Battlefield 2042 Update #2 has improved bullet spread and nerfed hovercrafts
A more substantial update is expected in early December
After releasing Battlefield 2042 in an unready state, Dice today took a step towards fixing and finishing it by releasing a wee patch which tweaks weapon balance and fixes some bugs. Bullet spread on all guns except shotguns is reduced, for starters, making them more accurate. The ludicrous hovercraft is less murderous too. And they've wiped out bugs including one which left players stuck downed, unable to respawn. Read on for more.
Update #2 is live now on all platforms, and here's the overview:
- Bullet spread has been reduced on all weapons except Shotguns. This should result in better accuracy during gameplay
- Increased PP-29 vertical recoil to ensure that the weapon does not overperform when engaging outside of its intended combat range
- MD540 Nightbird Mounted 20mm Cannons - we are reducing the radius at which bullets do damage upon impact, and decreasing their splash damage
- KA-520 Super Hokum - 30mm Cannon (side mount) - we are reducing overall damage and range at which bullets do full damage, while increasing the overall bullet spread
- AH-64GX Apache Warchief and KA-520 Super Hokum - 30mm Cannon - we are reducing the radius at which bullets do damage upon impact, and decreasing their splash damage
- We reduced the overall damage of the Minigun for all Land Vehicles, alongside bullet damage drop off now starting earlier
- Equipped armor type for the LCAA Hovercraft has been adjusted which increases its vulnerability against different weapon types
- Made general improvements to stability to prevent rare occurrences of game crashing
- Resolved an issue where players who were killed close to obstacles such as walls or water were unable to be revived
- Resolved instances where players were stuck in a downed state and unable to respawn. We’ve also introduced a hidden timer that will activate after 30 seconds of being in a downed state that will force a redeploy should it be required
- Breakthrough matches will now correctly end after the last sector has been captured
- Resolved an issue that caused players queued for a match in Battlefield Portal to be sent back to the menu, instead of joining the match when a slot became available
They've also re-enabled the UAV-1 in Battlefield Portal mode, while increasing its missile damage and reducing its health regen.
These are only the overviews of changes, so do see the Update 0.2.2 patch notes for specific numbers on most of those weapon changes.
Ed said in our Battlefield 2042 review last week that the game simply "doesn't seem ready yet." He's since said that Halo Infinite feels solid in a way the other recent big shooters don't.
Dice this week laid out plans for three patches this year, of which this was the first. The "substantial" Update #3 is due to follow in early December. They also said they are "carefully evaluating" common requests for the return of features like voice chat, an end-of-match scoreboard, and a server browser. They say they had "plenty" they wanted to say about them but not now. A huge team-based multiplayer game launching without voice chat is wild.
Alright, now what about sky swimming?
