I also allow my opponent to take a Focus if they forget, or manage to accidentally skip, their action phase. It's a jack of all trades.

Focus is so "good' because it is built into one of the most basic mechanics of the game: the dice. It's the default action because it is the foundation that makes getting blocked or using another action actually matter and have significant opportunity cost and risk.

I agree, Focus is not too good. It's just the best default action.

If you have nothing better to do, focus is always the correct answer, because it's useful for both offense and defense.

But as was said, TL is better if you know you want offense, because you can reroll <eyes> and <blanks> instead of just converting <eye> into <hit>. Same goes for Evade and defense it's a better option most times, if you really, really don't want to get hit.

I guess "powerful" was not the best word. Basically the overall flexibility and effectiveness of the Focus action makes it better and more useful than both Target Lock and especially Evade most of the time. Which severly limits the times those actions are taken. So I was merely trying to ask if it was too powerful when compared to those two specific actions, not too powerful where it unbalances the game.

From the numbers I ran, the only time an A-wing, E-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Advanced, or TIE Phantom should take an Evade action over Focus is when they are expecting only 1 incoming attack. 2 or more attacks and the Focus action becomes better than the Evade.

IS that considering purely from a defensive standpoint, ie assuming you're definitely not going to use it on an attack? Also, why would the number of incoming attacks make a difference? Both can only be used once.

I agree, Focus is not too good. It's just the best default action.

If you have nothing better to do, focus is always the correct answer, because it's useful for both offense and defense.

But as was said, TL is better if you know you want offense, because you can reroll <eyes> and <blanks> instead of just converting <eye> into <hit>. Same goes for Evade and defense it's a better option most times, if you really, really don't want to get hit.

TL also has the advantage of being able to turn eyes and blanks into critical hits. It's damage output is just slightly higher than a Focus as a result, and can result in your opponent being forced to change his game plan because of a critical effect.

Yes, these probabilities are when Focus is selected as a purely defensive action. The reason why expected attacks matter is because they increase the overall chances to roll 2 or more eyes (makes Focus better than Evade) while also lowering the chances to roll 0 eyes (makes Evade better than Focus).

1 Expected Attack

Evade > Focus 42.19% of the time (zero eyes rolled)

Evade = Focus 42.19% of the time (one eye rolled)

Evade < Focus 15.63% of the time (two or more eyes rolled)

2 Expected Attacks

Evade > Focus 17.80% of the time (zero eyes rolled for both attacks)

Evade = Focus 53.49% of the time (no more than one eye rolled on one or both attacks)

Evade < Focus 28.81% of the time (two or more eyes rolled on at least one attack)

3 Expected Attacks

Evade > Focus 7.51% of the time (zero eyes rolled for all three attacks)

Evade = Focus 52.56% of the time (no more than one eye rolled on any of the attacks)

Evade < Focus 39.39% of the time (two or more eyes rolled on at least one attack)

4 Expected Attacks

Evade > Focus 3.17% of the time (zero eyes rolled for all four attacks)

Evade = Focus 47.52% of the time (no more than one eye rolled on any of the attacks)

Evade < Focus 49.32% of the time (two or more eyes rolled on at least one attack)

Statistically the Evade action should therefore be taken when expecting only 1 attack. And situationally should be taken when you want to give yourself the opportunity counter Gunner allowing only a single hit though.

Yes, these probabilities are when Focus is selected as a purely defensive action. The reason why expected attacks matter is because they increase the overall chances to roll 2 or more eyes (makes Focus better than Evade) while also lowering the chances to roll 0 eyes (makes Evade better than Focus).

1 Expected Attack

Evade > Focus 42.19% of the time (zero eyes rolled)

Evade = Focus 42.19% of the time (one eye rolled)

Evade < Focus 15.63% of the time (two or more eyes rolled)

2 Expected Attacks

Evade > Focus 17.80% of the time (zero eyes rolled for both attacks)

Evade = Focus 53.49% of the time (no more than one eye rolled on one or both attacks)

Evade < Focus 28.81% of the time (two or more eyes rolled on at least one attack)

3 Expected Attacks

Evade > Focus 7.51% of the time (zero eyes rolled for all three attacks)

Evade = Focus 52.56% of the time (no more than one eye rolled on any of the attacks)

Evade < Focus 39.39% of the time (two or more eyes rolled on at least one attack)

4 Expected Attacks

Evade > Focus 3.17% of the time (zero eyes rolled for all four attacks)

Evade = Focus 47.52% of the time (no more than one eye rolled on any of the attacks)

Evade < Focus 49.32% of the time (two or more eyes rolled on at least one attack)

Statistically the Evade action should therefore be taken when expecting only 1 attack. And situationally should be taken when you want to give yourself the opportunity counter Gunner allowing only a single hit though.

