EA has unveiled the final five Specialists that will be part of the squad of ten available at the launch of Battlefield 2042. DICE also added they feel those who played the open beta had a more negative opinion of the game because they weren’t able to see how all ten unique Specialties and Traits could work together, and this will be part of the beta improvements introduced at launch. Other lessons learned from the beta include that players seemed to find it fairly important to tell friends and foes apart. Who would’ve thought?
The remaining five Specialists are Navi Rao, Santiago “Dozer” Espinoza, Emma “Sundance” Rosier, Ji-Soo Paik and Constantin “Angel” Anghel:
- Rao is an Recon Specialist that comes with a Cyber Warfare Suite that can hack enemy equipment and other objects within the world. His Trojan Network that identifies enemies within the vicinity of a hacked target when they are killed.
- Dozer is an Assault Specialist that comes with a SOB-8 Ballistic Shield and is Blast Resistant, meaning he takes less harm and recovers quicker from explosive damage.
- Sundance is an Assault Specialist that has a Wingsuit and Smart Explosives, a set of Anti-armor, EMP and Scatter grenades that she can pick out of her Grenade Belt.
- Paik is a Recon Specialist with an EMG-X Scanner that provides an electromagnetic overlay of enemies in cover. Her Threat Perception automatically spots enemies who are doing her damage.
- Angel is a Support Specialist with a Loadout Crate that can give armor, ammo and even new loadouts to both himself and allies. He’s also a Trauma Specialist who can quickly revive allies and repair their armor.
During the beta, feedback from players indicated they felt Specialists were hindering their ability to work as a team. EA insists this won’t be the case and they’re expecting the remaining five Specialists to make all the difference here. Of course, they also say features missing from the beta, including “numerous improvements to the user interface, identifying between friend and foe, the ping system, and in-game team communication” will also improve the team experience.
Many of the missing User Interface features had been “disabled to remove debilitating (and now resolved) bugs.” Improvements include the addition of the big map that shows where to find ongoing battles, squad mates, and the status of flags. The quick Commo Rose team communication is back, the Ping System is more responsive, the HUD and colorblind settings have been improved, the Kill Log is more readable, Critical Alert messaging has been downsized, and Support Specialists will now be rewarded for actions like Transport Assists, Spawn Supports, Resupplies, and Heals.
In terms of the Battlefield 2042’s servers, DICE has managed to reduce the number of times players will be put into bot servers that aren’t backfilled with players. They’ve also solved the issues where players were placed into servers out of their region and encountered high pings as a result.
The team will also be making improvements specific to issues players encountered while playing Conquest on the Orbital map:
- Increased the number of Tanks that you’ll experience on Orbital. It’s up from 4, to 8 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
- Made changes to movement, adding strafe input to sliding, adding the ability to vault on moving objects, and toning down jump spamming.
- A nearby Grenade Indicator has been added.
- Entry and Exit animations are now shorter, with some being removed entirely.
- Elevators have been fixed so that you see less funky behaviors with doors.
Finally, there have been improvements to the squad experience. The Plus menu now behaves properly, meaning players won’t need to keep resetting their best setups. When players are getting ready to insert, they will be able to see the Player Cards of their fellow squad mates. Tme will be allocated before insertion to allow squad members to communicate with each other and refine their squad composition. The End of Round screen will now celebrate the strongest team players and there will be UI improvements to give better indications of those in need of healing, repairing or resupplying during the match. Health regen has slowed but Falck’s Syrette Pistol has been enhanced so syringes hit their target more easily.
EA has promised they’ll be talking “more about where things are at” as Battlefield 2042 heads closer to launch. Most of these improvements will be in the game when it enters early access on November 12. If not, they’ll definitely be in Battlefield 2042 when it launches fully on November 19, with the team expected to continue addressing any feedback and issues post-launch.
[Source: EA]
