6 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

It's more than just a sentiment, though.

I meant your preference for the sequel.

Still think this game sets the bar. And with mods, it really doesn't look all that out of place in 2020:

18 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

Still think this game sets the bar. And with mods, it really doesn't look all that out of place in 2020:

Care to share which modds is that using?

15 minutes ago, LUZ_TAK said:

Care to share which modds is that using?

Not my video, but IIRC the guy lists them in the video description

Just finished playing the story arc. It was **** awesome! Felt more StarWars than a lot of other games and content of late. I so wish they will give us more story gameplay. Definitely would buy Titan and Vanguard squadrons pilot cards for our game.

The game has some balancing issues, and particularly some matchmaking issues. This morning and afternoon I was finally able to complete some ranked matches after a week. I also didn't have dreadfullly long waits for a match nor did the matches seem horribly one-sided. I suspect we've had a bit of an increase in the population.

I tried disabling cross-play though and couldn't find ANY game. So I think I'm at a few disadvantages beyond simply my skill level. I also feel I'm a little on the bad side of the hit registration or else I need a considerable re-consideration of which components and things I need on my ship.

I am clearly at a disadvantage in TIEs with having difficulty using the power shunting between engines and weapons. I can't seem to kill anything and it isn't entirely my aim while I visit the kill screen in under two seconds with considerable frequency even through over-charged and shifted shields.

I have more but I am in a time bind.

57 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

The game has some balancing issues, and particularly some matchmaking issues. This morning and afternoon I was finally able to complete some ranked matches after a week. I also didn't have dreadfullly long waits for a match nor did the matches seem horribly one-sided. I suspect we've had a bit of an increase in the population.

I tried disabling cross-play though and couldn't find ANY game. So I think I'm at a few disadvantages beyond simply my skill level. I also feel I'm a little on the bad side of the hit registration or else I need a considerable re-consideration of which components and things I need on my ship.

I am clearly at a disadvantage in TIEs with having difficulty using the power shunting between engines and weapons. I can't seem to kill anything and it isn't entirely my aim while I visit the kill screen in under two seconds with considerable frequency even through over-charged and shifted shields.

I have more but I am in a time bind.

Power to engines, Power Convert to blasters when you need them.

40 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

The game has some balancing issues, and particularly some matchmaking issues...

Kind of difficult to discuss concerns like that without seeing actual footage of you playing the game, could legit be anything from loadout to playstyle to opposition to lag... so can't really make any recommendations without risking insult 😂

...that said, one of my friends has mentioned difficulty taking down ships as well. I've had more good matches than bad, and have I noticed that the personal bad tend to coincide with my team doing bad as well, which I am happy enough to put down to skill variance, or teams of friends playing with superior communication and strategy.

I've been playing mostly Empire, and of Empire mostly TIE Fighters and Interceptors. I've never really felt the need to use the TIE power shunt yet, although common consensus appears to be power to Engines in TIEs at all times and shunt to weapons as needed. Personally I just switch power to weapons when engaging.

In general, the TIE Interceptor and A-Wing seem like the best bets for Dogfight to start with, and even Fleet Battles if you concentrate on fighters over ships. They might be made of paper mache but their speed and agility can quickly let you lose an attacker in debris, or hit and run. I've seen players doing well with TIE Bombers and support ships but haven't managed to replicate it myself yet - you really need to know what you're doing with them.

I've started toying around with mods but the only one that really stands out so far is the Ion Missile, which can set up easy kills for you or your team.

There was a patch yesterday, aimed mainly at matchmaking, ranking, PC controls and bugfixes from what I gather. The discussion I saw on the ranking system suggested to expect high skill variance for a couple of weeks yet until players get more games under their belts.

Some real basic stuff I keep forgetting to do myself:

Watching range to target - I keep firing blasters before my target gets in range (1km/600m), especially if my missiles have longer range and I get a lock. Switching power to weapons when chasing. You want your weapons overcharged, and don't want to run out of power if you have a ship in your sights. Repairmodule. I need to use it when I start taking damage, not when I'm about to snuff it. Microboosting Drifting. Energy shunting. Shield focusing. Target pinging. All things I'm totally not comfortable with yet and rarely do in the thick of it.

