Ever since the inception of the game the relatively low number of dice has been a key element of the game, meaning you see a huge variation in dice results because even the more extreme outcomes are relatively likely.

What does that mean? Say you double the amount of dice (from 3 attack --> 6 attack, from 2 defense --> 4 defense), what is going to happen? Each time you double the amount of dice rolled, you will get closer to the average value of the dice you rolled, positive or negative spikes become less common. We all know these situations where a TIE or Corran rolls 3 clutch evades, just like we know the situations where they roll 3 blanks and die horribly.

That's part of the excitement of the game, but it's also part of the frustration and it's certainly making the game unpredictable. Now FFG obviously can't double/triple/multiply the number of dice rolled, but to me it seems like they're introducing more and more ways to mitigate randomness in the game. Let's take a look at the tools they've introduced so far:

- c3p0. You get one evade per round each time 100% of the time 10/10 times.

-Ysanne Ysard. Unless you're stressed (god bless), you get an evade per round each time (see c3p0).

-Accuracy Corrector. No matter what you do, you get 2 hit results for each attack.

- Advanced Targeting Computer. If you have a target lock you're guaranteed an additional crit result. Works much like a 3rd attack die on steroids (if you have that target lock which is not too difficult in a 2-3ship meta).

-Feedback Array. You take 1 damage/1ion to give 1 damage. Works every time, even on rocks /out of arc.

-Autothrusters. Gives you an extra evade if R3 and/or out of arc. Granted this doesn't work 100% of the time, but against turret it's a near automatic evade. It certainly reduces variation in your green dice alot, any interceptor/IG88 pilot will tell.

- Vader. Good old Vader. Works every time, if you want to pay the price.

-Palpatine. Better than all of these guys, he will give any of your ships one 100% guaranteed evade or crit or whatever result you need each round.

I could have missed out on something, but doesn't this seem like a conscious effort on FFGs part? What do you guys think about this development? Is this good for the game?

FFG has been releasing abilities that minimize randomness since the Core set. They release a lot of other upgrades but the ones that tend to normalize the erratic swings of the dice are the ones that end up being popular.

Short answer: yes

Well, FFG gives the options, you are free to pay the price, or not.

If you doubled the amount of dice for everything, you would also have to double the evade action. At 4 Agility dice the focus is better on defense than the evade action. You might also want to double a lot of other abilities like Lando crew. Are we going to double health too?

I remember seeing a while ago a thread about not playing with dice and just using the average amount of hits you'd score if you did roll dice. So if you roll one attack die against a zero agility target, it would do .5 of a health. So if the ship in question had zero agility and 3 health left, the amount of one die attacks it would take to kill it would be 6.

If you doubled the amount of dice for everything, you would also have to double the evade action. At 4 Agility dice the focus is better on defense than the evade action. You might also want to double a lot of other abilities like Lando crew. Are we going to double health too?

I remember seeing a while ago a thread about not playing with dice and just using the average amount of hits you'd score if you did roll dice. So if you roll one attack die against a zero agility target, it would do .5 of a health. So if the ship in question had zero agility and 3 health left, the amount of one die attacks it would take to kill it would be 6.

Well, with more and more defensive automatic success, they are bringing back the importance of concentrated fire on the same target, which is a good thing that might bring back the swarm and get us away of the current 2 ship build dominance. So, I'm all for it.

What about Lando, R2-D2, or Porkins? They're giving you options to reduce variability just as much as they are giving you options to increase it.

Yes, and I think it's great that the game has higher variance at the lower end of the skill spectrum and lower variance at the higher end.

Newer players have more fun when there's enough randomness to compensate for their lack of experience, but dislike it when a game has the appearance of high randomness because they tend to overestimate their own abilities. Even though we know that more dice = less randomness, the average person perceives the amount of randomness to increase with the amount of dice. People coming into the game like that there's only a handful of dice rolled on each attack, since in many people's minds less dice = less luck, even though that's not actually true. I remember reading that the creators of the Star Wars CCG, which had more dice than any other game on the market at the time, said that people were turned off by the game because they percieved the large amount of dice rolled for each event meant the game was more luck based, even though it's well proven that more dice means less variance. Perception trumps reality in most cases when it comes to game design.

More experienced players hate losing to luck after they've outplayed their opponent, but they can use their experience to build their list in a way that mitigates luck and lowers the variance in their games to favor them.

It's pretty elegant from a game design perspective.

How I deal with bad rolls:

1.) I just don't roll bad. My HWK has one health left? The double evade is going to happen repeatedly until you consider selling off your collection. I typically roll like a god lol.

2.) If I blank out, or I roll all focuses or something, I view that as my punishment for rolling unmodified dice, I should have not stresed my self so I could have modified my dice results. And if I roll unmodified dice and they all come up hits, then great.

Yes, and I think it's great that the game has higher variance at the lower end of the skill spectrum and lower variance at the higher end.

Newer players have more fun when there's enough randomness to compensate for their lack of experience, but dislike it when a game has the appearance of high randomness because they tend to overestimate their own abilities. Even though we know that more dice = less randomness, the average person perceives the amount of randomness to increase with the amount of dice. People coming into the game like that there's only a handful of dice rolled on each attack, since in many people's minds less dice = less luck, even though that's not actually true. I remember reading that the creators of the Star Wars CCG, which had more dice than any other game on the market at the time, said that people were turned off by the game because they percieved the large amount of dice rolled for each event meant the game was more luck based, even though it's well proven that more dice means less variance. Perception trumps reality in most cases when it comes to game design.

More experienced players hate losing to luck after they've outplayed their opponent, but they can use their experience to build their list in a way that mitigates luck and lowers the variance in their games to favor them.

It's pretty elegant from a game design perspective.

I think he meant Star Wars RPG by WEG. That had large dice pools. The SW LCG by FFG is a better game than the CCG, having played a lot of both

I meant the one made by Wizards of the Coast. Which I guess is called the TCG. It was around back when I was playing with Neo Genesis in elementary school.

Yeah, it's pretty funny when people scoop up 4 dice for their HLC and expect to roll better than hit hit focus/blank blank everytime and then start to sigh. That's an average roll for 4 attack dice I don't know what you expect. Maybe you shouldn't be rolling unmodified dice, they suck.

Yeah, it's pretty funny when people scoop up 4 dice for their HLC and expect to roll better than hit hit focus/blank blank everytime and then start to sigh. That's an average roll for 4 attack dice I don't know what you expect. Maybe you shouldn't be rolling unmodified dice, they suck.

To be fair, if I find myself in a position where I'm rolling unmodified HLC dice they'll almost certainly come up blank focus blank blank.

Yeah, it's pretty funny when people scoop up 4 dice for their HLC and expect to roll better than hit hit focus/blank blank everytime and then start to sigh. That's an average roll for 4 attack dice I don't know what you expect. Maybe you shouldn't be rolling unmodified dice, they suck.

To be fair, if I find myself in a position where I'm rolling unmodified HLC dice they'll almost certainly come up blank focus blank blank.

Thats what I expect when facing enemy unmodified HLCs - but then its 3 hits 1 crit (which of course is converted to a hit) ... and I start to sigh.