It’s patch day for EA’s multiplayer dogfighter Star Wars Squadrons, and there’s quite a bit of alteration going on for the way battles work in the game, along with a ton of bug fixes, joystick fixes, rank resets, better AI functionality, anti-farm code in fleet battles, and tweaks to nerf mosquitoing/cheesing. “This will reward the playstyle of players who are flying like proper mavericks,” EA says in its patch notes. “To those who aren’t, you’re much more likely to be blasted into oblivion now.” Let’s hope it also fixes some of the endless griefing we encountered during our own playthrough and the VR problems fans have been having.
As for the new fleet battles forfeit system?
“We felt that the previous system was often difficult for players to understand and unduly punished well-behaved players after an abandonment occurred, with some players reporting that they felt robbed of wins, locked into pointless matches, or unrewarded for time already spent when leaving safe to leave games. The new forfeit system puts control back into the players’ hands and allows players to decide which matches are worth fighting until the end and which are worth forfeiting. In either case, players will now be fully rewarded on all sides: players that defeat opponents through natural play or forfeit will now gain full skill points and progression rewards. Players that lose naturally after a teammate abandons or lose by forfeit will still gain full progression rewards but take only half the skill point losses. Meanwhile, players that abandon will be appropriately punished: abandoning the game after deployment always results in a loss and leaver penalties have been significantly increased.”
Like everything else Star Wars right now, the game also has a tie-in for The Mandalorian. But you don’t want to buy deathsticks. You want to go home and rethink your life.
"This is the way." ICYMI: check out the new cosmetics in #StarWarsSquadrons, inspired by The Mandalorian! pic.twitter.com/d4ZtWy7X4g
— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) November 2, 2020