SWBFII Devs: Speculation on Unlocking Time Requirements Is Inaccurate; We Want To Repair Bridge

Three DICE developers working on Star Wars Battlefront II are answering AMA questions on Reddit. They've said speculation on unlocking time requirements is inaccurate while noting that this AMA is the first step toward repairing the bridge with players.

They also said that there's not much they wouldn't revisit of the game to improve it for players.

[KaiPow]

Just my two cents, but EA should drop the price on heroes significantly and compensate by raising the cost of cosmetics and accessories. Anything that affects regular gameplay needs to be easier to obtain.

[EatCrow]

How about making heroes unlockable by achievements in game.
Smash brothers anyone?

I'd also think that Luke and Darth would be given at the start with the others being unlockable afterwards.
We already know ObiWan is stronger then both luke and Darth since he beat Darth at his prime.

For those who dont know. The less actual physical limbs in your body the less connection to the force.

Also, if you want to add different playstyles what do lootboxes have to do with playstyles. Depending on lootboxes is not actually playing any game but the game of gambling. Lootboxes appear to be the only real case of abuse in this game.

@Jinger
Well with the understanding that credits wont be found in lootboxes. Then yes Id say the credit system is fine as is. Work hard to unlock. But if someone can spend cash to get boxes that may contain credits then that is a problem. Your hard work to earn the credits in game mean absolutely nothing. Is that not easy to understand.

[Jinger]

Playing the game and getting credits to unlock them IS unlocking them from progression. How hard is that for people to understand?

[Palitera]

But mostly:

"The speculation is wrong..."
"Ok, so how long does it take to unlock everything, on average?" (Real question on the pathetic AMA
"I don't know" (Can you believe the design director actually used this lie on the AMA???)

[4Sh0w]

Well I bet even if they legitimately want to fix it it's going to be complicated to revamp a whole finished game while still keeping it balanced= the biggest problem is they focused too much on monetizing progression with the original game design. If you guys think they can simply turn this off and accelerate that and Waalaah!..everything is fixed, it's not gonna happen.

Best thing they can do is just lower the credits for everything and increase the points you get for playing multi so everything can be unlocked pretty fast for even average gamers, sure the game as a whole will likely lose a sense of accomplishment but overall nobody will feel like they were pressed to buy anything to compete because it takes so long to unlock the good stuff. (Their position is the info about unlocking content is overblown, I dont know who's right but to me this is the best answer if really want to fix things).

[_-EDMIX-_]

Um...ok

You do realize that the heroes are unlockable through playing the game correct? How much people on this site do not know this?

[EatCrow]

@edmix

Everyone knows this dude. But thats not the point. The pay to win system is centered around earning cards that give an advantage and credits that let you progress faster.

I said unlockable through acheivement because i dont think the credit system should be there. Its a terribly outdated practice of player progression. By achievement I mean for instance killing a certain amount of heroes gives you darth vader unlocked or a certain amount of clone troopers gives you han solo...maybe meeting an objective in a certain amount of time in a planet unlocks chewie etc.

I think everyone already knows its all technically unlockable through playing the game.

[Jinger]

Uh, they did... by 75% they did that like a few days ago.

[DillyDilly]

& then they dropped how much you earn credits through various things

[Jinger]

@TheRandomOne

The only thing they changed was how much you earn after you beat the campaign. Before it was 20k and now it's 5k because beating the campaign grants you enough credits to buy Iden (the main character) who's price was 20k and dripped to 5k... all other earnings have remained the same

[Newmanator]

Get rid of them, bridge repaired!

[bloop]

Exactly, it couldn't be more obvious. With everything that's happened in the last week, no other game has received as much fan feedback in the history gaming. Millions of gamers have made it pretty clear how they can repair that bridge.

[JBaby343]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Want to repair the bridge with players? Get rid of that bs and boom... bridge open.

[-Foxtrot]

Jesus man these guys...they still don't seem to get it, as they want to keep defending it despite knowing they are wrong

"We want to help rebuild bridge"

Urm...no. That bridge before all this was made out of sticks f***** Eeyore built, now I just think it's destroyed for good. All I read in that was just pure horse shit and "yeah you're just saying that for the sake of it".

Even if they managed to fix it to the point it's balanced as hell then it'll be over and done with. Then when the next game comes around they'll say they're improvements to the last game helped them learn only to screw us over again. It's how thi story goes...we've been through it so many times with them and other developers.

