• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Quick link to cancel your Star Wars Battlefront 2 Preorder - Vote with your wallet!

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/?product=star-wars-battlefront-ii

Thanks to Reddit for the awareness. Why pre-order from EA?

-Progression based lootboxes are in the game.
-Takes a lot of grinding to unlock anything.
-The lootboxes allow you to get star cards that have a direct consequence on gameplay, meaning someone on the same skill level as you if they paid money will win (at similar game time).
-The thing that really sent this in a shitstorm was that it took 40 hours of grinding to unlock ONE hero (Luke or Vader) and that is if you don't spend the currency on lootboxes to get the previously mentioned cards.

-EA now reduced the cost of heroes by 75%
-Seems like they cut the campaign reward by 75% too
And I'd recommend reading this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cji8a/i_work_in_electronic_media_pr_ill_tell_you_what/
 

golfham

Member
Why on earth would anyone buy an EA game? They only make shit these days. They’ve destroyed so many good gaming companies and franchises. I will never buy their games ever.
 

Typhares

Member
@OP
Context for those who missed major news about BF2?

-Progression based lootboxes are in the game.
-Takes a lot of grinding to unlock anything.
-The lootboxes allow you to get star cards that have a direct consequence on gameplay, meaning someone on the same skill level as you if they paid money will win (at similar game time).
-The thing that really sent this in a shitstorm was that it took 40 hours of grinding to unlock ONE hero (Luke or Vader) and that is if you don't spend the currency on lootboxes to get the previously mentioned cards.

-EA now reduced the cost of heroes by 75%
-Seems like they cut the campaign reward by 75% too
And I'd recommend reading this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cji8a/i_work_in_electronic_media_pr_ill_tell_you_what/
 

jadedm17

Member
Keeping my preorder. If people wanna waste their money on loot boxes. That's their choice.

Agreed, but this isn't funky color gun lines Gears of War 4, this is stuff that directly makes someone of similar skill and more money much harder to defeat; It's a monetary edge.

For comparison my $30 of "loot boxes" in Destiny 2 have netted me some fun colors and silly dances, nothing that helps kill anyone easier.

If you still think you'll get your money's worth I won't judge you, but the current system is insanely broken: The best part is even at 10 hours to unlock you have to not buy any other thing.
 
Agreed, but this isn't funky color gun lines Gears of War 4, this is stuff that directly makes someone of similar skill and more money much harder to defeat; It's a monetary edge.

For comparison my $30 of "loot boxes" in Destiny 2 have netted me some fun colors and silly dances, nothing that helps kill anyone easier.

If you still think you'll get your money's worth I won't judge you, but the current system is insanely broken: The best part is even at 10 hours to unlock you have to not buy any other thing.

Battlefield and battlefront are primarily objective based games. So someone paying lots of money for a random chance to maybe get a better star card doesnt mean much to me when kdr doesnt matter. And I'm gonna spend a majority of my time running around as a stormtrooper with a blaster. All these unlocks don't send me into a rage like it does with most people posting on gaming forums. Dice is a good developer. Battlefield 1 is an excellent game that only keeps getting better. If battlefront has balancing issues, or other problems dice has been good at addressing them.

Hell if loot boxes is this games biggest problem I'd say that's a win. Cod ww2 has been out for 2 weeks and matches are basically unplayable because the biggest franchise in the world can't bother to have stable netcode.

Edit - Upon thinking more. I'm not gonna deny that there's an off chance someone can drop 5 bucks on a crate and get a legendary luke Skywalker with better stats. But its still random. You have to ask yourself, how many people out there would spend a substantial amount of money for the off chance of a random good drop. You can't just go on there and buy the best gear for a set price. And dice have even said you have to play the game and level up before you can even use certain stuff.
 

TwiztidElf

Member
Why on earth would anyone buy an EA game? They only make shit these days. They’ve destroyed so many good gaming companies and franchises. I will never buy their games ever.
Yep. All I can recall is fishing Titanfall2 and PVZGW out of the bargain bin.
I think my last full price EA game was NHL09.
 
Unfortunately, I feel kinda stuck with my BB pre-order bc I bit on the trade-in bonus for an extra $10 in addition to the trade-in value of my copy of Battlefront 1. If I cancel, I only got $2.40 trade-in value which I'll get back on a gift card. Lol With the extra $10 that's $12.40 trade-in which isn't half bad considering I only paid $15 for BF1. With GCU + $10 pre-Oder bonus and the $12.40 trade-in that drops the purchase price to like ~$27 or so. Which isn't too bad. I figure if I tire of it quickly I just trade it in at Gamestop or something and probably at least break even.
 
I'm keeping my preorder because I'm not going to blindly follow a mob. EA will continue to tweak the user experience overtime based on player feedback. This is a nonissue.
 

wolgoen

Member
That whole 'outdating the outrage' idea is really insidious, and pretty much exactly what I'd expect from EA or any other AAA that has a vested interest in anti-consumer bullshit.

This exists in every industry across the globe, every day.

Money makes the world go round. Plus it gets the fat cats their yachts, holiday homes, flash cars etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc
 

Mr Moose

Member
I cancelled my pre-order during the beta, but I'll re-pre-order and cancel it again to show my er... Support.
 