In other news, there's an actual Squadrons tournament going on right now; just seen Bombastic live streaming play on YouTube...

I was pretty flabbergasted by the performance in the tournament. Largely by how uh.

Well how not great it was quite frankly, but Stache had increeeeedible teamwork.

Listen, when it comes to fighter loadouts, I wanna' let you guys in on a secret.

Fighters can out-turn Interceptors. So long as those Interceptors aren't running Microthrust... Which isn't great for them to do anyway. Losing speed is horrid on an Interceptor.

Fighters? Have multiple loadouts. A dogfighter with Agile and Unstable to make Interceptors wonder what in the WORLD happened.
Bombers? Have an anti-fighter and anti-capital loadout. Multi-lock missiles are amazing for grabbing some morale for your team - they one shot mooks. Never give up those rotaries, IMO. They're amazing.
Interceptors! Run stealth and forget about having missiles. That's what I do. You can bang out to 1500m and they can NOT track you.

KEEP YOUR REPAIR KITS THOUGH YIKES.

Supports? No idea yet. Try whatever works for your team, but do not ever let go of resupply kits. That is 100% what you're here for.

22 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

Kind of difficult to discuss concerns like that without seeing actual footage of you playing the game, could legit be anything from loadout to playstyle to opposition to lag... so can't really make any recommendations without risking insult 😂

I'm ending up in games with guys in Australia. Whatever my shortcomings as a pilot and virtual starfighter mechanic that is going to be an issue for me.

22 hours ago, KCDodger said:

Power to engines, Power Convert to blasters when you need them.

Yes. I understand the concept. I lack in executing the concept.

I think overall the game is just simply not finished. I think what they've given us is entertaining enough and mostly seems to work properly but the game feels like a second draft and needs a "re-write."

The multi-player has issues that would have been revealed in any sort of open beta.

While multi-player is fun but if you do not have a friends list full of other people on the game you're really adrift. You keep shifting lobbies so if you fall in with some other guys on mics you're gone next match. Also the gameplay is quite difficult both from just functioning in the game and from a needing to work with a squad.

12 hours ago, Frimmel said:

I'm ending up in games with guys in Australia. Whatever my shortcomings as a pilot and virtual starfighter mechanic that is going to be an issue for me.

...and I'm based in Europe but have played with people from as far away as Malaysia. It happens. As mentioned earlier, the matchmaking experience will likely become more settled in a couple of weeks once regular players have completed their ranked matches and the win/loss stats start to balance out.

If you feel the RNG of squad matching is hampering you, you can of course mitigate it by adding local players to your friends list and inviting them to games. If you're struggling to find people to play with, I'm sure there will be players on the forum who would be happy to squad up.

12 hours ago, Frimmel said:

I think overall the game is just simply not finished. I think what they've given us is entertaining enough and mostly seems to work properly but the game feels like a second draft and needs a "re-write."

That's pretty harsh, especially considering how well received the game has been from other sections of the community. There's no doubt that the game is being used as a proof of concept / test run for future specialised games from EA, but there has clearly also been a lot of time and attention paid to the flight mechanics and making the game more of a sim experience than an arcade shooter.

12 hours ago, Frimmel said:

Also the gameplay is quite difficult both from just functioning in the game and from a needing to work with a squad.

That's... kind of the point. You're supposed to be flying and managing the performance of a Star Wars starfighter in combat. That shouldn't be easy. Easy would be something like Battlefront, which this is clearly not.

Yes, the game requires mastery of the various game mechanics - there is a learning curve here, a high skill ceiling and players will need to adapt to that kind of environment. Yes, it rewards teamwork as well - players who communicate and work together (and fly together on a regular basis) will do better than a squad of players all going solo. That is the kind of experience the developers were going for.

It's probably worth remembering that it's still early days. The game has been out little over a week, players are still learning and getting used to the mechanics.

Anyway, back to the weekend's tournament. Eckhart's Ladder and Bombastic have both put some footage up of the action, and interestingly enough their teams ended up facing each other:

Wait, what is unfinished about the game?

55 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

That's... kind of the point. You're supposed to be flying and managing the performance of a Star Wars starfighter in combat. That shouldn't be easy. Easy would be something like Battlefront, which this is clearly not.

