Battlefield V Tides of War Chapter 4: Defying the Odds Update #5 Notes

Hi folks,

In our 4.6 update, we’re delivering fixes and improvements across the Battlefield experience, alongside big changes to the icons we use to help players gain awareness of nearby Health/Ammo/Repair opportunities, further changes to Prone Gameplay as advertised last month, and more balance changes for weapons - including a specific focus on Pistols.

We’re also pleased to say that Al Sundan will be made available on Conquest and Breakthrough shortly after the release of this update, and that with this patch we’re delivering the base files for Operation Underground in preparation for its launch in October.

This update also rectifies the display issues related to latency, fixes the issues with loot in Firestorm, and improves the responsiveness of Revives across both Battlefield V Multiplayer, and Firestorm.

Our full update notes are below - see you on the Battlefield.

Adam Freeman
Battlefield Community Manager
Twitter: @PartWelsh

What’s New?

• Al Sundan - Now Available on Conquest and Breakthrough
• New Weapons and Gadgets deploying throughout October (Trench Carbine, Madsen MG, and the Fliegerfaust)
• Changes to Range of Motion when Prone
• Balance Pass - Sidearms
• Overhauled logic and UI for Ammo/Health/Repair Requests 

What’s Changed?

Maps and Modes

• Al Sundan - Now available on Conquest and Breakthrough.
• Al Sundan - Set the default FOV to match the other MP maps. 
• Aerodrome - Added out of combat area on top of the airplane hangar.
• Arras - Fixed the floating sandbags that would remain if the players destroyed the bridge near B on Conquest. 
• Arras - Fixed some spawns that were out of bounds when playing on Breakthrough. 
• Arras - Fixed the collision of the curtains around window frames which could block bullets. 
• Devastation - Fixed an issue that would hinder the Squad Reinforcement vehicles spawning on Breakthrough. 
• Devastation - Fixed an issue that would cause a flickering graphical issue inside of the church.
• Devastation - Fixed an issue that would cause for players to get stuck in piles of wood debris. 
• Fjell 652 - Improved visibility slightly for planes during extreme weather. 
• Marita - Fixed an issue that would cause some players to spawn in the middle of the air, causing them some damage when landing on Frontlines.
• Marita - We moved the B objective from the second sector on Breakthrough since we saw a huge unbalance during this phase. Telemetry showed that attackers only had a change of getting through this sector in 30% of sessions. We hope that this change brings Marita in line with the other Breakthrough setups.
• Marita - Adjusted some spawns in CQ and Breakthrough to ensure that players do not spawn outside of the Combat Area, or too close to flags which aren’t controlled by the players Faction.
• Mercury - Players will no longer get stuck in the gap between the barbed wire and the sandbags.
• Mercury - The door interact prompt is no longer displayed when a specific door has been destroyed. 
• Operation Underground - Base files added ahead of the maps release in October.
• Rotterdam - Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause players to vault when jumping through a door opening. 
• Rotterdam - Players will no longer be able to vault on small street curbs. 
• Global - Fixed a faulty collision on the Trucks flatbed cover 
• Combined Arms - Fixed an issue where AI Soldiers would not detonate AP Mines
• Firestorm - Players can no longer fall under the map near the Minerva Docks 
• Firestorm - Fixed an issue that would make textures pop in if a dead player would switch between different players while spectating. 
• Firestorm - Improved revive interaction, ensuring that it now triggers when the interaction pops up.
• Firestorm - Revives are now more reliable. We’ve ensured that interactions will no longer be interrupted when aiming straight at the soldier.
• Firestorm - Door barge is now working smoothly, and you should find that you’re less likely to get blocked when sprinting at a door.
• Firestorm - Interactions with Doors will now take priority over interactions with nearby dropped weapons.
• Firestorm - Airplane exit velocity has been fixed. You will now exit the airplane whilst maintaining velocity, instead of dropping down.
• Firestorm - Made the non-interactable doors in the dome indestructible, as this would lead players below the intended playable area when going through them.
• Practice range - The M1907 now has the correct ammo count. 
• Spectator mode - Added “SHOW PLAYER OUTLINES” that now allows spectators to display the outlines for all players, or for a specific team, instead of only for a selected squad per team. 

