Star Wars: Battlefront 2 can't catch a break it seems. After the prolonged controversy surrounding its microtransactions and loot crates— as well as their poor attempts to fix them by lowering the requirements and credits earned — there's a new problem.
The game's offline Arcade mode limits the amount of credits earned until a timer resets. Star Wars: Battlefront 2's Arcade mode pits you against AI opponents instead of other players so it's an ideal way to grind credits needed to purchase loot crates and unlock heroes. You don't have to compete with other players especially ones who have accumulated a lot of advantageous Star Cards which give perks like health upon kills.
It seems as though players can only complete five challenges per day before the timer kicks in. Luckily the cap is just for the Arcade mode so you can continue to earn credits in Star Wars: Battlefront 2's multiplayer offerings. Unfortunately this isn't ideal. Paul Keslin, the game's producer, said the following when asked in a Reddit AMA about the timer.
As we want to let players earn Credits offline via a more relaxed game mode, we needed to also find a way to make sure it wouldn't be exploited in a way that would impact Multiplayer. Because of that we made the decision to limit the number of Credits earned to stop potential abuse. We will be looking at data continually and make adjustments to make things as balanced as possible… As for more Arcade, just like every mode in our game, we want to look for ways to expand it going forward. Unfortunately at this point we don't have anything to share right now, but know that we care about Offline modes.
It's hard not to think that the limit imposed on Arcade mode is to encourage microtransactions, following Keslin's excuse. There aren't that many ways to stay competitive without resorting to purchasing loot crates. Anyone who spends a couple of hundred dollars right now can gain access to incredibly powerful Star Cards which offers non-trivial gameplay advantages. Coming across these players can be disheartening to say the least especially when you're just starting out. This is one of the main reasons why many gamers give up on multiplayer titles in the early stages. It seems that EA doesn't understand that an advantage, no matter how minuscule, is an advantage, and can change the course of an encounter in multiplayer experiences.
Hopefully EA will reconsider some of these prohibitive mechanics and implement a way that levels the playing field between paying and non-paying players. The developers have promised changes, we just don't know when they'll be implemented in Star Wars: Battlefront 2.
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