The speed of light is pretty darn absolute. You can only go so fast until you are at that barrier and you either kick up to hyperspace and then you hit whatever boundaries that science has to offer. The hyperdrive as we know it is bazillions of years old according to the entry for the Duros, I doubt that tech is going to get any better. Blaster tech is probably topped out, the only thing that might happen is making the tech smaller so a more powerful blaster can be fit into a smaller package. Maybe a new weapons development could come along, most likely in the missile/torpedo department, but you can only get so much energy out of the Tibiana Gas. Laser tech might slightly improve in the same way, more power in a smaller package. But the photon density can only be pushed so far.

I'm not saying there isn't room for innovation but in game terms such innovations would be like the differences in firearms over the last 100 years on earth. The Colt Model 1911 is still in production and while there have been minor alterations in metals and manufacturing the design isn't much different today than it was when Browning designed the first one. In fact, many of those pistols are still in use. Modern firearms are made from more exotic materials making them lighter, perhaps more durable and a tad smoother to fire, but a lump of lead pushed by exploding gunpowder can only go so fast and transfer only so much energy. Be it a 9mm, 10 mm, or 11mm slug if you get hit by one in an important place it's unlikely you will be home for supper. If you really want to quantify those differences in game terms you'd be hard pressed to alter any of the numbers. You might make the newer ones more reliable in some way or the older ones less so. You might make newer ones more accurate but that's about all I could see doing.

The Galactic Republic was around for a long time and most of the pure science that drove innovation was done under it's more liberal attitudes. The Empire has clamped down and as such the kind of open communication that favors technological innovation is no more. Also the wealth of the Republic and Separatist worlds was pretty much sucked up by the war and 30 to 60 years isn't long enough to pay off those kind of debts. Such an economic environment isn't where pure research gets done. So the kind of innovation that would justify increasing a ships weapon damage by more than 1 point wouldn't be happening. Drastic changes to Hyperspace technology or even real space drive technology wouldn't get enough of a bump to justify changes to speed or hyperspace ratings.

Seems to me any new ships would be like our new cars. We see lots of special doo dads and gee haws and a slight improvements to MPG mostly by reducing the weight of the vehicle and precisely matching the engine size to the loaded weight. But can you say there really have been any drastic improvements in transportation?

Necromancers!

I will say one thing... the T-70 carries 8 torps instead of 6. So I kind of like the add a point of sheilds a couple hull trauma and system strain.

As far as these mechanics go, I don't see it as much different. I can't see boosting speed, handling, shields, or weapons...any boosts invalidates a host of other ships, e.g.: if you boost speed you have an overpowered A-Wing. Maybe hull or strain could be tweaked...

In the X-Wing game you can balance things because of the point costs. No such thing here.

Improved handling to +3. You could add their own series of astromechs, the T-70 one's reduce the cost of increased power maneuver for npc astromechs to one or two advantages. But even with just an npc droid ... ships with astromech have an easy time to increase their speed by 1 most of the time, even at the standard cost increasing handling by 2 allows you to increase the speed half the time for free. If you build a custom one you could increase that even more by increasing the int value of the npc droid.

Or well, if you want with a PC droid than boosting speed is easy on any ship with astromech socket and below sil 4. Overall the T-70 did not seem like it would be a major improvement over the X-Wing. On Top has the torpedo launcher more storage, and a quick change magazine. Having two extra torpedos is big and the ability to reload or switch to different missile types quicker is big too. Furthermore it has a underslung aft blaster-cannon which should provide cover during trench runs.

If you have a PC astromech this helps again a lot because the mech can shoot with the aft cannon, while the pilot uses the main cannons.

I will say one thing... the T-70 carries 8 torps instead of 6. So I kind of like the add a point of sheilds a couple hull trauma and system strain.

I was just going to say this. We see Poe fire 4 sets of proton torpedoes, so minimum 8. Maybe more.

I will say one thing... the T-70 carries 8 torps instead of 6. So I kind of like the add a point of sheilds a couple hull trauma and system strain.

I was just going to say this. We see Poe fire 4 sets of proton torpedoes, so minimum 8. Maybe more.

Cross section book says 8.

Maybe we could get these ideas consolidated into an actual stat block? a BB8 droid stat block would be nice too.

Here is the T-65b to start with

T-65B "X-Wing" Multi-Role Starfighter 3 5 +1 T-65B X-wing Incom Corporation Astromech Droid Socket 2 10 0 120,000 5 1 2

http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/496/

Oh add, Encumbrance 10, my bad.

Oh add, Encumbrance 10, my bad.

Oh and the wing cannons should be linked 3 I believe and the torpedoes should be linked. But otherwise this is awesome.

Oh and the Blaster cannon should be turret mounted as well as retracted...

Oh and the Blaster cannon should be turret mounted as well as retracted...

Source?

I know it is gimballed, but that might still just cover the back arc.