The answers in the AMA were just vauge and didn't seem they were going to change a thing. Take a look at this article a few months back when they said Battlefront II would NOT be Pay 2 Win

https://www.gamespot.com/ar...

[Jinger]

They are willing to try and make it better for you cry babies, but apparently its not going to help with you dumbass stubborn people.

What's the point of asking for change if you won't acknowledge it when they change it? That is stupid

[DillyDilly]

The only way they can remedy this situation better is by making this game a normal game through unlocks. Which is what people wanted to begin with

[DillyDilly]

Star Wars is to big to fail but this game will not have long term life. People will play the story mode & move on to something else. In the end no one will win

[DillyDilly]

Its either remove this bullshit or suffer the consequences with stuff like bad reviews & bad word of mouth & empty servers & no one regardless buys the lootcrates & micro transactions its that simple

[Jinger]

@TheRandomOne

Everything in game is accessible through progression... I was able to get Vader just from playing The EA Access trial and saving my credits. That was less than 10 hours of gameplay. I have already unlocked additional weapons for a few classes, through normal progression because you can only unlock weapons by playing that class specifically. I may not have the best star cards, but guess what? I'm still winning rounds and consistently make top 3. Star cards won't make you an invincible killing machine.

Edit: and to clarify... NOTHING is locked behind a pay wall. There is nothing in the paid chests that you can't get in the other chest you get from activities or credits. In fact it's more beneficial to make sure you do all your progression unlocks because you can obtain SPECIFIC chests for example completing all the "Light side" levels in arcade give you a specific light side loot box etc.

[PapaBop]

No no and no, they had their chance to play their "repairing bridges" card back in the beta, the p2w aspect is still very much alive and now we're finding out to what extent EA's greed truly stretches to. Any gamer, let alone ones who love games enough to make a career out of it, could see the blatantly obvious flaws with how Battlefront 2 is, this is just a BS attempt at damage control and it's gone way past that. I feel sorry for the DICE employees in a way, they have nothing to do with this, it's the higher ups at EA who are to blame, they're just the poor schmucks left to pick up the pieces. I mean just look on the PS store, there is already a £11.99 introductory pack you can buy which includes 3 "rare" star cards, two of which increase your health regen and after all the backlash, the people running the show truly have no shame.

[Ittoittosai]

How do you "win rounds" when its a MP ? Good for you you unlocked a hero after they lowered the amount. You paid less then 10hrs after they lowered the amount.

Its obvious after reading several of your comments, you'll justify, apologize and defend anything the devs do in this game. The fact progression is available for purchase in loot boxes is the problem. Why is that so god damn hard for you to understand? The ability to purchase cards to improve your character is P2W flatout there is no defence, no logic, no PR speak that will just make that go away. If this was purely skins and hats etc this wouldnt have been a thing at all. SwBf isnt the only game EA did this to they also did it in Need For Speed and they will do it in Anthem as well.

The MP has problems, paid progression is a problem, lowering the cost of heros then lowering the pay out for completeing the single player is just the dumbest move Ive ever seen. It just smacks of ripoff.

The arcade mode has a timed lock out, why the hell would it have a timed lock out? It never had one before but the game say "free dlc, free maps and no season pass" and bam timed lock out in arcade. The only reason is to limit your ability to earn credits thus making the grind longer.

Dice and EA have screwed up and your defence is just sad.

[Imalwaysright]

Not enough. Not even close to being enough. Don't like it? Get out of the way and go cry about us in the corner or better yet go see EA shareholders and investors to see if they can wipe your tears, hold you in their arms and thank you for trying to make them richer than they already are. Got to love these hypocrite cry babies whining and moaning about people that they believe are whining and moaning.

[-Foxtrot]

Oh look at that immature personal attacks

Going by your comments you really don't have a clue whats went on with this

[Jinger]

@Itt

Not sure what you mean by that first question... should I have said win matches?

What do I care if progression can be bought? I'm not buying shit, it makes no difference to me.

Also if you weren't blinded by your hate there is a simple reason the payout for the campaign got lowered. The main character use to cost 20k and now 5k, that payout is to buy that character. See the correlation here?

I do agree with the daily cap on arcade mode though, that is pretty weak sauce for sure.

