v0.7.0: choose each ship's countermeasures and auxiliaries

Download sws-community-v0.7.0.zip, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and start sws_settings.exe. The README inside has the one-time setup.

v0.7.0 plays alongside v0.6.0 with the same profile, as long as the profile doesn't use the new extra items (see Compatibility).

New since v0.6.0

Choose each ship's countermeasures and auxiliaries. A new grid on Rules and fixes, Extra countermeasures and auxiliaries, has every countermeasure and auxiliary as a row and the ten ships as columns. The host's profile decides what every player's hangar offers.

• Give a ship another ship's item: tick a cell. The ship's hangar and briefing room then offer it like one of its own, ready to equip, e.g. a tractor beam on the TIE Defender, or the Defender's APS on an A-wing. It's the other ship's own item, with that ship's values, taken from a ship of the same faction where one carries it.
• Take a ship's own item away: click a "stock" cell, and the cell reads "removed". Every ship keeps at least two of its stock auxiliaries and one stock countermeasure, so its slots can always be filled. The grid greys out the last ones and says why.
• Loadouts follow the rules. A loadout slot holding an item the match doesn't offer that ship flies one of the ship's defaults instead, never an empty slot. The saved loadout keeps the item, so it comes back in a match that allows it. This works with any profile: a loadout made where a borrowed item was allowed is safe to bring anywhere.
• What can't be given: four items are drawn from their own ship's parts or mounts, so they stay where they are: the B-wing's Gyro/Aux Control Module, the Beam Cannon, the Ion Beam, and the Y-wing's Automatic Ion Cannon. The Defender's APS needs shields, so it can't go on the TIE Fighter, Bomber or Interceptor.
• Clear the grid puts every ship back to its stock items in one click.
• The grid uses the game's own names (Goliath Missile, Seeker Warheads, Sensor Inverter and so on).

The unlock list now includes the countermeasures and auxiliaries each ship has as free defaults: 43 more ids. Borrowed defaults count as owned with all_unlocked=1, which release builds have on. Without that, they showed the unlock icon, and picking one made the game send a purchase request that EA's backend refused.

sws_check checks every address the mod uses again: 199 addresses and 42 hook sites. Its list hadn't been updated since v0.4.1, so for a copy that differs from the known builds it checked too few. Copies identical to the known builds were always recognised by their whole-file hash.

Flown on Steam: borrowed items within and across factions, countermeasures, taking stock items away (including defaults), loadouts losing a taken-away item and getting it back, and the empty-slot case the second reader found. Also checked: the stand-in test, and a second-reader code review on the PR.

Compatibility

• Profiles without extra items keep their fingerprints, so v0.6.0 and v0.7.0 players connect with the same profile. Measured with v0.6.0's own code: AsIntended, NoMultidrift and Bomber Escort Fleet Battle are identical on both.
• A profile with extra items only matches v0.7.0 players, as intended: a v0.6.0 player would see different hangars.
• Not yet tried: players joining a match with extra items (the host and joiners run the same code, so we expect it to work), and extra items with vs-AI bots loaded.

Antivirus

This release's files scan clean with Windows Defender, but its machine-learning guess can change between versions. If yours flags it, see the README, and please tell us in an issue.

SHA-256:

• sws-community-v0.7.0.zip b6c250187c9d72413c249b762b40e94be711ffec67148dd006623a8d25f5994d
• sws_server.dll c0ed095684944906667a13bf38886bef4a51b2196b90b60d29769e5847aa8584
• sws_launch.exe 7e4718d49df499fdfb19087695c16a34dafe08befda5523a7ce0a52a38c68e02
• sws_settings.exe d8b2617861ff9bffb11707069d4c316a4c7ea3d53e628809e02001c57bc0810a
• sws_check.exe 9c6ab95e8e0f256fae9fbf2f6d734c016ed1d91324130662bb789cd1577b453a

Updating

Copy everything from this zip over your old folder except server.ini and your own profiles. Be sure to copy the new unlock_ids.txt. Keep sws_settings.ini (your saved servers) and loadouts.txt. Your old server.ini needs no new lines.

