DICE has detailed some more of their plans for Battlefield 2042, most specifically how cross-play will work between various consoles, reiterating how AI will be used to keep servers feeling full, and some more news about the upcoming Technical Playtest.
Unusually, given the scope of Battlefield 2042, the game will have cross-play, but only between devices of a certain generation. This means that PS5 and Xbox Series X can play together with 128-player battles, but because the last generation is limited to 64-players, PS4 and Xbox One will share their own servers.
Here’s how they’re grouped together:
- PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 consoles – PC and console can opt-out from playing together
- Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles
In addition to cross-play, DICE and EA are also building in cross-progression and cross-commerce. All of your purchases and unlocks made on, for example, an Xbox Series X|S can be taken with you to PC or PlayStation 5. It seems this element will also work between generations.
It’s all of this functionality that will be the focus of the Technical Playtest. This is a private test that will be invite only, and was announced at Battlefield 2042’s reveal. Unfortunately, DICE have decided they need to postpone this test until later in the summer, when it had been intended for this month.
The Technical Playtest will be in a closed environment and under strict NDA. Only a small group of participants will be able to join. If Playtesting is something that interests you, then we recommend you update your EA Playtesting profile. Registering for EA Playtesting will not guarantee you access to this, or other Playtests.
We’ll test a subset of cross-play functionality during the Technical Playtest. This means during this test, PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation® 5 consoles will be able to test playing together.
All of these players could be AI bots…
The technical test will likely give DICE a chance to see their AI soldiers in action as well. AI Soldiers are used across multiplayer, co-op and solo modes, filling out the map with more allies and enemies running around. They are fundamental to the experience, as DICE has designed the game with AI soldiers being used to “backfill” servers with up to 64 AI soldiers. In practice, DICE say “there is a cap to how many of them you can encounter in a multiplayer match. In general, you will not experience more AI soldiers than players unless the match is still filling-up, or almost empty. Players will always have matchmaking priority over AI.”
They also explained that these AI soldiers will be fundamentally limited in abilities, but will carry out regular tasks:
AI Soldiers are intended to play the game like how you would play it yourself. However they are not designed to be Specialists and cannot use Traits and Specialties. You will see them undergoing certain tasks such as using the vehicle call-in system and engaging with vehicles, or capturing objectives. Whilst they can’t use the Wingsuit, they do have the intelligence to decide between engaging with you via enemy fire, flanking, throwing grenades or even reviving a downed squad mate.
In other words, if you see someone actually playing the objective, it’s probably a bot.
So far DICE has only revealed two game modes from Battlefield 2042’s ‘All-Out Warfare’ gameplay experience. Further game modes will be announced and revealed in the coming months. Hazard Zone, a new high-stakes game type that is categorically not a battle royale, while a third experience developed by DICE LA that will be revealed at EA Play Live next Thursday on 22nd July, which is rumoured to be a grand mash up of previous games in the series.
Source: The Verge
