On 11/16/2017 at 1:17 PM, Hannes Solo said:

So its Interceptors with missile pods that are disguised as Fighters? What are these content designers smoking?

Well if you REALLY want the game experience on the table top:

They have:
Focus + Barrel Roll + Evade + Target Lock
EPT: Barrage (Burn your entire thermal clip within two seconds)
Concussion Missiles
Afterburner (essentially boost)
Regeneration on both hull and shields

Now that's a TIE I can get behind.

Also, Kylo, Yoda, Vader and Luke (does Maul have it?) all have a "hard lock" ability. Kylo's is called inner rage which essentially locks you on to a target, increases your movement speed towards that target, including a tighter turning circle, reduced missile lock on, increased damage to that target for yourself and anyone else that fires at them AND if the target dies, you regenerate some damage.

Now . . how do we get that as an EPT?

Oh and by the way, Luke has deadeye except it's called Obi'wan's presence and the tracking on it is disgusting. If he has you in the danger zone, good night.

In the mean time FFG is like.

Play X-wing, we don't have loot boxes.

nervously glances over at Star Wars Destiny.

On 11/19/2017 at 10:02 AM, Stew00m said:

I just got done reading the inferno squad book, and now I'm starting to play battlefront.

with the book alone there's enough content for FFG to release partisan ships the Corvus and iden versio tie fighter.

im not sue I understand FFG's marketing structure. The Marketing/business owner in me just wants to shake FFG and be like dude get your act together. You should be tieing in You product when there's all this promotion and marketing going on.

Heck, if I ran the world I would have been calling EA and working with them to cross promote. There should be a coupon in the battle front box for a custom x wing card or ship or some other. Additional idens tie shoul be on sale now with some sort of game unlock code.

if EA won't play ball then reach out to GameStop I'm sure they would cross promote.

I mean, you are not wrong. It would be amazing to have an infero squadron kit for a tie fighter or the raider or something for BF2 but its a LITTLE more complicated than that right?

Releasing just the model without any cards turns it into essentially a collectible and requires someone to buy additional xwing product to make any use of it. Maybe they arent into that idea. On the other hand, releasing it as a variant paint of the OT tie fighter pack will annoy a lot of xwing collectors who probably don't need yet another howlrunner just for a special paint job. On the other, other hand, new pilots requires balancing and testing, which takes time out of their existing schedule right?

To be clear, i desperately want an inferno squadron Tie and think your idea of cross promotion is great idea though.

The inferno squad book has been out for months, and they have been promoting battlefront 2 for a year. How much time of play testing do you thing FFG realy neads and or uses.

i refuse to believe FFG can't bring product to market faster

1 hour ago, Stew00m said:

The inferno squad book has been out for months, and they have been promoting battlefront 2 for a year. How much time of play testing do you thing FFG realy neads and or uses.

i refuse to believe FFG can't bring product to market faster

You make the assumption that information flows both ways. While EA got to use the Raider that FFG made, doesn't mean they told FFG about the characters or plot.

As to the plot and marketing for Battlefront II, it seemed very much centred on an imperial story, which is NOT what we got.

Now even if FFG did get some info, they still have to test, including new abilities, do layouts, commision artists, do paint schemes, arrange production for plastic, painters, cardboard, etc.

These take time, money, and more forethought than you may be aware of.

59 minutes ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

You make the assumption that information flows both ways. While EA got to use the Raider that FFG made, doesn't mean they told FFG about the characters or plot.

As to the plot and marketing for Battlefront II, it seemed very much centred on an imperial story, which is NOT what we got.

Now even if FFG did get some info, they still have to test, including new abilities, do layouts, commision artists, do paint schemes, arrange production for plastic, painters, cardboard, etc.

These take time, money, and more forethought than you may be aware of.

