BATTLEFIELD 2042 UPDATE #4.0

Hello there,

Season 4: Eleventh Hour for Battlefield™ 2042 deploys across all platforms on February 28th.

We’re extremely excited for you to experience the new Season and its content alongside the fresh and improved gameplay that we introduced in January’s Return to the Class System update. Send us those clips once you’ve played!

//The Battlefield Team

What’s new in Season 4?

Here is an overview of the new content alongside highlights of changes and improvements:

• New Map: Flashpoint
• New Specialist: Camila Blasco
• New Vehicle: CAV-Brawler
• New Weaponry: AC9 SMG, RM68 Assault Rifle, RPT-31 LMG and Super 500 Shotgun
• New Gadget: SPH Explosive Launcher
• New Vault Weaponry: SVD and Type 88 LMG

When can I play?

Season 3 officially comes to a close on February 28th at 08:59 UTC. 

Update 4.0.0 which includes all changes and improvements for this Season goes live on on the same day at 09:00 UTC. 

Seasonal and Battle Pass progression starts several hours later at 12:00 UTC. This is where you start your  journey towards unlocking our latest and final Specialist, Camila Blasco, new weaponry such as the RPT-31 LMG and our latest vehicle, the CAV-Brawler.

Season 4 Playlists

Once the new Season is underway you can jump straight onto our new location: Flashpoint, through 24/7 Playlists that we’ll activate for both Conquest and Breakthrough.

Stay Informed

Follow us on the @BattlefieldComm Twitter account to stay informed on the roll out of our updates. You can also follow along with our tracking of Known Issues and further game changes we’re making via our Battlefield forums.

If you’d like to instead listen in then we invite you to tune into our Inside Battlefield Podcast. You can also watch our latest Development Update to see what’s new.

WHAT’S NEW?

New Map: Flashpoint
Head towards The Richtersveld, an arid, rocky South African battlefield where the conflict is about to get up-close and personal with our latest location, Flashpoint.

Water Treatment
Get your squad together and make your move on flag A1, a short to medium vehicle friendly combat zone that you need to take command of. Don’t risk losing it to the enemy.

Wellspring Access
Move forward with your squad to flag B1, but have your wits about you as this multi-tiered short to medium close-quarters combat area will be swimming with enemies.

Fuel Processing
Get your squad in the CAV-Brawler and get straight into the fray at flag C1. The close-quarters combat will be all around you at every turn. Word of warning, keep an eye out for sharpshooters.

Construction Tunnel
Bring a ground-vehicle and your A-game to flag D1, as you take the fight inside using the vehicle elevator. With ample cover, any infantry at your side will stand a chance to make it out alive.

Mineral Extraction
It’s only a short sprint across the desert to flag E1, where an infantry focused turbine room and site tower awaits.

Reactor Maintenance
Regroup your squad and lead the way to flag F1. A large Team Deathmatch inspired space that’s yours for the taking – all wrapped around a large, and central reactor core. A close-quarters combat dream.

Solar Substation
Push onwards to flag G1, and lock it down fast. This is one flag you want to control. Keep the enemy back!

New Specialist: Camila “Blasco”
Our final Specialist enters the fray with Season 4: Eleventh Hour.

Stepping up to the task at hand is Camilla Blasco. Adept in ambush tactics, Blasco is more than capable of stealthily navigating through enemy lines in order to enact deadly attacks upon unaware foes through her reconnaissance training and tactical gear.

Specialty – X6-Infiltration Device – Placing this device on the ground creates a dead zone in the immediate area, interfering with enemy spotting technology and preventing lock-ons from hostile rocket ordnance. This handy device will also spot and reveal enemy devices within the immediate dead zone range, allowing you to quickly clean out any enemy interference around your objective.

Trait – Ambush Expert – Utilizing her reconnaissance training, Blasco is able to move swiftly past motion-based Gadgets such as Claymores, T-UGS, or Proximity Sensors and larger equipment like Boris’ SG-36 Sentry Gun.

