Star Wars Battlefront 2 (all eras)

[Ronnie]

I'm looking forward to it but that cutscene/cinematic trailer did nothing for me. Show gameplay, if it's anything like the multiplayer footage it'll look stunning!*

 

 

*on PS4 Pro

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

I'm looking forward to it but that cutscene/cinematic trailer did nothing for me. Show gameplay, if it's anything like the multiplayer footage it'll look stunning!*

 

 

*on PS4 Pro

Ask and you shall receive:

 

[bob]

What a fantastic trailer. Really got my juices flowing if you know what I mean and I hope that you don't.

[Julius]

@Ronnie similar footage, but more cohesive showing of the gameplay than IGN's:

 

[Julius]

It seems EA are taking some steps towards the light. From the official website for the game:

Quote

• 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.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[Hero-of-Time]

The first of the free DLC content has been announced.

Quote

Things kick into high gear on December 13. Your favorite stormtrooper-turned-hero Finn joins the fight for the Resistance and Captain Phasma steps on to the Battlefront for the First Order. They can be purchased with in-game Credits that week. Whichever faction is victorious in completing the most challenges that week will net a reward as well: a special Crate of high-power upgrades for Finn or Captain Phasma.

New locations and vehicles will also arrive. On December 13, the cinematic content from Star Wars™: The Last Jedi continues with a new planetary map: Crait. The Starfighter Assault map of D’qar will join as well, plus a new hero ship – Tallie Lintra's RZ-2 A-wing. Poe Dameron’s T-70 X-wing is also upgraded with a new ability inspired by Star Wars™: The Last Jedi .

Iden Versio returns. In Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II Resurrection, you’ll join Commander Iden Versio during the days of the First Order’s rise to power. These new chapters of Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II’s single-player story mode will be available December 13.

Happy to see some added single player stuff amongst it.

[Hero-of-Time]

Loot box prices revealed.

Quote

Battlefront 2's premium currency is called Crystals, which can be purchased in the following amounts: 
 

• 500: $5/£4
• 1000: $10/£8
• 2100: $20/£16
• 4400: $40/£32
• 12,000: $100/£80

Who in the hell is buying these things? It's absolutely crazy the industry is making cash on stuff like this.

[drahkon]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Who in the hell is buying these things? It's absolutely crazy the industry is making cash on stuff like this.

I ask myself the same.

I only paid for loot boxes (or in this case keys to open them) in Rocket League and that's because I got the game for "free" on PS+ and played it so much that I wanted to give the devs something back.

But in any other game? No way. As long as there is a way to obtain them via simply playing I'm fine with not spending a single penny on them. As soon as paying for them will be the only way to obtain them I'm out and won't buy the game in question.

[Tales]

I have no idea. I have never bought any of that stuff in my life.

Despite all the shit about the lootboxes, I'm still super excited by this game. I don't like them, but when it comes to Star Wars Battlefront, I choose not to care. Not worth my time getting worked up about it like a lot of other people. I will have a fantastic time anyway. Only five more days to go

Edited November 9, 2017 by Tales

[Hero-of-Time]

2 minutes ago, drahkon said:

I ask myself the same.

I only paid for loot boxes (or in this case keys to open them) in Rocket League and that's because I got the game for "free" on PS+ and played it so much that I wanted to give the devs something back.

But in any other game? No way. As long as there is a way to obtain them via simply playing I'm fine with not spending a single penny on them. As soon as paying for them will be the only way to obtain them I'm out and won't buy the game in question.

The biggest issue with these ones are that they are going to effect the balance of the game, no matter how hard EA deny it. Those who drop the cash on them are going to have an advantage in the multiplayer.

Its baffling that the industry has come to this. Voting with your wallet clearly isn't working because there are so many gamers now spending money on these things. Just look at the insane figures for microtransactions that Ubisoft just posted or how much money NBA 2K18 has made. The hobby I love it going down the pan, at least in the western AAA space.

[drahkon]

3 minutes ago, Tales said:

Not worth my time getting worked up about it like a lot of other people.

Same here. I don't like loot boxes being in games and I especially don't like how it enables gambling to kids, but personally I don't care much.

Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

The biggest issue with these ones are that they are going to effect the balance of the game, no matter how hard EA deny it. Those who drop the cash on them are going to have an advantage in the multiplayer.

This I didn't know. I haven't had an experience with balance disrupting lootboxes (CoD critics always say that the new weapons added in recent games were "pay 2 win", but that was simply not true) but if this is the case then...urgh.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I've put in over 150+ hours into Overwatch and haven't even contemplated buying a lootbox once.

Gamers/people are strange creatures, though. If there's money to be made, the developers will do anything. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Era are making some good gifs out of the situation.

[Julius]

Sort of glad that I won’t be playing this until next month. It should give EA the time they need to fix this mess, because it’s absolutely set up as a Freemium model right now; whilst there’s a distinct possibility that the way things currently are is to ensure that players don’t get too far ahead simply because of trials/deluxe editions, the lack of comment by EA on the matter can, for now, be taken to speak volumes.

