Every developer under the sun has some form of loot or loot crates in their games these days. What matters is how much influence the loot can have on moment to moment gameplay. And the long of short of it: Star Wars: Battlefront 2 has loot crates with “star cards”, and the better cards you get, the better impact on gameplay those cards will have.
A bunch of footage dropped online this morning from the E3 2017 build of Battlefront 2, with various YouTubers and influencers showing off Battlefront 2‘s loot mechanic. Put simply: you can get credits, crafting parts and, most importantly, star cards from loot crates. Those crates can be purchased with in-game credits, although there’s no details on whether they can be bought with real money or how much they might cost.
Star cards have five rarities: common, uncommon, rare, epic and legendary:
The increased rarity will affect the card’s in-game effect. A legendary Sentry card, for instance, gets a 5% reduction to damage taken and lasts for 16 seconds, while a common version of the card gets no bonus and only lasts for 12 seconds.
Star cards also affect direct player abilities, as YouTuber BattleFrontUpdates showed in a comparison video (skip to 5:01):
The main way to get star cards is by opening crates, and you’ll need to obtain the common version of a star card before you can get rarer versions. Once you do have a card, you can upgrade it by using “crafting parts”.
Buying loot crates is more or less an accepted part of AAA titles these days, but the point where a lot of gamers draw the line is whether those things can affect gameplay. As long as everyone remains on a level playing field, there’s no issue. The concern is that players who spend more money can get more effective and damaging abilities, which can unbalance gameplay.
There was a time when progression systems simply meant unlocking weapons and perks after reaching a certain level in-game. That’s not enough for AAA games in 2017 though: there has to be a randomised element in the process as well.
I’ve reached out to EA to ask whether players will be able to spend in-game money on crates or star cards, or whether in-game currency can be purchased with real world money. I’ll let you know what EA says, if they get back to me.
Comments
18 responses to “How Loot In Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Affects Gameplay”
I thought that was a smoking PC case at the start of that gif. Also, are we back to autoplaying gifs again?
GIFs that are Australian will autoplay, but we also have bigger restrictions on them data wise so they don’t screw over people on mobiles. The US GIFs can be much, much larger, which is why those don’t autoplay. But if everyone’s unanimous on that sort of thing I’m happy to listen to feedback. I try to be fairly minimalist when it comes to GIFs.
Really? You honestly need to ask EA if there will be a way for them to get more money out of people who have already purchased the game?
I reckon I can probably answer that question for you so if EA don’t get back to you, just drop me a line.
I dont want to wait for EA, can you answer that question for me?
Yes, you will be able to purchase loot boxes (and/or the in-game currency used to purchase loot boxes) with real world money.
Thanks Braaains… Was worried there for a moment.
Still waiting for gameplay footage for the campaign. They talked big about it now they’re only showing multiplayer stuff.
I saw somewhere that this won’t have a season pass and all DLC will be free, but that they expect to make that money using this loot system instead… that leaves me quite worried they’ll go extremely overboard in trying to convince players they want/need to spend money this way and that the game’s going to suck for anyone not paying up.
I hate this trend of gambling boxes being added to games, I think I might give this one a miss.
I hate moaning before I know the fact but ugh… This is watering down any type of anticipation I had, for me to even be looking forward to a big MP shooter is rare but thought this looked very good and of course, Star Wars. I just can’t be bothered with all this loot box stuff, if I go head to head with another dude I want skill to determine the outcome, not some RNG card we’ve got equipped (or even worse spent more money on). No doubt the fifty different versions you can pre-order come with a different amount of these loot boxes to open in advance too.
I hate the general cynicism around games, but I get it with things like this. Might just wait now and get in on EA access, got the first one for free through it.
To be fair in this day and age we have reason to be cynical.
Everyone seems to be going out of their way to prioritise getting the last possible cent out of the customer over enjoyment of the game.
I blame MMOs. Someone figured out you can keep people playing (read: “giving you money”) by drip-feeding them RNG-based rewards at semi-regular intervals. Word got out that it works and suddenly everyone wants it in their game regardless of genre or target audience.
But MMOs have a reason for subscriptions: to maintain their expensive server farms. Really, I think Valve shoulder a lot of blame with TF2. When they introduced crates and keys (and idling) this shit started to get much more popular.
I tend to blame the emergence of free to play games that have to nickel and dime the player the whole time to compensate for the lack of up-front money.
Then the likes of EA and Activision decided they liked that nickel and dime model AND the up-front model.
Like the ads say – “why not have both?”
I 100% agree with you. Introducing a pay to win mechanic annoys me, but when I bought this up with some of my friends they thought I was overreacting and it’d have no real effect on game play.
Of course, my friend’s attitude is probably the prevailing one that a majority of gamers have, so there’s no real incentive for EA to change anything, especially if they’re going to make hundreds of dollars more from a minority of the players.
I feel kind of fine putting up with annoying loot crates and a bit of unbalance if it means free DLC. It’s a game where different characters have different abilities, so you’re not on a level playing field to begin with anyway if you ask me.
Same, I would prefer this than the current system with Battlefield 1
Fucking. Trash.
micro transactions and gamble boxes are fine in multiplayer games for AESTHETIC ITEMS, but doing this shit for gameplay items is going to kill the videogame industry.