16 minutes ago, svelok said:

It all gets posted here anyways. Does it matter if the person who does it is on payroll?

See below.

4 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

I wouldn't have to back track and double-check if it is "Fake News." So I find out by seeing a link in a forum post. Then I have to follow the link and then need to check out if the source or account is legit.

2 minutes ago, Merrick_H said:

It is a matter of legitimacy. The new release timeline was initially posted on a discord server and then relayed here where it was met with healthy skepticism as it was second-hand information.

It is the difference between, "I heard FFG said that..." and "FFG Official Account Announcement:..."

Having information coming directly from an official source rather than second hand makes it legitimate from the start and much less likely to be questioned.

Not everyone uses Twitter or FB. Relying on those two outlets for Official information releases and not posting it to either their own News page or Forum as well/instead will always raise valid concerns of the accuracy of the information. Though the News page has been acting up lately (the blasted Wave 6 article is hit or miss whether or not it can be viewed for example).

I will still use other apps for squad building. The dumpster fire that is the official (in name only) ap has done damage enough.

Now I find myself hoping that the single upgrade slot only for the Scyk and T-70 Weapons Hardpoint was from a limitation of the old Official Squad builder and will be expanded to permit any missile, torpedo or cannon upgrade to be equipped in the new Squad Builder. Probably wistful thinking though...

If they were smart (and humble) they’d have the YASB and LaunchBay Next guys just do it for them.

They could probably pay them with their own unique merch.... 😂 😂 😂

”Listen, we’ll give you foils of all your pilots, okay?”

17 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Now I find myself hoping that the single upgrade slot only for the Scyk and T-70 Weapons Hardpoint was from a limitation of the old Official Squad builder and will be expanded to permit any missile, torpedo or cannon upgrade to be equipped in the new Squad Builder. Probably wistful thinking though...

Yeah... no.

Let's not make Barrage Rocket Poe a thing. Thanks.

6 hours ago, svelok said:

It all gets posted here anyways. Does it matter if the person who does it is on payroll?

Any company that has its own forum/website where official news is distributed (like FAQs, errata, or previews of new content) should be using that first to display any news. Using social media is fine, and a good tool, but as others have said- many of the playerbase may or may not use those avenues as sources of news from the company. Putting up a quick article or making an official News sticky thread that can only be commented on by FFG employees for the specific purpose of informing the players would be the most logical and easiest way to do things. Then you can just link that post to whatever social media service you want.

11 hours ago, Frimmel said:

I wonder how much anger got deleted from the original "nope" thread. I'd also be curious if there was a discernible drop in usage of the app. This coming from Organized Play and not FFG suggests a shifting of where the expense for maintaining the app goes in the company

One of the reasons why the app was introduced was the ability for FFG to see which pilot & upgrade cards and formats are played around with by logged in players, and what is finally saved as squad lists. This is hugely useful data for development of new stuff, balancing and seeing what lifts and what gets dissed as uninteresting.

With their official app being that terrible people instead work with Yasb2 and other builders, and FFG only sees the data from their own (almost exclusively 200/3) tournaments and events.

8 hours ago, Managarmr said:

One of the reasons why the app was introduced was the ability for FFG to see which pilot & upgrade cards and formats are played around with by logged in players, and what is finally saved as squad lists. This is hugely useful data for development of new stuff, balancing and seeing what lifts and what gets dissed as uninteresting.

With their official app being that terrible people instead work with Yasb2 and other builders, and FFG only sees the data from their own (almost exclusively 200/3) tournaments and events.

Those are some of the complaints I made about the app at the outset. I was very surprised there wasn't tournament running software as part of it. I was surprised the collection feature wasn't better implemented especially as a market research tool. That there wasn't some way for players to just track a list's performance themselves.

And they were also missing out on using the app as marketing. The Epic stuff not being in the app made it quite easy to go with, "I don't need any of that."

22 hours ago, Parakitor said:

I called it! (That feels surprisingly good!)

Yep.

Your argument had me pretty convinced you were right. And I'm glad you are!!