[rainslacker]

It's occurred to me Jinger that maybe you don't seem to comprehend that there are hundreds of thousands that have a problem with what's going on. Probably more since not everyone uses reddit.

On N4G here, you are the only one really saying it's not a problem.

There are those trying to say that MT are just a necessary evil nowadays, but those are coming from people that are mostly logical about things, and generally, they concede points that the way it's implemented here is pretty crappy.

You might have one or two other people who believe the way you do, but they sure as hell aren't trying to defend EA with every bubble available to them, in every single comment. You seem way to invested in this....or you're just a troll taking an opportunity to rile people up.

But I'm going to assume you're sincere for the rest of this comment

Given the rather unbalanced number of people who don't like what's going on, compared to you and a few others who seem to be defending it and trying to get others to stop talking about it, maybe it's really you who just don't get it.

While you go around calling others dumbasses and stubborn, you absolutely refuse to see you are but one of a few in a massive number of unhappy consumers. You're calling hundreds of thousands wrong, and while there are often times where that many people can be wrong, you generally see a lot more than a single lone voice in the rabble trying to call for reason. As it stands, you are that lone voice, but your voice is meaningless, because you don't actually see the problem, nor accept that it's a problem for others. We understand it's not a problem for you. So have fun with the endless grind. But in the meantime, stop marginalizing other people concerns because they are not your own. The hundreds of thousands upset here have very valid complaints, and your comments are meaningless to them, because you don't even understand what their problem is.

Personally, I don't care about SW:BF for a multitude of reasons that have nothing to do with the issue here. However, I do care about these MT practices which keep rearing their ugly head which takes away notice from other games which deserve it much more than this crap does. I will always fight against practices which I feel affect gaming negatively, and regardless of if you or others think it's negative, I have my own views. I feel these MT practices have been sloppy, mismanaged, and have consistently degraded the quality of game design for the past 10 odd years. So I fight against it, because I hate seeing it get worse. I'm a consumer, I fight for what's good for the consumer, regardless of if I have a personal stake in a particular product.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

I seriously think you guys aren't getting it. We want is that lootcratez to be removed because from that AMA there were good comments getting removed because Ea isn't fixing the main issue. 100 % of a no purchase from me. THESE GUYS DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW P2W MTS LOOTBOXES GAMBLING FOR LITTLE KIDS POCKET SCUM GAME THIS is.

[odderz]

I wonder if that means EA will be releasing their own metrics...

[Mikelarry]

ok if its inaccurate show the data of how long it would take. i love how the say things like

oh its not pay to win.. when it clearly is
oh that data is in accurate but wont provide any proof.

all they want is be patient so the masses buy and once they have made their money they can move on to the next anti consumer crappy game

[Malphite]

The thing is that the numbers that are out there (4500h/2100$) are so incredibly high that even if they are false by a factor of 20 (which is unlikely) it would still be too much. Also if they want us to listen to them they should be honest for a change and release their own data for us to check. Without their own numbers this sounds like your typical damage controlling pr-talk.

Boogie2988 had an interessting idea on how to fix the game. The obvious one is getting rid of the P2W mechaic but since that is unlikely he is suggesting that they should include a mode where all of the unlockable stuff is disabled so that new players won't get destroyed by people that have been playing (and paying) for a while. Also loot boxes should only include cosmetic stuff and the rest should be unlockable within a reasonable time. Here is the video if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[rainslacker]

There are a lot of smart people on the internet who actually do fact check any random number being thrown out. If the number itself wasn't accurate, or backed up in how they came to that number(which was the case here), then it would have been disproven pretty quickly. There are people that absolutely love to discredit others.

Given that no one has done that, I'm willing to accept that it's probably pretty close to accurate.

EA and DICE would obviously have access to what's required to get everything. They would have had this long before the game ever went gold. They would have known this when they implemented the system itself. They wouldn't even really have to test it in QC to be able to see if it's accurate. There would be some margin of error, but EA and DICE would have been intimately aware of what it would take, and how to encourage people to spend money to shorten that process. They probably even had focus groups on how long was long enough before people gave in and purchased. This stuff is practically a science in many consumer products nowadays.

Since EA or DICE haven't provided counter numbers, I'm going to assume that the provided numbers are pretty close to accurate.

