Battlefield 2042 Beta Survey Sent Out; Asks If Players Prefer Specialists vs. Classes

EA has sent out a Battlefield 2042 beta survey, and it asks players whether they prefer Specialists or the old class-based system and more.

[err0neus00]

definitely classes

[UltraNova]

I feel the whole specialists thing was EA trying to monetize the game even further at the cost of losing BF's identity. More specifically, squad teamwork is now non-existent when people can choose whatever loadout they want.

I really believe they should delay the game for at least 6 months, take the community's feedback and get to work making BF 2042 a true Battlefield game again.

[Concertoine]

It’s weird, i didnt feel great about the game either. But everywhere online is lauding it. All it takes is gimmicky setpieces to win people over? The main thing i dont like about the newer BF’s is map design. I feel like theyre just gonna be doing 10 lane Operation Metro for 128 players instead of 5 lmao.

[TheHan]

I understand the classes but people never use them properly anyway. So why the big deal 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Fluke_Skywalker]

100% classes. Or tbh I wouldn't mind the Specialists if they had different specialists on each side, but having the same ones on each team is just stupid af.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Classes

[RaidenBlack]

I'd prefer a delay.
I want a smooth BF launch for once.

[pr33k33]

best possible answer imo

[jamesclark1991]

This x1000

[porkChop]

Classes without a doubt

[Teflon02]

Specialist. Makes being a medic alot better

[Smok91]

What?!? Lol

[UltraNova]

No one was a medic during my 10+ hours with the beta. During my playtime I saw 2-3 ammo re-supplies and 10~ revives happen (half of them were me reviving someone else).

Specialists as they are now are the death of PTFO and BF as we know it. DICE/EA better wake tfu.

[LordoftheCritics]

I loved the specialists. Played medic with a rocket launcher. Healed with gun and revived as well as AA support.

I don’t mind either. Have played all the BF games. It was nice to see a change.

[ChubbyBlade]

Yes yes. We all know it gets better when it becomes a homogeneous mush of every other game on the market.

Why bother working as a team? I can heal and blow things up myself.

[ChubbyBlade]

It makes being a medic worse.

[BioShockGX]

Please don't delay again.

[gamer9]

I only got to play a few hours and loved it. I was blown away by the graphics and what they had on the screen at the same time with stable framerate (series X). Will put up with the poor decisions and bug fixing, that will get fixed eventually, I just would like to play a modern battlefield game as soon as possible

[ChubbyBlade]

This game is about as battlefield as spaceballs is Star Wars.

[arkard]

Rewarding poor design and bugs with a purchase just encourages more of that. Stop giving companies that rush projects money.

[Rachel_Alucard]

It's actually not too much to switch back to classes if they get enough feedback for it. Though it won't be for at least 3-6 months after launch, all they would need to do is replace the specialist gadget with a free gadget slot, lock the gadgets to specific class locks, and allow the player to swap models around as needed. Though there's still that issue of readability between character models this at least fixes a major issue.

[FPS_D3TH]

Don’t know why you’re downvoted. This is the most logical answer since you know specialists as a design aren’t going away. They’ll want to sell us skins and stuff similar to call of duty. It shouldn’t however come at the cost of battlefields identity so what you say makes most sense imo too. Lock some of those character models to each faction just like cod and the game should be better for identifying enemies. I still found I relied on other markers like cods red name lettering as the game life progresses and more skins were added, making it less obvious who was who again.

[Rachel_Alucard]

Yeah theres no way they will ever get read of named and unique characters. At best you'll get a few skins tossed that are just throwback designs or ones that fall into what people want. But it's not going to matter in the long run because as soon as enough time passes they'll just start adding literal clown suits since that what sells more.

[Omegasyde]

Classes and also different nations

[UltraNova]

Exactly, classes allow for actual squad play and factions help differentiate the two opposing sides. Not to mention help avoid the 'meta' where everyone is running the same guns/ gadgets.

[TheColbertinator]

Classes for the more traditional approach

[DnBSkillZ]

Idc as long as i can be a scout and have an ammo box as a gadget hate having to rely on other people that don't do shit

[UltraNova]

That's a valid point but this is Battlefield. You need to rely on your team to get the job done. Maybe BF isn't for you?

[gamer9]

Not sure I agree with that. Coordinating with a team and pushing objectives is a whole lot of fun, I don’t need to rely on someone to throw me an ammo box to feel like we’re working as a team.

[UltraNova]

Gamer9,

What if no one on your team has an ammo box?

[ChubbyBlade]

Yea so make it even less of a team game. That’s the OPPOSITE of what bf players want.

