The launch of Battlefield 2042 has been tumultuous, to say the least, but developer DICE so far appears committed to an attempt to turn things around with the game’s third update coming just about two weeks after it released. 2042‘s official worldwide launch on November 19 is certainly an important milestone, but players who purchased certain editions of the game were able to play a week early, and the first update even dropped during the end of the early access period as a day one patch. A second update was just released on November 25, and now what DICE has dubbed Update #3 has been delivered as of December 2.
Battlefield 2042 has launched to widespread criticism for a variety of issues, from shaky performance, to gameplay design and abandoned features from the FPS series’ previous entries. The game was designed as a live service platform, though, and while player numbers are already dropping, there still seems to be some hope that 2042 will make a satisfactory heel-turn. The game is still technically in preseason, with season one still somewhere on the horizon, so there are no major content additions to 2042 with Update #3.
The closest thing to new content is the first batch of post-launch skins for Specialists, vehicles, and weapons. They come alongside the new Weekly Missions feature, which aims to incentivize players to perform specific tasks in exchange for XP. Players will be able to track their three Weekly Missions from the main menu, and completing all three will award a new cosmetic item. Leaks have already shown a Santa Claus skin for Boris, which doesn’t bode well for those hoping 2042 would keep a traditional Battlefield aesthetic. The rest of the update is more or less polishing the game and squashing bugs. The list of patch notes from EA is quite long, and all combined may significantly improve the quality of life in terms of Battlefield 2042‘s current gameplay.
- Improved experience of transition between End of Round screens and main menu.
- Improved matchmaking stability, including reducing instances of failed matchmaking.
- Improved flow of crossplay invitations.
- Current activities of friends are now more easily tracked.
- Servers should no longer enter unresponsive games where the round fails to start.
- Fixes to PC friend invitations.
- Resolved an issue where the in-game friends list wouldn’t properly update.
- Multiple changes have been made to improve bot behaviors.
- Recent Players screen now correctly displays the entirety of the previous lobbies in Battlefield 2042‘s Update 3.
- “INTERACT” text on interactable objects now communicates the action (i.e. “OPEN CONTAINER” and “CALL ELEVATOR”).
- Improvements to streaming assets in deploy screen presentation.
- Correct field of view loads more quickly following beginning of round cutscenes.
- Improvements made to Collection screens for clarity and maneuverability, including streamlining to reduce the number of button presses required in load out creation.
- Additional polish given to Player Card and End of Round screens.
- New menu markers added to recently unlocked items.
- Polished screen transitions when going to the main menu.
- Streamlined the menus for reporting players for toxicity and cheating.
- The in-game scoreboard (still not a true, lobby-wide scoreboard) now correctly adjusts for screen safe zones.
- Issues with Options menus not scrolling has been resolved.
- Implemented Focus restoration for screens so the focused button is remembered when re-entering a screen.
- Visual effects inadvertently remaining on the End of Round screen has been fixed.
- Various fixes to the CommoRose, including responsiveness, and mistakenly included or absent objectives.
Various visual flickering issues were addressed.
- Water now properly renders when aiming down sights (ADS), and water reflection issues have been resolved.
- Added sight definition for iron sights to allow correct ADS for the VCAR.
- Character models should now render correctly when joining a match in progress.
- Made improvements to artifacts affecting DLSS implementation.
- Fixed flickering in El Alamein’s water while on deployment screen.
- Aircraft should now always have the correct landing gear.
- Shooting near water will result in correct bullet impact effects.
- The Gunner Seat in the JU-87 Stuka should now have properly aligned firing visual effects.
- PSO-1 Scope should no longer clip into the AN94.
- Several PP-29 weapon skin issues have been resolved.
- Made a series of visual, audio, and gameplay improvements to weapons, vehicles, and gadgets.
- Plus Menu customization has been streamlined.
- Player Card menu navigation issues have been fixed.
- Damage indicator colors can now be changed for soldiers and vehicles.
- Crosshair can now be displayed in three different thicknesses.
- Fixed a bug where the color picker preview in the Options menus showed only black.
