DICE has been looking at ways of improving the multiplayer experience in Battlefield 1, and now it seems like they have found a way with their new "Premium Friends" system.
There is one specific area that the developers at DICE have kept their eyes on, explained Producer Andreas Skoglund, and that area is the potential friction that can arise when friends who haven't bought the Premium Pass are playing with friends who has bought it. Similarly to what Ubisoft did with What Dogs 2, DICE has in an effort to lower the friction between friends, and to keep all maps populated, to try out their new Premium Friends system.
Premium Friends is a feature that works like this: when inviting a player who has the Premium Pass, or a certain DLC, the whole party becomes "premium enabled" and will allow the whole party to play on all maps, even if they haven't bought the Premium Pass. Access to DLC maps will remain as long as the party remains "premium enabled", or in layman's terms, when the Premium Pass owner leaves the rest of the party won't be able to play premium maps anymore.
While this will allow most players to try out the new maps there are some restrictions.
- Only Premium Pass or DLC owners will earn XP from expansion exclusive maps. XP earned while playing on those maps will be saved and granted retroactively should the player purchase the Premium Pass or DLC for themselves.
- Only Premium Pass or DLC owners will be able to spawn with weapons or vehicles unique for the expansion.
- Only Premium Pass or DLC owners will track progress towards unique medals and codexes for the expansion.
There it is, Premium Friends. This feature will launch for a test period as a part of DICE's 25th anniversary "Battlefest" and will, as of now, only be applicable for Battlefield 1. This is the perfect time for players to try out the new maps in newly released "They Shall Not Pass".
Seems like DICE is following in the footsteps of its Swedish developer brothers, developers such as Fatshark and Paradox Interactive are already allowing DLC owners to invite their friends to play the DLC content with them. May this be the future of multiplayer DLC.
