EA And DICE Admit Battlefield 2042 Design Mistakes, Begin To Re-Work Maps

Battlefield 2042 was supposed to be the series' grand return to modern combat. After a couple of ventures back into the past, fans were keen on the idea of developer DICE building on 2013's Battlefield 4. Things didn't really work out that way, as fan reception of Battlefield 2042 has been extremely negative overall.

So, where does DICE go from here? Well, it looks like they're heading back to the drawing board. In a detailed post titled 'Battlefield Core Feedback - Maps', the team breaks down what went wrong with 2042's map design. In short, quite a lot.

Much of the mistakes outlined hinge upon the team's decision to go bigger. Battlefield 2042 debuted 128-player battles, which fundamentally changed the way the game works. The move has led to unbalanced map design, and the team is looking to fix that.

Many of the game's original maps are being actively re-worked, the first being Kaleidoscope. This urban arena will be changed in the now-delayed Season One, for both Conquest and Breakthrough modes. Other map re-works are expected in future seasons.

Speaking of which, these learnings will also be applied to brand new maps. The team expects future maps to be more condensed, and is even considering 64-player scenarios, instead of the sprawling 128-player matches that headline Battlefield 2042.

The biggest action point for ourselves is that bigger maps doesn’t necessarily mean more freedom and playstyles, or fun. So you can expect future maps to be smaller in scale than most of our release maps. This also means we are reviewing a possible reduction in the number of Sectors and total Capture Points per map when playing at 128 players.

We’ll also review the player counts across modes such as Breakthrough, as well as the types and number of vehicles that can be used on specific maps.

All in all, this looks like a good direction for 2042, although it'll take some time for all this to be implemented. If you have your own feedback on this update post, EA has opened up a forum thread asking for fan feedback.

Are you interested in these major Battlefield 2042 changes? Let us know in the comments.