The movement system in Battlefield V was quite different from what players had gotten used to in earlier modern/futuristic setting titles in the series, and this difference was a double edged sword. In a recent conversation sparked by the spiking player numbers in BF4 following the reveal of 2042 - which undoubtedly whet the appetite of fans for a modern day game - the floaty nature and emphasis of sliding of that game’s movement system was brought up.
In an attempt to be dynamic and fast paced, this approach ended up making the game more than a little clunky. The BFV approach was more polished and offered a snappier experience when traversing the map, though the sliding was still around and still a bit excessive. Nonetheless, many players expressed a hope that Battlefield 2042’s movement system will be based on the one seen in the previous game. Luckily enough, DICE developers are keeping their finger on the pulse of the community and apparently read the relevant subreddits - and are authorized to give answers. Gameplay Engineer Niels Stoelinga confirmed that the developers are “definitely building on the work that we did for BFV,” and that they are “keeping the feedback on those mechanics in mind”. One of the recurring complaints about map traversal in BFV was players repeatedly getting stuck on terrain and props, clipping into objects they shouldn’t without being able to clip out again. This would essentially trap players in place until the match ended or unless they quit prematurely. According to some players, the issue lead to friends “ragequitting” on multiple occasions.
Amid the complaints, the question about whether this was a map design or gameplay design issue, Stoelinga replied that it was a mixture of both; the engineers designed traversal systems with smooth terrain in mind while level designers didn’t account for the limits of the movement mechanics. These issues were recognized by the developers and lessons learned are being applied in the development of Battlefield 2042. While the gameplay trailer that was released alongside the reveal gave us some idea of what to expect, watching heavily scripted and edited pre-alpha footage isn’t much to go on - we expect more details will be revealed at EA Play on July 22nd.