DonF

Member
Wait wait wait...so now it's bad seen to have to PLAY a game to unlock stuff?

Jackfrags, who in the past has been paid to promote multiple EA games, made a video about the progression system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXwe0garDsE

Basically, you have to play a considerable amount of time (not skill dependent) to unlock emblematic heroes of the franchise, like luke and darth vader.
Then heroes, classes and vehicles have upgrades that you also have to unlock with more play time, these upgrades are CLEAR improvement to the character, with no downsides.
People have calculated that just to unlock Luke, you had to play close to 40 hours, now the credits requirement has been lowered, but that means that to unlock Luke you have to play close to 10 hours, just to unlock him, thats another 10 hours for Vader.
Then you have to play lots more hours to unlock their upgrades.
Or...you can always pay.
Thats the thing, the progression system is more akin to f2p models, in a $60+ game. The game is clearly designed to veer people to pay more, pay for microtransactions.

Other clear giveaway, you can only earn 500 credits per day in a certain mode (arcade I think) that would mean you would have to play for 20 days just to unlock Vader.

And lastly, the requirements to unlock heroes were lowered, but now the rewards for playing the single player were lowered in the same percentage.

So no, its not like old COD progression, where you have to play to unlock things, its designed so that you PAY to unlock things or play way too much time.
 

royox

Member
Jackfrags, who in the past has been paid to promote multiple EA games, made a video about the progression system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXwe0garDsE

Basically, you have to play a considerable amount of time (not skill dependent) to unlock emblematic heroes of the franchise, like luke and darth vader.
Then heroes, classes and vehicles have upgrades that you also have to unlock with more play time, these upgrades are CLEAR improvement to the character, with no downsides.
People have calculated that just to unlock Luke, you had to play close to 40 hours, now the credits requirement has been lowered, but that means that to unlock Luke you have to play close to 10 hours, just to unlock him, thats another 10 hours for Vader.
Then you have to play lots more hours to unlock their upgrades.
Or...you can always pay.
Thats the thing, the progression system is more akin to f2p models, in a $60+ game. The game is clearly designed to veer people to pay more, pay for microtransactions.

Other clear giveaway, you can only earn 500 credits per day in a certain mode (arcade I think) that would mean you would have to play for 20 days just to unlock Vader.

And lastly, the requirements to unlock heroes were lowered, but now the rewards for playing the single player were lowered in the same percentage.

So no, its not like old COD progression, where you have to play to unlock things, its designed so that you PAY to unlock things or play way too much time.

But important stuff like weapons and epic star cards can only be adquired by crafting or completing archievements. I don't see anything wrong with that.

I mean...of course i don't like lootboxes and this stuff...but it's much better than releasing a 60€ game and then a 50€ season pass with new maps, heroes and weapons. At least in BF2 they won't split the players.
 

Nipo

Member
Wait wait wait...so now it's bad seen to have to PLAY a game to unlock stuff?

Overwatch gets it right. Classes, characters and weapons unlocked from the start cosmetics earned by playing. Otherwise skill isn't the deciding factor it is who can waste more time unlocking something or who is willing to spend more to unlock it.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
Edit - Upon thinking more. I'm not gonna deny that there's an off chance someone can drop 5 bucks on a crate and get a legendary luke Skywalker with better stats. But its still random. You have to ask yourself, how many people out there would spend a substantial amount of money for the off chance of a random good drop. You can't just go on there and buy the best gear for a set price. And dice have even said you have to play the game and level up before you can even use certain stuff.

They're not going to drop $5. They're going to drop as much as it takes to max out the stats/abilities of whatever class they prefer.

Anybody who doesn't do that will be at a competitive disadvantage, indefinitely. It is disgusting.

They've said they'll try to matchmake the whales with each other but when they don't have enough some poor suckers are going to be chosen to fill out that match. They're obviously not going to make their highest paying customers have higher queue times than the people who simply bought the game and expected a level playing field.

I usually don't go in for full boycotts but in this case I'm never buying another EA game until they decide providing a level playing field is important. They've crossed a fairly significant line on this one. If the average consumer is OK with it then look forward to a future where every competitive game from a large publisher is pay to win from day one.
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Loot crates aside I'm still in shock the gunplay is worst than the first game

I was gonna get a PS4 Pro and the most expensive edition of the game if
they only kept the gameplay the same

At least my wallet is happy
 

royox

Member
Isn't people overreacting a bit about the game? I mean...a guy just posted this on a famous spanish forum


Poco mas de 9 horas de trial en mi juego sin pagar un duro:

Transl: "a bit less than 9 hours of trial without paying anything"

swdesbloqueo.jpg


https://www.elotrolado.net/viewtopic.php?p=1744830557

Guy has an epic card, 2 level 3's, almost 20k credits and lvl19 on this class.

MAYBE, just MAYBE, it's not AS BAD as we think?


edit: sigh I feel like I am the "EA defense force" but i'm just a star wars fan that wants to blast droids T.T
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
Isn't people overreacting a bit about the game? I mean...a guy just posted this on a famous spanish forum

Guy has an epic card, 2 level 3's, almost 20k credits and lvl19 on this class.

