Battlefield 1 winter update adds ribbons, increases level cap, tweaks server settings

Battlefield 1's extensive winter update is upon us, which sees the return of ribbons from previous games, an increased Class Rank cap, and new features relevant to the war-fighter's rentable servers.

From front-to-back, BF1's ribbons allow players to accrue combat commendations tied to in-game tasks and maneuvers—similar to how they've operated in previous series entries up to now. A blog post suggests there are 20 different ribbons to collect this time round, each of which is also worth 300XP. "The Ribbons are designed to promote good teamplay and playing the objective," reads the post—which in turn may help players become better medics, and be better to their medics.

The fact that Class Ranks have been upped from maximum rank 10 to 50 should also encourage players to play the objective, particularly when you serve to net a new Battlepack each time you jump ten ranks. "When you hit 50, you will be granted some extra nice Class flair in the kill card to taunt your fallen foes," explains the post. If Dog Tags are your thing, know that these can be gathered en route to Class Rank 50 too.

On the servers front, DICE explains that admins can now kick players from their servers via the in-game UI, from which they can also "swing a mighty banhammer" for those who fall foul of the rules.

It adds: "On top of this, we’ve added the feature to vote for the next map after a match is over. Players on the server will get two options to vote for, and whichever alternative gets the most votes will be the next map. The options will be randomly selected from the server’s map rotation. This is done during the end of round screen, so no extra time between rounds has been added."

Full details on Battlefield 1's winter update can be found over here—which includes a pretty extensive list of weapon, vehicle, UI, map and spectator adjustments, amendments, and bug fixes.