Just curious about what people would want in a x-wing campaign if FFG put one out.

Number of players?

Iconic ships and characters, or generic / name your own ships / characters?

Combat for control of well known systems or again, generic or less know places?

Pilot development, or just generic pilots and list building?

I am honestly interested to see people's overall thoughts, and specific details people want included.

Coop play is huge and a major reason HOTAC took off. Even if the AI sucks playing with your mates is preferable to many people instead of trying to kill your buddy. Anything else is debatable but AI and coop play is a must.

Yep, I think some sort of AI would be essential to the game, especially for solo play. Coop gaming isn't something I had considered, even though I have been playing HotAC for years. I always seem to think of this type of campaign play in terms of an in store competitive type of thing, but I would be down with a cool / more rpg type campaign.

1. Varying victory conditions. Campaigns should be more than just "kill the enemy".

2. Pilot advancement. This part is tricky, as it would have to be a dynamic that differs from existing upgrades. It should, ideally, work in conjunction with the rules for victory conditions - dealing with placement, points for kills or ships still alive, etc. There's also the possibility of adding the Force to pilot advancement - since it's a separate token it can be added to a pilot card easily. What I absolutely DON'T want is a new pile of rules/cards that bog down play. The game has enough moving parts as is.

Personally, I would want (need) it to support up to 8 players as I have a large group. Aturi we can muddle through. But having the option for more players is a necessary for me.

While I like the idea of the full customization that current gen Aturi has, I think it would be better to create new pilots belonging to a new squad which is dedicated to the campaign, but also has default x-wing versions as well. This leads to a more balanced game I think. Don't get me wrong making broken combos in aturi is fun, for a while, but it makes the game a cakewalk.

Again, I would like a lesser known sector that a rebel cell is battling it out for.

Gamewise, there has to be an objective to a mission. If a campaign was to be a Legacy style expansion, that could work very well. However, Legion had done something neat, with their priority objectives expansion - that has crates, moisture vaporators and consoles to replace cardboard tokens with models, and most importantly it has cards that offer new objectives.

If a non legacy format is followed, expansions can be made that offer new missions as well as ffg selling their own made terrain/objectives.

Back to pilots, And thinking a lot about Aturi for second edition, There should be a ranking system for becoming and ace (5 confirmed kills) and earning medals for certain things you do. Perhaps becoming an ace, you get an extra charge to add to an equipped talent.

In other words, while aturi is excellent, the progression is rather bland and goes towards a power gaming mentality. As above a more thematic and balanced aproach should be aimed for. My personal preference is the campaign characters should have their own abilities, and focus more on enhancing the basic game talents - but that is me and what I would work towards in developing a game.

Use games like Gloomhaven and other Legacy games as the basis, figure the rest out from there.

Epic ship support!

The ability for Empire or Rebel based gameplay. If I want to progress as an Imperial TIE pilot I should be able to. The only ships the Rebels have that I remotely like is the the X-wing and Z-95. TIEs on the other hand there are tons.

2 hours ago, LordFajubi said:

Coop play is huge and a major reason HOTAC took off. Even if the AI sucks playing with your mates is preferable to many people instead of trying to kill your buddy. Anything else is debatable but AI and coop play is a must.

Well, co-op is fine, but I think the game also needs a player vs player option where the results of one battle influence the next.

2 hours ago, Bad Idea Comics said:

1. Varying victory conditions. Campaigns should be more than just "kill the enemy".

2. Pilot advancement.

Definitely 1. Maybe 2.

2 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Again, I would like a lesser known sector that a rebel cell is battling it out for.

Gamewise, there has to be an objective to a mission.

Agree with both.

2 hours ago, acesandeights said:

Number of players?

Iconic ships and characters, or generic / name your own ships / characters?

Pilot development, or just generic pilots and list building?

Players = 2-6. 8 seems like a lot of people to try to support. Heck, I wish I had that many players to get onboard.

It would be fun to have a unique squad for each side that existed in the campaign only. It would give the campaign set a unique flavor from standard play.

I think pilot development is less important than campaign development. A campaign should focus less on individual pilots and more on squadron-level strategy.

I mean, as far as this all goes, this is my idea:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/267110-an-epic-campaign/

Objective based gaming would be a key component for me. Preferably symmetric objectives, since asymmetric may be tricky to balance.

