Myself and many others have been working on reverse engineering the point cost formulas for ships, squadrons, and other cards so we can make custom variations of existing ship and make our own ships. I was wondering if you could release the offical point cost formula?

Good luck with that. It's probably fairly complex and not just cut and dry as they need to account for game balance issues and how different upgrades affect different ships.

Myself and many others have been working on reverse engineering the point cost formulas for ships, squadrons, and other cards so we can make custom variations of existing ship and make our own ships. I was wondering if you could release the offical point cost formula?

Even if it were that simple, I wouldn't count on this happening any time soon. Oh, and I doubt that they'd help you compete with themselves.

When we get more ships we can run regressions and create predictive models to figure it out. The key problem now is sample size

It has yet to work for X-Wing.

I doubt it will work for this game. You're better off trying ti work with a basic knowledge of game design and if something feels off in cost alter it until it fits.

I see what you did there. But did you consider windchill and/or the weight of the African Swallow? No? I thought so. Lets rework this then. /pep

They have a basic formula, then change it so it "Feels" right.

Or at least that's what they do for X-wing.

So good luck!

I'm sure it's not simply a formula.

I'm pretty sure their formula is the following:

1. Make your best guess as to what it should cost.

2. Extensive playtesting

3. Adjust point cost

4. Repeat steps 2-4 until the boss comes in and says, "Stop playtesting, it's going to the printer tomorrow."

I'm pretty sure their formula is the following:

1. Make your best guess as to what it should cost.

2. Extensive playtesting

3. Adjust point cost

4. Repeat steps 2-4 until the boss comes in and says, "Stop playtesting, it's going to the printer tomorrow."

Please please and triple please point me in the direction of the 'Playtester Job'. No Force, I AM the one your looking for. lol

I am not sure, but I think FFG does mostly in house playtesting

Those NDAs tend to suck the fun out of it tho

We've made one for fighters that fits all except the Tie Advanced, which comes in a point cheaper. Waiting on more info on Wave 2 to do ships. That will be a lot more complex.

Employee 1: "For the victory II, how does 85 sound?"

Employee 2: "Sounds good to me."

Employee 1: "For the victory II, how does 85 sound?"

Employee 2: "Sounds good to me."

Well we know they don't follow the same formula that a certain other company follows.

1)Newest expensive model needs to sell, give it rules that one ups the last uber awesome new toy.

2)Next book that wonderful toy becomes useless with horrible rules and overpriced.

3)Repeat step 1.

You know, when profit matters more than working on a good system that will last in a growing market.

Well we know they don't follow the same formula that a certain other company follows.

1)Newest expensive model needs to sell, give it rules that one ups the last uber awesome new toy.

2)Next book that wonderful toy becomes useless with horrible rules and overpriced.

3)Repeat step 1.

I'm pretty sure Games Workshop is going to pursue you for trade secret espionage.

While there is a base formula that sort of works for X-wing, there are all kinds of quirks to it where you can see that FFG just tweaked as they saw fit.

When you compare the complexity of units between the two games, you can understand why Armada's formula would need to be a bit more complicated and probably depend more on tweaks and feelings than science. Multiple firing/shield arcs. Different dice at different ranges for different arcs. Anti-fighter dice. An array of stats on top of that. And don't forget how all that stacks in different ways.

I reverse engineered the x-wing formula on my own only shortly before others started posting their formulas. The amount of possible variables in Armada makes my head swim though.

I suppose its completely possible that they went crazy simple with it though and just did a lot of tweaking by feel.

I'm guessing the fighters will be pretty easy to do, just haven't bothered to look into it yet.

Regardless of whether or not they officially use a formula to make calculate the point costs, we should be able to create a statistical model that would predict the point costs of fighters and perhaps ships. X-wing is more complicated because one would have to calculate the fighter cost then the pilot’s bonuses.

The regression formula for fighters should be easy, something like:

Points = β + β(Rebel) + β(speed) + β(hull) + β(expected anti-fighter damage) + β(expected anti-ship damage) + ε

*Note: rebel is 1 or 0 depending on whether it’s a rebel fighter, swarm would likely be part of expected anti-fighter damage but could be its own variable.

The regression gives you the βs then just fill in the speed, hull etc.

Capital ships would require movement types, shield arcs, damage arcs etc. and would be more complex.

Well we know they don't follow the same formula that a certain other company follows.

1)Newest expensive model needs to sell, give it rules that one ups the last uber awesome new toy.

2)Next book that wonderful toy becomes useless with horrible rules and overpriced.

3)Repeat step 1.

I'm pretty sure Games Workshop is going to pursue you for trade secret espionage.

Also some companies may need to pursue lawsuits for money since their business model is making them a likely candidate for FFG to buy them out.

SPD X .5
Hull X .5

Counter 1 + 1.2pts
Counter 2 + 2.4pts
Escort + 2.5pts
Heavy -1.5pts
Swarm + .8 pts

Brace +1pts
Scatter + 2pts

Dice gets more complex.....I'm sure someone will come up with something easier.

For Squadron Dice --> Bases on Die Facings
{(1 for every Hit+2 per double hit+.5 per Accuracy+1 per Hit and Crit)/ * 8 Sides } *#Dice
Blue Die = .625
Black Die = .5
Red Die = .5625


For Anti-Ship Dice (Without Bomber)
Same as above X2
Blue Die = 1.25
Black Die = 1.0
Re Die = 1.125


For Anti-Ship Dice (With Bomber--> Now Crits have an effect!)
{(1 for every hit + 2 per double hit + .5 per Accuracy + 2.25 per crit + 3.25 per Crit and hit)/8 Sides * 2.25 for Bomber
Blue Die = 2.67 ea
Black Die = 3.65 ea
Red Die = 2.53 ea

A-Wing Cost = 11 Game vs. 10.8 Calculated
B-Wing = 14 vs 13.7
X-Wing = 13 vs 13.5
Y-Wing = 10 vs 9.9
Tie Advanced = 12 vs 10.9
Tie Bomber = 9 vs 9.2
Tie Fighter = 8 vs 8.4
Tie Interceptor = 11 vs 12.0

So Tie Int is high and Tie Advanced is a bit low. So I could increase the cost of Escort.....or reduce the cost of counter or both.

Nice

Looks good for wave 1. The question is, will it fit wave 2?

My guess is it'll have a hard time.

As soon as we can see wave 2 cards it can easily be adjust and checked since I've got it all set up in a spreadsheet. Ships are way to complex to think I can nail it with just wave 1 so I'm holding off on ship costs for now.

Forgive me for necro-ing an old thread, but I'm trying to figure how I should be point-valuing some custom squadrons.

I've been using Mike1975's formula for fighters, but getting vastly different results than him. I've quadruple checked my math and my formula seems to be laid out the same as his, but here's what I'm getting for me results...

A-wing 11 9.775 B-wing 14 10.695 X-wing 13 11.53 Y-wing 10 8.4 TIE Advanced 12 11.25 TIE Bomber 9 7.65 TIE Fighter 8 7.425 TIE Interceptor 11 10.95

Has anyone else run into this issue?

Nonetheless, a question stands: has anyone made any progress on calculating squadron costs in any capacity for wave 2?