Has anyone heard whether wave 3 will make tournament play 500 points or more?

It'll be A) hard to squeeze anything else into lists if it doesn't

but on the other hand B) 400 point builds will now end up with a LOT of variety based on whether people want to include interdictors to mess with folks, squadron heavy plus flotillas, big boom capital ships just like before... all that.

The last FAQ on points have explicitly stated that 400 points is the cap. We won't be getting a point increase unless FFG has a sudden change of heart.

I suspect balance and how long the game takes already are factors in the powers that be not wanting to increase the points.

Yep. 180 was the start when it was just the Core.

300 for Wave 1 when you could finally buy the stuff as Expansions.

400 for Wave 2, to accomodate the 100+ point Large Ships.

...

Now its nothing but Variety changes, rather than just purely more stuff.......

Gotta make those tough choices.

I really, really hope we won't get a points increase over 400 points !

Everybody I know is disappointed by the performance of larger ships at 400 points, simply because they falter in the activation war, and when you're able to bring 6 to 7 ships at 400 points, the large ships really start to be at a huge disadvantage.

Now, how does this relate to the points size ? Well, picture an ISD at 300 points and you imagine how much more efficient it might be compared to a 400 points game ?

At 500 points, with the flotillas and other ships, it's going to be so easy ganging up on larger ships. Granted the flotillas won't deal much damage but they're cheap activations to avoid damage.

The versatility now available will require skill and tactical thought to gain the advantage -- I LOVE it.