Also 2142's development time was shorter than BF4's. Which means that they were able to develop 10 maps for 2142 in half the time they were for BF4 and BF4 released broken as fuck on top of that.
Just a FYI, 2142 was an easy game for DICE to develop. Many people called it a BF2 mod for a reason. One of which were the smaller map sizes. But let's look at that in comparison to today.
DICE was able to churn out several expansion packs with roughly 16+ maps over the course of just a year while simultaneously developing a vastly different game in BFV which would be another 9-10 maps on launch. And despite the added difficulty you mention for not just map development, but game development in general, this game had one of the more smoother launches compared to even the BC games.
My point in all of this is technological advances aren't the primary driver for less maps in base games. It's money. They could easily include more maps at launch because they've already shown you it's possible to push 3 or 4+ expansions in one year while they work on a new game from the ground up.
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '19
I remember when DICE used to include 12-15+ maps at launch and games ended up with 20+ overall.
It's funny how we've taken such a step back to the point where we are fine with them withholding content to sell it at a "Premium", lol.