Just under two weeks after its previous free update, Squadrons received its second such update last Friday. This update was, for many, “the big one”: it contained three things that many voices in the community had been requesting pretty much since the game was announced. The A/SF-01 B-wing and TIE/D Defender join their respective navies, and there is now the ability to create custom and private matches of any kind.
There are other things as well, of course, but these are the
primary things to focus on.
~~~
The New Ships
How Motive have done both ships is as separate ships,
each with their own number of loadouts. I was curious to see how they would
handle new additions to the roster – whether they would add them as selectable
options under the respective classes or just have them be their own thing.
Since they are their own thing, they have not only unique components of their
own but a wide range of components borrowed from other classes as well.
~
A/SF-01 B-wing (Bomber)
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| The B-wing is not exactly a photogenic craft in the Dogfight loading screen (see below) |
The B-wing was always a ship I was fairly concerned about. Not because of potential balance issues – despite it historically always being a “more powerful equivalent to the BTL-B Y-wing” – but because of how the thing would fly. I was quite concerned that it would be too easy to forget where you are in relation to the rest of the ship due to the rotating cockpit, which could be fatal given the extreme asymmetry and width of the ship.
Motive have somewhat eased my concerns on this matter. The cockpit remains stationary by default (with the ship in the “upright” configuration) and does not automatically rotate depending on how the ship rolls. This mechanism is instead relegated to being an auxiliary – the Gyro / Aux Module. While using it, a little screen in the cockpit shows you your B-wing’s current orientation. Additionally, if you have bombs in its loadout they will always be fired from the tip of the main wing, thus requiring proper orientation to work effectively.
Since this consumes a component slot, Motive have given it an additional benefit: equipping it increases the amount of ammunition carried by or the cooldown rate of whichever auxiliary is also equipped. This is a remarkably powerful tool for the B-wing, since with this module it can carry any of:
10 Proton Bombs
10 Proton Torpedoes
12 Seeker Mines
12 Ion Torpedoes
20 Ion Bombs
80 Barrage Rockets
The reduced cooldown of the remaining auxiliaries is not to
be sniffed at, especially since it can carry not only the same powerful beam
cannon as the Y-wing but its own variant: an ion beam. This thing can deal a
maximum of 3,000 ion-damage per second, meaning that if the ship can get to use it effectively this is a hefty amount of shield or subsystem damage.
This is not the only thing that the B-wing has going for it,
however. Its weapons fire whatever normal lasers you have equipped and ion
lasers at the same time, allowing it to deal normal damage and work on
disabling a ship or shield simultaneously. Additionally, it also has the best
drift turning-circle of any bomber, meaning that players who can get the most out
of drifting offensively and defensively will be able to make the ship essentially
“dance” in combat.
It may be designed more as an objective ship than as a dogfighting ship, but a well-played B-wing will be more than capable of holding its own.
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| A comparison between the default stats of the B-wing and Y-wing |
Despite its insane firepower potential, the B-wing also has quite large drawbacks. It is the slowest and generally least manoeuvrable of all ten ships by far, and neither its hull nor its shields can be strengthened beyond their base-values. It still has 1,600 hull health by default, but it only has 400 shield health. Motive are very keen to show that this ship ideally needs support; giving a bomber the same amount of total HP as the default T-65B X-wing is a good way of indicating this in-practice.
The bomber is historically a tanky ship, so to have a
version of the class which has almost half the HP of the “recommended” Y-wing
and TIE/SA builds is quite weird. This does make sense in some regard, however,
as making this thing as potentially tanky as the others would probably result
in it putting out too much objective damage while under pressure for Motive
to be happy with.
As a result of these drawbacks, a B-wing has something of a
niche place in a team set-up. If left alone or well-supported by its team, it
can deal a shed-ton of damage but if at any point it gets focused it will melt
relatively easily.
While I do not intend to use it very often, if at all, I
like what they have done with it. I hope that its fans got as much as they
wanted with its inclusion, and I am curious to see how effectively people can
use it in online play.
~
TIE/D Defender (Fighter)
The TIE/D Defender is in an interesting place in the new-canon. Produced by the Rebels incarnation of Thrawn, the project was forced to shut down some time prior to the battle of Yavin after the destruction of a crucial fuel depot on Lothal. Despite this, their appearance in EA’s first Battlefront game had them still being produced as late as the battle of Jakku. This game is set a year before this crucial battle, and their appearance here is justified as being “based on prototype blueprints”.