Still true

• The Epic Games Store copy isn't supported yet (see #17).
• Experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op have been played on Steam, and Dogfight has been tested; expect rough edges.
• Account risk. The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your EA account. We think it's low, but nobody can promise it's zero.

v0.6.0: creep that sink capital ships, players who can't, and a tip for every value

Download sws-community-v0.6.0.zip, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and start sws_settings.exe. The README inside has the one-time setup.

v0.6.0 can play alongside v0.5.0 with the same profile, but with aggressive creep the host's version decides what the creep do to capital ships, so everyone should update (see Compatibility).

New since v0.5.0

Creep damage capital ships. Every Fleet Battles map tells its capital ships to ignore damage from anything that isn't a player, so until now aggressive creep could fly at a capital ship but do nothing to it. With aggressive creep on, their hits now count on hulls and shields, flown on every capital ship type. Turrets and weak points are covered by the same rule, though we haven't watched creep destroy a weak point yet.

• Damage to capital ships (next to the engagement range) scales the creep's hits on hulls and shields, from 0% to 100%. 30% is the default; 0% keeps the stock rule, so creep do capital ships no damage at all. Turrets and weak points take full damage.
• The capital ships' passive damage on each other stays exactly as stock.

Bombers that go after capital ships.

• Bombers attack: a new choice under the engagement range.
  • Capital ships first (the default): bombers rank capital ships far above anything else, and fight starfighters when no capital ship is in reach.
  • Capital ships only: while the phase gives them no capital ship, they have no target.
• Creep wingmen act like their leader (new checkbox). In stock, only a creep squadron's leader attacks on its own and flies bombing runs, and the wingmen follow in formation. With this on, wingmen pick their own targets and make their own runs. A whole bomber squadron can attack the same capital ship, while starfighters keep the stock rule of one attacker each.
• Bombing runs start further out: 800 m, 100 m above the hull, and 425 m past it before turning. That keeps bombers from flying into the ship they're bombing.
• Bomber creep carry torpedoes now has a minimum lock distance setting (100 to 500 m; 500 is stock). With capital ships first, their torpedoes lock only onto capital ships, so they save them for the target that matters.

Players against capital ships. A new section on Rules and fixes:

• Players' damage to capital ship hulls, 0% to 100%. On the Star Destroyer and MC75 this includes the power, shield and targeting subsystems.
• Players damage capital ship shields, on or off.

The vs-AI bots follow both. Turrets and weak points aren't covered. A destroyed turret still takes about 200 off its ship's hull, whoever destroys it.

A new profile, Bomber Escort Fleet Battle. It's a Fleet Battles mode where only the AI bomber creep can sink capital ships: players' hits do nothing to them, so the match is about escorting your bombers and stopping the enemy's.

• The packs: Y-wing packs against TIE bomber packs, bombing capital ships only at 40% damage.
• Off: the capital ships' passive damage and weak-point hull damage.
• Hull: sturdier bomber creep.

It's in the profiles folder, so it's in the settings app's list with nothing to import. Treat it as a starting point: tune the creep damage, the bombers' hull and the packs to taste.

More values can be turned off. Three values may now go where 0 or 1 means "off":

• a destroyed weak point's hull damage (0);
• the capital ships' passive damage multiplier (0);
• the passive damage's stop ratio (1 stops it entirely).

The settings app:

• Hover over any value to see what it does. There's a one- or two-sentence tip for every one of the 369 values the app shows. Tips worked out only from a value's name and default say so, and 25 honestly say "Effect not known."
• Clearer names where the old ones ran together or misled, such as "Enemy Lock-On Time" and "Passive Damage Multiplier".
• Tooltips wait half a second, so passing over a list doesn't flash one per row. The sidebar's tooltip now shows just the config's raw name, the one a profile file uses.
• The window opens straight away. It no longer waits for the game copies to be found first.

Diagnostics for testers: track_log, capital_damage_log and fire_log in server.ini, off by default. docs/creep.md on the project page explains them.

Known limitation

Creep torpedoes and lasers against a flagship. After their first pass, creep fighting a Star Destroyer or MC75 crowd against the hull, where the ship's single aiming point sits far off their nose, so they rarely fire. Bombs aren't affected, since a bombing run releases them on its own. So for flagships, bombs are the weapon: creep torpedoes still work well against the corvette, Raider, frigates and cruisers.

