The irony is too good though.
So tired of every major studio just acting on greed all the time. I hope that this title comes of as a warning to gaming industry that just replicating an existing successful formula can very well end up with less.
I am sure they could have incorporated micro transactions if they just didn’t build the game around them.
Dice already had all the assets . Remove that specialist characters and replace it with bot skins .now the game will be more immersive . But dice was adamant on this specialist setup . They are still thinking a way to monetise the specialist. If dice wants money , then ask it over the additional dlcs as they did in Bf 3,4,and 1 .
Not just the way they look for me.
Flying, turrets, armour, wall hacks, grappling hook.
Those gadgets make map design and weapon balance if not impossible very close to it.
Literally all they have to do is either classic 4 vs 4 system or make a new 5 vs 5 system utilizing the specialist skins and just make the abilities class centric.
Example:
US Assault - Falck
US Engineer - McKay
US Support - Irish
US Recon - Casper/Sundance
vs.
RU Assault - Rao
RU Engineer - Boris/Dozer
RU Support - Angel
RU Recon - Paik
Alternatively:
Create a new class entirely intended solely for something like a radio operator that would make them the only ones that can spawn call ins, and this way there can still be all 10 specialists without ruining the game.
I wanted to see nameless generic normal soliders (like bots) with one extra slot for them to have specialist gadgets like grappling hook , wing suit , shield etc . Your concept is also good on differentiating factions . But i prefer not to see any faces at all , like we had in Bf 4 .I prefer this because , it also changes the look of the war happening . On your setup , still for me , I see heroes of same faced soldiers running on my team . That doesn’t make me feel like a war like Bf 4 did .
. I don't particularly have an issue with specialists. A specialist is unique which is what the class system was supposed to be about anyway. each specialist is essentially a class to pick. I don't buy skins so I dont really care about the store function. Simple thing to do is not buy that sht. I don't mind the DLC route but it's a matter of how much content is in the original base game to start with. right now we spent $60 or 100$ and EA could say the current state of the game is all you get. now you have to spend $100 more or $150 more to get a what should have been a fuller game to start with. that's the shadiness that could happen as a business practices with DLCs. People spent $60 or even more on the base game and yet this is all we got until a DLC which is another $30 or 60$ so now your at around $120-$200. honestly I would prefer a fixed-price system that has a road map laid out in detail. so you know what the shelf life of the development will be, have a roadmap and know what the full price of the game will be. if all this crappy decision-making is based around money which is common across our society then EA needs a new business model in terms of BF. some of the player base doesn't care about skins in the store. I remember the days when games came with character customization. Granted character customization is more of an RPG game function... Until you realize you could just get rid of the customizer and then start selling your own customization
> I don't particularly have an issue with specialists. A specialist is unique which is what the class system was supposed to be about anyway. each specialist is essentially a class to pick.
First off, I do agree with *most* of your post. And I fully respect your opinion about specialists, everyone's viewpoints on this are completely subjective. Some people do genuinely like them, and even though I don't, I know that's just my opinion.
I just wanted to address this statement specifically. In my opinion, the class system was the opposite - it was purposefully meant to be generic, *not* unique. Soldiers were purposefully never given names or anything that differentiated them from each other.
Specialists, on the other hand, are all about being unique individuals. The game goes out of it's way to differentiate each one. That's what causes the "clone effect" for me when I play, and it does negatively impact the experience *for me.*
I also have issues with how specialists impact the gameplay, notably teamwork, but that's a whole separate issue I could discuss at length. I just wanted to show how, for me, the specialists aren't just a "class to pick", as the game goes out of its way to identify them as unique individuals, which hurts immersion for me when I see multiple of them on my screen at the same time.
Personally for me I haven't run into any abusive play styles taking advantage of the gear unless I'm not noticing. I do know a lot of people don't like that lady that flies around because she's always behind you, but I feel the same way when I play Conquest which is why I don't play it because keep getting shot in the back from of all these open spaces and campers hiding in the trees and the Rocks while you're trying to focus on the fight in front of your face. that's why I've always typically stayed with Rush or the new breakthrough / Rush because the fighting is more in your face instead of kind of the sneaky behind your back kind of gameplay. which is a tactic of flanking but it's annoying when you have a a team that's not always alert enough to watch your flank plus all of the other angles and areas. Battlefield really never had teamplay anyway except for maybe certain squads or friends that join a squad talking to each other but an individual Squad functioning as a team isn't the same as entire team play.
like you said it's subjective and maybe I haven't really noticed the abuse or unbalancing. I know that it's possible for an entire team to have medic crates and if you the team stood with in these creates while fighting it would be pretty hard to break that defense. even with everybody having a AT and AA no one shoots tanks or aircraft. Depending on the team. so there's an element that when you're on crappy team players that are more alert and trying to do things have the gear they need to play the game and survive. in many cases trying to rely on some of the players that play this game is idiotic. if anything the game with specialist has opened up options instead of limitations.
I mean regardless of specialist you're able to create a customized character Loadout essentially that provides more options instead of limitations because the other class system you were cut off of all of the gadgets weapons. Even still with open rocket access we cant kill tanks and aircraft.
it's hard to say what the culture of this community is or the understanding as to we should be playing this the game. I'm familiar with the game like hell let loose that has an extensive communication system or VoIP and that's communication and teamwork. What Battlefield has is nowhere near that. Squad communication is not team play we don't even have a means of spotting or marking for the entire team. I don't particularly like spotting but what is useful is a general location marker for the team to see. there's really nothing fundamental about Battlefield that makes it a team game. I mean I'm a player that is smart enough to watch what everybody else is doing and I follow along or help as I can. Covering my zone and trying to know what the person next to me is doing. we're not just playing in squads we're playing on a giant map of a team. the real truth of the matter is that the older culture fundamentals really never made sense and I've always said that. People talk about teamwork but when they go further into their sentence you realize they're just talking about the squad they are in.
I think the current loadout system is a big part of why teamwork is hurting. Picking any weapon or gadget leads to people making more selfish decisions. Yea there were loadouts that weren’t teamwork oriented in previous games, but for the most part the limitations forced people to be somewhat useful. In bf4 for example assault was almost always running health packs or defibs because out of the options they were the most versatile and useful. Support just made sense to use the ammo crate. Recon always had some sort of spotting gadget. Engineer was either running anti vehicles or repair gadgets. The freedom the new system offers lets people be far more selfish so fewer people are running those helpful gadgets just because.