Ambush Expert coupled with the X6-Infiltration Device positions Blasco as the ideal choice for players looking for a sneaky approach. Be aware however; you may be able to fool enemy devices, but you may not find such success with the actual enemy.

New Vehicle: CAV-Brawler
The CAV-Brawler is a IFV-type vehicle that is capable of traversing through small spaces while providing ample protection for your squadmates within it.

Along with its high maneuverability, the main purpose of this vehicle is as a squad spawner, as it easily navigates through the battlefield towards control points and objectives, your squad has the ability to spawn on this vehicle and actively join you in the push.

With a full suite of Active Threat Detection as well as a defensive system that throws grenades out in all surrounding directions, this is truly the infantry trojan horse that you’re looking for.

New Weapons: AC9 SMG, RM68 Assault Rifle, RPT-31 LMG and Super 500 Shotgun

Season 4: Eleventh Hour offers an array of weaponry capable of tackling any scenario you may come across as you battle it out on the rocky, industrial areas of Flashpoint.

AC9 SMG
An extremely lightweight submachine gun that is well-crafted for fast hipfire exchanges. With its improved receiver ergonomics this ambidextrous small submachine gun is more controllable than its high rate of fire would have you believe.

RM68 Assault Rifle
Perfect for close-quarter battles of Flashpoint, the RM68 is a next-gen assault rifle with a distinct and suppressive design. The built-in silencer offers counter-weight for improved stability and recoil control. Take full advantage of the integrated canted sights to adapt to every situation in front of you.

RPT-31 LMG
If an SMG or Assault Rifle isn’t your cup of tea when it comes to weaponry, then the new RPT-31 prototype LMG might be what you’re looking for. While it has a low rate-of-fire, the rounds are heavy hitting with a high bullet speed. This LMG also comes with a new “flip-scope” attachment that allows you to tackle encounters as you see fit.

Super 500 Shotgun
Destined to become a favorite with Recon Specialists – this high risk and high reward sidearm shotgun is perfect for short range encounters. Select this weapon for your sidearm slot and you’ll quickly find yourself dominating the battlefield as you breach those objectives.

New Gadget: SPH Explosive Launcher

If you’re looking for something more explosive, the SPH Explosive Launcher fires a sticky payload capable of attaching to players, vehicles and just about any other surface on the battlefield that will detonate after a short delay. Ideal for both destruction and anti-infantry play.

The SPH Explosive Launcher becomes available for the Assault Class as a selectable gadget and shoots up to two projectiles that are housed inside on casing before needing to reload.

New Vault Weapons: SVD and Type-88 LMG

Two iconic weapons from classic eras of old become available as Vault Weapons in the All-Out Warfare arsenal.

Battlefield 3 – SVD

The infamous SVD is a squad support weapon that juxtaposes long range with rapid and accurate semi-automatic fire.

Unlock Criteria:

• 100 Kills and Assists with the SVD (Portal) or SVK
• 50 Kills with Marksman Rifles at a distance of 100m or less

Battlefield 3 – Type-88 LMG

If you’re wanting even more bullets at your disposal, the Type-88 LMG is a light machine gun with a 200-round magazine strapped to it.

Unlock Criteria:

• 100 Kills and Assists with the Type 88 LMG (Portal) or M240B
• 10000 Damage Inflicted with LMGs

New Battle Pass
100 new tiers of Hardware, Cosmetics and Player Card items become available to earn as part of Season 4: Eleventh Hour. All-new gameplay content such as the new Specialist, Weapons and Vehicles are available as part of the Free Tiers, while the Premium Tiers give access to further cosmetic rewards*.

