Here's How Battlefield 2042 Is Changing After The Beta

Battlefield 2042 developer DICE has published a blog post running through the changes it has made to the military shooter following the public beta earlier this month.

To begin with, the number of tanks on the Orbital map is being doubled, from 4 to 8, across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Another big change is in the area of movement: at launch, players will be able to vault onto moving objects and strafe when sliding. DICE says it has also made changes with the aiming of "toning down jump spamming."

Another key change is that a "nearby grenade" indication will now appear when there is a grenade nearby. Additionally, entry and exit animations (presumably for vehicles, though the post doesn't say) have seen their action time reduced or completely removed in some cases. DICE has also made changes to elevators to get rid of some "funky behaviors" with their doors.

A very big change that people will notice in the launch version of Battlefield 2042 is the UI, which DICE admitted was missing "essential components." One element that was missing was what DICE calls the Big Map, which shows an overview of the particular points on the map where firefights are taking place, where your teammates are, and the status of flag captures. DICE said it hopes to have Big Map available when Battlefield 2042's early access starts on November 12, though it also admitted there is an "equal chance" it won't be released until later.

Another UI element that was missing in the beta was the Commorose, which is a system that lets players hold down a button to bring up other squad-based callouts like "need ammo" or "need healing." Additionally, DICE said the ping system was not functioning as intended in the beta but it will be fixed up for launch. What's more, the the heads up display has been changed to present information during matches on a different part of the screen.

"We've moved the score events, visible on the right side of the screen, into its final state, centrally beneath the crosshair," DICE said. "It provides you with that more traditional kill confirmed dialogue, that affirms who you've killed, healed, and helped across the experience, and how it's helping to show you the rewards you're getting for doing so."

Additionally, Battlefield 2042's launch version will make the kill log more readable, now featuring different colors for teammates and foes. DICE also mentioned that loadouts will change for launch. The Assault, Medic, Support, and Recon loadouts in the beta will be available at release, but now with more inputs. Players will be able to create a custom loadout and give it a name.

Battlefield 2042's Plus menu, which lets players change their weapon setups mid-round, was not working as intended during the beta. In some cases, players needed to rebuild their loadouts each round, or, in some cases, each time they respawned. This is being addressed for launch.

Also in the blog post, DICE again reminded fans that the version of Battlefield 2042 that was featured in the beta represented a months-old version of the game going back to August. As such, the beta was rough around the edges--as many players called out--and it did not represent the game that DICE will release in November.

Concerning feedback around the Battlefield 2042 servers, DICE admitted that--at least in the early stages of the beta--too many players were matched into servers populated by bots. Ideally, Battlefield 2042 would be filled with mostly human players, with bots popping in to backfill in the event that players leave mid-round. "Our teams were then able to make real time changes to the behaviors of matchmaking to ensure that servers were being stood up with heavy majority human players, and that appropriate backfilling was happening where we expected it too," DICE said.

DICE also said there was an issue with the servers where people would be placed into matches on servers outside of their location region. "We've ironed out a great deal of those creases in time for launch, and will be as agile as we were during the open beta in helping address anything new in real time during launch of the game," DICE said.

This is just a small sampling of what DICE is addressing for Battlefield 2042's launch in November. Be sure to read the full blog post to catch up on all the updates.

After a delay, Battlefield 2042 will be released on November 19 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, as well as Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. The game is multiplayer-only, compromising three main modes--All-Out Warfare, Portal, and Hazard Zone.

For more, check out this gameplay video showing off five more Specialist characters.