Today's whopping 8GB Star Wars Battlefront update brings new weapons and Star Cards

A beefy 8GB update rolls out for Star Wars Battlefront today (timings here) in preparation for - but not exclusively for - the paid Outer Rim content.

Chief among the free new content available to all are new Hutt Contracts, which offer new weapons (the DL-18 and DT-12 pistols, and DLT-19X and RELBY-V10 targeting rifles) and Star Cards (Scatter Gun, Dioxis Grenade and Adrenaline Stim). You can see what they all do by logging into the Battlefront website. They all sound very powerful and presumably unlock at the highest levels (the upper Rank boundary has been increased to 60).

In addition, a new combat roll has been added for all non-Hero characters, and the Multiplayer menu has been redesigned and apparently now gets you into a game mode more quickly. Teams will now rebalance between map changes, and you'll be able to highlight objectives during battles to better organise your attack.

Elsewhere, wheezy old bin liner Darth Vader gets more health, a longer block, and both a shorter cooldown and increased range on his Lightsaber Throw. Conversely, his son, Luke Moanypants, will have his running speed and health slightly decreased. But both characters will benefit from being able to deflect modified Ion and Explosive Shot fire.

There are "spawning improvements" across various maps and modes thank goodness, and Blast mode has decreased in size from a 16 player cap to 12.

There also continue to be tweaks to the DL-44 pistol and Barrage and Bowcaster Star Cards. The DL-44's long-range damage has been decreased, the Barrage grenades now explode quicker, and the Bowcaster can't be charged and held for as long. The patch notes below have more detail.

Additional Content/Functionality

• Outer Rim: Now available for Season Pass owners
• New Feature: Hutt Contracts add a new way of obtaining Weapons and Star Cards
• New Feature: Spectator Mode introduces a way to watch Private Match games with a variety of camera angles and the ability to swap between players quickly
• Multiplayer Menu: Redesigned the screen to facilitate players being able to get into a game mode more quickly and easily
• Multiplayer: Teams will now re-balance when transitioning between maps
• Teamplay Focus: New feature in which an objective can be highlighted by each player to highlight where players are heading; press X (Xbox One), Square (PlayStation 4), or E (PC)
• Ranks: Increased Rank cap from 50 to 60
• Scoreboard: Added icons for playing as a Hero, playing in a vehicle, and player ping
• Scoreboard: Rearranged Score to be the first column represented
• Scoreboard: Faded player row to signify when a player has been defeated
• Combat: Added combat roll to non-Hero characters; strafe and double tap B (Xbox One) or Circle (PlayStation 4), for PC strafe and press Alt (can be rebound)
• Partner: The Partner Icon will now be visible on screen at all times
• UX: The currently selected Trait card is now shown in the deploy screen
• Credits: Updated Game Credits list

Weapon and Star Card Changes

• New Weapons: The DL-18 and the DLT-19X can be obtained via Hutt Contrats
• New Powerup: The T-7 Ion Disruptor has been added to the powerup pool
• General: Triggering a card right before death will no longer result in an effect not triggering and the card going on cooldown
• Bodyguard: Corrected the Level 3 description from "Decreases explosive damage by a high amount AND blaster damage by a small amount" to "Decreases explosive damage by a medium amount AND blaster damage by a small amount"
• Survivalist: Corrected the Level 3 description from "Health regeneration starts much faster AND replenish a small amount of health with each kill" to "Health regeneration starts faster AND replenish a small amount of health with each kill"
• Bounty Hunter: Corrected the Level 3 description from "High chance to get a Power-up with each kill AND resets cooldown with each kill" to "Medium chance to get a Power-up with each kill AND current cooldowns decreases with each kill"
• Bounty Hunter: Modified drop chances and cooldowns - Level 1: 25% Drop chance, Level 2: 50% Drop chance, & Level 3: 50% Drop chance AND 75% cooldown on each kill
• Shields: Personal Shield, Squad Shield, & the Blaster Cannon will now deflect and absorb most forms of projectiles; exceptions being the Cycler Rifle, Scatter Gun & Proximity Bomb
• Shields: When Personal Shield is active, the player is unable to fire weapons and throw grenades, but can still deploy droids, turrets, & call in Heroes and vehicles
• Bowcaster: Updated damage to be consistent across all 3 charge levels - Projectile damage is now 40, Explosion damage is now 33, & the Explosion radius is now 2m
• Bowcaster: Lowered max hold time from 5 to 3s
• Bowcaster: Now properly goes on cooldown when firing a shot and then quickly entering a turret
• Barrage: Lowered fuse timer from 2-2.25 to 1-1.5s
• Barrage: Decreased inner explosion radius from 3 to 2m
• Impact Grenade: Increased damage from 90 to 100
• Impact Grenade: Decreased explosion radius from 2.25 to 2m
• Ion Grenade: No longer deals collision damage
• Flashbang Grenade: Added a screenshot component to give it an extra disorienting effect
• Scan Pulse: Cooldown time increased from 10 to 18s (normal) and 8 to 16s (upgraded)
• DL-44: Damage decreased from 19 to 13 at a ranges greater than 40m
• Powerups: Deployed Droids and Turrets will now self-destruct after 20s when the owner is defeated
• Blaster Cannon: Kills will now count towards leveling Trait Cards
• Blaster Cannon: No longer takes splash damage from its own shots
• E-Web: Players now correctly take damage when right up against the barrel of the gun
• Viper Probe & R5-D4 Droid: Spawn protection decreased from 2 to 0.5s
• R5-D4: Now shows the correct health bar color for both teams
• Smart Rocket: No longer fires from the center of the player camera, now from the barrel of the weapon
• Vehicle Turret: Destroying this will now properly grant you score
• Jump Pack: Cooldown lowered from 25 to 22 (normal) and from 20 to 17 (upgraded)

