'Battlefield 4' Community Test Environment Enrollment Opens Up As EA DICE Turns To 'BF4' Players For Input On New Fixes

Electronic Arts, Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) and its Swedish EA DICE studio has taken a new approach to improving its flagship first-person-shooter, “Battlefield 4.”

EA DICE launched a new program on April 9, dubbed Community Test Environment (CTE), which places “Battlefield 4” players into the ongoing development process. As part of its effort to be more transparent with the “BF4” community, the CTE program launched by EA DICE gives “Battlefield 4” volunteers the opportunity to test out new ideas and potential fixes before they’re fully rolled out to the wider “BF4” community.

Among the planned fixes to be tested is an improved “netcode,” which affects what players experience in the game world, including hit damage registration between players. The “Battlefield 4” developer plans to tweak tickrates and other networking settings to improve the overall game netcode, EA DICE said in a blog post.

For those that are looking to participate in the “BF4” CTE program, EA DICE has set limitations to the new program.

The tests involved currently only involve PCs. However, EA DICE hopes to eventually use the Community Test Environment as a way to improve “Battlefield 4” across all platforms, including Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and more.

In order to join the CTE program, you’ll need to visit the “Battlefield 4” CTE site and sign up there using your Origin account associated with your copy of “Battlefield 4 Premium.”

After signing up, “BF4” CTE participants will then be required to install a special “Battlefield 4” CTE game client, which will be used to test out potential game fixes and improvements.

While EA DICE plans to eventually roll out the “Battlefield 4” Community Test Environment to a larger player base in the future, it currently only supports a limited amount of “Battlefield 4 Premium” players on the PC platform.

This latest move by the developer behind the flagship first-person-shooter is a significant change from December 2013, when EA DICE announced that it temporarily halted work on all other projects to fix the number of game-breaking bugs and problems that plagued “Battlefield 4” since its launch in fall 2013.

Despite “Battlefield 4” setbacks, current developments from EA’s upcoming “Star Wars: Battlefront” games is expected to be shown sometime during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Los Angeles, California this June.