I feel like that's a problem that shouldn't exist, though. EA has an exclusive contract to create Star Wars videogames; it's not like FFG has to juggle multiple studio dialogues to get the whole picture. I've heard that every step of the way in development at EA requires confirmation from Disney, so if EA can't disclose details directly, then their liaison at Disney should be forwarding pertinent information to other studios and designers for maximized cross collaboration.

If any content is in development, then I don't mind if they take their time for balancing; that should always be priority over every other element. If that content is not in development already, then there's an undeniable flaw in this system.

RogueOne is a perfect example of flawed cross promotional communication. We got a TIE Striker and U-Wing, but haven't gotten any Blue Squadron pilots or an X-Wing fix. Now, we're at another unique, annual Star Wars release and awaiting to get anything...

Edit - I sincerely would rather have a variety of competent developers have access to this IP than just a company who can only launch two versions of one game type, but botch their execution, while utterly fail at managing their other SW projects. The best in their genre should be rewarded with these projects, not these clowns who go out of their way to monetize gambling boxes for progression-based content.

38 minutes ago, Kalandros said:

ha ha ha ouch.

Well leave it to EA to do this bad, Unfortunately that means Dice is up for the chopping block, right after Bioware is killed, then Dice will be next for the slaughter. Finally will be Respawn but respawn has some time, perhaps they could make a good game that EA won't step in and mess up then blame the studio for it, perhaps not.

Caution, language of guy swearing while impersonating voice of Mickey Mouse.

I read a few interviews of the lady that authored the Inferno Squad book, she indicated that Janina Gavankar (iden versio actress) reach out to her prior to filming for the game and asked what happens on the book.

Janinia is not a major decision maker or marketer and even she had the foresight to find out what's going on.

i still refuse to belive that someone at FFG can't call EA, Disney, book Author Etc and be like "I see you have a Book, Game, or Movie to be release on x date, we produce table top games based on the Star Wars universe under liscense from Disney, could you tell us about any notable ships, and pilots/characters that will feature predominantly in your work? We would like to release an expansion pack to coincide with the release of your book, game, or movie"

1 hour ago, Stew00m said:

I read a few interviews of the lady that authored the Inferno Squad book, she indicated that Janina Gavankar (iden versio actress) reach out to her prior to filming for the game and asked what happens on the book.

Janinia is not a major decision maker or marketer and even she had the foresight to find out what's going on.

i still refuse to belive that someone at FFG can't call EA, Disney, book Author Etc and be like "I see you have a Book, Game, or Movie to be release on x date, we produce table top games based on the Star Wars universe under liscense from Disney, could you tell us about any notable ships, and pilots/characters that will feature predominantly in your work? We would like to release an expansion pack to coincide with the release of your book, game, or movie"

Who says they (ffg) didn't? There is a possibility that they were not acknowledged or told no. There are also fewer employeees at FFG than the studio that did Battlefront.

While I might be wrong, I bet employees at FFG do more than just work on one particular game. Likely they work on several projects at once.

I do get it, I would love our hobby to get the same TIE/ins (pun intended) that the video games get, but as popular as we think our hobby is, it is a very small market compared to a video game. The fact that we are getting ships from the movies that are out now is both a bane and boon. While we get them, we get incorrect or incomplete versions (Poe’s lower pilot skill, the TIE Strikers bombs, and now the Silencer’s missiles for example). It is evident that any cooperation that FFG has is VERY limited. Likely due to the revenue that is expected. While battlefront II is probably not performing as well as intended, the profit it makes will probably still eclipse all that FFG earns from X-wing (or even all its star wars games) all year.

1 hour ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Who says they (ffg) didn't? There is a possibility that they were not acknowledged or told no. There are also fewer employeees at FFG than the studio that did Battlefront.

While I might be wrong, I bet employees at FFG do more than just work on one particular game. Likely they work on several projects at once.

