Hello there,
It’s time for another Update Notes blog as we are launching Update #7.2.0 on May 14, 2024!
The team has been working on several areas, including Vehicles, Weapons, and additional Visual Recoil improvements for this patch. Below you can find a full list of changes and we are of course looking forward to your feedback once you get your hands on Update #7.2.0 next Tuesday.
// The Battlefield Team
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Deliver Death from Above!
New gear means new ways to tackle the enemy, this May 14th you’ll be able to work towards unlocking the highly versatile DFR Strife LMG and the all-new cutting edge, remote-controlled aerial bomber the XFAD-4 Draugr.
Ingame progression and natural play of Control Unlocked contributes towards the unlocking of the XFAD-4 Draugr (40 Ribbons) and the DFR Strife LMG (80 Ribbons) allowing you to use these cutting edge pieces of hardware across the Battlefield.
Don’t worry if you miss out on this limited time event, as you will still be able to earn them through ingame assignments at a later date.
We look forward to seeing you capture and hold objectives in the limited timed mode Control Unlocked, as you begin to work your way towards delivering death from above with the XFAD-4 Draugr on May 14.
A New Strike Team is formed…
Under the global assault of the Thousand Petals Coalition a new strike team has been tasked to capture and secure Arkangel assets before they fall into the hands of the Coalition.
We'll share full details with you as we get closer to the launch of this all-new event in the coming weeks. Expect new earnable cosmetics to acquire and we look forward to seeing you outsmart the opposition.
Areas of Improvements
Vehicle Improvements
We’re happy to see that Attack Helicopters since our latest changes have become a force to be reckoned with, with players engaging with them more and more, as well as finding out new ways to use them to their advantage on the Battlefield. We think that they are, for most part, in a good spot. However, due to the combined firepower of both pilot and gunner they have been over performing in one aspect: Destroying Armored Ground Vehicles.
We believe at its current state the Attack Helicopter can easily destroy any vehicle in too short of a timeframe and we are toning that down a little by reducing the firepower of some of the more potent weapons vs armored vehicles, to address this:
- We have lowered the damage of the TOW missile against heavy and medium armored vehicles (Tanks, Wildcat, Ram)
- We have also lowered the damage of Anti Vehicle Rocket Pods to the same category of vehicles by 20%. We believe Attack Helicopters should still be potent and a direct counter to ground armor, however these changes are aiming to give a bigger window for ground vehicles to react and to also push pilots to make more tactical decisions when attacking vehicles.
APS Shootdown Sentinel
We are aware of the long lasting issue of vehicles camping hills and it has become a bit more exaggerated when Irish’ APS Shootdown Sentinel is included into this equation.
With Update #7.2.0 we are removing the capabilities for this Specialist Gadget to shootdown any Anti Vehicle Weapon or Gadgets. This should allow Air Vehicles and Infantry to once again attack such ground vehicles, as well as pushing the gadget itself into a more infantry-focused mentality.
MacKay
This Season in general we are aiming to slightly slow down the pace of the game and the biggest offenders that can oftentimes feel like they are pushing the limits too much. We are starting with MacKay by making his gadget more defensive and strategic rather than having it as an aggressive enabler offensively.
To do that we are increasing the cooldown of the grapple from 11 seconds to 25 and we are also lowering the boost of his trait “Nimble” which grants a boost to movement speed while aiming down sights from 40% to 25%.
Additionally, in a future patch, we will be implementing a force reload animation when equipping the weapon to further emphasize the strategic use of the gadget.
Systemic repair
Continuing with the effort to slow down the pace of the game, we are increasing the time it takes for the systemic repair system to repair the health of a vehicle. The rate at which this repairs is defined by the role and class type of the vehicle in consideration with their gameplay expectations.
All vehicles beside Bolte, EBLC-Ram, the upcoming Draugr and all ground transport vehicles will repair 25HP in 8.6 seconds, up from 5 seconds. This change is meant to emphasize the role of engineers and help slow down the pace in these combat moments, where before it was possible to nullify taken damage nearly instantaneously by pressing a single button.
Changelog
AI, Soldiers & General Improvements
- Anti-Tank Mine damage has received a rebalance following recent updates, it will now take 3 Anti-Tank Mines to fully destroy a Heavy Vehicle such as a Tank or MAV. It will still remain possible to destroy Medium Armored Vehicles such as the Wildcat and EBLC-Ram with 2 Anti-Tank Mines.
- Fixed an issue with the SOFLAM being unable to deploy on select Battlefield Portal experiences.
- Irish’s APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel should no longer stop Underbarrel Smoke Grenades.
- Additionally, the APS-36 Shootdown Sentinel will no longer stop Anti Vehicle Projectiles.