MAYBE, just MAYBE, it's not AS BAD as we think?


edit: sigh I feel like I am the "EA defense force" but i'm just a star wars fan that wants to blast droids T.T

Looks just as bad to me. Doesn't matter how much time he spent, the people who pay to win spent a hell of a lot less and got a hell of a lot more.

Pay to win systems are inherently wrong with respect to competition.

Oh, and they know you are a Star Wars fan and that there are lots of them out there who will put up with anything to get their Star Wars fix. That's why they're using this game to firmly step across the pay to win line. If they tried it with any competitive game that didn't have a firmly established fanbase the game would be dead on arrival.
 

royox

Member
Looks just as bad to me. Doesn't matter how much time he spent, the people who pay to win spent a hell of a lot less and got a hell of a lot more.

You can't get epic cards from lootboxes and you only can craft them after reaching some kind of rank.
You can't get most of the weapons from lootboxes. They require an specific rank and archievements unlocked.

I mean...it's bad but not as bad as I thought it would be after reading some tantrum threads.
 

BANGS

Banned
The worst part of this all is that shitty players get the same amount of points per game as good players, meaning there is no incentive to actually git gud... Just sit back and collect your loot boxes for 4000 hours...
 

DonF

Member
But important stuff like weapons and epic star cards can only be adquired by crafting or completing archievements. I don't see anything wrong with that.

I mean...of course i don't like lootboxes and this stuff...but it's much better than releasing a 60€ game and then a 50€ season pass with new maps, heroes and weapons. At least in BF2 they won't split the players.

The same EA + respawn did titanfall II. TF II had free maps (although way less maps than TF1's paid DLC) and no loot boxes, but paid cosmetics. The bad thing is that TFII launched close to cod and bf1 and wasn't as successful.
They should've stuck to TFII progression and microtransactions model, but no, they are doin the door in the face thing. They designed a bad system, they showed the people a worse system, and then dial it back to the bad system, and people feel like they won something.
 

Typhares

Member
My main issue is that they are pushing the boundaries using the same strategy as always.

-Make something that everyone thinks is outrageous
-Everyone complains
-Make a small tweak but leave the actual system in place
-People calm down
-Now the system is accepted as 'normal'
-Makes something even more outrageous on top

Rince and repeat!

It started with cosmetic stuff, DLC, cheat codes, most people were against all this being paid for instead of unlockable like it used to. Who knows where it will end.
 

BANGS

Banned
My main issue is that they are pushing the boundaries using the same strategy as always.

-Make something that everyone thinks is outrageous
-Everyone complains
-Make a small tweak but leave the actual system in place
-People calm down
-Now the system is accepted as 'normal'
-Makes something even more outrageous on top

Rince and repeat!

It started with cosmetic stuff, DLC, cheat codes, most people were against all this being paid for instead of unlockable like it used to. Who knows where it will end.

And sadly the same shills have been defending it the whole time despite it getting objectively worse over time...

But yes this is the strategy. Make it look like they did us a favor by toning back slightly on the bullshit...
 

Fuz

Banned
My main issue is that they are pushing the boundaries using the same strategy as always.

-Make something that everyone thinks is outrageous
-Everyone complains
-Make a small tweak but leave the actual system in place
-People calm down
-Now the system is accepted as 'normal'
-Makes something even more outrageous on top

Rince and repeat!

It started with cosmetic stuff, DLC, cheat codes, most people were against all this being paid for instead of unlockable like it used to. Who knows where it will end.

Gamers never learn.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
I only want to play the single player game and so far that has been great. So nope keeping my preorder.
 

Old Empire.

Member
Jackfrags, who in the past has been paid to promote multiple EA games, made a video about the progression system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXwe0garDsE

Basically, you have to play a considerable amount of time (not skill dependent) to unlock emblematic heroes of the franchise, like luke and darth vader.
Then heroes, classes and vehicles have upgrades that you also have to unlock with more play time, these upgrades are CLEAR improvement to the character, with no downsides.
People have calculated that just to unlock Luke, you had to play close to 40 hours, now the credits requirement has been lowered, but that means that to unlock Luke you have to play close to 10 hours, just to unlock him, thats another 10 hours for Vader.
Then you have to play lots more hours to unlock their upgrades.
Or...you can always pay.
Thats the thing, the progression system is more akin to f2p models, in a $60+ game. The game is clearly designed to veer people to pay more, pay for microtransactions.

Other clear giveaway, you can only earn 500 credits per day in a certain mode (arcade I think) that would mean you would have to play for 20 days just to unlock Vader.

And lastly, the requirements to unlock heroes were lowered, but now the rewards for playing the single player were lowered in the same percentage.

So no, its not like old COD progression, where you have to play to unlock things, its designed so that you PAY to unlock things or play way too much time.

I agree with him i don't believe the pay to win advantage you receive from crates is larger enough to stop buying the game. People forget the season pass is gone so kind of have to accept a minimal downside. If someone can prove the pay to win advantage is massive only then will i join the club against this.
 
Top Bottom