EA Staff (Retired)Community Transmission: December Update & 2019 Awaits
2018 is coming to an end but we’ve got time for one last update. Let’s see what’s coming tomorrow, December 12th into Star Wars Battlefront II.
OBI-WAN APPEARANCE
A brand-new appearance will be arriving for Obi-Wan Kenobi and you’ll soon be able to enter the battlefront dressed in his “General Kenobi” attire, inspired by the Clone Wars animated show.
This appearance will be classed as Epic and will cost 40,000 credits or 1,000 crystals.
OBI-WAN KENOBI IMPROVEMENTS
It’s been great to welcome Obi-Wan into Star Wars Battlefront II and in the December update, we’re going to be making some improvements to him.
We’ve focused a lot on his animations and have made improvements to his dodges, stagger and defeated animations. We’ve also tweaked various other animations such as his jump and attack, and his ground attack.
Further adjustments have been made, including improvements to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s model and character rigging. Many of these changes won’t be visible on first glance, but they all go together to improve the overall quality and feel of General Kenobi.
GEONOSIS IMPROVEMENTS
We’ve given Geonosis an art pass with multiple changes being made to the opening cinematics. These changes range from additional blaster marks being placed upon the factory door, to improved textures and increased details on the Clone Trooper helmet.
Improvements have also been made to the animation of the AT-TE.
BLAST SPAWN RULES
After the recent success of the fast spawn event in Blast and based on your feedback, we have decided to permanently implement the squad system into Blast.
Alongside this addition we will also be reducing the spawn timer down to 5 seconds from 10 seconds, ensuring that Blast remains the action-packed experience that we’ve heard you want.
COMING 2019
As this will be one the last Transmissions of 2018 we wanted to sign off with a look ahead to the new year and some other changes that we are working on that we haven’t spoken about yet.
While we don’t have specific release dates for these just yet, you will be hearing more about them closer to their respected releases. The below are still in development and details may change between now and the time they are released.
LIGHTSABER COMBAT
This has been a topic that is frequently brought up and quite rightfully so. It would be incredibly difficult to talk Star Wars without mentioning one of the most iconic aspects of the series.
Recently we began prototyping some new changes to the lightsaber combat and we’re hoping to release these early in 2019.
The biggest change you will notice with this is how attacking heroes will no longer stagger backwards upon hitting a defending hero. We’ve also made the change that once a hero has run out of stamina, they will not be able to attack.
These changes begin to roll out within the December Update, where we will be replacing the stamina reticule with a brand-new user interface element which will offer better insight into how much stamina you have remaining.
Alongside this user interface change, and also coming in the December Update is a new UI element that displays your ability to dodge.
From our playtests that has helped increase the flow of combat, making it a lot more fluid, tactical and most importantly, enjoyable. We can’t wait for you to go hands on with it when it releases in early 2019.
TROOPER CUSTOMIZATION
We will be granting the officer an armoured appearance and offering the Navy Officer as a free unlockable option. Much like the Navy Officer, all other default appearances will be available as free unlocks.
Yes, armoured Officers are confirmed.
We will have more details on trooper customisation in 2019, but we wanted to let you know that it’s something that’s on the way.
On the subject of trooper appearances, we can also confirm that in January we will be rolling out changes to the 41st, 91st, 104th and 327th Clone Trooper squadrons based on your feedback earlier this year.
EMOTE WHEEL
Emotes are a fun addition to the game and allow you to personalize your troopers and heroes with some additional personality.
Up until now, the amount of emotes you’ve been able to equip has been limited, but we’re making some changes in early 2019 that will alleviate this problem.
Through the use of the emote wheel, we will allow you to select from up to eight emotes during the game. One tap of a button and the emote wheel appears, from here you’ll be able to select the emote that you want to use.
As we move forward we are also investigating the ability to have a secondary emote wheel that focuses more on gameplay related communication such as “Cover Me” and “Defend Here”.
