I am an hour and a half in I really like it so far. The story progression makes sense. You start with a tie that is simple and intuitive and go to a bit more complex ship in the xwing.

Squadrons is definitely more flight sim than games like Hawx, there is definitely a learning curve.

I'm x wing terms the squadrons creates great opportunity for a card pack.

1 hour ago, reqent said:

I am an hour and a half in I really like it so far...

...same here, played the first couple of campaign missions and a bit of multiplayer practice with @Arma Quattro.

It's a LOT of fun, but there's a steep learning curve here. The 5 vs 5 skirmish was pretty straight forward and pretty easy to get to grips with. The fleet battles were a total whitewash. You'll need to have full knowledge of how to play the game and be able to communicate and work as a team to stand a chance in them.

On 6/15/2020 at 1:58 PM, LUZ_TAK said:

Also, Uwing in post ROTJ... all that bs about them being all gone at Scarif put to rest.

The U-wing was in the post-ROTJ books (like Alphabet Squadron), anyway.

4 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

...same here, played the first couple of campaign missions and a bit of multiplayer practice with @Arma Quattro.

It's a LOT of fun, but there's a steep learning curve here. The 5 vs 5 skirmish was pretty straight forward and pretty easy to get to grips with. The fleet battles were a total whitewash. You'll need to have full knowledge of how to play the game and be able to communicate and work as a team to stand a chance in them.

Keep reporting!

I may get the game this weekend (or postpone the purchase for a couple of months).

5 hours ago, InterceptorMad said:

Wait, really? Didn't we know from the start that the story was going to go back and forth? I was under that impression since they announced what the game was, so no issue here.

3 hours ago, dsul413 said:

I mean they’ve openly stated the single player is both there to teach you to fly and that the campaign flip flops between Rebel and Imperial. Like...in all media regarding the game.

^ this. The people complaining about the campaign switch back and forth between Republic / Imperial are basically complaining that their tomato soup doesn't taste like mushroom.

5 hours ago, Rammstein117 said:

Kinda surprised at the reactions here, i've played about 3 hours of it and have had a blast...

Same here. There's a lot to learn and a lot to master, but it's a lot of fun, and will only get better as you get more experience flying the different ships.

For those who are fans of Critical Role, have you found any of the cast yet? Any of the character voice choices sound familiar?

Sounds like peoples experiences are mostly positive, apart from some VR and HOTAS issues, and woes regarding having to play something other than Imperial in the single player. For those who've spent some time in the multiplayer, what kind of progression is there? Is it all new cosmetics that are unlocked gradually through play, or are some of the modifications that affect game play tied to hitting certain milestones or completing certain objectives?

41 minutes ago, Hippie Moosen said:

For those who've spent some time in the multiplayer, what kind of progression is there? Is it all new cosmetics that are unlocked gradually through play, or are some of the modifications that affect game play tied to hitting certain milestones or completing certain objectives?

There's a rank progression system - you earn points as you play under two separate systems, one (Glory) for cosmetics (paint jobs, decals, cockpit accessories etc) and one (Requisition) for actual ship modifications (hull/shield/weapon upgrades etc).

As far as I can tell, you earn both through performance in game, and completing certain objectives does net you extra.

Everything is unlocked via in game play only, no microtransactions.

For what it's worth after three matches (one competitive, two practice), I'm at rank four and have six hundred Glory points towards cosmetics (prices range from 200 to 1,200 or so), and 6 Requisition points (all upgrades cost 1 point each as far as I can tell).

When equipping upgrades to your ship, it'll display the impact on your ship's performance. For example reinforced hull will improve your overall durability at the expense of speed and agility (turning). You can do a lot of fine tuning and tinkering by the looks of it.

Some of the upgrades are strictly role based - for example Proton Torpedoes are only really going to be useful against capital ships (long lock on time and minimum firing distances)

2 hours ago, InterceptorMad said:

For those who are fans of Critical Role, have you found any of the cast yet? Any of the character voice choices sound familiar?

And now I have to pay attention to each voice and find them, so thank you for that 😅

I think the imperial speaking with Sloane in the begining is voiced by Taliesin ? Am I mistaken ? I am terrible at this

1 hour ago, FTS Gecko said:

Some of the upgrades are strictly role based - for example Proton Torpedoes are only really going to be useful against capital ships (long lock on time and minimum firing distances)

That is cool and something that would be neat to translate into epic. You could have ordinance specifically designed for huge ships and structures. Without worrying about warping the normal game.

