These are Star Wars Battlefront’s DLC plans

Some free, some paid

Despite liking Star Wars Battlefront quite a lot initially — far more than I would’ve expected, going in — I think it has been, what? A month since I last played? That weekend bonus XP event in December is the last time I remember hopping on, and even then, I didn’t stick around for long. As many players have said before, without consistent new content, it is difficult to stay motivated.

The first major release, The Battle of Jakku, was all right — a decent starting point. We’ve known that more DLC is on the way, but when? And to what extent? EA has some answers.

Here’s a summary of the upcoming free and premium content, as well as this month’s patch

Free for all players

January 27, 2016

• “The Tatooine Survival map will now support the Blast, Droid Run, Drop Zone, Hero Hunt, and Heroes vs. Villains multiplayer modes, and is called Raider Camp.”
• New Hoth-themed outfits for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.
• The option to create private matches.
• Daily challenges and community events.
• Balance adjustments for weapons and modes.

February 2016

• A new Survival mission set on Hoth.
• A “brand new” multiplayer map on Hoth for larger modes like Walker Assault and Supremacy.
• Turning Point mode will work on “all maps that currently support Walker Assault and Supremacy.”

March 2016

• A Survival map for Tatooine.
• A new multiplayer map on Endor for Walker Assault, Supremacy, and Turning Point.

Paid digital expansions (available standalone or in the season pass)

• March 2016: Outer Rim – “Fight among the factories of Sullust and battle within Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine.”

• Summer 2016: Bespin – “It’s hunt or be hunted in this action-packed experience set in the Cloud City of Bespin.”

• Fall 2016: Death Star – “That’s no moon! One of the most iconic locations in the Star Wars universe makes its debut in Star Wars Battlefront.”

• Early 2017: Untitled fourth expansion

Those descriptions leave much to the imagination. I’m curious what all the Death Star DLC will entail. It would be cool to fight up there, in space, but I should keep my expectations in check.

Besides everything mentioned above, DICE will “continue to listen to [its] community throughout the year and provide updates designed to make Star Wars Battlefront even more fun for everyone,” according to senior producer Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir.

There are also a detailed notes for this month’s Battlefront update. If you just want to know if the overpowered, oft-used DL-44 blaster pistol has finally been changed, the answer is yes: “overheat tweaked and fire rate changed from 250 to 180.”

January 2016 update

Additional Content/Functionality:

• Multiplayer modes added to the Tatooine Survival map (Blast, Droid Run, Hero Hunt, Heroes vs. Villains, Drop Zone)
• Hoth Luke Skywalker skin added
• Hoth Han Solo skin added
• Private match functionality added
• Daily challenges added
• Setting for actively choosing server site added

Weapon and Star Card changes:

• EE-3 Explosive shot damage decreased from 10 to 4 per shot
• SE-14C Explosive shot damage decreased from 10 to 5 per shot
• Homing Shot lock on time increased from 0.4 to 1.5
• Homing Shot lock on distance decreased by 10 meters
• Homing Shot projectile speed decreased from 30 to 23
• RTC-97 overheat value is increased by 8%
• Bowcaster replenish time tweaked (Normal 18 to 25 and Upgrade 15 to 20)
• Flash Grenade replenish time tweaked (Normal 16 to 20 and Upgrade 12 to 15)
• ION Torpedo replenish time tweaked (Normal 15 to 25 and Upgrade 12 to 20)
• Thermal Detonator replenish time tweaked (Normal 15 to 20 and Upgrade 10 to 15)
• Impact Grenade replenish time tweaked (Normal 16 to 25 and Upgrade 12 to 20)
• Explosive Shot active time tweaked (Normal 7 to 5 and Upgrade 10 to 7)
• Scan Ping recharge time tweaked (Normal 8 to 10 and Upgrade 5 to 8)
• Cycler Rifle bullet dropoff reduced
• Cycler Rifle damage increased from 90 to 100 at close range (10 meters)
• DL-44 overheat tweaked and fire rate changed from 250 to 180.
• Bounty Hunter trait card Level 3 reward percentage lowered from 100% to 85%
• Fully charged (5 shots) Bowcaster damage per projectile decreased from 50 to 15, otherwise (1 or 3 shot) bowcaster damage per projectile decreased from 50 to 10
• ION Torpedo lock on range decreased from 600 to 500 meters
• Smart Rocket lock on range changed from 1000 to 500 meters
• RTC-97 spread is increased when firing for a longer period
• Scan Ping tweaked to have 50% shorter spotting time
• Scan Ping active time decreased from 7 to 2 (is this what the above refers to?)
• Barrage recharge times increased, Normal from 18 to 40 and Upgrade from 15 to 35
• Explosive Shot active time decreased, Normal from 7 to 5 and Upgrade from 10 to 7

Vehicle Changes:

• Starfighters pickups have a 20 second respawn delay
• T-47 Airspeeder pickups have a 10 second respawn delay
• Millennium Falcon and Slave I health decreased by 30%

Game Mode Changes:

• Removed a turbolaser on Sullust which could be used for spawn killing
• Turbolaser respawn time has been increased with 15 seconds
• New friend zones and additional spawn points for Supremacy maps
• New friend zones and additional spawn points for Walker Assault maps
• New friend zones and additional spawn points for Turning Point on Jakku
• Bugfix for crashing instantly when spawning in a vehicle on Jakku
• Fighter Squadron hero vehicle pickups have more randomized timing
• Fixed a Heroes vs. Villains bug where players could use their cards in pre-round that got corrected by server
• Updated spawn management between big and small game modes
• Reduced the match bonus for Blast from 2000 to 1000
• Reduced the Win bonus for Blast from 750 to 500
• Increased the Match bonus for Hero Hunt from 1000 to 1750
• Reduced the Win bonus for Hero Hunt from 500 to 250
• Reduced score for dealing damage to AI X-Wings and AI TIE Figthers from 20 to 10
• New game mode minimum player count thresholds:
  – Walker Assault 20
  – Supremacy 20
  – Dropzone 4
  – Blast 4
  – Cargo 4
  – Fighter Squadron 4
  – Hero Hunt 4
  – Droid Run 4
  – Heroes vs. Villains 4
  – Turning Point 20

Hero Changes:

• Han Solo weapon damage over distance is lowered. Damage goes from 70 (was 75) to 30 (was 35) between 10 (was 20) and 25 (was 40) meters
• Boba Fett weapon damage over distance is lowered. Damage goes from 30 to 20 (was 25) between 30 and 60 (was 80) meters
• Boba Fett wristlauncher explosion radius decreased from 4 to 2.5, maxiumum damage increased from 1 to 1.2 meters
• Boba Fett missile doesn’t lock on anymore

Bug Fixes:

• Stun inducing attacks now properly trigger stun animation loop
• Fixing an issue where melee’ing at nothing completly stopped your movement
• After the transition from the AT-AT the user screen could remain black, this is now fixed
• Several instances of rocks that players could get stuck on have been fixed
• Speederbike – Inconsistence between the range when you see the prompt button and when you could actually use the vehicle
• Survival weapons behaved differently than MP, now brought in-line
• Jakku – Invisible collision located on the landed Rebel transport ship
• Users with the most kills will now not be prevented from get the Trophy / Achievement ”Playing the objective” in Blast

Star Wars Battlefront – The Road Ahead [EA]