I just want to say that Assault Gunboat in German is a GLORIOUS phrase

Wait...

Did someone say...

Did somebody say GUNBOAT?

Wasn't Imperial Veterans something that was like really really close to some suggestion posted in this forum? I certainly remember someone quoting his own post to compare it with the official contents when that expansion was announced last year.

The double tap mechanic with ion cannon and primary for the Defender was something discussed and requested in these forums for years. That didn't keep FFG from producing and releasing what was virtually exactly that in the form of the TIE/D title.

That was me. Here are the custom cards I made about 5 months before the announcement of Imperial Vets. It's probably just coincidence, but let me dream I inspired the devs somehow...

Dream? You predicted the x7 and /D titles, with quite similar mechanics (lose cannons and missiles, gain evade action, -2 cost!), the double tap mechanic with the cannon. Tomax Bren and Countess Ryad...

If the Imperial Veterans expansion pack isn't basically your proposal, iterated a few times under testing passes, then you are either a FFG infiltrate, or a mentalist.

It's the midiclorians - he sees things before they happen.

I'm compiling here most of my custom cards.

I try to always follow the lore and balance (costs follow the Ships_Stats_formula_14_08_21.xlsx).

WARNING: I'm not the author of the original images, though most of them feature heavy editing.

Assault Gunboat custom expansion pack:

Gunboat showcase (using edited Mel's mini):

Alternative unique pilot:

Alternative new upgrades:

CONSIDERATIONS:

It's an expansion that not only to add the "Imperial Y-Wing", but offer some useful upgrade cards.

The dial is a cross between the X-Wing and the Y-Wing. Maybe too good? The ship was quite capable of keeping track of the enemy in the PC games.

I made it 1 agility because this was hard to dodge enemy fire (maybe because of the large profile?) - but 2 agility wouldn't be far fetched (in this case, the hull or shield should be reduced).

Lore-wise, it would have 5 hull (equivalent to the Y-Wing) and 3 shield (better than the X-Wing), making it tough to kill.

It has only 2 missiles (lore accurate) and the cannon, but an upgrade card that allows it to replace 1 missile for 1 other ordnance (the ship was known to carry torpedoes when needed).

The "Alpha Strike" elite upgrade can be used by pilots with more than one ordinance/canon/turret, but it is specially useful in the Gunboat, allowing an easy canon+missile combo. Would Tomax Bren be broken with it? You tell me. (if yes, I can restrict the upgrade to the Gunboat or just replace it with another card)

The Gunboat is the most produced/deployed Imperial hyperspace capable starfighter, which I explored in the title: "Imperial Reinforcements". It adds an interesting mechanic, which really differentiates the Gunboat of the TIEs. Since the common TIEs had no hyperspace, and the high tech, hyperspace capable TIEs (Defender, Avenger), are so rare that wouldn't be available everywhere, that's the job of the Gunboats. (sure, the title also boosts the Firespray, the Lambda and possible future non-TIE ships, like the Skipray. That's not bad at all).

It also emulates the massive military power of the Empire and remind the PC old sims (where the Imperials are able to call Gunboats as reinforcements).

I don't know if the price is right (is deploying later, but where you want, actually a drawback?)

Xeal is a colleague of Mareek Stele's who was MIA and later returned to action with "Killer Eyes".

Noble Calder's ability is kind of uninspired, so suggestions are most welcome. Not many information about this guy, except that he was the commander of a squad (Veerpal?). Maybe he could be the lower PS unique pilot instead of Xeal (swap the PS of both).

I added the other guy (Arajen Turmen) here, with a wonky ability, as an alternative.

Mareek Stele piloted the Gunboat, but this wasn't one ship who made him famous (like the Defender, the Avenger and the Missile Boat).

Possible pilots: (most in Legends)

• Gunboat generics (Squadrons): Nu, Tau, Mau, Mu, Rho, Eagle, Raven, Talon, Veerpal
• Gunboat uniques: Arajen Turmen, Noble Calder, Xeal (but not specially this ship)

Dunno how I feel about Odanan's version - I'll just rattle off things that strike me.

• it was never hard to hit but neither is 2 agility, and it was built like a Bolo. 2/2/4/4?
• for Imperial ships with minimal pilots (Phantom/Punisher/fo/sf), they definitely seem to like whole-cloth callsigns over oddly-shoehorned minor characters
• the torpedo slot, while fluffy, feels kind of odd to me. How about a generic Xg/1 title that functions in an Extra Munitions/Expanded Magazines sense? Would fit with the trend of auto-include titles (and parallel the TIE/* ones) and keep the mod slot open, without requiring a torp slot (which we already have the Punisher and Bomber for if necessary)
• I really wish they weren't limiting Tech upgrades to TFA+ships so far, because the Hyperspace Comms thingy from the Upsilon would be perfect here

Dunno how I feel about Odanan's version - I'll just rattle off things that strike me.

