Ask DICE: Battlefield 4

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We’ve been seeing questions pouring in from fans who are excited for the launch of Battlefield 4 – now less than 2 months away!

In the spirit of keeping our fans informed and Prepared 4 Battle we’re continuing a new series called “Ask DICE,” featuring questions that we’ve received from Battlefield players with answers straight from the development team at DICE. Check back here at the Battlefield blog every other week for answers, exclusive info, and more.

Battlefield 4 Q&A
Today we’re answering your questions about weapons and vehicles, two pillars of the Battlefield series that we’re striving to improve every day. We’ll also answer other questions on the topics you’re interested in.

Bonethepwn asked, “Will the weapon modifications be better balanced than in BF3, where most people relied on a couple of very strong modifications and discarded the rest?”

We’ve always strived for great weapon balance and numerous customization possibilities over the years, and now you can expect an even greater amount of depth. Listening to our fans, we’ve worked with everything from perfecting that sense of “oomph” in our guns, to bringing back some favorite weapons to Battlefield 4 – all of which have been completely rebalanced.

To that end, we wanted to let players know how modifications affect their weapons right away, hopefully encouraging people to play around with them more instead of just settling on one combination because you know it works. Browsing through the accessories, you’ll notice a handy visual guide on the right part of your screen. Here, weapon stats such as damage, accuracy, hip fire accuracy, range, and stability are displayed in easy to read bars so you can immediately gauge what effect equipping a certain accessory has. Slap on the Laser Sight, for instance, and you’ll see the hip fire (accuracy) bar go up. Attach an Angled Grip on a rifle and you’ll notice an increase in the weapon’s stability. This interface is designed to encourage experimentation and make your Battlefield 4 experience even more rewarding.

Familysccrk asked, “What new vehicles will there be?”

We’ll have a ton of new vehicles in BF4, including attack boats, personal watercraft, jets, and more. We’ll keep you updated as we go along, but here’s a teaser list of some new vehicles in the Chinese forces we’ll be introducing.

→ Type 99 MBT
→ ZFB-05 Armored Car
→ Z-10W Attack Heli

More importantly, your vehicles will be customizable as Battlefield 4 introduces several new options for you to experiment with before reach round. Let’s say you want to customize the features of your main battle tanks. When picking your primary weapon you’re faced with the choice of a 120MM Armor Piercing Shell or a High Explosive Shell. The former is reasonably fast and deals a good amount of direct damage, but the latter spells heavy damage against armored targets at the cost of a slower flight speed of the shells. As always, it’s a matter of personal taste and what kind of resistance you expect on the Battlefield.

In Battlefield 3 there were three vehicle customization slots; Secondary Weapons, Gadgets and Upgrades. In Battlefield 4, we’ve added customization options for the primary weapon slot, and split gadgets up into two new slots, Optics and Countermeasures. Unlocks for Optics and Countermeasures shared the same customization slot in Battlefield 3, which wasn’t optimal when it came to tanks. When you had to choose between optics modes and a protective countermeasure, the countermeasure is sort of a no-brainer, which takes player’s control out of that choice. So adding dedicated countermeasure and optic slots removes that problem and adds more customization options. Now tanks have more countermeasure options and they can be used at the same time as any optics unlock.

AssassinPiggy12 asked, “How are you going to stop people from causing the big Levolution moments right off the bat in the beginning of the game?”

Many of the big Levolution moments take time to trigger. For example, the skyscraper in Siege of Shanghai requires four big pillars to be destroyed; a task that isn’t so easy if your or another squad makes it their personal goal to stop someone from knocking them down.

On Paracel Storm, you have to wait for the raging storm to roll in before you can really deal damage to it. Once lightning strikes the wind turbine, then players can work to take it down and free the destroyer next to it. And again, you’ll have to deal with other players getting in your way and trying to take you out while you destroy it.

NWI_AZTEC asked, “What game modes will be available for the Siege of Shanghai Beta?”

The Beta will feature the Conquest game mode.

You can get into the Beta starting early October 2013 by pre-ordering the Battlefield 4™ Digital Deluxe Edition on Origin.com, by being a Battlefield 3: Premium member, and by being a registered owner of Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition.

The Beta will be exclusive to the aforementioned group for three days and then it will open up to all players on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Excalibucreation stated, “System requirements would be nice so I can play the game.”

Check them out, are you prepared for battle?

Shams_123 asked, “Is the Commander Mode available for current-gen consoles?”

Commander Mode is definitely available on current-gen. As the Commander, you’ll have a birds-eye view of the battlefield, and you’ll be able to support your team with a variety of assets – cruise missile strikes, EMPs, map scans, a gunship, and more.

Players will also experience Levolution moments on current-gen including  a damaged destroyer ramming a beach, bringing down a massive skyscraper, and much more. Frostbite 3 is the tech that will deliver this, in addition to battling enemies in an all-new type of naval warfare, experiencing changing weather and stormy seas and even being a Commander on the go with your tablet.

So don’t worry – you’ll still get the Battlefield 4 experience on current- gen consoles. We know a lot of our players will be playing on those systems, so we’re taking the time to make sure it’s just as great an experience as it will be on next-gen.

Until next time…

Check back here at the Battlefield blog every other Friday for answers, gameplay previews, and more.

Next time we’ll be answering questions about Battlelog and Current/Next-Gen, as well as any other burning questions. What questions do you have? Let us know in the comments below.

Battlefield 4 begins its release on October 29, 2013 and will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Pre-order now and get the China Rising expansion at no additional cost.

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