- Pinged objects now remain visible while occluded.
- VFX bugs for players joining a match in progress have been addressed.
- Tornado and smoke VFXs have been improved.
- UI elements were added to clarify the revive process, both for the downed player and the one performing the revive.
- New icons have been added to show friendly characters carrying needed supplies such as health or ammo.
- The map screen now has a higher resolution.
- Enemy vehicles and soldiers in Battlefield 2042 will now display health bars at 200 and 50 meters respectively.
- Icons of friendly players should now properly disappear behind walls, but they will now be visible while downed.
- Player names will now more consistently appear.
- For weapons with multiple fire modes, the fire mode icon will now be always visible by default, and options have been added to disable this, as well as make it appear in ADS only.
- Button prompts can now be disabled in the Options menus.
- Messages will now display informing the player of which teammate healed or provided ammo to them.
- Numerous issues were fixed with the visibility of Identify Friend or Foe markers, including a bug where they would not appear with the correct colorblind options.
- The HUD element which reminds the player to reload will now stop pulsating after four seconds, and there is now an option to disable these prompts entirely.
- Local audio placement issues have been addressed on multiple maps, as well as that in regards to sandstorm audio specifically.
- Destruction audio has been improved.
- Fixed an issue in which certain offscreen sounds would not play, even though they are within audible proximity, including the activation of Paik’s Scanner.
- Audio for weapons shot at the player, especially from a distance, has been improved.
- End of Round audio has been adjusted.
- Requesting a revive now triggers a ping sound in order to help with location, and the sound when pinging a downed player has also been adjusted.
- Vehicle sounds have been improved, including gear shifts and suspensions, warning sounds when at low health, and the sound played when there is an incoming missile.
- An audio for damaged engine fires has been added.
- LCAA Hovercraft audio specifically has been improved to be easier to hear when approaching from behind.
- There is now a unique sound when picking up Angel’s armor.
- Xbox One and PS4 ADS animations are now smoother.
- Fixed animations sometimes glitching when picking up a weapon from the ground.
- Seeing another player melee now has improved weapon switch speed.
- Throwing Medical and Ammo Crates now shows a more natural trajectory.
- Gadgets now have turn in place animations.
- Going prone with legs dangling from a ledge will slowly pull the player off.
- Enemies turning into 2D models will occur less frequently.
- Character legs have been moved in mid-air to increase visibility.
- Swimming animations have been improved, including an issue where players would get stuck in the animation while on land.
- A bug which cause players to appear to float while prone has been fixed.
- Sliding animations now properly follow terrain geometry.
- Fixed an issue with jumping when coming out of a crouched or prone pose.
- Going prone on a slope no longer prevents the player from looking up and down.
- FOV settings will no longer misalign character hands when climbing ladders.
- The player’s own headless character model can no longer be seen while climbing ladders.
- The Always Traversal Sprint option now works as intended, and no longer affects swimming animations.
- Correct sprinting animations should now always display.
- Vehicles shooting a parachute should no longer damage the player parachuting.
- Fixed an issue with a third person animation that caused the player to get stuck in a turn loop.
- Weekly missions added (discussed above).
- XP and Rank tracking should now be more reliable.
- Improved tracking for Mastery ranks and Player Card elements.
- All unlocked items now no longer display the level they were acquired at.
- Mastery Badges are now visible in the Portal Collections menu.
- XP is now properly awarded for Angel resupplies.
- New notifications for reaching Player Card Badge and Mastery tiers.
Vehicles
- Jets now consistently spawn with the correct velocity and trajectory.
- Beginning of round cutscene animations for helicopters have been improved.
- Being killed in a vehicle should no longer cause players to fall through the map.
- Exiting a vehicle near a zipline or rope no longer causes the player to get stuck inside of it.
- Fixed an issue with locked vertical aiming in vehicles when changing seats quickly after entering.
- Collections menu previews for vehicles now display the correct customizations.
- Countermeasures should now more reliably deceive incoming missiles.
- Exit positions for all vehicles will now be more consistent.