[Ash01Live]

Delay the game. No point giving us a work in progress that changes over the next year. Delay, focus on what the community wants, and deliver the best battlefield yet. Right now this game has no soul. Feels lifeless and chaotic, no team play means everyone playing for themselves. Bush camping to farm kills, too many players in a huge map with too many movement choices and mobility means no structure or flow to the matches, just randomness.

[Fluke_Skywalker]

Or at least make it cheap and call it early access.

[FPS_D3TH]

Exactly why I’ve never liked big conquest modes tbh. The maps are so big now too. I feel like it’d be better with 100vs100 but only to ramp up the chaos lol. The randomness would still likely be just as bad

[gamer9]

The 3 month old beta was playable and fun. There was no teamwork because the revive mechanic was crap, and you couldn’t even see who had what equipment on your team. Those are easy fixes. Tight squads will always dominate lone wolves

[giveyerheadawobble]

Isn't that what most games release as online these days anyway? A work in progress.

[aaronaton]

Classes are not only easier to distinguish who to ask for ammo and medic packs from, but they also create more diverse weapons choices across the team. For instance, if you wanted to upgrade the support class, you were forced to use MG's and likewise with the Engineer class, you had to progress with SMG's. This was great imo for weapon diversity.
The current system will see players selecting the 'meta' like in Warzone. What is the point of implementing so many weapons if the players are only going to a few.

Again, this is another board room fail that i bet has cost millions to develop, like the tornado that has already been spawn nerfed.

[gamer9]

Great point, fully agree. I liked how specific weapons were tied to a specific class.

[PhillyDillyDee]

Well this is a straight-up no-brainer. They didnt even need to send a survey. I cant believe they took them out in the first place. Really goes to show they have absolutely no idea how to handle their own franchise.

There’s just too much about it to fix this late in the game though. I personally wasnt getting this day one anyway due to how they handled BFV but its looking like this launch will be just as rocky.

[PS-Gamer-1986]

Took part in the survey. Don't like the specialists at all. Hope enough feel the same so they will change it

[Notellin]

I'm glad I got to try the beta so I could confirm that I should definitely skip this entry.

[XxSPIDEYxX]

Delay the game if you need to Dice. You got something special on your hands, don't drop it.

[giveyerheadawobble]

What have they got that's "special" here? All I experienced was another run-of-the-mill FPS thats trying hard to follow the trend.

[Binarycode]

I prefer the book by the fire, classes all day long.

[Limitedtimestruggle]

Classes for real!. I'm not a fan of the new specialist stuff at all. As a whole, this beta build was a massive letdown for me. I won't cry if they delay the game further.

[GoodGuy09]

Classes. Just do what cod did, get rid of specialists and bring in operators for each nation that are just for cosmetics. The beta was fun and the game has such potential but the traditional system needs to be back.

[GoodGuy09]

Update: Ooftah, apparently the game is going through development hell hence the delay and little marketing gameplay shown. Management is bad. Specialists is a thing because of trends and a good way to monetize the crap out of.

Dont get the game day one guys lol. I do have hope it goes well eventually but this is EA...

[Npugz7]

Yes I have been hearing this too! Management is apparently horrible with dice right now.

[Npugz7]

That’s exactly what I want is operators for each side that can have different cosmetics!

[Hedstrom]

Classes, much better for Teamwork

[Father__Merrin]

Wasn't too impressed with beta I'm sure it will be ironed out soon. Should role with classes and then customise them. But I always swap between campaign and multiplayer as this is multi only Il possibly purchase further down the line

[Smok91]

Man I’m so happy to see this the beta was so disappointing

[Nineball2112]

I got it. I answered that I preferred Classes over Specialists. I don't understand why things have to be different just for the sake of being different.

[Nitrowolf2]

I feel like they saw what cod was doing and was like, let’s do that.

But like, go free to play at that point then and maybe people wouldn’t have been as harsh on it

Otherwise don’t fix wat was never broken

[JEECE]

Well, maybe because they delivered a standard battlefield experience 3 years ago, which, while not without some issues, was not even close to the disaster everyone acts like it was. Dice has spent 3 years seeing people praise Rainbow Six Siege and COD:MW at the expense of the BF. Is it any surprise they made alterations to be more like those games?

[Npugz7]

I like specialists but only if it’s done the same way as modern warfare!

[ChubbyBlade]

They literally ruin the aesthetic of the game. Battlefield is about soldiers. Not super heroes.

[SixFrvgz]

Do they really need to ask? Or are they asking just to lie about the results and say that the majority vote is for specialists?

Hmm... I don't put anything like that past DICE.

[FPS_D3TH]

Classes. We are talking about battlefield here right? Let’s not shoehorn monetization in the game at the sake of its core identity, yeah? Sounds like the best way you can kill off the rest of your fanbase that held on after BFVs gross missteps. Pretty obvious this new dev team at dice is more of a yes man group than an actual group of battlefield fans

[somethingcool87]

Imagine trying to play this game with limited hud in HC mode.