How many Agility dice are these numbers assuming? I'd imagine that Evade is significantly better in almost all cases when only rolling 1 Agility, and Focus gets proportionally better the more Agility dice you have in play.

you might want to think more about how and why you do certain things. thats the basis of improving your strategy. not what. why.

that said: focus is the correct decision about 90 of the time when you have no movement actions. if you have movement options, its maybe 70.

Also, your flying will dictate what you'll use. I really only use TL when I don't expect to take much damage, or I have no real other action, as at least it stays on.

I only use evade when I seriously see a ship being targetted

that said: focus is the correct decision about 90 of the time when you have no movement actions.

And that seems wrong. That seems like a "why bother to make it an option" type of situation is all he is saying.

that said: focus is the correct decision about 90 of the time when you have no movement actions.

And that seems wrong. That seems like a "why bother to make it an option" type of situation is all he is saying.

Let me try this:

When both players are at a skill level or at a non-expert skill level, what tends to happen is that both players find each other caught in each other's arc at decent range.

If you're better, you'll find you have a decent shot at perhaps a good defending range, then thats a good place to take a TL. For ex, using two xwings, changing your beginning entry is a great way to set up a better position where you can worry less about taking damage back, allowing you to take a TL on the first round of combat.

For instance, you can start both facing forward, move both moderately fast first time forward, gives the impression you're going straight in. then go 1 forward with the first one, and hard turn with the other. enter the battle field going into the asteroids from two sides/directions, with asteroids on your sides, impeding their free k-turn access.

The assumption for those probabilities are 3 defense die ships, basically every ship that can take an Evade action except for the Falcon and Slave I. Yes taking an Evade action with the Falcon or Slave I is the better option. All other ships, not so much unless you only expect one incoming attack.

No. NEXT!

No. NEXT!

Are green dice more traitorous than Benedict Arnold?

No. NEXT!

Are green dice more traitorous than Benedict Arnold?

YES. Next?

The sky isn't falling, why does everyone think it is? Someone please enlighten me as to why suddenly everyone thinks this is OP, or this is obviously gonna happen, or since this is Rebel only, Imps aren't getting treated well etc.

Conceptually speaking, I love the focus mechanic. I agree with people saying it's the best "default" action, but in a slightly different way.

I just think of focus as "has time to focus on flying" e.g. not stressed or doing something else, so they can focus more on flying or shooting depending on the situation. In my mind focus almost isn't even an "action", so much as a lack of action. If you aren't trying to target lock, or evade, or recover from a particularly stressful maneuver, or doing some other fancy maneuver, you are "focus"ing on flying and shooting. The fact that it's an action is just game mechanics, but it my mind it SHOULD be the most widely useful and used action.

It maps well to my experience with the old X-Wing games. When I'm trying to gain a target lock, I can't dodge as well. When I'm pulling evasive maneuvers or maneuver into position I can't aim as well. When I'm recovering from something crazy, same thing, can't fly or aim as well. But most of the time (after the target lock has been gained, after I've evaded a situation, etc.) I'm just focusing on flying and do everything a bit better, though once something in particular happens I'm "focusing" on that and no longer multi-tasking.

And it works so well with pilots like Soontir Fel. "I'm so good that even when doing a target lock and a barrel roll at the same time, I'm still calm and focused on flying".

I just love the feel it adds to the game. Again, to me it's not an "action". It's the lack of action. The ability to focus. And only the best pilots can focus on flying AND do something else at the same time.

I think it does just what it needs to do and feels perfectly balanced.

This was not meant to be a "the sky is falling" thread. Perhaps the thread title was a little misleading in that regard and that is my fault.

Overall I feel this game is incredibly balanced between both factions. And through this discussion I can see Target Lock has more value than I originally gave it credit for. And with the added benefit the modification Fire Control System, Target Lock is plenty effective.

I am still of the opinion that the Evade action for small ships is incredibly weak. I can only see two situations where taking a Focus action would be worse than Evade. As stated before those are when you are expecting only 1 incoming attack in the round or you want the opportunity to counter Gunner by insuring only a single hit gets through. Any other time the probabilities are always on the side of taking a Focus action over Evade. And for me this just doesn't make much sense. If you are taking an Evade action I would hope that it would give you better odds at avoiding damage than taking an ambiguous action such as Focus.

A modification for small ships that buffs the Evade action would go a long way to making a player really think about taking a Focus or Evade action. That would be a good thing in my opinion.

Perhaps something like this.

Modification (cost 2-4?): When taking an Evade action, increase your Agility by 1 when attacked at range 2. (Small ships only)

you fly a falcon with recon and tell me focus is not important to survival. you tell that to the (few) blaster turret runners out there.

