Following on from the huge Battlefield 2042 reveal on June 9th, Battlefield 2042’s Senior Design Director, Daniel Berlin has released a blog post, answering fan questions. Here is a run down of the key points covered.

Specialists

Breaking from the usual setup we’ve come accustomed to from previous titles, Battlefield 2042 is doing away with standard ‘classes’ such as Assault, Medic and Recon. Instead they’re opting for what they are calling Specialists. Specialists will be equipped with their own unique Specialist Trait and Specialty, and will have fully customizable Loadouts. At launch there will be a total of 10 Specialists. So far, we’ve seen only 4 of them: Boris, Casper, Falck and Mackay. He goes on to say that we can expect further details on the remaining 6 later this year.

“Airsoft isn’t a hobby, it’s a lifestyle”

Specialist and Traits

The Specialty and Trait of each Specialist is unique to them, and can’t be changed.

He uses for an example, the Specialist using a Wingsuit to navigate around the battlefield in the release trailer. That Wingsuit is apparently a specific Specialty and one that can’t be used by any other Specialist.

To explain Traits he’s uses a Specialist named Falck, equipped with the Combat Surgeon Trait. Combat Surgeon allows Falck to revive allies to full health. This gives her an advantage over players using Squad Revive, which they’re bringing back to this Battlefield title .

Now isn’t the time to check your e-mail mate…

Customised Loadouts

A huge new addition to the title is something fan’s have been asking for since Battlefield 3. And I’m super excited to report that your class choice no longer restricts which weapons you can bring onto the Battlefield. This is some really exciting news. Your chosen specialist will be able to customise:

  • Primary Weapon
  • Equipment (items anyone can use such as a Medical Crate or Supply Crate)
  • Secondary Weapon
  • Throwable (such as Frag or Incendiary Grenade)

This means, assault setups with medpacks, Snipers with ammo crates. I’ve got tingles on than last prospect, especially as I’ve been dubbed ‘The faraway coward’ by the Respawning team.

I’d have prepped before the mission, but whatever

The good doggo

The robodog from the trailer has had its name revealed; Ranger. And, interestingly enough, it’s neither a Speciality nor Trait. Ranger will be a call-in available to all players that choose him over other call-in options. Ranger will follow and protect you and even put your life above their own! You’ll also be able to issue orders such as scouting a location, having them return to you and follow you. And, if you can live with the guilt, you can also command Ranger to self-destruct. Ranger is a light unit designed for anti-infantry combat but can easily be knocked out by enemy fire, explosives or EMP, so it’s not likely to be an OP unit.

UFO? Smudge on the lens?!

Differences between 64 and 128 player experiences

On Xbox One and PlayStation 4 you will have access to the same gameplay features as Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Weapons, Vehicles, Specialists and Gadgets all remain the same no matter what generation of console you’re playing on. Dynamic Weather events such as tornadoes, or Environmental Hazards like EMP storms will also be experienced by all players.

The main differences between console generations is that they’ve made adjustments to the playable area on the maps for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. Meaning PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users will have slightly smaller maps to play on in their 64 player matches.

Vehicle Call-in System

As with previous titles, vehicles will still be available on the spawn screen, but now all players, regardless of Specialist or Traits will be able to call-in vehicles from a tablet like interface, anywhere on the map, in game. There will be some limitations though:

  • Use of the call-in system is dependent on map, mode and will have a specific budget assigned to each team.
  • You still spawn into Air vehicles such as Aircrafts and Helicopters from the Deploy screen.
  • Once you’ve called-in a vehicle, you will incur a cooldown so everyone has a fair chance to call-in support.

AI Soldiers

Completely new to the franchise, is the use of AI Soldiers to fill multiplayer slots when a certain match is lacking a full server of players. These are used in all of the game modes currently announced; Multiplayer, Co-Op and Solo. How their used is as follows;

  • Multiplayer – AI soldiers are used for server-filling capabilities, making it easier for you to matchmake when you want to play. Players always have priority over AI when playing multiplayer.
  • Co-Op – Allows you to play together with friends, against AI soldiers.
  • Solo – If you wish to perfect your skills for multiplayer, you can even play alone against AI soldiers.

AI Soldiers are intended to act like traditional players. However they are not designed to be Specialists and cannot use Traits and Specialties. They will be able to do things such as using the vehicle call-in system and engaging with vehicles, or capturing objectives. They also have the ability to decide between engaging with you via enemy fire, flanking, throwing grenades or even reviving a downed squad mate. How reliable these AI Soldiers will be, time will tell.

Snake eyes cosplayer got a wee bit lost

Crossplay

  • PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation5 consoles
    • PC and console can opt-out from playing together
  • Xbox One and PlayStation4 systems

Excitingly this also means your unlocked progress and purchases in your PlayStation copy of the game will carry over onto the Xbox or PC version, and vice versa.

More news and a new mode will be reveled at the upcoming EA Play on July 22nd

If you want to read the full interview the post can be found here – https://tinyurl.com/4vwevfnn

We’ll be back with live coverage on Battlefield 2042 at the EA Play on July 22nd.