Battlefield 2042 details major map changes coming in Season 1

DICE has released some details about changes that it’s making to two of Battlefield 2042‘s launch maps to coincide with the start of Season 1 this summer.

Based on suggestions from and discussions with the community during its new “Core Feedback Loop” program, DICE has detailed changes that are coming to Kaleidoscope and Renewal. These changes involve adding cover to the map, adjusting vehicle distribution, and in Renewal’s case, making the map smaller.

Starting with cover, DICE is adding assets that players can use as cover to areas where the lines of sight are too open, as well as adjusting the elevation of certain areas of the maps. The most obvious example is on Kaleidoscope’s “B” point in Conquest. There, DICE is adding a military installment to that point to both add cover and increase the “immersion” of the map as a war-torn environment.

DICE also detailed changes that it’s making to vehicles and how those changes will impact a player’s experience on 2042‘s maps. While the developer can’t add more transport vehicles on top of what’s already permitted, as that would further impact the game’s performance, it can make changes to how those vehicles are classified.

The two-seater M5C Bolte will swap places with the six-seater MAV and become part of the armored vehicle pool alongside tanks and anti-air vehicles. Likewise, the MD540 Nightbird will now count as an attack chopper. Additionally, DICE will reduce the amount of active armored vehicles in 128-player modes from three to two, and increase the cooldown from 60 to 120 seconds. These changes will not only increase the amount of vehicles with multiple passenger seats on the map, but it will also hopefully reduce the amount of vehicle spam and create a healthier balance between vehicle and infantry, according to DICE.

Finally, pathing is another issue that DICE is looking to tackle, specifically by reducing the playable area on some of the maps. For the first round of changes, DICE wants to fully remove a point from the back corner of Renewal and shave that map down so that players are more funneled into the action. It’s also moving spawn points closer to the action so that there’s less initial running at the beginning of matches.

Players will still have a few months to wait until they can experience most of these changes, as the map adjustments to Renewal and Kaleidoscope are planned to launch with Season 1 in early summer. DICE will then begin to detail more changes coming to additional launch maps, which will come in Season 2. However, the aforementioned changes to the vehicles will be coming in the next update.

The next core feedback loop will focus on Battlefield 2042‘s Specialists, which replaced the series’ traditional class system. DICE already has changes to Specialists planned, and it will detail those changes in a couple of weeks as part of the next Core Feedback loop.

Battlefield 2042 is available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.