Compatibility

• Profiles that don't use the new settings keep their fingerprints, so v0.5.0 and v0.6.0 players connect with the same profile. That covers the shipped AsIntended and NoMultidrift, and creep packs with aggressive creep and missiles.
• The host's mod decides what the creep do. With aggressive creep on, creep on a v0.6.0 host damage capital ships, 30% by default. On a v0.5.0 host they don't. Update together.
• Profiles using a new setting only match v0.6.0 players, as intended. "Bomber creep carry torpedoes" also has a new fingerprint, because what it does changed.
• Not yet tried: the new creep and player settings with vs-AI bots loaded (co-op).

Antivirus

This release's files scan clean with Windows Defender, but its machine-learning guess can change between versions. If yours flags it, see the README, and please tell us in an issue.

SHA-256:

• sws-community-v0.6.0.zip 63bc5756d8591dba74110737ea4c5e027c404bbc6a73f4a6e816a4789d296b35
• sws_server.dll ed03fb738938d5ec753c85bf89642d043d5f0543d01e057a949215085847fb4d
• sws_launch.exe a4bd93cbdd9bce9dfdac10a6afdfc393006f960b36fc6ead85e76151697f0241
• sws_settings.exe b1c6d352cd409c3b14d5079cd2a8639ecc05ecb007d8ef3b24834e99e7116f51
• sws_check.exe 4c0e3b281d2f6aa3274617c9bd24b0047b6a8160c97de23737979ea66aadb127

Updating

Copy everything from this zip over your old folder except server.ini and your own profiles. Do copy the new profiles\Bomber Escort Fleet Battle.ini. Keep sws_settings.ini (your saved servers) and loadouts.txt. Your old server.ini needs no new lines.

Still true

• The Epic Games Store copy isn't supported yet (see #17).
• Experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op have been played on Steam, and Dogfight has been tested; expect rough edges.
• Account risk. The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your EA account. We think it's low, but nobody can promise it's zero.

v0.5.0: the EA app's copy supported, and all five loadout slots

Download sws-community-v0.5.0.zip, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and start sws_settings.exe. The README inside has the one-time setup.

v0.5.0 can play alongside v0.4.x. Nothing here changes what players must match. EA app players need v0.5.0.

New since v0.4.1

The EA app's copy of the game is supported. Until now the mod only worked with the Steam copy. The EA app's copy is the same game code, laid out differently, and stored encrypted until it runs. The mod now has that copy's addresses, every one checked, and hooks in once EA's launch wrapper hands over to the game.

• What you need:
  • the EA app running and signed in;
  • EasyAntiCheat not running, as with Steam.
  • The EA app's copy doesn't need steam_appid.txt.
• Tested: a custom match vs AI, flown with the mod loaded. Unlocks, all five loadout slots, local loadouts and creep settings worked as on Steam.
• Two EA app copies checked so far are the same file: one from an EA Play subscription and one from a permanent key. If yours is different, sws_check.exe will say so (see below). Please tell us on #17.

Choosing a copy. If you have both a Steam and an EA app copy, the settings app's Play page has a Game copy list just above Launch the game, and remembers your choice. Starting sws_launch.exe by itself still uses Steam's copy unless launch.ini names the other; the README shows how.

All five loadout slots per ship. The game opens a ship's loadout slots 2 to 5 by player rank (ranks 2, 14, 24 and 34), so a new account starts with one slot per ship. With everything unlocked, the mod now opens all five. Accounts that played the live game already had them.

Only known copies of the game. The mod now recognises the Steam copy and the EA app copy by their exe, and leaves anything else alone:

• the launcher refuses to start a copy it doesn't recognise, and says to run sws_check.exe;
• the mod itself hooks nothing in such a copy.

Before, an unrecognised copy was treated as Steam's.

sws_check.exe recognises the EA app's copy. It used to report that copy's code as encrypted and impossible to check. It now says whether a copy is the one the mod supports.

Known limitation

On a new account, the loadout screens don't show the list of a loadout's components under it. We've seen this on a new EA account, where the game does the same without the mod. We think a new Steam account is the same, and that levelling the account up fixes it (single player counts). The loadouts themselves work, and a loadout's edit screen shows its parts.

