Class gameplay. We have since made further changes through your feedback, and learnings from our Playtesting. Today, we’ll outline our latest design intent about how each Specialist is categorized per Class, and how we expect those roles to perform on the Battlefield.

ENGINEER: Vehicle Disabler & Support - the Engineer Class is centered around aiding and fighting vehicles.

• Boris, Crawford, Lis

RECON: Spotting & Targeting - Recons provide themselves and teammates with intel on enemy positions, and designate targets.

• Casper, Paik, Rao

SUPPORT: Healer/Reviver/Ammo supplier - Support provides health, revives and ammo to ensure teammates can stay active in the fight.

• Angel, Irish, Falck

ASSAULT: Anti-Infantry Frontline Fighter - Assault are specialized at fighting infantry and shine on the frontlines of combat.

• Dozer, Mackay, Sundance

What you told us based on our initial designs is that the Class categorization of Specialists still has room for improvement. Through that feedback and further Playtests with some of you, we’ve made several key changes to Crawford and Irish.

Crawford

For Crawford we noticed conflicting gameplay behavior between offensively using his Mounted Vulcan, alongside being tasked to revive other players. Right now, this means Crawford is unable to fully commit to his role as Support. Similar to Boris who also takes an offensive approach with this SG-36 Sentry Gun, we are changing Crawford’s Class to give him a clearer purpose on the Battlefield.

We’ve heard you share similar feedback that this would be a better fit, and through further Playtesting we’re seeing that placing Crawford in the role of Engineer provides a smoother gameplay flow by allowing him to help purely focus on offensive support.

Irish

For Irish, we recognize that the design of his APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel and DCS Deployable Cover provide more benefits towards helping infantry, instead of aiding or combating vehicles. We are therefore moving Irish to the role of Support where he can focus on helping and protecting teammates, instead of taking out enemy vehicles. 

With this change in place, we’ve seen great new gameplay moments where Irish protects his team with his Shootdown Sentinel, while dropping Cover and reviving fallen friendlies.

As a summary for Crawford and Irish, these changes mean:

• We’re switching their respective Classes; Crawford becomes an Engineer, and Irish becomes Support
• Crawford gains the Repair Tool, while Irish gets the Defibrillator as Class Equipment 
• Irish receives Crawford’s “Cache Point” Trait, as Crawford can no longer revive players
• Crawford will receive a new Trait which is still being designed. We are currently exploring making him more effective at repairing vehicles under certain conditions

Rao

We have also received feedback about Rao’s potential fit as an Engineer, as within current gameplay he is mainly used to take down vehicles.

Our design intent for Rao as a Recon is to be a disruptor and target designator so his team can follow-up to take down targets. Currently it isn’t always clear to the team who Rao is targeting so we are exploring ways to improve his teamplay opportunities.

We are maintaining Rao as a Recon. And while he can still be effective against vehicles through having access to C5, we’ll make further changes to enforce his Spotting & Targeting capabilities. These changes won’t impact Rao’s abilities directly, but rather how they are communicated to his team when he uses them. For example, when Rao Hacks a target, team mates will see a large UI indicator signaling a designated target is Hacked, and ready to be taken down.

Class Loadouts

Based on your feedback and further Playtesting, we’re happy with the structure of Class Gadgets and Equipment with small room for improvements. The main changes we’re making are to balance the available Gadgets. For example, with the new Class structure in place we know there will be a reduction in available Rocket Launchers on the Battlefield because not everyone might want to play an Engineer. To ensure vehicles don’t become dominant, we’ll maintain a balanced gameplay flow by adjusting the available Gadgets in advance to ensure effective counters remain in place. 

Here is a new overview of the Class Loadout structure:

Class Equipment (Always available)

Assault - Med Pen
Engineer - Repair Tool

Support - Defibrillator

Recon - Insertion Beacon

Class Gadgets (You can choose 1)

Assault - Smoke Launcher, IBA Armor Plate, C5 Explosive, M18 Claymore
Engineer - Anti-Tank Mine, Recoilless M5, FXM-33 AA Missile, GM-148 Javelin, EOD Bot

Support - Ammo Crate, Medical Crate, Smoke Launcher, M18 Claymore

Recon - T-UGS, Tracer Dart Gun, M18 Claymore, C5 Explosive, Prox Sensor, SOFLAM Designator 

Throwables (You can choose 1)

Assault - Frag Grenade, Smoke Grenade, Concussion Grenade, Incendiary Grenade
Engineer - Frag Grenade, Smoke Grenade, EMP Grenade, Incendiary Grenade

Support - Frag Grenade, Smoke Grenade, EMP Grenade, Incendiary Grenade

Recon - Frag Grenade, Smoke Grenade, EMP Grenade, Incendiary Grenade

Weapon Restrictions

A separate contentious point of feedback we heard from you was about freedom of choice for weapons. Presently, Specialists have access to all weapons and there are no restrictions to choice of weaponry within your Loadout. We have heard from some of you that you enjoy having access to all weapons, while others noted that you would instead enjoy having weapons locked to the Class that you’re playing to help enforce Class Identity.