I do get it, I would love our hobby to get the same TIE/ins (pun intended) that the video games get, but as popular as we think our hobby is, it is a very small market compared to a video game. The fact that we are getting ships from the movies that are out now is both a bane and boon. While we get them, we get incorrect or incomplete versions (Poe’s lower pilot skill, the TIE Strikers bombs, and now the Silencer’s missiles for example). It is evident that any cooperation that FFG has is VERY limited. Likely due to the revenue that is expected. While battlefront II is probably not performing as well as intended, the profit it makes will probably still eclipse all that FFG earns from X-wing (or even all its star wars games) all year.

That is most likely the case, and it's absolutely a problem. Disney, Lucas Arts, EA, FFG should all have a collaborative approach for every launch, or at least have access to a Disney liaison that can communicate the appropriate and pertinent information for each launch between studios for proper cross-promotion.

The current system just isn't working well.

3 hours ago, Stew00m said:

I read a few interviews of the lady that authored the Inferno Squad book, she indicated that Janina Gavankar (iden versio actress) reach out to her prior to filming for the game and asked what happens on the book.

Janinia is not a major decision maker or marketer and even she had the foresight to find out what's going on.

i still refuse to belive that someone at FFG can't call EA, Disney, book Author Etc and be like "I see you have a Book, Game, or Movie to be release on x date, we produce table top games based on the Star Wars universe under liscense from Disney, could you tell us about any notable ships, and pilots/characters that will feature predominantly in your work? We would like to release an expansion pack to coincide with the release of your book, game, or movie"

After Battlefront 2 EA should be the last to call on Star Wars lore. Disney, book authors, LucasFilms would probably be the go to.

23 minutes ago, Arttemis said:

That is most likely the case, and it's absolutely a problem. Disney, Lucas Arts, EA, FFG should all have a collaborative approach for every launch, or at least have access to a Disney liaison that can communicate the appropriate and pertinent information for each launch between studios for proper cross-promotion.

The current system just isn't working well.

Fixed it for ya

How about lets just leave EA out of this circle all together (before we get more games like Star Wars Destiny). They do have a focal point as each company has a Disney licensor for their products but as far a that would be FFG is way closer to Disney with wave 13 than EA with EASWBF2 as the focus would be on the next upcomming movie. So unless Inferno Squad is going to be in the next movie such collaboration would still have not brought anyone from EA's game into X-wing.

So even then no inferno squad for X-wing. Maybe for Legion, and Imperial Assault but that would be about it.

On 11/21/2017 at 11:19 PM, Marinealver said:

In the mean time FFG is like.

Play X-wing, we don't have loot boxes.

nervously glances over at Star Wars Destiny.

2 hours ago, Marinealver said:

How about lets just leave EA out of this circle all together (before we get more games like Star Wars Destiny).

I agree with the majority of your sentiments, but what's your beef with Star Wars Destiny? It wasn't invented by EA, it was invented by an FFG guy who just left for WotC. It's actually shockingly low pay-to-win for a CCG (the most expensive card on the secondary market is only like $50 and dropping).

And it's marketed as a CCG. What kind of a CCG doesn't have random distribution in booster packs? I guess there's this:

https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Ninjago/subtheme-Spinners

Which was still a fun game, but I don't think it sold nearly as well as any CCG.

4 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Who says they (ffg) didn't? There is a possibility that they were not acknowledged or told no. There are also fewer employeees at FFG than the studio that did Battlefront.

While I might be wrong, I bet employees at FFG do more than just work on one particular game. Likely they work on several projects at once.

I do get it, I would love our hobby to get the same TIE/ins (pun intended) that the video games get, but as popular as we think our hobby is, it is a very small market compared to a video game. The fact that we are getting ships from the movies that are out now is both a bane and boon. While we get them, we get incorrect or incomplete versions (Poe’s lower pilot skill, the TIE Strikers bombs, and now the Silencer’s missiles for example). It is evident that any cooperation that FFG has is VERY limited. Likely due to the revenue that is expected. While battlefront II is probably not performing as well as intended, the profit it makes will probably still eclipse all that FFG earns from X-wing (or even all its star wars games) all year.