I guess I could set it to back arc and still turret mounted?

edit: Still not sold on that turret, but here it is, fixed together with linked and encumbrance.

Well to me the reason for it is so that it can be used for ground defense... ground attackers could come from any direction. Not something really useful in a dog fight...at least that was my impression...

In a lot of ways I think of it as like a ground buzzer...

The ground buzzer does 12 damage, personal scale, and could cover fore and aft arcs at medium range, again at personal scale, without seeming ridiculous.

The ground buzzer does 12 damage, personal scale, and could cover fore and aft arcs at medium range, again at personal scale, without seeming ridiculous.

I agree...this would fit what we see.

The ground buzzer does 12 damage, personal scale, and could cover fore and aft arcs at medium range, again at personal scale, without seeming ridiculous.

And would be completely useless in space combat, while the blaster cannon on the T-70 was designed to solve the issue T-65 had during death star trench runs: A rear arc facing gun to give chasing TIEs at least some trouble.

And you base this claim on What? Because what we see is a personal scale weapon used on stormtroopers. When we see ship scale weapons hit the ground from a tie the result is a far bigger boom. And we only see it used on ground troops. It also behaves a lot like the ground buzzer on the falcon.

From the T-70 Wookiepedia article:

"[…]Having learned a valuable lesson from the destruction of so many T-65B X-wings at the Battle of Yavin, Incom Corporation included provisions for an aft-facing underslung blaster cannon, which could offer greater rearward defense than a deflector shield generator alone. […] [1]

[1]Star Wars:The Force Awakens: Incredible Cross-Sections"

Though as in new canon hand weapons can easily destroy fighters ... it quite possible that it's a personal scale weapon, just like the laser-cannons from the X-Wing and the whole idea of having separate scales for weapons seems outdated. Afterall, people survive hits from Proton Torpedo's just fine too

Anyway, enough with my salt. You can replace the gun with basically any single vehicle gun you like, so little point mechanically to argue about it. At least in this system the extra gun would be rather pointless if it is personal scale.

Considering that we never see the blaster used against the TIEs over Starkiller Base, I figured it would make more sense to be an anti-personnel weapon. I did see the cross-section reference in the wook article about the T-70s before making my earlier post. Perhaps a switch to low power mode while the Xwing is on or near the ground.

I just can't imagine a starfighter needing a dedicated anti-personnel weapon that fires off of the tail. Maybe if it was primarily for point defense against missiles/torpedoes it might make sense, but the primary opponents of the X-wing don't make much use of those.

Yeah, despite the "everything from this point forward is canon" claim, I still take a lot of things with a grain of salt when it comes to things like video games and picture books.

Installing, or having the option to install, a repeating or auto-blaster on a starfighter can make a certain amount of sense if you're seeing a lot of close air support missions.

Mounting a rear facing cannon on a fighter because of the results of one very very specific battle with very very specific conditions is just... silly.

One way to do updated versions of ships without mucking around too much with the stats is to say it gets boost for repairs, since from a logistical standpoint that would be considered a huge upgrade to a fighting unit, even if its capabilities in the field don't change. Most vehicles spend more time in maintenance than in the field.

From the T-70 Wookiepedia article:

"[…]Having learned a valuable lesson from the destruction of so many T-65B X-wings at the Battle of Yavin, Incom Corporation included provisions for an aft-facing underslung blaster cannon, which could offer greater rearward defense than a deflector shield generator alone. […] [1]

[1]Star Wars:The Force Awakens: Incredible Cross-Sections"

Though as in new canon hand weapons can easily destroy fighters ... it quite possible that it's a personal scale weapon, just like the laser-cannons from the X-Wing and the whole idea of having separate scales for weapons seems outdated. Afterall, people survive hits from Proton Torpedo's just fine too

Anyway, enough with my salt. You can replace the gun with basically any single vehicle gun you like, so little point mechanically to argue about it. At least in this system the extra gun would be rather pointless if it is personal scale.

What is weird is I have the book referenced and cannot find this line anywhere in on Poe's T-70 page...Which makes me go huh?

I just can't imagine a starfighter needing a dedicated anti-personnel weapon that fires off of the tail. Maybe if it was primarily for point defense against missiles/torpedoes it might make sense, but the primary opponents of the X-wing don't make much use of those.

The Special Forces TIE uses missiles...

Yeah, despite the "everything from this point forward is canon" claim, I still take a lot of things with a grain of salt when it comes to things like video games and picture books.

Installing, or having the option to install, a repeating or auto-blaster on a starfighter can make a certain amount of sense if you're seeing a lot of close air support missions.

Mounting a rear facing cannon on a fighter because of the results of one very very specific battle with very very specific conditions is just... silly.

Rebels do seem to have their bases over run a lot so being able to shoot at stormtroopers while powering up your ship can make some sense... Not that it did Poe any good. LOL