While we will bring more structure to gameplay via the Class rework, we feel that adding weapon restrictions would not be the right change for how you are currently used to playing Battlefield 2042, alongside Specialist gameplay. However, we do agree that using a weapon that fits your Class should feel meaningful. To achieve that feeling we’re adding a new system that we currently call Weapon Class Proficiencies. Below is an example of this system and the options we’re currently exploring. 

Recons are known for using Sniper Rifles on the Battlefield, and their proficiency when wielding this weapon type outperforms for example an Assault, who are skilled at using Assault Rifles. While Recons will still have access to all weapons in this new system, they’ll now benefit from wielding Sniper Rifles by automatically holding breath for much longer while ADS.

Our design intent for this new system is to help enforce your role on the Battlefield while simultaneously making you more readable to other players. That leads to better balance and more teamplay, alongside maintaining current freedom of choice that many of you are used to, and enjoy. We feel it’s the right approach to make using Class-specific weapons meaningful.

UI

Alongside the gameplay changes we’ll also make improvements to the UI to help enforce Class gameplay. Further feedback you’ve given us through the Playtests has been incredibly helpful to ensure a smooth gameplay flow. Here is an overview of current changes:

Loadouts

Loadouts will now be specific to the Class, instead of Specialist. This means you’ll be able to get to play faster, and will experience less clicking around through the available options per Class.

Character selection

In the character selection screen you’ll now see all Specialists grouped by their Class. You’ll still have the same streamlined overview as you enjoy in the game today. 

Class Icons

We have updated Class Icons to make it easier to understand the Role of each Class. For example, all Support players are able to revive, so you can now recognize that Class by a Health, instead of an Ammo Icon.

Class indicators

Friendly soldiers will now have an in-world UI indicator above their head to help you identify their Class. You’ll also find the Class indicators listed on the Scoreboard.

Class Weapon Proficiencies

New UI indicators for the Class Weapon Proficiency help you identify which weapons your Class will benefit from using.

What’s Next?

The Class rework changes are currently still scheduled to become playable in the later half of Season 3, and we’ll keep you updated on our progress. We’ll end today with another big thank you. All of you are a part of this journey towards bringing back Class gameplay to Battlefield 2042. You’ve continued to show your dedication to us by leaving thousands of comments of feedback. It truly means the world to the team, and we’re looking forward to continuing this journey together. 

We also want to say thank you to those who have been invited to join us in our Playtests, which helps us test further opportunities to stay involved and give feedback.

As we move towards the new Season, we’ll keep reading your feedback and continue our Playtests with you. We’ll keep you updated about further changes we’re making and you’ll hear from us again with the progress we’re making as we move closer towards the launch of Season 3. 

See you on the Battlefield,

The Battlefield Community Team

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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.

[CPT_GASLIGHT]

Rao lost the stinger 🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

Still going to be targeting him over every other specialist with the nightbird tho. 

[volvo_mainjac]

But if i like the skin of Lis, and want to play as an assault? ….

I dont want to be locked in to just three caracters.

Nope, remove the specialists and bring back the class-system.

Also nope, i dont play this game, and the specialists is the biggest reason right now.

// V

[D3vil_Homura]

Can we have smoke grenade launcher as class gadget for Support instead of defib?

Since defib is accessible to all specialist while squad reviving, it really lose an advantage by choosing defib as class gadget compare to other classes. Also, in BFV we saw that using smoke grenade and its launcher while being medic really provides great support for your team while pushing or reviving your team in open area.

[D3vil_Homura]

PS: I mean "class equipment" instead of "class gadget in previous reply.

Can we have smoke grenade launcher as class equipment for Support instead of defib?

Since defib is accessible to all specialist while squad reviving, it really lose an advantage by choosing defib as class equipment compare to other classes. Also, in BFV we saw that using smoke grenade and its launcher while being medic really provides great support for your team while pushing or reviving your team in open area.

[S3SSioN_SoL]

@Straatford87  WHOA Making Irish a Medic is such a weird decision? Now there will be 200 APS Sentinels across the map, leading to it getting nerfed when it's actually fine.
Crawford was perfectly fine, his trait gave him an incentive to revive.

If these playtesters played Irish as intended, then people would realize he was the most balanced implementation for an APS system for vehicles. The vehicles can't move anywhere, they must stay in the same spot if they want APS, but now? With Irish no longer having a repair tool, this entire playstyle has been nerfed. No longer can you spawn on a MAV as Irish and play a purely support role around it, placing down your sentinels and repairing the MAV...

