Star Wars: Battlefront

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I read some reviews and I see some ppl are contemplating that this will be the next titanfall. Popular at first and then lose alot of interest. What do you guys think? Does battlefront have lasting appeal?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

It will have lasting appeal because it is star wars. Right now there are only 4 maps for big game modes. Smaller modes divide the maps into smaller sections to make more maps out of them. I have a feeling that one or more of the 4 DLC packs will feature Episode 7 content in the form of maps, guns, ships, and heroes. As the prequels aren't popular and they are limited to the core trilogy, they did what they could with the limited amount of content they had.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Yes and no. Honestly it'll stick around a lot like the Battlefield games mostly because it's a Star Wars game, that name carries a lot of weight among all of us nerds/geeks (it's the main reason TOR hasn't completely capsized). Sadly, if they don't fix some of the glaring issues this game has in future DLC the game will probably tank with a lot of people like me that have other games to fall back on leaving (and with The Division right around the corner I'll gladly give this game up for that). We'll see just how many people stick around come the 1st when Siege hits the market. A lot of people are looking forward to that game and considering how well it played in Beta (matchmaking issues aside) I can see a lot of the hardcore crowd going over to it. Hell the way I've been feeling lately I might just pick Siege up (at least it allows me to play with my friends in a group).

 

After playing some Supremacy last night the SE-14C has renewed some of my faith in this game. Yea I was stuck on the loosing team the entire time I played but I was wrecking some faces with this awesome little blaster (top fo the leader boards everytime). 5 round burst that completely destroys people at close range (sucks at long ranges though).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Walker Assault has seemed to balance out some, Supremacy is a nightmare. I played last night and my team lost really fast. So not only was it losing, but no xp to go with it.

Rebel ships are too OP. Tie Fighters suck. I constantly get rammed or shot down immediately. It doesn't help that the air spawns are the same. I got in an A-Wing on tatooine Walker Assault and basically spawn killed tie fighters the whole match. I didn't feel bad about it considering how much it happened to me. A-Wings might as well be hero ships, the shield CD is short so if you aren't ramming something, you can just take a missile to the face and keep on going.

Although I never pick them, I love when someone else picks Leia or Palps. Their bodyguards are beasts. The Honor Guard is a bit better than the Shock Trooper IMO, but I don't mind spawning as either one for sure.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Honor Guard is a blast. I was wrecking face as one last night. They are severely OP but they should be considering their job is to protect Leia when she's in play. Shock Troopers would be better if they weren't stuck using the unscoped T-21. I think they should be carrying the RT-97C or the EE-3. The T-21 is a good weapon but I just don't think it fits with them, especially since they are supposed to be protecting Palps. At least they didn't put the Imperial Guard in here because you know they would of been severely OP since they were all force-sensitive.

 

Walker Assault has it's ups and downs for me. I got screwed tonight while I was playing but I did have a blast (more or less because I was wrecking noobs as Boba). Supremacy on the other hand has become more of a nightmare for me. I seem to always get spawned killed by some asshat who just happens to know the spawn points. Really getting on my nerves.

 

Hell I wish I could stay in the air longer then a few seconds lately. Shit I'm pretty awesome with the Tie Interceptor but lately it seems people are doing exactly what you said and camping the spawn location for the Ties because I barely get control of the aircraft and I'm already shot down (same for when I'm playing as the Rebels, seems everyone is basically putting a stop to fair gameplay now). DICE needs to fix this because it's kind of hard to provide air support for your team when the other team is basically denying you the chance to. Hell I couldn't even use an AT-ST tonight because I had an asshat in an A-Wing spawn camping where the AT-ST spawns at. It's pretty much taking the fun out of the game for me now. At least in Battlefield you were pretty safe when it came to using a vehicle because you really couldn't camp all the spawn locations.

 

It's these minor things that are really starting to ruin my enjoyment of this game. Not only can I not play with my friends in a squad but now I can't even use vehicles without fear of being killed when I spawn is as one. Sigh, really starting to wish I would of waited on getting this. It's Destiny all over again.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

At least you can pop a shield as Rebels, when your a Tie you just get shot or rammed... even X-Wings ram me when I try to limit their command of the sky. Good luck trying to enjoy the turbo laser turret on Sullust, some rebel fighter is always dropping me down to 50-30% HP before I even get a bead on someone. Ships need random spawns, or safe zone spawns where enemies will get prompted about leaving the combat area. Random spawns preferably, I enjoy the wider range of freedom in flight. To me it feels like Empire has BF4 choppers and Rebels have Jets... just about everything can kill a tie, while a-wings are so pro.

