Battlefield 2042 still has issues with the precision of its assault rifles, but another problem might offset this again. Because of generously sized hitboxes, you hit even when you actually barely miss.
What are hitboxes? The term hitbox refers in shooters and similar games to the area of a character that is declared as the “hit zone” by the system. If the hitbox is hit by a weapon, projectile, or damage effect, damage is inflicted on the character.
Whether an attack hits and inflicts damage or puffs harmlessly into the environment depends on whether the hitbox was hit. In some cases, the hitbox coincides with the model of a character in the game world.
In Battlefield 2042, however, the hitbox deviates significantly from the model.
Generous hitboxes please players
What is the problem with the hitboxes? In Battlefield 2042, a few players have taken the effort to test the hitboxes. It was noted that for the specialist Falck, hits were registered even when shots barely missed her head and limbs.
What do the players say? This was quickly commented on, and some players did not see it as a big problem. Because apparently, the hitboxes in Battlefield 2042 are of standard size, so that rather slender figures, like the Falck shown in the video, do not have an advantage over burly guys like Boris.
Games that actually adjust the hitboxes to the actual proportions of the characters do indeed have balancing issues. This was the case, for example, in Apex Legends, where for a while the size difference was offset with a buff for larger characters and a health penalty for slender figures. The reddit user TribalPotato9 explains:
“This is what hitboxes look like in most shooters. Perfect hitboxes, like in [Rainbow Six] Siege, create strange moments […] where even slight lag is enough for a clear hit not to be registered. Developers often provide slightly larger hitboxes compared to the model in faster games to eliminate network-induced misses. The hitboxes in Battlefield have always been larger than the model, it’s nothing new.”
Particularly due to features like bullet physics, it would probably be more frustrating if the hitboxes were accurate, he explains further.
If all characters use the same hitbox, it does not seem to be a problem for most. Therefore, for many players in Battlefield 2042, it is fine if you hit every specialist equally well, and in the heat of battle, such differences would hardly be noticed anyway. But the matter is ultimately not so simple.
This is still a problem: If you watch the video until the end, the target is changed and instead of Falck, Sundance is used as the target. Here, the player fully aims at the torso. Yet not a single hit is registered, even though the bullets should have clearly hit. Only when the shooter slightly pulls his rifle to the left are the hits recorded.
So there indeed seems to be a bug with the hitboxes, and players hope for a prompt improvement from the developers.
How does this benefit assault rifles? The larger hitboxes in Battlefield likely benefit all players in Battlefield 2042 who enjoy using assault rifles. Because these weapons, which are usually highly effective in all shooters, are unfortunately not very useful in the current Battlefield. They tend to miss quite a bit. Therefore, currently submachine guns are the better assault rifles in Battlefield 2042.
