News

Battlefield 5 Chapter 2: Lightning Strikes releases February 17th, full patch release notes revealed

48 Comments

Electronic Arts and DICE have announced that Battlefield 5 Chapter 2: Lightning Strikes will release on February 17th and have revealed the full release notes of this upcoming patch. According to the release notes, this patch will add a new Squad Conquest mode which is described as an intense version of Conquest that enables more tactical gameplay between two teams of 16 players on the Arras, Rotterdam, and Hamada maps.

Moreover, the team will be adding four new weapons which can be unlocked with the Weekly Challenges that will be made available during Chapter 2: Lightning Strikes, has made several changes and fixes based upon the feedback from the Battlefield community and that later this month it will bring back the Rush mode that was featured in the previous Battlefield games, as well as a new Grand Operation and more.

DICE has also implemented some Time to Death and Death Experience fixes. For example, the name of the enemy that has killed a player is now shown in the game world when the player has died, improve the death experience with the addition of a camera that now follows and zooms towards the killer. This will allow players to understand what killed them and the position of the killer, improves accuracy of the visual representation of incoming bullets for other players, fixes an issue with the UI directional damage indicator that delayed the indication of damage to the victim and makes tweaks to the UI directional damage indicator to more accurately point towards the enemy damaging the player.

As said, the first 2019 update for Battlefield 5 will go live on February 17th and you can find below its complete changelog.

Battlefield 5 Chapter 2: Lightning Strikes Release Notes

New Content

New Mode: Squad Conquest:
Squad Conquest is a tighter and more intense version of Conquest, where two squads per team battle it out over smaller, more tactical layouts of three existing maps: Arras, Hamada, and Rotterdam. These maps all feature 16 players on two teams, three flags, spawning restricted to HQs, and limited access to vehicles. A core belief behind Squad Conquest is a restricted number of variables to allow strategy to be able to exist – you have to be able to predict player behavior and patterns, which is reflected in all three map layouts. Clear lanes and conservative combat areas allow players to predict where enemies are coming from, where they need to defend, and how to subvert enemy movement.

New Weapons:
These are some of the weapons that will be obtainable through the weekly Challenges in January and February:

  • ZK-383 (SMG)
  • Modele 1944 (SA)
  • M1922 (MMG)

Top Issue Fixes and Changes

Time to Death and Death Experience Fixes

  • The name of the enemy that has killed a player is now shown in the game world when the player has died. This highlights the killer and helps players understand who killed them and from where, especially in crowded situations.
  • Improved the death experience with the addition of a camera that now follows and zooms towards the killer. This will allow players to understand what killed them and the position of the killer.
  • Improved accuracy of the visual representation of incoming bullets for other players. Tracers should now properly appear to consistently appear from the shooter, and should be clearer when the victim is looking directly at the shooter.
  • Fixed an issue with the UI directional damage indicator that delayed the indication of damage to the victim.
  • Made tweaks to the UI directional damage indicator to more accurately point towards the enemy damaging the player.

Soldier Fixes and Tweaks
Vault

  • Improved vaulting so that it no longer incorrectly triggers against steep hills and slopes.
  • Improved vaulting detection when trying to vault through a window that’s already broken. This will make vaulting in those cases less sensitive to tight attack angles
  • Fixed an issue where players would pick up a weapon while reviving on console.
  • Fixed an issue where the camera would clip through the soldier while in the man down state when the player had set a very high FOV.
  • Improved the camera behavior when a player revives a downed player very quickly.

Animation

  • Improved soldier ragdoll behaviors and made them more granular when killed in different poses (stand, crouch, prone) and based on the impulse of explosions.
  • Soldiers killed by explosions will now blend nicely into full ragdoll when they land rather than snapping to a specific ragdoll position when landing.
  • Players will no longer get a strange arm pose when melee hitting an enemy three times in a row and then switching to the Fortification tool.
  • Fixed an issue where the ammo self-supply animation could get stuck and play indefinitely.