One really cool thing about the campaign mode is how the battle groups so closely resemble Armada. A flag ship (i.e. ISD) supported by Gozantis, Artiquens, Raiders and Quasars, or a Mon Calimari with Nebulons, CR-90s abs GR75s as escort.

The 5 on 5 is basically standard X-Wing, the Fleet Battles is Armada, but played from a startfighter's cockpit!

It's also really cool seeing the Gozanti carriers in action, using them to enter and escape combat 😂

Agreed the variety of capital ships make it more immersive.

4 hours ago, InterceptorMad said:

For those who are fans of Critical Role, have you found any of the cast yet? Any of the character voice choices sound familiar?

Sounded like Denis Lawson when I got to a mission with Wedge. Sounds like Vanessa Marshall as Hera in my first scene with her. Did not like the look of the mocap actress/character model for her. One of the pilot voices sounded like the Zeb voice actor. Thought maybe the Kallus voice actor was in there as well.

But you mean guys from Critical Role whatever that is though?

1 hour ago, Frimmel said:

But you mean guys from Critical Role whatever that is though?

It's a Dungeons and Dragons show. A group of people gather around a table and play. Matt Mercer is the DM and I think some of the players are voice actors. Never watched it myself, but the host, Matt, recently got a massive DnD supplement published by Wizards that covers his homebrewed world. It's a pretty good book, and definitely a lot more in depth than most setting books are for DnD.

The game won't save for me, so I end up having to replay the prologue to even get into the main menu...

No idea how to fix it, tried a bunch of stuff to change the files read state but doesn't seem to work..

29 minutes ago, RejjeN said:

The game won't save for me, so I end up having to replay the prologue to even get into the main menu...

No idea how to fix it, tried a bunch of stuff to change the files read state but doesn't seem to work..

That's an odd one, PC I take it? Might be worth posting on the official forum if you haven't already.

The only bug I've encountered so far was during the Republic mission where you're being taught how to drift. Switched power away from Engines and froze the game.

3 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

That's an odd one, PC I take it? Might be worth posting on the official forum if you haven't already.

The only bug I've encountered so far was during the Republic mission where you're being taught how to drift. Switched power away from Engines and froze the game.

Yeah, managed to fix it by going into the 'controlled folder access' part of windows 10, posted the step by step on the support forum so hopefully anyone else with the same issue will find it

Just finished the 1st story part. Game is awesome! I need a joystick now...

12 hours ago, InterceptorMad said:

For those who are fans of Critical Role, have you found any of the cast yet? Any of the character voice choices sound familiar?

I recognized the voice of Pidge from Voltron, but I haven't recognized any of the other voices yet.

18 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

The 5 vs 5 skirmish was pretty straight forward and pretty easy to get to grips with. The fleet battles were a total whitewash. You'll need to have full knowledge of how to play the game and be able to communicate and work as a team to stand a chance in them.

Can you elaborate? How important is communicating during the missions really? Is the game designed in a way that players have to use headset and teamspeak/discord to be successful? Or can you just discuss strategy and role distribution in the text-based in-game lobby before flight and you're good to go?

What about those people with impaired hearing who can't use headsets? Aren't they screwed compared to normal-hearing people?

2 hours ago, Laminidas said:

Can you elaborate? How important is communicating during the missions really? Is the game designed in a way that players have to use headset and teamspeak/discord to be successful? Or can you just discuss strategy and role distribution in the text-based in-game lobby before flight and you're good to go?

What about those people with impaired hearing who can't use headsets? Aren't they screwed compared to normal-hearing people?

Sure. I think Robert Baratheon said it best; what's stronger - five, or one? 😂

The games modes are all teams of 5 vs 5. When it comes to the Dogfight mode, it's first to 30 kills and the focus is entirely on the other team, so lone wolfing your way through a match isn't as much of a problem so long as you can back it up with your flying ability.

The fleet battles though, have a lot more going on. It's still 5 vs 5, but with waves of bot fighters and bombers, and very dangerous corvettes, frigates and flagships that can easily take you down and out of the battle for a while.

Unlike the free for all that is Dogfight, this game mode has distinct phases, starting with a skirmish in the middle of the map. Win the skirmish and a corvette joins your side to help you attack the opposing team's frigates. Take down the frigates and their capital ship is left isolated for a full assault by the rest of your fleet.