In the new-canon, the Defender is treated fairly similarly to how it was prior to the reclassification of the EU as Legends. It is still a powerful fighter and one of the only known Imperial starfighters to possess shields. Its advanced nature is reflected in this game quite well – while it has the most fragile hull in the game (base 400 HP), it shares the highest base shield HP value with the Y-wing (1,200 HP) and has the fastest overcharge generation of all ships.
The Defender’s unique auxiliary component is essentially a
compromise to try and bring the ship more in-line with the three shield-less
Imperial ships. In lacking shields, these three ships can convert engine or
weapon power to provide overcharge to the alternate system. It is therefore not
uncommon to see Imperial pilots put all their focus into engines and just
continually cycle the generated boost power into weapons for extra firepower.
The Defender’s unique Advanced Power System allows the ship to immediately provide overcharge to its systems. If either the engines or weapons have maximum power allocated to them, the given overcharge is 75%, while shields only receive 50% overcharge. If no component is given max power, the charge given to all three systems is 30%.
The APS is on a 20-second cooldown and I feel that, even
when compared to the more-immediately accessible power-shunting trick, this
cooldown is fine. Considering that overcharging engines and weapons is insanely
fast (approx. 2 seconds for engines and 3 – 6 seconds for weapons depending on
how much power they have in the first place), the APS will almost be wasted on
them. Since this component gives the Defender the only known way of instantly
providing overcharge to a shield under pressure, the APS is almost more of a
survival tool than an offensive one.
Worth noting also that the Defender is the only fighter / interceptor type ship to lack a repair droid. As such, the ability to instantly overcharge shields is the only "heal" it has access to.
Power management is undoubtedly “the” key thing while flying
the Defender. If a pilot is well-versed in flipping between the different
systems then they will adapt to the craft rather well, but pilots who are not
familiar with micro-managing the power will not be able to use it to its full
effectiveness.
Having an incredibly fast overcharge generation, as well as low
hull HP, means that the Defender is more of a hit-and-run dogfighter than
anything else. It borrows more from the interceptors’ auxiliaries than it does
from the other fighters, including cluster and quick-lock missiles as well as
seeker mines, and as such will be something of a pea-shooter against objectives
compared to its standard TIE/LN cousin.
It is not just auxiliaries that the Defender borrows: it
also borrows the sensor inverter countermeasure, thus making it the only
non-interceptor in the entire game capable of redirecting enemy missiles towards an attacker. This is an immensely powerful tool in the right hands, especially
since it is the only countermeasure which can directly result in an opponent’s
destruction.
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| A comparison between the default stats of the Defender and standard TIE |
Despite its bursty power, this ship does have quite severe compromises besides its fragile hull. As a dogfighter, it is outmatched in sustained fire for its default weapon by the interceptor. It will almost always be caught up to by any X-wing or RZ-1 A-wing due to its engines depleting boost in just a few seconds. While decently manoeuvrable, its default maximum speed is more on the level of a support ship, rendering it as the joint-fifth-fastest individual ship in the game by default.
Additionally, as fun as it is zipping around with the
amazingly fast boost-generation while flying this ship, this could also lead to
its downfall in certain situations. I can see a lot of Defender pilots getting
too carried away with zipping and drifting all over the battlefield and
accidentally colliding with terrain – terrain collision bypasses shields, so
that 400 HP will not withstand such collisions very often!
Unlike the B-wing, the Defender can increase its own
effective HP by selecting specific components. While 400 is the highest its
hull can reach, its shield can be increased by a maximum of 480 points. It
will, however, reduce its hull HP by about 280 points in doing so, meaning that
once its shields are down the thing will be a remarkably easy kill.
However, nothing compares to a Defender which selects
the unstable engines. This reduces its HP by 70%, so with certain hulls and
shields selected this can reduce the Defender to a tiny 40 hull HP. This
essentially turns the Defender into a flying time-bomb, as any damage to the
hull whatsoever will kill it and trigger the ensuing massive explosion from the
engine. I can see several Defender pilots running with this build and just
ramming into things.
The Defender, being a fighter, can in theory fit into a team
setup much more easily than the B-wing. However, it is not only trickier to
master as a ship but it is also much easier to lock down if the enemy team has
enough ion weaponry. It will still be a force to be reckoned with in the right hands,
but it will not be as easy for some to pick up as other Imperial ships are.
