Community Transmission - Capital Supremacy Update

[EA_Ataashi]

Incoming Transmission!

This update has been a much anticipated one, but it’s just around the corner! The headliner of this update is the new game mode, Capital Supremacy, but that by no means is all that’s coming. Brand new reinforcements and lightsaber combat changes are also arriving in this update, along with a number of tweaks and fixes that can be found below.



The brand-new game mode comes to Star Wars Battlefront II in this update. Capital Supremacy has players face off against one another in a large-scale nonlinear battle. Both sides fight hard to take down their enemy’s capital ship while conquering the disputed planet.

Read all about Capital Supremacy, here.





Getting past enemy lines (with or without a squad) can be crucial to breaking their defences. The ARC Trooper and BX-series Droid Commando are exemplary at this. Both are lethal combatants with excellent battlefront awareness.

Learn everything about these two new Infiltrator reinforcements, here.




The lightsaber is a lethal tool that requires a tempered mind and skilled body to wield, not to mention prowess with the Force. With a lot of player feedback, we’ve updated lightsaber combat (including stamina changes) to provide an overall better player experience.

To learn about how this part of combat is changing, read up on it here.




NEW CONTENT FEATURES

• Added new game mode called Capital Supremacy, playable on a brand new map on Geonosis (Pipeline Junction West).
• Added new interior maps inside the Republic Attack Cruiser and the Separatist Dreadnought, as part of the Capital Supremacy game mode.
• Added the ability to play against and alongside AI online, as part of the Capital Supremacy game mode.
• Added a new Infiltrator Reinforcement class which includes the ARC Trooper and the Commando Droid as playable Characters.
• A new appearance for Count Dooku, Exquisite Pajamas, is now available to unlock for Credits and Crystals.
• Added Geonosis - Trippa Hive to Hero Showdown.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• The look of the Emote Wheel on the Collection menu has been updated to be consistent with the in-game Emote Wheel.
• With Capital Supremacy, we have adjusted the Battle Point costs to reflect the change in value that the new Reinforcements introduce.

HERO CHANGES

Note: We will continue to monitor hero balance for changes in future updates.

Improved Lightsaber combat in a variety of ways:

• Removed staggering when a player attacks an enemy who is blocking.
• A Hero can no longer attack when they have no stamina.
• Removed the stamina costs associated with pressing and holding block.
• After being hit by a Lightsaber, players will not be able to be staggered by a Lightsaber attack for 0.8 seconds.
• Added stamina costs to Darth Maul's attacks.
• Balanced Rey's Insight and Darth Vader's Focused Rage abilities. They now each give 50% reduced stamina costs when active.
•  

Re-balanced damage from existing Lightsaber Heroes:

• Increased Darth Maul's Lightsaber damage from 100 to 120 points. Attack from behind bonus damage was increased from 20 to 30 points.
• Increased Darth Vader's Lightsaber damage from 120 to 130 points. Attack from behind bonus damage was increased from 20 to 30 points.
• Increased Yoda's Lightsaber damage from 115 to 125 points. Attack from behind bonus damage was increased from 20 to 25 points.
• Increased Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber damage from 100 to 120 points. Attack from behind bonus damage was increased from 20 to 30 points.
• Increased Rey's Lightsaber damage from 110 to 120 points.

• Fixed an issue that would allow certain Heroes and Troopers to still shoot or block during the falling or freezing animations.
• Fixed an issue where Kylo Ren's Pull and Darth Maul's Choke Hold abilities would occasionally activate twice when an enemy is in the same place, as the last time the abilities were used.
• Fixed several issues with abilities and weapons occasionally not properly outlining enemies. The improvements affect Lando Calrissian's X-8 Night Sniper, Bossk's Predator ability and Boba Fett's For the Hunt ability.

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

• Improved the timing of Anakin's abilities, to allow for more timely attacks after an ability is performed.
• Adjusted the button placement for Anakin's abilities to allow for more intuitive controls.

- Left trigger - Pull Dominance
- Middle trigger - Heroic Impact
- Right trigger - Passionate strike

• Fixed an issue where Anakin would be unable to attack or cast abilities if he was stunned by an ability while "Retribution" was active.
• Edited the description text of Anakin's Heroic Impact ability for clarity.
• Edited the description text of Anakin's Pressure Star Card for clarity.
• Fixed various clipping issues with Anakin's Victory Poses.