Weapons

With this months update, we’re delivering further changes that focus on adjusting the behaviour of players who are firing when Prone, as well as a balance pass on Sidearms. We have increased the damage to make them more attractive gameplay options, instead of only being used as close range finishers. With the exception of the Mark VI Revolver, Pistols are now generally better options for distances beyond 12 m.

Ruby:

• Increased 4 hit kill range from 7 to 12 m
• Increased 5 hit kill range from 12 to 22 m
• Above 22m, the Ruby will require no more than 8 bullets to kill a player at Range

P08 Pistol, P38 Pistol, Repetierpistole M1912:

• Increased 4 hit kill range from 12 to 22 m
• Above 22m, these Pistols will require no more than 7 bullets to kill a player at Range

M1911:

• Increased 3 hit kill range from 7 to 12 m
• Increased 4 hit kill range from 12 to 22 m
• Above 22m, the M1911 will require no more than 7 bullets to kill a player at Range

Mk VI Revolver:

• Decreased 3 hit kill range from 30 to 22 m
• Decreased 4 hit kill range from 50 to 30 m
• Now turns into a 6 hit kill starting at 50 m

General Weapon Changes

• When bipod is deployed, the free aiming angle is now lowered to 70°, looking around will update this angle over time which will result in a slow down when looking around too quickly while bipoded (similar to prone).
• Reduced the horizontal free aiming angle when prone by 40°, this means the slowdown when turning too much will now kick-in earlier.
• Fairbairn Sykes - Added blood effects on the weapon following a takedown. 
• Gewehr 1-5 - Increased vertical recoil from 1.22 to 1.42 and reduced muzzle velocity from 620 to 580 m/s. This is to make it a bit harder to use this gun at longer distances, in order to better balance out its strength at close and medium range.
• Karabin 1938M - Reduced vertical recoil from 1.44 to 1.25. This weapon is intended to be an easier version of the Gewehr 43 at the cost of slower reloads, but so far the advantage in recoil was not quite good enough, and so we’re making this tweak to balance that out.
• Kar98K - Fixed an issue with the reload animation while being in ADS, and having the bi-pod specialization active.
• MP28 - The Jäger skin now properly shows on the extended mag.

Gadgets

• Smoke VFX used to identify friendly or enemy artillery barrage now uses custom color settings to help with colorblindness. 
• Active friendly flares now have their spotting radius visible on the minimap
• Enemy Spawn Beacons now display enemy nametags when looking directly at them inside of 8m. 
• Improved the deployment of Ammo and Health crates, which could sometimes be deployed below the ground under certain circumstances.
• Added a sound to opening and closing the lid on the ammo and the health crate
• Increased maximum throw distance of health and ammo crates when attempting to throw it further by aiming higher.
• Players will no longer be overly slowed down prior to using throwable gadgets and weapons, such as Grenades, Throwing Knives, Ammo/Bandages, and Crates. Similarly, self healing actions will no longer interrupt sprinting.
• Fixed an issue where the spotting scope would prevent sprinting when the player presses the fire button without zooming.
• Fixed a pair of issues related to stances, which were preventing soldiers from being reliably spotted when using the Spotting Scope.
• Fixed a minor flickering issue around the sides of the Aperture sights when ADS. 
• Fixed an issue where friendly and enemy spawn beacon world icons would show through any wall, and ensured that the icon will no longer disappear when within 5m of the gadget.
• Fixed an issue where the self-heal pouch indicator would remain grayed out when receiving a new pouch. 
• Fixed an issue that would not let players pick up sticky dynamite from some surfaces when attached.
• Fixed inconsistent damage between Axis Impact Grenade and Allied Impact Grenade, now both deal 65 damage within 2m. 
• Fixed an issue that caused various sounds to not play when deploying and using the ammo or health crate.
• Fixed an issue that would cause flares to do damage to players even after they had finished burning in some cases. 
• Fixed an exploit caused by flare guns and all variants of smoke grenades which caused repeating Spotting/Unspotting behaviours. This unintentionally resulted in players receiving spotting score for targets inside of smoke effects every second.