I really hope they support print-and-play. As a casual-only player (and playing at 500 points mostly}, I hate fussing with a ton of cards.

I've never been more glad to be wrong about something.

10 hours ago, Averross said:

I've never been more glad to be wrong about something.

Same. I’m happy to see this, and hope they do it right.

hey so how's the new official FFG app working for everyone a half year later?

4 minutes ago, Cloaker said:

hey so how's the new official FFG app working for everyone a half year later?

/wave Long time no see. 😄 Ain't out yet (thinking a combination of Covid and the restructuring FFG had tail end of last year may be slowing it).

Yasb 2.0 is coming along just fine, recently added a frickin' brilliant rules lookup function as well as a points destroyed calulator.

Come on FFG, keep up!

I despise the arrogant undertones of these messages.

10 hours ago, Ebak said:

I despise the arrogant undertones of these messages.

Well I was psyched when the offficial app was announced, then really struggled with it. Found multiple third party options more polished/more innovative/more convenient.

Also other apps had their points updated and new game content added much faster, so they left the official app in the dust.

I was then really excited when FFG announced a whole new app was being developed, I think in November last year.

I imagine they had recieved a lot of negative feeback about their app, had surely looked at the three big third party apps, and were formulating plans for a new app that would blow everyone away.

But there has been no news, and the original report was a message on a discord server, not an official report and nary a mention of the new app has been made even after multiple opportunities.

There are dozens of features an official app could have that would get everyone using it.

This forum has multiple threads regarding what the community thinks it wants, and there will be things none of us could even conceive.

I hope FFG can pull it out of the bag, as X-Wing has been a real boon for my social life and a place to pour my creativity and enthusiasm. So hopefully you see, I have a vested interest in seeing FFG and X-Wing flourish for years to come.

But I dont feel like we are being *too* mean by gently ribbing the company, its not as if we are calling out specific designers and critiquing their capabilities.

If anything, we should feel sympathy for FFG. They didn't develop that app in-house, remember. They contracted another company to do it, and were given that mess of an app in exchange for their money.

If you ask me, they were robbed.

1 hour ago, DR4CO said:

If you ask me, they were robbed.

Sooo much this.

10 hours ago, DR4CO said:

If anything, we should feel sympathy for FFG. They didn't develop that app in-house, remember. They contracted another company to do it, and were given that mess of an app in exchange for their money.

If you ask me, they were robbed.

If they own the code for that app, they could give it to someone else to continue with.

But there appear to be issues with that code, like the complexity needed to add huge ships (assuming that's the reason they are not being added).

If they started again, with another company, they could change it to fit the current requirements. Huge ship slots and other functions were probably not thought of when 2nd ed first launched.

They could even pay to get the code of one of the fan apps, and start from there. I'd expect a C&D tied into that though, so no-one is likely to take it.

14 hours ago, Scum4Life said:

Also other apps had their points updated and new game content added much faster, so they left the official app in the dust.

😠 That the official app keeps the official points until they are no longer official is not one of the many faults to be found with the app. The official app doesn't get to change to the new points until those points are official. While I disagree with the suggestion there are "arrogant undertones" in some of our posts here the idea that the official app should present points that are not officially in effect does somewhat support the allegation.

12 hours ago, DR4CO said:

If anything, we should feel sympathy for FFG. They didn't develop that app in-house, remember. They contracted another company to do it, and were given that mess of an app in exchange for their money.

If you ask me, they were robbed.

On the one hand I agree as the contractor seems to have misrepresented their understanding of what the thing was for and likely barely delivered anything on time since we did not get any sort of preview or look at the app before release of the game.

On the other given how the thing turned out it seems to me the FFG was not diligent enough in their contractor choice nor particular enough in the features desired nor in timelines for deliver not performed their supervisory role in the creation of the app well enough to escape all blame for what was delivered.

12 hours ago, DR4CO said:

If anything, we should feel sympathy for FFG. They didn't develop that app in-house, remember. They contracted another company to do it, and were given that mess of an app in exchange for their money.