- Controller vibrations for all vehicles have been improved.
- Rounds fired from the 20mm Cannons on the MD540 Nightbird will no longer appear to be frozen on impact, and the Nightbird’s weapons have been balanced.
- AH-64X Apache Warchief & KA-520 Super Hokum 127mm Anti-Vehicle Rocket Packs will no longer have blast impulse when fired.
- A bug which prevented bullets from penetrating the LCAA Hovercraft’s windshield has been fixed (but the hovercrafts are still broken and can drive up walls).
- The F-35E Panther’s repair system ability should now be visible in the customization menus.
- Vehicle boost can now be set to toggle or hold.
- Vehicles no longer take double damage if hit through glass.
- TOW Missile Projectile behavior has been improved.
- The blast impulse on Attack Helicopters’ Anti-Vehicle Rockets has been removed and will no longer nudge vehicles on hit.
- Fixed a bug causing vehicles to continue in reverse even after the button had been released.
- Adjusted FOV sense of speed effect on all vehicles.
- Vehicles becoming stuck on various objects which removed all tires from the ground should now be easier to maneuver out of the situation.
- Fixed an issue where the kill camera fell under the map when killed in a vehicle.
Weapons
- Visual hits on enemies should now more reliably register, though DICE admits there are still issues in regards to hit registration being investigated.
- The 8X scope now has the proper ADS speed.
- The M44 will no longer chamber an extra, sixth bullet in its five-bullet cylinder.
- Being hacked while in a vehicle will no longer prevent a soldier from being able to shoot when back on foot.
- Switching back to weapons after throwing grenades will now be faster.
- Unlimited, rapid-fire grenades from the 40mm under-barrel attachments is now no longer a possible exploit.
- The 40mm AP projectile now no longer inadvertently shows a proximity indicator.
- 40mm under-barrel attachment munitions can now be resupplied.
- The reticle position and brightness of the PK-A and Kobra sights have been improved.
- Multiple changes have been made to the NTW-50, overall reducing its effectiveness against vehicles, but increasing its Anti-Material Rounds magazine size to five.
Melee
- Audio timing has been adjusted when assassinating prone enemies, and various other issues have been addressed when attempting to strike prone enemies.
- Melee range has been reduced.
- Assassinations are no longer possible on players climbing a ladder.
- Performing a melee on an unoccupied vehicle will now nudge it, which may help when one gets stuck.
- Using melee will no longer launch players into the air, nor cause them to enter a broken state if done in water.
- A bug relating the camera when using melee on a moving platform has been fixed.
- Players can no longer launch themselves across the map by jumping from a ladder and hitting the melee button.
Angel
- Players in need of armor will now have a white outline, which also indicates where the throwing magnetism mechanic will send Angel’s Supply Bag. It will also now target friendlies low on ammo, and not just low on armor.
- Supply Bag can now be self-administered by players using Angel.
- A new hand gesture has been added for placing Angel’s Loadout Crate, and it can no longer be called in under tall buildings.
- More than four load outs are now available in a Loadout Crate, but the cool down timer for multiple uses is now shared across all crates.
- Visual effects on spawning and destroying the Loadout Crate have been improved.
Boris
- The SG-36 Sentry Gun is now destroyed when the player dies, not when they are downed.
- The Sentry Gun can now more reliably target enemy soldiers that are near vehicles.
Casper
- The OV-P Recon Drone can now be more reliably deployed from a prone position.
- Enemy Recon Drones now have lights to improve their visibility.
- Exiting the Recon Drone will switch players back to their previous weapon automatically.
- The Drone’s EMP hint message has been improved to clarify the need for a lock on.
- The EMP itself now has an increased range, and the lock-on mechanic is more reliable.
- The Recon Drone’s movement speed and hitbox size have both been increased.
- The spotting area on the Drone’s camera has been enlarged, and the radius for spotting enemies near the Drone itself has been adjusted.
