They have drivable AT-STs and drivable Snow Speeders. First time in Star Wars Galaxies. It's not true atmospheric flight, unfortunately, as they had to cheat a bit to create ground collision for the vehicles. You get to zip around a blow up Snowtroopers though, so there's a lot of fun to be had there. They're trying to develop the AT-ST as a two-player mechanic, but there's no guarantee it will make it into the Encounter when it launches.
One thing that you've seen in the movies but won't make it into the game is the 'tow cable'. The Snow Speeders tripping up the AT-ATs is really excellent to see, but from a mechanics perspective is just too hard to do in an MMO. "This time the AT-AT shields are not too strong for blasters." They're the primary targets in the field for the Rebels.
The instance is factional-only. If it launches 'for' the Rebels, all of the plotlines and encounters for players are made assuming you're a Rebel. The same is true for Imperials. There is no 'neutral' version of the instance. They're hoping to do something like with the space encounters, where neutrals could join a group on either side and temporarily have their faction over-written. Objectives from either side pit players against notable elements of this frenetic experience. One of the Imperial objectives in the instance is to stop the Ion Cannon from firing, for example.
The designers noted that multi-group instances might eventually be in the works, but there are a lot of thorny balance issues to deal with there. For the time being, they have no plans for space-based instances or multi-group instancing. What they're focusing on now is more of these single-group story-driven encounters that tap deeply into the lore of the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
To finally conclude the presentation, the developers and designers showed off a fantastic preview video showcasing the new content coming with the encounter. Check it out below!
