So I was looking over the AoR Ace Driver for a "Perfect Astromech" character (capable of doing any of the supporting actions in space combat- Mechanics, co-piloting, plotting courses, running sensors, ect, while sitting in the back of a 1 man fighter) when I notices that the Full Throttle talent doesnt actually require you to be piloting- it simply requires you to be able to do a Hard pilot check.

If the "mechanic" can use Full Throttle on their turn, it frees up the pilot's action, early in combat. Do you think it's worth a 5 XP upgrade? (30 XP, if it's the "mechanic's" maneuver, so he can juggle even more tasks...)

Completing a Piloting check means you are Piloting.

Starship and vehicle combat pretty clearly spells out overall any Maneuvers/Actions that involve movement, speed, flying of the ship are Pilot Actions.

I can see where you're coming from since astromechs undoubtedly have some heavy control of the ship - probably even enough to jury rig the ship to go faster temporarily - but based on what the talent uses - Piloting to activate, Cunning for duration - it's really a lot more of something only a Pilot and Co-Pilot could do.

Besides, Improved Full Throttle exists so the pilot can use it as a maneuver if he really needs to use it.

Astromechs can fly a ship, albeit they function mostly as an "autopilot."

Given the droid I'm thinking of this for is supposed to be able to Co pilot as well, having full Throttle as a co-pilot action shoulldnt be a problem.

"Starship and vehicle combat pretty clearly spells out overall any Maneuvers/Actions that involve movement, speed, flying of the ship are Pilot Actions."

-It clearly spells out that any action the ship takes to move are pilot only, but Full throttle doesnt actually move the ship, it just modifies the ship's speed. And unlike most of the other driver talents, it DOESNT specifically call out needing to be piloting.

I would consider allowing someone in the Copilot position to use Full Throttle. If it were based off of Mechanics - which would make sense as much as basing it off of Piloting - then I'd let it be performed from and Engineer position.

Full Throttle has some other weirdness to it. It increases your vessel's top Speed, but you still need to spend a subsequent Accelerate maneuver (or more with Supreme Full Throttle) to make use of that Speed (and then you can't actually Fly anywhere with that Speed in the same turn). Additionally, when it wears off, do you automatically drop in Speed, or will you have to spend a Decelerate maneuver?

Given the droid I'm thinking of this for is supposed to be able to Co pilot as well, having full Throttle as a co-pilot action shoulldnt be a problem.

"Starship and vehicle combat pretty clearly spells out overall any Maneuvers/Actions that involve movement, speed, flying of the ship are Pilot Actions."

-It clearly spells out that any action the ship takes to move are pilot only, but Full throttle doesnt actually move the ship, it just modifies the ship's speed. And unlike most of the other driver talents, it DOESNT specifically call out needing to be piloting.

Yeah, but if you go into that line of thought, you can argue that the PC manning the turret in a YT-1300 has just as much right to use Full Throttle; just saying.

I guess I'd probably allow it, and possibly even other Pilot Only Actions/talents, depending on the ship and if it's shown that the Astromech can actually pilot it from its slot (like in X-Wings). But keep in mind, that it's still based on Cunning for duration - which means you may need to cut into Intellect and Agility if you want the Talent to even last more than 1 turn.

Yea, I'm looking at 3 Agility, 2 Cunning 4 Intelect, with a cross class rank in Computers at creation. That'll give me 2 greens and a yellow vs 2 purple for copiloting, a yellow and 3 green vs 2 purple for jamming or spoofing (and 2+2 vs 3 for shields and damage control), and enough perception to attempt a scan. with a bit of XP under his belt, the droid can keep fll throttle up on odd rounds and angle the deflectors on even rounds.

It has the added bonus of giving you a broad suite of abilities out of the cockpit as well.

Juggling ideas for a 2 y wing party of 6, the second droid would be a Engineer mechnic- bouth would have the skills, but the engineer would be a more traditional fixit type, and probably a better copilot to boot. odd how that works out.

(I'll need a bit to flesh out that two-fighter party)

Personally, as a GM I'd be cool with an Astromech PC using Full Throttle even if they're not the active pilot... so long as they are in a position or place where they'd be able to have an impact on the ship's performance. For instance, the co-pilot station or at the ship's engineering station or near the ship's engines themselves. The guy at the weapon turret couldn't because weapons control is in no way related to starship operation, with A New Hope providing evidence of that (it was up to Chewie to pilot the ship in a defensive manner while Han was in the turret).

I'd probably still keep it a Piloting check though, with the idea that the little droid is using their know-how of ship operations to be able to safely push the ship past it's normal limit for a few minutes.

Given the droid I'm thinking of this for is supposed to be able to Co pilot as well, having full Throttle as a co-pilot action shoulldnt be a problem.

"Starship and vehicle combat pretty clearly spells out overall any Maneuvers/Actions that involve movement, speed, flying of the ship are Pilot Actions."

-It clearly spells out that any action the ship takes to move are pilot only, but Full throttle doesnt actually move the ship, it just modifies the ship's speed. And unlike most of the other driver talents, it DOESNT specifically call out needing to be piloting.

Sorry, it says movement, and I equate the velocity a ship is traveling as involving the term movement.

I submitted a rules query but I honestly don't think a Talent from the Pilot tree, requiring a Pilot check, involving speed which the rules say movement Actions are something the Pilot does, is really ambiguous at all.

Full Throttle has some other weirdness to it. It increases your vessel's top Speed, but you still need to spend a subsequent Accelerate maneuver (or more with Supreme Full Throttle) to make use of that Speed (and then you can't actually Fly anywhere with that Speed in the same turn). Additionally, when it wears off, do you automatically drop in Speed, or will you have to spend a Decelerate maneuver?

At first i thought Full Throttle was a good way to save a hardpoint from not needing the ion-turbine upgrade on my Firespray anymore, but then I realized that I would have to use my action to do Full throttle, a maneuver to increase my speed from 4 to 5, a another maneuver causing strain to move. At that rate, i could have just moved twice at speed 4, gone the same distance, and still had my action. If you really want to move faster, you need the ion-turbine upgrade.

I think Full Throttle would be of more use in dogfights (where Speed factors into rolls to Gain the Advantage) and for chase sequences, where being faster than the person or persons chasing you (or faster than the person or persons you're chasing) would be a notable factor.