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Battlefield 5 has a hidden catch-up mechanic in Conquest which DICE will nerf, and fix bomber spawns

In the days since the early access launch of Battlefield 5, players have discovered some abnormalities in flag capture speed in Conquest.

While this was initially dismissed as a placebo by most, some Battlefield 5 players insisted that there's a hidden catch-up mechanic in Conquest that gives the losing team a chance at a comeback.

This initially kicked off when players on Reddit noted a higher than usual ratio of close games in Conquest. Battlefield 5 brings back classic, majority flag rules. Together with its improved matchmaking, players just assumed the two have been working well together to create evenly-matched battles every time.

DICE later confirmed that Conquest does indeed feature a comeback mechanic that shortens flag capture times for the losing team when the score reaches a certain threshold. This is similar to getting reinforced with a Behemoth in Battlefield 1, only the effect is much more subtle.

In repose, the developer said that it'll be toning down the boost.

"We are balancing the mechanics and improving them to have no effect in these matches that are ending in close rounds, but only affecting the matches in which one team is being fully run over – as these are the ones we intended to make more interesting for both teams with the system," DICE wrote.

This change will be made in "an upcoming update", though it's not clear how long players will have to wait. One other balance issue players have been talking about since day one is plane deployment at the start of a match.

Cover image for YouTube video

In Battlefield 5, players present at the start of a round all start out at their team's spawn. They're only able to move when the start countdown timer ends, but planes do not currently have the same restriction. This means any pilot can easily reach the other team's spawn by the time the countdown ends, earning them dozen or so free kills.

This is especially true for bombers, particularly ones with upgraded payloads. To fix this, DICE will be delaying the spawn of airplanes until players have moved out of the spawn area.

Speaking of planes, an upcoming patch will also be making a few other balance adjustments. Supply stations for planes will be moved away from the infantry play space to allow pilots to freely resupply. In addition, as it currently stands, these supply stations resupply planes instantly.

In the beta, pilots had to reload the freshly received armaments, which gave infantry a bit of a break between bombing runs. This reload timer is coming back now that DICE knows the resupply trips are little too short. As far as balance vs flak cannons, DICE will be upping their damage against bombers slightly.

Bombers will continue to take reduced flak damage compared to fighters, but the effect will be lessened. Once again, these air combat changes do not yet have a release target.

It's possible some of these fixes are included in the day one update, which went live today. Until we see the change log, however, we can't say for sure.

Earlier this week, DICE also revealed that it's also working on making the UI more intuitive to use, taking away some of the unnecessary clicks to perform simple tasks.

Battlefield 5 is out November 20 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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Sherif Saed

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Sherif (he/him) is VG247’s go-to shooter and Souls-likes person. Whether it’s news, reviews, or op-eds – Sherif is always eager to tell you about video games. He's one of VG247's most veteran writers, with 10+ years experience on the site.

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