Advancement would be another key component. Not increasingly overpowering individual pilots like in Aturi, but on squadron level. Like starting off with a limited pool of squad points (40-60) and gaining points for objectives (10-20 per game). Committing to one faction and only using most common ships for the beginning.

Maybe, but this may also give balance issues, having two pools of points. One for buying a ship chassis to be used additionally (start with X-Wing and Y-Wing and unlock more ships with the points of the cheapest pilot). The other pool as the maximum amount of squad points that can be supported in a squad.

I also like the idea of some sort of ace trophy, with themed benefits. Couple the themes to the objectives (kills, captures, denials, whatever) and significant game events (kills from dodged arcs, blocks, evades, success with ammunition, supporting, whatever). The benefits should be significant that they make the ace special, but not overpowered.

Maybe also some chance that pilots can be hurt. Killing them completely is not advisable since demotivating. But losing them for the next game makes up for tough decisions and for narrative gameplay.

All in all, a campaign should tell a story. It should not be like a regular tournament with several unconnected games. The story is built from the missions with its objectives, the squads that develop and the pilots as special characters, which also evolve and become heroes over the course of the campaign.

Ninja's. What @flooze said :)

I would add that as the achievement can let you buy more ships and bigger lists. Maybe you can let the pilots themselves grow by mimicking named pilots to get unique pilot skills. All such changes should be permanent for the campaign. i.e. Start all ships with generics and, at some trigger, they can swap a generic for a named pilot.

1) co op, thus implies ai, I know the game revolves around pvp, head to head, but think of the amount of players it would attract, be it solo or with friends. 2-6 is a good range for players)

2) pilot development, thousands are home brewing a rpg out of this, the success of Arturi verifies this

3) a story or an opportunity for others to tell their owns

4) an official ai app, I would pay full small ship price for an official ai app( **** even charge me xtra for different factions)

5) include all ships owned kind of like what assault does on the app, you own a ship click it.. it might open a new mission( a way to include epics)

just a few thoughts! Would truly extent the life and buying power of us consumers.

1 hour ago, Talynblade said:

3) a story or an opportunity for others to tell their owns

4) an official ai app, I would pay full small ship price for an official ai app( **** even charge me xtra for different factions)

It would be great if The App allowed for some level of homebrew.

And an AI App would be awesome.

Imperials

20 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

While I like the idea of the full customization that current gen Aturi has, I think it would be better to create new pilots belonging to a new squad which is dedicated to the campaign, but also has default x-wing versions as well. This leads to a more balanced game I think. Don't get me wrong making broken combos in aturi is fun, for a while, but it makes the game a cakewalk.

The nice thing is that nothing forces quick-build cards to obey the 'normal' squad-building rules. So you could easily have a 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5- threat version of the new pilots - even though the 5-threat version has two elite talents and three modifications (or whatever).

7 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The nice thing is that nothing forces quick-build cards to obey the 'normal' squad-building rules. So you could easily have a 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5- threat version of the new pilots - even though the 5-threat version has two elite talents and three modifications (or whatever).

I never even thought about that! Good idea. I was thinking of the threat cards a good way for showing the difficulty of a mission.

15 hours ago, Talynblade said:

5) include all ships owned kind of like what assault does on the app, you own a ship click it.. it might open a new mission( a way to include epics)

Brilliant.

As for me, I would love to see coop vs AI, and I would love to see pvp, not necessarily in the same module.

I’d love to see if they did something in the same vein as the Corellian Conflict Campaign for Armada, but with one major alteration: better balance between teams so that one team doesn’t pull ahead and dominate. In CC, once one team starts winning it becomes easier for them to continue winning, mainly because the losing team is spending all their points repairing damaged ships while the winning team is spending points buying new ships/upgrades and expanding their fleets. That isn’t much fun for the losing team.

I’d also love to see a fleet-based set up, where you have, say, 1,000 points to build a fleet with, and then when you go on a mission you select 200 points worth of ships from your fleet to go on the mission, and then have there be consequences when ships die (either that pilot is dead and no longer available or, like @flooze suggested, injured and out of the fight for the next battle or two).

Lastly, as has been suggested by others, integrate the campaign with the app. There’s so much potential there that it would be a crime to ignore it.

I am thinking something along the lines of:

To begin with, you have a list of ships with generic pilots & no upgrades.

If any ship flees the area, it is assumed to have survived the battle / mission.

After the battle, you get replacement bare-bones ships with generic pilots for free.

You also have a number of points that you can use to add upgrades to ships or turn a generic pilot into a named pilot, but these can only be applied to ships that survived the last game.

