I think we can all agree that FFG has made an *awesome* game, here. Heck, *years* into playing it, I'm still completely hooked and can't ever imagine that stopping - it truly captures the feel of Star Wars in a quick-playing experience. Heck of a lot of fun!

But...even so...there have been things that definitely leave one...scratching one's head, in trying to parse it into the lore of the setting. What have you guys found as the thing that just...may work fine from a game design perspective, but doesn't really make sense lore-wise.

Personal suggestion:

TIE Defender generics at PS1/PS3. Yes, yes, the TIE Defender has had to be re-imagined a few times from its deleriously-OP debut in 'TIE Fighter'...but one thing it has consistently held onto was the 'lore' background of being a fighter only flown by the elite and highly skilled. The pilot pool for the TIE Defender commonly stated as being drawn from the TIE Interceptor pilots who had managed 20 combat missions and survived. Consider that modern 'ace' status is conferred on getting three to five kills, we are looking at Royal Guard-level skilled Interceptor pilots (PS6 or better) being given the Defender, and...*plop*, back down to PS1. LOLwut? Sure, it's a "new fighter", but situation awareness is most of fighter combat, and that experience doesn't go away just because you've got better systems behind you.

Would definitely have liked to see both TIE Defender generics get +2 skill*, and the resulting PS5 pilot have an EPT slot, for their cost.

* So, sure, reflecting some decrease vis-á-vis 'getting used to the new platform' unfamiliarity to start with.

Runner up:

Crew on ships. Aside from the small-base ships, pretty much *no* ship in the game has a believable number of crew. I mean, take the Millennium Falcon (please! *badum, tshh*) - we saw it spend most of one movie with Han, Chewie, C-3P0, Leia, *and* R2-D2 on it. Heck, the first time we saw it in a real dogfight, it was being flown by Chewie, with Han and Luke both gunning, and C-3P0, Leia, and R2-D2 doing their thing. 5 crew slots? And then that whole lot ALSO stuffed themselves into the cockpit, alone of an Imperial Shuttle in a later movie.

Of course, from a game balance perspective, I get why FFG limited the crew slots - crew "interesting enough" to be worth equipping one of in a HWK-290, TIE Phantom, or B-Wing...would be the same upgrades that could be insanely unbalanced if you could equip 5-7 of them in large-based ships. I think 'lore fail' applies, here, and it's a shame because FFG has since created the solution to it. As had been long hypothesized (and validated with the 'Raider' release) - if the idea of a 'system upgrade' had existed in FFG's mind when the TIE Advanced was released...it would have had one from the get-go. But that idea wasn't there, so it didn't. I think 'large'-base ships suffered a similar fate. They should probably have had no more than one crew slot (IF that), and instead introduced the concept of 'team' slots much sooner.

Same thing with the TIE Defenders on A-wings. A-wings were supposed to be piloted by the best of the best, and then PS1 and PS3 while X-wings get PS2 and PS4. It should be flipped.

PS1 is the best of the best

the better you are at flying it, the more you can acomplish with the lower PS rather than relying on everyone to have moved first

Ordinance: Ships only have one missile/torpedoes/bombs a balance issue but off

A PS1 Defender is better than a PS3 Defender.

Ordinance: Ships only have one missile/torpedoes/bombs a balance issue but off

I considered that one, but it's a bit of a tough one, as I think EU 'lore' conflicts with what we saw on-screen.

That is - even over the Death Star - the X-Wings and Y-Wings never took more than one shot, each, with their torpedo tubes - a pair of weapons fired at once, and that's it. Same at the second Death Star - the Falcon and Wedge both fired a pair of warheads...and that's it. We never, on screen, actually see ANYTHING fire more than a pair of torpedoes/missiles/bombs/etc.

Obviously, West End Games RPG, and LucasArts PC games, both went with much higher ordnance numbers, but...there isn't actually any on-screen (IE., what is now the only "canon" there is) justification for those numbers. So...mmmmm....I dunno.

