Something that didn't try to shake up the meta, but just filled in the holes?

Named pilots that don't have cards yet, or maybe ships that don't do anything crazy new but bring storytelling to the game.

Phoenix Squadron A-Wing. Mining Guild TIEs. Krennic's Shuttle. Battle of Scarif pack. Prequel cross-overs. Stuff like that. . .

Yes, I'd be all over that kind of stuff. Then again, I'm all about home-brewed missions, Cinematic and Epic Play.

BLUE LEADER

also Tiree and Pops, y-wing pilots that just might have epts!

more cross over pilots like Fel in an X-wing, Han in a Scum Z-95, Sabine in an Imp TIE.

There is definitely space for it, though I'd say hold off until the meta is a healthier place. Or use during a restructuring period as a safe wave.

Thing is that FFG is obviously planning on the game not stopping. So popular missing pilots, existing pilots in new ships, etc...

Unlikely to happen, as FFG wants to keep that in the hat in case of a lull in new content from Disney - they'll always have something they can fall back on to draw over.

Sold

What Would People Think of a "Casual Wave"?

Here ya go:

"Casual wave"?!? Nah, we want em bigger

More ships more frequently? If it's considered viable and won't compromise the production quality of the ships, sure why not.

The Imperials have been experiencing casual waves for quite some time now.

2 minutes ago, Jagos said:

The Imperials have been experiencing casual waves for quite some time now.

Well the BIGGEST FAQING WAVE EVAH is coming and there's a GUNBOAT riding it to victory!

6 hours ago, Jagos said:

The Imperials have been experiencing casual waves for quite some time now.

Wave 10 and 11 maybe.

Wave 9 quickdraw is still a thing.

Rather than an entire casual wave of new and repainted ships I'd really like a casual wave to be a campaign box like Armada has, which can include cardboard and cards for existing ships the way Most Wanted did. That would be an instant buy for me, with or without ship repaints.

I wouldn't market it as a casual wave, but absolutely I'd love to see a wave (or several) that contains major on-screen or fan favourite ships that are at or just below the power curve, with abilities that are interesting and fun without being overpowered. It's just that that is really, really hard to do.

The U Wing and TIE Striker are the best examples here. Particularly the Striker: it's got a cool movement gimmick, an amazing model, it's strong, but not OP, and as a result it's rarely (but not quite never) seen competitively. Probably one of FFG's best releases in a long time. The U Wing, however, had way more screen time, cooler characters associated with it, and it's only just below where it needs to be, and yet it might as well be a Starviper in that it's basically just the Expertise expansion pack the amount you see it on the board. So FFG would have to aim for the Striker, rather than the U Wing, but that's super hard to do.

The first challenge is defining the ships. The Imperials have a few good choices: Krennic's Shuttle, the Cargo Ship, the TIE Reaper. But it's much harder for the other two factions: Scum have nothing that's appeared on screen (except the mining guild TIE, and really, does anyone care about that thing except maybe as a backdoor way to slightly buff Imperial TIE swarms?) that isn't already in the game, and the Rebels basically just have that TFA transport thing, which doesn't fit the basic idea: it would basically be a Quadjumper: Nobody cares about it as a ship, so who would buy it unless it was OP?

Even if you could find good ships, the line between useless and broken for abilities is razor thin, and basically most of the abilities in that category have been used already. That said, FFG just came up with Thweek, who sits perfectly in that sweet spot IMO, so maybe there's still hope.

In terms of the other stuff you mention, you're basically talking about aces packs, rather than a wave, but in my opinion, those are what FFG ought to be focused on anyway: Drop back to one, maybe one and a half waves per year, release ships that get put out in movies or have major roles in tie in material (as in, the Ghost and maybe the Inquisitor's TIE from Rebels, nothing else from the show would merit inclusion), and focus on balancing the ships that people love and that are already in the game. New ships shouldn't be something they need to fill a quota, they should be added because people want to play them. People will spend plenty of money on aces packs, so why wouldn't you make them the focus?

2 hours ago, MacchuWA said:

I wouldn't market it as a casual wave, but absolutely I'd love to see a wave (or several) that contains major on-screen or fan favourite ships that are at or just below the power curve, with abilities that are interesting and fun without being overpowered. It's just that that is really, really hard to do.

The U Wing and TIE Striker are the best examples here. Particularly the Striker: it's got a cool movement gimmick, an amazing model, it's strong, but not OP, and as a result it's rarely (but not quite never) seen competitively. Probably one of FFG's best releases in a long time. The U Wing, however, had way more screen time, cooler characters associated with it, and it's only just below where it needs to be, and yet it might as well be a Starviper in that it's basically just the Expertise expansion pack the amount you see it on the board. So FFG would have to aim for the Striker, rather than the U Wing, but that's super hard to do.

Even if you could find good ships, the line between useless and broken for abilities is razor thin, and basically most of the abilities in that category have been used already. That said, FFG just came up with Thweek, who sits perfectly in that sweet spot IMO, so maybe there's still hope.