Exact missions, points for initial lists, post battle upgrades, etc still to be determined.

I'd like to see FFG do an official version of HOTAC and give Josh his dues for creating it and keeping early ships flying.

Expansion missions could be printed or pdf downloads.

When playing Scum HOTAC, we introduced a Slave 1 which fought both us and the Empire. It was great to have that extra element in the game. Yu really didn't know who the S1 would shoot until all maneuvers were complete.

Made for some fun engagements.

A progressive story mission.

starting from a thematic beginning and ending at the current Star Wars canon.

Example (Mission 1) trench run

Rebel player gets Luke Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter, Jed Porkins, and Wedge Antilles (reserve ship Han Solo ~ Millennium Falcon)

Imperials get Darth Vader, 2 Academy Tie Pilots, and the entire Inferno Squadron.

Rebel player must keep Luke Skywalker alive long enough to allow a bullseye Force critical to occur, defending against the Vader led Imperial squad. The only way Han Solo can be used is if all but Vader and 2 TIEs remain. At that point Two things would need to occur ~ Han Solo would need to get a critical damage through on Vader, and Luke would need to roll a force critical using the bullseye arc. If neither can be achieved the Imperial player would win. If Luke Skywalker dies Imperial player wins etc.

you could do a Boba Fett chase on Han Solo through a asteroid field

second Death Star attack

a battle of Takodona

a battle on Crait ...

as other ideas...

Up to 6 seem like a good number. Pass that and you start to run out of room, don't you?

I love the idea of missions, grouped together to complete a larger mission(s) much like HotAC. I'd like to see a whole set of missions/objectives from after Episode III and before IV. Throw in a couple of other missions that are related but not necessarily canon (interrupt a Kyber crystal route, Dagger Squadron takes out some stronghold, etc.), and end it at Scarif. Of course any era would fit here. Maybe that's the beauty of it. If you make enough of these missions, players can pick their own path. The difficult part of this might be adding enough variety in the missions so not too many differ only in name.

I don't think it is important to include character progression. There would be a group of pilots that are built for the game, and maybe just for a particular set of missions. These would basically be like the threat level cards in 2e. Each mission has a max number of points available to it. Players just pick the pilot from the cards and go. Maybe players don't even have the same pilot across all missions. Choose Hera in the Ghost and 2 Phoenix A-wings, or 4 Rebels-era X-wings along with 2 Gold Ys? The choice is up to the team and how many players there are. The enemy would then be built based on how many points were played. This, too, would be similar to HotAC but ship type/count and when/how they are deployed would be based on points instead of player count and level.

Whether you start as a group of named or generic pilots is up for debate. For me, I think all named would be fun and more thematic. But, I could certainly see where it might be cool to start as some rebel on some planet just after the start of the Empire, and end up a General (because, you know, that's how it goes in the Rebellion).

Basically, take the movies and other canon material, add other related missions just to give it some volume/depth as well as a little interesting twist like those already in HotAC and the 1e booklets, and make it a game we can play!

I could see something similar to Imperial assaults as ground work. Again either side can win or progress a story though. Having just a Rebel story is a bit disheartening for IA. Side missions and scum elements as well could change things wildly. Perhaps a cameo from a major player which can tip the scales to one side or the other.

15 hours ago, Ronu said:

Again either side can win or progress a story though. Having just a Rebel story is a bit disheartening for IA. Side missions and scum elements as well could change things wildly.

Agreed.

I would really want a campaign to be about the Imperial against the Rebels, played by actual players, with either side able to win.

In HotAC, the Rebels must win, at least most of the time. . .because otherwise there is no long-term campaign.

And as for Scum and Side Mission elements, have a look at my campaign idea. I worked hard to incorporate that.

I’ll echo definitely co-op and AI. Just started playing co-op based on Aturi and really enjoying it.

I think there should be options for story arcs to play as every faction eventually. I also like the idea of gradually building a fleet from a few ships to a large group you can pick from. This also allows epic-scale possibilities.

Some sort of co-op story mode could really be a huge boon for 2.0 and might convert over fence sitters (admittedly wobbling there myself although I’ll probably buy in) and bring in new players who don’t like pvp.

I'd like a mix of HotAC and the mission structure of the old X-wing/TIE Fighter/Alliance PC games. Ways to integrate capital ship mechanics onto the table without needing a mini. Leveling, but also flying different ships depending on mission parameters.