Target Lock - offensive (sometimes defensive if you have the right card) based and can really boost an attack

Evade - blocks 1 shot coming in no matter what. good to take at times, like PTL turtle

Focus - now can be used for both, BUT you have to roll and eyeball to make it work. to me you are taking a chance if you focus, not saying I don't, but lets lay out this set up. flying vs a phantom, I have biggs. Phantom gets a sweet range 3 mm from the Biggs, takes a shot, he takes a focus, rolls his 5 dice, 1 crit, 4 blanks. The only thing that helped me was him rolling blanks, so I am feeling confident I have 2 dice and a focus token. I roll 2 blanks. so out of 7 dice 1 hit and the rest blanks. focus gives that moment a cliffhanger. Does he live, or is he space dust? I have seen plenty of games come down to the focus (or non focused) rolls, 4 hits vs 2, 3 hits coming in and rolling 3 eyeballs when defending and having your eyeball to save you.

YOu live by the eye, you die by the eye. Its not overpowered. its just right.

nah... 60/70s muscle cars could beat it...

I wonder if they would ever make a ship that doesn't have the focus action. I know some people have suggested that for droid pilots.

This is an elegant solution.

As for focus being too powerful, I'd say no. Focus + Target Lock, however might be, especially on a 3+ attack. I also don't think well ever see a ship without a focus action because it's hardwired into the base dice odds.

It's a little off topic, but I don't get the idea of a Droid not being able to focus. If anything a droid should automatically focus, it's a machine. Machines focus on the tasks they are presented with, they're not wondering if their wife is cheating on them, or if they left the kettle on.

I think the idea is that the droid IS automatically focusing to the limit of its abilities and this is already factored into their base stats. They can get no additional benefit from "concentrating harder". They are already permanently concentrating as much as they can so they can't choose to take a focus action.

It's a little off topic, but I don't get the idea of a Droid not being able to focus. If anything a droid should automatically focus, it's a machine. Machines focus on the tasks they are presented with, they're not wondering if their wife is cheating on them, or if they left the kettle on.

I think the idea is that the droid IS automatically focusing to the limit of its abilities and this is already factored into their base stats. They can get no additional benefit from "concentrating harder". They are already permanently concentrating as much as they can so they can't choose to take a focus action.

But as was said, TL is better if you know you want offense, because you can reroll <eyes> and <blanks> instead of just converting <eye> into <hit>. Same goes for Evade and defense it's a better option most times, if you really, really don't want to get hit.

This really isn't true. Focus and TL produce very, very similar offensive results. TL has a better chance to produce critical hits, but even that is very modest - like 2%-3% difference. Focus and Evade for defense is much harder to compare, because it depends heavily on the number of evade dice and the number of incoming attacks. But it's a long way from Evade being a better defensive choice most of the time.

Edit: Also worth noting here that since the entirety of TL's offensive advantage lies in crits, the conventional wisdom is that crits generally suck, which means that advantage is worth even less. Or did Winged Gundark suddenly become awesome while I wasn't looking?

If people could get over the kneejerk reaction to the way the OP stated his point, and put away the torches and pitchforks for a minute, he's really just making a point I think most of us know: Focus is a better action. For instance, this:

The game is stronger than ever almost 2 years into it, and if something as basic as the Focus action (or the penalties for overlapping, etc. etc.) is out of line, it would be common wisdom by now.

IS actually common wisdom. It's been common wisdom for most of the time I've been playing X-wing. The vast majority of players I know, if they're going to be nice and let you take an action when you forget, will let you drop a focus token. Why? Because it's such a default there's almost never any "But you wouldn't have locked THAT guy!" debate. Every action decision is "When would I take X rather than focus?"

noc has tried to start a discussion over the relative worth of different token-based actions. This isn't shocking, it isn't new (Kelvan talked about it on TC almost 16 months ago), he's backed it up with more actual math and real thought than most people put into anything around here, and it certainly didn't deserve the mob response he got. People around here are in such a rush to shout down anyone who might possibly (even if they're not) say something negative about the game we can't even have a conversation about anything any more.

I'm with the anti-focus on droids crowd, at least for Star Wars. To me focus represents the pilots intuition, broad perspective, experience, ability to think and adapt on their feet, etc.

The constant in Star Wars is that droid pilots cannot outperform experienced living pilots (whether this makes any sense is another discussion entirely). Droids focus on tasks and do them consistently well. They are extremely prone to tunnel vision. They don't get a feel for a situation and adjust as needed, they set a goal and accomplish it.

The ability to adjust and adapt, which is a big part of what I feel focus represents, is very much a limitation of droids in the Star Wars universe, and I think would go far in representing the edge human pilots have over droid pilots in the SW universe.

I would give droids automatic free focus actions.

They'd have to have really lousy stats before such a thing would be remotely balanced. I mean like 2 Hull, no shields, 2 attack and 1 evade lousy.