Changes to Battlefront’s trait system are coming—What could they be?

A couple weeks back at gamescom, Battlefront’s lead designer Dennis Brannvall hinted that changes to the game’s trait system will arrive this month in the Death Star update.

However, he didn’t go into any further detail besides the fact that more changes are coming to the system, and so I thought it would be fun to consider how traits might change come a few weeks time.

Before we take a dive into how it might change, let’s take a look into how it works now. There are currently seven traits in Battlefront. You can equip one of them each before each match.

Each trait grants the player a special ability; for instance, when the Scout trait is equipped, the player is no longer seen on opponent’s minimaps when sprinting. Traits start at a base level of one and every three kills, the trait is bumped up a level (to the maximum of three). Level two bumps up the base ability while level three grants an additional ability. Each time the player dies, the trait drops one level, although it cannot drop below level one.

Traits only work right now when playing as infantry, not as vehicles or heroes. However, the DLC heroes have their own traits.

So how might this system be altered?

1. Each hand could allow for a unique trait

Back in June’s Bespin update, DICE changed the UI so that the equipped trait appeared alongside both of a player’s hands. This initially led to some confusion before the Bespin update as players surmised that the UI change meant that players would then be able to have two traits equipped for each match.

Unfortunately, weapons designer Christian Johannesen debunked that theory in a tweet a couple of days before Bespin launched. However, Johannesen did mention that they were “working on further improvements moving forward.”

With the promise of a revamped trait system on the horizon, perhaps having multiple traits available for each match might be a possibility. A number of players certainly seemed disappointed to learn that wasn’t going to be the case back in June.

2. Traits could become applicable to vehicles

As it stands right now, traits are useless in modes like Fighter Squadron or (theoretically—if something doesn’t change) the first and third phases of the upcoming Battle Station mode.

Brannvall tweeted in April that traits for Fighter Squadron are a “cool idea” and that they were “investigating” the idea.

I’m not exactly sure how DICE might manage fitting existing traits into vehicle-centric modes, but perhaps each trait could have special rules for vehicles specifically or DICE could even create whole new traits based on vehicular combat.

3. The mechanic for increasing a trait’s level could change

One idea I’ve seen tossed around on the forums and elsewhere is that triggering a trait’s level should be dependent on a player’s overall score or objective score. The theory behind this is that it might reward players for actively seeking the objective, rather than sitting in the back of the map and sniping to increase their trait level.

In an exchange with Elliot of BattlefrontUpdates on Twitter, producer Paul Keslin said that he would “pass the feedback on” regarding using score instead of kills. However, hero designer Guillaume Mroz said in the same conversation that “tests showed so far that kills were more understandable.” Note that Mroz, as the hero designer, might have been specifically talking about traits for DLC heroes, like Greedo or Lando, and not the traits for infantry.

While it makes sense that kills might be easier for players to comprehend, I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to DICE altering traits so that objective score triggered level increases. It could potentially encourage better objective play and more cohesive teamwork.

4. A combination of all three

Two or all these changes could also happen, although I think the most likely scenario is that #1 will happen on its own. It’s also possible that the changes will somehow tie into the customization overhaul Dennis teased alongside the trait system change, but I’m not sure how that might work.

There is also the possibility that base-game heroes (like Luke or Boba Fett) might receive traits, but my guess is that the change to the trait system will revolve around infantry-based traits.

What do you think the trait overhaul might be? Give your thoughts in the comments or let us know on Twitter or Facebook.