Battlefield V has been rejuvenated with the recent release of the War in the Pacific content, with the calls back to the series’ origins a breath of fresh air for the game. DICE aren’t resting on their laurels, however, with update 5.2 set to land in December, bringing the revived Wake Island map alongside major changes to the game’s time-to-kill and spotting of enemies.
Would you believe that the vocal community aren’t super happy about this?
So what’s the big deal? Simply put, DICE are making time-to-kill longer across the board, and they’re brute forcing the ability to spot enemies by temporarily marking them when they are in your sights and when they are close to you. Both are steps away from the more hardcore slant that Battlefield V launched with, which had a lower time to kill and which removed the 3D ping system that was so easily spammed in Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1.
The spotting changes happen in relatively close range, targeted to assisted with close quarters combat. Any player in your field of view is marked with a red diamond when within 15m, while if you point your gun at an enemy who is fully visible within 28m, you will have a red diamond and their class marked. Importantly, the enemies are obscured, they will not be highlighted and this information will not be shown on the minimap or shared with your squad or team. ​
DICE explain:
Primarily, our intent is to reduce the amount of time that players spend differentiating between friendly and enemy soldiers, and in a bid to reduce instances where players are being surprised by Soldiers that are making the most of prone gameplay on busy maps. Overall this should reduce the immediate cognitive load of having to scan the environment too much.
It’s hoping to alleviate the difficulty of spotting enemies that are too easily camouflaged against the terrain, which has become something of a meme in recent times. You will also be notified via a highlight to the minimap if you have been spotted, whether by enemy directly spotting and marking you or by spotting flare. These sound like pretty good changes to me.
More controversial are the changes in time-to-kill, with guns across the board needing more bullets to down an enemy, and changes to their damage drop off.
Here’s some examples:
As DICE explain:
With 5.2, we’re going to be addressing the damage over distance values of the different Weapon Classes to help promote healthier gameplay on the objectives. Because of the balance changes that we’ve already made to Bolt Action Carbines, Sniper Rifles, and Anti-material Rifles, we’re not going to be making any changes to the Damage these Weapons do at Range. As ever, we’ll continue to review these Weapon Classes in case we feel further tweaks are needed.
DICE launched a the major War in the Pacific update for Battlefield V at the end of October, almost a year on from the game’s original release. As part of the Tides of War live service, War in the Pacific is completely free to anyone who owns a copy of the game, adding two maps from the Pacific Ocean theatre including Iwo Jima and Pacific Storm, with a third map due in December.
It’s a great expansion and if you haven’t touched Battlefield V since launch or when it added the Firestorm battle royale mode earlier this year, now’s the perfect time to return. Depending on how you feel about the TTK, you might want to give it a shot in December as well!
Source: Reddit
