The first major update is coming to Battlefield V next week alongside the the launch of the World War II game’s Tides of War event. While the full patch notes have not been released yet, developer DICE has started to provide some insight into what you can expect for this update and ones to come on a further-out timeline.
Writing on Reddit, the studio said one of the more notable changes has to do with the Time to Kill (TTK) and TTD (Time to Death) elements. DICE is observing that players are dying too often/too quickly, and are getting frustrated as a result. In the wake of this, DICE is “looking at how we can improve the experience for new players and veterans and alike.”
Next week’s Battlefield V update won’t include any changes to TTK specifically, but DICE is looking into changes that might lead to a “perceived” slower TTK through things like netcode, damage feedback, and other elements.
“We want to achieve gunplay balance where the experience is healthy, where latency is in a good place in order to improve consistency experience across all platforms including PC and console,” DICE said. “We want to propose any TTK model changes to you, the community, and involve you in testing experimental changes with the goal of improving experience and create deeper gameplay potential.”
Core gameplay designer Le Bihan said improving the TTK/TTD experience is “one of our high priorities right now,” adding that getting things to a better place involves “complex pieces that are being investigated…”
DICE is working on some new TTK measures, and it may roll the changes out on a small pool of servers first, to compare with the original TTK formula.
“It may be proposed to players in-game by rolling out the new TTK changes globally to all players connecting to any server, while adding a new playlist accessible through the server browser where players can play the old (or as it is, current) TTK to compare the two experiences,” Bihan said.
As for changes that are coming to to Battlefield V next week in the new update, players can expect the revive mechanic to improve for both the reviver and the revivee. “We identified a few delays that prevented players to get full control after the animation was completed–this is now resolved and will virtually make the reviving experience ‘faster.’ We want to see if what we are addressing improves the quality of the experience enough. Increasing the revive speed is something we still keep in mind but aren’t implementing just yet,” DICE said
As for the weapon balance changes, DICE is making a series of changes, which you can see at the bottom of this post. Outside of those changes, DICE confirmed that the ability to drag a downed teammate–a feature shown in trailers before launch–won’t be included in the update. “We are still investigating feasibility around this mechanic,” DICE wrote.
GameSpot’s Battlefield V review scored the World War II shooter an 8/10. DICE is planning numerous and significant updates to the game over time, including the Tides of War event, as well as a battle royale mode called Firestorm that’s coming in March.
Weapon Balancing/Changes
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Damage
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Decreased M1928A1 maximum damage to 25.1 (previously 30)
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Increased the 3 hit kill range of the Gewehr 1-5 to 30 meters (previously 25 meters)
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Increased maximum damage for the Sturmgewehr 1-5 and StG 44 to 25.1 (previously 24)
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Reduced the range at which the Turner SMLE can kill with one headshot and one body shot to 30 meters (previously 35 meters)
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Increased the 4 hit kill range of all assault rifles, LMGs, MMGs and SMGs to 10 meters (previously 9 meters) to make close quarter damage more reliable
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Increased all SMG 5 hit kill range to 30 meters (previously 25 meters)
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Slightly extended pistol damage drop-off distances
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Bolt actions no longer deal slightly reduced damage when hitting the lower body or upper arms, this means the minimum damage will never go below 55 damage.
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Recoil
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Increased horizontal recoil of the KE7 to 0.45 (previously 0.36)
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Increased horizontal recoil of the M1907 SF to 0.41 (previously 0.39)
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Decreased horizontal recoil of the STEN to 0.38 (previously 0.4) and increased the efficacy of the Ported Barrel specialization
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Specializations
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Increased the effect of the Slings and Swivels specialization. Switching to your primary weapon is now an additional 50 ms faster for all weapons and firing after sprinting is allowed an additional 16 ms earlier for bolt actions, assault rifles, semi auto rifles and SLRs
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Changed the specialization for the KE7. Recoil Buffer has been removed. Quick Aim has been added. Specialization tree has been reordered
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Reload
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Increased the reload speed of the KE7. Base reload time is now 3.55 s (previously 3.75 s)
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Increased the reload speed of the MG34 with the double drum magazine. Tactical reload is now 3.7 s (previously 4 s) and empty reload is 5.083 s (previously 5.5 s)
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Increased the reload speed of the M1907 SF. Tactical reload is now 2.7 s (previously 2.9 s) and empty reload is 3.3 s (previously 3.5 s)
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Miscellaneous
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Improved sustained fire accuracy of SMGs while aimed and stationary
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Decreased sustained fire accuracy of assault rifles while aimed and moving
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Increased muzzle velocity of all SMGs as follows:
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MP34: 495 m/s (previously 450 m/s)
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MP34 (High Velocity Bullets): 560 m/s (previously 520 m/s)
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STEN: 495 m/s (previously 430 m/s)
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MP40: 455 m/s (previously 400 m/s)
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EMP: 420 m/s (previously 380 m/s)
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MP28: 345 m/s (previously 320 m/s)
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Suomi KP/-31: 330 m/s (previously 300 m/s)
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M1928A1: 330 m/s (previously 280 m/s)
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Decreased drag of SMG bullets from to 0.005 (previously 0.007) for regular bullets and 0.0035 (previously 0.005) for High Velocity Bullets
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