The sequel to the Star Wars: Battlefront reboot from 2015 is set to launch midway through November. While the game seemed to be an improvement over the original, bringing a single-player campaign, a deeper multiplayer mode, and ditching paid expansions, the addition of loot box based microtransactions to the title, especially a system that seems pay-to-win, has not flown well with the gaming community.
However, it seems EA is trying to fix these issues after receiving feedback from players who participated in the game"s recent beta. The company released a blog post today detailing what changes it will be implementing to the crates system at launch.
Crates in Star Wars: Battlefront II give players Star Cards, which are tiered skills and buffs that are equipped by classes. As crates can be bought with either in-game credits or real money, with the previous system, a player who spent enough money on crates was able to get the most powerful upgrades to their classes without needing to grind like the regular players.
In the new system, the highest tier of Star Cards, dubbed Epic, will no longer drop via crates, and will only be available through crafting. Moreover, as crafting materials are fashioned by grinding up crate drops, EA is also locking the most powerful Star Cards behind in-game ranks that players will need to meet before crafting them.
Meanwhile, instead of hoping for a weapon drop in a crate, most class-specific alternate weapons will now automatically unlock when players keep utilizing a class. They will also get class-specific crates that hold especially beneficial Star Cards and crafting parts while playing.
EA says that it will keep iterating on the crates system as time goes on, so we may see further changes even after Star Wars: Battlefront II launches on November 17. Although the loot crates will still be present in the game, reducing the gameplay impact from players who paid for their wares is always welcome. It will be interesting to see how the gaming community reacts to these changes.
Don"t forget to follow us @NeowinGaming on Twitter to keep up to date with our gaming coverage!