So the other evening, I was playing Star Wars Battlefront II and decided that I wanted a break from ground combat and wanted to go for a fly. I went to play Starfighter Assault and spend the next 30+ minutes sat there waiting for the game to start as the number of spots left to fill jumped between 10 and 20. Eventually I just gave up and went to Arcade, but flying on single player just isn’t the same as multiplayer.
Sadly, Starfighter Assault has been somewhat forgotten by fans over time as it has not received any new content since Iden Versio’s TIE fighter was added as a hero ship back in January 2018!
Now do I think that this will change anytime soon? Sadly not, as I think the developers are prioritising game modes that receive heavy traffic rather than looking at why other modes are not receiving the same attention from players. If they were to look at bringing in more content to bring players back to the mode, this is what I think they should be looking at:
New ships
First off, just like how troopers have recently received new blasters and new reinforcements have been added to make the ground-based games feel more varied, adding new starfighters to the game has an instant impact.
Right now, all 3 eras have a fighter and an interceptor, but the Sequel Trilogy era does not include bombers. Immediately, that would bring a new dynamic to the game. First Order TIE Bombers have appeared in comics and Resistance and could easily be given the same stats and abilities as the Hyena bombers and Imperial TIE Bombers. For the Resistance, it may be boring but it wouldn’t be hard to add the Y-wing in as it is in the Original Trilogy.
Further to that, other fighters could be added as the starfighter equivalent or reinforcements: stronger than the basic fighters but not as strong as the hero ships. There are plenty of other ships that have appeared in the movies and series that could be added as reinforcements, such as the TIE Defender (Empire), N-1 starfighter (Republic), cloud car (Rebels), V-19 Torrent starfighter (Republic), B-Wing (Rebels & Resistance), TIE Dagger (First Order), Heavy TIE Fighter (Empire), Z-95 headhunter (Republic), T-85 X-Wing (Resistance), Geonosian starfighter (CIS) and Umbaran starfighter (CIS).
New maps
One way to immediately freshen things up is to add a couple of new maps. Suddenly, everyone is having to figure out how to navigate a new map and figure out what ships work best for different phases of the battle. There are plenty of maps that could be added to the game mode, including:
- Scarif (Original Trilogy) – Rebellion are looking to break through the planetary shield then survive Imperial reinforcements arriving; Empire are trying to defend, then wiping out the Rebels when reinforcements arrive
- Exegol (Sequel Trilogy) – Resistance look to take out Star Destroyers, First Order defend against them
- Death Star 2 (Original Trilogy) – Rebels work to take out Executor while the Empire defends against them
- Jakku (Original Trilogy) – Rebels work to take down the dreadnought Ravager while the Empire defends – this could also be the moment we finally see New Republic Starhawks on our screens
- Naboo (Prequel Trilogy) – CIS attempt to invade planet while Republic defends
- Naboo (Original Trilogy) – Rebels defend as Empire tries to invade the planet
- Coruscant (Prequel Trilogy) – Republic attempts to open up an attack run for the Jedi to reach the Invisible Hand, while CIS attempts to cover the dreadnought’s retreat
- Coruscant (Original Trilogy) – Rebels attempt to break Imperial blockade around the planet
New heroes
It always feels a little odd to me that we have 3 versions of the Millennium Falcon to pick from, while someone like Yoda who barely flies has a hero ship but not the best starfighter pilot of the Prequel Trilogy, Anakin Skywalker.
Adding a couple more hero ships could easily add some more variation to the game, especially if a number of them use ships that aren’t currently in the game. I took a couple of minutes to think of potential heroes that could be added to the game and easily created this list that covers all 3 eras and the 4 series as well as most movies:
- Anakin Skywalker’s Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor (as seen in Revenge of the Sith) – Republic
- Plo Koon’s Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor – Republic
- Major Vonreg’s TIE Baron – First Order
- Kazuda Xiono’s Fireball – Resistance
- General Grievous’ Soulless One – CIS
- Zorii Bliss & Babu Frik’s Y-Wing – Resistance
- Vult Skerris’ TIE Defender – Empire
- Hera Syndulla’s Ghost – Rebels
- Grand Inquisitor’s TIE Advanced v1 – Empire
- Mando’s Razor Crest – Rebels
- Fenn Rau’s Fang fighter – Rebels
New skins
So this on it’s own would not be enough, but it would be a nice little touch after so long with nothing. It would always be possible to add multiple skins to some of the fighters. Republic, Rebel and Resistance starfighters could easily come in different squadron colours, while a New Republic skin could be created for the Rebels and Resistance fighters. TIE’s could come with special forces skins. It may not change much, but it still adds to that fun of being able to see more variation in the ships flying around you in a similar way to how the trooper skins improved modes like Co-op and Supremacy.
What would you guys like to see added to Starfighter Assault?
Thanks for reading. May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 