Vehicles

• The Tank weapons and abilities HUD is now properly shown without the player needing to use them or changing seats. 
• Players firing their weapons from the passenger seat should now always play its animation properly. 
• The Blenheim MK 1 no longer automatically replenishes it’s 50.cal ammunition.
• Fixed an audio issue which caused for vehicle repair sounds to be lower than expected, especially in First Person (the sound was obstructed even for the person in the vehicle).
• Fixed an issue that would cause vehicle decals to disappear at certain close distances. 
• Fixed an issue that would cause damage to free spawned unused vehicles on the map after 2 minutes.  
• Fixed a rare issue that would make some vehicles to suddenly disappear. 
• Improved revive interaction consistency when there is an elevation difference between players.
• Improved revive interaction consistency between different player stances.
• The revive interaction prompt now only shows if the revive interaction is actually possible.
• Increased the aim angle necessary to revive a friendly player to 30° from 20°.
• Decreased the aim angle necessary to pick-up a weapon on the ground to 20° from 30°.
• General consistency improvements to sliding when turning and losing speed. 
• Increased sliding activation consistency, the time allowed between two button presses to trigger a slide is now longer.
• The soldiers swimming state is now properly triggered if the players falls down into the water from a large height. 
• Fixed an issue where quick-throwing an ammo or health pouch when spotting a friendly player had a different throw angle than when pressing the gadget slot key to throw which resulted in fail throws.
• Fixed the position of the repair tools flame VFX. 
• Fixed graphical issues with the Stormchaser and Bergsteiger cosmetics. 
• Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck in man down state if revived when the timer is about to run out. 
• Fixed an issue where the player could remain stuck floating in the air, if revived on a surface that gets removed during the revive (a vehicle, a destroyed bridge etc…). 
• Fixed an issue which could cause the camera to be misplaced as players climbed ladders with certain gadgets equipped.  
• Fixed an issue that could cause players to end up in an infinite dead state without being able to redeploy. 
• Fixed an issue where the player could switch to the Syringe after reviving a player while selecting the AP Mine.
• Fixed an issue where the player could switch to the bomb after reviving a player near a Rush or Airborne objective.
• Fixed an issue where the player could end up in man down state while being alive following a successful revive. 
• Fixed an issue where the Medic’s Swift Effort trait was not providing the advertised increase to sprint speed when spotting a downed friendly. 
• Fixed an issue where minimap icons would appear when enemy players were tossing a Bandage to other soldiers. 
• Fixed an issue that caused a graphical artifact when a player using The Nachtigall headgear entered into a ragdoll state.
• Fixed an issue where the lean and peak over animation could not be seen after 50m. 
• Fixed a rare issue where hit detection could fail on soldiers changing stance (specifically when going prone)
• Fixed an issue where barging through a door while sprinting would get delayed when hitting the door
• Fixed an issue where interacting with a door would be impossible if an AP Mine, a sticky dynamite or an AT Mine is placed next to it. 
• Fixed an issue where barging through double doors would not be possible when aiming exactly between both doors
• Fixed an issue where certain animations were not correctly replicated when a player was entering the screen’s view (such as grenade throws). 
• Fixed a rare issue that would cause the players weapon to not reappear after defusing an M-COM. 
• Fixed a rare issue that would occur if a player squad spawned on a soldier that was parachuting and was already close to the ground, which would result in a fall to death. The spawning soldier will now properly get their parachute activated and land safely 

Interface and Experience Improvements

For this update, we’ve invested energy into improving the readable information displayed to you on the screen during gameplay, and looked to ensure that you’re better aware of places and players nearby that can be of support to you, or are in need of your assistance.