Compatibility

• Fingerprints are unchanged, so v0.4.x and v0.5.0 players connect to each other with the same profile.
• Steam and EA app players together: not yet tried, but expected to work.
  • Both copies carry the same game data: all 97,444 game assets compared, and the network data is identical.
  • Both report the same network protocol version.
  • If you play a mixed match, please tell us how it went.
• Not yet tried on the EA app's copy: another player joining a host, or hosting for others.

Antivirus

This release's files scan clean with Windows Defender, but its machine-learning guess can change between versions. If yours flags it, see the README, and please tell us in an issue.

SHA-256:

• sws-community-v0.5.0.zip 2eed2c7e78e492a40411bf44f32c2734b6929cd34b0af43115f92bad7da0a78f
• sws_server.dll 1d9dd938824aae234a95df2ce242690126db180e31fec37bf58252f0ac107815
• sws_launch.exe 4be381d309952c60d73718bf1632742ce895d07b319d59a5c977b41618420ae0
• sws_settings.exe 60ca4cc59d8210147c934e4030f3b811d2160c9bf99b81b2196a778083180b08
• sws_check.exe 235d9a6694c4172eb9ebc69050544521a48933c4c6dd71275bf81d92669d8a06

Updating

Copy everything from this zip over your old folder except server.ini and your own profiles. Keep sws_settings.ini (your saved servers) and loadouts.txt. Your old server.ini needs no new lines.

Still true

• The Epic Games Store copy isn't supported yet (see #17).
• Experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op have been played on Steam, and Dogfight has been tested; expect rough edges.
• Account risk. The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your EA account. We think it's low, but nobody can promise it's zero.

v0.4.1: your loadouts stay on your PC, and pilot cosmetics unlocked

Download sws-community-v0.4.1.zip, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and start sws_settings.exe. The README inside has the one-time setup (a steam_appid.txt in the game folder, and Tailscale for playing with others).

v0.4.1 can play alongside v0.4.0: nothing here changes what players must match. Updating is still worth it for the loadout fixes.

New since v0.4.0

Your loadouts stay on your PC. Loadouts you save, in the hangar or in a match's briefing room, are now kept in loadouts.txt beside the mod, and laid over the loadouts EA sends when the game starts. They're never sent to EA.

• Briefing-room changes now stick. The game's connection to EA drops when a hosted match starts, so changes made in the briefing room used to be lost by the next launch. Hangar changes already stuck; now both do.
• EA no longer sees modded loadouts. The mod treats every item as owned, and EA stored whatever the game sent it, including items an account had never unlocked. Now nothing is sent, so the mod adds nothing more to EA's records.
• New players keep their setups. Whatever someone builds is kept on their PC from their first save, whether or not their account owns the items.
• The first time you launch, the game loads your loadouts from EA as usual. From your first save, loadouts.txt holds them. Delete it to start again from what EA has. local_loadouts=0 in server.ini turns the whole thing off.
• Buying things with your own unlock points still goes to EA as normal.

Pilot cosmetics and emotes are unlocked. "Everything unlocked" covered ship components, paint jobs, decals and flair, but missed every pilot cosmetic (helmets, gloves, suits and so on), voices, poses and emotes. That's 1,625 items now, up from 1,253. If the game asked you to spend unlock points on a pilot item, that was this bug.

The settings app's status line under Launch the game now says the game is running, and clears when you quit. It used to stay at "The game is starting." forever.

Compatibility

• Fingerprints are unchanged, so v0.4.0 and v0.4.1 players connect to each other with the same profile. Loadouts and unlocks happen on each player's own PC and aren't part of what a match compares.
• Loadouts have been flown: hangar and in-match changes both came back exactly at the next launch, while EA still held the older versions.

Antivirus

This release's files scan clean with Windows Defender, but its machine-learning guess can change between versions. If yours flags it, see the README, and please tell us in an issue.

