Star Wars Squadrons 2.0 Update is Here

While Motive Studios (and also somehow EA) have been firm with the fact that Star Wars Squadrons is a complete game as it stands, that doesn’t mean the game was abandoned after launch. Regular patches are still being developed and released, and today’s 2.0 update has brought a few changes that everyone will appreciate.

The headliner is the new forfeit system that’s replacing the “Safe to Leave” and “Match Not Scored” system that had been in place since the game’s release, which, according to Senior Systems Designer Dan Kim, will “[put] control back into the players’ hands and allows players to decide which matches are worth fighting until the end and which are worth forfeiting.” He also goes on to explain that players on both teams will receive rewards as well.

“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.”

While it isn’t a perfect system by any means, the fact that it exists and offers a way for players that would have previously been left at the mercy of a full enemy team while their allies left with an option means it’s ultimately for the best.

Motive also announced that lobbies will start backfilling, where players who have an ally leave or disconnect while in the briefing room or hanger will see them replaced. Anyone who leaves at that point will avoid earning a loss, but the penalty for leaving will be “significantly increased.”

There are two other big items that got addressed in this patch, and the first is the Rank 0 bug. For those out of the loop, it was possible for a bug to leave you permanently stuck at Rank 0 no matter what. Motive added the ability to reset your rank, which they say should help anyone affected by the bug.

The other big change was to what they call “mosquito-ing” where some Imperial pilots were hiding underneath the capital ships of the other team in a TIE bomber dealing tons of damage and tanking the damage from the capital ship, essentially cheesing the entire game mode.

They did this in two ways; the first was decreasing the health of the TIE bomber to 2000 from the original 2500, and also decreasing the benefit of the Reinforced Hull perk on the bomber as well from 60% down to 50%. The other alteration was made to capital ships themselves, by making capital ship turrets deal more damage to close, slow-moving fighters while dealing less damage against distant, fast-moving ones. Motive also made turrets more aggressive when the capital ship is being attacked out of phase.

What those changes do to the tactic is so far anyone’s guess, but it sounds to me like they might just be enough to kill the tactic without completely neutering the TIE bomber.

The patch notes also say 270+ fixes and tweaks went out with this patch, so if there’s something in particular you’re wondering about, or you happen to be experiencing a rare bug, check the notes or Tweet at Motive Studios; it’s entirely possible your issue got fixed, and it was rare enough it didn’t go in the patch notes on its own.