A new Star Wars Battlefront II update is now available for download, introducing new gameplay features as well as gameplay tweaks and fixes.

　　One of the major introductions of the new update is the Squad System, which allows players to re-join their friends and the action much quicker than before. The new system also gives players the ability to play 2 versus 2 Private Matches of Hero Showdown.

　　Among the additions of the new update are also Ping Site changes, matchmaking improvements and more. Catch the full update notes below.

　　Squad System

　　The new Squad System will allow you to re-join your friends, allies, and the action much quicker than before. If you’re already playing with a group of friends, you will be placed together into a squad. If you join a game on your own, you will be placed into a random squad.

　　When you are defeated, you will have the ability to toggle through a spectator camera. This camera will be focused on one of your squad members and you’ll then have the ability to spawn directly onto them. Want to spawn on a different squad member? Simply toggle through the spectator camera until you find the squad member of your choosing.

　　The new squad system also grants you the ability to play 2v2 Private Matches of Hero Showdown.

　　We went more in depth on the Squad System in its own dedicated Community Transmission, you can find that here.

　　91st Mobile Reconnaissance Corps

　　The 91st Recon Cops were a regiment of the Republic during the Clone Wars. Lead by commander CC-8826, or Neyo, the 91st were involved in many battles across the Clone Wars.

　　104th “Wolf Pack” Battalion

　　The Wolfpack was a battalion that active throughout the Clone Wars and known for numerous military operations. On one such encounter, they engaged on a night assault on one of the last remaining outposts of General Grievous.The 104th Battalion can be identified by the iconic Wolf logo that identifies the squad, and the dark blue markings upon their armour.

　　You can read more about some changes we’re making to the Clone Trooper Appearances by click here

　　Ping Site Changes

　　We have added a new default setting to the ping site option. When you have this selected, the game will attempt to match you to any of the ping sites that you have the best ping to. In the real world, this means that if you are located in Europe and have a good ping to both Frankfurt [FRA] and Dublin [DUB], you could be matched to either one, meaning you should find games a lot quicker.

　　These changes will start to arrive alongside the September update and further updates will be made in the months after, as we continue to tweak and improve the matchmaking system.

　　Matchmaking

　　End of Round (EOR) matchmaking is a feature you will have noticed before. It’s something that has been turned on and tested at intermittent periods over the last few months.

　　The two key benefits to the end of round matchmaking will be:

　　Mixing players up more often. As a result of this it’s less likely that you will find yourself stuck in a poorly balanced game for more than a few rounds.

　　We’re changing the matchmaking behaviour so it favours filling up existing servers, as opposed to starting new ones. This means that you should join servers that are trending towards being full, as opposed to joining an empty one.

　　We go into more detail on the Matchmaking within its own Community Transmission, which you can find here.

　　Release Notes

　　NEW CONTENT

　　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.

　　Star Wars Battlefront II is now available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in all regions.