In terms of the other stuff you mention, you're basically talking about aces packs, rather than a wave, but in my opinion, those are what FFG ought to be focused on anyway: Drop back to one, maybe one and a half waves per year, release ships that get put out in movies or have major roles in tie in material (as in, the Ghost and maybe the Inquisitor's TIE from Rebels, nothing else from the show would merit inclusion), and focus on balancing the ships that people love and that are already in the game. New ships shouldn't be something they need to fill a quota, they should be added because people want to play them. People will spend plenty of money on aces packs, so why wouldn't you make them the focus?

Essentially, that's the idea of the casual wave. . .interesting ships that will never see tier 1 play or that fail to break new ground. And releasing said ship knowing that is its fate.

One wave a year would kill the game. Try being an Epic player waiting for the next Huge ship. . . nothing really changes at all, seemingly forever. I think they have a pretty good release schedule as things stand.

Actually, I'd love that. Especially a T3c Delta-Class shuttle would make a perfect case for why a flavourful table is a fun table.

Adjusting things here and there to condense the power gap between factions and ships is, at least to my mind, always preferrable to introducing new "must-haves" to the game that are supposed to level the playing field on their own.

Subjectively speaking, getting ships that allow for lore-adhering play that looks and feels great is in itself worth "suffering" through role-repeats.

3 minutes ago, DampfGecko said:

Subjectively speaking, getting ships that allow for lore-adhering play that looks and feels great is in itself worth "suffering" through role-repeats.

Quoting to add the 999 more Likes I can't give above.

Realistically?

They would complain about the ships being bad. They already do that about the TIE Aggressor, which is actually a middle-of-the-pack ship- just not overpowered. 19th place out of 49 on MA and showed up in major tournament top cuts several times (even kestal!).

13 minutes ago, DampfGecko said:

Actually, I'd love that. Especially a T3c Delta-Class shuttle would make a perfect case for why a flavourful table is a fun table.

Adjusting things here and there to condense the power gap between factions and ships is, at least to my mind, always preferrable to introducing new "must-haves" to the game that are supposed to level the playing field on their own.

Subjectively speaking, getting ships that allow for lore-adhering play that looks and feels great is in itself worth "suffering" through role-repeats.

I grew up in a house full of model trains. My dad had about a thousand box cars, hopper cars, engines, etc. They might have had a ladder in a different place or a different door or a variation here and there, but the box cars were box cars and made trains of differing lengths. But they made up different trains to run around the world and look like trains with different roles in different places and time frames.

That's similar to how I've always thought of casual x-wing. The ships might do essentially the same thing. But the little variations spark the imagination and create the feel of the galaxy to play in.

Obviously there are differences between model trains and a game like x-wing. But Lionel has been making trains for over a hundred years and people still play with them. People still get excited because a new box car is coming out.

1 hour ago, RebelRogue said:

I grew up in a house full of model trains. My dad had about a thousand box cars, hopper cars, engines, etc.

Wow, that hits my nostalgia button. My dad and I used to work on an HO gauge tabletop when I was in my pre-teen years. I suspect it is all in the rafters in the basement.

Which is where I don't want my X-Wing stuff to end up.

Are you saying a wave specifically designed to be hot garbage in competitive games? No. I don't want that.

I haven't played in a tournament in over a year.

In the last few months, more than half of my X-Wing games have been HotAC or something like that.

The last time I won a game was with four Rookie Pilot T-65 X-Wings (so I guess that's my best list right now?)

I completely agree with the entire premise of this entire thread.

I have been hoping for awhile FFG would take a "break" from releasing new ships, and round out the ones that we already have.

36 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Are you saying a wave specifically designed to be hot garbage in competitive games? No. I don't want that.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "hot garbage."

Do I want to see another TIE Punisher climb out of utter uselessness? No.

Does the U-Wing and X-Wing "as is" qualify? Because these ships are just fine for casual play.

I don't really want to see another U-Wing style ship that is competitively DOA with 1 really competitively useful card. I want them to grow the casual scene with campaigns, pilots, and maybe squadron options, and by expanding the competitive scene with some official scenarios and campaign events. A campaign box with some not-tournament-legal cards or abilities, with scenarios and a storyline? For me, that would be an excellent product! A normal ship expansion purposely made to be well under the competitive power curve and usable only in a casual game? That's a terrible product idea for me.

If they wanted to release an entire wave around a campaign, with ships that tied into the campaign but weren't also usable in tournament play, I think it would be a mistake. If they want to release a campaign with campaign-specific mechanics that make some of their less used ships really useful in the campaign I think they'd do better. If they could release a wave that included a fully developed campaign (or two, I can be greedy haha) and the wave included a pack or two with stuff that helped fix up some of the underutilized ships for tournament play (TIE Punishers, B-Wing, X-Wing, U-Wing, etc) I think they'd get the best of both worlds expanding their officially backed casual play options and helping push up some of the less utilized tournament ships.