EA actually had for a while a whole series of triple a titles which did not achieve profit. I do hope that battlefront 2 is one of those. ;-)

19 hours ago, Kalandros said:

If this place is anything like the Walmart near me, the end display always looks like this. They put the newest big releases in there and move everything else to the regular case. Unless it's a huge release week for a lot of AAA games, the end display is always near empty.

4 minutes ago, weisguy119 said:

If this place is anything like the Walmart near me, the end display always looks like this. They put the newest big releases in there and move everything else to the regular case. Unless it's a huge release week for a lot of AAA games, the end display is always near empty.

I have seen a number of pictures like this as well, from different stores, including some local ones, reported by friends. Either EA did a saturation salvo, or they are not selling.

On 11/17/2017 at 1:57 PM, RufusDaMan said:

You will get an EPT called spinning, allowing you to do double brolls.

EPT

"Cool trick."

After you barrel roll, you must perform a free barrel roll action back into your original position and assign a focus token to your ship.

Then receive a stress token.

-1 pt.

On 11/25/2017 at 1:19 PM, Kieransi said:

I agree with the majority of your sentiments, but what's your beef with Star Wars Destiny? It wasn't invented by EA, it was invented by an FFG guy who just left for WotC. It's actually shockingly low pay-to-win for a CCG (the most expensive card on the secondary market is only like $50 and dropping).

And it's marketed as a CCG. What kind of a CCG doesn't have random distribution in booster packs? I guess there's this:

https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Ninjago/subtheme-Spinners

Which was still a fun game, but I don't think it sold nearly as well as any CCG.

I'm just not a fan of what I call TCGs. (Trading Card Games) which are random booster models of CCG (Collectible card games). Back in the 90s I thought they were cool but then I realize that rares were not that rare but just people buy whole boxes to end up with the entire collection. Thus random boosters seems more like an obsolete portion of the game with the only advantage that you may have to dump more money to get the card you want. I prefer the LCG or SCG (Set Card Game) as some are called since LCG is under FFG Trademark. You still get the variety, you still get customization and collection but it isn't based around who both spent enough and were lucky enough to get the entire set.

Sure the Pay2Win characteristic has greatly diminished as Wizzards of the Coast had learn it isn't a good marketing strategy to hide your most powerful cards behind the arbitrary rarity scale and move most of that power in the commons. But that doesn't mean there isn't an advantage from one who can afford the expansions packs to update their decks from those that can't. Also you can't argue that a game like GoT (2nd ed) or Android Netrunner is not Pay2Win as well as someone with the entire collection of (legal) cards will have an advantage over someone with just a core set and a few packs. Still I like to know what I am buying as my amount of disposable income has greatly diminished and will just feel terrible if I took my chance and got nothing. This is why I no longer play Hearthstone, this is why I don't touch EASWBF2 with a 10' poll. I know I will need certain things but I would prefer to purchase them in certainty such as from the manufacture or distributor rather than haggle my way through the secondary market or press my luck through randomized distribution.

5 hours ago, Arttemis said:

That is most likely the case, and it's absolutely a problem. Disney, Lucas Arts, EA, FFG should all have a collaborative approach for every launch, or at least have access to a Disney liaison that can communicate the appropriate and pertinent information for each launch between studios for proper cross-promotion.

The current system just isn't working well.

Again though, what would you actually *want* in an Inferno squad Tie/LN repack?

There are really only four scenarios I can think of.

1. New Model only, no pilots so xwing vets don't get yet another howlrunner but newbies get a model they can't use - doesn't fit with how they do things
2. New Model, old pilots (basically a variant paint for the wave 1 tie expansion i guess) - Good for new folks but who needs a 5th, 6th Tie with all the same pilots?
3. New Model, new pilots - everyone happy but that takes time out of the last few waves to develop and test and commission art for.
4. New Model, old pilots (generic only) - this would be interesting way to slip in a cross promotional pack. Grab one or two generics from core set I, tie expansion, and assault carrier. No new testing required but might agitate people who spent money on assault carrier for tie pilots or upgrades. Also reduces chance someone will buy that epic ship in the future. still requires time with art dept and printer to do the pilot base tokens though.

