Hello,

i've been following the game for a few years now and recently I was thinking on how the game will evolve, because there is only so much you can do altering dials stats and abilities.

What i think this game lacks (and shouldn't) is flavor. Lore. I want to see darth vader with their tie elites of the black squadron. i want to see soontir fel with the sabre squadron. I want to see the emperor on a shuttle escorted by his royal ward.

Rogue squadron with wedge, etc you get the point. The problem was, how to encourage players to do this kind of lists. And the solution came to me inspired by the "infinity" wargame: Factions.

Essentially you can play with theme altering point costs and availability, and centering the design around a single hero. FFG can release an expansion pack with just pilot cards and upgrades, and the army lists to build them.

For example (not seeking balance, just to point the idea)

- Soontir fel (same stats ): All interceptors at distance 1-2 can use his pilot skill and they cost 3 points less

- The player must include at least 2 interceptors

- The player must include soontir fel

- The player cannot include big ships

This builds the list thematically to an elite faction of small ships that interact between them and you don't need to alter the stats or release new ships (unless you wanna do a special edition interceptor for soontir only)

I REALLY REALLY hope FFG notice this idea and does a (more balanced) version of this.

What do you guys think?

I kind of like the idea, maybe just add a new type of card, a "Squadron Upgrade" card maybe that could be applied to certain aces.

so , tier builds basically

honestly, it won't solve the underlying problem of there simply not being much design space to occupy (and it's a testament to the game designers that they released such an amazing Wave 7 despite this)

this lack of design space comes from the limited number of stat variance, particularly in dice

Agility ranges from 0 to 3 (4 if you count cloaking, but you should not)

Offense ranges from 1 to 4

it literally cannot go any higher without some significant restrictions, or you will break the game. Sadly, X-wing's dice model is incredibly spikey with even the addition of one or two extra dice, and that really limits what you can do with the system (not to mention it introduces utter bull defense rolls that can completely cancel a well positioned attack on an enemy without modifiers, or completely flub despite being fully tanked on tokens)

this flawed model was probably based on the fact that FFG didn't envision X-wing blowing up in popularity as it did (and it's also the only probable reason for a mechanic as lazy and creatively devoid as the primary weapon turret)

Star Wars Armada has learned from this far more limited model, introducing damage variance based on distance and positioning. This affords a world of design space to explore, from the plinky Cr-90, the broadsiding Assault Frigate mk2, all the way to the trundling VSD that hits more than twice as hard at optimal range and from the front but is terribly unimpressive at long range or from its sub-optimal arcs.

You could apply the same to X-wing, changing the Tie from a simply 2/3/3/0 to breaking up their offense into long and close range dice and their defense into tokens that are more effective the further away they are from the enemy. You could take another page from Armada have implement the same defense token system, only instead of using an action to modify rolls you could take an action to ready the tokens (so a ship caught with its pants down will quickly have no means to defend itself)

When we hit the design space cap, we're simply going to need to overhaul the stat system to introduce a more flexible model, and Armada already provides our means of doing so (plus, guaranteed defense tokens beat the **** out of crappy defense dice). When exactly that'll happen, we can never know. FFg has proven themselves to be exceptionally creative with basically all of Wave 7, the best wave evar, and they don't seem to be slowing down for Wave 8

I hate that you're right about a lack of design space, because I dread a 2nd edition. I agree that Armada's rule system provides a good model, but part of X-wing's charm is it's simplicity.

you wouldn't copy Armada word-for-word, not entirely anyway

tie fighters and many other star fighters only have one arc to shoot from (whereas a Star Destroyer has some intense forward firepower--albeit not against A-wings--but far fewer weapon batteries on its sides and rear). The more complex auxiliary arcs/turrets are also easier to manage, because there are only two "arcs" to worry about (firing in the primary arc versus firing outside of it) rather than four.

what we'd be stealing is basically different offensive dice based on range, token-based defense instead of luck, and then appropriating it to match the current order of phases and movement system

for example, in Armada when you spend a defense token you first "exhaust" it (flip it over, it turns red) and when you spend an exhausted token you discard it (it's gone forever). Exhausted tokens are "refreshed" (flipped over to original green side) at the beginning of the round.

In X-wing, assuming we keep the same phase structure, we'd have a ship's defense tokens refresh after movement--except in the case where they bump or overlap obstacles. Basically, if you lose your action step; you open yourself up to crippling strikes against your ship.

so, you should end up with a simpler system regardless; with just enough added depth to open up a lot more design space

for example, rather than have a Tie/fo which is just a strictly less efficient Tie/ln in stat-line, we could make it more effective at longer range than the Tie/ln (better guns in the future?) but have similar damage potential at close range.

I like the idea. I think. I just wouldn't want to see another "mandatory core set".

FFG could just make tournament rules for this and publish mission style matches for competitive play.