Battlefield 6 fans are sharing plenty of feedback–both good and bad–following the game’s first open-beta weekend, and one recurring theme has seen players requesting a BF6 server browser with persistent servers. Producer David Sirland has responded to fans on social media, explaining exactly why DICE only has a server brower for Portal mode.
In response to a player asking for a way to matchmake with larger groups of players, without having to rejoin after every game, Sirland said that the Portal server browser “is basically enabling that.” While Portal’s main selling points are user-created game modes and custom experiences, Sirland says that the mode still fulfills the main function of a server browser, even if players may have to filter out the verified servers from the custom experiences.
“The combination of the pool of the persistent servers and the spun-up ones is not very useful,” Sirland explains. “Matchmaking servers spin up in seconds (get filled with players), and spin down after game is over. That couple of seconds plus when servers lose a lot of players mid-game is the only time you can join, which makes it a tricky combination (and full of queuing to join issues).”
“We think the current setup gives us the best of both worlds, as you can choose to go spin up a server through regular matchmaking, or find an existing server that is already running, or create your own as well,” Sirland says of the decision to limit the server browser to Portal mode. He adds that DICE will be testing the browser soon, allowing players to check out the new system for themselves.
In another reply, Sirland explains the lack of persistent servers in standard matchmaking, explaining that the current system allows for a lot more flexibility between maps and game modes–which means shorter waits for matchmaking.
“That is to allow for playlists of varying size (max players) and modes,” Sirland says. “For example, you can play the ‘Yellow maps’ playlist that contains Siege of Cairo and Iberian Offensive (any mode). Then let’s say I picked the playlist called ‘Domination Bonanza,’ which includes all three open-beta maps. We can play together when our respective playlists overlap. As in when your “yellow map” plays Domination, for example. That way we pack servers much more effectively and can allow for more modes and max sizes to coexist in the same playlists.
“Stuff like Rush, that for some maps play 48 players, for others 32 players, and for some 64 players, we want to be able to put in playlists too,” Sirland continues. “This is not possible in the old system of persistent servers as the max-players count is locked (or we’d have to kick players, for example).”
Sirland hasn’t specified when players will be able to test the Portal browser for themselves, but the next round of the BF6 open beta is due to kick off very soon on August 14. To check out the second leg of the beta for yourself, our Battlefield 6 open beta breakdown has all the info you need to get started.
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