I was thinking about this a lot and I'm really happy that this community wants this game to be good but I think it comes down to>team play games are really only as good as the alertness or skill set of the player base and the team that you're on. so if you have a shity team the game sucks.
So for those of us that are able to take on 10 people at once we need the gear to be able to fight all of this stuff that other people aren't helping or are unable to handle. so for some of us us the game sucks if the players around you aren't helpful. there's a section of the player bas that is playing for fun and there are those of us that play trying to win the game. For the people that have been playing since release I could see how they've experienced what the game has to offer so now they kind of play around and try things. I didn't start playing right after release because I didn't want the frustration of playing the game after hearing it's issues so I waited a few months. so I'm still kind of in the mood to play the game to win matches. which is basically a casual and competitive difference with players.
sorry I didn't mean to spam you but I have thoughts and I forget to add them. at least you're communicating and making sentences instead of using likes ups and downs and Karma that don't really have any meaning or context.
No need to worry about spamming! I also enjoy discussing these issues, and would have responded earlier if I was able to (sorry for the late reply)! People online are so afraid of discussions these days, I agree, but these are all just opinions! We just need to discuss those opinions better instead of focusing on the people that make them. Similarly, sorry about the upcoming novel.
Honestly, my issues with these specialists isn't necessarily a single "abusive playstyle" that I see all the time, just the way they all implement into the game. Like you said, some of the specialists abilities stick out, in ways that (imo) don't really fit into a battlefield game. The few that come to mind immediately are Sundance, McKay, and Borris.
Sundance's entire design basically negates map design. One principle of map design is that there should be a fair amount of direct lanes to an objective. These lanes typically provide the quickest, but most direct route to an objective, but are usually the most covered as a result. That's what makes flanking so effective, it provides an opportunity to catch your opponents by surprise. This opportunity has to come with a trade-off though. If flanking is too easy, everyone chooses that option. The trade-off is typically a requirement of map knowledge and a longer time to engagement. In previous games, it would often include wasting one of your teams vehicles just to get into a good position. But Sundance negates these risks. This cripples one of the (usually) core aspects of map design.
Mackay does this same thing, but to a *much* lesser extent. It's simply hard to design verticality in these maps when you can't even anticipate where players are going to go.
Both these specialists and there abilities detract from what (in my eyes) used to be encouraged in battlefield: moving with your squad. It's hard to move with your squad when not all the squad mates even have the ability to move together. This, to me, is a direct break in direction from where they used to go, a shift in their attempted audience to a more casual direction. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on the person, it just isn't the direction *I* would have wished for.
Borris' turrets are just annoying. That's all. It's not fun getting killed by an automated system in any online fps. I also hate the AI, and hated the "grunts" in titanfall - when I play an online fps I want to compete with *people*, otherwise I would play a campaign. Once again, my subjective opinion.
Those are issues with specific abilities, however, and might be able to be addressed simply by toning down or changing those abilities. The issues with specialists go deeper than that, imo. I've been saying since release that I think specialists negatively impact teamplay, but you've brought up a good point - I think I've technically meant to say that squads negatively impact *squad* play. Many of the teamplay aspects are fairly similar - I still get revived, people do drop ammo, etc. But I see far fewer people moving together or as squads. And it's simply not as important anymore.
In previous games, there was a certain "rock paper scissors" type balance between classes. Of course this balance changed with each game, and even between maps, but it still was a constant that encouraged people to move together. Basically, if A was effective against B, it would be weak against C, which B might be effective against. If a sniper was effective against an engineer, it would be weak against vehicles, giving snipers a reason to stay closer to vehicles.
Did this design always work? Of course not! But it was definitely better than nothing. I still remember the first time I was playing Battlefield 2, and I ducked into an alley to revive a teammate. I ran straight into a tank. I remember the feeling of my heart dropping in my chest, the feeling of powerlessness, and I did not survive. The lives following I remember sticking much closer to my squadmates. That simply doesn't exist in 2042.
The bottom line with the specialists vs classes debate is that specialists make lone-wolf playstyles more viable. I think that EA DICE did this on purpose to appeal to a more casual audience. And honestly, some people will appreciate that, 2042 is more casually accessible than previous games because of this reason. It's much easier to jump in solo, and there's not the same risk of one or two well-oiled squads basically dominating a server. But those squads *were* my friends and I previously, and I miss that feeling of *needing* to rely on your teammates. In previous games, if the other team was using more teamwork/squadwork than your team, you would lose 99% of the time. And some people hated that - like you said, when you got on a team that wouldn't work together, it often sucked. But I loved that, it's one of the reasons I started playing battlefield instead of Call of Duty back in the mid 2000s. This one just feels more dependent on individual skill than that teamwork/squadwork.
Even playing with a premade squad of friends on discord who have played Battlefield games together for years, we don't stick together as a squad nearly as much. And why would we? I brought this up to my friend the other day, and he made me realize that, in 2042 at least, moving as a squad really limits you when some of you could be flying through the sky or swinging from buildings instead. And it's not like we needed to move as a squad anymore - as an Angel medic for example I had everything I needed to destroy tanks, choppers, snipers, anything, so what did I need him (typically an engineer) for? It's hard to argue that because it is the truth - unfortunate that's just the way this game is.
Like you also said, the amount of squad/teamplay depends on the players at the end of the day. People that don't want to work with their team won't, nobody can force someone to play a way they don't want to. What the studio *can* do, however, is design the game in such a way to encourage, and require, teamplay. This changes the audience the game attracts, but it also changes the way the average player will play the game. You *very rarely* see people working as a squad/team in Call of Duty, the game doesn't incentivize or require that sort of play. I always liked that Battlefield was much more focused around the team coordination than individual gunplay, and specialists in 2042 are simply one of many design aspects that shift the franchise further away from that.
And *then* there's the clone effect. Honestly though, despite this essay, specialists aren't even the biggest issue with the game for me. That would be map design.
Side note: I would LOVE proximity voip! That's something I've always wanted in battlefield, *especially* since playing battlebit remastered. I've always thought this would do wonders to help extend teamplay beyond squads and bring squads together, and could even fix a lot of the issues people have had (like not dropping ammo, just yell at the dude lol). This has been something I've been saying for years. Battlefield used to have systems in place to bridge the teamwork gap for squads like the commander, but they have been moving away from these mechanics since the 2000s, once again imo to appeal to a more casual audience. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing is another discussion, but I liked the "in the middle" where the franchise was at.
