12 minutes ago, costi said:

Because we're starting to have people drop out of the game because they feel they can't keep up.

The ships being released is not the problem the problem is the stupid need some people have to play the ridiculous meta instead of just having fun with their friends and toys.

I stopped watching videos because of this silliness. Once you see the palp-ralph-man-a-fool battles there is no need to see them again.

I was going to write a response how I wished the release slows down because I don't get to try all ships. However, that's entirely on myself.

I then wanted to justify my opinion with the argument that there's never enough time for a good list to end up on top. But now I'm not sure if that isn't a good thing. More fluidity means that more crazy things can be tried out and be relatively successful. So this high frequency of releases might be good for the meta.

However, and that's an argument I still hold on to, we've seen this increasing power creep. Which I believe to be a negative thing if overdone.

So my new, more refined opinion is: I do not mind the fast releases if FFG can slow down with the power creep. Otherwise I prefer a slower release schedule to be able to fly the more known Star Wars ships for as long as possible

2 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

I then wanted to justify my opinion with the argument that there's never enough time for a good list to end up on top.

This is not remotely true. There have been king-of-the-meta lists within weeks of a new release, every time there's been a new release since I've been playing - parattani is probably the one that's taken longest to figure out and become a meta standard, at around a month and a half to two months after release.

/x7s, scouts, Old Man Fenn, etc etc, all of these came out very shortly after release. Largely because people had been practicing before release with proxies and/or were already playtesters so they knew what to expect.

There's also Dengaroo. And Palpshuttle took some time to get its deserved fame as far as I recall. And new ideas keep coming up constantly, some great, some not.

So a little bit true?

Dengaroo took a little while but was at least partly still supressed by Scouts until they got nerfed. Ditto Party Bus, though I was seeing chatter about that even whilst Scouts were still a thing.

Palpshuttle was already being flown when I started playing, and that was only about a month or so after the Raider dropped I believe.

It's true that it can take a month or so for things to shuffle out, and that it takes at least until the next major tourney to work out, which with some releases has been a LONG time coming... but to say there's never enough time for a good list to come out on top is just not even close to accurate.

Well obviously it's not accurate because there always IS a good list ending up on top. What I meant, and what I thought was a sentiment widely known enough that I can shorten it:

For a certain meta with a dominant list exist several, undiscovered (or uninvented?) contender lists.
With slow release cycles, such a contender list might end up on top because it maybe has a higher skill floor and skill ceiling.
With fast release cycles, such a contender list will not end up on top because it takes too much time to learn to beat the current dominant list.

So we won't see the good list end up on top because there's not enough time with the same meta.

I don't think that's true, suffice it to say. People have more than enough time to practice and find alternative strong lists, both before and after release.

But it's also worth noting that the length between releases affects the strong lists as well - because strong lists are usually only strong in their current meta environment. Give people time to find counters and practice counterplay, and the strong lists change naturally anyway - Defenders are a case in point, they're getting a lot less dominant now as more people learn to play their counters more effectively, and learn their patterns more effectively.

So a long cycle can break a top list just as much as a short cycle can, because the meta naturally flexes to meet the challenge, unless that challenge is brokenly strong, as U Boats were.

But isn't Dengaroo an example? Jeff Berling invented the list during the reign of the 15K and was very successful with it. More time would have led to more players adapting the list and taking it to his level, making 15K less dominant. Which in turn opens up the meta for lists that work against Dengaroo but maybe not 15K. Which causes a ripple effect to allow other lists, too.

I'm not sure about the timeframes here. Wave 8 was released on March 17th, Imperial Veterans came on June 30th. Dengaroo was in the US Nationals Finals on June 18th.

The pace hasnt really increased, it's always been fairly consistent, barring a couple delays along the way. But even so, two full wave releases and two special boxed releases per year has been the norm for a while. 2014 was the biggest release year, as it had two waves, two huge ships, AND two access packs. 15 and 16 had two waves and either 2 huge or aces.

