Scum and Villainy Episode 18: Alex Davy Interview

By sozin, in X-Wing

It's not that the site has problems, it's that the site is the problem, they gutted the functionality of the old layout and it doesn't even show basic things like comment count.

What was the Palpatine and Jerjerrod combo mentioned at 30:30 by Alex?

Only that Jerjerrod has the power to space the emperor.

What I find kind of fascinating is that, unless I missed the inevitable 15 discussion threads buried someplace (always possible), we didn't have any of the usual suspects screaming that Jerjerrod CAN'T space the Emperor, because his ability says "or another [Crew Icon] card," but Palpatine is a "[Crew Icon] [Crew Icon] card" because the double crew icons on the FRONT of the card should take precedence over the crew icon on the BACK of the card. ;)

I'm sorta almost tentatively proud of the community that nobody has, to the best of my knowledge, tried to argue that (yet). :lol:

Edited by CrookedWookie

What was the Palpatine and Jerjerrod combo mentioned at 30:30 by Alex?

Only that Jerjerrod has the power to space the emperor.

What I find kind of fascinating is that, unless I missed the inevitable 15 discussion threads buried someplace (always possible), we didn't have any of the usual suspects screaming that Jerjerrod CAN'T space the Emperor, because his ability says "or another [Crew Icon] card," but Palpatine is a "[Crew Icon] [Crew Icon] card" because the double crew icons on the FRONT of the card should take precedence over the crew icon on the BACK of the card. ;)

I'm sorta almost tentatively proud of the community that nobody has, to the best of my knowledge, tried to argue that (yet). :lol:

Yep, it happened and you missed it.

Aaaaaand we're back.

What was the Palpatine and Jerjerrod combo mentioned at 30:30 by Alex?


Only that Jerjerrod has the power to space the emperor.
What I find kind of fascinating is that, unless I missed the inevitable 15 discussion threads buried someplace (always possible), we didn't have any of the usual suspects screaming that Jerjerrod CAN'T space the Emperor, because his ability says "or another [Crew Icon] card," but Palpatine is a "[Crew Icon] [Crew Icon] card" because the double crew icons on the FRONT of the card should take precedence over the crew icon on the BACK of the card. ;)
I'm sorta almost tentatively proud of the community that nobody has, to the best of my knowledge, tried to argue that (yet). :lol:

Yep, it happened and you missed it.

Aaaaaaand we're back. THERE'S the community I know and...know. :rolleyes:

Still unable to download with the podcast app so I am downloading directly with my Mercury browser instead to my iPad. Hopefully that will work.

If Alex ever is in the Northern VA area, and wants an Infinity game (or an X-Wing game for that matter), I'd totally play him.

He sort of said something interesting in here, that I think we could all have guessed, at ~48:30.

IE., that they can 'still dip into the EU', but that they now have 'a lot of new stuff to work with'.

After all, by the time all of wave 8 is in our hands, we'll have seen EVERYTHING Episode VII brings to bear, as well as be most of the way through the next season of 'Rebels', with spoilers for 'Rogue One' and 'Episode VIII' popping up. New Star Wars movies every year, new 'Rebels' content ongoing...

I dunno, seems sort of like the Assault Gunboat is going to be either wave 9 or pretty much never given that. FFG's release schedule has never been necessarily 'quick', and there is SO MUCH content about to come blasting out at them from on-screen material...I don't think we'll be seeing much of the EU, anymore...

Obsidian swarm won't be able to take out a 4 TLT Y-wing list. Hired Guns and Grey Squadron Pilots will get their kill shots off on Howlrunner first.

Edited by Marinealver

He sort of said something interesting in here, that I think we could all have guessed, at ~48:30.

IE., that they can 'still dip into the EU', but that they now have 'a lot of new stuff to work with'.

After all, by the time all of wave 8 is in our hands, we'll have seen EVERYTHING Episode VII brings to bear, as well as be most of the way through the next season of 'Rebels', with spoilers for 'Rogue One' and 'Episode VIII' popping up. New Star Wars movies every year, new 'Rebels' content ongoing...