For instance, one round of Galactic Assault awards you a sum of around 275 credits. Trooper crates currently cost 4000 credits, and at around 10 minutes per Galactic Assault round (on average), you’re currently looking at around 2.5 hours/crate. What’s more, some heroes and villains are locked, costing 60000 credits to unlock, meaning that you need to play some 40 hours or so (without purchasing trooper crates, therefore putting yourself at a disadvantage in the match) of Galactic Assault to unlock just one hero/villain.

So yeah, if something strange is going on and this isn’t what you intended EA...now would be the time to speak up.

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Julius Caesar

[Hero-of-Time]

EA have went into damage control mode.

Firstly, their community manager called out everyone complaining about the lootboxes on Twitter. The tweet was deleted but someone managed to grab it.

http://archive.is/DenaU

The guy then tried to get out of the situation.

Secondly, EA spoke about how they will be looking at player details and try to fine tune how things unlock. Apparently they made it this way as to give players a sense of achievement when they finally do unlock something. Sure....

Quote

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Origin Access players have been making their voices heard over the game's unlock system ahead of its release next week. In particular, they've taken to Reddit to complain about iconic characters like Darth Vader being locked from the start as well as the length of time it takes to unlock characters.

One user calculated that because of the fact you earn in-game credits based on time played, rather than your score in a match, it will take up to 40 hours to earn enough credits to unlock characters like Luke Skywalker, who costs 60,000 (the cheapest character costs 20,000). Their calculations purely take into account credits earned during matches, not credits earned by completing challenges early in the game: eliminating your first five opponents earns you 1,000, for example.

"I understand these values don't include what you earn in challenges, but I am mainly doing this to figure out what it's going to be like after the first week and I am done chasing the easy challenges," the user said. "At the current price of 60,000 credits it will take you 40 hours of gameplay time to earn the right to unlock one hero or villain. That means 40 hours of saving each and every credit, no buying any crates at all, so no bonus credits from getting duplicates in crates." The user created a detailed spreadsheet showing how long it will take to unlock loot crates, too. Impressive work.

EA has responded to the claim on the Reddit thread. It says it is "looking at the results daily" for the time taken to earn credits and will be "continuing to tune this to ensure that players feel a meaningful sense of reward".

"We selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay." 

It also responded to a different thread started by a user who was angry at having paid $80 for the game only for Darth Vader to be locked behind the game's progression system. "This is a joke... this age of 'micro-transactions' has gone way too far," the user said.

EA responded in a similar way to the other post, adding that "the intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes".

"Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can," it said. 

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by Hero-of-Time

[ArtMediocre]

On 09/11/2017 at 9:55 PM, Fierce_LiNk said:

I've put in over 150+ hours into Overwatch and haven't even contemplated buying a lootbox once.

Gamers/people are strange creatures, though. If there's money to be made, the developers will do anything. 

I have to admit that I've bought packs of lootboxes multiple times in Overwatch, but that is because new skins are fun, and I can afford it. And to be honest, I've put in so much time in the game, and really want to give it back to the devs. And it is only cosmetics, so it's not something that alters the game or how you play. 

If that is a fact with Star Wars Battlefront 2, then I hope noone buys any microtransactions from them. Shame. 

[Julius]

@Hero-of-Time it’s nothing but Bantha fodder at this point.

Though I wasn’t planning to play the game in earnest until next month at the earliest (due to other commitments), I was still planning to have the pre-ordered game arrive tomorrow, get it downloaded and play for a few hours before putting it down until next month.

But this is outrageous and unfair.

60,000 credits/40 hours of gameplay for one of Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker in a STAR WARS GAME?!

Easy fix: unlock these characters for everyone, and instead lock skins (e.g. battle-scarred Vader) begins these ridiculous walls.

Further comments about credits not being able to be purchased with crystals is a confusing one: one can simply purchase loot crates with these crystals and cash-in on their cards, so you can absolutely indirectly pay for these characters with crystals.

With regards to the community manager Mat Everett, we weren’t happy with him over on r/StarWarsBattlefront anyway: the guy attempted to bribe moderators to take down posts/edit the sub’s homepage so that none of this would come out. He’s been banned because of this. The EA community team’s reddit comment regarding that their aim “is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes” has the most downvotes in Reddit history: it’s currently sitting at around a sum of 124,000 downvotes.

The only positive thing to seemingly come out of this absolute mess of “community management” is that there seem to be systems in place to even the odds to some extent, with match-making supposedly depending on factors such as star cards, rank and player ability. 

Look, I love Star Wars. I read the novels, the comics, the reference books, the art books, I watch the animated TV shows, I’ll go to the cinema to see TLJ alone more than I have in the entirety of the year leading up to release.

But, yes, I’ve absolutely cancelled my pre-order after learning about this.

I was on the side that DICE had nothing to do with this mess of a system, but it’s their devs defending EA on Reddit and elsewhere, so I’m not sure. They can take my £20 - £30 when the game inevitably drops in price leading up to Christmas.

I’m curious about what comes next.

