4 days ago
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Nice to see Dr Robotnik getting work
Battlefield 6’s efforts to break ground while Gittin’ Back To When Battlefield Was Gud continue with the announcement of two forthcoming maps. One of the maps is Contaminated, a brand new field of battle that is comparable in scale to Battlefield 1’s St Quentin Scar and Arras in Battlefield 5. It's coming in the EA shooter’s second season, which begins 17th February. The other map is a remake of Battlefield 4’s Golmud Railway – a big, grassy vehicular affair, based on China’s actually existing Golmud-Lhasa railway line. It'll launch at some point further down the line.
“In this next session, we’ll be testing content on one of Season 2’s new maps: Contaminated,” explains an EA social post. “We’ll be evaluating how vehicle gameplay and aerial presence interact with infantry combat, alongside cover and asset placement, and objective boundaries. We’ll also be testing how the map’s unique gameplay mechanics function in live matches, as well as the tools available to players to interact with them.
“While we’re saving full details on the new map for a later time,” it continues, “we can share that in terms of size, Contaminated falls between Eastwood and Mirak Valley, and is comparable to classic Battlefield maps such as St. Quentin Scar (Battlefield 1) or Arras (Battlefield V).”
As for Golmud Railway, EA’s goal is “to preserve what made the map so memorable in Battlefield 4, particularly its combined arms gameplay, while improving how it plays and supports Battlefield 6 systems”. It’ll be the biggest Battlefield 6 map ever. EA will release it first in Battlefield Labs so that they can “test changes such as larger flight space, increased cover for aircraft, and other adjustments as the map evolves over time”.
Speaking of those wily airplanes, the devs are also testing out changes to vehicle handling in the run-up to Season 2. This includes tweaks to the AH-6 Little Bird, aka Killer Egg, which looks much like how an egg might look if you mounted cannons on it and parked a bunch of screaming jarheads on each side. The fan favourite chopper appears in the game's singleplayer, and can be spawned in Battlefield Portal, but is not formally part of BF6 multiplayer right now. The devs are considering “how it fits within the broader vehicle ecosystem and how it performs across different combat scenarios”.
They’re also doing some initial testing on “Aircraft Radar, an important part of the aircraft gameplay experience and a system we’re actively evaluating as part of future air combat improvements”. As I understand it, this is a feature that extends your radar range so you can better track aircraft, which tend to be pretty fast. Unless I’m piloting them, in which case they tend to explode on the runway.
“In parallel, we’ll be exploring a tuning package focused on rocket and vehicle interactions, including early adjustments to weapons such as RPGs and TOW launchers, as well as vehicle handling considerations when countering rockets,” the devs continue. There’s some talk of testing improvements “to hit registration and overall combat consistency”, to avoid “scenarios where players may be eliminated after reaching cover, often referred to as ‘death behind cover’ or desync-related behavior.”
Last and maybe, possibly not least, the devs are doing more testing around solo play in the battle royale mode. They want to understand “where Solo play can best fit within the broader Battle Royale roster, including how it affects match flow, survivability, and long-term engagement when featured alongside other Battle Royale experiences”. They note that there will never be a “single permanent configuration” for the game’s Plunkbat equivalent. It shall shift and alter like wind through the grasses of Golmund Railway when some absolute plonker crashlands a Killer Egg on take-off.
This article has been updated to correct the launch timing for the Golmud Railway map, which is coming at some point after Battlefield 6 season 2.
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