14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at DICE working on Battlefield 4 says that it has created an entirely new system to tank servers so that players always know exactly the kind of experience they will be accessing when running the first-person shooter.
Lars Gustavsson, the creative director at DICE, tells IGN that, “we’ve introduced a new system where basically we have pre-defined scales, so if you’re within certain boundaries it will be an official server, which means that people who use – for example – quick match, will be slotted into this.”
A solid Battlefield 4 experience is guaranteed to all those playing on such servers.
Once players start to tweak the core game settings, they will drop into the ranked category, which still means persistence and progression exist but the gameplay might be a little different.
If even more changes are made, then the match moves into unranked, which is recommended for those players who know they want an innovative take on the core mechanics.
The team is also confirming that it has no plans to introduce full night and day cycles in any of its maps, even if there are some which feature changes that will affect gameplay.
Gustavsson adds, “Paracel Storm for instance, starts as a beautiful, sunny day and goes into a raging storm, but we haven’t taken the full day/night cycle. What we’ve really tried to do with the whole Levolution package is to ensure that even though it’s dramatic and epic, we want the level to be fun and guarantee good gameplay.”
DICE says that predictable experiences are important because there are some players who will only buy and play Battlefield 4 after launch and they need a solid starting point.
The coming shooter supports up to 64 players in matches and re-introduces the Commander Mode, which will allow one gamer to direct the strategy of his team.