Miscellaneous

  • The Heavy Weapons trait is no longer as powerful on AA guns which previously would result in them having almost no overheat while firing.
  • Improved sliding activation consistency from double-tap by reducing the impact of turning while sprinting.
  • General improvements to the detection of auto-peek over and auto-lean.

Prone

  • Increased the horizontal free aiming angle when prone by 40°.

Vehicles
Gameplay

  • Halftracks now take more and more consistent damage, making them easier to destroy.
  • Fixed an issue where the Stuka quick repair did not resupply when flying through a resupply point.
  • Increased the damage of the Stuka BK37 cannons against all targets, while also reducing the splash range. Accurate shots versus vehicles and infantry will be greatly rewarded, but inaccurate fire will still suffer significantly reduced damage. These are intended as precision-strafing weapons, and should be powerful on single targets but weak on area targets.
  • The damage caused by the Mine Clearing Line Charge Specialization will register in the kill log and in the kill cam as well. Also, friendly players are no longer affected by the damage of the Mine Clearing Line Charge.
  • Fixed so that all tank cannons one-hit kill all types of airplanes, even those equipped with Specializations that reduce damage from Flak.
  • Increased the ammo capacity of all airplane cannons from 150 rounds to 200 rounds. The previous reduction caused players to return to reload more frequently than intended.
  • Standardized an unintended imbalance between the coaxial and port firing vehicle machine guns. Overall this is a big buff to German machine guns, and a small buff to British ones. Some British machine guns were doing too much damage over all, and
    some German machine guns were doing too little. The close range damage of the German guns has been increased to match the British guns, and the long range damage of the British guns has been reduced to match the German guns. As a balancing factor, the range of all of these machine guns has been increased, so
    players should not see a reduced effectiveness in the British machine guns, and should experience an increased effectiveness of the German machine guns.
  • Reduced the damage reduction of explosions on players in prone. Players were previously resisting up to 25% of an explosion when prone, which was only intended in a few edge cases. This was fundamentally breaking the intended damage of tank shells, as players could absorb too much damage. The damage of explosions is otherwise is unchanged.
  • Reduced reload time of rockets to 15 seconds (was previously 30 seconds).
  • Reduced reload time of bombs to 20 seconds (was previously 30 seconds).

Visual and Audio

  • Resupply Station locations for vehicles are now pinned to the edge of the screen when ammo resupply is available, in order to help players find these resources. These icons scale in size and transparency the further a player is from the resources
    to prevent icon clutter.
  • Fixed a bug which would make vehicle paint jobs look less detailed compared to how they look in the customization menu.
  • The Stuka siren has been made louder.
  • Improved audio mix on planes to have more noticable propeller sound and less engine sound.
  • Improved the graphics on the wheel compartment of the Blenheim MkI.
  • When spawning into a top gunner seat, players are now holding the machine gun properly.
  • Fixed the third-person animation when entering the Churchill Mk VII Tank so it aligns better.
  • Third-person animations should now play properly when using the backseat in the Kettenkrad.

Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where players using higher sensitivity options could be counted as being out of bounds while in a top gunner seat while actually being within bounds.
  • Players should no longer fall under the map when spawning into a vehicle that managed to get destroyed right before the spawn.