DECEMBER UPDATE RELEASE NOTES
FEATURES
- A new "General Kenobi" appearance for Obi-Wan Kenobi is available to unlock
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Implemented a new UI bar for improved readability of Hero stamina
- The player's health bar has been updated with an indicator that lets players know how many dodges are available
- Implemented Squad Spawn on Blast and reduced the spawn timer for that mode to 5 seconds
HERO CHANGES
OBI-WAN KENOBI
- Fixed an issue where a fully charged "All-Out Push" ability would not deal damage to enemies that are in the 2nd half of the ability zone
- Fixed an issue where the UI lines of the "All-Out Push" ability would not be completely visible if the player doesn't charge up the ability
- Fixed an issue where players could not cancel the "Defensive Rush" ability by dodging
- Fixed an issue where players couldn't see the Lightsaber ignite animation while being frozen by Kylo Ren
- Prevented Lightsaber damage for Obi-Wan if he is attacked by Lightsabers during the "Defensive Rush" ability
- Fixed an issue where Emperor Palpatine's main attack would show on Obi-Wan Kenobi's body, instead of his Lightsaber, when deflecting
- Fixed an issue where Obi-Wan's "Your Move" and "Absolutes" emotes would play swapped in-game
- Moved Obi-Wan's "All-Out Push" ability to the left ability slot and "Defensive Rush" to the right one, in order to address player feedback and improve consistency
GENERAL GRIEVOUS
- Fixed an issue where General Grievous would not deal additional damage when attacking from behind
- Fixed an issue where General Grievous would occasionally get stuck in an animation when hit by a Shock Grenade
- Fixed an issue where General Grievous would occasionally deal "Unrelenting Advance" ability damage by blocking
DARTH VADER
- Fixed an issue where Darth Vader would occasionally get stuck in the Choke animation
HAN SOLO
- Fixed an issue where Han Solo's Detonite Charge would not visually explode when triggered
SQUAD SPAWN CHANGES
- Fixed an issue where players would occasionally be able to select empty Squad Spawn slots
- Fixed an issue where the Start button would be grayed out when the player attempts to spawn on a squad member inside a land vehicle
- Fixed an issue where players would not be able to choose seemingly available Heroes - Reinforcements while the spawn delay timer is active
GAME MODE AND MAP CHANGES
HERO SHOWDOWN
- Fixed an issue that would prevent a game round to start properly, if a player would not pick a Hero within the allocated time
GEONOSIS
- Various level art, audio, draw distance and collision fixes, focusing on the vehicle debris and rocks on Geonosis
- Made some slopes in Phase 3 of Geonosis easier to traverse with the AT-TE
- Fixed an issue where the LAAT carrying an AT-TE would occasionally appear in very low resolution
- Fixed an issue where Boba Fett would be able to float on invisible ceilings in certain areas during Phase 2
- Fixed an issue where a blank scene would show up in the beginning of the final cutscene on Geonosis
BESPIN
- Fixed an issue where players could reach a spot outside the map geometry by using Boba Fett or any Lightsaber-carrying Hero
CRAIT
- Fixed an issue where the Hangar objectives on Crait would be named "HARDCELLS"
VEHICLE CHANGES
STAP
- Fixed an issue where the STAP's "Laser Barrage" ability would fire an extra laser stream to the ground
AT-TE
- Fixed an issue where the AT-TE's front cannon muzzle flash would show in the wrong color
- Added more audiovisual effects when the AT-TE is being dropped on Geonosis
GENERAL CHANGES/MISC
- Fixed a visual issue where the AT-ST would look too small in the End-Of-Round MVP screen
- Fixed a visual issue where the rimlight effect would turn on and off when rotating characters in Inspector mode
- Fixed a visual issue where unlocking Hero Starfighters Star Cards would stretch the artwork for the respective Card
- Fixed an issue where Smart Ion Grenade explosion VFX would occasionally be missing when exploding near certain vehicles
KNOWN ISSUES
- In order to ensure scoring fairness, we have currently disabled the scoring event when a player squad spawns on you. We are investigating the causes of the exploit and will proceed to a fix at a later update.
PUNCH IT