Well... Yet more changes for the sake of change i.e There doesn't have to be 3 Heroes per class... there could be 4 Engineers and 2 Medics. And instead of changing what needed to be changed, the weapon restrictions, this has been left out. I dunno. 

Hell, the Hero gadgets should just be turned in Class Gadgets, that way Crawford could use a APS Sentinel if he wanted to. This whole specialist thing being tied to gadgets is a hazard to Battlefield, it has no place in the game. 

At least there will be far more gadgets in the game than before, so that's at least a good change.

[Tank2042Man]

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@S3SSioN_SoL wrote:

@Straatford87  WHOA Making Irish a Medic is such a weird decision? Now there will be 200 APS Sentinels across the map, leading to it getting nerfed when it's actually fine.
Crawford was perfectly fine, his trait gave him an incentive to revive.

If these playtesters played Irish as intended, then people would realize he was the most balanced implementation for an APS system for vehicles. The vehicles can't move anywhere, they must stay in the same spot if they want APS, but now? With Irish no longer having a repair tool, this entire playstyle has been nerfed. No longer can you spawn on a MAV as Irish and play a purely support role around it, placing down your sentinels and repairing the MAV...

Well... Yet more changes for the sake of change i.e There doesn't have to be 3 Heroes per class... there could be 4 Engineers and 2 Medics. And instead of changing what needed to be changed, the weapon restrictions, this has been left out. I dunno. 

Hell, the Hero gadgets should just be turned in Class Gadgets, that way Crawford could use a APS Sentinel if he wanted to. This whole specialist thing being tied to gadgets is a hazard to Battlefield, it has no place in the game. 

At least there will be far more gadgets in the game than before, so that's at least a good change.

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Well there's always going to be winners and losers with the new gadget restrictions.

I'm winning as I can continue to play with my primary kit loadous with Boris but I'm going to continue to lose out in my tank to Mackay and Sundance with their C5 as I predicted a few days ago.

[Tank2042Man]

@Straatford87 Shouldn't this thread be moved to General Discussions and pinned?

[AngrySquid270]

Really curious to see the full details on the class weapon profeciencies.  I threw out that concept a few times on Reddit and on the forums a few months ago; kinda fun to see it implemented.

Also this looks to be a pretty big nerf to infantry AA. Most of the top AA loadouts are gone.

• Rao + Stinger
• Angel + Stinger
• Rao + SOFLAM (likely much fewer SOFLAM partners available now.  Boris and Crawford may be the only specialists that could partner with a SOFLAM)

Lis now seems like the only viable choice for AA.   I wonder how seriously DICE considered the AA implications of this change.  Are these changes an intentional nerf to infantry AA?  Speaking of Lis how are they going to handle her gadget restrictions; EOD Bot and AT mine only?

I'm not really sure what was meant by this statement "...To ensure vehicles don’t become dominant, we’ll maintain a balanced gameplay flow by adjusting the available Gadgets in advance to ensure effective counters remain in place. ...."  Anyone care to offer their interpretations?  I'm thinking it means the AA/AT launchers may see buffs.

Also giving the most popular specialists (Mackay and Sundance) one of the most popular gadgets (C5) and a proficiency bonus to one of the most popular guns (Assault rifles) seems like a recipe for a very popular class/class loadout.

[Psubond]

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@Tank2042Man wrote:

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@S3SSioN_SoL wrote:

@Straatford87  WHOA Making Irish a Medic is such a weird decision? Now there will be 200 APS Sentinels across the map, leading to it getting nerfed when it's actually fine.
Crawford was perfectly fine, his trait gave him an incentive to revive.

If these playtesters played Irish as intended, then people would realize he was the most balanced implementation for an APS system for vehicles. The vehicles can't move anywhere, they must stay in the same spot if they want APS, but now? With Irish no longer having a repair tool, this entire playstyle has been nerfed. No longer can you spawn on a MAV as Irish and play a purely support role around it, placing down your sentinels and repairing the MAV...

Well... Yet more changes for the sake of change i.e There doesn't have to be 3 Heroes per class... there could be 4 Engineers and 2 Medics. And instead of changing what needed to be changed, the weapon restrictions, this has been left out. I dunno. 

Hell, the Hero gadgets should just be turned in Class Gadgets, that way Crawford could use a APS Sentinel if he wanted to. This whole specialist thing being tied to gadgets is a hazard to Battlefield, it has no place in the game. 

At least there will be far more gadgets in the game than before, so that's at least a good change.

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Well there's always going to be winners and losers with the new gadget restrictions.

I'm winning as I can continue to play with my primary kit loadous with Boris but I'm going to continue to lose out in my tank to Mackay and Sundance with their C5 as I predicted a few days ago.

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i think the winners in all of this are the stealth helo pilots.  yea i can still hack them with Rao but that's it.  i can't actually hurt them