Weapons, Gadgets, and Specializations Gameplay

  • Removed the Extended Magazine Specialization for the M1907 SF and made the extended magazine equipped by default. Recoil Buffer has been added as a replacement. This weapon’s Specializations will be reset and the means for unlocking
    them will be refunded. The M1907 SF was not useful enough without the extended magazine upgrade, making the hipfire upgrades a bad choice.
  • Decreased the effectiveness of the Ported Barrel Specialization on the M1928A1 to better balance the weapon in the SMG class. The upgrade was a bit too strong, leading to a slightly too controllable weapon.
  • Reduced the base deploy time of the StG 44 to 0.80 seconds from 0.85 seconds to better align with the animation. This was not in line with other assault rifles. You can shoot a bit sooner after switching to this weapon now.
  • Enabled semi-automatic fire for the M1928A1 which was previously missing.
  • Increased Suomi Kp/-31 reload speed when not using extended magazines. Reload times are now 2.3 seconds (previously 2.5 seconds) tactical and 3.45 seconds (previously 3.75 seconds) empty. The base reload was a bit too slow for the small
    magazine, making the extended magazine upgrade too important.
  • Fixed an issue where some weapons were inaccurate for too long when going from sprinting to firing when aiming down the sights (ADS). Some weapons did not reach full accuracy when fully zoomed in when transitioning from sprinting to ADS, leading
    to unexpectedly high recoil when firing. This was most noticeable on SMGs.
  • Fixed an issue where SMGs and weapons with the Enhanced Grips and Slings and Swivels Specializations remained inaccurate when going from sprinting to firing in hipfire. SMGs and weapons with these upgrades did not recover accuracy quickly enough
    when going from sprinting to firing in hipfire, reducing the intended mobility advantage they should have.
  • Made tweaks to SMG weapon positions in hip fire when firing and strafing to prevent the weapon from covering the crosshair.
  • The Panzerfaust no longer has a long delay before being able to fire after switching to the weapon.
  • Fixed so that the Panzerfaust one-hit kills all types of airplanes, even when equipped with Specializations that reduce damage from Flak.
  • Reduced the damage of the Panzerfaust. The Panzerfaust is very easy to use, and widely equipped. As a fast fire-and-forget weapon, its damage payoff was still too good against all types of armor. The damage is still high enough, even against a
    heavy tank, that a smart player can utilize a dedicated anti-tank loadout to defeat the enemy using skill and tactics.
  • Increased Throwing Knives max damage range to 10m from 6.5m.
  • Reduced the delay between two consecutive Throwing Knives throws by 40%.
  • Adjusted parameters for explosive damage when behind cover so that players behind cover properly receive reduced damage when cover is destroyed.
  • Adjusted damage multipliers for grenades and Panzerfaust versus various barricades so that multiple grenades are required to tear down a sandbag Fortification.
  • The RSC now reloads with the correct amount of bullets even if there’s already a bullet in the chamber.
  • If the player revives a friendly while reloading, the reload will now properly get interrupted instead of completing it during the revive animation.

Visual

  • Fixed the sling swivel so it no longer floats below the MP28.
  • Fixed clipping weapon when firing the M1928A1 with some iron sights.
  • Enemies firing no longer have their heads moved backwards while firing, which could cause unpredictable head movements when players tried to land headshots.
  • Improved the trajectory of supply pouches when thrown towards players.
  • Aligned the optics for the Lattey sights while in ADS using the M1897.
  • Fixed an issue where the hand pose would break when switching the primary weapon and the Ruby pistol.

Scope Glint

  • Adjusted the size and intensity of the glints for medium powered scope and high powered scopes. Medium powered scope glints are now smaller and less intense than high powered ones.
  • Pushed the visible distance for scope glints a bit further. They will now start being visible from longer distances (both Medium and High).
  • Scope Glint for medium scope visibility falls off over longer distances.

Fixes

  • The interaction prompt now properly appears when looking at a Spawn Beacon if it can be picked up.
  • Fixed a bug where players were unable to switch to their secondary weapon when having the M30 Drilling Equipped while using rifle mode.

Damage

  • Reduced the minimum damage of the Gewehr 43 and Selbstlader 1916 to 33.5 from 35.
  • Increased the damage for the Mk VI Revolver. Two-hit kill range is now 12 m (previously 7 m), three-hit kill range is 30 m (previously 12 m), four-hit kill range is 50 m (previously 30 m). Minimum damage is now 22 instead of 15. Damage dropped too steeply for the rate of fire and magazine capacity of this weapon.