LUKE SKYWALKER

• Fixed an issue where Luke Skywalker's Star Cards would be unequipped after consecutive rounds of Heroes Vs. Villains.

OBI-WAN KENOBI

• Increased active duration of Restrictive Mind Trick ability from 3 to 4.5 seconds.
• Fixed an issue that would not allow players to use their secondary fire when under the influence of Obi-Wan's Restrictive Mind Trick ability.

COUNT DOOKU

• Slightly improved the animation of characters when under the influence of Count Dooku's "Expose Weakness" ability.
• Fixed various clipping issues with Count Dooku's Victory Poses.
• Fixed an issue where Count Dooku's Foolish emote would be missing lip sync

BOSSK

• Fixed an issue where the Predator Resilience Star Card would grant more damage than stated on Epic rarity.

BOBA FETT

• Corrected the values on the Anti-Hero Rockets Star Card for accuracy. The ability should deal 12 points of bonus damage per rocket at Epic rarity.

EMPEROR PALPATINE

• Fixed an issue that would occasionally slow down a character's overall speed and animations when being affected by Emperor Palpatine's abilities.
• Fixed an issue that would cause Lightsaber Heroes' blocking functionality to break if they blocked the Electrocute ability inside the Dark Aura ability range.

YODA

• Fixed an issue where Yoda's blocking would lose its functionality after using the Presence ability right when a crowd control ability was used on him.

DARTH VADER

• Fixed an issue where the Deflection Stamina Star Card would have no functionality on Epic rarity.

HAN SOLO

• Fixed an issue where Han Solo's Shoulder Charge ability would not knock over the enemy if used in close-range.

GENERAL GRIEVOUS

• Fixed an issue where General Grievous would no longer be able to block projectiles when using his Unrelenting Advance ability after previously holding the block button.

CHEWBACCA

• Fixed an issue where the Multi-Shock Star Card would have no functionality on Epic rarity.

CAPTAIN PHASMA

• Fixed a visual clipping issue visible while performing Captain Phasma's Not Easy emote.

LANDO CALRISSIAN

• Fixed an issue that would show character outlines and username tags even through Lando's Smoke Grenade.

KYLO REN

• Fixed an issue where a combination of Kylo Ren's Freeze and Pull ability would cause the blocking functionality of other Lightsaber Heroes to break.

GAME MODE AND MAP CHANGES

GALACTIC ASSAULT

• Fixed an issue that would occasionally cause players to be automatically kicked out of Galactic Assault matchmaking if they were waiting in the pre-round for more than 5 minutes.

STRIKE

• Fixed an issue with the team size balance restrictions on Strike being incorrect. Strike will not require perfectly balanced teams for a match to begin.

JAKKU

• Fixed an issue with invisible walls on Jakku that players could hide behind.

GALACTIC ASSAULT - GEONOSIS

• Added Hailfire Droids firing missiles as a Battle Beyond element on Geonosis.

ARCADE CHANGES

• Fixed an issue where the Separatist Droid animations would occasionally break when crouching on Geonosis

SQUAD SPAWN CHANGES

• Enabled the messaging for when a player is being spawned on. No battle points are awarded in that event.
• Fixed an issue where the player would occasionally hear no sound when spectating other players from the Squad Spawn screen.

VEHICLE CHANGES

• Fixed an issue where the AT-ST, AAT, and STAP Speeder would not receive damage from basic Lightsaber attacks.
• Fixed an issue where the crosshair of the AT-RT would not align with the fired projectile.
• Improved the functionality of the horizon level meter on the AT-TE's Ion Charge crosshair.
• Polished VFX when using the LAAT Ray weapon

CHANGES TO CLASSES AND SPECIAL UNITS

• Fixed several issues with abilities and weapons occasionally not properly outlining enemies. The improvements affect the Assault's Scan Dart and CR-2 Night Vision Scope, the Heavy's FWMB-10K Night Vision Scope, the Officer's SE-44C Night Vision Scope and the Specialist's Thermal Binoculars.
• Fixed an issue where the user would occasionally not spawn with the correct appearance when rapidly changing from one Class to another.
• Fixed an issue where the Specialist's shield would remain active after they are defeated.
• Fixed a visual issue with the Navy Officer's head mesh upon spawn.
• Fixed an issue where using a melee attack would cause the weapon of the Assault, Heavy, Specialist class to be misaligned with their hands.
• Increased damage reduction on the Epic rarity of the Bodyguard Star Card to allow non-Heavy Troopers to survive a Thermal Detonator.