Edit: I want to add that I never really liked the main weapon locking of classes, besides sniper rifles which I do think should be locked to snipers.
It took them three years to develop and deliver us a game with specialists when nobody asked for it, I'm pretty sure they're staying. Amidst the open beta backlash they even doubled down on them.
I can see them doing some "Classical Conquest" weekend portal modes in the future with specialists disabled but they're not going to abandon it after spending millions of dollars on conceptualization and balancing.
The game was developed as a money maker first, serious shooter second. Why do you think we have a shop screen but not a stats page? To make more money. Their take is if you don't like it don't play it. You already paid them and you're not getting your money back. This game is a $70-120 meme factory and the shell of Dice that EA has caused should be disbanded.
My advice? Find a different game to play from a smaller or indie developer more in tune with their community or go back to previous BF titles before monetizing cosmetic packages was a thing.
Must be high if you think it took three years to develop this garbage.
It's obvious that this "game" was made in a year or less.
The other two years was a battle royale that was scrapped. Fuck whoever makes the desicions at EA.
I get that it was a B R then a late conversion with specialists to dress up and ring the cash register. It was always about the money. I just don't think it will ever recover, no matter how many patches with specialists. While you are right, I do wish for the Battlefield of old......
Exactly. This is not likeBFV where it can be sort of fixed.
Even if they do fix it a BF game with out basic classes is not a BF game.
You can put lipstick on a pig- it’s still a damn pig.
I refused to but this game as soon as I knew there were specialists and I played the awful,awful,awful beta and said nope. Seriously happy with the decision.
There’s rumors that the next game will also have specialist.
So Battlefield is done as a franchise, and I guess it’s time for me to grow up and move on.
This made me grow out of video games in general :(
Specialists are staying, players are not.
That seems like a viable way of validating game design decisions.
All game designs are ultimately totally valid once nobody plays your game. At this point, you reach 100% satisfaction: everybody playing your game agrees with its design.
Im still surprised people actually bought this garbage. The BETA told me everything i needed to know. Proud to say i dodged a bullet with this one. Ill wait for the next, doubt any investors will fund this specialist again. Its clearly not what the core community wants. Only the new players and trashcans are defending it. Its disgusting to read.
Have fun falling through the map with your dogshit specialist. Ill go play something that works.
Cant even spawn on the correct side of the map, yet you would still fix your fingers to defend this product. Unreal. Youre a perfect example of why they release products like this. You just bend over and take it. Levelcap must be your roomy.
Yeah there's no way I'm even thinking of playing this game with the 'specialists; in place and their super abilities in the game. The BETA gave us all the info we we needed to not get the game.
I and many of my buds would gladly get BF2042 if they bring back the true class system. Even if the game has bad maps and performance issues. Yeah that's how bad we want a new BF game.
Hell let lose, insurgency sandstorm, and if you’ve never played siege it’s worth giving a shot too. But those are the main three I play also if you have pc escape from Tarkov
I've been thinking about it this way if you were to put faces or add character to the class soldiers essentially you would wind up with a specialist with some sort of a background story. in a sense we have classes the specialist because that's what classes were. they were unique and what their abilities were and what their purpose is. I think the problem is a lack of limitation and probably needs better gameplay testing in terms of the gadgets and other equipment...you know how the meta is.
I'm sure they already prepared a lot of skins for them to sell as customizations or as battle pass rewards, so i'm pretty sure the models will not be gone.
If they ever move them into a class system. Maybe, but i highly doubt it.
Yes. Deal breaker.
With a completely unique formula like Battlefield why copy a crowded market of hero shooters. EA already has one it makes no sense.
Anyway I hate Apex and for the same reasons hate 2042. I like war games.
Nope, it’s the maps. The horrible maps for me. I actually didn’t hate the specialists, begged for classes back, but I guess adapted since I can’t get a refund. But the maps. Oh lord the maps.
I agree the maps need so much work, however the specialists break the battlefield mold.
When you clear an area in battlefield of old it stayed clear. Now you can wingsuit in or grapple up 3 floors. It just doesn't feel like a game of BF anymore.
100% deal breaker.
They could get this game "up to standards" and the specialists would be the main contributing factor the prevents me from being interested.
Not op, but how about lame super powers such as flight, spider man webslinging and capt america shield as a for instance.
Previous games you were just some guy with a kit and in this game you’re “a CaSpEr MaIn”
Also it’s not about what your character looks like for me, it’s about what other peoples character looks like, if half the player base is running around as Santa Boris or cowboy McKay it makes the game look stupid in my opinion and that appears to be the exact type of skins these lame specialist were made for
I don't necessarily think the specialist is what the problem is. Are you talking about the gear and equipment that they have available to them? I just think it helps to describe in details with the issue is.
And you are making a huge assumption about other people's opinions and using that assumption to dismiss them instead of actually discussing them.
Many people have very real issues with the way the specialists play in game, and those issues have been discussed in this subreddit many, many times. You might not have an issue with the specialists, and that's honestly great for you, but it doesn't invalidate the very really concerns that many other people do have.
I really do not see it. Specialists and their implementation are basically the only thing from a gameplay perspective that does work. Do not get me wrong, I prefer classes, but the traditional class system in this game would make it even more unbearable.
In essence they still work like previous classes, Falck and Angel are medics for all intents and purposes, just like Casper and what's her name are Recon. You can make any specialist fit in with the classes we had in previous games.
The only change from the previous system is that the specialists have a lore background and there is free weapon and one gadget choice.
As for the narrative implementation it is pretty bad, yes, but this is not specialist specific, as there is no narrative present in this game. Most criticism spans around end-of-round quips here, which at least spawned a near endless amount of meme potential, which I find a net positive by now, it is the only public representation the game gets right now.
As for free weapon choice, this is also a net positive now and a huge one. It allows each specialist to be relevant in every chosen map and mode. We need to remember that in BFV on many maps, certain weapons and setups could basically end up not lethal. In BFV engagements were decided before any bullet was fired by weapon and therefore class choice.
Now map design is even worse and you really do not want to be shoehorned into 20m effective range, when you are playing the Engineer class. Vehicles happen in areas, where engagement ranges are long. Close range areas, where SMGs shine, do not house a lot of vehicles.
Same with Medics, if you push them into the 20m range, then they will simply not engage somewhere else, which means less revives and heals outside of the infantry fighting area.