I dunno, seems sort of like the Assault Gunboat is going to be either wave 9 or pretty much never given that. FFG's release schedule has never been necessarily 'quick', and there is SO MUCH content about to come blasting out at them from on-screen material...I don't think we'll be seeing much of the EU, anymore...

Unless we somehow see the gunboat in Star Wars Rebels or Rouge One. Granted that is a very thin line of hope.

Obsidian swarm won't be able to take out a 4 TLT Y-wing list. Hired Guns and Grey Squadron Pilots will get their kill shots off on Howlrunner first.

No one is running TLT lists at PS4 because even if you wanted to, you only have the points to upgrade two Y-wings. Obsidian swarms should be a pretty strong favorite in that matchup.

We're back, baby! Join us as the S&V podcast team interviews X-Wing game designer Alex Davy, where we discuss the fine art of wookie skinning, Jedi sex cults, where on Depetar to score the best uncut glitterstim, and illegal ship modifications!

...and TLTs. And Wave 8 design ideas.

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Fantastic interview. Kinda wished a little more 'behind the scenes' was prodded at, but I don't mind - it's got to be fun for the developer, too. :)

Here's hoping they can make it a once-a-wave deal at least; it's wonderful to hear the developers thoughts flowing a little more freely, and his enthusiasm is just infectious.

I find it a bit odd that he's not asked about the SLAM/bomb kerfuffle, especially since as far as I know this is his first time on the record since U.S. Nationals. I would love to know some backstory there.

But then, maybe that just means it's not as big a deal in the wider world as those of us arguing about it on the boards thought it was.

Yeah, I'd like to hear about this more in depth. Whether it was never intended to be able to SLAM- Bomb or was it a last minute change.

At some point, whilst talking about the Gozanti, he said something along the lines of "...if it's carrying TIE fighters or whatever else it's carrying"

So I reckon the Gozanti will be able to have any small imperial ship docked.

It is funny that Alex mentions that he doesn't know how to pronounce Kihraxz. Also funny because he is apparently wrong. I asked Chris Petersen at Inflight report at Gencon, and Chris declined to try, but he put me on to Steve Horvath who is the resident lore/fluff/canon expert and deals with Lucasfilm a lot and according to Steve they are pronounced:

Keeraz and Sick.

Other than that, fantastic as always. Keep it up gents.

Around 13 minute mark he points out that Integrated Astro does not occupy the title slot. Flat out says it is not the last "fix."

He did say the title slot was still out there. He also said for another fix, they'd be able evaluate where it was in the meta at that time.

In order for it to be based on how the ship performs in a future meta, it can't already be designed and on the way, so it basically doesn't exist yet.

So there isn't another set fix on the way, but they will treat it like any other ship. If it is continuing to underperform, they'll look at another fix. If it is performing ok, there won't be another fix.

Edited by GiraffeandZebra

Around 13 minute mark he points out that Integrated Astro does not occupy the title slot. Flat out says it is not the last "fix."

I heard that an entirely different way.

He did say the title slot was still out there. He also said for another fix, they'd be able evaluate where it was in the meta at that time.

In order for it to be based on how the ship performs in a future meta, it can't already be designed and on the way, so it basically doesn't exist yet.

So there isn't another set fix on the way, but they will treat it like any other ship. If it is continuing to underperform, they'll look at another fix. If it is performing ok, there won't be another fix.

That's how I read it too - this is 'a' fix, but it does not have to be the only one... but they'd like to see how the current one washes out first.

That said, his mentioning of Xwing Aces 'in the future' does dash my hopes for it being wave 8.5 like I'd quietly hoped... it seemed such a good place to get a few more of those lovely cards. :)

I find it a bit odd that he's not asked about the SLAM/bomb kerfuffle, especially since as far as I know this is his first time on the record since U.S. Nationals. I would love to know some backstory there.

But then, maybe that just means it's not as big a deal in the wider world as those of us arguing about it on the boards thought it was.

Yeah, I'd like to hear about this more in depth. Whether it was never intended to be able to SLAM- Bomb or was it a last minute change.

Occam's Razor. The hypothesis that it's working now as it was designed and playtested requires just one assumption: that the author of the web article misunderstood the rules.

