Star Wars: Squadrons gets new ships for free

The Motive Studios title will not add new story content, but will continue to provide updates on a regular basis.

The New Republic and the remnants of the Empire continue to fight for control of the galaxy in Star Wars: Squadrons, the title of the newest series for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Meanwhile, Electronic Arts and Motive Studios are working on updates to improve the product. Although they already announced that they would not focus on expansions or story content, that does not mean that they have abandoned the title. In fact, patch 4.0 introduces two new ships, one for each faction.

In this way, the New Republic receives the B-Wing, a heavy ship with which it is difficult to maneuver, although it is instead very resistant. The Imperials, for their part, will have the opportunity to get on a TIE-Defender. In addition to all this, the North American company has shared the patch notes, which you can read in full in the following lines.

These are the news of version 4.0

general

• Custom games and a server finder have been added, available in the Multiplayer and Training menus.
• The skill rating requirements for each category have been adjusted through an adjustment on the server last week (more info below).
• Skill ranking increase / loss rates have been updated to better reflect each player’s performance in a match through a server adjustment last week.

• Recurring matchmaking improvements on the server.
• Fixed an issue where the game could crash if the player did not skip the end of game screens.
• Fixed an issue where the game would crash when loading Port Fostar.
• Fixed an issue where if the lighting quality setting was Low, it could create strong light flashes in Port Fostar.
• Fixed an issue where the multiplayer AI would sometimes not cause damage to players’ helmets with their primary weapons.
• Fixed or improved collision detection issues in Port Fostar, Galitan, Esseles, Nadiri Shipyards, Zaviano Abyss, and Sissubo.
• Fixed an issue where when respawning after dying, the inside of the TIE Interceptor could disappear.
• Fixed an issue where the Star Destroyer engine’s special effects could flicker.
• Fixed an issue where visuals on PlayStation 5 would appear blurry.

Career

• Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to view their own stats on the Career page.

Controls

• Support for TrackIR on PC has been added.
• The way the game detects and manages input devices with the same name has been improved.
• Fixed an issue where the game would not detect all input devices when connecting multiple.
• Fixed an issue where PC users with more than 5 input devices could not adjust the order of the devices in some cases.
• Controller vibration has been added for the Ion Cannon, Assault Shield, and Beam Cannon.
• Fixed an issue where the Hori HOTAS mini-stick input for Xbox One was not working properly.
• Added the option to toggle game controls between dynamic (default) and static throttle. This option can be used to correct throttle behavior on certain input devices, such as Hori’s HOTAS system for PS4.

Cosmetic customization

• New cosmetic items have been added and will be released over time through in-game events and operations.
• Lighting for dashboard figures where needed has been improved.
• Fixed an issue where a hole in the shape of an astromech droid could appear in the UI decorations around the X-wing “Mighty Alliance” skin.

Fleet battles

• Fixed an issue where an indicator would sometimes not be displayed after a capital ship was destroyed.
• The maximum waiting time in the meeting room has been reduced from 120 seconds to 90 seconds.
• Fixed an issue where Titan One could have a hologram effect on the legs in the meeting room.

Practice

• Fixed an issue where there was no UI indicator on some New Republic squads.

Social

• Friends will now appear in alphabetical order for ease of use.
• The friend list loading time for players with many friends has been improved.

Viewer

• Fixed an issue where all players could appear as the same in the intro cutscene.

Starfighters and components

The B-wing has been added to the New Republic fleet.

• Heavy gunboat gameplay, rearguard fighter.
• Its maneuverability is low, and it takes advantage of thrusters / skids to move and turn efficiently.
• Great durability and damage capacity with primary weapons, explosive damage to capital ships and built-in ion cannons.
• Rely on allies and support ships to reach capital ships and survive while dealing damage – great for staying behind fighters / interceptors and inflicting heavy fire on enemy ships.
• Unique Component: Ion Beam, deals heavy ion damage to shields and subsystems on capital ships.
• Single Component: Gyroscopic / Auxiliary Control Module: allows gyroscopic roll to the cockpit by holding down the auxiliary button and rotating the entire ship around the cockpit. The angle of the wing determines the angle of launch of the bomb. Missile evasion also increases while gyro roll is active; also increases the amount of ammunition of the auxiliaries using ammunition; otherwise, it improves the reactivation rate of the auxiliaries.

The TIE Defender has been added to the Imperial Navy.

• Very adaptable anti-starfighter specialist, vanguard fighter and midline.
• High survivability, with strong shields but very vulnerable to ionic weapons.
• Requires skilful and frequent power management with pulsing / drifting for ideal performance. Poor energy management can be detrimental.
• Single Component: Advanced Power Delivery, provides significant instantaneous overload to system at full power. If no system is full power, it gives a weaker overload to all systems.

• Deployable Turrets (Standard and Rocket) now display their DPS.
• Fixed an issue where a rocket would take effect on impact.
• We have updated the description of the Deployable Turret to be clearer on how it works in game.
• Fixed an issue where component reloading had no sound effects.
• Tactical shield and emergency shield are now displayed on the target selector computer around the starfighter on New Republic ships (it already existed on Empire starfighters), instead of on the status indicator, to be able to compare the temporary shield and the normal shield when changing allies or enemies.
• A-wing’s shield regeneration rate has been reduced by approximately one third.
• Rotating Cannon no longer consumes laser power during setup.
• Fixed an issue where Starfighter movements could be jerky when firing the Rotary Cannon.
• Ion missile travel speed reduced from 400 m / s to 240 m / s to match other missiles.
• Fixed an issue where players could take advantage of Energy Converter penalties and reset them when setting Energy Management to Balanced.
• Players now take + 50% damage if they are hit while charging the Plasma Burst Cannon to enhance its role as a pursuit weapon, rather than a direct engagement weapon.
• Improved special effects when the Plasma Burst Cannon is fully charged.
• Fixed an issue where lightning special effects could disappear if the player pressed the button repeatedly.
• Fixed an issue where Starfighter disablement effects would not appear correctly on the U-wing.
• Fixed an issue where starfighters could have negative spin speed.
• The armor-piercing torpedo’s inner blast radius has been increased from 2 to 14 to allow it to deal more consistent damage.

History mode

• Fixed an issue where the game could keep loading indefinitely after completing Mission 1.
• Fixed an issue where some players were unable to beat the “Follow Gunny” objective in Mission 1.
• Fixed an issue where the drift tutorial could not be completed with the arrow keys on PC in Mission 3.

User interface

• The individual subcategories of the ranked rankings now display their CH requirements.
• Fixed an issue where the defeated player’s username would appear too small in the kill chamber.
• Fixed an issue where text was being outlined inconsistently where it shouldn’t be.
• Fixed an issue where the prompt to exit the meeting room could continue in the intro cutscene and in game.
• The VR option “Re-center VR Goggles” is now correctly displayed on the PC controls screen.
• Some new tips have been added to the loading screen related to new content.

RV

• Fixed an issue where ships could appear on screen in the middle of hangar entry / exit cinematics while playing VR.
• Fixed an issue where images could be duplicated when tracking points in PSVR when rotating the game camera.

Against AI

• Fixed an issue where the player could charge Esseles instead of Port Fostar when playing against the AI.