Finally, with people at DICE simply saying it isn't accurate, yet not providing a reason why, I'm inclined to believe that the numbers are probably pretty close to accurate. Maybe a bit off, but certainly not by a factor of 20 as you posit.

[Psychosious]

So if the offline game can be farmed to such an extent that the gameplay can be affected in multiplayer scenarios, then yeah this is a pay to win scheme. They are saying if you buy the game breaking upgrades it’s just fine with EA, but you cheating our system and “grinding currency” is not welcomed.... pure money grabbing scheme.

[Prince_TFK]

Want to repair bridge? Remove all those shitty F2P elements from the game. Then stop putting them into future games. That is how you mend bridges. Not just keep on talking and talking and talking without producing any worthwhile result.

[Chexs1990]

Make it a 20-30 buck game, and the free to play mobile model can be partly excused. Otherwise no bridges will be repaired

[Chexs1990]

At it's core, it's designed as a free to play game, not a full retail product. Everything is designed around monetization and the singleplayer campaign doesn't make up for that.
This isn't really an issue that can be fixed without either removing/re-designing the current lootbox progression system or go full on free to play.
The thing is, a mobile game will always be a mobile game, in spite the layer of beautiful graphics. If you want to make a console/PC game, make a damn console/PC game.

[Jinger]

There is far more quality here and content than just about any f2p title. You don't have to pay for shit. Everything in game is unlockable by other means than paying for it.

[The 10th Rider]

@Jinger,

"There is far more quality here and content than just about any f2p title."

That's pure BS.

Yeah there's a lot of trash in the free to play market, but there's also games like DotA, League of Legends, Eve Online, Path of Exile, Hearthstone, Star Wars the Old Republic, Lord of the Rings Online, Team Fortress 2, Warframe, Planetside 2, Tribes: Ascend, World of Tanks, War Thunder, Smite, Wildstar, Evolve (now F2P with more content), Gigantic, Neverwinter, Paragon, Brink, and others.

Sure many of those are older and few have visual even close to Star Wars Battlefront 2, but most of them have more content and many are actually better games than Star Wars Battlefront 2.

[Many-hat5]

Read: We know we have been caught out, but we just want to placate you guys, so this all goes away before it effects our bottom line. EA, we know business is about making money, but there's nothing wrong with trying to do that ethically. I honestly wouldn't take your game with any kind of MT's, because those tactics have consequences for some people. I don't wanna be a part of this.

[Chexs1990]

Wholeheartedly agree dude. EA has become a wall street company, they aren't really a game company anymore, per se.

[Gridknac]

"There’s not much in the game that we wouldn’t revisit to improve the game for as many players as possible." If this is true, then just remove all the MT from the game. That would be the MOST improvement for the MOST players period.

[Jinger]

Or, instead of removing one of their main money makers how about they just remove the ability to get star cards in paid boxes? That way it's just cosmetics.

[Jinger]

DICE isn't really to blame here. EA is.

Sucks that DICE is getting tossed in between this mess of a hissy fit when they created a very fun, content filled, beautiful looking and sounding game.

[friv4school]

For every internet user, all the instruments of this world are of great importance. While the number of internet sites, game sites, news sites and much more have turned into really attractive places in this sense, the number of people using the internet for entertainment purposes is not small at all. Because of this, teenagers and children can enter play sites in their free time and be adventurous with the sweetest characters. These characters, which are very famous and so sympathetic, also take part in friv games. In the world there are sites that collect such games under one roof and offer the best quality options to the players, as well as http://friv.party/ address that offers the best games with the variety of services and offers that they provide within these sites. All the game options in this adress are made up of serious and impressive games.
Players who enter the site with the friv plus option, which attracts all the attention, enjoy playing games. Especially when the most sympathetic characters are chosen and the adventure is a great pleasure, the situation also tastes different emotions from every direction. Excitement, happiness and adrenaline are also experienced. In addition, since there are no annoying advertisements on the pages where all these games are found, parents are aware that their children are having fun in a safe place.
The friv site, which is prominent with both different and enjoyable game types, gives you the opportunity to have a pleasant time. In addition to that, you can also see the scores that you collect while playing with each other. It can also be seen that similar games are featured on the pages where each game is played. In other words, the most beautiful and sweetest game types are presented to the players. Offering free gaming opportunities, Friv.com is striving to please all children and young people. Now you can have fun as you like.

[ZombieKiller]

Their PR is better than their development.