DICE, the EA developers behind 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II, have been keen on listening to feedback from its player base ever since the first game of the reboot, Star Wars Battlefront, launched in 2015. This extended to the beta testing that was available little bit before Battlefront II released this year. In a recent game change, EA hoped to close the progression gap between players by changing the multiplayer crate and progression system.
The list of changes to these elements are as such:
- Epic Star Cards, the highest tier of Star Cards available at launch, have been removed from Crates.
- With this change, EA hopes to create a more even playing field for newcomers and older players alike. These cards will still be To help keep everyone on a level playing field, these Star Cards will 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.
- This change eliminates any possibility of a player crafting the strongest Star Cards in the game right off the bat because of crate luck. Now, players need to progress through the game in order to hit certain level milestones to craft specific Star Cards.
- Weapons are locked behind specific milestones.
- With weapons unlocked through milestone progressions, players are now required to unlock weapons through natural gameplay progression. While a select few weapons are still only available in crates, most are only obtainable through gameplay.
- Class-specific gear and items can be unlocked by playing as them.
- Gameplay with specific classes will now reward players with respective class crates, which will grant Star Cards and crafting parts that will be specifically used to “benefit [a] class’s development.”
It is great to see a developer take player feedback seriously, but some worry that these changes are not enough to fix the balance of the game. This is mainly due to the fact that crates are still present in the game, and character progression can still be sped up through these crates, but the game just requires a player to hit certain levels to allow this progression. Even though some class-specific items are now only obtainable through gameplay, there is still believed to be a power difference between those that pay for crates and those who do not.
Whether or not these changes do fix the balance, DICE promises to continue listening to player feedback so that these systems can “be continually iterated on and improved” so that it can continue to grow its fanbase.