SHA-256:

• sws-community-v0.4.1.zip b4f28a6158401e59601c5acd5b643c5d5222f1e1d25655fabacb3dab97dbb78c
• sws_server.dll a984ff72c41449144747eaa63f83bd207c9eb147925d7c1fb2e1be086cf2c4bc
• sws_launch.exe fab03ab2f71a3f412334ece8adb430511230cdcea50ef570e5df987bffa11dad
• sws_settings.exe 43bc4fc77abb1d6bc4cf32d6147d5903aaa423530dc81d11b4d4b7513d7521e7
• sws_check.exe 7daaf5936e86fc2126c1f0bf816efce411decf5dd79d5170e524c9feccf8c6fa

Updating

Copy everything from this zip over your old folder except server.ini and your own profiles. Keep sws_settings.ini (your saved servers) and, from now on, loadouts.txt as well. Your old server.ini doesn't need a new line: local loadouts are on unless you add local_loadouts=0. The new unlock_ids.txt is what unlocks the pilot cosmetics.

Still true

• Steam copies only, for now (see #17). An EA app copy checked so far is a different file from the Steam build.
• Experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op have been played, and Dogfight has been tested; expect rough edges.
• Account risk. The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your EA account. We think it's low, but nobody can promise it's zero.

v0.4.0: creep that fight like a fleet, match rules, and ship size

Download sws-community-v0.4.0.zip, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and start sws_settings.exe. The README inside has the one-time setup (a steam_appid.txt in the game folder, and Tailscale for playing with others).

Everyone in a match should update. Details under Compatibility below.

New since v0.3.0

Creep that fight like a fleet. Fleet Battles' AI creep can now be more than morale to farm. Everything is under Creep packs on the Rules and fixes page, all off unless you turn it on, and all part of the fingerprint. The full description is in docs/creep.md.

• A ship per pack. Each of a faction's three packs can fly any of its AI ships, in any combination: X-wing, Y-wing, A-wing or U-wing; TIE fighter, bomber, interceptor or Reaper. (The B-wing and TIE Defender have no AI version.)
• Aggressive creep that keep to the phases. Creep engage like the vs-AI bots, within an engagement range you set (500 to 3,000 m, 2,000 by default), and their capital-ship targets follow the match:
  • Opener and defense: All else being equal (e.g. target range, player actions) bombers prioritize enemy corvette or Raider; fighters, interceptors and dropships prioritize starfighters.
  • Offense: All else being equal, bombers prioritize enemy frigates or cruisers, then the flagship once the frigates/cruisers are gone; fighters, interceptors and dropships prioritize starfighters.
  • Bombers' bomb runs follow the same phases. Players and opposing creep are targets throughout.
• Missiles and torpedoes. Creep fire their missiles, as the bots do. With torpedoes on, Y-wing and TIE bomber packs carry the bots' torpedo loadout, and their torpedoes lock only onto capital ships, so they aren't spent on creep.
• The bots' handling. Every pack can fly with the vs-AI bots' movement tuning for its ship, which makes creep a good deal sharper in a dogfight.
• Hull and shields by ship type, so you can make bombers sturdy enough to reach the capital ships without making every creep tougher. The defaults are the stock creep's: about a quarter of the player ship's hull and half its shields.

Co-op and solo vs AI bots aren't changed. The creep settings borrow some of the bots' configs but never write to them, and the torpedo lock filter is only set when no bots are loaded.

Match rules are changeable. Under Match rules in the app: Fleet Battles' morale per kill (players, creep, corvettes and frigates, each on offense and on defense), the kickoff and phase sizes of the morale bar, its optional drain over time, the match and kickoff timers and respawn time; Dogfight's score to win, match time and pickup timings. A creep kill's morale counts for changed packs too.

Ship size. Each starfighter has a Size value, 0.5 to 1.5. It scales the visible model and the hitbox together, uniformly, and the AI versions follow the player ship. Your cockpit view stays as it was. docs/ship-size.md lists the sizes closest to canon for all ten ships, so each league can decide how close to canon it wants to be.

A deeper sws_check report for copies that aren't the Steam build: each section of the exe compared with Steam's, a search of the whole file for the code the mod hooks, and a verdict (moved, encrypted on disk, or rebuilt). It's for the EA app and Epic question in #17, and still only reads the exe.

App fixes:

• The mouse wheel over a dropdown no longer changes it; the page scrolls instead. Before, scrolling past the creep pack dropdowns could quietly change your packs.
• Duplicating a profile keeps its creep settings.