Vehicle Changes

• T-47 Airspeeder: Now properly explodes when hitting the ground after a player ejects
• T-47 Airspeeder: During Walker Assault it is no longer possible to switch Tow Cable targets during the Tow Cable event
• Speeder Bike: Kills with the cannon are now properly displayed
• Speeder Bike: No longer takes damage when just outside the edge of the Orbital Strike boundary
• AT-ST: No longer takes damage from fire
• AT-ST: Changed the max pitch on the grenade launcher
• Millennium Falcon & Slave I: Now are immediately destroyed when crashing into the ground while in 1st Person view
• DF-9: Laser fire is now visible when angling the turret up
• Y-Wing: Players are now properly notified if they are killed by a Y-Wing

Multiplayer Game Mode Changes

• General: Misc spawning improvements across various map & mode combinations
• General: Princess Leia's Honor Guard and Emperor Palpatine's Shocktroopers are limited to only 2 spawns during the Heroes vs. Villains and Extraction Game Modes
• General: Players no longer instantly die during vehicle deployment after having taken damage that would kill them prior to the transition
• Fighter Squadron: Games will no longer end in a draw when a player that crashes into the ground would have awarded the winning points
• Fighter Squadron: Vehicles of equal size will now both be destroyed when colliding regardless if one vehicle is shielded
• Hero Hunt: Redesigned the way in which the new Hero is selected, now the top 3 damage dealers have a chance to be the next Hero - Spin the Wheel!
• Blast: Re-added Sulphur Fields back into the Blast map rotation
• Drop Zone: Altered player count from 16 to 12

Mission Changes

• Survival: Stars earned in the Survival in the Ice Caves and Rebel Depot Missions now count towards your total in the social hub
• Survival: Zoom now functions properly on all maps
• Survival: The AT-ST during Wave 4 on Hoth will now properly spawn in
• Split Screen: Player 2 can now see the health of Player 1's deployed turret
• Split Screen: Player 2's Scan Pulse now highlights enemies as expected
• Hero Battles: Friendly AI tokens will now properly award points to the enemy team during Solo Play
• Battles: Losing a life in offline Battles is now correctly tracked when winning

Hero Changes

• General: Fixed inconsistencies with blocking blaster fire between active and passive blocking for Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, & Emperor Palpatine
• General: When blocking blaster fire modified with Explosive Shot or Ion Shot, Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader now deflect and reflect Explosive Shots or Ion Shots back
• General: Heroes can no longer fire their weapon while melee'ing
• Darth Vader: Increased health from 1500 to 1650
• Darth Vader: Block ability time increased from 4 to 8s
• Darth Vader: Decreased cooldown of Lightsaber Throw from 7 to 6s
• Darth Vader: Increased distance of Lightsaber Throw by 3m
• Luke Skywalker: Decreased health from 1000 to 925
• Luke Skywalker: Slightly decreased running speed
• Boba Fett: Increased the range at which his blaster damage starts to drop off from 30 to 45m
• Boba Fett: Increased the range at which blaster damage is at the low end from 60 to 75m

Misc. Bug Fixes

• General: Lighting, textures, audio, user interface, text, and collision fixes
• General: Crash fixes
• General: Partner and Party connection fixes
• Map: Removed erroneous Stormtroopers outsider of the playable area from Heroes vs. Villains on Twilight on Hoth
• Achievement / Trophey: Updated text of Ackbar's Elite to state "Complete any survival mission on Master without spending a life"