As a non-medic, when low on health or when requesting health (through comrose or “spotting” a friendly medic player): 

• Nearby friendly medic players show on the minimap with a blinking health icon.
• Nearby friendly health crates and health stations blink on the minimap.
• Relevant nearby health sources world icons become sticky to screen edge and show distance to the ammo source (medics, health crates, health stations). 
• Friendly medic players are easier to identify in the world, their kit icon becomes visible from further away, and the distance to them is also visible.

As a medic:

• Players that are low on health passively show a “Request health” icon in the world and minimap up to 18m away, this distance also matches the Bandage throw distance. 
• Players that request health by spotting a friendly medic or using the comrose command increase the distance visibility of that icon allowing medics to see the request up to 40m away. 

As a non-support, when low on ammo or when requesting ammo (through comrose or “spotting” a friendly support player): 

• Nearby friendly support players show on the minimap with a blinking ammo icon.
• Nearby friendly Ammo Crates and ammo stations blink on the minimap.
• Relevant nearby ammo source world icons become sticky to screen edge and show distance to the ammo source (support players, ammo crates, ammo stations). 
• Friendly support players are easier to identify in the world, their kit icon becomes visible from further away, and the distance to them is also visible.

As a support:

• Players that are low on ammo passively show a “Request ammo” icon in the world and minimap up to 18m away, this distance also matches the ammo pouch throw distance. 
• Players that request ammo by spotting a friendly support or using the comrose command increase the distance visibility of that icon allowing the Support class to see these requests up to 40m away. 

When low on Vehicle health or when requesting repairs (through comrose or “spotting” a friendly support player): 

• Nearby friendly support players show on the minimap with a blinking wrench (repair) icon.
• Relevant repair source world icons become sticky to screen edge and show distance to the repair source (support players). 
• Friendly support players are easier to identify in the world, their kit icon becomes visible from further away and is temporarily replaced with a wrench (repair) icon, the distance to them is also visible. 

As a support (owning the repair tool):

• Vehicles that are low on health passively show a “Request repairs” icon in the world and minimap up to 35m away.
• Vehicles that request repairs by spotting a friendly support or using the comrose command increase the distance visibility of that icon allowing the Support class to see these requests up to 65m away. 

Additional Improvements:

