We’ve seen a lot of the Campaign and Multiplayer action in Battlefield 4, but vehicles haven’t played much of a role beyond background eye candy so far. Veteran Battlefield gamers know all too well the value of vehicles in the franchise, so it was just a matter of time before DICE and EA started talking about Battlefield 4 vehicles and their customization options. That time is apparently now.
Since the beginning, vehicles have played an essential role in the all-out-warfare experience that happens only in Battlefield. With Battlefield 4, the vehicle gameplay options and customization possibilities are greater than any previous BF game, according to EA.
In the latest “Road to Battlefield” blog, DICE’s Senior Vehicles Designer Patrick O’Shaugnessy provides an in-depth look at the development of the vehicles in Battlefield 4. His post also explores the level of customization players can expect when Battlefield 4 releases for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on October 29, and then later this year for both Xbox One and PS4.
The exhaustive blog entry covers a lot of ground regarding Battlefield 4 vehicles. Many of the options are vehicle-specific, obviously, but O’Shaugnessy also says “these choices happen when customizing your vehicle’s loadout, or even selecting which vehicle you spawn into.”
With regard to water-based Battlefield 4 vehicles such as Patrol Boats and the Personal Water Craft, some of the biggest challenges involved finding the right loadout for weapons, unlocks and other features. For the attack boats, DICE “decided to give it a more varied set of customization options than other vehicles, so that you really can be versatile and engage many different types of targets depending on your choices when building your loadout.”
Vehicle customization in BF4 isn’t just about loadouts, though. Check this out from O’Shaugnessy:
Battlefield 4 brings several vehicle customization options for you to experiment with, and this is done in a menu accessible before each round. Let’s say you want to customize the features of your main battle tanks. When picking your primary weapon you’re faced with the choice of a 120MM Armor Piercing Shell or a High Explosive Shell. The former is reasonably fast and deals a good amount of direct damage, but the latter spells heavy damage against armored targets, at the cost of a slower flight speed of the shells. As always, it’s a matter of personal taste and what kind of resistance you expect on the Battlefield.
But vehicle customization is also about camos and looking good on the Battlefield – and choosing the right camouflage for the right map environment can even be a life-saver. There are many different color sets and patterns of camo, any combination of which are available to vehicles, weapons and soldiers. The Adaptive Camo is a color pattern that is picked on a level-by-level basis, which is tweaked to match the environment of whatever level you are playing on.
So fret not, BF fans. EA and DICE have not forgotten about Battlefield 4 vehicles, they’ve just been focused on promoting everything else about the game. The entire blog post is really quite good, and it includes some images and a video, too; check it out.