Handling

  • Buffs to SMGs in this update are aimed at improving the mid-range combat ability of the Medic class. Reductions in recoil and increases to accuracy will allow the SMG user to maintain damage on target and increase their effectiveness over all.
  • Improved SMG sustained fire when hip firing.
  • Reduced SMG base dispersion to 0.15 from 0.2. This makes SMGs feel a bit more controllable and enables the low rate of fire SMGs to be reasonably effective at medium range without having to get accuracy upgrades.
  • Reduced Suomi Kp/-31 vertical recoil to 0.76 from 0.8.
  • Reduced Suomi Kp/-31 horizontal recoil to 0.93 from 0.95. The Suomi was a bit too hard to control compared to the M1928A1.
  • Reduced EMP recoil pattern strength to make firing single shots less awkward. Single shots were heavily biased to go sideways, making them awkward to use compared to other weapons.
  • Increased M1A1 vertical recoil to 0.6 from 0.55. This weapon was outperforming other weapons at intended ranges and will now be more difficult to land multiple shots on target at longer range.
  • Increased M1907 SF vertical recoil to 0.82 from 0.68. This weapon was outperforming other weapons at intended ranges and will now be more difficult to land multiple shots on target at longer range.
  • Reduced the vertical recoil reduction when crouching to 25% from 30% and when prone to 40% (previously 50%).
  • The vertical recoil reduction when crouching or prone no longer stacks with the reduction from using a bipod. This was inadvertently making bipods inconsistent, making fire patterns with bipods difficult to learn since they were different in each
    stance. Stance changes reduced recoil too much, especially when combined with a bipod, which virtually removed all handling difference when prone. This affects MMGs when prone most noticeably.

Maps and Modes

  • Final Stand: players are no longer able to skip revive in this mode.
  • Breakthrough on Rotterdam: removed an out of bounds spawn for the defenders near the A flag.
  • Panzerstorm: fixed an issue where there would be lamps floating in the air after the building they were in was destroyed.
  • Final Stand: fixed the black deploy screen.
  • Airplanes no longer take damage when taking off from the landing strip on the Practice Range.
  • Fixed an issue where the gamepad vibrations would not work on Grand Operations.
  • On Aerodrome, the Fortification sandbags will no longer block the view of the stationary weapon near the airplane hangar.
  • Fixed the floating Flak 39 on Panzerstorm.
  • Fixed a piece of barbed wire that was seemingly invisible on Devastation near Flag A while playing Conquest.
  • Improved the railing on Rotterdam near the canals so they are easier to vault over.
  • Fires on levels no longer cause unintentional lens flare effects.
  • Decreased the intensity of the white environmental smoke on Devastation.

UI/HUD/Options

  • The Distinguished Defender’s Cross ribbon is no longer awarded multiple times upon completion.
  • Players are now able to scroll through the map list from the server info screen ingame.
  • Added the missing M24 grenade icon on the statistics screen.
  • Fixed an issue where the “enter vehicle” prompt could be visible while in parrot camera view.
  • Fixed a bug where squad orders were delayed for top gunners in tanks.
  • Added the missing image for Panzerstorm in the Advanced Search menu.
  • Rarity of vehicle skins is now shown in the Vehicle Customization screen.
  • Special Assignment icons should now always be visible on all challenges.
  • Fixed an issue which could result in the bleed out functionality not always working.
  • Added a Zoom Transition Sensitivity Smoothing option (this is off by default). When enabled, this option allows players to smooth out the sensitivity transition when aiming down sight instead of instantly transitioning to the zoomed sensitivity. This option only affects legacy aiming users as it’s already automatically enabled when using Uniform Soldier Aiming.
  • Fixed an issue where the killcard would not be visible if the player gets revived too quickly after getting killed.
  • Made various text fixes.

Audio

  • Voiceovers are now played when notifying players in the man down state that you are coming to revive them.
  • Footstep audio has been improved making walking and sprinting louder for a better gameplay experience, while crouching and crawling generates less sound to enable sneaking and stealth gameplay.
  • Fixed an issue where the disabled sound for planes would keep playing after repairing.
  • Improved footstep sounds based upon what type of physics material the player is stepping on, on both Arras and Twisted Steel.
  • Fixed an issue which could result in the “kill confirmed” audio confirmation to not play at the correct moment.

Stability

  • Made multiple crash fixes and general stability improvements.

PC Specific Improvements

  • Increased the density of the fields on Arras when playing on lower settings, to not give a visual advantage to those playing on low-spec PCs.