• With this update, we have fixed the issues introduced in 4.4 that was causing the latency numbers to display incorrect values on the scoreboard. Thanks for your patience whilst we restored this back to its normal working order.
• Health and Ammo Crates now show a world icon that is visible up to ~30m.
• Health and Ammo Crates are now marked on the minimap with an icon.
• Enemy Health and Ammo Crate icons are only visible if the player has line of sight on the crate.
• The player that can receive an Ammo Pouch or a Bandage will now show a contextual throw indicator.
• Aiming directly at friendly players will now be taken into account to calculate the priority pouch receiver in a case where there are multiple potential receivers (on top of looking at current player health/ammo, distance to player and requesting players).
• Added an agnostic Request Icon visible on minimap. 
• Adjusted the size and readability of the Request icon visible in the world to use more space in the circle.
• Request Icon is now more responsive, updates more often and will appear, disappear faster.
• Fixed an issue where the Request Icon would sometimes not properly stick to the edge of the screen. 
• Repair request icons now show with a wrench icon instead of a tanker icon. 
• Players using the “Request Ride” command now show with a vehicle icon instead of a tanker icon. 
• Friendly squad leaders now also show the direction in which they are looking on the minimap, represented as an arrow. 
• Fixed an issue where downed players would not be marked with an “x” icon on the minimap. 
• The “Request Ammo” world icon is no longer visible when the player is barely missing any ammo (unless a support is within 18m distance of that players AND directly looking at that player). 
• The “Request Health” world icon is no longer visible when the player is barely missing any ammo (unless a support is within 18m distance of that players AND directly looking at that player). 
• The “Request Health” world icon is now properly removed as soon as the player receives healing from a healing source. 
• Increased the visibility of friendly vehicle health bars to 50m (from 10m).
• Looking at a friendly soldiers directly over any distance will now always show the kit icon over any distance
• Default friendly soldier icon and name tag opacity while zooming is now 60% (this change will only apply to new option profiles and resets)
• Spawning for free transport vehicles have been slightly overhauled. Free vehicles will now more aggressively de-spawn, and they will automatically re-spawn regardless of player proximity. This should mean that players can now more reliably and consistently get access to free transport vehicles from their designated spawn position (often the main HQs).
• We have changed the deploy screen UI to enable better readability for free transport vehicles. There is now a 1:1 vehicle representation of free vehicles and Stationary Weapons, which allows players to make informed decisions on where they can deploy and find a free vehicle.
• Added new gameplay options for danger ping marker that allows transparency to be scaled in hip-fire, and while aiming down sight. These options are called "DANGER PING OPACITY" in the "DEFAULT ICON OPACITY" and "ADS ICON OPACITY" section under basic gameplay options. 
• Danger ping marker icon also now becomes invisible when looking directly at it to prevent the marker from blocking sight on an enemy target hidden behind the marker. The danger ping marker transparency starts scaling down when the angle between the marker and the player's aim is lower than 15°.
• Dogtags that are unlocked during gameplay are now properly shown as an awards pop up. 
• Corrected the S2-200 Proficiency VI assignment to match the description. 
• Corrected the MAB 38 Proficiency V assignment. 
• Added the Panzerbüchse 39 icon on the statistics screen.
• Friendly downed players are marked with the x icon again.
• Teamkills are no longer possible if a player destroys a vehicle that a teammate has just exited.
• Did you know that Peanutbutter and pickled cucumber sandwiches is an actual thing?!
• Fixed an issue where soldiers could sometimes not be spotted while clearly visible in certain stances.
• Fixed an issue that was making it difficult to sometimes pick up items from dead players. 
• Fixed an issue where danger ping marker would sometimes become very hard to see when aiming down sight due to being affected by objective icon opacity and friendly opacity.
• Fixed an issue where the “Request repairs” world icon would show up for any player when requesting repairs through the comrose including players that cannot repair. 
• Fixed an issue where Request Icons would show for all players that are missing any ammo or any health when looking at a player that is missing any ammo or any health. 
• Fixed an issue where the “Request repairs” world icon would never show up when the vehicle is low on health.
• Fixed an issue where the vehicle health bars would never be visible if the vehicle crew contains a squad member. 
• Fixed an issue where the spawn beacon’s health would display the health of the Spawn Beacon owner. 
• Fixed an issue where Friendly vehicle icons would become almost invisible over distances.
• Fixed an issue where friendly stationary machine guns world icons would not be occluded through walls.
• Fixed an issue where enemy stationary machine guns world icons would not be occluded through walls.
• Fixed an inconsistency on spotted enemy icons when spotted with different spotting gadgets (Flare Gun, Spotting Scope etc).
  
• Fixed an issue where the comrose or reinforcement menu would instantly close if assigned to any mouse buttons.

PC Specific Improvements

• My Company - Weapons that have a long name are now clickable on hover. 
• Fixed a crash that was caused by playing a game mode, and then switching to Firestorm while having DXR and DLSS enabled. 
• Fixed an issue with the mouse not working properly in the menus if a gamepad was connected. 

What’s being worked on for Chapter 5?

• The Pacific
• Private Games
• Further improvements to Game Performance and Stability

Our Updates may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible. For more information, please refer to EA’s Online Service Updates at https://www.ea.com/service-updates

Player feedback

As always, we value your input, and we want you to reach out to us with feedback. For general feedback, please use our Battlefield V section on the Battlefield forums or join us on the Battlefield V subreddit and Discord. 

Should you encounter any issues or bugs we recommend that you report them on our Battlefield V – Answers HQ forum. 

You can also reach out to our Battlefield Community Managers on Twitter if you have any further topics that you would like us to write about in future blog posts.

You can reach them on Twitter @PartWelsh and @Braddock512.