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Destruction 2

Destruction 2.0 Kill icon.

Destruction is a feature in the Battlefield series debuting with Battlefield 1942, but appearing to a much greater extent in the games utilizing the Frostbite Engine. It allows the player to break down cover, fell trees, and destroy buildings. From Destruction 2.0 onward, some buildings will entirely collapse after a certain amount of damage is executed.

Overview

Destruction is a feature which allows many types of items to be destroyed. Several selected items will be able to sustain damage to ensure stability and balance for every match.

Pre-Frostbite Engine

Pre-FB destruction

An example of destruction in Battlefield 2.

Before the Frostbite engine was developed for Battlefield: Bad Company, there was a far more limited amount of destruction found in the Refractor engine games such as Battlefield 2 or 1942. Certain obstacles and objects such as bridges can be destroyed by explosions.


Destruction 1.0

BFBC DESTRUCTION

A demonstration of destruction in Battlefield: Bad Company.

Destruction 1.0 debuted with Battlefield: Bad Company utilizing Frostbite 1.0. With it, segments of buildings could be obliterated, parts of vehicle body-work could be chipped away, trees could be felled, and the ground could be reshaped by explosions. The Destruction 1.0 mechanic introduced selective destruction, where only certain weapons or objects could cause damage - for instance, a Cobra 4WD couldn't run over a tree, whereas a Black Eagle battle tank could. This limited the amount of destruction that could be caused by certain players in certain scenarios.

By creating the Destruction 1.0 mechanic fully with the Frostbite Engine in mind, the DICE developers were able to combine the Destruction 1.0, the dynamic lighting and sound mechanics to create a "sandbox world", where the destruction caused by the player(s) would cause the lighting and sound to change with the removal of walls, fences and trees.


Destruction 2.0

Destruction 2.0 arrived with the release of Battlefield 1943. The mechanism gained the sole improvement of being capable of destroying entire buildings, though lacking any form of collapsing.

BFBC2 House collapsing destruction

An example of a house collapsing in Battlefield: Bad Company 2

With Battlefield: Bad Company 2, an even further enhanced version of Destruction was developed. When enough segments (walls) are destroyed, the entire building will collapse, crushing everything inside. When the building collapses, all roof segments will disappear; all wall segments except some on ground floor level will disappear as well, although it is not yet known what causes some wall segments to still be left standing. This allows Destruction to kill opponents and destroy enemy objectives. Once a building has been destroyed, players are able to navigate within the rubble by crouching or jumping through small paths formed by the debris. The collapsing building has a hitbox which kills any opponents which go inside; this hitbox goes numerous feet around the building; almost like an invisible perimeter fence.

Destruction

Image from Den's original post.

"A building is a group of entities linked together. The entities are a bunch of wall and roof segments. Destroy a part, the wall disappears behind a smoke particle and is replaced by a hole. When a percentage of the walls are destroyed, the building plays its collapse animation. There's little else to it. For example, the building behind the first MCOM on Port Valdez. Break about 26 of those parts, and the thing goes down."

— Den Kirson [1]

BFBC2 Destruction HUD ICON

Additionally, Destruction 2.0 allowed pieces of the environment such as concrete barricades, walls, archer towers, and wooden fences, to be destroyed in pieces, rather than entire entities.

Some buildings don't incorporate Destruction 2.0; for example: the aircraft hangars and green-coloured sleeping quarter buildings in No One Gets Left Behind.

Alongside all of the new aspects, Destruction 2.0 retains the same features from the original Destruction; one can chip away cover and parts of vehicles, fell trees, and reshape the terrain.


Destruction 3.0

BF3 Not Built To Last

An example of Destruction 3.0 in Battlefield 3.

Destruction 3.0 is a feature in Battlefield 3. Destruction 3.0 allows players to destroy objects with explosives like before, although, regular firearms such as the M4A1 can demolish on a much smaller scale. This new form of destruction is known as "micro-destruction". Certain buildings can also collapse if they receive enough damage. Falling pieces of rubble and collapsing buildings can potentially kill a player.

Unlike the Bad Company series, not all structures in Battlefield 3 can be damaged. Stairwells in certain concrete buildings and the cores of many buildings will resist total destruction for the sake of maintaining gameplay.

In the Back to Karkand DLC, many more structures can be demolished. The patch coinciding with the DLC also allowed for more destruction in the original multiplayer maps.

