If you’ve purchased DICE’s epic first person shooter Battlefield 4 across any platform, you will likely have noticed that it had a few discernible ‘issues’ at the beginning. And for a while after that. And now too, come to think of it.
Fear not, however, because developers have taken the democratic route and are now asking players what they want to see changed.
I mentioned in an article yesterday that Jagex have been running their own community polls on upcoming content for Runescape members, and the idea seems to be one that’s striking a chord with developers.
Why? Well, the age-old adage of ‘giving the customer what they want’ has never been more relevant than in a game that had a release like a buggy beta console port. Other than that, there’s little harm in getting community feedback – quite the opposite in fact. The polls are predefined questions rather than an open forum, so you’re not going to get people getting behind the idea of a plasma cannon mounted atop a saber-toothed tiger (although that’s a concept I could definitely endorse).
– Tweaking the air defense ability of the attack boat, possibly by improving the power of the pre-existing burst cannon, adding an MAA cannon or slapping some secondary anti-air missiles on there.
– Increasing the Engineer’s FGM-148 anti-tank missiles from 25% damage to 34% damage against tanks.
– A recent update seems to have made the stealth jet’s 20MM cannons a little bit overpowered (as well as the 25MM and 30MM apparently), so there is the suggestion that this could get toned down.
– Fast Attack Craft cannons are getting a look-in, with possible splash damage reduction for attacks on infantry and more speed/damage to the burst cannon to aid in hitting aircrafts.
– Speed, accuracy and damage changes are being considered for the MBT and IFV canister shells, which seem to have fallen out of favour slightly since Battlefield 3.
The developers have also stated that they ‘have a wide range of tweaks planned to further balance the core gameplay of Battlefield 4 in upcoming patches’, so keep an eye out for those too.
Are there any gameplay elements that you would like to see fixed?
graemefinch.com 