And the battle can swing back and forth, with the advantage switching from side to side depending on what each team does. If you're not communicating with your team or paying close attention to what's happening, then your opponents can quickly seize the initiative and shift the battle in their favour.

Say for example your team loses the first skirmish. You're going to need to check the map to see where their corvette is headed and intercept it before it can do damage to a frigate, which will be much easier to do if you're working together. If you're flying around the map on your own chasing down bots but the opposing team is working together as a squad of five, they're going to quickly take the lead.

It's the same with ship selection. Interceptors are kings of the dogfight, but do very little damage to capital ships, which will quickly shoot them down. If you're attacking a frigate then you'll be wanting to fly a bomber... but bombers will need protecting from the opposing team's interceptors, so you'll want to let your team know so they can run interference and cover you...

The practice games I played against the AI were total victories for the AI. Obviously it's early days and we'd only just started playing, but we lost every stage of the battle because the teamwork just wasn't there, while the AI had clear objectives it was trying (and succeeding) to accomplish.

That's not to say if you're not using the headset or communicating with your team you won't have fun in this mode, or that you can't do well. A lot will depend on your experience with the game and ability. But at the very least you're going to have to pay attention to what your team mates are doing, support them, regularly check the map to see where ships are headed and what's under attack etc. Lone wolfing your way through a Fleet Battle isn't going to happen.

20 hours ago, InterceptorMad said:

For those who are fans of Critical Role, have you found any of the cast yet? Any of the character voice choices sound familiar?

None of them are in the cast list?

3 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

The practice games I played against the AI were total victories for the AI. Obviously it's early days and we'd only just started playing, but we lost every stage of the battle because the teamwork just wasn't there, while the AI had clear objectives it was trying (and succeeding) to accomplish.

Fleet Battles super favours the AI, though.

The Player level AI is actually very capable, and have ridiculous accuracy once they get you in their sights. They also make excellent use of upgrades - in particular the ion missiles - and are very good at focusing down single targets. They also have very good cohesion at each phase - they'll all pick Bombers and make good use out of a Reaper when taking down the Neb-Bs, for example.

Wait till you play Fleet Battles against other players - it's a way more even match because you're not totally screwed if a player ship gets behind you as they (hopefully) won't have aimbot and lightning reflexes at locking and launching ion missiles. Plus, they make more mistakes and get shot down more easily by the cap ships.

What's interesting with the Fleet Battles is that, as far as I can tell, the ISD and Arquitens are stronger than the MC-75 and Neb-Bs. As in both harder to damage and with more turrets. Does seem an interesting balance choice if that's true and not just my imagination. Especially because...

Dogfight as is seems incredibly unbalanced. Maybe I've just been lucky, maybe I'm better than I thought but I've played ten Dogfight missions as the NR and we've won every single time. The one match we had on the Yavin map was a total whitewash. The Imperial fighters really do pay for their lack of shields. When there's no cover to maneuver round, like Yavin, it just seems like they have no chance. This might sound like vindication for all those who thought (I guess rightly) that Imperial strength is supposed to be numbers and so a 5v5 will never be in their favour, but so far I'd assume any player who prefers being Imperial will be having a frustrating experience right now.

Also, as someone who saw a lot of FFG influence in the build up to Squadrons (Armada and X-Wing both) and after some direct comments that said X-Wing was used for inspiration, but someone who also didn't look at too much gameplay to save the experience for playing it.... is anyone else a tiny bit disappointed that there aren't more upgrades directly referencing X-Wing TMG upgrades?

I know the mechanics are, deep down, totally different. But other than the super obvious Proton Torpedoes, Concussion Missiles and Proton Bombs, the only upgrade I've seen so far that seems to have roots in X-Wing TMG are the Barrage Rockets. I guess I don't know what else I was hoping for, but maybe something like Connor Nets, Afterburners, Fire Control System, or Autoblasters would have been cool to reference.

Also a bit sad that Repair Droid is the only astromech type upgrade. I was hoping there might be a couple of different astromechs you could use in the auxiliary slot on Y-Wings and X-Wings.

I've had it refunded on steam, my old TIE fighter/Xwing/XWA head can't cope with the weird changes they've made to all the ships in order to balance it. The TIE/ln having more hull than any other ship and more firepower than the poor old Xwing (which seems to have the least FP of any of the non-support ships) etc.

It looks and sounds like a Star Wars game, but doesn't feel like it at all. It's just a generic spaceship combat simulator painted up with a SW skin, and I imagine would be of niche interest without the licence.