With 2e under way I am hoping FFG will announce some details about their 'shipless' expansion packs for those of us who don't want to purchase another ship just to get the upgrades.

A question to those of you who are locked in on FFG's trends/habits: Any ideas about when we could hope to start seeing stuff about products that will cannibalize the current hype of slightly different ships in new boxes?

Any guesses/hypotheses/pontifications about what these expansion/upgrade packs will/should have? As far as I can remember the only thing we have heard about these packs was when they first announced 2e and FFG said that will have them.

I hope when they said they don't want people who are invested in 1e to have to buy more plastic they actually meant it and won't make us wait 6 months+ to get the same upgrade cards as when new waves come out.

Also, I have been thinking about price point. What seems fair to you?

We just don’t know what form it will take. All we really know is that they promised us a way to get the cards without having to rebuy miniatures.

As for when, they won’t be showing up until at least wave 3. Wave 2 is the initial release for the FO and Resistance, so it’s going to look a lot like wave 1 did. We have to get through the main news articles on those ships and conversion packs before we can start to see anything about how they’re going to handle the issue in practice. So, several months yet.

I am in 2 minds...

First, I don't want to have to spend money on ships I already own (makes sense)

Second, I want FFG to keep making money off of x-wing so they continue to have resources to support it going further.

If the upgrade packs are super cheap and there is no incentive to buy other new stuff then FFG's profit per wave will go down considerably thus leaving fewer resources and incentive for them to further develop and support X-wing.

What's the solution? I have no idea, my local store is already realizing they ordered way to many X-wing, Y-wing, tie advanced, fang, and firesprays because the people already in the game are not purchasing any of those.

So what seems fair to me? well, as cheap as possible with 0 reasons to buy anything I already have. What makes sense for the longevity of the game? probably not that. They are going to have to strike a balance of not pissing everyone off but convincing them to purchase product.

If they were super clever they would stagger a wave out over a month or 3 and then release the "upgrade" pack at the end, this would entice people heavily that "need it now" to purchase product but allow those who are more frugal and can exercise some restraint to get the product without pissing them off as much. At least that is how I would do it.

To be honest, I think FFG is in a really tricky spot with x-wing going forward. To there credit they sold very affordable upgrade packs to us thus putting themselves in a tricky spot going forward as their main goal is to separate their customers from there money (and that's a good thing because it gives them resources and incentive to keep going with x-wing).

I honestly think we won't get individual shipless packs, but more like a "wave expansion" kit which would come with all the cardboard and paper from whatever released that wave with the exception of a brand new ship like Lando's Falcon or the Mining Guild TIE Fighter.

4 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

I honestly think we won't get individual shipless packs, but more like a "wave expansion" kit which would come with all the cardboard and paper from whatever released that wave with the exception of a brand new ship like Lando's Falcon or the Mining Guild TIE Fighter.

I also expect something like that

19 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

I honestly think we won't get individual shipless packs, but more like a "wave expansion" kit which would come with all the cardboard and paper from whatever released that wave with the exception of a brand new ship like Lando's Falcon or the Mining Guild TIE Fighter.

This is my expectation too.

I'm holding out a little hope that they at least split it by faction, as I have so few Scum ships. But if they don't I guess I can always split a pack with someone who's after the Scum stuff and not too bothered about Rebs or Imps.

24 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

I honestly think we won't get individual shipless packs, but more like a "wave expansion" kit which would come with all the cardboard and paper from whatever released that wave with the exception of a brand new ship like Lando's Falcon or the Mining Guild TIE Fighter.

Yep, pretty much this. Think a pack containing the new pilot bags from the conversion kits, for each wave.

36 minutes ago, Icelom said:

What's the solution? I have no idea, my local store is already realizing they ordered way to many X-wing, Y-wing, tie advanced, fang, and firesprays because the people already in the game are not purchasing any of those

The solution is bringing new players into the game who have nothing and creating new things the existing fan base doesn't have. Hence why there is the talk of Republic and Separatist factions.

38 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

I honestly think we won't get individual shipless packs, but more like a "wave expansion" kit which would come with all the cardboard and paper from whatever released that wave with the exception of a brand new ship like Lando's Falcon or the Mining Guild TIE Fighter.

That seems the most logical. Although I think some sort of "lag" on that a possibility. Like with Wave 4 we'd get a Wave 3 paper kit. I wouldn't expect to buy the any faction new stuff paper expansion from Republic and Separatists right at the release of those factions.

I also expect them to put off any need to make a call on that one way or the other for long enough a time that they can decide they're not going to do that. See the rest of Icelom's comment about making a profit. They'll take a look at the numbers before making the call on this.

I'd be upset if I bought an expansion pack and the ship was missing. That only happened once, but I was fooled because it was a TIE Phantom. The shop owner convinced me I just needed to wait for the **** thing to uncloak. Never again! Ship filled expansions only for me!

I think you'll see compilation packs annually-ish with whatever waves came out since the last pack. They won't want to release cardboard-only of Wave X at the same time they release the complete Wave X. It'd cannibalize their own sales and also piss off the retailers who have to stock competing SKUs.

FFG could always just sell the cardboard only packs direct. No need for it to be at retail, let the ships begin on the shelves and the cardboard online. Maybe they will do it using their print on demand service, like their card games. We might scream about a difference in quality then, but we have the option to get a normal ship expansion if you want 100% match.

I just hope they are willing to put generics on the back of the ship inserts and throw in an extra generic pilot card. Would cost next to nothing and would make the weird shortages in the conversion kits a non-issue. (eventually)

I'm guessing they'll have per-faction wave update packs, probably not for every wave but I wouldn't be surprised to see a wave 2-4, 5-7 etc. Unfortunately for those of us not in the US, I kinda expect them to be direct order only. Hope I'm wrong about that.