EA has the Star Wars licenses exclusively until 2023, but could fan reaction to this force Lucasfilm and Disney into stepping in and scrapping that deal?

I have to assume that there’ll be something in their agreement which has to do with the number of AAA games output by EA by 2023 (2 in 4 years and recently scrapping Visceral means we’re on track for, what, 4 or 5 AAA games by then?), and something else giving Lucasfilm an option to opt-out.

I can’t imagine it will be too long now before we start seeing some petitions to get Disney/Lucasfilm to revoke the licenses from EA.

Edited November 13, 2017 by Julius Caesar

[Hero-of-Time]

I feel your pain, @Julius Caesar.  

I see reviewers are playing a version that doesn't reflect the final product.

 

 

[Julius]

46 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I feel your pain, @Julius Caesar.  

I see reviewers are playing a version that doesn't reflect the final product.

 

 

From everything I’ve heard, the reviewer and alpha versions of the game were, by far, superior experiences, which means it’s we can pretty conclusively say that EA, not any of the developing teams, are absolutely the ones to blame for this mess (nice to know that some things never change).

What a waste of talent, time and money this seems to all be. Not the mood any Star Wars fan wants to be in anyway, let alone a mere 30 days or so from the release of The Last Jedi  

[bob]

[mention=342]Hero-of-Time[/mention] it’s nothing but Bantha fodder at this point.
Though I wasn’t planning to play the game in earnest until next month at the earliest (due to other commitments), I was still planning to have the pre-ordered game arrive tomorrow, get it downloaded and play for a few hours before putting it down until next month.
But this is outrageous and unfair.
60,000 credits/40 hours of gameplay for one of Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker in a STAR WARS GAME?!
Easy fix: unlock these characters for everyone, and instead lock skins (e.g. battle-scarred Vader) begins these ridiculous walls.
Further comments about credits not being able to be purchased with crystals is a confusing one: one can simply purchase loot crates with these crystals and cash-in on their cards, so you can absolutely indirectly pay for these characters with crystals.
With regards to the community manager Mat Everett, we weren’t happy with him over on r/StarWarsBattlefront anyway: the guy attempted to bribe moderators to take down posts/edit the sub’s homepage so that none of this would come out. He’s been banned because of this. The EA community team’s reddit comment regarding that their aim “is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes” has the most downvotes in Reddit history: it’s currently sitting at around a sum of 124,000 downvotes.
The only positive thing to seemingly come out of this absolute mess of “community management” is that there seem to be systems in place to even the odds to some extent, with match-making supposedly depending on factors such as star cards, rank and player ability. 
Look, I love Star Wars. I read the novels, the comics, the reference books, the art books, I watch the animated TV shows, I’ll go to the cinema to see TLJ alone more than I have in the entirety of the year leading up to release.
But, yes, I’ve absolutely cancelled my pre-order after learning about this.
I was on the side that DICE had nothing to do with this mess of a system, but it’s their devs defending EA on Reddit and elsewhere, so I’m not sure. They can take my £20 - £30 when the game inevitably drops in price leading up to Christmas.
I’m curious about what comes next.
EA has the Star Wars licenses exclusively until 2023, but could fan reaction to this force Lucasfilm and Disney into stepping in and scrapping that deal?
I have to assume that there’ll be something in their agreement which has to do with the number of AAA games output by EA by 2023 (2 in 4 years and recently scrapping Visceral means we’re on track for, what, 4 or 5 AAA games by then?), and something else giving Lucasfilm an option to opt-out.
I can’t imagine it will be too long now before we start seeing some petitions to get Disney/Lucasfilm to revoke the licenses from EA.

Roffle. That comment is currently at 230k downvotes. The most downvoted comment on Reddit by a factor of 10.

[Daft]

As far as I'm concerned, Overwatch does loot boxes right. No need to buy them at all. 100% aesthetic. Enough dupes will give you enough to buy any skin you really want, regardless of whether you buy loot boxes or grind a bit for them. With the 'First Win' XP bonus too, it's pretty easy to get a loot box a day. I've dropped money on loot boxes for Overwatch because Blizz have added something new basically every month for free. If they've earned my time that way then I am more than happy to throw a little coin their way. Not to mention Blizz's communication with the community is second to none.

I can't abide by this shit though. I won't be touching this. It's poison. Not even when the GOTY edition is in the bargain bin PSN sale for under £10.

[Kav]

I’ll be voting with my wallet, no thank you EA.

[Hero-of-Time]

I wouldn't say Blizzard/Overwatch are blameless. Yes, the loot boxes don't effect gameplay but they are trying to normalize these kind of things and at the same time prey on the addictive tendencies of some gamers. Why not just offer the skins as normal DLC that players can pick and choose to buy? Simply because there's more more to be made by making them random and time limited.

Jim Sterling has actually just done a video about the industry in general in regards to this. 

Baffles me that people are supporting these practices.

[Julius]

Me right now trying to instil some sense into other Star Wars fans on Star Wars forums:

Can’t believe I’m having to argue against EA’s illogical practices to those so adamant that a time commitment is the only fair way to challenge players.

What is gaming coming to?