what's up forum people

per popular request I'm gonna share whatever we get from FFG official on the X-Wing Second Edition Discord Server here in this thread. (link to the actual server at the end of this post if you care, it's actually a fun place).

I will try to keep up on this but there may sometimes be a delay between it going to the server and me being able to update this thread.

Stuff we've already gotten (posting for posterity):

11/06/2019
Exciting news everybody! The moderation team here has recently been contacted by Evan Johnson, a Marketing Manager at FFG, in their effort to better engage with the community by opening lines of communication directly with us as players, from FFG themselves! While we work out the details with FFG’s representatives, Evan has already been so kind as to forward us the release windows for upcoming X-Wing products! It’s important to note that these are not final and may change for a variety of reasons, but the dates we’ve been given are:
- Huge Ship Conversion Kit, Tantive IV, Epic Battles – November 8, 2019
- C-ROC – November 15, 2019
- Imperial Raider, X-Wing Damage Decks – December 2019
- Saw's Renegades, TIE Reaper, Hound's Tooth, Interceptor, Defender, RZ-1 A-Wing – December 2019 (note that these are currently scheduled for a separate release from Vonreg's TIE and the Fireball)
- Never Tell Me the Odds, Fully Loaded – January 2020
- Vonreg's TIE, Fireball, Hotshots and Aces – February 2020
Feel free to discuss and spread the information to your friends. Happy gaming, and be sure to check back frequently for more news in the near future!
Mod Team

11/12/2019
We had previously announced that we were releasing the Saw's Renegades Expansion Pack and the TIE Reaper Expansion Pack in "black boxes"—i.e. matching the rest of the second edition product, no first edition cards included within. The business team took a look at our stock, and it just didn't make sense to create those. The "grey boxes" released at the end of first edition included both first edition and second edition content, and there are still a ton of the grey boxes in stores. Because of that, we're pulling the black boxes from the release schedule, and will not be producing those. Anyone interested in that content should just get the grey boxes, which as I mentioned, should be readily available. Let me know if there are any questions! Hopefully this shouldn't ruffle too many feathers, but I'm sorry about the miscommunication!
Evan Johnson, FFG

11/18/2019
We're taking steps to make our Upcoming page more accurate and useful in general. We've removed a couple of statuses: In Development was never a real thing—if we announce a game, we're done developing it. On the Boat commonly caused more confusion than it was worth. Basically, in the new upcoming page, every product is In Production until it ships from our warehouse out to retailers, which is when it changes to Shipping Now. To counteract the lack of granularity, we're adding projected release months, which we'll be updating as we get information! Hopefully that all makes sense!
Evan Johnson, FFG

11/21/2019
Hello X-Wing players! Many of you have noticed that the huge ships have not been added to the X-Wing Squad Builder app. We are actually in the process of completely reworking our X-Wing Squad Builder app, including developing a much more user-friendly interface, offline mode, and support for huge ships and epic play. For now, all tournament-legal ships are still supported by the current Squad Builder app. For huge ships and epic play, we recommend that you use the points lists provided on the FFG website for now. We'll have much more information to share about the reworked Squad Builder app as it comes closer to release!
Evan Johnson, FFG

Last Friday at 10:06 AM
Also, two quick updates on upcoming products. The reprinted ships from Wave 6 (Interceptor / Defender / Hound's Tooth / RZ-1 A-Wing) won't be able to make a December release date. We've pushed them back to an expected release date in January accordingly. In addition, due to overwhelming stock of the first edition Imperial Raider (grey box), we will not be printing or releasing the second edition Imperial Raider (black box). We're very sorry for the miscommunication on this, and it should not happen again with any of the other products announced for X-Wing. And finally! As promised, System Open information and prizes are going up today! Scheduled for 12:00 PM Central Time.
Evan Johnson-FFG

