So I've been tinkering around with Mission Control and I'm looking forward to diving into it further. The game has so much potential in the area of missions, scenarios and campaigns than it does in new vehicles... especially as every vanilla niche allowable by the elegantly simple rules is getting filled for each faction.

I'm growing a little more anxious about how FFG intends to expound on this area by actually releasing a fully featured Mission Control. And now that an extraordinary effort by Dockingbay has resulted in the deliciously fertile Heroes of the Aturi Cluster co op game my mind is set abuzz. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around the time and dedication it took to produce that Coop.

I would not find it distasteful if FFG released some kind of "terrain pack" as might be found with Sails of Glory. 3D turret models, "token" modular space stations, new obstacles, new cards to actually turn your YT-1300 into an unarmed transport, your HWK's into a VIP shuttle, rules for free-floating asteroids, "AI" cards (brilliant from Dockingbay!), rules for hyperdrive use (accumulating actions to make jump), etc. etc. And all these new additions could be included in a final release of Mission Control.

Anyone growing a little more hungry for play expansion than vehicle expansion?

Couldn't agree more. I think once a game introduces a competitive 'Standard' play style, there often tends to be an artificial emphasis on the competitive aspects. I know that was true with MtG - as a guy that was at least as active in trading and the secondary market for cards, I was frequently reminded of the impact that casual or 'kitchen table' players had on the MtG card economy. This was very often overlooked by forums just like this one, were the focus was on competitive play that typically featured a VERY small subset of available game components.

X-Wing, unlike MtG, has THE MOST DESIRABLE IP IN THE WORLD behind it - it's freaking Star Wars, man! The whole point of the game was initially to provide a cinematic experience, right?

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the thrill of competition and especially the 'arms race' that comes out of analyzing and attacking the meta. But that's a totally different game to me and, most of the time, it doesn't really feel like Star Wars. Epic is better, but it's pretty clear that it's playing second fiddle to Standard among 'serious' players.

So anyway, yes - I totally agree with the above. I'm all about having some more sweet terrain to go with my sweet ship models (bought some asteroids from the Space Rocks guy that use clear acrylic bases in the same shape as the official tokens, for example). And the only thing that's keeping me from being REALLY pumped about the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster campaign is that I'd have to use 'tokens' to represent so many of the features, like the space station. At least until I can build my own...

So I'm calling you out, FFG! Take a page from Games Workshop's book and start developing some terrain models so you can have even more of my hard-earned dollars!

I think it's a great idea, but there could be complications. There are several companies out there that produce turbo-laser turrets, ion cannon emplacements, and so on. If FFG produces them with the weight of Disney/Lucas' IP behind it, then those products are now "illegal knock-offs." Most of them are probably too small-scale to really be worth the effort for the Mouse to bring to heel, but it's a concern of mine.

That being said, I'd love to see a play expansion! Missions, tokens/terrain, play formats, etc. I'm dying to use the moving asteroid rules from the Raider expansion the next time I get a chance to play, and I think that's a perfect example of scenario rules that could use dissemination in a play-focused release. Another thought would be rules & cards for cross-faction play, like using a GR-75 in a Scum list, or a certain Lambda-class shuttle in Rebel hands. There are a ton of ships in the EU that could legitimately be fielded by all three of the current factions. If they want to limit the amount of cards that come with a given ship, a gameplay-focused expansion would be a great opportunity to, well, expand on things.