That's true. Again, I'm not concerned by the release itself but rather the power creep.

Also we can't forget that each new wave increases the complexity more than the one before, simply because there are more possible interactions.
So the speed itself is not a useful metric. Powercreep and complexity are IMO.

Also 2016 was almost like 2014:

Gozanti (granted 23rd of December 2015, but that means it saw no play in 2015)
Wave 8
Imperial Veterans
Heroes of the Resistance
Wave 9

together with the point on complexity, it's no wonder that we percieve 2016 as a year where things accelerated - even though that's wrong!

What's next? Wave 11 or some aces pack? What aces pack would be? Starviper/Krifndjdjsbf?

6 hours ago, Joe Boss Red Seven said:

The ships being released is not the problem the problem is the stupid need some people have to play the ridiculous meta instead of just having fun with their friends and toys.

I stopped watching videos because of this silliness. Once you see the palp-ralph-man-a-fool battles there is no need to see them again.

THIS!

I've been really excited about starting X-Wing and Armada but have been put off by the war on two fronts:

1. The broken, unbalanced, needs fixing, FFG ruined my life crybabies

2. The you must play this meta or you're a loser dictatorship

I've emptied my Amazon basket in frustration and I'm now looking for a fun game I can enjoy. X-Wing and Armada " fans " have really put me off the games with the non-stop complaining and bickering.

1 hour ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

What's next? Wave 11 or some aces pack? What aces pack would be? Starviper/Krifndjdjsbf?

C-ROC will probably be the first thing out, Scum Veterans with StarViper and Kihraxz has been strongly alluded to by the designers at various points, and Wave 11 will be soon. It's also pretty liekly we'll see a Rogue One themed rebel set pretty soon too IMO, with X wing and Y Wing.

You know what I've noticed? Chess players consistently playing around their queen! It's like if you've seen one game you've seen them all. So boring.

/s

Maaaaan we really need a new preview to discuss it's getting all fix-y in here again.

Hey, it's this topic again! Time to turn this thing all the way up to ELEVEN.

The Killer CROC has been at the printers for almost 3 weeks. Anyone who remembers the Raider knows that we could be waiting on it for good while. I wouldn't expect an article until March but would be happy to be proved wrong.

Wave 11? Rebel Veterans? Scum Aces? Who knows...

Rebel Veterans 101

On 2/6/2017 at 4:32 AM, GreenDragoon said:

There's also Dengaroo. And Palpshuttle took some time to get its deserved fame as far as I recall. And new ideas keep coming up constantly, some great, some not.

So a little bit true?

Palp Aces was a thing as soon as the Raider was released. The archetype is literally the example squad in one of the preview articles .

A meta whine without reference to X7? Say it ain't so!

22 minutes ago, gamblertuba said:

The Killer CROC has been at the printers for almost 3 weeks. Anyone who remembers the Raider knows that we could be waiting on it for good while. I wouldn't expect an article until March but would be happy to be proved wrong.

Wave 11? Rebel Veterans? Scum Aces? Who knows...

Since the Asmodee merge completed, /most/ products have met announced release deadlines. Imperial Assault has been on the ball the last 12 months, and even X wing has been on a shorter turn around with only minor delays. Likely too soon to get too excited as delays are still happening *cough* Destiny *cough* but in general it has been improving.

Personally, I think we are going to have an article about this absolutely savage, secret sleeper pilot, just in time for people to realize his potential for Yavin.

Still, I'm pretty upset by the lack of recent FAQs

1 hour ago, LouisCypher said:

Still, I'm pretty upset by the lack of recent FAQs

I *really* hope we get an FAQ drop before Yavin, ideally today. There's a 400 player tourney this weekend, and there are SO many tweaky unanswered questions that are bound to come up...

There's also an Italian Regional I'm attending to (I have no winning proposal at all, but I''d like not to pass half of the time discussing over unsolved rules!)