Compatibility

• Profiles that only use v0.3 settings keep their fingerprint, so v0.3.0 and v0.4.0 players can still connect with them.
• Profiles that use anything new (creep settings, match rules, ship size) have a fingerprint v0.3 can't produce, so mixed versions are refused at connect, on purpose.
• The creep settings have been flown on Yavin, Esseles, Sissubo and Fostar Haven.

Antivirus

This release's files scan clean with Windows Defender, but its machine-learning guess can change between versions. If yours flags it, see the README, and please tell us in an issue.

SHA-256:

• sws-community-v0.4.0.zip 6f9270c003cee12a8f0e862640d6d4c99b61c6e32c03e4f15dfc998acef539df
• sws_server.dll f8802fc358867589195bac26fd04c0b3f704a0877a3136390f3138f197d700e4
• sws_launch.exe 87a65737400e279eb8234b608df839c3338461299752d7392fc986715ec0d6a5
• sws_settings.exe d08a56b6376227c12b2355a004106fe55048454c3731417c53ee880b4f4f8b5d
• sws_check.exe 7ac8765e21b9f916d01b4b1869e82fe930cad5cb5a9ef7f0ffe23939f39fdf38

Updating

Copy everything from this zip over your old folder except server.ini and your own profiles. Keep sws_settings.ini (your saved servers) as well. The new limits.ini and defaults.ini are needed for the new settings.

Still true

• Steam copies only, for now (see #17). An EA app copy checked so far is a different file from the Steam build.
• Experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op have been played, and Dogfight has been tested; expect rough edges.
• Account risk. The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your EA account. We think it's low, but nobody can promise it's zero.

v0.3.0: capital ships, laser damage against them, yes/no settings, and a Zavian Abyss fix

Download sws-community-v0.3.0.zip, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and start sws_settings.exe. The README inside has the one-time setup (a steam_appid.txt in the game folder, and Tailscale for playing with others).

Everyone in a match should update. Details under Compatibility below.

New since v0.2.1

Capital ships are changeable. Every capital ship (Star Destroyer, MC75, Nebulon-B, Arquitens, Raider, CR90) is in the app, grouped by class, with the turret settings they share in their own group:

• Health, shields, subsystems and weak points: health and regen, damage sections (what each part takes and passes on to the hull), weak points.
• Turrets: health, aiming, targeting range, accuracy and fire patterns.
• Passive damage: the damage capital ships take over the match from the enemy fleet. Its strength and its floor are changeable: stock, the flagships and cruisers stop at 15% hull, and the Raider and CR90 can kill. So are its yes/no switches: whether a ship's passive damage splits across enemy ships, and whether it works through them one at a time.

Laser and ion damage against capital ships, set separately for capital hulls, shields and turrets. It's for making starfighter lasers weak against capital ships while torpedoes and bombs keep their full damage: their damage is explosive, which these settings don't touch. Corvettes count as capital ships. Lasers hitting other starfighters are unaffected.

Capital-ship values take effect. Capital ships are built once, when the map loads. The mod now gives each config your profile the moment it loads, before anything is built from it. Passive damage has been checked in a match this way; the other capital-ship values are applied the same way.

Yes/no settings, chosen for their effect on play:

• Missiles and torpedoes: pass through capital-ship shields; can be evaded; lose their target after a near miss.
• Lock-on weapons: can be dumbfired; affected by countermeasures; which targets they can lock; whether locking starts on its own.
• Explosions: can damage the ship that fired them.
• Capital ships: shields regenerate after being destroyed; a destroyed targeting subsystem stops their firing.
• Weapons: infinite ammo; can be resupplied.
• Turrets: line-of-sight and range checks, turret balance, shared targeting and missile tokens, aiming limits, subsystem, and destruction on colliding with a capital ship.

Emergency power transfer is left alone on purpose: it's the core difference between shielded and unshielded ships.

A Rules and fixes page in the app, separate from the values: the pinballing and multidrift rules and the map fixes, a checkbox each, with what each one does. All are off unless you turn them on, which keeps the game as it shipped.

First map fix: Zavian Abyss's middle X-wing creep pack. In the map's own data, one of that pack's two spawn points is told to "return control" instead of to spawn, so the pack has 3 ships instead of 5, at the start and on every respawn. With the fix on, it spawns all 5. Like the rules, it's part of the fingerprint, so everyone knows the server plays the map the way they expect.

