With EA and Motive lifting the lid on Star Wars: Squadrons we’re very excited about the prospect of flying and fighting in space. From the gameplay shown and the information given, it wasn’t totally clear however, if the 5v5 combat would be supported by AI starships.
We put the question to Creative Director Ian Frazier on Twitter and he responded in the affirmative saying;
In Fleet Battles, yup, both teams are supported by an AI fleet.
We asked him if there would be AI controlled ships and pilots, similar to the grunts you’d see in Titanfall multiplayer.
Star Wars: Squadrons
What this means is in Fleet Battles, the sky could potentially be filled with enemy and allied starships, making the scale of the battles much larger and far more impressive. It will also help keep players engaged and in combat for the duration of the Fleet Battle as they’ll have to be watchful of enemies and not simply waiting around for the opposing team to appear.
Given that Fleet Battles are all about the push and pull of the fighting, it’s also likely that destroying enemy AI ships will contribute to your team’s overall score, albeit in a lesser fashion than by killing a human player.
While we’ve been given a decent number of details regarding Star Wars: Squadrons, there are still plenty of questions to be answered. With four months until launch, there’s plenty of time to learn all the ins and outs of the game.
Star Wars: Squadrons will be available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on October 2, 2020. It will include full cross-play support at launch.