Topic: Star Wars Battlefront II --OT--

@BAMozzy - for launch there are 5 modes (1 aerial + 4 infantry). of the 4 infantry modes, two of those are essentially team deathmatch with heroes, and team deathmatch without heroes. that's a real lack of variety in my opinion. maybe if there's at least a dozen maps, galactic assault might not get so repetitive. the problem with the original battlefront was that the big game modes only existed on 4 maps.

but i thought the progression system/loot crates, classes, squad spawn system, star cards, battlepoints, etc. got unnecessarily cumbersome and weren't helpful to the game. the battlepoints system led to some rather unbalanced matches.. teams that are winning tend to have more points, because they have more points, they can buy the heroes more quickly, which means they dominate even more.. i found it extremely annoying to be taken down by one darth maul only to respawn and be taken down by yet another.. and even when i did have enough battlepoints to buy a hero, i couldn't because there was already the maximum number on the battlefield. i didn't like the random pickups in the last game, but i found this worse. if i was to rant about the star card/lootbox situation i'd be here all night.

and yet again no L1/R1 shooting controls. epic fail. the option is in the battlefront games so there's no excuse..

@BAMozzy agreed.
Not day one purchase for me though until I hear how the campaign is.

To be honest, the option of an offline mode is the main selling point to me. Not to mention the addition of the Clone Wars. Stuff that easily should have been in the first, but whatever.

of course it should but then EA couldn't charge you £50 again for it could they

Finally got a few hours in of this... Think the Galactic Assault mode was really fun, I like the idea off it and really enjoy the multi-stage battles giving more variety. The Battle points are a great addition too, gives you more incentive in game to do better/ the objective etc imo, and alot of options to choose alongside the 4 classes with the vehicles star fighters, hero's and woollies etc. Quite like the Theed map too, hopefully the other big maps are good too. The hero's seem way more balanced aswell now imo. I really don't like the new star card system, it's made it slightly more complicated than it has to be, it gives you more options but the loot box is obviously bad. Also the Takodana map is bad I just don't like it at all, too small, not enough cover and can't really flank at all... The game looks and sounds ace again! Also hate the fact that on most of the weapons you can't go down the iron sights or scopes, it's a first person shooter ffs...Do like the reload system now too. Also think the assault weapons should do abit more damage to as they felt quite underpowered imo. So definitely think they've added more depth to the gameplay, hopefully we got alot more weapons, and some good maps for the big game mode and plenty of Clone Wars and everyone's happy!! (Except about the microtransactions...) Look forward to this but let's all be honest it's never going to be as good as the original Star Wars Battlefront 2, I would gladly pay more than full price if they remastered that and added a few features to bring it up to date!

@PostmanPatinator If you have a PC, the team behind Witcher 3 has created and opened servers for the original Battlefront II, completely legal too but it's only the PC version.

So the first 'previews' of the campaign are out and the press have played the first three missions. From what I can gather from their impressions, its very much built around the MP. Whether that's a good thing or not, who knows. It uses Star Cards and has 'loot' boxes with collectibles, weapons and other 'star card abilities' that you can change to suit your play style. It has a mix of both on foot and space battles with one of those battles being a 'clone' (see what I did there) of the Starfighter Assault beta map.

I guess with MP modes - like the two 'assault' modes where you have 'multi-stage' objectives, its nott surprising that they will cross-over into SP and vice versa. Of course that doesn't mean they have to be a direct copy, replacing the Player controlled characters with AI (both allies and enemies) for the Single player campaign (or again, vice versa) but its obviously easier this way with the large battle missions. It means they can use the same assets, designs etc and thus save time, money and 'resources' (both in-game - like assets, disk space etc and outside too - saves having to build a 'new area' etc) but it can also lack the impact if you play the MP first.