- MacKay’s Nimble Trait which improves the speed of movement during ADS has been reduced from 40% to 25%.
- Grappling Hook reload speed has now been increased from 11 seconds to 25 seconds. In a future update, we will be introducing a reload animation every time this Specialist Gadget is equipped.
Weapon Balancing
- Despite the penguins' continued efforts to keep them shiny, the Scope Glint on the Raven and ACOG Sights on the SVD is no more.
- Fixed an issue with some magazines on the AK 5C that could cause their models to turn invisible.
- Fixed the alignment of the iron sights on the AK-24 skins "Dead-Center" and "Access Memory".
- Fixed 12M Auto shell ejection when using the Type 4 Heavy Suppressor.
- Fixed pellet spread on SPAS-12 (BC2/BF3) being too low.
- The Penguins forgot to reflect the AKS-74u rate of fire change from Update 7.1 in the Collection screen, it is now accurately shown. We’ll get them notepads in the future.
- Slightly slowed down hip fire dispersion reset on P90, PP-2000 and AKS-74u.
- AM40 Standard Issue damage under 10 meters changed from 26 to 24.
- AM40 dispersion and horizontal recoil increased by 5%.
- VHX-D3 High Power ammo damage under 20 meters changed from 25 to 24.
- LCMG dispersion when using the Shortened barrel attachment increased by 10%. This change should help balance both the attachment against other barrel options while also balancing the LCMG compared to other LMGs.
Visual Weapon Recoil Improvements
SMGs
Further tweaks and improvements for the following Weapon and Scope combinations:
- PBX-45: XDR Holo, TV, UH-1, Shan, Bravo, Ghost Hybrid, 8R Holo, Maul Hybrid, M22, K8 Holo, Raven, TR-1 Thermal.
- PP-29: K8 Holo, Fusion Holo, Ghost Hybrid, Shan, 8R Holo, TV, XO Smart, Maul Hybrid, M22, XDR Holo, Bravo, UH-1 Smart, TR-1 Thermal.
- P90: Reflex, Holographic, XDR Holo, ACOG, Bravo, TV, 8R Holo, Maul Hybrid, XO Smart, TR-1 Thermal, UH-1.
- AKS-74u: ACOG, Maul Hybrid, Bravo.
- PP-2000: Maul Hybrid, Bravo, XO Smart, Ghost Hybrid.
Sidearms
- Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on heavy sidearms (M44, etc.) and scopes Raven 4X, TV 2X, XDR
Bolt & Lever Action
- Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on GVT 45-70 and the following sights for bolt-action weapons: UH Smart 1.5x, SHAN 2.5X, Raven 4X, M22 3.5X, Maul Hybrid 1.5-3X, PSO-1M3 5x
Assault Rifles
- Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on AEK-971, VHX-D3, GEW-46, MTAR-21 and ACOG sight
LMGs
- Improvements to Visual Weapon Recoil on LMGs, particularly when using thermal sights, Raven, ACOG and Bravo sights, and further improvements to keep reticle point close to screen center
Vehicles
- Adjustment to the damage vehicles take when colliding with other objects.
- Reduced range of attack helicopter thermal gunner from 600 to 450.
- Fixed an issue where EMP would permanently disable the Polaris Sportsman.
- Improvements made towards lock on missiles missing certain air vehicles that are locked onto.
- Improvement to frogfoot rocket pods zero-point.
- Removed the Gunner HUD from side passengers of Condor and HIND, going forward only the nose gunner will benefit from this.
- Fixed lock-on weapons killing the pilot of Nightbird and not dealing damage to the vehicle.
- Lowered main heavy tanks steering sensitivity when the sprint button is held.
- Increased rudder responsiveness on 2042-era Jets which will lead to a more responsive yaw input.
Systemic Repair Changes:
- Combat vehicles aside from Bolte, EBLC Ram and the upcoming Draugr will take 25HP in 8.6 seconds. Other vehicles will remain at 25HP in 5 seconds.
- Increased HMG Weapon Station Velocity from 600 to 690
- Lowered Attack Helicopter TOW Launcher damage to Main Heavy Tanks from 30 to 25 and to Medium Armor such as the Wildcat from 35 to 30. This is not a blanket change and will not impact other vehicles such as Transport or Air Vehicles
- Helicopter Anti Vehicle Pods will deal 20% less impact damage and further blast damage reduction to Ground Armor.
TOW Balancing Changes:
Air Attack Vehicles
- Time to live increased from 5 to 10 seconds
- Max speed lowered from 120 to 80
- Turn angles and engine time to live have been adjusted for better control
Ground Vehicles
- Time to live increased from 10 to 15 seconds
- Speed lowered from 120 to 50
- Turn angles and engine time to live have been adjusted for better control
This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.