With the Railway to Golmud map—a remake of the one from Battlefield 4—coming to Battlefield 6 with Season 3 in May, Battlefield Studios has now provided an in-depth explanation of its processes for bringing the map up to modern standards. Describing it as “the biggest official Battlefield 6 map yet,” the developers have confirmed that it will allow for infantry, ground vehicles, jets, and helicopters in a “massive all-out war”.
The narrative of Railway to Golmud revolves around the two sides—NATO and Pax Armata—fighting for control over the ruins of a village along massive rolling landscapes and valleys. A mixture of different terrain types will allow for long-range battles as well as close-quarters combat, with an extra wrench thrown in thanks to a moving railway that is also one of the map’s control points.
Explaining the decision to remake the map, level designer Luka Grepl-Malmgren has noted that the leaps we have made in technology since the release of Battlefield 4 have opened up new doors for the developers of Battlefield 6. It also helps that two of the original level artists for the map are still at DICE and had a hand in creating the remade map.
“We have better technology than we did 13 years ago,” Luka Grepl-Malmgren said. “Two of the original level artists of Golmud Railway are still here at DICE, so we all worked together to not only recreate their work, but also understand what was not possible in Battlefield 4 and bring those ideas to life in Battlefield 6.”
Battlefield Studios has noted that the remade Railway to Golmud will preserve much of what made the map special when it first came out in Battlefield 4, with the moving train being the focal point of Conquest mode and tactical game modes revolving around the village. Among the improvements is that the train now has more options for cover and parkour, thanks to the addition of more carts, as well as double the engines, so that it can move towards the enemy HQ just as well as your own HQ, depending on who has captured it.
“We made this change because in most Battlefield 4 matches, the train mainly remained on one side of the map and did not get any gameplay,” Grepl-Malmgren explained. “So, in this version, the train is now easier to capture back, but also the team holding the objective now has a strategic place to spawn and capture the flag closest to their enemy’s HQ. In playtests, we’re already seeing players ride the train much more than in the original Golmud Railway.”
Railway to Golmud has also seen a shift in geography. While the original Golmud Railway map from Battlefield 4 was supposed to be set in China, the Battlefield 6 version is instead set in Tajikistan so that the developers could “entrench it within the story between NATO and Pax Armata.” The total playable area in Railway to Golmud has also been improved for all players, be it infantry or jet pilots.
“Jet players can now go around the closest mountain peaks and have dogfights in the valleys and glaciers,” Grepl-Malmgren said. “I felt it was important to give the jet players space to line up new creative attack rotations through the map, and we can’t wait to see how they use this new space.”
Just about every aspect of Railway to Golmud has been redesigned to better fit the gameplay systems in Battlefield 6, from the Construction Site and Village to the VIP Compound, and even other points of interest, like the Warehouse, which better facilitates infantry play. Vehicle players will also be glad to find more asphalt roads that make traveling easier.
The studio has also noted that the map saw many changes throughout its time being tested through Battlefield Labs. Among other things, the anti-air system saw fine-tuning to protect players and vehicle spawns without its area of effect being more than 95 metres from the turret.
Battlefield 6 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