My personal pick is Maarek Stele in a TIE Advanced. They could have put him in pretty much any TIE in the game and it would have been correct, but they put him in, like, the one TIE he DIDN'T fly.

one thing it has consistently held onto was the 'lore' background of being a fighter only flown by the elite and highly skilled. The pilot pool for the TIE Defender commonly stated as being drawn from the TIE Interceptor pilots who had managed 20 combat missions and survived.

Is that really ALWAYS the case though?

Keep in mind that in the game that introduced the TIE Defender, in the Missile Boat chapter, you kill like a hundred of Zaarin's TIE Defenders.

Somehow, I doubt all those pilots were aces. In fact, I think at that point Zaarin was using Defenders the way any other Imperial commander uses TIE Fighters.

But generally speaking, yes, I agree with this. The fact that the TIE Defenders have some Academy-level pilots is ridiculous. Outiside of that one campaign, yes, it would seem like the most expensive fighter in existence would be reserved for only the best pilots.

Obviously, West End Games RPG, and LucasArts PC games, both went with much higher ordnance numbers, but...there isn't actually any on-screen (IE., what is now the only "canon" there is) justification for those numbers. So...mmmmm....I dunno.

Well, if we restrict to on-screen, a vast amount of stats go out the window. How many cannons do the B-wing have? Do we ever see it fire a shot? What about the shields on an A-wing? If anything, its on-screen durability is better than any other fighter in the game, since X- and Y-wings blow up from one hit, but Arvel manages to survive the hits much better.

I find the absolute fiction surrounding the more recent pilots to be highly amusing. Chiraneau is kind of amusing - he's an Admiral, who should be commanding squadrons of Star Destroyers not flying a sorta-fighter, and at least according to Wookiepedia his one actual combat appearance is is in a TIE Fighter, where he gets his butt kicked. How that turns into a PS 8 pilot who can naturally shred anything he shoots at is beyond me.

And then there's Talonbane Cobra.

This

Seriously why does this upgrade NOT have a discard mechanic! We all know we wanted to do this!

nah, the ps thing never bothered me. Take a guy who just got out of flight school, if he flies something with a ton of sensitivity, he is going to look like a much worse of a pilot then if he flew a ship that required less skill. I would equate it to playing video games, it is much harder to play at max sensitivity then at the normal low setting, However if you can master the high setting, then you will be rocking more horses then a baby cowboy.

The bit about crew is a valid had to be done to ensure even gameplay. I mean a Han with R2D2, C3P0, Chewie, Luke, and Lando seems rather sick....

For a more real life example though, you could imagine driving a car without power steering, when you make a mistake you correct it once and allow the car to pull everything back to 0. A car with power steering, it is much easier to make a mistake, then by trying to compensate for the mistake you overcompensate which means you have to now correct the error you made to try to fix another error (which keeps going).

So while the skill of the newly promoted xwing pilot who is driving an Awing is higher then the rookie who just got off the simulators, the awing pilot is going to have to deal with a huge jump in sensitivity and remember that he cant do the same things he could in the xwing ( eg slow down to force ships in pursuit to pass).
The defender may not be more sensitive than the tie fighter, but I can imagine it almost like getting used to the fastest setting on the controls, then having them put to the slowest setting AND inverting the controls

Someone on the Nova squadron podcast had a good explanation for the ps1 defender, and it went like this;

A pilot who's ps8 in an Interceptor gets "promoted" to fly the defender. This ship is REALLY different. White k-turns, not a lot of green, shields! In that ship he is inexperienced, hence the lower ps, in that ship.

Someone on the Nova squadron podcast had a good explanation for the ps1 defender, and it went like this;

A pilot who's ps8 in an Interceptor gets "promoted" to fly the defender. This ship is REALLY different. White k-turns, not a lot of green, shields! In that ship he is inexperienced, hence the lower ps, in that ship.

Except when you get a new ship, you don't just swap it out like you do a car, you go through training to learn how to fly it.

After a couple of weeks of simulator and real flights, you should have the changes down fairly well, especially since the systems and controls are very similar.

