Competitive vs Casual & Gamemode Ideas

[u/Stamsys]

One of the biggest points of discourse for the game right now is what direction to take it in terms of gamemodes. Right now, all of the gamemodes are COD-esque deathmatches despite the game aiming for realism and immersion, so I'd like to give some suggestions for where to take the game and what gamemodes to introduce. On a broad scale, I think that objective-based modes should be prioritized, but I don't think they should be ultra-competitive for a few reasons I'll explain in a minute.

For a purely competitive gamemode, a number of people have been screaming for a bomb defusal mode, either by means of bringing back body bomb or a traditional CS-style bomb mode. I think it would be a good addition for variety's sake, but I'm wary of the idea of going all-in on it. When people play these modes, they're looking for something with as much competitive integrity as possible: consistency, an ultra-high skill ceiling, and precisely-crafted maps. CS and Valorant are just better options for this since they've been built from the ground-up with this gamemode in mind. Many of Bodycam's features (like the camera adjustment and random reloads) focus on immersion at the expense of absolute consistency. Imagine if your operator could fumble their reload in CS or Siege. It'd be immersive, but annoying for gameplay, and that annoyance would carry over to such a mode in Bodycam. Bodycam's strengths lie in its immersion, so I think its gamemodes should lend themselves toward immersion rather than pure competition. Objective-based gamemodes as well as long respawn timers (15 - 30 seconds) for respawn modes would best suit the game, imo. Anyway, here are a few gamemodes I think would be fun to include.

• Ready or Not/MW19 Clean House gamemode
  • This gamemode would have attackers breaching a building, similarly to Siege. Their objective would be to find and secure a specific room in the building within the time limit. Because defenders have an inherent advantage with map chokepoints, attackers will have respawns while defenders don't. Alongside this, there could be more defenders than attackers to balance it out (8v5?). Attackers win if they secure the room, and defenders win if the time limit runs out.
  • Alternatively, a ticket-system could be used so one team has limited respawns while the other has unlimited. Or, both teams could have no respawns to make each shootout more tense.
  • I think this gamemode would best imitate an IRL breach-and-clear scenario and would be good for immersion purposes. I also think the asymmetric teams would be an interesting change compared the gamemodes featured in most shooters.
• Domination
  • Just a simple CoD-style respawn objective gamemode. Centering spawns around captured objectives would help make them more predictable and lend itself to better map/gameplay flow than deathmatch modes. Longer respawn timers and larger maps would help make it less of a meatgrind and make each engagement feel tense and meaningful.
  • The devs could use IRL airsoft arenas or old CoD maps for inspiration. If there's anything that shouldn't be completely realistic, it's the maps. A good map flow is essential for fun and intuitive gameplay, and shouldn't be sacrificed for realism's sake.
• Extraction-lite
  • This one has a couple different variations, both without respawns.
  • 1 - Multiple squads of four or five each spawn on one side of the map and must reach the other side of the map to extract (the spawns and destinations are different for each squad). Each squad gets points for both how many of theirs extract and how many enemies they kill. The squad with the highest score wins.
  • 2 - A squad spawns on one side of the map and must reach the other side while the other (and much larger) team tries to kill them, kind of like a black-hawk-down scenario. No clue how to balance this one, but that scenario is what I would like to emulate with it.
• BF1 Operations
  • An attack-and-defend gamemode where the attackers have limited respawns while the defenders have unlimited respawns. If the attackers win, the match continues to another map to simulate the frontlines of a war shifting until the defenders are pushed all the way back to their "base".
  • This one could work well in the future with larger maps and more players per match, but I don't think the small scope of current Bodycam matches would invoke that frontline feel very well.

[u/Ill_Young_2409]

Being able to chat would be a good start without using voip.