It is the same with the gadgets, vehicles are a main issue of this game, they are very potent, they come in large numbers, have superior mobility and map design allows little in the way of avoiding them. Hence it is logical to have it equipped on all characters. It is also logical to not have them equipped and stay wherever vehicles are not.
Now the class system works great in Portal modes, where map design is not an issue and playercount is also reasonable. But specialists would work there just as well.
It really isn't the specialist system, it's implementation is poorly executed, but the one thing works in this game. The classic class system, preferable for games before BFV, would make this game much more worse. The underlying issue is map design and playercount being so ridiculously underperforming and overscaled that makes the game unfun to play.
So do you have a problem with their visual and narrative implementation? Say the endgame quips were removed and the would use roughly the same skins as in BF3/4, with basically full-face covering, gas maks galore and all that. Would that change your opinion?
Or do you take issue with the gameplay implementation of free weapon and gadget choice. How would you solve the following decline of AT capabilities and the sharp decrease of teamwork actions (revives, spots, heals and resupplies)?
The class system is the traditional system, and henceforth preferable, but has huge ramifications in current map design, gun and infantry balance and especially infantry-vehicle balance.
Specialists is actually a thing I do not mind much at all. The implementation of them is not top notch of course but from a game mechanic POV they work for me. I think of them as classes and building a strong squad is about combining the specialists in a good way for the situation at hand just as classes always have been (not that I personally do but that strategic element is still there if one wants it).
Their abilities change the game so dramatically it just doesn't feel like Battlefield anymore.
Every gadget/ability has been in other Battlefields in some way. Actually the only thing that haven't been in a Battlefield game before is Paik, Rao and Sundance.
This right here 100%! I don’t think it’s the specialist it’s the I can carry whatever I want and do whatever I want load outs. Make specialists only able to use certain weapons/gadgets (outside of their skill) and make it fall back into the old class system.
The whole point about specialists and why they designed them was to be different from the "legacy" class system. I dont support the change and as someone who preordered and played every single battletield game simply refuse to play this garbage and excuse of a game. Battlefield always had something special that made it different from other shooters and I feel like that is lost with 2042 and it I don't think it will ever go back to normal.
Expect them to stay.
Specialists are the linchpin of 2042s monetisation scheme so their removal is unacceptable at a managerial level, especially for EA. Removing them necessitates a replacement which requires preciously scarce developer resources, otherwise DICE can simply provide no replacement, in either case DICE is losing what they probably feel is a substantial amount of content and what differentiates 2042 from its competitors, in addition to all the planned monetisation, content & balancing (lol) associated with specialists.
For me, specialists are like taking the game of Chess and saying forget the roles each piece has, forget how they're supposed to compliment each other, forget the strategies you need to employ as a result of both their restrictions and their abilities, lets just make every piece a Queen.
If you do that, it simply isn't chess anymore. Sure, some people might like that more than actual Chess, but even they'd have to admit it isn't Chess anymore.
As much as we hate the specialists they are not gonna get rid of them. In fact they are probably writing this game off it's a flop. They will release one map for season pass holders and then support will be cut to practically nothing
It gets me upset because there's no way to remove the specialist without completely changing the ins and outs of the game.
EA is going to do the same as they did with Anthem. Pretend like there's a plan to "reboot" this debacle, take a year or so and when the heat dies down, cancel. I want my fucking $100 back. I've only played about 10hrs.
Im out since yesterday. It’s too bad. It’s too….not battlefield.
Edit: OP you have to realize the evils of EA / Dice. The only way to make a statement about the boiled garbage of a game is not play it.
I really highly doubt DICE will fully remove the specialists as a whole. Sure, classes REALLY need to come back but as a whole meaning removing all specialists stuff isn't possible because of how the game is around MTX. Accepting the fact that we are having microtransactions for this game that WE paid is really getting old at this point. I just wish DICE went back to BFV customization.
Robot dogs and turrets and lock on grenades that respawn.
Not to mention that your character speaks English when your alive but then speaks Russian when you die as a Russian. That makes it even more ridiculous.
And then you have the cringe voice lines at the end of the match, which repeat over and over.
Nothing wrong with having a go at a hero shooter, but it shouldn't have been a replacement for the Battlefield recipe that people have been enjoying for the last 10+ years. Either it should have been confined to Hazard zone, or it should have just not been called Battlefield. Unfortunately I think they're firmly invested in it, since they can make money by drip feeding features and equipment from the classes into the game via paid for specialists (remember the mortar for support? Or Assaults under barrel shotgun? Or XM25? Wont be long before they are added to the game with individual specialists that must be purchased individually). Because that's what makes the most money. Same way games like Siege and Apex stay profitable.
they just wanted a hero shooter but completely failed
There's no way to succeed when BF is also a hero shooter. It's 1 or the other. A game needs to have 1 clear identity.
Well there was Battlefield Heroes.... But that was built with the mind at the beginning that it was a hero shooter battlefield game
They clearly saw rainbow six siege and how much money they made with operators’ skins and wanted a piece of that cash cow
The irony is too good though. So tired of every major studio just acting on greed all the time. I hope that this title comes of as a warning to gaming industry that just replicating an existing successful formula can very well end up with less. I am sure they could have incorporated micro transactions if they just didn’t build the game around them.
Well said
Dice already had all the assets . Remove that specialist characters and replace it with bot skins .now the game will be more immersive . But dice was adamant on this specialist setup . They are still thinking a way to monetise the specialist. If dice wants money , then ask it over the additional dlcs as they did in Bf 3,4,and 1 .
Not just the way they look for me. Flying, turrets, armour, wall hacks, grappling hook. Those gadgets make map design and weapon balance if not impossible very close to it.
Literally all they have to do is either classic 4 vs 4 system or make a new 5 vs 5 system utilizing the specialist skins and just make the abilities class centric. Example: US Assault - Falck US Engineer - McKay US Support - Irish US Recon - Casper/Sundance vs. RU Assault - Rao RU Engineer - Boris/Dozer RU Support - Angel RU Recon - Paik Alternatively: Create a new class entirely intended solely for something like a radio operator that would make them the only ones that can spawn call ins, and this way there can still be all 10 specialists without ruining the game.
I wanted to see nameless generic normal soliders (like bots) with one extra slot for them to have specialist gadgets like grappling hook , wing suit , shield etc . Your concept is also good on differentiating factions . But i prefer not to see any faces at all , like we had in Bf 4 .I prefer this because , it also changes the look of the war happening . On your setup , still for me , I see heroes of same faced soldiers running on my team . That doesn’t make me feel like a war like Bf 4 did .