The Close Quarters DLC enhanced the 'micro destruction' capabilities of Destruction 3.0 by enhancing the destructive effect of bullets. This meant that regular firearms such as the M4A1 could destroy furniture, chip poles and demolish walls.

Though map-changing Destruction features were formally introduced in Battlefield 4, some major dynamic events occur in certain maps:

Caspian Border
Towards the end of a Conquest match, an artillery strike targets the anchors for the radio tower, causing it to fall across open field towards the main checkpoint. (This was originally meant to be a player-initiated event.)
Three other towers on the map can be brought down by player means including: the water at the gas station, the radio tower at Hilltop, and the radio tower in front of the Russian Deployment
Operation Métro
Upon clearing the first stage of a Rush match, an airstrike will expose the subway tunnels underneath the park, allowing U.S. forces to infiltrate the Métro.
Strike At Karkand
An F/A-18E Super Hornet will come from the American deployment into the city, launching a missile at the hotel. This will cause some debris to fall from the top of the tower and permanently scar the building. The falling debris does not damage players if they are under it in time.
Epicenter
A tremor will occur every once an awhile, shaking every players screen violently and drastically reducing accuracy
Kiasar Railroad
A water tower on the map can be brought down

Levolution

Levolution Soldier Environments

Features of Levolution.

Levolution is a feature in Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline. It was originally known as Timeline with the concept that game changing events would occur based on a timer. This soon changed to allow players to dramatically change the environment and gameplay on maps through player actions and the new name reflected on that.[2]

Levolution ranges from raising bollards, setting off car alarms, and cutting power to bringing down entire buildings, destroying ceilings of underground areas, and destroying a dam to consequently flood the map.

Certain destructible buildings now collapse in ways that allow limited travel through them, as floors retain strength and create crawlspaces and hiding areas for infantry.

On the Xbox 360 version (at least) of Hardline, much of the smaller scale destruction cannot happen. However, Levolution events can still occur.

Main Levolution Events of Battlefield 4

Main article: Levolution/Battlefield 4


Main Levolution Events of Battlefield Hardline

Main article: Levolution/Battlefield Hardline


Trivia

General

  • If a player has deployed C4 in a building while it is collapsing, it may explode while the walls cave-in, creating a shower of debris that can be an effective smokescreen.
  • Several lightweight objects, such as corrugated iron and boxes, will not be destroyed by explosives, and will merely be pushed away by the detonation.
  • In all Frostbite-powered games, furniture can be destroyed by pushing it into other objects.

Battlefield: Bad Company

  • If the player knifes a tree three times, it will collapse.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

  • If a player is crushed in a collapsing building, the kill feed will state their death was caused by "Destruction 2.0".
  • The player responsible for causing the building to collapse will have points deducted for killing teammates and destroying their own team's objective. Destruction 2.0 is the only way to teamkill in a non-hardcore match (-100 points per team kill and -250 points for destroying own team's objective.
  • The destruction of watchtowers works differently than with buildings. If a player is underneath, their death will be attributed to "Destruction 2.0," but if they are on top of the watchtower they will fall, and their death will be attributed to "suicide" (and award no points/kills to the person who caused the demolition).
  • Players will be killed even if they are on the roof of a collapsing building. In addition, players can be crushed even if no visible debris has fallen on them, such as if they stand too close to a collapsing building. Even jumping a split-second before the building plays the proper collapse sequence will generally still kill the player.
  • Laguna Presa is the only map in which a player cannot kill with Destruction 2.0. The map lacks any structures that can be collapsed. Valparaiso has nearly the same attribute, however, there is a large building near the end of the Relay Station which can be destroyed.
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam is devoid of the enhanced Destruction 2.0 as seen in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Instead, it uses the same kind of destruction as Battlefield 1943.
  • In Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, on Phu Bai Valley, it is possible to kill enemies with Destruction 2.0 by making the watch towers on the US Base collapse through destruction.

Battlefield 3

  • If a player gets killed by a building collapsing on them in Battlefield 3, "Destruction 3.0" is not listed on the killfeed, but instead says "KILLED".
  • If a player kills an enemy with falling debris in Battlefield 3 the weapon used to cause the debris will be shown in the killfeed.

Battlefield 4

  • Players killed by Destruction may simply be shown as "Killed in Action".
  • In a nod to BF:BC2, one of the Rush objectives in Zavod 311 is held inside a partially collapsed building.
  • All players who are inside or very close to a Levolution-affected building will be instantly killed about a moment before the structure collapses. (Example: the guard tower on Operation "Locker")

References

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