Still no word on the length or quality of the story itself but all indications are that it will look and sound like a Star Wars game should. Also, like the MP, you can swap between 3rd and 1st person perspective. I am still looking forward to this - despite the 'loot box' system. I still think it will be my MP shooter of choice for the upcoming year as the biggest rival, CoD just isn't grabbing my attention. It too has controversy over its 'Loot box' too but I can't help feel like I have played the game before and really think its not only looking dated but feeling dated too. I know people wanted Boots on the Ground but I think they needed to do 'something' new and fresh. Its difficult with its setting and I guess 'War' mode is 'new' for CoD but the 'Assault' modes in SW:BF2 look much more interesting and exciting.

EA have changed Star Cards and Progression after the backlash.

From EA's Website
We went into Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II with a goal to make the deepest, biggest Star Wars™ game you've ever played. That meant transporting you to all three eras and handing you a huge assortment of heroes, classes, and vehicles – as well as bringing tons of free post-launch content to all Star Wars Battlefront II players.

The Beta gave us a welcome chance to test all of our systems in action and tune things up for better balance. A few weeks back, we mentioned we were going to take another look at how the progression system works. After incorporating feedback from the Beta, we’re happy to share our plans for launch:

Epic Star Cards, the highest tier of Star Cards available at launch, have been removed from Crates. To help keep everyone on a level playing field, these Star Cards will primarily be available through crafting, with the exception of special Epic Star Cards available through pre-order, deluxe, and starter packs.
You'll need to reach a certain rank to craft upgraded Star Cards. You won't be able to buy a bunch of Crates, grind everything up into crafting materials, and immediately use them to get super powerful Star Cards. You can only upgrade the ability to craft higher tier Star Cards by ranking up through playing the game.
Weapons are locked behind specific milestones. While a select few will be found in Crates, the rest can only be attained by play. Want to unlock a new weapon for your Heavy? Play as a Heavy and you’ll gain access to the class’s new weapons.
Class-specific gear and items can be unlocked by playing as them. As you progress through your favorite class, you’ll hit milestones granting you class-specific Crates. These will include a mix of Star Cards and Crafting Parts to benefit your class’s development.

This system, as well as all of the others, will be continually iterated on and improved. As we first announced at EA Play in June, we’re committed to keeping the community together. All upcoming weapons, maps, heroes, and vehicles introduced in Star Wars Battlefront II’s post-release content will be free so that players can play alongside friends as the world of Star Wars Battlefront II continues to grow. We know that the magic is in the balance, and we're going to make sure that we continue to make a game that is fun for everyone.

To me its not perfect but it is better than it was.

@BAMozzy your right that is much better, not perfect but it's better, still i just brought The Fractured But Whole so i still won't be getting it release day

but i am more inclined to get it now

@FullbringIchigo I think its too late to change the Star Card system completely - although I still think they could remove them entirely from loot boxes. It still seems as though you may need loot boxes just to get crafting material so I hope they have increased the rate at which you can earn a loot crate in game as well as increase the amount of materials that drop. It took roughly 6 games to earn 1 crate and you only got minimal resources - if you got any at all. If people can buy all the materials essentially to upgrade Star Cards as soon as they hit a certain rank, its still unbalanced and unfair.

Kotaku did a stream of the single-player campaign.

https://kotaku.com/were-streaming-star-wars-battlefront-iis-s...

@KratosMD Watched it too. And as much as I want a single player Star Wars game, this is a definite skip from me. It looks pretty bad.

Plus there's the unannounced stuff, like the unfinished story (the rest is coming later supposedly), and the daily cap on earning credits in-game. What were they even thinking?

So, EA and DICE have come out with some nice presents this week and this game is improving. Granted, the loot crate progression system is still wacked, but new free heroes, new DLC maps, faction challenges, more campaign, more hero ships are here.

It seems they are trying very hard to appease us. Is it working? I am enjoying it.

@starhops That's nice to hear anyway. I wonder if many other members here play it. (I don't actually, but I'm curious all the same!)

