Ships are Stale

Dear devs,

Ships have been out for over a year now and in that time very little has actually changed. The same ships are used in almost every single fleet with little to no variation with either Thrawn or Tarkin as the fleet commander, and even then most of the game uses Thrawn.
Now I completely understand that Thrawn is an “end game” commander but it’s a little ridiculous how much he outclasses the other fleet commanders. Tarkin, Mace, and Ackbar were perfect examples of balance. Each a counter to the other. Then came Thrawn with abilities that are just completely skewed and can’t be countered. My first thought is to add another fleet commander who is either on a level playing field as Thrawn is or update the current commanders and match them with Thrawn.
Next are the actual ships we use. There are way too few of them, even with some of the more recent additions they are still lacking. Most fleets comprise of this starting four (Biggs, Vader, FOTP, TFP) and add in a fifth. It then comes down to who can target lock the other first. It kind of reminds me of the Poe meta, whoever had a faster Poe won.
My suggestion is to add more ships with new abilities that thrive on things other than target lock. Because when it comes down to it, whichever team has better success landing target locks will win 95% of the time. To me it has just gotten a bit boring and less competitive in a way. I used to love having to slog through 6 or 7 minutes of a ship battle to finally finish off the last ship. Now I can win in under 2 minutes easily and at times under a minute. And really that’s my biggest complaint, ships should take longer, they should be harder to kill, and target lock shouldn’t be the only way I can ensure the other team loses.
Here’s a list of ships I think should be added to the game whom we already have the pilots for:
Farmboy Luke and/or Commander Luke Skywalker (X-Wing), Anakin Skywalker (Jedi Fighter), General Kenobi (Jedi Fighter), Asajj Ventress (Starfighter), General Greivous (Capital Ship or his Starfigher), Holdo (Capital Ship)
New ships that don’t need pilots:
Generic Droid Starfighters with Separatist Tags

This is not coming from someone who struggles in fleet. I rarely place out of the top ten and normally am fighting for the top spot. The reason I add this is so you see that I want things to change even though the current system is benefiting me.
Sincerely, Phatphil

Replies

  • These are great ideas! I completely agree.
    I would also like to add a few ideas for ships.
    The Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle aka Imperial Shuttle with Emperor Palpatine and one or two other crew members.
    The Solar Sailer with either Count Dooku or Asajj Ventress as the crew. This would give Count Dooku more of a reason to be leveled up and used.
    The B-wing with Hera Syndulla as the crew.
    Lucrehulk-class battleship as a new capital ship for Nute Gunray.
    Y-Wing - pilot TBD.
    Naboo Royal Cruiser with the release of Padmé Amidala and a few new characters to coincide with her and the faction.
    Corellian Corvette with Princes Leia and at least two other crew members.
  • Yup, ship need an update badly. You outlined perfectly how they destroyed the Fleet Commander balance (in pursuit of $$$ :'( ). Whoever Target Locks first, or whichever TIE dodges the most wins. Pure RNG, blech.
    Here's my wish list:
    Vulture Droid (could be both a character, and ship - how AWESOME would that be?)
    DN Capital Ship
    Nute Gunray Capital Ship
    Grievous - Starfighter or Malevolence Capital Ship
    Raid Han and Rebel Chewy - OG Millennium Falcon PLEASE
    Palpatine and RG - Shuttle (as mentioned above)
    JKA - Azure Angel
    IG-88/86 - IG-2000
    Cad Bane - Xanadu Blood
    Commander Luke Skywalker X Wing
    Anyone - TIE Defender because that ship is DOPE!!!!
    (Future - Holdo and Snoke Capital Ships)

    By the way, when you were talking about the Poe meta, at first I read it as Pao meta, and thought "What the heck is he talking about?" :D:D:D:D
    #CloneHelmets4Life...VICTORY!!!! :smiley: "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." The more you tighten your grip, CG/EA, the more whales will slip through your fingers (and go F2P or quit).
  • Dk_rek
    3299 posts Member
    phatphil3 wrote: »
    And really that’s my biggest complaint, ships should take longer, they should be harder to kill,

    Well let's be fair in the movies X wings with "deflector shields" are OHKO to everyone but luke and wedge. She's gonna blow....I've gotta problem here....wait wait !!!!. ARRRRGGGG....there's too mannny of dem. ARRGGGGE....I'm hitttttt. YEAHHAAAAAAAAA !...

    lets face it fighters in star wars are OHKO. I
  • Dk_rek
    3299 posts Member
    phatphil3 wrote: »
    Here’s a list of ships I think should be added to the game whom we already have the pilots for:
    Farmboy Luke and/or Commander Luke Skywalker (X-Wing), Anakin Skywalker (Jedi Fighter), General Kenobi (Jedi Fighter), Asajj Ventress (Starfighter), General Greivous (Capital Ship or his Starfigher), Holdo (Capital Ship)
    New ships that don’t need pilots:
    Generic Droid Starfighters with Separatist Tags

    All your doing is giving people who wanted nothing to do with Ships until crystals were added a easy pass to the top...


    it's just sooooooo many people were like "blah blah ships suck" "I'll never do this" "nope not me" "waste of time" then all of a sudden crystals hit.....CLS NEEDS XWING, Palp needs naboo starfighter,

    I'm for anything that makes game more fun if CLS xwing is what does it then fine.... but it's just to appease people who said "I don't wanna play....wait crystals now....I wanna play"
  • For my two cents I think CG have backed themselves into a corner with the way they have implemented ships - the whole assigned crew members and ships is what I think is causing the bottle neck in additional ships being added. They can only add in new ships with a logical associated crew member, and that is the problem.

    There are plenty of canon ships in Star Wars that have no-name pilots and to get them into the game they’d have to add in more useless generic characters to pilot them which I think everyone would agree we don’t need. Plus there are the separatist droid fighters that i’d Like to see in ship combat, but would never fit into ground battles.

    I think the answer is to decouple the crew members from the assigned ships and instead let the players assign characters to ships. Put Poe in the Tie fighter and let him bring his crew member skill with him.

    Give synergies to crew members with specific ships e.g Vader on TIE x1 or Wedge in his X-Wing, but don’t preclude them from flying other ships. Factional synergies could also be included e.g. imperials on imperial tagged ships improving their crew power. They could also add the crew member tag to characters who don’t have a ship yet, but you would have thought they should have one e.g. JKA

    I see this having a few advantages:
    • You get to mix up the ships and bring a little more variety. No more facing the same generic squads just because they are the only combinations that have the right skills
    • New ships can be added independently of new characters, potentially including the vulture droids who perhaps wouldn’t need pilots at all. And of course no more need to add in another variant of a generic character just to get a new ship into play (i’m talking about you first order special forces tie pilot)
    • there is more scope for developing new events - imagine luke’s Journey part 2 where stormtrooper Han and farm boy Luke battle ties in the falcon to escape the death start in one stage fight, then Luke flies an x-wing in a later stage battle with the falcon as support. Under the current system there really isn’t an option to do this

    Conceptually I see this breathing a little more life into ships, though I suspect getting the balance right might cause a meta run. But if it makes this part of the game feel less like Groundhog Day experience, I think it could help.

    Any thoughts?
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