Squad System Update

The Squad System Update was an update for DICE's Star Wars Battlefront II that was released on Tuesday, September 25, 2018.

This update revamped the squad system, now featuring permanent squads that can consist of two or four members. All players in a squad can now spawn on each other, replacing the previous "spawn waves." As of the update, this new squad system was only available in Galactic Assault and Strike.

This update also brought the second batch of Clone Trooper Appearances to the game, the 91st Mobile Reconnaissance Corps and the 104th "Wolf Pack" Battalion, for the Galactic Republic's Assault, Heavy, and Specialist classes. This update further brought improvements to end of round matchmaking.

Other notable changes include:
 * Removal of the ability for Heavys' Ion Turrets to target infantry
 * Dynamic characters in the main menu of the game
 * The chicken near the East Turbolaser on Takodana now flees from players

Four Community Transmissions were released leading up to the update, including one on the new squad system, one on the next set of Clone Trooper Appearances, one on changes to matchmaking, and finally one on the update itself, including the release notes.

Features

 * Added ability to get into squads and spawn on squad members on Galactic Assault and Strike
 * Improved screen flow for quicker spawning in all modes where Squad Spawn is not present

Quality of Life

 * More dynamic change of characters shown on the Home and Career screens, due to implementation of backend ability to change those in a live environment
 * Implemented various stability fixes for the End of Round (EOR) Matchmaking
 * Improved the way the game client looks for an online game, by adding an automated Default option for the best Ping site, as well as simplifying the choice of sites in the menu.

Hero Changes
Leia Organa
 * Fixed an issue where Leia's Alternate Fire ability could damage a player piloting the AT-ST

Vehicle Changes
U-Wing
 * Fixed an issue where the "Repair" ability would not properly activate

Lando's Millennium Falcon
 * Fixed an issue where the Tactical Jammer ability would have no effect on Lando's Millennium Falcon

Classes & Special Units Changes
Officer
 * Fixed an issue that would prevent the Disruption ability to trigger in sync with the animation

Heavy
 * Removed the ability of Ion Turrets to lock and fire on troopers, as requested by the community
 * Reduced the damage done by the Ion Torpedo for better balancing

General Improvements
Fixed an issue where the Resourceful Star Card wouldn't correctly lower the ability cooldown when used.

Game Mode Changes
Galactic Assault
 * Implemented backend timers that allow tweaking of the objective duration on Galactic Assault in a live environment

Hero Starfighters
 * Added animations to further enhance the look and feel of the game mode's widget

Strike
 * Fixed a spelling issue in one of the objective texts

Map Changes
Jakku
 * Fixed an issue where heroes could hide or get stuck behind metal barriers on Jakku

Endor
 * Fixed an issue that would leave players stuck between tree and mountain assets

Takodana
 * Fixed an issue where the chicken near the East Turbolaser would not be fleeing from the player

General Changes

 * Added Ewok Hunt and Extraction-based challenges to the list of Daily Challenges
 * Removed Hero Showdown-based challenges "Perfect Together" and "Vader and Kylo", based on player feedback that they are too hard to achieve in an online environment
 * Fixed an issue where Iden's character and description text would be missing from the Campaign's spawn and customization screen
 * Fixed an issue where players would not be able to change their Clone Trooper appearances during the pre-round screens on games taking place on Kashyyyk and Kamino
 * Added additional UI effects when unlocking an Emote, Victory Pose or Appearance from the menu
 * Increased the maximum numbers of players in a group to 20, and the maximum number of players who can play together to 8
 * Fixed an issue where the button to get more Crystals would not show up in the Emotes and Victory Poses screens
 * Adjusted the "Saviour Kill" stat, so that it tracks relevant kills from the whole team and not just the squad members
 * This update will automatically disable CrossFire functionality for players with AMD Graphics Cards running on Windows 8 / 8.1, due to lack of support for multi-GPU with the specified operating system and GPU vendor.

Known Issues

 * Squad members that are inside certain land vehicles (Armor, Artillery, Speeder, Tauntaun, Mountable Turrets) are not correctly shown as being inside vehicles on the Squad Spawn screen. The fix has been identified and will be implemented in the next update.
 * Selecting to spawn on squad members who are inside land vehicles will temporarily disable access to the “Choose Character” screen. The issue gets resolved once players choose to spawn in the Default location. The fix has been identified and will be implemented in the next update.
 * The spawn screen UI will, in rare cases, remain on during gameplay on Strike, or Galactic Assault. The issue gets resolved once players choose to respawn. The fix has been identified and will be implemented in the next update.
 * The cooldown timer of the Shock Grenade ability would not be affected by the Resourceful Star Card. The fix has been identified and will be implemented in the next update.