Illicit Upgrades

It’s no big surprise that the Scum faction is the first to make use of the illicit upgrade. After all, as these upgrades represent the array of technologies that the Empire has chosen to outlaw, they belong to the galaxy’s black markets, and who runs those? The galaxy’s Scum and Villainy.

Of the seven different starships introduced to the Scum faction – or reengineered to suit its fleets – all but the Y-wing and M3-A “Scyk” interceptor gain access to the illicit upgrade, though the StarViper-class attack platform only gains access to the upgrade type through the use of the unique Virago Title card.

Combined with the fact that it is currently unique to the Scum, its ubiquity makes the illicit upgrade one of the faction’s most defining elements… along with the many dirty tricks it permits.

Currently unique?? Hmm. Wonder if that means we may see some crossover down the line - hotrodded Imperial ships as well as Rebel Freighters and Fighters able to use the Illicit upgrades sometime in the future? Perhaps a title card or refit to allow this sort of thing.

It's an interesting slip of the tongue, but one I'm sure people will be talking about for a while..

Let the flame wars begin!

Wave 8, Gungan/Ewok confederacy space fleet.

Prepare yourselves

Who knows? They may bring in another faction for Imperial ships later on. I remember when there was initial speculation on a third faction, and there were many that said "no way". Anything is possible in this game these days.

someone mentioned it in another thread today..

I don't think it means much, it's just FFG leaving their options open. Right now it's unique and there's no hint that it's going to change, but someday they might do something that breaks the trend. Or maybe they won't. Look at it like the cloaking mod that doesn't say "phantom only" because it doesn't need to, there are no other cloaking ships in the foreseeable future but FFG doesn't cut off options unless they have to.

How could you miss it? It's totally clear that illicit upgrades will be finding their ways into other factions eventually, but probably in a very limited way.

It's the only way to grab interest into buying Scum ships if you don't really care about scum faction. So it is plausible.

The only ship of the current factions I see packing illicit upgrades might be a possible Ghost. But even that is a little far-fetched, I guess the show has to unfold?

I'm totally fine with factions having access to unique upgrade cards. Only Rebels have droids. only Scum has illicit. If I were designing, I'd say the Empire has only Beam weapons. So that Tractor Beams and jammers are only in the hands of the technologically superior Imperial Navy.

Wave 8, Gungan/Ewok confederacy space fleet.

Prepare yourselves

BIIINKS!!! BRRRRRRRR!

I can see both Rebels and Imperials thematically having access to Illicit upgrades -- the Imperials make the rules, so they can break them, and Rebels aren't much different from Scum when it comes to obeying the law.

I suspect we'll eventually see some sort of Imperial-only and/or Rebel-only modification (possibly unique) restricted to Pilot Skill 6+ (or something like that) that adds an Illicit upgrade slot, costing 2 to 4 points (depending on just how restricted it is).

And while we're on the subject, there could be an Astromech upgrade costing 1 or 2 points (and possibly unique) that provides a Salvaged Astromech slot (and vice versa).

I think that sort of thing is pretty likely, but not for a while. I expect Scum will have a good stretch of time with sole access to them. I also think we'll see cloaking devices showing up in non-Imperial factions eventually.

I understand the wish to differentiate the factions, but the whole concept of illicit upgrades doesn't sig well with me. As mentioned above, the rebels wouldn't give two ***** about the legal status of an item, so them not having access doesn't make sense. Then some of the upgrades.. I mean, what's so 'illegal' about a one-shot blaster turret? Why would the rebels, and imperials for that matter, not be strapping those to thier own ships? That thing should have been a straight up

Cannon upgrade.

My final beef is that the imperials are getting no love. Between the scum and the rebels, they now have turrets, astromechs. Salvaged astromechs and illicit upgrades that the imperials can't touch. And what do the guys in control of the majority of the Galaxy have unique access to? Bugger all. It's 'boring' from s playing perspective and about as fluffy as having jar jar as a pilot for an xwing

I mean, what's so 'illegal' about a one-shot blaster turret?

It's not necessarily illegal, just unconventional. A criminal might want a hidden gun to surprise their enemies, a mass-produced military fighter is just going to spend that space/weight/power/etc on a normal gun or better engines or whatever. There's no need to have a hidden single-shot weapon when you're engaging in open combat, nobody is going to think "oh hey, that x-wing might be unarmed, guess we should ignore it" until it pops out a special gun and kills them. If a rebel or imperial force wants a turret ship they'll just bring a y-wing/decimator/etc.

soery but that doesn't wash with me. You're telling me the dark lords shuttle, which he knows is a lumbering beast, wouldn't take advantage of such a weapon because it's 'not part of the normal design'. It just doesn't make sense.

soery but that doesn't wash with me. You're telling me the dark lords shuttle, which he knows is a lumbering beast, wouldn't take advantage of such a weapon because it's 'not part of the normal design'. It just doesn't make sense.