CHANGELOG

General Improvements

• The End of Round sequence now explains what will happen after this transition phase. For example, if you switch sides if you stay in the lobby. You’ll now also be presented with a prompt to confirm if you’d like to exit – this will help reduce accidental quitting to the main menu.
• Fixed issue where reaching Extraction Streak 3 in Hazard Zone with Crawford and Zain wouldn’t unlock the Risk Worth Taking Player Card Background
• Fixed an issue that would cause vehicle icons to flicker while the big map was open.
• Increasing the size of the minimap will no longer also increase the size of the icons.
• Added an option to allow customization of the scale of the minimap icons.
• Added an option for the scale of the minimap icons to scale with the view distance of the minimap (Enabled by Default).
• Fixed an issue that was causing the visuals of a ping to display incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where the base circle VFX on a location ping was sometimes missing.

Controller Mapping
As part of update 3.2.0 and the Return to the Class System the Default Mappings for Controller Layouts were updated to accommodate the addition of the new Class Gadget slot, and accompanying gameplay changes. Due to these changes we’ll need to reset Custom Layouts for controllers. As part of this update we’ll reset the following binding options in order to avoid any further conflict with the new default layouts:

• Throw Grenade
• Switch Primary Weapon / Open Plus Menu
• Plus Menu Navigation (Choosing of Attachments)

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with these changes and to update and re-customize your controls prior to jumping into a match.

Battlefield Portal

• Portal – Battlefield 3 – Fixed an issue with the SMAW / RPG-7V2 where the rocket was deflected into the ground when the user was shooting into a fence.
• Portal – Battlefield 3 – Fixed an issue where the SFX for detonation was not functioning properly when using a C4 remote detonation.
• Custom Portal experiences that have PvP AI (but not PvE) and no other change than to the map list will have Ribbons XP enabled, Mastery Progression up to Tier 12 and Weekly Missions enabled instead of the usual Restricted XP.

Maps

Breakaway

• The Penguins have filled in a hole near B1 where players were unable to get out of if they had fallen victim to it. Pesky penguins.
• Fixed a visual issue with the billowing smoke from the two silos near the waste pools.

Kaleidoscope

• Fixed an issue where sector lines between Sectors D and C were overlapping while playing Conquest.

Stranded

• Fixed an issue where players were sometimes spawned within a container on FFA and Gun Master FFA modes.
• Fixed an issue where the cinematic camera during the intro would sometimes behave incorrectly on Conquest.

Spearhead

• Fixed an issue while playing Conquest Assault where a player was spawned OOB when trying to deploy on the “A” Capture Point.

Soldier

• Improved the consistency of Melee takedowns for standing and crouching soldiers.
• Improved prone behavior on steep slopes.
• Improved zipline behavior when a vehicle was parked near the same location as the zipline.
• Fixed an issue which would sometimes cause the camera to become stuck while using a ladder.
• Fixed an issue which was causing audio to play from the wrong direction while in a downed state.
• Fixed an issue that caused the icon of selected weapons to disappear when climbing a ladder.

Specialists

Casper

• Fixed an issue that caused Casper’s OVP-Recon Drone to be able to destroy certain map objects it wasn’t intended to.

Crawford

• Fixed an issue that resulted in no health bar being present while repairing Boris’ Sentry Gun and Ranger whilst playing as Crawford.

Dozer

• Fixed an issue that caused the throwing knife to generate a ricochet bullet when hitting Dozer’s Ballistic Shield

Falck

• Fixed an issue that caused shockwaves from explosions to interrupt Falck’s self-heal interaction.

Lis

• Reduced the maximum range of Lis’ G-84 TGM from 600m to 475m.
• Reduced the boost speed of Lis’ G-84 TGM from 150m/s to 110m/s.
• Tightened the turning angles of Lis’ G-84 TGM.
• Adjusted the input clamping when boosting with G-84 TGM in accordance to the new turning angles.
• Reduced the acceleration modifier when boosting with Lis G-84 TGM from 1.85x force to 1.15x force.

Dev Comment: With these adjustments we’re looking to push Lis into having a higher skill ceiling (more skill required to master) and also ease up on the vehicle player experience.

