The state of Battlefront’s Skirmish: Bugs & future content support

 

Skirmish’s arrival in June finally brought a beefed up offline addition to Battlefront.

Unfortunately, the new mode, which features Walker Assault and Fighter Squadron, launched with a number of bugs, including issues with hero pick-ups, multiplayer hand access, and hit-detection woes for fighters.

DICE’s David Spinnier, who worked on the Walker Assault side of the mode, later confirmed that the multiplayer hand issue was a bug, and also thanked the community for reporting bugs. However, DICE has been fairly quiet regarding bugs in Skirmish since then (as well as other, more general issues in Battlefront, save for a comment about frame-drops plaguing PC users).

EA Star Wars’ Twitter account recently confirmed bug fixes are inbound, but no date has been set for a patch:

@BillyBobJones27 Our team is working on it.

— EAStarWars (@EAStarWars) August 18, 2016

@ablleohs We do not have any updates to share at the moment. Our team is looking into it.

— EAStarWars (@EAStarWars) August 18, 2016

It is possible that a patch will come next Tuesday when a new Hutt Contract arrives. However, it’s also possible that they’ll unlock the contract without a client-side patch. This is how the Berserker Trait contract worked back in April. If this is the case, the issues with Skirmish probably won’t be fixed until the Death Star update next month.

One disclaimer about EA Star Wars’ Twitter account: It isn’t always correct, despite being an official source. Often times, it posts generic answers; the actual content of their tweets isn’t always on point.

There have also been a lack of comments regarding future content updates to Skirmish in the form of maps, modes, hero AI and additional customization options. EA Star Wars’ official account recently noted that they’re “very excited” about the feedback they’ve received on Skirmish. Similar to bug fixes, however, no updates are currently available:

@AidanSnesrud Our team is very excited to see the feedback on Skirmish, however we do not have any updates to share at the moment.

— EAStarWars (@EAStarWars) August 19, 2016

While this isn’t exactly a thrilling answer, both Spinnier and the game’s lead designer Dennis Brannvall have both been supportive of a fan poll regarding which mode people most want to see next in Skirmish. Spinnier also noted previously that “combat was the easy part” in coding Skirmish. This could give hope for easier support of future modes, like Drop Zone or Heroes vs. Villains.

In terms of DLC content being ported over, the game’s community manager Mat Everett stated in July that there are no “plans to add the Season pass maps to Skirmish at this time.” Again, this isn’t the best news for those hoping to see a more robust Skirmish option in the future. However, it is still possible for plans to change; EA/DICE didn’t plan space battles for the game either.

Ultimately, I hope for DICE to be more transparent regarding future Skirmish support. Still, it’s nice to see that bug fixes are on their way, even if we don’t know when they’re coming.

(h/t Starmasui17324)