Last Monday at 2:51 PM
Aces High Pods Up to 8 players can sign up for an Aces High pod and play two rounds of the Aces High scenario from Epic Battles, with some minor adjustments. Players will play for 60 minutes and score match points according to their placement at their table (see below). The first round will be randomly paired with 4 players to a table. In the second round, the 1st and 2nd place players from each table will face each other, and the 3rd and 4th place players from each player will face each other. Once the second round is complete, players will receive prize tickets based on their standing within the pod. Match Points
1st Place – 8 points
2nd place – 6 points
3rd place – 4 points
4th place – 2 points
In the event of a tie, players add up the potential points for placements and divide them by the number of tied players. Example: There is a two-way tie for second place. The players add up the potential scores (6 points and 4 points for 2nd and 3rd place) for a total of 10 points, divided by the number of tied players (which is two). The two players tied would each receive 5 points. "Additionally, each player needs to bring 2 obstacles, 1 Hyperspace Marker, a 1 ship/upgrades equaling up to 80 points.
Evan Johnson-FFG

server can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/xwing-2e

be excellent to each other

Thank you for doing what the FFG marketing people cannot for some bizarre unknown reason

2 hours ago, Kordos said:

Thank you for doing what the FFG marketing people cannot for some bizarre unknown reason

This is like the FFG twilight zone.

2 hours ago, Kordos said:

Thank you for doing what the FFG marketing people cannot for some bizarre unknown reason

Right?

Its not as if they have their own dedicated website and forum specifically tailored for their players. No, they have to go to a fan-created discord server. Ugh. The social media manager needs to do the job correctly- you always put out official notices on your company-owned website, then spread it out to official social media sites like Facebook or Twitter (using links to direct players back to your company announcement), and then, maybe go to fan sites/forums/servers to get out the information. They are literally doing this in the exact opposite order of how you should.

I too like to be mad when ffg decides to do more community outreach

Reee!! Why do I have to open a thread on the FFG forum to see the announcements?!? Why isn’t it just a notification on my phone that pops up? Why do I have to unlock my phone, go to google, find the forums, and find the thread? This is outrageous, it’s unfair!

11 minutes ago, svelok said:

I too like to be mad when ffg decides to do more community outreach

🤨 The issue isn't them communicating directly with the player base, that is fine and should be lauded. The issue is them in effect discarding extant official means that do not require additional software or accounts in other places while they do so making confirmation of what they are said to have posted iffy for many. Not everyone who will be looking for the information have accounts in venues where the information is being released nor do they have the experience with the ones who will be sharing here what is posted there that we regulars have. Trust but confirm because even those you trust are fallible.

16 hours ago, Kieransi said:

Last Friday at 10:06 AM
...

Last Monday at 2:51 PM

You should probably change these to the actual dates, since the day that is “last Monday/Friday” changes from week to week.

Thanks for doing this, it’s extremely helpful!

2 hours ago, svelok said:

I too like to be mad when ffg decides to do more community outreach

I signed up on the FFG forums to be a member of the FFG community. You know, like what the little blue tabby says at the top of the web page.

In any event, I do thank our new Liaison Officer @Kieransi for creating and maintaining a thread for FFG to reach out by proxi to the Official X-Wing Community.

Can you guys please leave this discussion out of this thread?

Why would ffg be reluctant to interact with the forums?

Looks at forums.

No, yeah, I get it

3 hours ago, Quack Shot said:

Reee!! Why do I have to open a thread on the FFG forum to see the announcements?!? Why isn’t it just a notification on my phone that pops up? Why do I have to unlock my phone, go to google, find the forums, and find the thread? This is outrageous, it’s unfair!

if only there were an app that was similar to the forums but kept all these announcements in a separate thread that you could easily change notification settings so it instantly tells you when one of these happens

oh well I guess we'll have to make do

1 hour ago, jagsba said:

Why would ffg be reluctant to interact with the forums?

Looks at forums.

No, yeah, I get it

"My house is a pigstye, can I sleep at your house" seems like a lame reason to go elsewhere.

Interacting with the forums might actually cut down some of the speculative interactions that turn belligerent because no one has any information to go on.

May I ask someone who has been on Discord if it is free of discord?? Are people just nicer?? Is it well moderated and that makes a difference??

And if it is the land of milk & honey, why are you inviting all of us lunatics to join? 🤣

19 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

"My house is a pigstye, can I sleep at your house" seems like a lame reason to go elsewhere.

Guess I'm lame.

