Star Wars Squadrons - PC/PS4/XB1/VR!

[Uncle Mike]

A little put off that the Eurogamer preview bluntly says 

Quote

though I think it's fair to say that the single-player isn't really the main focus here. Instead it feels like a neat way to become acquainted with the systems

 

And also

Quote

a short campaign

 

So they've made it sound like a classic "here's an extended tutorial for multiplayer" which turns me off a fair bit.

[Fused gamer]

1 minute ago, Gwangi said:

So who is getting this on pc and what should our squadron be called. 

 

I haven't got a pc, but how about Rouge Squadron?

[jonamok]

47 minutes ago, Gwangi said:

So who is getting this on pc and what should our squadron be called. 

 

How about ‘Uncanny Valley of Gwangi.‘

[FiveFootNinja]

Think I'll be PS4/5 (with VR) most likely, but cross-play should hopefully mean we can all squad up. So excited.

[Treble]

2 hours ago, Gwangi said:

So who is getting this on pc and what should our squadron be called. 

 

Rear Windu, obvs

[SharkyOB]

3 hours ago, Fused gamer said:

 

I haven't got a pc, but how about Rouge Squadron?

 

Or Rouge Squadron due to the number of times the word gets misspelled on here. 

[Pob]

10 hours ago, Uncle Mike said:

A little put off that the Eurogamer preview bluntly says 

 

And also

 

So they've made it sound like a classic "here's an extended tutorial for multiplayer" which turns me off a fair bit.

 

This could be the first game in 20 years that actually leaves me wanting more. Quite looking forward to that tbh.

[SharkyOB]

10 hours ago, Uncle Mike said:

A little put off that the Eurogamer preview bluntly says 

 

And also

 

So they've made it sound like a classic "here's an extended tutorial for multiplayer" which turns me off a fair bit.

 

This was always my fear. Something that looks similar on the surface to X-Wing and TIE Fighter but completely lacks the amazing depth in single player. I'll still get it but I think it'll be disappointingly shallow. Will be a great showcase for VR though. 

[Uncle Mike]

3 minutes ago, SharkyOB said:

Or Rouge Squadron due to the number of times the word gets misspelled on here. 

 

Did you do that on purpose? Because it says Rouge in the post you quoted.

[SharkyOB]

Just now, Uncle Mike said:

 

Did you do that on purpose? Because it says Rouge in the post you quoted.

 

Yeah, I clearly can't read properly this morning 

[Vemsie]

Between Fallen Order and this, it seems EA is finally putting the Star Wars license to good use. This really does look highly promising.

[FiveFootNinja]

2 hours ago, SharkyOB said:

This was always my fear. Something that looks similar on the surface to X-Wing and TIE Fighter but completely lacks the amazing depth in single player. I'll still get it but I think it'll be disappointingly shallow. Will be a great showcase for VR though. 

 

I certainly think the perceived 'depth' of this is going to be something different depending on how you are coming at it and will definitely turn some people off it.

 

I'm seeing it as more of a successor to the original X-Wing vs Tie Fighter game focusing on competitive multiplayer dogfighting, rather than the more single player mission driven X-Wing, Tie Fighter or X-Wing Alliance titles. In that context if the core gameplay loop feels right it'll be fine for that, however I also hope that if the core engine works well it wouldn't be that hard to start building more narrative bits (different mission types, space stations to defend, cargo to pickup, etc...) as additional content down the line (a bit like the old Balance of Power expansion did for XvT) to turn it into something that feels like it can also be a bit more like Alliance successor as well (one of the greatest games of all time).

[papalazarou]

The single player in the alpha is only an hour long as it’s just the prologue.  the full campaign is supposed to be 8 hour plus 

[papalazarou]

"if" a person was involved currently in the closed alpha.....that person may say that so far this is impressing him a lot..... 

[FiveFootNinja]

"if" a person did say that, I may do this... 

[jonamok]

Is that fictional person playing using a HOTAS?

[papalazarou]

That “fictional” person would be on an Xbox one pad on pc but may see if hotas is working in the alpha later (vr unfortunately is disabled for this alpha)

[Joystick Chevron]

So are the TIEs basically hard mode or something, or does the game balance their lack of shields with some other advantage? I know the canon explanations is the Empire doesn't give a toss and goes for sheer numbers but as far as a game goes, it's not the most satisfying reason.