Recording is off unless you ask for it. The flight recorder and the HUD sampler used to run in every launch; they now run only with Record flight data for testing ticked on the Play page. That saves CPU and 30–50 MB of disk per match.

For hosts debugging: spawn_log=1 in server.ini logs every starship the server spawns and whether it appeared; material_log=1 logs the damage material pairs.

Compatibility

• Profiles from v0.2.x keep working. If a profile only uses settings v0.2 already had, its fingerprint is the same, so v0.2.x and v0.3.0 players can still connect with it. Everyone should update anyway: a v0.2 host doesn't apply capital-ship values.
• Profiles that use anything new: capital-ship values, laser or ion damage against capital ships, yes/no settings, or the Zavian fix. Their fingerprint is one v0.2 can't produce, so mixed versions are refused at connect, on purpose.
• All seven Fleet Battles maps checked: Yavin, Zavian Abyss, Esseles, Fostar Haven, Galitan, Nadiri Dockyards and Sissubo. On every one, capital ships take damage through the same paths, so the laser and ion settings reach them; the creep packs start full (Zavian's middle X-wing pack only with its fix); and nothing went wrong. Zavian is the only map with the creep mistake in its data.

Antivirus

Windows Defender flagged v0.2.1 as Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.H!ml, a false positive from a machine-learning guess, reported to Microsoft. This release's files scan clean with Defender, but its guess can change between versions. If yours flags it, see the README, and please tell us in an issue.

Release zips are now real zips: until today they were tar archives under a .zip name, which Windows couldn't open. v0.1.0 to v0.2.1 have been re-packed with the same files.

SHA-256:

• sws-community-v0.3.0.zip b966f6e12fec7519addf3cc563cf236e7e376173384f45b05eac8b9082b140d4
• sws_server.dll 2ff2924ede26e8657dc65628fd1ff830ea719999be9e4a76af2b8e8889112c26
• sws_launch.exe f7b75b762beba474b805fbdd16ecfb50f2db54566f40fde33cdc10145f819780
• sws_settings.exe 63c599cba538fe19698279b76e3258513cff82381b7445e5efb911b54bd33f34
• sws_check.exe 7613808f18069ebc6bbfed9c37c195f8ed55fe3f18e5fa031ad607df58f9043e

Updating

Copy everything from this zip over your old folder except server.ini and your own profiles. Keep sws_settings.ini (your saved servers) as well. The new limits.ini and defaults.ini are needed for the new settings.

Still true

• Steam copies only, for now (see #17).
• Experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op have been played, and Dogfight has been tested; expect rough edges.
• Account risk. The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your EA account. We think it's low, but nobody can promise it's zero.

v0.2.1

Antivirus warning (added October 23, 2026). Windows Defender currently flags this release as Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.H!ml, and Chrome may refuse the download on that verdict. It's a false positive: a machine-learning guess at what the launcher does, which is start your game and load the mod's DLL into it. It's being reported to Microsoft; once they clear it, Defender's normal updates fix it for everyone. The source is public, and the hashes are below. If the download is blocked, please wait for that review rather than changing your security settings. See the README for more.

This zip was also re-packed on October 23 as a real zip. Until then it was a tar archive under a .zip name, which Windows couldn't open. The files inside are unchanged.

SHA-256:

• sws-community-v0.2.1.zip 8704882d37b8be9dcb1c9317c7c2f05151b83e6a4c04f8c45c8b7c7d82ffe2e5
• sws_server.dll cfdba11bfb8f3257ca49ef43de1b4dfe6a9a5e9dfa6c53b0e0477506c024d5e9
• sws_launch.exe 8fe03ca509ca2f67f0a3b71b201d88b1d8461111951bb76ec9bcb881d6ac9fce
• sws_settings.exe ae8675e091be319ead9dfce2ee2b7733f581d283f29ed5e78a180bbb1b42fa91
• sws_check.exe 281763260000d6bf21649488cbb44ad55a981152ab4eacfa52dacc4e485df454

A bug-fix release: no more stutters in the first three minutes of play.