GENERAL CHANGES/MISC

• Fixed an issue where the names of certain emotes would not fit accurately in the allocated space of the Emote Wheel.
• Fixed an issue where players could retrigger an emote quickly at the end of an emote animation.
• Improved readability of player names in the chat menu against certain backgrounds.
• Fixed an issue where idle-kick rules wouldn't work if a player joins a game through the social hub while a match is in progress.
• Fixed an issue where unlocking certain emotes would trigger an error and the player would have to reboot the title to access the emote.
• Updated the User Agreement that is present in-game.
• Fixed an issue where Lightsaber audio would be heard while in the Customize Star Cards menu for Lightsaber Heroes.
• Fixed an issue where some heroes would be performing their Frontend menu animation when being selected on the spawn screen.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Due to a late balancing change, the ability description texts for Rey's Insight and Darth Vader's Focused Rage abilities have not been updated with the latest changes. The description text will be corrected at a later update.

[source]

[felker_s]

Haven't yet tested the changes to hero combat - only played two rounds of Supremacy, and let's face it, the Infiltrator is way too much fun to pass up on. The ARC trooper easily became my favourite unit right away, even though I've only played as ARCs for one round, without any active cards. The droid is also a good and useful unit (killed Anakin Sky-overpowered-walker himself with the vibroblade), but the dual pistols and the shock grenade fit my playstyle more.

The game mode is good as well. I like control point based modes in most of my shooter games, though it will also cause frustration for people playing alone - without proper communication and coordination, sometimes it is just you yelling "wtf are y'all doing" at your screen. We managed to lose while at first we had 37 reinforcements against the Republic's 14... Don't even know how it happened.

However, I also gotta keep it real: this is a case of "too little, too late". Yes, I cannot deny that it is a fun mode with great new units, and finally no cross-era - it all just feels right. The layout is also good for combat in both the ground map and the capital ship (only seen the CIS one though).

But: this new mode was teased in June, then it got delayed and delayed and delayed... And then it turned out that it is rather a "new map" than a "new mode". Even this one fact caused dissatisfaction among many players - after all, almost nine months have passed since they announced it for a "Fall release". I didn't mind it at first, but I have to be honest: this map does not contain enough content that would justify such a long development time.

The ground combat map is way too small, and the CP system also feels crippled. These two problems are intertwined in my opinion. I know that you have to find a balance so that footmobiles don't have to walk around for ages - but these are Command Posts. You're supposed to have the ability to spawn on them (and I didn't see an option for that, my bad if it is actually there). CP spawn does not only solve many of the "trekking problems", but grants a tactical advantage - you want to keep that command post, and the game dropping you wherever if not choosing a squad member (who are also wherever) does not help with that. Nor does this current spawn system grant the ability to attack the nearest hostile CP from your newly captured one in case you got killed in the process.

And the map itself is a bit... bland, I guess? Sure, it's Geonosis, can't do much with that wasteland. But maybe choosing a wasteland to introduce this mode wasn't the best idea in itself.

Then we cut to the capital ship right away, through a some-seconds-long (and quite graphically glitched) cutscene - it is really disheartening. You have a great Starfighter system in your game, it is literally the best and most polished part of BF2, you just have to include it...

Again, the capital ship is well designed, it is fun to fight in a more closed environment - yet it is also really small. Having only two phases felt really rushed - I thought there would be at least one after destroying the two choke points.

To sum it up, and to leave on a more positive note: it is a good experience. If this was in the game in this form at launch (with at least 1 map / era...), you would not see me complaining in such a detail - I guess I'd just have mentioned that CP spawn should be integrated later. My complaints are caused rather by the circumstances, not the overall quality.

[DarthFDG]

Am I the only one who keeps getting kicked out of Supremacy?

[DarthFDG]

Who asked to have Anakin's skill card buttons shuffled?

Seems to me there are a lot more pressing items to address.

[SalarianLawrence]

I'll just leave this here :D

If you were planning on just cannibalizing two of the old game modes, Supremacy + Galactic Assault, and duct-tape them together, you have succeeded :d It was fun for a couple of matches but it's kinda just more of the same old same old =( The Capital Ships in Capital Supremacy are just decorations...

But if you want to recycle assets, atleast go all the way:

Cutscene: One Capital Ship is seen strolling around in space, going about it's bussiness when suddenly another of comparative class and firepower drops out of hyperspace and deploys fighters, it's an ambush. "Battle stations!" rings from the intercom and the ambushed party scrambles to launch fighters. Players sees a pilot jump into a fighter, launch and....

