I am trying to understand the new environment this game now presents for us.

To begin with, FFG had its pick of decades of Star Wars source material from which to draw ships, pilots, upgrades, etc.

Through inclusion in this game, various bits of fluff were added to a growing "FFG Canon": they essentially curated a subset of the vast Star Wars lore that worked well together in the game.

Each item was equal; despite the original source material (OT, video game, short story, or whatnot) the ship came into this game under the same "banner", and its packaging signified a unified whole.

There were some strange choices, to my mind: like an E-Wing being included in the first place, then being called a "Rebel" ship...it is a New Republic ship. The rebellion is over when that comes out. An even worse offender along these lines is the K-wing. But OK. Minor item. They each bring something cool to the game, so that's fine.

Enter Episode VII. A new starter set. New damage deck. New asteroids. New maneuver types. New packaging. New factions. Specific call out for the movie itself. What? The TIE Bomber did not have an "Empire Strikes Back" logo on it. Why didn't they just add Ep.7 to the well from which they draw their ideas? And the new factions...they needn't have stuck to 'Resistance' and 'First Order'. Just like ignoring 'New Republic' they could have kept 'Rebel' and 'Imperial'.

Then the new expansion modules (T-70 and TIE/FO) match this new packaging scheme, even down to a specific call out for the new movie.

What's next? A "Rogue One" starter set with a different box and different damage deck? Maybe even different templates! Why not!

A very confusing way to continue a recognizable brand.

I assume they did it so they could re-enter Target for Force Friday. Or something like that.

The new asteroids and damage deck really bother me the most. Those are big differences. Aren't they? To complete the confusion, they still sell the first starter set. WHAT?

I don't like it. I think whole thing is annoying. Now we have two independent game lines. Who knows what will be released going forward, or what it's packaging will look like and what game it will work with.

On top of it all, some folks feel FFG wanted to steadfastly refuse to include prequel stuff, probably for similar reasons (new factions, etc). But the fact we haven't seen prequel ships is made even stranger since we now have stuff from 30 years after Return of the Jedi.

I don't understand it anymore! I thought this was a game more-or-less about the Galactic Civil War.

Go ahead, call me antiquated. Call me irrational.

I just don't like it.

Go ahead, call me antiquated. Call me irrational.

Chicken Little, you're irrational. The sky isn't falling.

DOOOOOOOOOM DOOOOOOM

It is about the Galactic Civil war.

And to think the GCW ended at Endor is and always has been hilariously wrong.

See: Heir to The Empire

Can I have your stuff?

Go ahead, call me antiquated. Call me irrational.

Chicken Little, you're irrational. The sky isn't falling.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST

It's a movie tie-in marketing ploy. They were probably planning on doing a revamp of the core set and this is the perfect opportunity. FFG have been somewhat restrained by Disney as to what they can release under the 'Star Wars' brand. If anything, the new movie may give the game a new lease of life with gamers that haven't seen it yet. (I know, it's hard to believe there's gamers that haven't seen it yet. )

Endor was the end of the Galactic Civil War.

Is this about the boyband for geeks?

Who knows what will be released going forward, or what it's packaging will look like and what game it will work with.

Fear is the mindkiller!

What's next? A "Rogue One" starter set with a different box and different damage deck? Maybe even different templates! Why not!

The templates are the functionally same, just with slightly altered appearances (segnors and tallon rolls). The damage deck update's something that's been requested for years, and exists to remove junk crits (or even advantageous ones in the form of Damaged Cockpit).

I think the extra direction is because the intent is to eventually split the Resistance and First Order away from the Rebels and Empire respectively.

If the Tallon Roll doesn't bump, the direction will be 180-degrees from its original. If it does bump, it can be anywhere from 0-89 degrees different.

It's a game where starships from the Star Wars Universe fight each other. Sometimes against clones of themselves. Sometimes against their own faction or against ships they would never have encountered in any version of canon. I don't understand how the new core fixing a few gaps in design space changes that at all.

It is about the Galactic Civil war.

And to think the GCW ended at Endor is and always has been hilariously wrong.See: Heir to The Empire

The only person that truly thought it ended at Endor was GL when he put that not-Saddam statue falling on Coruscant into his CG edits.

From what I've seen, new canon has the Galactic Civil War go utterly brutal after Endor, even worse than the Clone Wars. How it ends up with the First Order and Resistance by Episode 7 I don't know, but it's safe to assume the war is so bad that both sides lose.

The direction is to ride the wave of the current path Star Wars is set on. For Fantasy Flight to ignore this chance to re-launch their very successful game under the new era about to be presented would simply be bad business. We can also assume that since there are still two factions duking it out or at best token peace, that some sort of civil war is still on.

You mean this is a game and the rebels and imperials are all imagination... For the fun of it !! Wow

They probably had no real choice Disney wants tfa stuff out there and ffg needs the license, it would of been preferable to divide the era's but it'll be a long time before there's enough new ships to make that viable.

It's more of a want than a need.

I'd say that FFG WANTS the license.

Seriously this is a star wars game, there is a finite amount of material to go through and some of it is terrible (honestly I'm surprised the K-wing looks pretty good) To think a COMPANY out to make MONEY and a good product wouldn't try to jump in on the episode 7 stuff lies between foolish to down-right stupid. (as for prequels seeing as how the vast majority of fans strongly dislike those films and how it's hard to point out ships even cheaper and not have them be totally worthless there's your reason no prequel ships have been introduced)

I fully expect to see a continuation of EU ships released as the movies come out but of course they're going to promote the fact that these are BRAND NEW SHIPS!! LOOK SHINY!!!!

"What's next? A "Rogue One" starter set with a different box and different damage deck? Maybe even different templates! Why not!"

Oh please like a new movie coming out with TIE Fighters and X-wings isn't the PERFECT time to re-introduce a new box-set with updated stuff? and yeah they'll continue the old box-set because that's the ONLY way to get certain pilots. They could put out a new expansion pack but that's just as confusing as having 2 box sets.. X-wing expansion 2! not to be confused with X-wing expansion 1 and T-70 Xwing!

Galactic civil war actually ends 1 year after the battle of Endor. The battle of jakku (a last ditch effort by the empire to swing the war back in their favor) is a critical disaster for the empire and they quickly sue for peace afterwards.

As for the main thread topic what exactly did you expect them to do just pretend like a whole new movie trilogy wasn't a thing? New damage deck is a welcome relief and they've already introduced new obeticals in the form of the debris clouds in the decimator and yt2400. I don't get how having new asteroids is somehow the end of the world but the introduction of debris fields is fine? It's just more obeticals and now you can choose which 3 you want to bring so it's not like they are required.

This wins as the worst complaining thread I've read in a while. You win. Congratulations. Now get over it. I just lost brain cells reading this.

While you might see a Rogue One starter set, I suspect that only reason they released a 2nd damage deck was because they weren't happy with the first one.

One hopes that they got it right the 2nd time and we won't need to see another one for the foreseeable future.