In the previous Road to Battlefield 4 blog, they broke down their approach to tweaking and modifying the classes of Battlefield 3 for Battlefield 4. This time, Alan Kertz, Battlefield 4's Core Gameplay Designer, focuses on the game's biggest changes in Battlefield 4 - the field upgrade system: Armor, Reduced Fall, Stealth and Quick Unspot.

One of the many important aspects to any shooter game is the body armor, it's mainly responsible for keeping the player alive. The body armor in Battlefield 4 is easily comparable to the limited setups in Battlefield 2 and 2142, more specifically, expect better chest protection for closeup action. For example, snipers can’t 1HK your upper chest at point blank ranges. It also allows for better protection against pesky shotgun burst damage.  Essentially, Body Armor is for countering CQB sniper rifles, not much else. That's it, therefore, you will still need to protect your head, legs, arms, and stomach.

One of my personal annoyances is damage caused by a fall. Not necessarily the massive automatic death from falling off a cliff, but damage from jumping out a window or falling from a building or a rooftop. Now with the Reduce Fall upgrade you can fall all day long with greatly reduced damage. Remember the key word is "reduced" so you're not fully protected from everything.

In regards to Stealth and Quick Unspots small adjustments were made to make the game more enjoyable. When players are spotted in previous Battlefield games it's usually for 7 seconds, with this upgrade it is reduced to 5 seconds. Before you get excited, spotting behavior is not changed. Players can still be spotted even with Quick Unspot. In addition to this, Stealth has been changed by allowing you to move about at normal speed. This doesn't mean that you're entirely safe, players will be spotted by Motion Senors at Sprint Speed.  Stealth is only available to the Recon kit, which is earned by squad play.

Battlefield 4 will release October 29th for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.  PS4 and Xbox One release dates will be available later this year.