The developers over at DICE held their preview for the Battlefield 1 May Update yesterday and discussed the changes that players can expect to see in the upcoming patch.

The livestream hosts, Global Community Manager Dan Mitre, Producer Andrew Gulotta, and Gameplay Designer Chad Wilkinson, began by discussing the biggest issue with operations: empty lobbies. Gulotta explained how the developers are looking to remedy this issue:

“The first thing we wanted to do was see how we can mitigate the issues that people might be running into with empty servers and we’re starting that journey first by introducing what we’re calling ‘Operation Playlists’.”

The idea is that players will remain in the Operation lobby after the game concludes instead of being sent back to the Main Menu. The problem found players who were looking for large-scale epic battles in lobbies with 5-10 players, all because the matchmaking process would reset after every Operation. While the May Update will start to repeat Operations so that players are staying in full lobbies, Gulotta also explained what the team is going to do going forward:

“The next step that we want to do is start cycling through all of the existing operations, but that’s coming soon.”

Players will be able to switch sides in-between these matches and change up their gameplay and strategies so that the experience varies each time, but on the whole this change seeks to make Operation matches more populated as well as make the experience better for the players looking for the multi-map, attack/defend games that Operations offer.

Next up are bayonets. These optional attachment adrenaline induced one-shot kill blades were rewarding to get kills with, but infuriating to be killed by. When activated the bayonet charge gives you a speed boost and 15% damage reduction at the cost of your ability to sprint and fire your weapon. Wilkinson shed light on the feelings that players had as well as their objective in changing how bayonets work:

“One of the weapon attachments that’s caused a lot of pain points to the community is the bayonet … it felt like there was no way to counter it. We made some tweaks to the bayonet and get it to feel better for the people that are getting killed by it so that they don’t feel cheated.”

In order to fix this Wilkinson explained that players in a bayonet charge will take normal damage and will also “turn slightly slower.”

Other changes coming in the update include:

Changing the ticket count for Domination from 100 to 200
Tweaking score values for flags in conquest: capturing flags will give less score, while tickets for holding more flags has increased
Self repair on all tanks will now be 200 every 5 seconds
Field and AA stationary guns can now be repaired with the repair tool after they are destroyed
AA gun range will be based on angle: shots at the ground will go shorter than shots at the air

Posted: May 27, 2017 5:07 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://www.dualshockers.com/battlefield-1-may-update-operations-nerfs-bayonets/