Yes. I understand that is the point. I think though that is both a good and bad thing. It is good because that is the kind of game I want to play. It is far more engaging to me than the Starfighter modes in Battlefront which I still rather enjoyed. However this is not the sort of game that's going to attract the broad very large audience trying to be proved by the concept here. The game needs more noobs and more ways to keep the noobs away from the practiced and talented. The game doesn't provide enough ways to do that.

The game doesn't provide you ways to easily link up and find other players. It doesn't let you stick with a team through multiple matches to find out if you want to add the other players or even remember them from your met players list.

5 minutes ago, dsul413 said:

Wait, what is unfinished about the game?

Well the single-player clearly seems meant to have had more interactions between your character and the other pilots in your squadron. It feels to me as though it was all initially visualized as a bit more than a tutorial for multi-player. From a story standpoint by the end of it you're running both Titan and Vanguard squadrons and to me I think there was a bit more of trying to win your squadmates over in the conversations you have with them.

There are clearly problems with the customization saving.

The single-player has glitched saves and trophies. I have finished the story and the game sees that I finished the story. But it dropped my medals so I didn't get the story completion trophy. It keeps dropping my medals in a restart. There are clearly some issues with trying to replay the game or change difficulties or so on. At this point in the existence of games with achievements that should not be in the state its in. Even in game priced at $40.

As to the multi-player at minimum we're still in a beta test. Spawns needs adjusted. Weapons and perks and ships need adjusted perhaps even re-thought a bit.

The game is "finished" in that they've polished most of the rough edges on the stuff they had and completed that. But in my opinion they were still well away from where that polishing should have started i.e. "This is what we've got and what we can finish by delivery." They finished what they had but they didn't have everything they needed to finish. It is a subtle but worthwhile distinction.

I also think that stuff they didn't have might have caused a re-consideration of what it was they did have.

Look I like the game. I think it is worth the full price I paid for it. It is almost the game I've been asking for since 2015. I will keep playing this for a while even with what I consider its shortcomings. Because even with those shortcomings I'm still having fun with it.

17 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

...the game needs more noobs and more ways to keep the noobs away from the practiced and talented. The game doesn't provide enough ways to do that.

That's not actually correct. Check the "Rank" tab. Once you complete enough (ten) ranked Fleet Battle matches you're allocated a rank, which helps the matchmaking system do exactly what you're suggesting. The Glory you earn in combat also increases your skill rating, which again helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

The more games players participate in, the more data the matchmaking system has to work with. For example, it's highly unlikely you're going to find yourself matched up against the players involved in the weekend's tournament now, as they've played a lot of ranked matches and earned a lot of Glory.

39 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

That's not actually correct. Check the "Rank" tab. Once you complete enough (ten) ranked Fleet Battle matches you're allocated a rank, which helps the matchmaking system do exactly what you're suggesting. The Glory you earn in combat also increases your skill rating, which again helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

The more games players participate in, the more data the matchmaking system has to work with. For example, it's highly unlikely you're going to find yourself matched up against the players involved in the weekend's tournament now, as they've played a lot of ranked matches and earned a lot of Glory.

I suppose. Properly segregated matches seems to be the goal. I know that lopsided matches have been my norm though. And in the reddit for the game there are a number of posts from players being unable to move out of the bottom tier as ranking doesn't seem to be working properly.

Matchmaking experience for me is that each team has one person that can actually land kills and four people that can't hit other players but are okay at dealing with the corvettes and frigates (I fall into the latter category, can't hit another player-controlled starfighter for anything). I've definitely not played enough matches, though.

9 hours ago, Frimmel said:

Well the single-player clearly seems meant to have had more interactions between your character and the other pilots in your squadron. It feels to me as though it was all initially visualized as a bit more than a tutorial for multi-player.

From a story standpoint by the end of it you're running both Titan and Vanguard squadrons and to me I think there was a bit more of trying to win your squadmates over in the conversations you have with them...

I'll grant that elements of the single player campaign feel rushed or incomplete. The interactions with other pilots in briefing feel like there should have been dialogue options or ways for the player to respond, a la Wing Commander or Mass Effect. That doesn't necessarily mean that was ever intended to the case, just that it's my perception.