Dozer
- Multiple issues with Dozer’s ballistic shield have been addressed: not blocking bullets in elevators, causing Dozer to be un-targetable by Boris’ SG-36 Sentry Gun and AI bots, denying players with it equipped entry into vehicles, making reviving of Dozer more difficult, killing Dozer resulting in the killer being awarded the victim’s dog tag, and launching melee’d players into the air.
- Bullets deflected with Dozer’s shield now do less damage, and the headshot multiplier on them has been removed.
Irish
- Using Irish’s deployable cover now has its animation when switching to him via the Portal SetPlayerSoldier command.
- Irish’s preview video for his gadgets has been updated.
- The deployable cover can now be more reliably placed on angled surfaces, and its icon will properly display on the mini map.
Mackay
- Altering field of view settings will no longer misalign the Grappling Hook’s rope.
- Bugs regarding the vaulting animation after using the Grappling Hook have been resolved.
- The Grapple Gun’s damage has been reduced, though using it on smoke and tornadoes may still be possible.
Paik
- A sound effect now plays when being scanned by Paik’s EMG-X Scanner.
- The Scanner now spots enemies above and below Paik.
- The Scanner can no longer be used in vehicles.
- The “target found” audio for the Scanner now works in excess of 20 meters.
Rao
- There is now a short grace period for the Cyber Warfare Suite’s hacking process when something momentarily interrupts line of sight, such as trees.
- The “enemy hacked” voice over will now no longer play at incorrect times.
Sundance
- The scatter grenade now detonates after its first bounce.
- Anti-armor grenades will no longer circle in mid-air when the target used countermeasures.
- The Repair Tool crosshair will no longer be visible if it was held before deploying Sundance’s Wingsuit.
- A bug has been fixed that put flying players in first-person if redeploying the Wingsuit in mid-air.
Falck
- When the magnetism function is targeting players for the S21 Syrette Pistol, it will now play a lock on and lock off audio cue, and the targeted players will no be outlined in white.
- Being healed by the Syrette Pistol now has VFX and audio feedback.
- Destroying a Ranger now has a more natural animation.
- Rangers will now more reliably follow the player that called it in after the player had been downed.
- Gadget cool downs no longer pause when entering a vehicle.
- Gadgets now properly move alongside elevators they are in.
- Carl Gustaf, RPG, Wildcat AA missiles, and Bolte missiles will no longer immediately re-lock onto vehicles after said vehicle deployed flares.
- Grenades can now be thrown through glass on Orbital.
- The CG Recoilless M5’s lock on with SOFLAM is now properly interrupted if the target vehicle deploys flares.
- The Recoilless M5’s range finder and time of flight information has been improved.
- The C5 Explosive blast damage is now more consistent on moving vehicles, its server- and client-side locations are now properly in sync, and can now be detonated more quickly after being thrown.
- When switching to another item while zoomed in with the SOFLAM, its HUD elements will now properly disappear.
- The SOFLAM’s tooltip is now properly aligned.
- Anti-Tank Mines and other deployable will now play their audio cues when used inside a vehicle.
- Medical and Ammo Crates will no longer have a bug that triggers their cool down when the player reaches max HP.
- Medical and Ammo Crates can be thrown more quickly after selecting them.
- A bug preventing the resupply animation from triggering for getting gadgets from an Ammo Crate has been fixed.
- Smoke grenades will now bounce once before detonation, and can now be reliably destroyed by bullets and explosions (there’s no fix for the menu screen cancellation glitch).
- Frag Grenade warning indicators will no longer disappear behind other HUD elements.
- Repair Tool can no longer fix a vehicle it is not being aimed at, but it is now faster to equip and put away the Repair Tool.
- Picking up an Insertion Beacon now properly triggers an audio cue, EMPs now block Insertion Beacon spawns, and the item appears on the ground with a more realistic delay.
- The FXM-33 AA Missile reload sound is now synced with its reload animation, and reloading now takes longer.
- A large variety of individual, map-specific changes were made to every map.
- Fixed Kaleidoscope server room lighting.
- Bridges on Kaleidoscope will now be in their proper positions for players joining in progress.
