I see the question often: Should we switch to 2.5? Would we enjoy it? Or should we stick with 2.0?
To lay my cards out on the table right here, I'm really enjoying 2.5 despite a few complaints, just like I enjoyed the changes created by 2.0 back in the day. I feel like 2.5 solves several problems, and there are some definite tradeoffs to consider. 2.5 came without requiring players to buy conversion kits, which make it much easier to pick up too.
Whether you'd prefer it or 2.0 comes down to how feel about the changes and trade-offs. Let's go through some of the changes.
- 2.5 lets you equip upgrades and fly named pilots, instead of stripping every ship and pilot down to fit another chassis on the table. Chassis-spam often haunted the 2.0 meta and made whole ships hard to balance, because at certain points thresholds you could fit another ship and the extra hull and damage outcompeted anything upgrades or named pilots could do. 2.5 gives you permission to fly your favorite pilots and actually equip stuff.
- On the downside, 2.5's loadout system means some pilots are just stuck with too few loadout points. This makes the pilot cheaper, but less able to load up the way you might want. Sometimes this is deliberate to keep that pilot from loading up with stuff that would make them too strong. This is one of the tradeoffs and one of the balancing points for how the game works now.
- Another downside is 2.5 tends to have a lot of upgrades equipped. Instead of a wave of unequipped generics, you're facing ~3-5 named pilots with several cards equipped apiece. I've gotten used to it, but it was a bit of a shift when I was first getting into the game. You need to take a moment to look at each ship to see what they're carrying and what the team is up to.
- Scenario play is optional, but I recommend it because it gives ships more ways to score points and contribute than just "kill the dudes". This means a lot of support and filler ships have a more useful role. Scenarios also penalize slow-play tactics that I got extremely tired of seeing in every single game I played, particularly running away to drag out the timer. Now with objectives on the table, if the opponent doesn't want to engage, that's fine; you can accomplish your goals. This is more like a real fight -- modern people typically don't agree to meet in an open field and slam their armies together. Aircraft don't dogfight just to dogfight: you're trying to accomplish something like stealing intel, and defeating your enemy's men and material is in line with that, not the goal itself. The ultimate scenarios are HOTAC of course, but the 2.5 scenarios are a good and overall balanced compromise that gives players things to do other than just chase the opponent around the table until time. I should note that at one of the game stores where I play, the main guy running things doesn't like scenarios so we just dogfight, but we also don't have anyone running away until time, so works out okay. That does change the value of some ships who do best when there's objectives on the table, though. It really does change your team composition considerations.
- On that note, scenario play does make it harder to play a full aces team, because you need to be devoting some effort to objectives. Pure aces that like to dodge arcs, score a points lead, and then refuse to engage the opponent until time will not be happy in 2.5. Devoted run-away ace teams in particular are miserable by design: if you don't engage, you don't win.
- Obstacles in 2.5 are brutal and IMO they feel the way they should. If you pass over an obstacle, even the formerly safe ones like gas or debris, you can have a bad time. All three obstacle types will stop you from shooting if you're on them, so you really don't want to land on one. This amplified threat is an important gamble to think about when you're pondering plowing through one for a surprise strategic advantage, which also makes it less likely your opponent will expect you to do it. To balance this enhanced threat, you can't be tractored onto obstacles anymore, and if you land on one and have to pass through it again next round, it doesn't count as long as you're fully off it at the end (no double crunch).
- No more Initiative Bid: ROAD and Deficit Scoring are big changes for aces as well. Deficit gives a big incentive to spend all your points, and therefore gives you permission to spend them all. There's no more bidding wars, and there's no more "init is determined with a single roll at the start of the game". Instead, every round you need to plan your maneuvers with an element of uncertainty, because you don't know if the opponent's matching-init ships are going to be moving before yours, and they don't know either. It was another big shift in thinking when I first took on 2.5, but now it's become natural to me and it would be weird to go back. "You mean my init 6 aces took a major disadvantage at the start of the game with one roll because my bid wasn't deep enough, even though I left 15 points unspent!?". No more gambling on a bid, and you just build your team around the understanding that sometimes your opponent WILL go after you, and other times you'll have the advantage. Whether you like this will come down to giving it a try for a while to see if you're okay with it. IMO it's worthwhile and it makes the game much more interesting.
- Shooting at range 0. You're no longer safe when you make foes bump you: they can make an unmodified attack against you (no range 1 dice bonus, no dice mods), and you as the defender can modify your dice. So the guy who moves his large ship into your way to lock things up can still be attacked. I remember how strategically important bumping was in 2.0, and it still is, but it's less black & white. I've just been playing 2.5 for so long that this just feels normal to me.
- Running into enemies gives you an opportunity to do a red focus, so you're not totally vulnerable. If you run into a friend, you can't focus and instead you roll for a damage. The idea is you're heavily focused on your enemy and can somewhat respond to their movements, but if an idiot ally breaks formation and gets in your way, you don't have time to respond to that.
- Ionized ships can bank left/right; they don't have to only coast forward. This gives them some ability to still function (e.g. not go off the board edge), but they're still very limited. It also means an ionized ship still puts a dial down, and their revealed maneuver determines if they coast 1 left/right/forward.
- Everything that modified or looked at dials is banished to Extended, as well as a few other cards being banned to Extended (e.g. Advanced Sensors let you do too much). The idea was to create a meta where dials are sacred, and planning ahead is super important.
- A sore point: Nearly all ships that haven't gotten a re-release are Extended instead of Standard, and tournaments are Standard. The reason is simple: scalping was getting out of hand, and people were having to pay obscene prices to compete in the meta. Now, if a ship isn't re-released, it's not in the meta and there's far less incentive to pay massive amounts to get one (you're not losing the game because your meta team was missing a crucial piece). This is sad for Scum players like me because half the faction is still Extended, but I also understand the choice. I'm just hoping AMG brings some of my favorite Scummies back soon.
Overall I'm really enjoying 2.5, and I sometimes forget how 2.0 works because I've played 2.5 for so long. As with 2.0 there are definitely some complaints and trade-offs, but for me at least, I'm having a great time. I often play Extended because I'm a Scum-Sucking Nerf Herder at heart, but I play all factions and there's also a lot of fun to be had in Standard, even for Scum.
I hope this helps you choose! IMO you need to play 2.5 for a while and get used to it before deciding against it. Just like a lot of people balked at 2.0 because it changed so much, a lot of people never converted over to 2.5. There's actually an occasional bit of vitriol from some of those more outspoken 2.0 players who aren't happy about 2.5, but most people in the x-wing community have settled on a live-and-let-live attitude so everyone can have a good time. Whether you play 2.5 or stick with 2.0, I hope you're enjoying the game!