[JEECE]

Lol I love all the people on here still trying to justify their hate for BFV and not realizing that we have specialists now because of all the people who blasted BFV and went and played Rainbow Six: Siege and COD instead.

[yeahokwhatever]

BF4 was the last real battlefield. BF1 was ok, but not great. they've been kinda screwing up for a while.

[JEECE]

Interesting how non-modern Battlefields aren't "real" Battlefield games for so many of the supposed true fans of the series, even though the first game in the series was a WWII game. Of course most of the these people apparently think the series started with Bad Company 2, so it's not too surprising.

[yeahokwhatever]

BF1942 is #1, Desert Combat mod is #2, then BF2, then Vietnam, then BF3, 4. everything else i dislike.

[ChubbyBlade]

I didn’t touch either of those games. I went to hell let loose and squad.

[JEECE]

Well you are the exception (almost by definition given the relative playerbases of those games). Hell Let Loose is hardcore. Far more hardcore than any battlefield game has ever been.

But the point is people flocked to those games (Surge and MW) while BFV's sales missed expectations. The narrative around Siege is also bafflingly positive considering what the game is. Having been a fan of older games in the series, I checked it out, and it is horrible. But it doesn't seem to catch any heat at all. So when BF announced Specialists, I knew it's because they'd been looking at Siege and the Operaters (and apparently MW. I haven't played it at all but people say it has Specialists too).

[BadboyCivic]

That Teal Green color

[Parasyte]

DICE are clueless if they even have to ask this!

[Hikoran]

Just did mine, I have to give them credit - It feels like I am contributing to the game changing.

[The7Reaper]

Classes. Every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Can somebody please explain to me what Classes allow that can’t be achieved through their Specialist system? It seems like if anything, the Classes system only serves to limit limit loadout options. Like, you couldn’t use an assault rifle and be in charge of turrets or scouting. IMO, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. It certainly was good to force teamwork through limiting abilities, but I’m also OK forgoing that as we move to a futuristic setting where we can modify an assault way 1000 ways on the fly.

What am I missing?

[Nineball2112]

I think you answered your question:

"It certainly was good to force teamwork through limiting abilities"

I, personally, think it is more strategic and fun by picking a class that has a specific role to play on the team. Maybe I'm not seeing why Specialists would be a good thing or what benefits they have.

[yeahokwhatever]

exactly. the proper way to play BF is to look at your squad, see what they're using, pick a class to compliment it, and then go with your team to victory. anything else is just call of duty.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

But can’t you still make any of the traditional classes by modifying a specialist? I have definitely seen plenty of videos showing the need to add a “need ammo” callous hot key, and the medic looks nerfed too. But after these factors have been adjusted, and I’m assuming that they will be, then I don’t see any hinderance to the teamwork potential. Personally, I don’t need a class system to make myself a good team player. At worst, I need to ask my friends what the squad needs before modifying a specialist. And besides, can any team have too many medics?

Or at least I think this is the case

[Xenial]

Return classes, and while they're at it, fix the flight controls or at least have an option to go back to the way they were in BF4/Bf3. The flight controls for the Attack Heli, and Scout Heli were trash and ruins the fun.

[moomoo319]

Excuse my ignorance but what really is the difference? I play medic and i was able to pick the old lady and use the same equipment i normally would. Its not like previous battlefields restrict how many ppl can play a specific class on one squad or team. Only thing i can think of is its harder to identify who is playing what role in your squad?

[MetroidFREAK21]

Classes

[Junghova]

I prefer fun over not fun. EA is asking wrong question

[ChubbyBlade]

No they’re not. The game isn’t fun unless you’re playing as a squad. This game is more like call of duty than it is battlefield.

[yeahokwhatever]

classes. no doubt about it. The game in its current state is a complete mess.

[FantasticBoss]

I like the idea of the specialists, but I would rather see classes still being used in some way to limit equipment. Rather than a medic who can resupply ammo and snipe with the ability to self heal, that medic specialist has access to a specific classes equipment that matches their general role.

[ChubbyBlade]

Classes but the beta was pretty bad. Felt nothing like a battlefield game.

The core identity of military can military over a piece of land is completely gone. These aren’t militaries or even come across as mercs. They look like cartoon heroes.

The teamwork is nowhere.

The class system removal removed the teamwork component

The gunplay is floaty and extremely unbalanced.

Tanks are useless thanks to all the grandmas running around with rocket launchers.

Vehicles last like 10 seconds because everyone has rockets.

The map is empty.

It literally feels like MW2019s Ground War gamemode. They play and feels exactly the same.

[BrockEmSockEm]

Classes, and quit wasting time on the battle royale mode.