 

That SE-14C is a boss. I finally gave it a try last night. It mixes what I love about the EE-3 and DL-44 into one package. Powerful close range combat, burst fire, stability, and high overheat tolerance. I think its even better than the DL-44 because its more forgiving with a similar amount of power.

 

I found out last night the best way to take down a hero is have a friend with you and double down on Pulse Cannon... we hit Palps at the same time and It dropped him to 30%. I may have had a barrage salvo in there as well.... we both got fried by electricity shortly after, but we softened him up big time for our team to stop him from advancing to the up link.

 

TBH, lasting appeal is completely subjective at this point. Some games die off, and some games exceed their intended life span like Battlefield Bad Company 2. DICE let you have all the unlocks well before you ranked to colonel. To this day they don't get why people like it so much. It was a blast to play, it was casualfield. There was no prone like battlefront, and bullet drop was way more forgiving. I guess DICE thought people played it for the campaign which was better than any standard BF campaign, but the multiplayer was damn fun.

 

The golden age of competitive FPS is over, it sky rocketed with COD4/Halo 3 and peaked with MW2/BFBC2. Its not going to die anytime soon, probably never, but it will never reach that level again, and will slowly decline. Just about everything that could be done, has been done with the genre, and everything else will be reskins, rehashes, and remasters. Shared adventures is what I hope becomes the next step. Destiny, with all its flaws, can be called its forefather. Maybe it can serve as the Quake/Unreal Tournament of the genre. The Division will hopefully set the genre off in a good direction. Throughout my gaming history I've loved my Mass Effects, Castlevanias, Metal Gears, Zelda's, etc, but I always had the most fun playing Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Battletoads, TMNT, and Contra with friends.... and outside of TMNT, those were limited to 2 players. There is so much potential to advance these game types into something more epic. The Division is something I have high hopes for.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

http://starwars.ea.com/en_GB/starwars/battlefront/news/get-a-first-glimpse-of-the-battle-of-jakku-in-star-wars-battlefront-uk

 

Awwww yissss, Rush battlefront style.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

But will people actually play the objective?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I think they will or else they won't get xp or just won't play it because of that. The people that do play the objective will play it. Seeing as you have to cap or time runs out fast. That's one of the issues with big game modes. You get more xp getting 44 kills in a loss than 10 kills in a win. The win bonus is only 750xp, so getting a low combat score of 2000 vs kill farming and getting a 4000+ score can hurt how people are willing to try an win. Turning point won't let you do that as the Rebel team at least.

The smaller game modes like cargo and driod run are fun and people play them as intended, but you won't level up very fast. Driod run would be better as a bigger mode with 5 driods and 14+ players.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Considering how the mode is set-up you really can't ignore the objectives as the Republic. The Imperials seem to have more leeway as they aren't constrained by the time limit as much as the Republic. The only ones who will play this mode will be objective players because farming kills isn't really an option so the xp gains, as DX pointed out, won't be there for the kill farmers. Walker Assault and Supremacy will remain top dog for all those kill farmers. If the game mode is any good I might have renewed hope in this game because it's honestly gotten to the point where I can't even do anything anymore with everyone using Barrage and Explosive Shot now. Probably two of the most overpowered Star Cards in the game and now everyone and their mom uses them. It's really become a pain in the ass now for me to play Supremacy and Walker Assault.

 

You really can't play Droid Run or Cargo without playing them the way they're supposed to be played and yes they are a blast if you actually get into a game that isn't one sided. Droid run would be perfect with 20 players and 4-5 droids, would actually make the game mode that much harder to win. Heroes vs. Villains is also pretty fun imo (unless you get stuck playing as Leia, probably the most worthless hero in the game) and is a good change from grinding out Supremacy/Walker Assault. I had a blast the first time I played it, might start playing it more.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Thats the only problem with 1 sided small modes. Drop Zone could be over so fast. That would be another game type that would be great with a bigger map and more players... it would be hysterical really... it would be the "operation locker" of this game.