If you ask me, they were robbed.

I feel like it's not just the quality of the app that's bad, but that they didn't think at all about how players actually could use it. For example, there's no duplicate ship. There's no option to change pilots within a ship and keeping the upgrades. It's a bear to change between format modes. Everything is too big, so you can't have much information on the screen at any given time. I think these are fundamental design issues that probably came from FFG rather than the coders. Even if your subcontractors made glitchy code, you still have to give them directions and specifications for what the app should contain. It seems clear FFG didn't give good direction, didn't think strongly about what would need to be in a good app.

Meanwhile, I'm not going to feel bad for FFG, because this is their business model. Hire designers for as cheap as you can, since there's lots of folks who want to design games. Outsource whatever you can. Keep costs low, so that profit margins are high. Sure, the app is poor. So is the wording on just about all the cards. These things come from the same place: a corporate strategy of doing things as cheaply as possible. The problems with the app remind me of "Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas." It's not like they put themselves in a position to get a good app out of the process in the first place--they followed a business strategy that would almost ensure a bad app.

//

Then again, I'm odd, and have odd preferences about squadbuilders. I think the original 1e YASB was bad. I never liked the layout. I hate the way you're unable to build an illegal ship: I'd rather be able to build illegal stuff and have a flag, so that if I'm duplicating ships or changing stuff around, I don't see my upgrades disappear. I can't even remember the name of the one I preferred (Squad Builder UK?), but that got wicked slow by the end of 1e, and didn't make the transition to 2e.

I respect the work Rathos is putting in, and it's a really comprehensive resource, but it's like a paraphrase of the old quip: YASB is the worst squadbuilder, except for all the others.

Wait... Launch Bay Next is a website now? Yeah, that's sweet. I've got a few things which irk me about LBN, but I just think it's better.

1 hour ago, Frimmel said:

😠 That the official app keeps the official points until they are no longer official is not one of the many faults to be found with the app. The official app doesn't get to change to the new points until those points are official. While I disagree with the suggestion there are "arrogant undertones" in some of our posts here the idea that the official app should present points that are not officially in effect does somewhat support the allegation.

[...]

I'm sure that a friend who was trying to use the offical app, complained to me that the points were not updated on/after the offical points update day, however as I stopped using it quite quickly I have no direct experience of it.

It would be useful to have the ability to select between current point values and published future updates for those preparing for upcoming tourneys, or wishing to have the most balanced, as well as people attending events before the points go live.

Never meant to be arrogant.

I don't feel bad for FFG at all. If they're outsourcing app development to another company, its on them to detail what they're looking for. I've been involved in app development as a user for military applications, and we've always defined our requirements, quite strictly, with the company developing the product. Along the way there are a number of usability checks, tests, updates, to ensure the product we receive is adequate. Its on our project managers to ensure the contractor is held to the standards we set, and on our project managers to ensure that the end product meets our intent.

The app sucks, but it sucks in its overall design intent. Everything about it seems form over function - which is a 10 minute conversation at the start of development. Honestly, they had plenty of examples from 1.0 of applications that met community intent exceedingly well. All they had to do was build off the concepts they knew worked for the majority of X-Wing players, and they didn't start with that baseline unless the contracted developer wildly swung a different direction with no oversight from the company.

Also - user research. Its a thing.

I don't feel sorry for FFG that they received, released, and failed to update a sub-par product.

Sweeeeeet.

3 hours ago, dsul413 said:

Everything about it seems form over function

I've been saying this since it came out.
It seems as this app was designed solely by the marketing team, while perhaps having a post-it from the game dev team with a bullet list with the minimum required features.

Huge images, huge margins, huge amount of screen real estate dedicated to just ornamental or cosmetical borders.

However, I can't really believe it's all of FFG's fault. Their other apps, like in Descent 2 and Imperial Assault, they are top notch! Offline-friendly, 3D apps with music and sound effects even, that work like a miracle in tons of different platforms!

So we know they can do it, and do it beyond right. So what happened?