19 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Interacting with the forums might actually cut down some of the speculative interactions that turn belligerent because no one has any information to go on.

Lol

19 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

May I ask someone who has been on Discord if it is free of discord?? Are people just nicer?? Is it well moderated and that makes a difference??

It's better moderated. And it's a different feel. Different styles/locations foster different attitudes.

19 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

And if it is the land of milk & honey, why are you inviting all of us lunatics to join? 🤣

I genuinely don't know why they are. They should know better

FIRST SET OF ANSWERS FOR Q&A

Q: The announcement of Hyperspace being the System Open format is very significant. Can you give any insight on why the change was made? Also, with unreleased ships being in Hyperspace and not necessarily new player friendly, can you elaborate on the goal of the Hyperspace format going forward?

For next year, all events in the path to Worlds (Store, Prime, Grand, etc.) will be played using the Extended format. System Opens will use the Hyperspace format. Regarding the reasons behind this and goals of the Hyperspace format, stay tuned—Alex Watkins has an article addressing this topic that is planned to go live in the first months of 2020. .(edited)

Q: Some squads are known for having high amounts of final salvo dice while also being capable of not moving forwards over the course of multiple turns (4 Starvipers barrel rolling backwards in formation. 2 Upsilons driving into each other while Kylo does 1 hards and barrel rolls in a corner, etc) The squads traditionally have a game plan of 'delay the engage by waiting in a corner until the opponent is trading shots with me, as other lists are typically not as good at trading shots'- Do you believe this style of play is legitimate? When would you consider it Stalling under the tournament/floor rules? Do you view these squads as a problem?

We are looking into this and you can look for more information in coming months!

Q: Currently, FFG communication is spread across 5 different sources: -FFGLive Twitch -FFG OP Twitter or FFG OP Facebook -Discord -The official Rules Reference, available on this page -The official rulings thread each of these sources contains information not available in the others, and players need to track all 5 to stay up to date with the game. Is there a plan to consolidate these communications so that players don't need to track so many different sources?

We have no plans to consolidate these channels at this time—each of these channels serves a separate and unique function in our plans for X-Wing. We are aware that it’s a lot of information to follow, and in fact, the major reason for us becoming more involved in Discord in the first place is to facilitate information passing out to the community. Look for other changes and improvements in the future!

Q: Will regionals (formerly hyperspace trials) continue to be hyperspace format or is this switching to extended (asking because System Opens switched)?

Prime championships will use the Extended format for next year! See Answer #1 for more details.

Q: What's the release window on the faction damage decks? the announcement article didn't say and they never went on the upcoming page.

We are currently looking at a January release date, but this is not yet set in stone.

Q: The rules currently do not define what is meant by the "Dark Side" requirement on Hate. The only reference to "Dark Side" upgrades in the entire game is on the Maul crew card. Where Hate can be equipped has been inferred from where the official app allows it to be equipped. Given that the official app is being phased out and that the official app allows seemingly illegal setups such as Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious on the same ship, will there be rules text in the RRG regarding "Dark Side" upgrades?

There will be a way to tell where you can equip dark side and light side upgrades that does not require the app, we’ll have more information on this coming in the future.

Q:Many mobile high initiative ships are able to do the following: - Hit or Land on Obstacles and take actions or modify dice ( Allowing escape routes in areas of the board that would otherwise be restrictive and give dial info ) - Get blocked by an opponent moving first and modify dice ( Forcing low init ships to block reposition options instead of the opponents ship to avoid reduced # of shots at a tokened target) - Receive Stress and modify dice ( Keeping defensible k turn options open leading to init kills or damage in situations that normally would allow a chase to begin. Also double repositioning or boost rotating with mods ) - Perform multiple combinations of essentially white linked actions without stress ( Keeping the dial completely open providing less info for successfully forced repositions ) Combining all or most of this into one ship greatly restricts normally effective and preferred in game counter play strategies available to ships moving first. Will there be be mechanical changes to how force is implemented, point decreases to low init forward arcs, and increases to high init? Or will more powerful turrets, bombs, and control be re-introduced as the primary source of balance like 1.0?