• it was never hard to hit but neither is 2 agility, and it was built like a Bolo. 2/2/4/4?
• for Imperial ships with minimal pilots (Phantom/Punisher/fo/sf), they definitely seem to like whole-cloth callsigns over oddly-shoehorned minor characters
• the torpedo slot, while fluffy, feels kind of odd to me. How about a generic Xg/1 title that functions in an Extra Munitions/Expanded Magazines sense? Would fit with the trend of auto-include titles (and parallel the TIE/* ones) and keep the mod slot open, without requiring a torp slot (which we already have the Punisher and Bomber for if necessary)
• I really wish they weren't limiting Tech upgrades to TFA+ships so far, because the Hyperspace Comms thingy from the Upsilon would be perfect here

Your squint's as good as mine. My initial look when the reveal dropped was that it was a simple "PS12 during deployment" sort of thing, but checking again looks more like you treat as PS0 for that and then get some sort of focus effect or give one at Range 1 later.

Dunno how I feel about Odanan's version - I'll just rattle off things that strike me.

• it was never hard to hit but neither is 2 agility, and it was built like a Bolo. 2/2/4/4?
• for Imperial ships with minimal pilots (Phantom/Punisher/fo/sf), they definitely seem to like whole-cloth callsigns over oddly-shoehorned minor characters
• the torpedo slot, while fluffy, feels kind of odd to me. How about a generic Xg/1 title that functions in an Extra Munitions/Expanded Magazines sense? Would fit with the trend of auto-include titles (and parallel the TIE/* ones) and keep the mod slot open, without requiring a torp slot (which we already have the Punisher and Bomber for if necessary)
• I really wish they weren't limiting Tech upgrades to TFA+ships so far, because the Hyperspace Comms thingy from the Upsilon would be perfect here

Callsigns are generally nicknames you get for doing something silly anyway. Check out the airforce's historical roster for a quick laugh.

That's because nicknames are generally given by your peers. And peers are usually dicks to each other.

That's because nicknames are generally given by your peers. And peers are usually dicks to each other.

All in good fun.

All in good fun.

Sure. Until you want to be Doctor Killshot, and you end up with Crop Duster instead because of that time you farted while crossing the commissary.

Dunno how I feel about Odanan's version - I'll just rattle off things that strike me.

• it was never hard to hit but neither is 2 agility, and it was built like a Bolo. 2/2/4/4?
• for Imperial ships with minimal pilots (Phantom/Punisher/fo/sf), they definitely seem to like whole-cloth callsigns over oddly-shoehorned minor characters
• the torpedo slot, while fluffy, feels kind of odd to me. How about a generic Xg/1 title that functions in an Extra Munitions/Expanded Magazines sense? Would fit with the trend of auto-include titles (and parallel the TIE/* ones) and keep the mod slot open, without requiring a torp slot (which we already have the Punisher and Bomber for if necessary)
• I really wish they weren't limiting Tech upgrades to TFA+ships so far, because the Hyperspace Comms thingy from the Upsilon would be perfect here

I don't think it was much clumsier than an X-Wing. It could definitely outmaneuver Y-Wings and B-Wings. Agility needs to be at least 2.

Perhaps, reducing its total health below 8, then.

The new trend of creating launch day titles for all ships is something that weren't taken into consideration when most of these suggestions were made first. Today, a launch day title could give it special gameplay options, indeed.

All in good fun.

Sure. Until you want to be Doctor Killshot, and you end up with Crop Duster instead because of that time you farted while crossing the commissary.

My dad once knew about a guy named Razor. He wasn't called Razor because it was cool.

He was shucking oysters and gouged his hand.

Your squint's as good as mine. My initial look when the reveal dropped was that it was a simple "PS12 during deployment" sort of thing, but checking again looks more like you treat as PS0 for that and then get some sort of focus effect or give one at Range 1 later.

Current best guess is that everyone deploys at PS0 but can deploy anywhere in r1 of the ship with that Tech upgrade.

Which is... fine, I guess.

It might conceivably be 'in the place forces step, you don't place anything but this ship (or can reserve some ships) and instead place everything (you didn't already) at PS0 in the activation phase of the first round, within range 1 of this ship' which would be super neat.

Did somebody say GUNBOAT?

...beautiful. Absolutely drop dead gorgeous

All in good fun.

Sure. Until you want to be Doctor Killshot, and you end up with Crop Duster instead because of that time you farted while crossing the commissary.

You receive what you earn. At least you don't do it while being a humvee gunner.

All in good fun.

Sure. Until you want to be Doctor Killshot, and you end up with Crop Duster instead because of that time you farted while crossing the commissary.

You receive what you earn.

All in good fun.

Sure. Until you want to be Doctor Killshot, and you end up with Crop Duster instead because of that time you farted while crossing the commissary.

You receive what you earn.