 

I've only been killed by explosive shot by one player that seemed to have an endless amount of charges. It was pissing me off. I use Scan Pulse, especially for Endor.... and I struggle to maintain a healthy supply of charges. I don't even use it that much because of that reason. I personally use barrage. Impact Grenade is trash, and as much as I'm killed by the Thermal Detonator, I never seem to be able to land one. Barrage lets me flush people out or get the kill. The damage isn't really the OP issue IMO, its the damn bounce physics that need a huge nerf. They should only bounce once, maybe twice before exploding. I've been killed by Barrage bouncing all the way down a curved hallway and into a room on Sullust. I have to scratch my head when I see the red outline of the person that killed me seem like they are sniper distance from my location. In the beta I thought the Jump Pack was going to be a neccessity, but I can't justify giving up an extra weapon for it. Barrage/Pulse Cannon is how I roll 95% of the time. Jump Pack is only useful for Cargo.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

My only problem is if one person uses Barrage so does the next. The damage is negligible if you're only glanced by one grenade but when you have two-three people launching Barrage in the same location you're fucked. I love the Thermal Detonator, I run with it in both my card layouts. I've gotten so many double and triple kills it's not funny. People always seem to bunch up in bottlenecks which is the best time to use it. I really only keep it because people get scared and back off when you throw one so it's a perfect distraction to either push enemies in another direction or to give you a chance to get a better position to kill them. I've never used the Impact Grenade but I'm killed by it a lot. It's like the RGO from BF4, if you land the grenade just right it's a guaranteed kill (and boy do people seem to be very good with it). I love the jump pack, it's the only black card I have. It's extremely useful on ever map as a quick get away, I've been saved by so many last minute jump pack uses it's not even funny. Plus it's one of the best ways to get into a higher vantage point if you're using one of the scoped blasters. Personally I hate the pulse cannon and have yet to unlock it on my character. The charge time is ridiculous and I'm always killed by it (yet I can't seem to get a kill when I use it because if I stop long enough to line up a shot I'm guaranteed someone else has already lined a shot up on me). I prefer to be in constant motion which is why I run Jump Pack/Thermal Detonator as Imps and pending on the map and game mode Ion Torpedo/Thermal Detonator as Republic (my AT-ST kill layout).

Edited November 27, 2015 by Strider Hiryu

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I love the Pulse Cannon for its one shot kill ability. It does some pretty hearty damage to turrets too. The charge time is a handicap, but I usually use the time to line up shots. I love it for people trying to troll spawns from mountain tops. The only handy application it has for close to medium range is down hallways. I'll charge it up and strafe into view to blast someone. If your target goes out of view you can just tap the shoulder button to cancel the shot out instead of wasting it, and if the target is not full health, you don't have to fully charge it. It's nothing compared to the beta cycler rifle, but that's been nerfed so hard, I just deal with the charge time handicap of the PC.

I don't know why I have such bad luck with the detonator. My best double kills have been with the smart rocket. Damn, I love that pickup. I wish it was a star card, I get the stupid blaster cannon 90% of the time I get a pick up.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Heh, almost every pick-up I've been getting lately is the Smart Rocket. I do wish it was a Star Card because it's probably one of the most useful weapons in the game. Hell I'd take a seriously long cool down on it if they made it a Star Card (and I'd definitely get rid of the Detonator for it). The Blaster Cannon is useless imo, why they have it as a pick up still baffles me. Yes it's a hard hitting weapons but you're such and easy target to kill that it isn't worth using (plus it overheats so fast and fires so slowly).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

The only thing more useless is the vehicle turret as empire. unless you're on Sullust, those things will tear into a turbo laser.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I got this game yesterday and played about 2-3 hours this morning. I hit rank 6 and bought the impact grenade. I haven't unlocked any of the other blasters yet and I don't have the Han Solo gun since I didn't buy deluxe.. that thing kills me in 1-2 shots easily. wtf. What weapons or utility items would you guys recommend I unlock next?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

The pulse cannon is a one hit kill fully charged from any range. I run that and the barrage which you have a ways to go to get. 2 grenades is nice as well if you have the thermal denotator.

The heavy blasters are good to start, but the SE-14C is your best bet as soon as you can unlock it. It can go toe-toe with the DL-44 and is more forgiving. The EE-3 is the best blaster rifle and has a significant range advantage, but you won't beat a blaster pistol up close. The T-21 and it's B variant are solid long range options. They are 2-3 hit kills, but have slow rate of fire.

