Battlefield 2042 Developer DICE has finally broken the silence, even if what it says isn’t to everyone’s liking. The developers released a small patch today and introduced a new XP cap system for Battlefield Portal as a compromise in the hopes of pleasing players.
But the biggest changes won’t actually come for a while. We also don’t know what they will be. In a series of tweets, DICE revealed that Patch 3.3, currently scheduled for mid-to-late February, will be a major release. The only interesting detail the developers are willing to share is that the patch will introduce a new scoreboard.
Battlefield 2042 introduces an all-new, aggressive scoreboard design that focuses on individual performance and tracks ribbon progress and other stats that aren’t normally part of a scoreboard. That design doesn’t show how the rest of the team, or actually the server, does it – which is pretty standard for an in-game scoreboard.
Players were agitated, and the issue of the scoreboard was somewhat more of a concern than several of the other more influential design decisions in Battlefield 2042. Some even try to design their own version of the scoreboard.
DICE is trying to appease the masses by revealing that it is considering a return to the scoreboard (among other requested and missing features). Well, that day will come soon.
The developers showed off the new design of the scoreboard and rolled out patch 3.3 in February. The new scoreboard features a large panel that shows the scores of other players on the server – though not broken out by team. here it is:
As you might expect, the response was not very enthusiastic. Not only did many feel that the new design wasn’t similar enough to past games, but it also didn’t look particularly flattering. Another problem is that it still doesn’t show other players’ death stats, which is somewhat of a major concern for Battlefield players.
Still, DICE says this is just the beginning and we can expect more updates to the scoreboard.
The tweet also touched on two other, more worrisome issues. DICE has a pairing preference for All-Out Warfare and “focus” on cross-platform VOIP, although we’re not sure what that actually means. As for the game’s poor technical performance, the developers say it’s being optimized, and we should see improvements, big and small, with each update.
Needless to say, this isn’t something most players expect from DICE in the new year. Even those who continue to play Battlefield 2042 — and there seem to be very few of them — want high-level discussions about the game’s future to address core issues, or some kind of roadmap.