So say the bully.

I live with the consequences of my mistakes and decisions every day.

Also my reputation as an ******* preceded me into Space Marine from the top 50 in Section 8 P, and most of the Japanese Rankers in Armored Core For Answer despised a American like me making it into the top 30 worldwide at the time, so I'm used to it.

Should have saved that picture for page 200 RogueLeader!

Unless of course you have some MORE pics to share!

Next time Shapeways has a good sale, I think I might pick up a handful of Xg-1s and Avengers for house rule games. If nothing else, Avengers can be a straight sub-in for TIE Advanced pilots if we don't want to bother with house rules.

Yeah, I'm waiting for Cyber Monday myself. Haven't given up on an FFG Gunboat yet, but there's some great EU stuff on there which is unlikely to ever see the light of day

So why has there never been a new X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter type game?

I think it's because it takes a while to learn to play vector based three dimensional movement, and today's gamers (at least the kind that EA wants to target) aren't willing to put in the work to make it fun.

No.

It's nothing to do with "kids these days" and everything to do with costs. There hasn't been a good flight sim since what? One of the ace combat games ten years ago? So why create a whole new engine and system for a product that may not have a market when you can just reskin an existing game?

There is an OBVIOUS market for full fledged space sims when you realize how many hundreds of millions of dollars have been crowd funded by a handful of these games over the past few years. Star Citizen has raised $120,000,000 in two years, all from regular people, and the game isn't even finished.

People want them.

Except Star Citizen isn't the game we want, isn't by EA, and is going to remain in development until the end of time because the computing power required to deliver what they want would violate laws of thermodynamics.

While I disagree with the comments about its development (the beta is playable now and getting huge overhauls often), I think you're missing the point. People are throwing one hundred and twenty million dollars at a non-Star Wars space sim game... what do you think would happen with a licensed, fully realized space sim? It doesn't have to even be 1/100th as ambitious as Star Citizen, which is as much an MMO universe as it is a space sim.

Ever Space is an independent rogue-like that is a space sim-lite, and that was crowdfunded successfully AND picked up by Microsoft as a publisher after that fact.

There's definitely an audience for things ranging from a new Rogue Squadron type game to new X-Wing and TIE Fighter games.

EDIT - and a new Star Wars space sim means a Gunboat in X-Wing miniatures. It's guaranteed.

Minus the cost of licencing, and development. You keep holding up star citizen's 120 million like that's a significant number but that doesn't even cover the costs of star wars Battlefront which were estimated at 150 million.

And that was with a game engine they already had. You're also ignoring how star Citizen only had 34,000 backers (and only raised 2000000). So the numbers are still risky, here's an article that mentions how to turn a profit Battlefront needed 400 million in sales. The star wars name doesn't get you all of that. The highly lucrative and proven fps market does. There is no known such market for flight sims,no matter how much you spin nichest of niche games.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/See-How-Star-Wars-Battlefront-Did-Its-First-Two-Months-108777.html

First off, $120M is from pre-release donations. When the game is finished, it will be a product sold, generating additional revenue from far more than the limited pool of those willing to crowd fund. Furthermore, Star Wars Battlefront isn't a space sim, and that figure includes marketing costs, so comparing a rumored budget for SW:B and a game from a different genre isn't accurate.

What the Star Wars branding does bring to the table is name recognition and a far wider prospective audience. If there are tens of thousands of people willing to spend hundreds of dollars on the space sim genre before the products are even started and/or finished, then there is definitely a viable market for a finished product that would be available at all appropriate retail locations and digital storefronts.

Just because the industry has abandoned a genre because they perceive it to be non-viable, doesn't mean that's the case.

Well, before this I thought that SC was 99% vaporware, now... maybe 75%?

Now, I'm gonna sleep with the Elite Dangerous OST in spotify, just to not feeling so dirty for having an erection with another space game, I cheated ED...

Now, I'm gonna sleep with the Elite Dangerous OST in spotify, just to not feeling so dirty for having an erection with another space game, I cheated ED...

I don't think ED will blame you. I'm sure ED to will be pretty turned on by that too.

****.

It's sad how much money EA dumps into hype launches to release a sub par product.

On a lighter note, my friend whos a Sororitas mod on b&c asked if the Gunboat was in the game as the first random eu guess. Good to know the popularity has that far a reach.

In totally unrelated news, I gather Bioware is shutting it's forums down in three days time.

I guess they want all that NE3 discussion to vanish into the ether before Mass Effect Andromeda's marketing begins in earnest...

Next time Shapeways has a good sale, I think I might pick up a handful of Xg-1s and Avengers for house rule games. If nothing else, Avengers can be a straight sub-in for TIE Advanced pilots if we don't want to bother with house rules.

That's what I use my Avenger for. if I'm fielding Maarek in an advanced, he uses the Avenger model - the Advanced model just seems wrong.