We’ll just defer any points / balance questions for now by saying that we’re coming up on the January points rebalancing for X-Wing. Stay tuned for that and watch it live on our Twitch channel! https://www.twitch.tv/ffglive

Q: Some ships have Pilots that are wildly different in levels of effectiveness- Typically one or two unique pilots are 'usable' and somewhat prevalent in use, and the rest are bad. While it was said in previous Q&A's that for ships flown by famous characters that the viability of non-movie pilots is secondary, but this applies to ships with no known characters as pilots- As an example, the TIE Striker has purely pilots that were made by FFG, but the only remotely viable ones are the named ones, specifically Duchess. As an example, the cost-per-point of initiative between a Planetary Sentinel, a Black Squadron Scout, and Duchess is a linear 2/init, and Duchess pays nothing for her ability, debatably the most powerful one of the named strikers. At 38 points, the Black Squadron Scout is possibly the worst generic pilot in the game. Has the development team explored any way to have generic TIE strikers be made viable, from decreasing their points, releasing new generic strikers with improved statlines (IE- Strikers with a shield), Strikers that are Limited 3 akin to the unique Vulture Droids, etc? Right now they suck.

As above, we’ll just defer any points / balance questions for now by saying that we’re coming up on the January points rebalancing for X-Wing. Stay tuned for that and watch it live on our Twitch channel! https://www.twitch.tv/ffglive

Q: what are the rules on custom modified ships? The line between legal and illegal has been kind of hazy in past. Is this being purely left open to TO discretion? Thinking specifically of various kitbashes and ship mashups, but if there's kinds of repaints that would also be illegal I would like to know that as well.

All ships must be immediately recognizable from their shape. Essentially, if the ship is not immediately recognizable, it is not legal. Refer to the Component Modifications section on page 4 of X-Wing Tournament Regulations (Text Only) for more details! https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/d1/88/d1884752-34e1-4ad6-a992-824f41694a03/x-wing_20_tournament_regulations_printer_friendly.pdf

Q: Legion has officially adopted a smaller 500 pt format and in an interview with Legion Academy Alex confirmed there should be some OP support for the smaller format (but the main OP track towards Worlds would still be 800pts). Will there be some smaller format option for X-Wing OP with shorter rounds, smaller squads to make for quick weekday tournaments and allow us TOs to get more sleep?

For the present, we see the Aces High scenario and side events filling this role for X-Wing.

-----BONUS "FUN QUESTION"----- This is directed towards Matt and Evan, when did y'all first get introduced to the game of X-Wing? And if it was before you started working for FFG, did you ever think you'd want to do what you're currently doing? And also, what are yalls personal favorite factions, and favorite ships? And is there any reasoning behind those decisions such as lore or how they play? Looking forwards to getting to know the devs better through this, and also keep up the great work, we really appreciate the effort yall are making.

Evan: My answer is much more boring than Matt’s—I learned X-Wing shortly after I started at FFG six years ago. I love the Separatists, because I love all their silly robots. Personal favorite ship, tied directly to my favorite Star Wars character—Wat Tambor in the Belbullab-22! I do also like how they play, but lore always comes first with me and the Separatists.

Matt: I picked up a core set at my local Target back in early 2013. I’d always wanted to try a miniatures game but was too intimidated to build and paint minis, and I loved Star Wars! We tried the quick start rules (no actions or any of that stuff) and I actually ended up almost returning the game because it seemed too simple! Fortunately I tried the real thing shortly after and was immediately hooked! I played over 600 games of First Edition, playing at all levels of competition. It also led to my job here, as I met lots of FFG staff through playing at the Game Center and later play-testing X-Wing. I have long been a fan of the Rebel Alliance. Their ships are just so iconic and I love the cobbled-together, ragtag look they have. I had at least 150 games under my belt with one Red Squadron, two Dagger Squadron B-Wings with Advanced Sensors, and a Gold Squadron Y-Wing with Ion Cannon alone, but also love Corran Horn and Jake Farrell! In Second Edition I’ve really enjoyed the Force-powered shenanigans of the Jedi as well!

It's been said before, but I'm really glad you're doing this, @Kieransi . I have no interest in or time to follow multiple sources of information, but this is a very helpful thread.