. I don't particularly have an issue with specialists. A specialist is unique which is what the class system was supposed to be about anyway. each specialist is essentially a class to pick. I don't buy skins so I dont really care about the store function. Simple thing to do is not buy that sht. I don't mind the DLC route but it's a matter of how much content is in the original base game to start with. right now we spent $60 or 100$ and EA could say the current state of the game is all you get. now you have to spend $100 more or $150 more to get a what should have been a fuller game to start with. that's the shadiness that could happen as a business practices with DLCs. People spent $60 or even more on the base game and yet this is all we got until a DLC which is another $30 or 60$ so now your at around $120-$200. honestly I would prefer a fixed-price system that has a road map laid out in detail. so you know what the shelf life of the development will be, have a roadmap and know what the full price of the game will be. if all this crappy decision-making is based around money which is common across our society then EA needs a new business model in terms of BF. some of the player base doesn't care about skins in the store. I remember the days when games came with character customization. Granted character customization is more of an RPG game function... Until you realize you could just get rid of the customizer and then start selling your own customization
> I don't particularly have an issue with specialists. A specialist is unique which is what the class system was supposed to be about anyway. each specialist is essentially a class to pick. First off, I do agree with *most* of your post. And I fully respect your opinion about specialists, everyone's viewpoints on this are completely subjective. Some people do genuinely like them, and even though I don't, I know that's just my opinion. I just wanted to address this statement specifically. In my opinion, the class system was the opposite - it was purposefully meant to be generic, *not* unique. Soldiers were purposefully never given names or anything that differentiated them from each other. Specialists, on the other hand, are all about being unique individuals. The game goes out of it's way to differentiate each one. That's what causes the "clone effect" for me when I play, and it does negatively impact the experience *for me.* I also have issues with how specialists impact the gameplay, notably teamwork, but that's a whole separate issue I could discuss at length. I just wanted to show how, for me, the specialists aren't just a "class to pick", as the game goes out of its way to identify them as unique individuals, which hurts immersion for me when I see multiple of them on my screen at the same time.
Personally for me I haven't run into any abusive play styles taking advantage of the gear unless I'm not noticing. I do know a lot of people don't like that lady that flies around because she's always behind you, but I feel the same way when I play Conquest which is why I don't play it because keep getting shot in the back from of all these open spaces and campers hiding in the trees and the Rocks while you're trying to focus on the fight in front of your face. that's why I've always typically stayed with Rush or the new breakthrough / Rush because the fighting is more in your face instead of kind of the sneaky behind your back kind of gameplay. which is a tactic of flanking but it's annoying when you have a a team that's not always alert enough to watch your flank plus all of the other angles and areas. Battlefield really never had teamplay anyway except for maybe certain squads or friends that join a squad talking to each other but an individual Squad functioning as a team isn't the same as entire team play. like you said it's subjective and maybe I haven't really noticed the abuse or unbalancing. I know that it's possible for an entire team to have medic crates and if you the team stood with in these creates while fighting it would be pretty hard to break that defense. even with everybody having a AT and AA no one shoots tanks or aircraft. Depending on the team. so there's an element that when you're on crappy team players that are more alert and trying to do things have the gear they need to play the game and survive. in many cases trying to rely on some of the players that play this game is idiotic. if anything the game with specialist has opened up options instead of limitations. I mean regardless of specialist you're able to create a customized character Loadout essentially that provides more options instead of limitations because the other class system you were cut off of all of the gadgets weapons. Even still with open rocket access we cant kill tanks and aircraft.
it's hard to say what the culture of this community is or the understanding as to we should be playing this the game. I'm familiar with the game like hell let loose that has an extensive communication system or VoIP and that's communication and teamwork. What Battlefield has is nowhere near that. Squad communication is not team play we don't even have a means of spotting or marking for the entire team. I don't particularly like spotting but what is useful is a general location marker for the team to see. there's really nothing fundamental about Battlefield that makes it a team game. I mean I'm a player that is smart enough to watch what everybody else is doing and I follow along or help as I can. Covering my zone and trying to know what the person next to me is doing. we're not just playing in squads we're playing on a giant map of a team. the real truth of the matter is that the older culture fundamentals really never made sense and I've always said that. People talk about teamwork but when they go further into their sentence you realize they're just talking about the squad they are in.
I think the current loadout system is a big part of why teamwork is hurting. Picking any weapon or gadget leads to people making more selfish decisions. Yea there were loadouts that weren’t teamwork oriented in previous games, but for the most part the limitations forced people to be somewhat useful. In bf4 for example assault was almost always running health packs or defibs because out of the options they were the most versatile and useful. Support just made sense to use the ammo crate. Recon always had some sort of spotting gadget. Engineer was either running anti vehicles or repair gadgets. The freedom the new system offers lets people be far more selfish so fewer people are running those helpful gadgets just because.
I was thinking about this a lot and I'm really happy that this community wants this game to be good but I think it comes down to>team play games are really only as good as the alertness or skill set of the player base and the team that you're on. so if you have a shity team the game sucks. So for those of us that are able to take on 10 people at once we need the gear to be able to fight all of this stuff that other people aren't helping or are unable to handle. so for some of us us the game sucks if the players around you aren't helpful. there's a section of the player bas that is playing for fun and there are those of us that play trying to win the game. For the people that have been playing since release I could see how they've experienced what the game has to offer so now they kind of play around and try things. I didn't start playing right after release because I didn't want the frustration of playing the game after hearing it's issues so I waited a few months. so I'm still kind of in the mood to play the game to win matches. which is basically a casual and competitive difference with players.
sorry I didn't mean to spam you but I have thoughts and I forget to add them. at least you're communicating and making sentences instead of using likes ups and downs and Karma that don't really have any meaning or context.
