A Battlefield 5 time to kill controversy has blown up over the last week — and the developers have stepped up to answer the concerns of fans. Some big changes are coming for damage falloff, and not everyone is happy about it.
Let’s rewind to more than a week ago when the changes for the 5.2 patch were detailed in a submission on the /r/BattlefieldV subreddit. A lot was covered, but one thing in particular stood out: the developers were going to be introducing some hefty changes to the game’s guns, a fact that officially kicked off the controversy. Take a look at this chart for the changes coming to the Thompson, with the yellow line representing the current patch and the blue line representing patch 5.2:
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As you can see, it used to take 5–8 bullets to score a kill with the Thompson depending on range; now it will take 6–13. The changes at short distance aren’t all that bad, but the long-distance changes are particularly notable.
“Absolutely bloody terrible changes!!,” read one comment in the original Reddit thread. “[Time to kill] is currently the best of any Battlefield game so far. The game was sold using faster time to kill. The community didn’t like it then why should it be liked now?”
The community was obviously quite upset with the whole Battlefield 5 time to kill controversy, leading the developers to respond in a newer submission on the game’s official subreddit.
The current time to kill is perfect, why are you changing it?
The current time to kill is perfect, but only if the right player is using the right gun, and in the right situation. Battlefield V is currently balanced in what can be called a narrow spectrum. Fundamentally guns are all Damage per Second (or Bullets to Kill) equal, which means that its quite easy to find a gun that can work well enough for any situation, and then stick to that gun.That design holds a few problems.
[…]
Our goal with this change is in multiple parts, and there’s also something that is our ‘antivision’ – which is even more important than the vision.
Although the post states that “changing the base time to kill here is NOT the goal,” it seems to have been taken that way by some. Hopefully, the explanation provided by the developers will give some solace to players with concerns. You can read more about changes to weapons and other parts of the game in this submission on the /r/BattlefieldV subreddit.
