Battlefield 2042 update will nerf the hovercraft, fix revives & more this week

The next update for Battlefield 2042 will bring some much needed tweaks and improvements for DICE’s ambitious 128-player first person shooter, with particular focus on balancing the hilariously overpowered LCAA Hovercraft, fixing soldier revive issues, and some other issues. The update is expected to be released by the end of this week.

Hopefully the announced set of changes is just scratching the surface for a game that is in dire need of bug fixes and stability improvements, though Battlefield 2042 has come in for a lot of stick over changes made to the series’ core gameplay. Things like switching from character classes to hero shooter Specialists have not gone down too well, while there has also been criticism of map design, the degree of destruction that’s possible, and more.

Series fans have taken to Steam’s user reviews to express their displeasure, with Battlefield 2042 now one of the 10 most negatively reviewed games on the store. Of the 40,000 reviews at the time of writing, there’s some 23,500 negative reviews.

EA DICE has a bit of an uphill struggle, then, but they’re not rushing out updates. This will be the first post-launch patch (Update #1 arrived between the early access and full launch of the game), with one more patch expected within 30 days.

Here’s what to expect from Update #2, per Battlefield 2042’s Twitter:

Soldier Revives

We’re confident that we’ve identified the cause of the issue that was preventing you from always getting off a revive, particularly when a player is in close proximity to nearby geometry.
A fix for this is on the way.

We’re closing in on a possible server side fix for players who in rare circumstances find themselves unable to respawn.
If that server side fix doesn’t stick, we already have a further solution lined up for our upcoming update.

UAV-1 Interaction

We temporarily removed this whilst we could evaluate the best way to keep it balanced, and fun.
That work is now complete and we’ll be looking to re-enable this alongside the next update.

Missing Loadouts

A rare issue that could sometimes cause a data call to fail on our end now has a fix developed, and is presently in testing.
We’re keen to roll this one out to you all and make sure that you don’t have that frustration of needing to reconnect to a server.

Vehicle Balancing

The LCAA Hovercraft will be re-equipped with lighter armor, lowering its health, and we’re tuning down some of its weaponry.

The MD540 Nightbird will have similar tuning done on it’s weaponry too.

We’re keeping a close eye on early balance for future changes.

Further reading: Battlefield 2042 guide – 10 tips to get you started

Battlefield 2042 is out now for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game touts 128-player battles on the more powerful systems, with PS4 and Xbox One limited to the series’ long-standing 64-player limit. That’s in addition to the new Hazard Zone mode that blends together a variety of inspirations for a new squad-based experience, and Battlefield Portal, which revives classic maps and gameplay from past games.

In our Battlefield 2042 review we scored it a fair 6 out of 10, knocking points off for clunky design features, yet praising parts of the core tactical gameplay and the genius Battlefield Portal:

“There’s a good game to be found within the Battlefield 2042 and fun to be had as the spectacle of Battlefield’s signature gameplay is taken to new, more expansive heights, but it’s marred by a handful of unsuccessful gameplay design changes, hurriedly implemented features and bugs at launch.”

Source: Twitter