Update: Party System, IG-88 & the Future of Battlefront Plus

The KYBER Party Update and Battlefront Plus: The IG-88 Update

Launch Date: October 10th at 16:00 UTC
Server Maintenance: October 10th at 15:00 UTC

Bring your friends back to the Battlefront. Form parties of up to 20 players, choose a server and let KYBER handle the mod downloads and joining process for your group. You'll stay together in-game, with squad support and private party chat.

In Battlefront Plus, IG-88 joins the roster alongside the Umbaran Blaster, reworked lightsaber parries, Star Card loadouts and new appearances. We're also sharing the roadmap for future Battlefront Plus updates, including new reinforcements, starfighters, weapons and hero refreshes.

Read below to learn about the new Party & Squad System, IG-88 update, and the Battlefront Plus Roadmap.

Play Together, Stay Together

You can now form parties of up to 20 players, inviting people directly from your friends list. Incoming invitations appear as a banner with a notification sound, and can be accepted or declined without leaving what you're doing.

Once your party is assembled, the leader chooses a server and KYBER handles the required mod checks and downloads for every member. When everyone is ready, the party joins the game automatically. Members can also join late, and party leaders can host a server for their group instead.

Once in-game, party members are placed in the same squad, with a dedicated party chat visible only to your group. Team shuffling also keeps party members together.

Party leaders can remove members or transfer leadership, while a new privacy setting lets you control whether players outside your friends list can invite you.

A Place in the Queue

Joining a full server now places you in a queue instead of returning a failed connection. Your position updates live in the launcher, and a slot is reserved for you as soon as one becomes available.

Parties queue together, but they do not reserve places one at a time while waiting for enough room. Once every member has the required mods and the server has space for the entire party, KYBER reserves those slots and the group joins automatically. Until then, available places remain open to other players, so a waiting party cannot hold up the server by keeping slots empty.

Party invitations are disabled while the group is in the queue.

A New Social Bar and Server Browser

The launcher's navigation bar has been replaced with a new social bar, bringing your friends, party and download progress together at a glance.

The server browser has also been redesigned. Servers are grouped by region, with new badges and region icons throughout the list. A redesigned server information panel makes it easier to browse server groups, automatically selecting your preferred region where multiple regions are available and letting you switch between individual server instances.

Joining a server you're banned from now displays the reason and expiry in a dedicated dialog, rather than leaving you without that information.

Smaller Downloads, Larger Collections

Mod collection updates now use incremental downloads. When a collection changes, KYBER downloads only the mods that have changed, rather than downloading unchanged mods again.

We've also increased the mod limit from 247 to 1,739, giving modders and server hosts considerably more room for larger collections.

This update fixes automatic Nexus Mods downloads, improves the detection of mods inside nested archive folders, and adds warnings for corrupted collections. When a working duplicate of a collection is available, the launcher will favour it.

Stability and Server Tools

Under the hood, we've made fixes and optimisations to the in-game module, including changes intended to reduce random startup crashes and frame-time spikes. This release also fixes in-game team chat, joining servers while the game is already open, and several connection issues affecting proxies and server availability.

The networking improvements in this release are modest. We'll also have more detailed internal data on latency and server frame times, helping us identify where further networking improvements and module optimisations are needed. That information will guide the work that follows this update.

Server owners gain configurable AFK kicking and an in-game chat filter, with a default blocked-phrase list available on every server.

For plugin developers, the expanded KYBER Plugin API adds hot reloading, access to map rotations at runtime, more player information and events, and the ability to change player health and abilities while they're spawned. Official API documentation is also now available.

The complete KYBER Patch Notes are published below, covering these additions and the full list of fixes and developer-facing changes.

A Note on Code Signing

We previously announced that the launcher and in-game module would be code signed with this release. Last-minute changes mean we will miss the validation window for October 10, so code signing will instead arrive in a separate update a few weeks later.

Credits:

7reax - GitHub - Party & Queue systems (API & Launcher), Server Browser & Server Info Box redesign implementation, Incremental Downloads, NexusMods downloads fix.

dcat - Discord - UX & UI Design, Project Management, Community, Marketing, and Branding.

Magix - GitHub - Party & Squad in-game systems, in-game optimizations & bug fixes, various KYBER Plugin features, chat filter, and AFK kick.

Nuuby - GitHub - Kyber Time Entities & Misc Plugin Additions

Battlefront Plus: The IG-88 Update

The Battlefront Plus team delivers another update, with IG-88 joining the roster as a new playable villain, headlining an update that also brings changes to melee combat, equipment, appearances and the in-game interface.

