Since so many of us like to put on game designer hats and speculate on how to fix our favorite game, I'd like to hear what ideas there are about one particularly tricky fix to implement:

improving underused/underpowered generic pilots.

In many cases, generic pilots are doing just fine. Blue squadron pilots, Academy Pilots, etc. are used to good effect in competitive play. But in several cases, there are ships that have competitive or semi-competitive unique pilots, but the generic pilots are outclassed. A recent example is the X-wing. Biggs is undoubtedly one of the most powerful ships in the game due to his disruptive ability, Luke and Wedge find their place in some competitive lists, and to a lesser extent the other named pilots too, but the generic x-wings are generally considered outclassed by B-wings or Z-95s, and are rarely seen.

There are many other examples of underutilized generics overshadowed by better named pilots, including E-Wings, Interceptors, TIE advancers (w/ respect to Vader), YT-1300, and perhaps TIE Defenders.

If a ship is generally underpowered, you can fix it by applying a general fix. Like chaardan refit for A-wings for example. But what about a ship like the X-Wing? Any fix has to obey one rule above all: don't create new balance problems. A fix that improves all X-wings runs the risk of overpowering Biggs, or perhaps another already viable named pilot. A chaardan refit style fix for X-wings would be ill-advised, because you would be improving Biggs, who is already very powerful.

Ideally, a fix would target the specific problem, and target generic pilots only. There is no precedent I know of that would accomplish this.

I can think of a few ideas, but none seem very elegant to me:

Anyone have any good ideas about how to go about fixing generics?

Would be simple enough to issue a title that only affects non-uniques.

Two big things that seem to define the popular generics are price and upgrade options, with EPTs and Systems being far and away the most popular because they given consistent sustained returns throughout combat

Seems like we just need more upgrades in other slots, and let the generics' low pricing take care of the rest

Titles could be good, too, though you really need to look at the Y-wing's one for inspiration. **** thing will revitalize Goldies like no tomorrow.

Would be simple enough to issue a title that only affects non-uniques.

I was also thinking about restricted upgrades that are limited to non-uniques, but how could you justify such a card in-game?

What title would it make sense for a generic pilot to take that a unique pilot could not?

I agree that this would be a good fix mechanically, but I don't know how one would sell it thematically.

I agree with the desire to raise the edge of generics. I'm not one who likes to see unique heroes crash and burn every game. Like ficklegreendice said, price is important to the current use of generics. I think the answer lies with upgrades that would be a little too pricey to add to an already high unique pilot's cost. An example is a B-wing with heavy laser cannon. I'm not sure I can justify Iby with HLC but a blue squadron is more comfortable.

I just posted a topic about upgrades related to starship mechanics & technicians that might offer some ideas. I'd like to see kitted out generic pirates gunning for Wedge, Coran, and the bastard baron.

The main issue is that pilot skill is overpriced for generics (and Veteran Instincts underpriced as an EPT), which generally relegates the 2nd cheapest option to a no-man's-land except when the cost difference is only 1 (Obsidian, Tala). They simply need to find a role, or lower the cost, for that second tier generic.

The main issue is that pilot skill is overpriced for generics (and Veteran Instincts underpriced as an EPT), which generally relegates the 2nd cheapest option to a no-man's-land except when the cost difference is only 1 (Obsidian, Tala). They simply need to find a role, or lower the cost, for that second tier generic.

Lowering the cost would work in a perfect world, but recosting specific pilots doesn't seem to be an option that is on the table.

Metagame shifts can also improve the value of mid-range pilots, as was seen around wave 3 when low-PS generics were very popular. Mid-range generics were a cheap and effective PS bid in those days. Maybe one way to improve the usefulness of mid-range generics would be to push the metagame back towards low-PS generics in some way.