If you’re looking for proof that DICE have their comedy ear-horns pointed in our direction, consider this it. Just a few months after proclaiming “no plans” for a pre-match lobby system, here the Battlefield 4 developers are talking up a comprehensive Battlelog grouping feature that goes someway beyond the equivalent Battlefield 3 players had on the consoles.
Platoons will be rolled out over the next week or two, beginning tomorrow, February 27.
Any player be invited or apply to a platoon of up to 100 members – and Battlefield 4 Premium players with a soldier rank of at least 10 can create them.
“Our goal is to make it both fun and easy for you to get organized,” write DICE. “Whether you want to discuss your past games and plan the next, or get competitive and see who your Platoon is up against, the feature will be as powerful and intuitive as possible.”
Membership means a platoon-specific custom emblem and tag, as well as the ability to earn stats for your platoon and boost its rank. Running one comes with a little more responsibility, in the form of promoting and demoting members and running private and public platoon feeds.
In a public platoon feed, anyone is allowed to leave a message; private feeds, naturally enough, are members only. Leaders will be able to leave sticky messages at the top of the feed, and members can subscribe to receive notifications of new comments.
Perhaps most interesting is the new platoon progression system: stats can only be earned when at least four players from the same platoon play together in the same round. At the game’s end, their core stats will be “either averaged or accumulated” as appropriate and added to the platoon’s total.
There’ll be 10 platoon ranks at its soft launch tomorrow, and DICE have plans for more.
Platoons will be rolled out over the next week or so, with some players getting access “slightly before others” in the interests of stability.
“It is important for us to clarify that this is the first iteration of Platoons,” say DICE. “We will continue to work on the feature to refine and expand it, but now is the time for all our players to tell us what they like, what they want improved, and what they want to see next.”
Is this comprehensive pre-match grouping as you’d like it? It has everything but cup-holders, as far as I can see.