IG-88 comes prepared for his next bounty, with Concussion Discs that knock his quarry off their feet and leave them dazed. Hunt Protocols activates the assassin droid’s thermal sensors and switches his E-11 to neural inhibitor rounds, slowing targets and dealing light damage over time. Anyone who gets too close faces Terminate: two powerful scatter blasts that gain extra bolts with each target they eliminate, up to a maximum of nine.

The Assault class gains the Umbaran Blaster, bringing the advanced weaponry of the Shadow People into your hands.
Fans of The Clone Wars will recognise its distinctive design and green blaster bolts from the Umbara campaign, where Captain Rex and the 501st fought through perpetual darkness against the planet’s heavily armed militia. Developed in isolation from much of the galaxy, Umbaran technology gave the Republic’s clone army a costly introduction to the Shadow World; now you can take a piece of that unfamiliar arsenal into your next deployment.

Lightsaber Parry Mechanic

A well-timed block can turn a lightsaber duel in your favour: raise your guard just before a melee attack or melee ability connects to stagger your opponent and create an opening to strike back.

Visual and sound cues confirm a successful parry, helping you get familiar with the timing. Parries use their own stamina pool, shown beneath your health bar in place of the old XP progress bar, so keep an eye on your reserves and choose your moments carefully.

Star Card Loadouts and Clearer Ability Information

Functional Star Card loadouts arrive in this update, alongside improvements to how ability information is displayed.

Abilities on cooldown now show a timer instead of their keybind, making the remaining wait clearer during combat. Custom passive abilities are also correctly displayed in the passive abilities section.

New Appearances

Anakin Skywalker receives a blue Padawan appearance, while Padmé Amidala gains Caped and Handmaiden appearances.

There are also new options for Clone Troopers, ARC Troopers, Clone Engineers and the Clone Commando. These include the 87th Sentinel Corps, 100th Company and 181st Armor Division for Clone Troopers, Shiny and Legion variants for ARC Troopers, and a Demolitions Expert appearance for the Clone Commando.

Padmé's appearance assets have also been completely remade as part of this release.

Balance Changes Across the Battlefront

The update includes a wider balance and fixes pass across trooper weapons, reinforcements, heroes, vehicles and starfighters.

Among the hero changes, Commander Cody's Attack Order now grants slight healing to players attacking his marked target. Shield Wall also grants Cody crowd-control immunity while he's near his shield, and undeploying it within that radius instantly refreshes the ability. Grand Admiral Thrawn receives increased maximum health, with a corresponding increase to the health granted by his Ascendant Star Card.

Starfighter Star Card values are now set to their maximum purple values by default, alongside adjustments to bomber costs, abilities and individual vehicles.

What's Next for Battlefront Plus?

The IG-88 Update is only part of the picture. The Battlefront Plus roadmap outlines several planned updates, each bringing new content alongside further improvements to the existing roster.

They Fly Now Update

Starfighters are coming to Conquest, alongside two new vehicles: the V-19 Torrent and Geonosian Starfighter.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous are also receiving hero refreshes with new passives and Star Cards. Additional appearances are planned for Clone Troopers, ARC Troopers and Clone Engineers.

Republic Elites Update

The Senate Commando joins as a new reinforcement, accompanied by the Z-6 Chaingun.

This update also includes new passives and Star Cards for Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku, plus further appearances for Clone Troopers, ARC Troopers, Clone Jet Troopers and Clone Sharpshooters.

Heavy Assault Update

The B2-HA arrives as a new reinforcement, alongside the Power 5 blaster.

Yoda and Darth Maul receive hero refreshes with new passives and Star Cards, while Clone Troopers, Clone Jet Troopers and B2 Super Battle Droids gain additional appearances.

Beyond These Updates

Further plans include more heroes, villains, reinforcements and blasters, alongside additional Clone Trooper and Clone Jet Trooper appearances and Infinite Coil skins for Battle Droids.

Roadmap content remains subject to change or removal.

Arriving October 10

The KYBER Party Update and Battlefront Plus: The IG-88 Update arrive on October 10.

Share this post with your group and get KYBER installed ahead of launch. When the updates arrive, form your party, choose a server and head into battle together.

Setup Guide - KYBER

1) Save the KYBER installer and unpack the downloaded ZIP.

2) Complete the installation, then launch KYBER.

3) Play fair, be kind, and have fun!

💖the KYBER Team at Armchair Developers

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