@starhops The actual game-play isn't too bad - its campaign was mediocre and definitely open ended and the MP was unbalanced by the progression, star cards and loot crates but the game-play is solid. I haven't yet got round to the new content as other games are currently grabbing my attention far more but I will give it go soon. I still have games I haven't yet started with other games grabbing my attention more at the moment...

@Kidfried I was interested in it but then the whole EA debacle turned me off to it. Besides with CoD:WWII getting all my FPS attention I don't have time for another FPS. Heck I am even find it hard to find time to log into Overwatch as their Winter event is going on now.

I might pick up BF2 but probably in a year or two like I did the first one when it's dirt cheap.

@Kidfried I have about a dozen friends that I play with off and on--some are amazing players--always at the tops of the leader boards. I have fun with my friends. It's nice to get a good squad going.

I'm not sure of how many in the Push Square community plays, if at all. Anyone is welcome to join me sometime.

@BAMozzy Well, I'm not discounting everything you mentioned. I've been playing quite a bit since release and enjoying myself. They are slowly improving and releasing new stuff, including more campaign.

I play, albeit sporadically.

The extra missions actually finishing the Campaign's storyline were halfway-decent. I feel that they could've taken the place of the random hero inserts to make a solid experience but, alas, this is Star Wars: Battlefront II we're talking about and therefore nothing's ever that simple.

Is it me, or have the in-game credits been overhauled in a really random way? On one match of Starfighter Assault, I shot down a grand total of two players but destroyed several objectives and came first (my first first! I was so happy) but then in the follow-up face-off I shot down a good dozen players, ignored the objective and didn't even place in the top five. Feels like they've weighted the objectives more in some maps.

Also, on the new Crait map, no matter what I did and how well I played, I could never get enough credits to unlock a hero, yet then we went to Kamino and I played decidedly-average-ly and somehow gained thousands. Maybe it was because I was a Battle Droid... I freakin' love Battle Droids, in case it wasn't blindingly obvious!

@RogerRoger I'm not exactly sure, but I know object-focused aspects reward a lot more than kills unless you are rolling some strong kill-streaks. This is true especially in Starfighter Assault. You can fly around destroying the defensive cannons and collect quite a few points. On some maps your only goal is to destroy the incoming fighters. I do find their reward system is convoluted. I think there are times you should be rewarded more for objective (like defending an area such as on Jakku) when it seems you get so little and other times you get rewarded a lot for seemingly small things.

Truthfully, I was disappointed they took out the stat based podium at the end of matches instead of how they have it now with point totals. But oh well. I believe they are bringing stats back for us, which I would like a lot. Not so much K/D, but all the other stats: win ratio, x kills with blaster x, vehicles kills, objective points on maps, etc. We know they are tracking that stuff already since they have dynamic match-making.

I love the droids and using the emotes with them cracks me up!

@starhops Not just the emotes, but their general behaviour is awesome. I was in a match the other day, and I placed a turret as an Officer-Class Battle Droid and the Battle Droid said "Good luck, turret!" With perfect timing, a squadmate standing right beside me threw a grenade, and that Battle Droid called out "Goodbye, grenade!" I find I really, really miss that sense of humour whenever I play original or sequel trilogy content.

As somebody who mostly plays the objective, I think a return to the statistical podium would be good, or maybe a blend of the two, somehow? I often feel as though I contributed well towards a victory, only to find that I'm way, way down the ranks because I flanked everybody and only shot two guys in the back as I did so. It's also odd that Starfighter Assault weights the objectives heavily and their objectives are often quite easy (shoot the big red glowy thing with your super-powerful torpedoes!) whereas Galactic Assault and... oh, I forget, the other ground-based mode that has objectives, they seem to award less points for tougher objectives (I've yet to see anybody successfully destroy an MTT, and you get barely anything for causing damage to them).

Will likely take a break over Christmas and come back when they release the next content drop (fingers tightly crossed for General Grievous!).