Phase 1: Starfighter Assault, high orbit of a planet, with the Capital Ships exchanging fire in a dynamic way, you can even die to their particle beams. At some point the dynamic environment escalates into a limited/full-scale fleet engagement where the player sees capital reinforcements dropping out of hyperspace and joining the fray. Most of these can be used purely for awesome background goodness barring maybe few scripted ship destructions that send broken up ship parts flying across space. Phase ends when one team loses all their tickets/respawn tokens and whoever wins determines what happens in the next cutscene.

Cutscene: One Capital Ship is seen starting to lose control of essential systems after taking repeated hits and is being pulled towards the gravity well of the planet below while the battle still rages above.....turns out that the ship originally engaged carried a vital asset. Players see an ship-to-ship boarding action as a cutscene. Alternatively: Players play an almost impossible in reality ship-to-ship boarding action, depressurising a launch bay they launch themselves with personal boosters towards the other ship and a hangar that is still protected by force fields, evade debris on the way etc.

Phase 2: Galactic Assault with Recover the asset, players jump out of their boarding craft to a ship disintegrating around them, naturally there's a leader like Kenobi or any of the other heroes leading this mission. The ship is being evacuated but there is still 5-10minutes of time before catastrophic atmospheric entry and defenders yet remain aboard. Players fight their way through the defenders, hack a door or two and try to recover the yet-to-be-specified asset before it's too late and they must exfil out. All through this the players still occasionally see the space battle and the fast approaching planet through hull-punctures sealed by emergency force fields. If the asset is recovered the match is over, if not:

Cutscene: We see the Special Forces Unit pull out of the crashing ship as the ship enters the atmosphere in flames, "We didn't get it, need to send a recovery team to the crashsite" <- picture that with clonevoice, the ship naturally surviving the entry and the actual crash in a remarkably good condition. In Star Wars universe they build to last. The players see a Specialized Recovery team do an low-orbit drop to the vicinity of the crash site, when on ground, command sends them the info on the package they are retrieving, whatever it might be.

Phase 3: Search the crash site: Supremacy -style point capture ending with asset-reveal after oh I don't know, pressing F on some console etc. and recovery for one of the teams, while defending against enemies who are after the same thing. Ends with an escort/delivery section of the asset to the pick-up point. We already have a crashing ship in Jakku so not there, please.

Or something...could prolly duct-tape all the other modes to that also somehow, I know it's not polished and has some holes in story but I want, nay, NEED, something like that in my Star Wars Battlefront 2 EA experience.

All of this has been done before, I can already picture those ships breaking up like that damn tower in Battlefield 4....

And why can't you just copy the saber combat from better, older Star Wars titles? We had 8-directional blocking/hitting and parry/combo interrupt/disarm with mouse+keyboard 10 years ago in Jedi Academy and Jedi Outcast titles already and especially in a community driven mod for JK:JA, Moviebattles II.

[xxxb3stnxxx]

Capital Supremacy is broken. Please fix this right away. Also there are bugs in the cinematic scene. The spawn button is greyed out and won’t  let me select a character and even when it doesn’t let me select a character it won’t  let me spawn because the spawn button is greyed out and there’s no one to spawn on to because no one can spawn into the game. It came out yesterday and you guys delayed it to make it better and it’s already broken. You guys need more people to focus on this game because this game has so much potential and if you released more content such as weapons (which you guys never made new ones which at launch you said you would), maps, characters, and game modes then you’d have more players coming back to play. You guys need more people on then team and you guys need to push EA or whoever is in charge to do that. This game has a lot of potential and content is released in very low numbers. You guys fix things that are broken then when you fix something you rebreak what you already fix. The game mode was a bit disappointing. You need to add game modes that’s just like from the original Battlefront II. 

[Ravudha]

I like Supremacy and think the map is done well but here's the problem...

...this mode takes way too long, I just got out of a 60-70+ minute match..and I wasn't even there from the start! It was exhausting and repetitive.

Seriously, the 'repeat until someone destroys the ship' is nonsense, especially given the bottleneck defences in the ship. Put a timer or some kind of sensible limiter/timer on it, otherwise everyone's going to abandon it and go back to GA.

[EA_Ataashi]

@xxxb3stnxxx 

We're currently working on a solution. Please follow this thread for more updates.

/Ataashi