Oh and if you ever see the option to spawn as the Honor Guard or Shock Trooper, don't pass it up. It's almost as good as being a hero, your weapons are OP variants and you have the Homing Shot and Smart Rocket on CD.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I can unlock the pulse cannon but haven't yet. I used it on my brother's loadout and thought it was weak as hell with a horrible shot delay. After playing for the day I realized its supposed to be charged. lmao. I had no idea. I'll unlock that and go for the SE-14c next. I've only played drop zone and was on a good team that played the objectives. We won numerous matches in a row because the other team never once went for the drop pods.. they just went running around the edges of the map or camped at doorways. It didn't do them any good considering my team kept throwing grenades into every doorway for easy kills and as long as we had 4 ppl defending a pod, me and my bro went and hunted stragglers that were trying to flank us. My team played the objective too good actually. A well placed grenade here or there at a drop pod would have wiped half my team on multiple games.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Sadly that's the state of the game. People trying to kill farm instead of playing the objective. I did an hour survey for them the other day and suggested changes such as heavy nerfs to kill xp and significant buffs to objective captures and the win bonus.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

That would make a big difference. I noticed on games where my k/d was higher I got noticeably higher total xp at the end of the round. For me I need to level up to get better gear, I should be going for k/d also but I'd rather sacrifice myself and claim the drop pod to get those last few ticks and when the game than sit back and prolong the fight by camping the pod.

I love that pulse cannon now. But they need to nerf the homing shot. Wtf. Half the ppl are using homing shot and DL-44. Now that I have ion cards unlocked I'll try some walker assault tomorrow.

This game still feels like it's missing huge potential by not having a campaign. I'm still enjoying it and I'll try out all the game modes, but when the dlc starts coming out and the core maps lose to much population I'll see if I'm still interested enough to buy dlcs or not.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Homing shot is easily avoided, just go behind a tree, structure, or down hill... you can even jump at the last second and only take damage without dying. I stopped using it because people figured it out and its hard to get kills with since you get ample warning that someone is locking, has a lock on you, and missile incoming.

 

as for cards, I use Scan Pulse, it shows enemies around you for a brief time... when you pick up charges they only go to that card so don't save them up for one card and think you'll have it for the next card you unlock.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Thats good to know about the charges. And I thought it was odd I wasn't getting killed by homing shot when I jumped. Whenever it started locking onto my I kept running and jumping like a rabbit and it'd only kill me about 50% of the time. Once I get the timing down it shouldn't be as bad for me then.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

After playing for a while and getting to rank 11, I'm quite annoyed with the balance in this game. I mostly stick with drop zone still since its like battlefield domination. I enjoy it, theres no tie fighters instantly spawn killing me and the maps seem pretty balanced. Heres some of my main complaints:

 

1) DL-44. Seriously? Why hasn't this been nerfed yet? I've seen so many people go 40-9 with this gun in every game mode I play. Sure its only good for close range, but most of the ppl that go 40-9 will hang out inside a cave on larger maps or walk around the edges of the maps waiting for enemies to spawn. They also almost never play the objective because you get a crap ton more xp for combat than you do for objective play.

 

2) Spawn points. I tried playing supremacy for 1 round. I got into a round half over and on the loosing team. The spawn points.. what the fuck. Instead of giving me a base to spawn at that enemies can't get into, I could only spawn at the one capture point our team had.. and get killed endlessly within a minute of every single spawn. The spawn points aren't even random. I know this because I was picked off by 2 tie fighters 8 times in a row. How the fuck? Seriously? I stopped spawning a couple times so I'd throw their time off. This worked twice for me as I spawned seconds after the tie fighter flew right past me. I almost spawned in it's cockpit. WIthin seconds he swung back around and got me anyway. A couple times the guy crashed and I was able to get around for a while before getting killed almost simultaneously by 7 storm troopers. My brother lucked out and got past them, but the game glitched my partner mode and I couldn't spawn on him.. or anywhere else because I have no choice in spawn locations. I can't play this game mode because of the spawning.

 

3) Partner mode. I can only choose a partner if I'm in a PSN party with that person. But if I don't choose a partner I'll get randomly teamed up with someone anyway.. So why can't I force that random partner option faster so I have a new spawn point? Instead I have to wait half the match for the game to randomly partner me up so I finally get a new spawn option? And after playing for a hour, my partner would randomly glitch on me. When entering a new match, I'd often loose my partner who I'm in a PSN party with. He'd turn green and I'd loose the partner hand I was running with. Often my partner would get dropped from me and turn into a green friend. I couldn't spawn on him anymore, but he said I was still his partner and could spawn on me. This system is glitched to all hell. I played Medal of Honor with my brother and that was a fire team / partner system also. I didn't have to be in any psn party to partner up and I never lost my partner connection. DICE.. squads or GTFO.

 

4) Hero pickups / other pickups. If these are going to be random, actually have them be random. They spawn in the same locations all the time. They must be, because I've seen some people on walker assault go 50-4 and those people are the ones I see get the hero pickup twice in one round. "Fuzzybumpkins is now luke skywalker"... again. So random.