I really think ot depends. if we get another good 1 or 0 point Astromech (maybe even X-Wing only) then yes its gonna be THE fix.For generic X-Wings or cheap ones like Tarn Mison that is! I was very sceptic at the beginning, but i start to believe that generic X-wings will be up to par with maybe even Blue Squadron pilots. However its not nearly enough for the Ace Pilots. They need EU, they need expensive Astromechs so IA will do nearly nothing for them.

Why do Aces need expensive astromechs? Also, even if they did, why is IA bad? If it's a matter of Luke dying or getting rid of R2-D2, then I know that's an easy choice.

I also don't understand why EVERY ship needs to have Boost to be good. Is it because people can't figure out how to fly a ship well and need repositioning to be a good pilot?

I really think ot depends. if we get another good 1 or 0 point Astromech (maybe even X-Wing only) then yes its gonna be THE fix.For generic X-Wings or cheap ones like Tarn Mison that is! I was very sceptic at the beginning, but i start to believe that generic X-wings will be up to par with maybe even Blue Squadron pilots. However its not nearly enough for the Ace Pilots. They need EU, they need expensive Astromechs so IA will do nearly nothing for them.

Why do Aces need expensive astromechs? Also, even if they did, why is IA bad? If it's a matter of Luke dying or getting rid of R2-D2, then I know that's an easy choice.

I also don't understand why EVERY ship needs to have Boost to be good. Is it because people can't figure out how to fly a ship well and need repositioning to be a good pilot?

I'm also expecting the title T-67 card that will add Boost onto an X-wing for a point or two. It will work perfectly with Integrated Astromech.

I'm also expecting the title T-67 card that will add Boost onto an X-wing for a point or two. It will work perfectly with Integrated Astromech.

Highly unlikely. Why make it just a clone of the T-70?

I really think ot depends. if we get another good 1 or 0 point Astromech (maybe even X-Wing only) then yes its gonna be THE fix.For generic X-Wings or cheap ones like Tarn Mison that is! I was very sceptic at the beginning, but i start to believe that generic X-wings will be up to par with maybe even Blue Squadron pilots. However its not nearly enough for the Ace Pilots. They need EU, they need expensive Astromechs so IA will do nearly nothing for them.

Why do Aces need expensive astromechs? Also, even if they did, why is IA bad? If it's a matter of Luke dying or getting rid of R2-D2, then I know that's an easy choice.

I also don't understand why EVERY ship needs to have Boost to be good. Is it because people can't figure out how to fly a ship well and need repositioning to be a good pilot?

Yeah, I don't know why they need EU myself. Having boost is always useful, of course, but I've seen too many X-wings just get obliterated in a single round to count on that boost giving me 4 points of value.

That said, I don't think we should scream "you don't know how to fly" if you want a ship with boost. If you are a good pilot without boost, then boost gives you more opportunities to do good things. Every opportunity to maneuver in some way can possibly increase your advantage. It helps both good and bad pilots be better, so wanting it doesn't translate to "I can't fly my ships well and need repositioning".

Edited by GiraffeandZebra

That said, I don't think we should scream "you don't know how to fly" if you want a ship with boost. If I'm a good pilot without boost, then all it does is give me more opportunities to do good things. It helps both good and bad pilots be better, so wanting it doesn't translate to "I can't fly my ships well and need repositioning".

True, but I have met players that seem to think a ship isn't good without Boost. I shouldn't say that all players that like Boost on their ships are bad players.

That said, I don't think we should scream "you don't know how to fly" if you want a ship with boost. If I'm a good pilot without boost, then all it does is give me more opportunities to do good things. It helps both good and bad pilots be better, so wanting it doesn't translate to "I can't fly my ships well and need repositioning".

True, but I have met players that seem to think a ship isn't good without Boost. I shouldn't say that all players that like Boost on their ships are bad players.

Agreed. If I can't get the advantage of repositioning (whether I'm good or bad), I should reaping some other benefits for it - greater firepower, durability, better dial, etc. That was the X-Wing's problem - it didn't have advantages in any area except in some limited cases of a particular pilots ability. I think in large part they've fixed that by increasing its durability.

As I said on Reddit, the idea of a ship with B-Wing like durability but with the X-Wing Pilot abilities is a pretty exciting.

Edited by GiraffeandZebra