There is a finite amount of time they can spend each wave on new product so what Imperial ship would you have gotten rid of to make room for Inferno squandron tie in the last few waves? Maybe they thought dipping into that well for the fourth time just to get some red lines on a tie fighter wasn't viable. And since BF2 is turning into a disaster for EA, maybe they are actually pretty lucky.

http://vid.pr0gramm.com/2017/11/17/31c8b040365ea888.mp4

I'd imagine that given the N1, Scimitar, Aethersprite and pretty much all the prequel ships are in Battlefront II, then we're likely to see them arrive in the miniatures game now.

Prequel meta is on the horizon...

On 11/25/2017 at 4:40 PM, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Who says they (ffg) didn't? There is a possibility that they were not acknowledged or told no. There are also fewer employeees at FFG than the studio that did Battlefront.

While I might be wrong, I bet employees at FFG do more than just work on one particular game. Likely they work on several projects at once.

I do get it, I would love our hobby to get the same TIE/ins (pun intended) that the video games get, but as popular as we think our hobby is, it is a very small market compared to a video game. The fact that we are getting ships from the movies that are out now is both a bane and boon. While we get them, we get incorrect or incomplete versions (Poe’s lower pilot skill, the TIE Strikers bombs, and now the Silencer’s missiles for example). It is evident that any cooperation that FFG has is VERY limited. Likely due to the revenue that is expected. While battlefront II is probably not performing as well as intended, the profit it makes will probably still eclipse all that FFG earns from X-wing (or even all its star wars games) all year.

True.

But more to the point, whilst FFG may or may not have made a request, the fault ultimately lies with the liason/brand management team at Disney.

If they want all the different media (TV, computer games, board games, card games, comics, books, films) to colour-co-ordinate, they are at liberty to do so; they 'own' the storyline decisions (or at least vet them for consistency with the story group) so if anyone has a complete picture of what organisation could make profitable use of advance notice of character X or ship Y, they are the one organisation who has the complete view and complete access to any details they are interested in.

Now this may be a result of co-operation not being there, or not being fast enough. I don't know at what point in the 'development cycle' at FFG - or anyone else - stuff is 'locked in'. We know Rogue One took substantial reshoots, and the Striker never uses its bombs in the film, so that may have been a detail added purely by whoever wrote the technical manual. Dropping the ball on not featuring K2-SO as a pilot, crew, or even EPT artwork was a clanger, though, and he can't have been that 'new' given his presence in the trailers.

But I agree that cross-promotion would have been great and could certainly have been better than it was. Even just a double-sided 'Iden as TIE fighter pilot/Iden as X-wing Pilot' would be something; the aim is just to attract people's interest, after all.

As much as I strongly dislike EA and what they did with the game (it's why I rented it for free and refuse to buy it). I actually enjoyed the single player campaign as short as it was and as a huge X-Wing player was jacked up whenever I saw the Raider. I personally would like to see a Corvus Raider re-skin (looking like the Rebel version later on without the solar panels) with an ability to be Rebel or imperial and launch up to two X-wings/TIEs. Come with dual faction crew/pilot cards for Del/Iden. And both a TIE Fighter and an X-Wing as well as a title card for both:

Inferno Squadron:

Imperial. TIE Fighter Only.

Your squad cannot contain any other type of ship. When attacking, you may reroll one die for each other friendly ship at range 1.

Cost -2

Danger Squadron

Rebel. X-Wing only

Your squad cannot contain any other type of ship. When defending, you may reroll one die for each other friendly ship at range 1.

Cost -2

How about a 10 ship TIE swarm? Would that finally bring swarms back to playable? Or being able to field 5 X-wings with 1 point astromechs?

Now that would be awesome.