- Destructible silos on Renewal and Orbital will now be in the correct state when players join in progress.
- Elevators now properly interact with Boris’ SG-36 Sentry Gun.
- Geometry issues have been addressed across all maps, which should reduce instances of players becoming stuck on terrain or objects, including in vehicles.
- Resolved multiple spawning issues.
- Multiple visual glitches, such as lens flares and visible seams in the skydome, have been resolved.
- Various issues with collision and item placement have been resolved.
- Various collision issues during large scale animations have been addressed.
- The timing for automatic doors has been adjusted.
All-Out Warfare
- Messages regarding flag state changes in Conquest will now be more infrequent in an attempt to reduce information spam.
- Capture times in Breakthrough have been tuned.
- Defenders should now have safer spawn areas.
- A Game Mode Widget has been added to Battlefield 2042‘s Breakthrough mode to help players track the game’s progress, with an emphasis on sectors and attacker reinforcements.
- Elapsed time can be seen in this scoreboard and on the deployment screen.
- Attacker ticket count will now have a pulsating effect when below 25 percent.
- Better indication that the attackers have reached the final sector, and every time the defenders lose a sector.
- End of Round screen should now display correct scores for the attacking team.
Hazard Zone
- 1,000 Dark Market Credits are now awarded for daily first match.
- Dark Market Credits visual presentation has been improved.
- Enemy squad names have been removed from the Squad and Players screen.
- Scoreboard no longer shows enemy players.
- Extraction Zones have been given more flares for visibility, and additional cover.
- There are additional spawn locations for the initial Data Capsules, and they can now hold more Data Drives. Additionally, they will only spawn four to six Opposing Forces.
- Data Drive Scanner is now more accurate, with improved enemy identification. Additionally, bugged audio cues no longer occur randomly.
- Resolved an issue where two teams are able to extract simultaneously.
- Players should now always be alerted when they are being scanned.
- Data Drives are now easier to pick up.
- A distance readout has been added to Extraction Zone.
- End of round camera placement improved.
- Pressing the Modify button in the lobby now takes players to the Perk tab.
- Drones inside the extraction Condor will now be destroyed upon leaving.
- Eliminating an entire enemy squad now awards bonus XP.
- The Redeploy icon is now part of the soldier and vehicle world icon.
- Resolved an issue that allowed players to pick up more Data Drives than their maximum carry capacity.
- End of round sequence should now trigger correctly, and bonus XP should be properly awarded.
- A player being tabbed out no longer stops the lobby countdown from starting.
- Lobby summary information now takes less screen space.
- Remaining balance of earned Dark Market Credits now has an animation and audio cue when changing.
- Tactical Items tab is now a single tab in the lobby, and clarity of selection has been improved.
- Locked items are now more easily discernible.
- Players are now able to quit from the pre-lobby screen while waiting for others to join.
- Fixed multiple issues with the voice over audio.
- Missing music upon squad elimination is now present.
Portal
- The seven Battlefield 2042 maps have been given Rush layouts in Portal.
- New official game mode templates for Team Deathmatch, Team and Free-For-All Gun Master, and Infection.
- Portal Rules Editor can now detect what weapon a player was killed by in order to apply additional Logic.
- SetTeamId block is now usable with AI.
- Pause menu now has server information, and the option to report a server.
- Server admins can now write periodic server messages.
- Server Settings screen has been simplified.
- Incorrect bullet spread while ADSing immediately after sprinting has been resolved.
- Maximum human players in free-for-all game modes will now display correctly.
- Maps now have unique loading music.
- Vehicles set to have low max health will no longer spawn on fire.
- Aircraft now display correct weaponry.
- UI indicator has been added to Rush to indicate when the next sector opens.
- Fixed a visual issue while reloading the following launchers: RPG-7, SMAW, Bazooka, and Panzerschreck.
- Many bug fixes and balances for weapons, vehicles, and gadgets from specific classic Battlefield titles in Portal.
- An issue where the HUD would be invisible when leaving one Portal game and joining another has been fixed.
Source: Electronic Arts