 

5) No Air vehicle counter measures. If we're going to have air vehicles, give us a way to destroy them without having to get in an air vehicle myself. Look above at my spawn point rant. I'd love to not get picked off by expert pilots, but I have no way of actually destroying them. Oh.. but I can get a rng drop that could destroy it.. nope. I even saw a tie fighter destroy a missile turret with no problem and smart rockets always miss. Make homing shot work on them and this can be fixed.

 

6) Fighter Squadron is only fun for me when I'm dog fighting against the AI. But what happens in reality is I get instant missile killed by a player and theres no dog fighting involved. I'm a decent pilot in BF4, the controls in battlefront are just way to different for me to get a good grasp on. I was good with my tie fighter in the beta, but I can't seem to do a damn thing now.

 

 

I'm sure I have more complaints, but this is what I can think of off the top of my head. DICE really needs to fix these issues.

 

I do enjoy walker assault and drop zone tho. The game looks beautiful and the maps have life. Theres plants, small animals, ambient sounds (everything Destiny maps lacked).. the battlefront maps have everything I'd expect from DICE.. including all the clipping on small rocks and shrubberies.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Homing Shot, AT-ST missile,  Han's big blaster shot, Turbo Lasers on Sullust, and the Turrets on Hoth can take down Air Vehicles if you're not getting rekted first. Homing Shot and the AT-ST can be evaded like air-air missiles, especially if you're an A-Wing

 

The DL-44 probably wont be nerfed until the 1st DLC... they are just giving everyone a bang for their buck that preordered... actually they met with Anet and decided to nerf it as soon as you unlock it.

 

The clipping is real on Endor

 

Next time you're on Tatooine walker assault, get in the A-wing immediately you can camp the TIE Fighter spawn really easily when you find it, plus troll anyone that spawns into an AT-ST by shield ramming them immediately.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

The Ion Torpedo also locks onto air vehicles if you have it unlocked. It does massive damage and if they're hurt already will most likely kill them. It's usually what I run in my anti-vehicle star card hand.

 

The DL-44 was already nerfed but apparently it wasn't a big enough nerf. I know they dropped it's damage a bit but the last time I was on the thing still hits like a truck at any range (don't let the description fool you that weapon is fucking powerful at long-range, I don't care what DICE says).

 

Spawn points is the main reason I quit playing the game. Once you learn where troops are likely to spawn it's to fucking easy to spawn kill it's not funny. Plus vehicles always spawn in the same place (between 2-3 spawn points depending on the map) so once you memorize where they spawn it's simple to spawn camp them as well.

 

Since I don't get to play with anyone else who owns the game (seriously hit me up if you get on to play, with the new addition of making friends/party members green it makes it easier to track people you're playing with. Plus the only way I'll get on this damn game now is if I have someone to play with. Soloing it sucks) I don't give two shits about the partner system. Half the time I'm partnered up with either a try-hard who fails and dies half the time, a complete noob who has no idea what they're doing, or a spawn camper who doesn't play objectives. Honestly I'll go back to playing COD if I want that kind of shit.

 

Fighter squadron is a blast once you get used to the air vehicles. Don't get me wrong I get killed more often then not by people spawn camping, ramming me, or getting that luck torpedo/missile hit but it's really fun if you just give it a chance. Learn how to use maneuvers correctly, learn just how fast the vehicle you're in is (remember Tie Fighters/Interceptors can use a speed boost that will allow you to out run missiles/torpedoes and are generally faster then the X-Wing (A-Wing and the Interceptor fly at roughly the same speed)), and remember when firing at an enemy to slow you're craft down because the slower you go the harder your blasters hit. Also pick your opponents well. Be a vulture and pick off severely damaged enemies, don't engage full health targets unless you're confident enough to do so. If none of that works stay on the outskirts of the battle and play the objective (attack transports and what not). Also remember that air vehicle control is like piloting a remote controlled model with the accelerator always on, you can control direction and speed but you cannot break or stop and you will always fly in the direction you're pointed in until you change it. Once you realize that you're honestly not controlling the craft the easier it is to actually get the hang of it (if took me 6 matches in Beta before I finally realized this and since then I'm a force to be reckoned with when I get an air vehicle in Walker Assault/Supremacy (if I'm not being spawn camped) or when I play Fighter Squadron). Thinking you actually have control of the craft is what gets people into trouble because where in BF you have full control over you're vehicle (speed, heading, etc) you don't get all of that here.

 

I'm shelving the game until they fix a lot of the problems you listed. Until then I'll be playing Rainbow Six Siege (I decided to buy it and I'll be picking it up this weekend) and if they're not fixed before The Division comes out I'll be playing that until they do.