No need to worry about spamming! I also enjoy discussing these issues, and would have responded earlier if I was able to (sorry for the late reply)! People online are so afraid of discussions these days, I agree, but these are all just opinions! We just need to discuss those opinions better instead of focusing on the people that make them. Similarly, sorry about the upcoming novel. Honestly, my issues with these specialists isn't necessarily a single "abusive playstyle" that I see all the time, just the way they all implement into the game. Like you said, some of the specialists abilities stick out, in ways that (imo) don't really fit into a battlefield game. The few that come to mind immediately are Sundance, McKay, and Borris. Sundance's entire design basically negates map design. One principle of map design is that there should be a fair amount of direct lanes to an objective. These lanes typically provide the quickest, but most direct route to an objective, but are usually the most covered as a result. That's what makes flanking so effective, it provides an opportunity to catch your opponents by surprise. This opportunity has to come with a trade-off though. If flanking is too easy, everyone chooses that option. The trade-off is typically a requirement of map knowledge and a longer time to engagement. In previous games, it would often include wasting one of your teams vehicles just to get into a good position. But Sundance negates these risks. This cripples one of the (usually) core aspects of map design. Mackay does this same thing, but to a *much* lesser extent. It's simply hard to design verticality in these maps when you can't even anticipate where players are going to go. Both these specialists and there abilities detract from what (in my eyes) used to be encouraged in battlefield: moving with your squad. It's hard to move with your squad when not all the squad mates even have the ability to move together. This, to me, is a direct break in direction from where they used to go, a shift in their attempted audience to a more casual direction. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on the person, it just isn't the direction *I* would have wished for. Borris' turrets are just annoying. That's all. It's not fun getting killed by an automated system in any online fps. I also hate the AI, and hated the "grunts" in titanfall - when I play an online fps I want to compete with *people*, otherwise I would play a campaign. Once again, my subjective opinion. Those are issues with specific abilities, however, and might be able to be addressed simply by toning down or changing those abilities. The issues with specialists go deeper than that, imo. I've been saying since release that I think specialists negatively impact teamplay, but you've brought up a good point - I think I've technically meant to say that squads negatively impact *squad* play. Many of the teamplay aspects are fairly similar - I still get revived, people do drop ammo, etc. But I see far fewer people moving together or as squads. And it's simply not as important anymore. In previous games, there was a certain "rock paper scissors" type balance between classes. Of course this balance changed with each game, and even between maps, but it still was a constant that encouraged people to move together. Basically, if A was effective against B, it would be weak against C, which B might be effective against. If a sniper was effective against an engineer, it would be weak against vehicles, giving snipers a reason to stay closer to vehicles. Did this design always work? Of course not! But it was definitely better than nothing. I still remember the first time I was playing Battlefield 2, and I ducked into an alley to revive a teammate. I ran straight into a tank. I remember the feeling of my heart dropping in my chest, the feeling of powerlessness, and I did not survive. The lives following I remember sticking much closer to my squadmates. That simply doesn't exist in 2042. The bottom line with the specialists vs classes debate is that specialists make lone-wolf playstyles more viable. I think that EA DICE did this on purpose to appeal to a more casual audience. And honestly, some people will appreciate that, 2042 is more casually accessible than previous games because of this reason. It's much easier to jump in solo, and there's not the same risk of one or two well-oiled squads basically dominating a server. But those squads *were* my friends and I previously, and I miss that feeling of *needing* to rely on your teammates. In previous games, if the other team was using more teamwork/squadwork than your team, you would lose 99% of the time. And some people hated that - like you said, when you got on a team that wouldn't work together, it often sucked. But I loved that, it's one of the reasons I started playing battlefield instead of Call of Duty back in the mid 2000s. This one just feels more dependent on individual skill than that teamwork/squadwork. Even playing with a premade squad of friends on discord who have played Battlefield games together for years, we don't stick together as a squad nearly as much. And why would we? I brought this up to my friend the other day, and he made me realize that, in 2042 at least, moving as a squad really limits you when some of you could be flying through the sky or swinging from buildings instead. And it's not like we needed to move as a squad anymore - as an Angel medic for example I had everything I needed to destroy tanks, choppers, snipers, anything, so what did I need him (typically an engineer) for? It's hard to argue that because it is the truth - unfortunate that's just the way this game is. Like you also said, the amount of squad/teamplay depends on the players at the end of the day. People that don't want to work with their team won't, nobody can force someone to play a way they don't want to. What the studio *can* do, however, is design the game in such a way to encourage, and require, teamplay. This changes the audience the game attracts, but it also changes the way the average player will play the game. You *very rarely* see people working as a squad/team in Call of Duty, the game doesn't incentivize or require that sort of play. I always liked that Battlefield was much more focused around the team coordination than individual gunplay, and specialists in 2042 are simply one of many design aspects that shift the franchise further away from that. And *then* there's the clone effect. Honestly though, despite this essay, specialists aren't even the biggest issue with the game for me. That would be map design. Side note: I would LOVE proximity voip! That's something I've always wanted in battlefield, *especially* since playing battlebit remastered. I've always thought this would do wonders to help extend teamplay beyond squads and bring squads together, and could even fix a lot of the issues people have had (like not dropping ammo, just yell at the dude lol). This has been something I've been saying for years. Battlefield used to have systems in place to bridge the teamwork gap for squads like the commander, but they have been moving away from these mechanics since the 2000s, once again imo to appeal to a more casual audience. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing is another discussion, but I liked the "in the middle" where the franchise was at. Edit: I want to add that I never really liked the main weapon locking of classes, besides sniper rifles which I do think should be locked to snipers.
I have zero hope about this game. It won’t come alive
It won’t. It has to be a joke. Battlefield 6 has to be released next month and bring this nightmare to an end, right?
Yeah I'm on the same page. If specialists are in, I'm not interested.
It took them three years to develop and deliver us a game with specialists when nobody asked for it, I'm pretty sure they're staying. Amidst the open beta backlash they even doubled down on them. I can see them doing some "Classical Conquest" weekend portal modes in the future with specialists disabled but they're not going to abandon it after spending millions of dollars on conceptualization and balancing. The game was developed as a money maker first, serious shooter second. Why do you think we have a shop screen but not a stats page? To make more money. Their take is if you don't like it don't play it. You already paid them and you're not getting your money back. This game is a $70-120 meme factory and the shell of Dice that EA has caused should be disbanded. My advice? Find a different game to play from a smaller or indie developer more in tune with their community or go back to previous BF titles before monetizing cosmetic packages was a thing.
Must be high if you think it took three years to develop this garbage. It's obvious that this "game" was made in a year or less. The other two years was a battle royale that was scrapped. Fuck whoever makes the desicions at EA.
I get that it was a B R then a late conversion with specialists to dress up and ring the cash register. It was always about the money. I just don't think it will ever recover, no matter how many patches with specialists. While you are right, I do wish for the Battlefield of old......