That is - even over the Death Star - the X-Wings and Y-Wings never took more than one shot, each, with their torpedo tubes - a pair of weapons fired at once, and that's it. Same at the second Death Star - the Falcon and Wedge both fired a pair of warheads...and that's it. We never, on screen, actually see ANYTHING fire more than a pair of torpedoes/missiles/bombs/etc.

I could swear that Lando popped off four concussion missiles at the DSII reactor.

Biggest epic lore fail from FFG is that Lando's card art shows the Falcon escaping the flames of the second Death Star with its radar dish still attached.

Biggest epic lore fail from FFG is that Lando's card art shows the Falcon escaping the flames of the second Death Star with its radar dish still attached.

Heh - nice! Should probably have a second category of 'art fails' for that one, though...

The basic trend of the game is that more agile ships have a harder time dodging heavier guns. I think, from the point of view of Star Wars, that the opposite should be the case. It's not a clear 'lore' issue, but my ideas of how space combat worked in the movies and how it works in the game do clash in this regard.

The basic trend of the game is that more agile ships have a harder time dodging heavier guns. I think, from the point of view of Star Wars, that the opposite should be the case. It's not a clear 'lore' issue, but my ideas of how space combat worked in the movies and how it works in the game do clash in this regard.

Actually, it could be: "We count 30 Rebel ships, Lord Vader. But they're so small, they're evading our Turbo Lasers."

Ordinance: Ships only have one missile/torpedoes/bombs a balance issue but off

I considered that one, but it's a bit of a tough one, as I think EU 'lore' conflicts with what we saw on-screen.

That is - even over the Death Star - the X-Wings and Y-Wings never took more than one shot, each, with their torpedo tubes - a pair of weapons fired at once, and that's it. Same at the second Death Star - the Falcon and Wedge both fired a pair of warheads...and that's it. We never, on screen, actually see ANYTHING fire more than a pair of torpedoes/missiles/bombs/etc.

Obviously, West End Games RPG, and LucasArts PC games, both went with much higher ordnance numbers, but...there isn't actually any on-screen (IE., what is now the only "canon" there is) justification for those numbers. So...mmmmm....I dunno.

Biggest epic lore fail from FFG is that Lando's card art shows the Falcon escaping the flames of the second Death Star with its radar dish still attached.

That was another adventure where he escaping a totally different exploding space station, perhaps behind the scenes in Shadows of the Empire. Or something. Yeah that's the ticket.

(Do I get my no-prize now mr. Lee?)

I think the most glaring one is the capability for dual Millennium Falcons. Despite being modified to the point of near absurdity, Chewbacca is able to find another YT-1300 identically upgraded and fly alongside Han.

And when I say upgrades/modifications, I'm speaking about the stat difference between a generic and named YT-1300 pilot, not the actual modification/upgrade/title cards (which, ironically, don't allow for meaningful customization outside of crew).

The only real upgrade the Millenium Falcon has over the stock YT-1300 that is represented in this game though is that instead of having a single laser cannon turret, the MF has two quad-laser cannon turrets.

It's probably not THAT hard of a modification to do.

This

Seriously why does this upgrade NOT have a discard mechanic! We all know we wanted to do this!

You would have to require that Vader be present as either a pilot or crew in order to do that, though.

Or maybe Palpatine. Or an Inquisitor or other Dark Sider.

The only real upgrade the Millenium Falcon has over the stock YT-1300 that is represented in this game though is that instead of having a single laser cannon turret, the MF has two quad-laser cannon turrets.

It's probably not THAT hard of a modification to do.

Well, in addition to the several shield and hull upgrades, as well as missile launchers. You could also argue, say you put Chewie/Lando/Han into a stock YT-1300 and asked them to fly around, the modifications wouldn't exist for them to execute their pilot abilities. I suppose that's stretching it a bit tho =)

This

Seriously why does this upgrade NOT have a discard mechanic! We all know we wanted to do this!

You would have to require that Vader be present as either a pilot or crew in order to do that, though.

Or maybe Palpatine. Or an Inquisitor or other Dark Sider.

I just wanted to say "You Have Failed Me for the Last Time" then discard him.