5 hours ago, Kieransi said:

We have no plans to consolidate these channels at this time—each of these channels serves a separate and unique function in our plans for X-Wing. We are aware that it’s a lot of information to follow, and in fact, the major reason for us becoming more involved in Discord

What a joke, we are aware it's a lot to follow so we decided to add a new source to follow for you!

Thank you Kieransi for doing what FFG refuse to do

21 minutes ago, Kordos said:

What a joke, we are aware it's a lot to follow so we decided to add a new source to follow for you!

We should ask FFG to sticky this thread so that when they post on Discord, users can then copy and paste their responses into this forum thread for them.

It's just so weird.

14 hours ago, Kordos said:

What a joke, we are aware it's a lot to follow so we decided to add a new source to follow for you!

Up Next: FFG on Instagram!!!

#CR-90 #IsThat4Raiders? #NotTheDialYourLookingFor #ConKitIsFine #Oops

On 11/29/2019 at 6:00 PM, GreenDragoon said:

Can you guys please leave this discussion out of this thread?

... or we can fill in discussion about how hard it is to find the relevant information and make it harder to find the relevant information.

3 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

... or we can fill in discussion about how hard it is to find the relevant information and make it harder to find the relevant information.

if only there were a forum that let us keep the important stuff in its own locked thread and pin stuff to it

and had a dark theme

oh well I guess we'll have to make do

6 hours ago, Kieransi said:

if only there were a forum that let us keep the important stuff in its own locked thread and pin stuff to it

and had a dark theme

oh well I guess we'll have to make do

Discord is garbage for keeping separate asynchronous conversations threaded, organized and ongoing over a long period of time. Its great for real-time communication between people, which was its intended purpose as a platform for in-game chat.

While you can lock a channel and use that as some sort of long-term, clean thread with no feedback, its a bodge use of the tool. Its also not a communication source/server that is managed by the company, and therefore operates at the whim of a third-party which does not help increase confidence in it.

This is coming from someone who uses Discord extensively both for gaming, professional, and family communication.

The very idea that official communications would happen there and have to be relayed to the official forums by third-parties days if not weeks later is a laughable/sad failure of FFGs communication team.

But thank you for doing it.

On 11/29/2019 at 10:31 AM, Hiemfire said:

🤨 The issue isn't them communicating directly with the player base, that is fine and should be lauded. The issue is them in effect discarding extant official means that do not require additional software or accounts in other places while they do so making confirmation of what they are said to have posted iffy for many. Not everyone who will be looking for the information have accounts in venues where the information is being released nor do they have the experience with the ones who will be sharing here what is posted there that we regulars have. Trust but confirm because even those you trust are fallible.

Yeah, funnily enough, if I want news about a company's products, I tend to check that company's News page first; not visit a couple dozen various social media platforms just because the company may have decided to open more accounts that could potentially be first sources of information.

On 12/3/2019 at 1:28 PM, Kieransi said:

Q: Currently, FFG communication is spread across 5 different sources: -FFGLive Twitch -FFG OP Twitter or FFG OP Facebook -Discord -The official Rules Reference, available on this page -The official rulings thread each of these sources contains information not available in the others, and players need to track all 5 to stay up to date with the game. Is there a plan to consolidate these communications so that players don't need to track so many different sources?

We have no plans to consolidate these channels at this time—each of these channels serves a separate and unique function in our plans for X-Wing. We are aware that it’s a lot of information to follow, and in fact, the major reason for us becoming more involved in Discord in the first place is to facilitate information passing out to the community. Look for other changes and improvements in the future!

I don't know if it's actually possible to cause aneurysms through sheer idiocy, but FFG is sure making a noble effort.

On 12/4/2019 at 10:18 AM, GreenDragoon said:

... or we can fill in discussion about how hard it is to find the relevant information and make it harder to find the relevant information.

Well, community discussion is sort of the point of the forums...

1 hour ago, JJ48 said:

Well, community discussion is sort of the point of the forums...

Obviously not what I was talking about, is it? This thread here is only to collect the discord announcements. Maybe to discuss the content of them, but that's just barely happening here.