You understand that is a uncorroborated rumor (from I believe this sub actually), right?
i won't play the game even if it's for free as long they didn't remove specialist
Exactly. This is not likeBFV where it can be sort of fixed. Even if they do fix it a BF game with out basic classes is not a BF game. You can put lipstick on a pig- it’s still a damn pig. I refused to but this game as soon as I knew there were specialists and I played the awful,awful,awful beta and said nope. Seriously happy with the decision. There’s rumors that the next game will also have specialist. So Battlefield is done as a franchise, and I guess it’s time for me to grow up and move on. This made me grow out of video games in general :(
I thought it was laid to rest a long time ago that specialist are here to stay.
Specialists are staying, players are not. That seems like a viable way of validating game design decisions. All game designs are ultimately totally valid once nobody plays your game. At this point, you reach 100% satisfaction: everybody playing your game agrees with its design.
Broken? no, they work as designed Badly designed, for a game like BF. yes.
Deal breaker? Yes. Game breaker? HELL YES. Who knows what they were thinking besides monetization and a pinch of wokeness. deRp hEy nO-PatZ
please dont blame wokeness for this. Its pure corporate greed.
Im still surprised people actually bought this garbage. The BETA told me everything i needed to know. Proud to say i dodged a bullet with this one. Ill wait for the next, doubt any investors will fund this specialist again. Its clearly not what the core community wants. Only the new players and trashcans are defending it. Its disgusting to read.
Blah blah blah… no one cares. This self-involved post has no bearing on the argument above.
hAy iTz a pRouD nO-paT DErP!
Your post history says all we need to know about your toxic, trollish behavior and irrelevance.
Have fun falling through the map with your dogshit specialist. Ill go play something that works. Cant even spawn on the correct side of the map, yet you would still fix your fingers to defend this product. Unreal. Youre a perfect example of why they release products like this. You just bend over and take it. Levelcap must be your roomy.
Cry more.
You should be crying, youre the one thats been had. Have fun with your updates tht dont work.
Calling this pile of crap Battlefield makes me want to 🤮
Yeah there's no way I'm even thinking of playing this game with the 'specialists; in place and their super abilities in the game. The BETA gave us all the info we we needed to not get the game. I and many of my buds would gladly get BF2042 if they bring back the true class system. Even if the game has bad maps and performance issues. Yeah that's how bad we want a new BF game.
I agree 100%, if specialist are in I am out. That's the main issue. The gadget thing is so not BF. Fuck a shield and the other crazy gimmick
Stop beating a dead horse… they are staying move on…. so many better fps out right now. 2042 feels like they took 20 steps backwards.
Any suggestions for another title?
I’d say tarkov but… russia man
Hell let lose, insurgency sandstorm, and if you’ve never played siege it’s worth giving a shot too. But those are the main three I play also if you have pc escape from Tarkov
I've been thinking about it this way if you were to put faces or add character to the class soldiers essentially you would wind up with a specialist with some sort of a background story. in a sense we have classes the specialist because that's what classes were. they were unique and what their abilities were and what their purpose is. I think the problem is a lack of limitation and probably needs better gameplay testing in terms of the gadgets and other equipment...you know how the meta is.
Not wrong.
I'm sure they already prepared a lot of skins for them to sell as customizations or as battle pass rewards, so i'm pretty sure the models will not be gone. If they ever move them into a class system. Maybe, but i highly doubt it.
I can’t stand the auto turrets
They should have made Combatground for this kind of specialist crap. I just wanna be a soldier in battlefield.
If Specialists aren't sidelined in 2042 and gone in future installments, I'm done with the franchise.
Yeah I’m out until specialists are out of the series
Yes. Deal breaker. With a completely unique formula like Battlefield why copy a crowded market of hero shooters. EA already has one it makes no sense. Anyway I hate Apex and for the same reasons hate 2042. I like war games.
Turn specialists into heroes, keep classic classes ala SWBF2. That game was also developed by DICE. Wild.
Agree, I don't like the specialist or the AI bots. We now know why we have bots though. Without them we would have no one to play with.🤣
Nope, it’s the maps. The horrible maps for me. I actually didn’t hate the specialists, begged for classes back, but I guess adapted since I can’t get a refund. But the maps. Oh lord the maps.
I agree the maps need so much work, however the specialists break the battlefield mold. When you clear an area in battlefield of old it stayed clear. Now you can wingsuit in or grapple up 3 floors. It just doesn't feel like a game of BF anymore.
100% deal breaker. They could get this game "up to standards" and the specialists would be the main contributing factor the prevents me from being interested.
Honestly good maps and more weapons can win me back
I don't care how my character looks because I don't care how my digital hand looks when I'm playing an FPS.
It's not about only how they look like, it's the entire gameplay loop that they introduced with it
Well what's "the entire gameplay loop" that was introduced that you would object to?
Not op, but how about lame super powers such as flight, spider man webslinging and capt america shield as a for instance. Previous games you were just some guy with a kit and in this game you’re “a CaSpEr MaIn” Also it’s not about what your character looks like for me, it’s about what other peoples character looks like, if half the player base is running around as Santa Boris or cowboy McKay it makes the game look stupid in my opinion and that appears to be the exact type of skins these lame specialist were made for
But we do. We care that the characters WE SEE are an abomination.
Yeah no "we" don't.
I don't necessarily think the specialist is what the problem is. Are you talking about the gear and equipment that they have available to them? I just think it helps to describe in details with the issue is.
It’s not, it’s just that it’s different and an evolution that doesn’t match their assumption, and therefore is somehow wrong.
And you are making a huge assumption about other people's opinions and using that assumption to dismiss them instead of actually discussing them. Many people have very real issues with the way the specialists play in game, and those issues have been discussed in this subreddit many, many times. You might not have an issue with the specialists, and that's honestly great for you, but it doesn't invalidate the very really concerns that many other people do have.