No, the dark lord's shuttle would just fit a conventional turret that can fire multiple times instead of a hidden one-shot weapon. And hey, we have an upgrade card (APL) that represents the shuttle's rear turret. The only reason to suffer all the drawbacks of a one-shot weapon is if hiding your real intentions is your top priority. Vader, on the other hand, doesn't need to screw around with hiding his weapons from the police, he just shows up in an openly-armed shuttle with a full escort of fighters.

I think you're reading too much into it. It just means they might make it available to other factions in the future, if they feel like it.

Ssi-ruuk

the lizard race from Truce at Bakura

the Vong

maybe a new role for bounty hunters in the other factions?

If Lando's Lady Luck ever makes it into the game, that'd be a good candidate for illicit upgrades for the rebel faction

And what do the guys in control of the majority of the Galaxy have unique access to?

They have unique access to TIE Fighters, TIE Advanced, TIE Interceptors, Lambda-class shuttles,TIE Bombers, TIE Phantoms, TIE Defenders, and Decimators. They have unique access to pilots like Howlrunner and Darth Vader, to crew options like Rebel Captive and (soon) Fleet Officer, to the cloak action, and soon to EPTs like Ruthlessness.

soery but that doesn't wash with me. You're telling me the dark lords shuttle, which he knows is a lumbering beast, wouldn't take advantage of such a weapon because it's 'not part of the normal design'. It just doesn't make sense.

iPeregrine already handled this, but just to reiterate: Vader's personal shuttle doesn't need sneaky hidden tricks like the Hot-Shot Blaster because it has unrestricted access to military-grade weaponry.

Ssi-ruuk

the lizard race from Truce at Bakura

No. Just... no.

I think you're reading too much into it. It just means they might make it available to other factions in the future, if they feel like it.

Yeah; I think they're keeping their options open for the future. They probably learned their lesson from the astromech upgrade slot, which they assumed would be rebel exclusive. When they decided to make the Y-wing available to scum, they had to invent 'salvaged' astromechs to keep scum from having access to rebel-specific astros such as R2-D2.

This time, I think they have a 'never say never' policy.

I wouldn't think too heavily about it. Sure, they might add some way to give illicits to other factions, but it would have to be limited.
I'd expect it to be something specific to the Firesprays/HWKs, since those are already 3rd party ships/pilots. Fluff-wise, I don't think any other Imperial ship should have illegal mods on them, because...well, that doesn't make sense. It's Imperial law, and they're gonna break it? Hrm.
I think it makes a lot more sense for the Rebels to use illicits, though at a great cost. They don't have all the underground, shady connections S&V would have, so it'd be harder for them to locate such things.

Guess we play the waiting game for now. Or X-wing. That's a good game too. I wouldn't expect to see any of this cross-faction stuff for quite a while though, as wave 6 isn't going to drop for a while yet. Heck, wave 5 isn't even out (though I'm dying for that one already).

The earliest would either be wave 7 (which could be halfway through next year or so) or some sort of "Scum Aces" thing. A Worst of the Worst pack, I guess. But again, that won't be anytime soon, because S&V will need to be out for a while first.

A Worst of the Worst pack, I guess.

I hear there's a "Wurst of the Worst" pack in the works, that will give the S&V a huge leg up on other factions in the Breakfast meta.

Illicit Upgrades

It’s no big surprise that the Scum faction is the first to make use of the illicit upgrade. After all, as these upgrades represent the array of technologies that the Empire has chosen to outlaw, they belong to the galaxy’s black markets, and who runs those? The galaxy’s Scum and Villainy.

Of the seven different starships introduced to the Scum faction – or reengineered to suit its fleets – all but the Y-wing and M3-A “Scyk” interceptor gain access to the illicit upgrade, though the StarViper-class attack platform only gains access to the upgrade type through the use of the unique Virago Title card.

Combined with the fact that it is currently unique to the Scum, its ubiquity makes the illicit upgrade one of the faction’s most defining elements… along with the many dirty tricks it permits.

Currently unique?? Hmm. Wonder if that means we may see some crossover down the line - hotrodded Imperial ships as well as Rebel Freighters and Fighters able to use the Illicit upgrades sometime in the future? Perhaps a title card or refit to allow this sort of thing.

It's an interesting slip of the tongue, but one I'm sure people will be talking about for a while..

Let the flame wars begin!

Both illicit and salvaged say "Currently" Made note of this in the post on the article. I don't think they are going to bring the upgrades to the other factions as much as the wording allows them to if they ever feel they need to. That said there could be a ship, that is say a smuggler, that has a rebel or imperial pilot and S&V pilot both with the upgrade. But that to me seems unlikely as they want to keep this third faction feeling very different