Certainly there's a quality drop off in single player as I've mentioned earlier in the topic. The earlier missions feel more fleshed out and complete experiences - the missions are structured better, the backdrops look prettier and there's more variety - both in terms of in-game assets (why do we never see the v1 after the Prologue? Surely that should have been seen at the end of the Titan campaign?) and in mission objectives.

9 hours ago, Frimmel said:

The multi-player at minimum we're still in a beta test. Spawns needs adjusted. Weapons and perks and ships need adjusted perhaps even re-thought a bit.

Not sure why you feel spawns need adjusting? They're fixed in both Dogfight and Fleet Battles. There's no variance; they are what they are.

I also doubt - given the game's been out little over a week - that you're really in a position to fully and objectively analyse the ships, weapons and upgrades, and say whether they're balanced or not. I've been playing a LOT and there's ships I've barely used and plenty of equipment I haven't unlocked or touched yet. Tweaking and rebalancing of the various ships and upgrade abities is inevitable, but it's far too early to be drawing any kind of conclusions or saying what kind of tweaking needs to be done.

Part of the issue in dogfight is trickling back in from being killed. You can not hold your respawn to come in with more of your team. You then get a lot of being outnumbered and then the match snowballs against your team. Why am I ever spawning beneath the station on the esseles map? It is sheltered and that is good but you are so far from the action already when you spawn.

I have not also made any specific claims till now as to what needs changes but it seems to me that a bunch of things being complained about are the sorts of things a beta test finds.

It is early and they need time to gather data but while fun there are some things that need changed and some of it seems like it should have been clear before release it would be an issue.

I am trying to be constructive with my criticism because overall I do like the game.

I hate that I agree with FTS Gecko of all people but he's pretty bang-on the money about everything he's saying.

Also, 40 dollar product. You aren't getting the $60.00 msrp AAA title polish and even then, some of those titles from EA do not feel "finished".

14 hours ago, Frimmel said:

I am trying to be constructive with my criticism because overall I do like the game.

That's fair enough. I've noticed a couple of issues with rank progression playing today; (finally) finished my placement matches. The daily challenges don't seem to be progressing - I completed four, claimed the reward, but I'm not getting any new ones to replace them. Of the three remaining I've won Fleet Battles matches against the AI and matches as the New Republic but it hasn't registered, and repair/restock with the U-Wing/Reaper doesn't seem to be registering either.

So yeah, there are definitely things that need to be addressed.

In gameplay terms, if there's one thing you can guarantee a game community will do, it's spot things that shouldn't be and exploit them. My pet hate at the moment are pilots that routinely just cut their speed to zero. I've seen Bombers/Y-Wings sat at speed zero next to a capital ship's hull under it's shields, either basically acting like a turret or firing on it's hull at point blank range. This was pretty egregious in Dogfight mode as well, where a Bomber would camp underneath an obstacle and just rotate and fire at ships as they came in range. If they got too close, it'd drop a Proton Bomb. Yuk.

Maybe a way to dissuade this kind of behaviour would be to reduce maneuverability with speed? So if a ship is at a full stop, it can't turn, or turns VERY slowly?

1 hour ago, Jo Jo said:

Also, 40 dollar product. You aren't getting the $60.00 msrp AAA title polish and even then, some of those titles from EA do not feel "finished".

Hmmmm, I don't buy that argument. It's fine for a $40 product to offer less content than a $70 AAA release, but the content that IS provided should still be polished to the best level possible. Too many companies are now using patches / updates as a crutch.

5 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

Maybe a way for combat this would be to reduce maneuverability with speed?

The problem is the TIE bombers are not killable even if you are not on the bad side of the hit registration. This is not an uncommon complaint.

1 minute ago, Frimmel said:

The problem is the TIE bombers are not killable

OK, at this point @Frimmel I'm just going to say you're having a vastly different in-game experience to me.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/SW-Squadrons-Known-Issues-amp-Announcements/m-p/9526030#M1747

Nice that they have a list of known issues. It does sound like they have a couple of issues related to ranks and matchmaking. Some people not getting ranked up after wins, and some saying that if you leave a match after the first person who left (at which point it says you aren't penalized), you still lose points.