Fixed

• Stutters early in a match. A diagnostic left over from the dedicated-server work ran for the first three minutes after every launch. Every two seconds it briefly paused the game's threads to inspect them. Usually that went unnoticed, but it could freeze the game for up to about half a second. It now runs only in dedicated-server debugging. (#21)

Compatibility
Nothing else changed: the limits, the profiles and the network fingerprint are the same as v0.2.0. Players on v0.2.0 and v0.2.1 can play together, but everyone should update.

Updating
Replace sws_server.dll with the one from this zip. Keep your own server.ini, profiles\ and sws_settings.ini.

v0.2.0: the settings app, every ship value, and limits

Download sws-community-v0.2.0.zip, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and start sws_settings.exe. The README inside has the one-time setup (a steam_appid.txt in the game folder, and Tailscale for playing with others).

Everyone in a match needs this version. The fingerprint now covers every changed value, so players on v0.1.0 and v0.2.0 are refused at connect, on purpose.

New since v0.1.0

The settings app (sws_settings.exe). No more editing files.

• Play:
  • Host: pick the match type (Fleet Battles, co-op vs AI, solo vs AI, Dogfight). Your Tailscale address is shown, with a Copy button.
  • Join: saved servers by name, then Launch. You confirm in a popup, and the game starts without a console window.
• Profile and values: profiles (new, duplicate, rename, delete, import), the pinballing and multidrift rules, and every changeable value for every ship, grouped by ship and system.
  • Each value shows its default and its allowed range.
  • Changed values are highlighted, with a reset each and a reset all.
  • The header shows your profile's fingerprint, which must match everyone else's in a match.

Every ship value is changeable: movement, boost and drift, shields, hull, power, primary weapons, aux and countermeasures, laser projectiles, missiles and torpedoes (their damage is the explosion's blast damage), and engine, hull and shield components. A vs-AI bot's settings follow its player ship's changes (written, but not yet watched in a vs-AI match). The creep ships are left alone.

Limits. Every value stays within a range the game can take:

• The ceiling is 5× the highest stock value (the most the game's own custom-match modifiers allow).
• The floor is just above zero.
• Tighter bounds where we measured or know them: speeds at most 300, where flight speed tops out.
• Locked: power levels, input-device tuning (mouse, gamepad, joystick), and fields the game always ships as 0.

Values outside their range are clamped, and logged.

Fixes:

• Practice, Missions and the Tutorial start again when you're set up to host.
• Hosting and match_mode now apply only to PvP and vs-AI matches.

sws_check.exe, for EA app and Epic owners: it reads your game's exe, never changing or starting anything, and says whether it's the build the mod is made for. Please attach its report to #17; that's the first step to supporting your copy.

Still true

• Steam copies only, for now (see #17).
• Experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op have been played; expect rough edges.
• Account risk. The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your EA account. We think it's low, but nobody can promise it's zero.

v0.1.0: first playable release

The first release: self-hosted STAR WARS: Squadrons matches without EA's servers. It's early and experimental. Two-player Fleet Battles and co-op vs AI have been played on it.

Download sws-community-v0.1.0.zip below, unzip it anywhere outside the game folder, and follow README.txt inside. You need your own Steam copy of the game, and the players need a network path to the host (Tailscale is the tested way).

What it does

• Host a match on your own PC, and others join it. The game's own server and client code run the match; the mod carries their traffic over UDP.
• Pick the real mode with match_mode in server.ini: Fleet Battles, co-op vs AI, solo vs AI, or Dogfight. Then start a solo custom match vs AI from the menu.
• Profiles hold the movement rules. Default is the game as shipped, NoMultidrift allows pinballing but removes multidrifting, and AsIntended removes both. Everyone in a match must use the same profile; mismatches are refused at connect.
• Every ship component and cosmetic is unlocked, and EA's "lost connection" error 327 is suppressed.

Please know

• The game runs without EasyAntiCheat, so EA's official online modes are unavailable in that session.
• The game still signs in to EA's account services, and loading a mod into it carries some risk to your account. We think the risk is low, but nobody can promise it's zero.
• Nothing in the game folder changes, except a steam_appid.txt that you add yourself.
• New in this release: one server.ini serves both hosting and joining (to join, put the host's address after join=). Joining with this exact file hasn't been tested yet. If a join fails, please open an issue with the log from the logs folder.

Built from main at 7d6d36b. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Electronic Arts, Motive Studio or Lucasfilm.