During my epic play matches I have been a little disappointed by the lack of ships fielded when you use a huge ship. For this reason I decided to create a cargo upgrade called drone control bay. I would really appreciate it if you guys looked it over and told me what you think about the idea.

Drone control bay (limited)

energy capacity: 3

energy action: discard all energy on this card, roll an attack die for all energy spent in this manner. For every hit generate 1 drone, for every crit generate 2 drones up to a max of 12.

This card can choose up to 3 drone types to generate

base cost: 35

The action that the ship equipped with the drone control bay takes effects the drones in the following ways:

Reinforce: drones form a shell around the section of the ship that is being reinforced

Regenerate: drones form a wall on either side of the ship

Jam: all drones gain 1 evade token

Target lock: all drones may re-roll 1 attack die when attacking a ship target locked by the "mother ship"

Coordinate: Choose 3 drones to form a squad (a triangle formation that moves together) that may move away from the "mother ship" at ps 0 using 2 straits or banks. **

Types of drones:

base drone: ps: 0 range: 1 cost: +0, attack: 1 evade: 0 hull: 1 shields: 0

-no special abilities

max 12

assault drone: ps: 0 range: 1-2 cost: +5, attack: 2 evade: 0 hull: 2 shields: 0

-attacking a ship that is target locked increases the attack value of this drone by 1

max: 6

ion drone: ps: 0 range: 1 cost: +5, attack: 0 evade: 0 hull: 1 shields: 0

-action: ion bomb, destroy this drone and assign 1 ion token and 1 damage to all enemy ships within range 1

max: 6

explosive drone: ps: 0 range: 1 cost: +5, attack: 0 evade: 0 hull: 1 shields: 0

-action: self destruct: destroy this drone and assign 1 critical damage to all enemy ships within range 1

max: 6

repair drone: ps: 0 range: 1 cost: +12, attack: 0 evade: 0 hull: 3 shields: 0

-action: repair, target 1 ship at range 1 and roll an evade die. On an evade repair 1 shield up to its max shield value, and on a focus repair 1 hull up to its max hull value. *may not repair critical damage or other drones.

max: 3

* All drones are treated as obstacles and are destroyed if an enemy ship hits them.

**Unless otherwise (see coordinate action), the drones move with the "mother ship" staying in a given formation around it.

***The max values for each drone signify how many of that type you may have out of your 12 total drones. ex: 6 assault, 3 repair, and 3 base.

This is just my initial ideas for this card. Please let me know what you think!

Not sure why you need the random effect. Also not sure how it'd fix the lack of Epic Ship use in your group. If you want to fix that either lead by example or put in a minimum EP spend of 2.

It is not intended to be random. When I think of large ships fighting I think of them deploying tons of small ships around them as a defense.

Additionally it is not the lack of epic ships that bugs me but the fact that if you use an epic ship you end up with only a few dials compared to using a swarm of smaller ships.

Edit: Bellow is a link to an article in the star wars wiki of an instance in which drones were used by a ship. That is to say, it is not an unreasonable upgrade.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mechanized_drone_fighter

Just use some interceptors and white out the "pilot" part of the card.

Now they're entire squadrons and reduce their firepower as they get hit.

I think I understand your idea, but the rules seem unnecessarily complicated. To start, I would either reduce the number of types of drone to streamline selection or maybe allow drones to perform actions like ships. I'm also not sure how the drones affect the controlling ships' Reinforce or Regenerate actions.

What about physical representation? You want your ship to act like an aircraft carrier, right? You want to launch these drones like aircraft off the deck; even if you use something like a small coin to represent them, that's still a considerable presence on the table (not necessarily a bad thing). That can really wreak havoc on your enemy's plans... this seems like figuring a fair cost for the upgrades will be tricky.

SFC Snuffy,

Thanks for the feedback, I was planning on using a token around the size of a penny.
With respects to drone types, the initial upgrade is 35 points and each drone type has a different point cost. The basic is 0 points and the most expensive is the defense drone at 12 additional points. You can buy up to 3 drone types to choose from. This is like choosing ordinance. ex: if you choose assault drones, defense drones, and ionization drones you end up spending 57 points on the upgrade. I have not done extensive testing yet so I am not sure if the cost should go up or down.

With respect to the actions, the thing that the mother ship does changes what the drones do. ex: the reinforce action moves the drones into a shell around the reinforced section. Additionally, the specialty drones have actions they can perform such as healing or exploding.

But yeah I was thinking about an aircraft carrier.

It is not intended to be random.

Then why roll dice to determine how many drones you deploy?

i am confused.

i am confused.

Sorry, what part are you confused about so I can try to clarify it.

It is not intended to be random.

Then why roll dice to determine how many drones you deploy?

Oh, that's what you meant by random, my bad on the confusion. So I chose to use die for two reasons. The first, is that I like the concept of the rolls going either way where you can get 0-6 drones in a turn and potentially turn the tide in your favor or against you. Second, If I chose a hard number such as 3 or 2 drones I would have to raise the price of the upgrade, because guaranteeing 3 repaired shields or 3 additional attackers a turn becomes a little broken. ex: you use 3 energy to get 6 additional attack die on a target (3 sets of 2), or use three energy to heal 3 damage and get obstacles that the enemy has to shoot through. Both cases seem ridiculous. At least in my opinion.

I hope that clarified things.

So they are random?

So they are random?

The number of drones you produce in a turn is random, yes.