The turning adjustments introduced in this update will make it so the missile will be less agile, hindering its ability greatly to double-back on itself after an initial miss

The boost acceleration & speed reductions will now enable vehicle players more of a chance to react to an inbound missile.

Also we want players to have a clear target they wish to attack with the TGM before it has been fired which we saw was not the case in update 3.2.1, these turning changes combined with the boost acceleration, speed and max range reductions are targeted to address this.

Paik

• Fixed an issue that caused Paik to be unable to use her EMG-X Scanner in passenger seats

Zain

• Fixed an issue where the sound which would play when updating the airburst distance from Zains’ XM370A Airburst Rifle was being triggered in instances where it shouldn’t.

Gadgets

• Fixed an issue where the EMP Grenade did not disable some vehicular weaponry or trigger any visual VFX as intended.
• Fixed an issue where some Gadgets were able to hit enemy soldiers through autonomous gates
• Fixed an issue where using the T-UGS would cause unwanted screenshake.
• Fixed an issue where the SFX for the detonation remote on C5 would not play properly.
• The Assault will now be able to carry a maximum of two Med Pens. Upon spawn, you will still have one available to you.
• Fixed an issue with the M18 Claymore so that it has a forward facing explosion exclusively.
• The M18 Claymore will no longer be capable of destroying building walls, this is to bring it more in line with its intent
• Adjusted the AT Mine so that it blends into the terrain better.
• Fixed issue where damaging a player-operated Mounted Vulcan would result in receiving Vehicle Assist XP when a teammate destroyed it
• Location pings will no longer display when pinging a neutral Mounted Vulcan.

Vehicles

• Fixed an issue where Air Radar was present while the minimap is disabled.
• Updated the crosshair for the UAV-1 Drone.
• Fixed an issue with the Active Protection System on vehicles that would sometimes cause VFX to apply twice on successful interception.
• Fixed an issue where vehicle wheels would sometimes move while in an elevator.
• Fixed an issue that caused both crosshairs on the M5C Bolte to show hit markers when the missiles were equipped.
• Updated the rangefinder in vehicles to go to 100+ instead of 200+
• Using a knife on a light vehicle now has a reduced impact, we’ve previously stated that we haven’t invented adamantium for knives and that is still the case.
• Fixed an issue which would sometimes cause tracers to spawn offset while firing the Canister Pod on vehicles.
• Enabled threat detection system audio cue for passengers in EMKV90-TOR as intended.
• While piloting or driving a vehicle, lock-on sounds will no longer play for any passengers.
• APS will no longer remain active after a vehicle has been hacked.
• Brake lights on vehicles have had their brightness toned down while on Stranded.

Aircraft specific

• Made lift and drag improvements on the aileron and elevator areas of Jet Aircraft to allow for smoother pitching.
• Improved pitch down to now turn faster than pitching up as intended.
• VTOL mode will now correctly activate and deactivate for the F35 and Condor
• Made adjustments to the F35 turning rate to be more in line, and in competition against the SU-57 Felon.

Weapons

• Fixed a visual issue that was present on the PKS-07 scope while ADS’ing.
• Fixed an issue where using a Bipod against any surface would decrease dispersion by 40% instead of the intended 20%.
• Fixed an issue where weapon stats were sometimes showing up in both the pros and cons fields within the collection menu.

AC-42

• The AC-42 will no longer clip through the screen when opening the Plus Menu.

MTAR-21

• Fixed an issue where the MTAR-21 had the incorrect headshot multiplier.
• The MTAR-21 heavy barrel attachment now affects recoil, dispersion, bullet velocity and ROF.
• Fixed issue where the MTAR-21 didn’t display Burst as an available fire mode in the weapon details.

M416

• Fixed an issue where the M416 had the incorrect headshot multiplier.

NVK-22

• NVK-22 no longer has a broken reload animation while supplying.
• NVK-22 will no longer shoot 2 times if holding the fire button during the reload animation.

XM8 LMG

• The XM8 LMG now has the correct magazine count.

Kaynak: www.ea.com