The idea of a limited format, and an extended format has been pretty cool. But the development of the Hyperspace format has been becoming less limited, with no firm indication of changing back to more restricted. Here’s my thoughts on what a more limited Hyperspace format could be.

Hyperspace History

Shameless plug for my 2nd Edition timeline page. Made myself a resource so this would be easier to do.

Second edition format (Wave 1) – 13 September 2018

Key for the tables: “Released” defined as available without a conversion kit. “Unreleased” ships indicated by strikethrough . Expected formats simply added in the newly available ships.

U-Wing only counts as half, as half the pilots are locked in the conversion kit and were not part of this format.

Personally, this one felt like a meme format, and it was hardly going to continue as only rereleased ships with the First Order getting a single ship in Wave 2… Leads on to Hyperspace

Hyperspace Season 1 with Wave 2 release – 13 December 2018

Hyperspace Season 1 with Wave 3 release – 21 March 2019

Or, the ‘let’s just add sh*t’ change.

Expected Hyperspace Season 2 with Wave 4 release – TBD?

Mysteries and messes around release dates are nothing new with FFG at this point since forever.

Expected Hyperspace Season 2 with Wave 5 release – TBD (Q3 2019)

My thoughts

Remove ships. Rotate ships out.

To make the format distinct from Extended, it should be limited. Not Extended-Lite, but super LIMITED. No more than 4-5 ships per faction. They’ve said they’re going to do this, but hasn’t happened yet, so trends point towards a ridiculously growing ship pool.

So, looking at the upcoming Wave 4 scenario:

Note: I’m ignoring points and what ships are “good” or “bad”, because new points soon so it doesn’t matter

Axe all the ships/pilots exclusive to the Rebel, Imperial and Scum conversion kits. This feels like a no-brainer . Bring back some sort of new player friendliness, with all the ships in the limited format available to purchased (also sounds like a good business decision). No A-Wing, No TIE Interceptor, No TIE Bomber, No StarViper.

Pour one out for Soontir (Nope, don’t care, just some obscure EU character) TIE Interceptor can come back when it gets rereleased for 2nd edition, and one of the other mid-priced, small-based, non-ordnance, ‘ace’-style ships (TIE Advanced x1, TIE Striker) rotates out.

This already looks better. Far fewer ships in the unreleased column. Now to even out the total column.

For the Resistance and First Order, can’t quite so easily remove conversion kit exclusive product, as this may decrease their ship pool too much. First Order can keep all their ships, Resistance can afford to lose one of their large base ships. I’d choose removing the Scavenged YT-1300 (because 2 other factions have YT-1300s in this limited ship pool), but it’s pretty arbitrary.

First Order , Republic and Separatists only have access to 4 ships at this point in time, so that seems like a good baseline. In future that could be increased to 5, but I wouldn’t want to see it any higher than that.

, and only have access to 4 ships at this point in time, so that seems like a good baseline. In future that could be increased to 5, but I wouldn’t want to see it any higher than that. To get Rebels down to 4 ships, I’d rotate out the U-Wing. It’s had it’s time in the sun, and with the X-Wing and B-Wing also being ‘3 dice jousters’, I feel one of the three should leave. Only half the pilots are available outside a conversion kit, and the YT-1300 is still there as a crew carrier option. As much as I love the U-Wing, goodbye.

down to 4 ships, I’d rotate out the U-Wing. It’s had it’s time in the sun, and with the X-Wing and B-Wing also being ‘3 dice jousters’, I feel one of the three should leave. Only half the pilots are available outside a conversion kit, and the YT-1300 is still there as a crew carrier option. As much as I love the U-Wing, goodbye. Similarly for Empire , the Reaper can rotate out. It’s been there since the beginning of 2nd edition, with the Decimator there’s a different crew carrying option. Hard decisions need to be made to remove ships.

, the Reaper can rotate out. It’s been there since the beginning of 2nd edition, with the Decimator there’s a different crew carrying option. Hard decisions need to be made to remove ships. Scum and Resistance can maybe keep 5 ships, due to the way some of their expansions are packaged, 2 ships in the one box. To get Scum down to 5, and keep variety in the ship pool, I think either the Mining Guild TIE or Z-95 Headhunter should leave. They both fill a very similar role, I’d pick the Mining TIE to stay because it’s a little more interesting.

Proposed Wave 4 Hyperspace

Just an idea. Limit the ship pool and make it something different to Extended.

Can do the same thing with Wave 5, add all the newly released ships, and rotate out some of the older ships. Sounds good from a business perspective too, promote selling the new product. Or if it’s 2 seasons a year, only rotate at the 6 month points update, but still add new ships on release. January 2020, rotate down to 4 per faction again. As long as there’s rotation, keeping the different ship numbers down, sounds good to me. Extended for Extended, and Hyperspace for Limited (not slightly less than Extended).

With this few ships, it wouldn’t be unrealistic for players to choose to buy into a new faction for a new Hyperspace season. Sounds good for business.

Analytical breakdown of ships/formats/releases and some opinions. Don’t expect anything to happen, but my thoughts on a more limited format. Maybe something like this will happen, either way I strongly feel rotation is necessary for Hyperspace to have any merit.

-Nathan

Yes, the Soontir bit in the title was basically clickbait