Well, I caved over the past few weeks. I ordered a thrustmaster 16000m to replace my good old SideWinder 3D pro and bought X-Wing Alliance on Steam so that I would not have to hook up my old windows 98 PC (which is in a closet nearby). I was pleasantly surprised that everything worked right off the bat considering how old this game is, but I'm getting this old fuzzy nostalgic feeling while playing the game. Even if it was just that, I'd be happy, so buying a new gen game on top of that is a nice bonus.

So yeah, training with my new Joystick on X-Wing Alliance so I can destroy everything in my path when the game launches. If I can do it with some X-Wing miniature friends, so much the better

Is it bad that I'm so hyped for this game that I'm already thinking of ways the fully operational sequel is going to blow it out of the water with new features that the $40 price tag just doesn't support? I can't wait for this to be a massive, amazing success story that changes the trajectory of Star Wars gaming.

8 minutes ago, Nyxen said:

I'm already thinking of ways the fully operational sequel is going to blow it out of the water with new features

How many are going to play this in VR?

1 hour ago, Sciencius said:

How many are going to play this in VR?

I need a VR set first...

1 hour ago, Sciencius said:

How many are going to play this in VR?

I'd love to, but no VR headset for Xbox One.

Not going to stop me picking it up, though...

Initially getting it for PC, but I may dust off my VR headset for my PS4 if I really like the game and try it there.

I'm mostly annoyed that it won't have TrackIR support, although it will have VR support

On 9/15/2020 at 8:27 PM, Nyxen said:

Is it bad that I'm so hyped for this game that I'm already thinking of ways the fully operational sequel is going to blow it out of the water with new features that the $40 price tag just doesn't support? I can't wait for this to be a massive, amazing success story that changes the trajectory of Star Wars gaming.

The game looks good and is going for a overwatch/league of Legends mindset. Limited number of maps/ships with the main draw being pvp and cosmetics. If given some love the game could last for years with a strong fanbase. My only worry is the lack of future content for the game. BUT I already think this game is trial run/beta for the series and Squadron 2 will have all the bells and whistles.

Random ideas for Squadron 2...............all obvious lol:

• More fighters - This one here is the biggy and the only major change I can think of to the game. Of coruse going with a class system they really could only add like 1 or 2 ships a faction for balance.
• More maps - maybe make them more interactive like Battlefield 4
• More cosmetics
• Longer story- Just a hunch here, but I have a feeling the story will be super short.
• More eras - This one is the one I am not sure about. Do they just switch who is doing the fighting with Squadrons 2 being Clone Wars and Squadron 3 going FO/Resistance war? Or throw them all together?????

12 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

I'd love to, but no VR headset for Xbox One.

Not going to stop me picking it up, though...

I am so torn between getting the PS5 and Xbox Series X. I think the Xbox Series X is absolutely amaze-balls, no loud fan noise, love the controller, lots of games that I like coming to the console, they just bought Bethesda, they got Gamepass.....but no VR (dammit). While the PS5 is getting VR (and is backwards compatible with the PSVR set I have for my PS4).

15 hours ago, Sciencius said:

How many are going to play this in VR?

Yep. Oculus Rift CV1.

I might have to mess about with the settings, as the GPU is a bit old now, but it handles VR in Elite: Dangerous pretty well. It is listed in the SW:S specs as "GeForce GTX 1070 (Recommended VR)", but I'm happy with lower settings to get a clean game.

11 hours ago, FlyingToaster said:

I'm mostly annoyed that it won't have TrackIR support, although it will have VR support

This might seem strange for people who haven't tried it, but this is a deal breaker for me. I'm new to flight sims, but after playing around for a few hours with a DIY headtracker made out of a piece of cardboard stapled to a headband I just can't go back.

There is hope that it could work if they allow assigning looking around to different axes so you could map headtraking to a virtual joystick, so I'm waiting for people to test this out before I buy.

58 minutes ago, eMeM said:

This might seem strange for people who haven't tried it, but this is a deal breaker for me. I'm new to flight sims, but after playing around for a few hours with a DIY headtracker made out of a piece of cardboard stapled to a headband I just can't go back.

There is hope that it could work if they allow assigning looking around to different axes so you could map headtraking to a virtual joystick, so I'm waiting for people to test this out before I buy.

I'm playing empire I think, so I don't need to look around. Only forward towards my enemies.

12 hours ago, RyantheFett said:

More fighters - This one here is the biggy and the only major change I can think of to the game. Of coruse going with a class system they really could only add like 1 or 2 ships a faction for balance.