~~~
The Custom
Matches
Even before Squadrons launched, the larger community had
been planning events and tournaments. Indeed, during October there was a
tournament held among the content-creators of Squadrons, but it relied
exclusively on the random matchmaking. Sometimes the teams came against one
another, but often they did not.
Inspired by these tournament ideas, Motive have now provided the means for players to create their own matches, either for use with friends or just to create their own little environment with specific settings. These matches can also be spectated by players without them actively taking part, which can be useful either for watching or judging tournaments first-hand or just picking up little playstyle “hints and tips” by watching experienced pilots.
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| EA's Battlefront games called. They are jealous |
Players can choose to host or join both a custom Dogfight or Fleet Battle (as PvP, co-op, and solo) meaning that this is currently the only way to experience the latter game mode in PvP without risking Operation ratings. Somewhat disappointingly, AI players will only be allowed as part of the enemy team in the vs. AI mode, which can result in PvP matches feeling quite empty if only a handful of players join in.
I still feel that a full AI Dogfight mode of some kind would
be worth implementing. Dogfight is presently the most unforgiving mode in Squadrons
and as useful as the Practice mode can be it still will not be enough to
prepare players for a team-on-team environment.
The match-specific settings are quite diverse. You can ban certain ships, meaning that you can have a dogfight with nothing but Y-wings and TIE bombers, as well as disabling auxiliaries and / or countermeasures. Additionally, things like match duration, collision damage, required player-kill count, ship hull HP, auxiliary ammunition, damage taken, and objective ship HP can all be increased or decreased.
One thing that this is particularly good for is exploring the in-game maps. Since an invite-only Dogfight can only include the host, this allows for players to fly around all seven multiplayer environments in their own time. Since Practice only puts a player in the Sussubo map, this is the only such time that a player can explore all maps in this manner. It may not be much, but at least it gives some people the chance to the the "hang" of each of the maps without an enemy team hounding them.
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| Could they not just have nudged the B-wing's chassis down a bit? |
It also allows for fantastic screenshot opportunities of most of the various craft (the exception being the B-wing), so that is mainly what I have been using it for!
~~~
The Other Stuff
Nothing quite as drastic happened in this update in terms of
balance compared to last month, although there have been a few quite big changes,
nonetheless. A-wings have seen a slight hit to shield-regeneration, ion
missiles have had their speed reduced, and the burst cannon will now cause
users to take +50% damage while charging it.
While noticeable, I do not see these changes diversifying
the playing-field as much as the change to the rotary cannon last month. They
will certainly require some adaptation for the respective pilots to get used to,
but probably not that much.
The various Operation ranks have seen a bit of a rebalance
with regards to the amount of skill points needed to progress through each one.
Fewer points are needed to advance through each of the ranks from Maverick I to
Legend I than before while more points are needed to advance through Legend II
to Galactic Ace than before. Ultimately, it requires 4,300 points to reach Galactic
Ace now whereas before it required 3,800.
The most interesting thing to come with this update is TrackIR
support for PC players. From what I understand, this essentially acts “as” VR
without the need for a VR headset – by using a webcam, players can make subtle
head movements and have their pilots’ heads move in-game and get a better view of the match while in the cockpit. Considering that the
free look option is very restrictive without a VR headset, this will be regarded
as a godsend by many a PC player.
~~~
Motive have done an excellent job with these two free
updates for Squadrons. It would have been quite possible for them to
just stick to their guns and leave it as-is only with the occasional balance
updates, but instead they decided to put together these updates purely as a “thank-you”
gift to the fans.
If nothing else, the love shown for Squadrons should
hopefully incentivise the creation of more phenomenal starfighter-based content
or games. I know we have the Rogue Squadron film that has just been
announced (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!) but it still feels like there
is a fair bit of catching up to do. After all, before this game the latest starfighter
content which had been released for the other games were a map for GSF
and Iden Versio’s special TIE fighter for EA’s Battlefront II.
I am curious to see where things lead from here on out. Regardless
of whether these were the only major content updates that would come to Squadrons
or not, they are a very welcome addition to the game. Once again, Motive,
thank you for all you have done. If there is more to come, I look forward to
seeing it, but I would be perfectly happy with this being “all” that there is.
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