At a preview event ahead of EA Play Live, developer Ripple Effect detailed so much of what Battlefield Builder is. For starters, Builder is available for free to anyone on the web. It works in any web browser, and gives you access to a wide set of tools to create game modes and modify rules as you like. You can save your creation for later, share it with others using a share code, or publish it on live Battlefield 2042 servers (though obviously you need to own the game to play).
Dedicated servers will be used for all community creations, and Ripple Effect confirmed to VG247 that you won’t have to pay for server hosting, no matter how big or small your experience is. So long as someone is playing, the server will remain online. The experiences you create can also be made private (solo or co-op), or password-protected.
Before we get into what Builder is, let’s quickly go over what it is not. For all of its expansive options, Battlefield Builder does not currently let you create maps, or modify existing maps. This is something Ripple Effect told us is being looked at, but nothing to confirm there just yet.
Builder has access to all the content and rules from Battlefield 2042, alongside select content from three classic games: Battlefield 1942, Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3. Factions from those games, alongside weapons, attachments, gadgets and soldier kits will return. Ripple Effect is also bringing back two maps from each of those games: BF1942’s Battle of the Bulge and El Alamein, BC2’s Arica Harbor and Valparaiso, and BF3’s Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals.
The maps have been completely rebuilt in the latest version of Frostbite, but all of their existing quirks are intact. But the remasters also allow for things not possible in those games, such as the addition of destruction to BF1942’s maps. You can expect these maps to support Battlefield 2042’s massive weather events, too, and really anything you can do on vanilla BF2042 maps.
