Conquest Mode
The primary focus of "The Dark Times" is enhancing the single-player Battlefront II experience. The primary focus of Battlefront II is its "Conquest" mode. It is only natural, therefore, that the first news is about conquest mode in The Dark Times.
There are three notable changes about conquest mode (other than the new Imperial and Rebel sides) that serve to make a more "lastingly fresh" experience for the single player. They are:
Rotating Skydomes
This is first, as it is probably the most negligible change. While strictly visual, this adds a bit of a "random factor" to the stock maps and helps prevent maps from feeling the same all the time.
All of the outdoor maps (with the exception of Mustafar and Dagobah) have an alternate skydome that may or may not replace the stock skydome whenever the mission is started. Each of the alternate domes is representative of "early morning" or "pre-dawn" in keeping with the "Dark Times" theme:
Hero Support Units
Rather than keep the same set of units for every mission, each team has a special seventh "hero support" unit that appears, dependent on the hero made available to that team. Each hero support unit is related to them in some way - Darth Vader has 501st Stormtrooper Commanders, the Emperor has his Royal Guards, etc. Some examples follow:
Random and AI Heroes
Finally, the most important part of the conquest changes - the heroes. Heroes are now random by-the-map, meaning any hero can be available on any map - although some heroes are more likely to show up on certain planets, like Old Ben is more likely to show up on Tatooine. Of course their hero support units are tied to them, so they are technically random as well.
The AI also has the ability to play as heroes now, which provides a new and unique challenge for the single player. Will you be forced to use your own hero to counter theirs? Will you test yourself and see if you can take down the hero with just infantry? You decide, but in the end conquest will be much more of a challenge, thanks to these worthy AI opponents.
