Fleet Battles (and Why You Should Play Them)
Hello,
If you bought this game on sale recently (whether it was for the campaign, the Star Wars feel, the VR capability, or the multiplayer modes), thank you! We thank you for being interested in trying out this game. There is a lot to love about it, and yes, there is, as we are also very aware, a lot to…not love about it.
However, through all of the cool and crappy things, there still sits something unique about the game that no other space/flight sim has, and that’s the Fleet Battles game mode. If you think about it, it’s LoL/Dota with starfighters. It’s a MOBA with bountiful ship customization, layers of strategy, and a high skill ceiling. The midships are your towers. The flagship your base. It is an objective game mode, not a dogfight with extra steps.
The best way to experience this mode (currently) is through Custom Games. The Ranked Fleet Battles queue has certainly been in better shape, and I implore you all to at least once or twice a night try queueing for the mode. You’ll add to the number of people looking for games, and the chances of actually getting one, as we saw this past weekend, will go up.
As a member of the competitive community (yes, there are a number of active leagues if you are so inclined to learn and compete), we want to see that queue thriving again. Not to stomp on you. We already have all of the other teams in the community to throw our full weight against, and clubbing new players is no fun. Make no mistake: you will run into us, you will fly with us, and while we may not single you out, we certainly won’t be sandbagging.
That being said, we might not even engage in fighting you if you try to PK us mid-game. A lot of us have gotten very good at avoiding enemy fire (skills that we can and want to teach), and there are more jobs (frightfully important jobs) in Fleet Battles that certainly don’t involve dogfighting other players. Truthfully, you’ll be surprised to learn that, in some league games, there may only be 1-2 kills on the board across all 10 players. Chasing kills (especially alone) is a fool’s errand, and only contributes so much unless they are extremely timely. It can even lose you the game.
I type this all as a PK/Flex main, so call me a bit of a hypocrite if you want (but it won't change the facts).
My suggestion is to start your social journey here, in the unofficially official community discord (SWS 5 Mans): https://discord.gg/rgaAbnfk
Be on the lookout for league-based events in the future (there are dogfighting ones, too). Though the game’s population is lower than others, that doesn’t make it empty of value, new friends, new teammates, and new experiences.
Happy flying,
PowerPaladin of the Randolorians