Better to ditch the class system altogether. Honestly, I would like to also see them balancing the game not 1v1, but something more asymmetrical (balance by number of players in each team, by spawning times, etc.) and realistic with the ships stats.

Make ships more unique and add a lot of them.

TIE Defender, TIE Heavy, TIE Striker, TIE v1 and Alpha-Class Starwing for Empire; B-wing, Z-95 and some retrofitted Clone Wars starfighters for the Rebels (since they have fewer options), like the V-Wing, ARC-170 and even the Naboo N-1 Starfighter.

1 hour ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

I'm playing empire I think, so I don't need to look around. Only forward towards my enemies.

Throttle to max. Blasters charged.

NO SHIELDS. ALL GUTS.

All guts smeared on the scorched debris.

22 minutes ago, Azrapse said:

All guts smeared on the scorched debris.

Well if that happens clearly the pilot wasn't good enough for the Imperial Navy

5 hours ago, Hippie Moosen said:

Well if that happens clearly the pilot wasn't good enough for the Imperial Navy

Nah. I'm with Thrawn on this.
Why wasting perfectly valuable rookies that won't ever become veterans?
That's how the Empire lost: putting all eggs in one big basket that was one-hit by some punk with luck. Twice.

Instead, if they had put those resources on shielded, better armed fighters, the higher survival rate would have lead to more experienced pilots. And they would have crushed the Rebellion.

33 minutes ago, Azrapse said:

Nah. I'm with Thrawn on this.
Why wasting perfectly valuable rookies that won't ever become veterans?
That's how the Empire lost: putting all eggs in one big basket that was one-hit by some punk with luck. Twice.

Instead, if they had put those resources on shielded, better armed fighters, the higher survival rate would have lead to more experienced pilots. And they would have crushed the Rebellion.

You and Thrawn are absolutely right. That was just my tongue-in-cheek answer to your first statement. I've been running an Imperial campaign using the old West End D6 system and like 80% of the party took that as a free pass to play totally hardcore super space fascists, so my players zealotry might be rubbing off on me. They basically said what I did about one of the PC's getting shot out of the sky in his Tie. Heck in the next session the group mutinied the PC captain of their ship for not being evil enough. It's been a wild ride. Pretty sure most of them are having a great time, but wow am I finding it difficult to keep them from accidentally derailing any plot threads with their craziness.

2 hours ago, Azrapse said:

Nah. I'm with Thrawn on this.
Why wasting perfectly valuable rookies that won't ever become veterans?
That's how the Empire lost: putting all eggs in one big basket that was one-hit by some punk with luck. Twice.

Instead, if they had put those resources on shielded, better armed fighters, the higher survival rate would have lead to more experienced pilots. And they would have crushed the Rebellion.

Well the main problem with this plan is that it depends on empowering individuals, as opposed to glorifying the unassailable power of the state!

For real there is a LOT of EU info on how the 'ideals' of the Empire prevented it from enacting sensible plans, which I like. Thrawn may have been right, but it still makes perfect sense why a group like the Empire didn't do the tactically smart thing. One of the most realistic thing in Star Wars is egotistical boys pretending to be admirals discontinuing critically needed ships to support their capital ships because they aren't big enough.

Also, there are some logistical reasons why it makes sense for the empire to fetishize capital ships: Its harder for the command crew of a Star Destroyer to defect than a Nebulon B or individual fighter pilots, and swarms of fighters are better for occupying a planet where you expect mostly civilian resistance.

None of that really would change them losing to the Rebellion though. Occupying an endless amount of planets is logistically infeasible. Imagine fighting like.... 50,000 Iraq or Veitnam wars at all times.

9 hours ago, dezzmont said:

...none of that really would change them losing to the Rebellion though. Occupying an endless amount of planets is logistically infeasible. Imagine fighting like.... 50,000 Iraq or Veitnam wars at all times.

Hence, Death Star. "Fear will keep the local systems in line!"

Tarkin was right all along!

But fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. And hate leads to rebellion.

Yoda was right all along!

2 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

Hence, Death Star. "Fear will keep the local systems in line!"

Tarkin was right all along!

Well, it worked with the WWII Japan...

I mean, if the Rebels weren't able to destroy the first and second (and third) Death Stars, the Alliance would never win.

Hey, not defending the Empire. Any regime that subjugate people by force is evil.

BTW, two days!!

26 minutes ago, Odanan said:

BTW, two days!!

T-minus 48 hours and counting pilots...

...now, when's that review embargo lifted?