DICE: Battlefield 1 Airplanes Can Be Damaged by Regular Rounds

With Battlefield 1 set during World War 1, some multiplayer first-person shooter fans might have been worried that air vehicles will be more of overpowered than they were in previous franchise entries given the lack of tracer rounds, lock-on anti-vehicle weapons and the like.

At this year’s E3, PlayStation LifeStyle had the chance to chat with Battlefield 1 Lead Level Designer about all things Battlefield 1. One of the concerns we had was just that — how the balance between ground and air units was being handled. Aside from anti-air stationary weapons, Berlin also confirmed that regular rounds will now damage airplanes, though it won’t do much.

PlayStation LifeStyle: How do you keep the balance between air and ground units?

Dan Berlin: We have the anti-air, stationary weapons. So a player you can actually sit in these flak guns and just shoot at the airplanes going by. But there is a balance aspect…this time around, you can shoot regular rounds at airplanes as well. It’s not going to do a ton of damage, but when someone’s coming down for a bomb run, and [they see] the pop, pop, like they’re taking damage, you can take out the pilot with a well-placed sniper shot. We’ve seen in play tests, for example, like in Italian Alps, for example, that has a lot of elevation in it, some parts of the maps are really down low, and then you can go up in the mountainside, and get really close to the airplanes. Having those situations, where an airplane comes by really close, you take a shotgun, unload six shots into it, and that’s super cool, to see parts of the airplanes coming off. You can mess with the wings, and they won’t have good steering any more. You can have a larger impact on the airplanes on the ground.

This is most certainly good news for fans concerned that air superiority will be a big problem in Battlefield 1. Not saying it won’t be an issue, but at least ground infantry can fight back in some capacity instead of being sitting ducks like they were in Battlefield 4.

Stay tuned to the rest of our interview set to go live soon. In the meantime, make sure you check out our Battlefield 1 multiplayer hands-on right here.

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