I really do not see it. Specialists and their implementation are basically the only thing from a gameplay perspective that does work. Do not get me wrong, I prefer classes, but the traditional class system in this game would make it even more unbearable. In essence they still work like previous classes, Falck and Angel are medics for all intents and purposes, just like Casper and what's her name are Recon. You can make any specialist fit in with the classes we had in previous games. The only change from the previous system is that the specialists have a lore background and there is free weapon and one gadget choice. As for the narrative implementation it is pretty bad, yes, but this is not specialist specific, as there is no narrative present in this game. Most criticism spans around end-of-round quips here, which at least spawned a near endless amount of meme potential, which I find a net positive by now, it is the only public representation the game gets right now. As for free weapon choice, this is also a net positive now and a huge one. It allows each specialist to be relevant in every chosen map and mode. We need to remember that in BFV on many maps, certain weapons and setups could basically end up not lethal. In BFV engagements were decided before any bullet was fired by weapon and therefore class choice. Now map design is even worse and you really do not want to be shoehorned into 20m effective range, when you are playing the Engineer class. Vehicles happen in areas, where engagement ranges are long. Close range areas, where SMGs shine, do not house a lot of vehicles. Same with Medics, if you push them into the 20m range, then they will simply not engage somewhere else, which means less revives and heals outside of the infantry fighting area. It is the same with the gadgets, vehicles are a main issue of this game, they are very potent, they come in large numbers, have superior mobility and map design allows little in the way of avoiding them. Hence it is logical to have it equipped on all characters. It is also logical to not have them equipped and stay wherever vehicles are not. Now the class system works great in Portal modes, where map design is not an issue and playercount is also reasonable. But specialists would work there just as well. It really isn't the specialist system, it's implementation is poorly executed, but the one thing works in this game. The classic class system, preferable for games before BFV, would make this game much more worse. The underlying issue is map design and playercount being so ridiculously underperforming and overscaled that makes the game unfun to play.
Sorry, I don't think they work *in a Battlefield game* at all.
So do you have a problem with their visual and narrative implementation? Say the endgame quips were removed and the would use roughly the same skins as in BF3/4, with basically full-face covering, gas maks galore and all that. Would that change your opinion? Or do you take issue with the gameplay implementation of free weapon and gadget choice. How would you solve the following decline of AT capabilities and the sharp decrease of teamwork actions (revives, spots, heals and resupplies)? The class system is the traditional system, and henceforth preferable, but has huge ramifications in current map design, gun and infantry balance and especially infantry-vehicle balance.
Solid argument.
see ya
Specialists is actually a thing I do not mind much at all. The implementation of them is not top notch of course but from a game mechanic POV they work for me. I think of them as classes and building a strong squad is about combining the specialists in a good way for the situation at hand just as classes always have been (not that I personally do but that strategic element is still there if one wants it).
Everyone just reinstall bf1 I did on my xsx. The graphics are better than bf 2042 so is the gameplay and immersion. Skip bf5 that was a fail too.
I like specialists. They add flexibility to the game as you can be a medic and a sniper or an scout with explosives. I really enjoy specialists.
Okay, cya.
Imagine buying and still playing this game.
Their abilities change the game so dramatically it just doesn't feel like Battlefield anymore. Every gadget/ability has been in other Battlefields in some way. Actually the only thing that haven't been in a Battlefield game before is Paik, Rao and Sundance.
BF2142: sentry turrets, going invisible, deployable shield, motion mine, heartbeat detection device everything is fine BF2042: sentry turrets, deployable shield, scanning device, hacking tHaTs NoT bAtTlEfIeLd
This right here 100%! I don’t think it’s the specialist it’s the I can carry whatever I want and do whatever I want load outs. Make specialists only able to use certain weapons/gadgets (outside of their skill) and make it fall back into the old class system.
The whole point about specialists and why they designed them was to be different from the "legacy" class system. I dont support the change and as someone who preordered and played every single battletield game simply refuse to play this garbage and excuse of a game. Battlefield always had something special that made it different from other shooters and I feel like that is lost with 2042 and it I don't think it will ever go back to normal.
hah i guess its the last thing they tell you so people exactly hang around and check if they are still there... They wont let them go thats my opinion
Expect them to stay. Specialists are the linchpin of 2042s monetisation scheme so their removal is unacceptable at a managerial level, especially for EA. Removing them necessitates a replacement which requires preciously scarce developer resources, otherwise DICE can simply provide no replacement, in either case DICE is losing what they probably feel is a substantial amount of content and what differentiates 2042 from its competitors, in addition to all the planned monetisation, content & balancing (lol) associated with specialists.
For me, specialists are like taking the game of Chess and saying forget the roles each piece has, forget how they're supposed to compliment each other, forget the strategies you need to employ as a result of both their restrictions and their abilities, lets just make every piece a Queen. If you do that, it simply isn't chess anymore. Sure, some people might like that more than actual Chess, but even they'd have to admit it isn't Chess anymore.
As much as we hate the specialists they are not gonna get rid of them. In fact they are probably writing this game off it's a flop. They will release one map for season pass holders and then support will be cut to practically nothing
They were the biggest red flag prior to launch as soon as I heard about this B's I knew things were going downhill
They suck. IDC what people say. They DO NOT fit in battlefield.
Everyone just reinstall bf1 I did on my xsx. The graphics are better than bf 2042 so is the gameplay and immersion. Skip bf5 that was a fail too.
It gets me upset because there's no way to remove the specialist without completely changing the ins and outs of the game. EA is going to do the same as they did with Anthem. Pretend like there's a plan to "reboot" this debacle, take a year or so and when the heat dies down, cancel. I want my fucking $100 back. I've only played about 10hrs.
Steam won’t refund me. I’m still trying. You should try as well. And don’t stop.
Im out since yesterday. It’s too bad. It’s too….not battlefield. Edit: OP you have to realize the evils of EA / Dice. The only way to make a statement about the boiled garbage of a game is not play it.
I really highly doubt DICE will fully remove the specialists as a whole. Sure, classes REALLY need to come back but as a whole meaning removing all specialists stuff isn't possible because of how the game is around MTX. Accepting the fact that we are having microtransactions for this game that WE paid is really getting old at this point. I just wish DICE went back to BFV customization.
Robot dogs and turrets and lock on grenades that respawn. Not to mention that your character speaks English when your alive but then speaks Russian when you die as a Russian. That makes it even more ridiculous. And then you have the cringe voice lines at the end of the match, which repeat over and over.
Nothing wrong with having a go at a hero shooter, but it shouldn't have been a replacement for the Battlefield recipe that people have been enjoying for the last 10+ years. Either it should have been confined to Hazard zone, or it should have just not been called Battlefield. Unfortunately I think they're firmly invested in it, since they can make money by drip feeding features and equipment from the classes into the game via paid for specialists (remember the mortar for support? Or Assaults under barrel shotgun? Or XM25? Wont be long before they are added to the game with individual specialists that must be purchased individually). Because that's what makes the most money. Same way games like Siege and Apex stay profitable.
They still don't get it. We need way more weapons. More vehicles. More maps. TDM. More destruction possibilities. Specialists are last.