[papalazarou]

they are  balanced by there speed and manoeuvrability - but also in general it’s all about balancing your ships systems on the fly - it’s fairly easy when you get the basics (all on dpad on Xbox controller)

[Wiper]

12 minutes ago, Joystick Chevron said:

So are the TIEs basically hard mode or something, or does the game balance their lack of shields with some other advantage? I know the canon explanations is the Empire doesn't give a toss and goes for sheer numbers but as far as a game goes, it's not the most satisfying reason.

 

They feel pretty sturdy; think they may have more hull points to balance out. Also, less energy system juggling is a plus. And the whole 'support ships firing out repairs' thing helps take the edge off, if you're in a supportive wing.

 

I've only flown one online match so far, but I was impressed. And saw a wild Harsin.

[Benny]

How are you all getting to play the alpha?!

[Harsin]

3 minutes ago, Benny said:

How are you all getting to play the alpha?!

https://ea.arcsivr.com/Portal/EA-CTE/default

[papalazarou]

 I would say that this sits somewhere nicely in between original  xwing game and the spac combat from battlefront - kinda caters for both crowds but it works.  The love for the original xwing def comes through in what ive played 

[jonamok]

31 minutes ago, papalazarou said:

they are  balanced by there speed and manoeuvrability - but also in general it’s all about balancing your ships systems on the fly - it’s fairly easy when you get the basics (all on dpad on Xbox controller)

I’m interested in how ‘pips’ are assigned. If I’m in an X-wing and engines, weapons and shields are all equal at 1/3rd max, and I want to increase say engines by just one pip and I want that from my weapons, how do I do that? Or I want it instead from my shields, how do I do that? Assuming I have the same freedom of how I increase the other two power settings, that feels like six specific button options. How does it work?

[papalazarou]

17 minutes ago, jonamok said:

I’m interested in how ‘pips’ are assigned. If I’m in an X-wing and engines, weapons and shields are all equal at 1/3rd max, and I want to increase say engines by just one pip and I want that from my weapons, how do I do that? Or I want it instead from my shields, how do I do that? Assuming I have the same freedom of how I increase the other two power settings, that feels like six specific button options. How does it work?

Unfort you can’t do that - all three are set at equal then you either assign full power to one of them leaving the other two at a quarter pip each. Pushing down on the dpad balances them all out again - but you can’t increase them all at different increments.  I kinda get why they did it this way as that sort of power balance would put a lot of couch gamers off - this way you still get power balancing (and you really do need to keep an eye on it game) while not making it to hard 

 

EDIT...  forget all of the above there is a setting in the options that allows you set pips at smaller incrementals it’s not turned on by default 

[jonamok]

Oh. Thought I’d read you had that degree of granular control. That’s a shame.

[papalazarou]

1 minute ago, jonamok said:

Oh. Thought I’d read you had that degree of granular control. That’s a shame.

See my edited statement above there is an option to do so just not turned on bu default doh

[papalazarou]

One other thing way I would say “if” I was playing the alpha that is.... is that it runs amazing. I’ve what would be low mid range spec pc these days and it’s defaulted everything to ultra and it plays flawlessly and looks stunning

[jonamok]

6 minutes ago, papalazarou said:

See my edited statement above there is an option to do so just not turned on bu default doh

Okay. Well ‘if’ a person had the opportunity to try out those more incremental power features at some point, I’d love to know how it worked. 

[papalazarou]

23 minutes ago, jonamok said:

Okay. Well ‘if’ a person had the opportunity to try out those more incremental power features at some point, I’d love to know how it worked. 

Said “if” just did and yeah it’s a lot better the pips can be raised in 1/4 now but you can also raise and lower the power balance among all three at the same time instead of only one.  so say you set shields to full then you can also raise lasers to half while engine reduces to lowest - but you can change the dynamics of all three on the fly - so very close to the original game - in fact a lot of the controls are customisable - seems to have been set to more couch gamer as default - for instance I was able to switch what the Xbox sticks do ie change which stick did roll and yaw etc so it felt more inline with I’m comfortable with.   Once I did that I felt like I was. Flying ace zipping though space wreckage etc...