So, while we don't know what the Tractor Beam does yet exactly, we do know that its a Cannon upgrade.

Obviously, being the lore dork and Star Wars: TIE Fighter fanboy that I am, I have a problem with this.

Mainly because, a lot of ships in those games had Ion Cannons AND carried a beam weapon. And some ships that are in this game that have no Cannon slot at all could also equip a beam weapon.

So, came up with a card to address the issue before it's even really an issue.

I included both a System version and a Modification version in case having the option to put a Tractor Beam on ANY ship would cause some kind of balance issue.

Obviously, it's worded so that they can later add the Jamming Beam and Decoy Beam from those games as Cannon upgrades as well, and the card will still work for them. As long as FFG doesn't add any real offensive Cannons with Beam in the title(like, say, Composite-beam Laser) it should work out.

I think they made it a Cannon to play nice with the extant upgrade bars. Two Tractor B-Wings might be a thing! Lore aside, I think that could be a fun way to help Miranda or Corran brutalise a single target...once we find out what it does.

I think if FFG wants to put the Beam on the Defender (or the Avenger or the Missile Boat, god willing) they will find a way. I have faith they're working on something pretty fantastic. The Mist Hunter title alone gives me a lot of hope.

I can't think of any ships that would actually need this.

That mod, as written, would basically allow you to equip a Tractor Beam on anything. X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Z-95s, HWKs, you name it.

I can't think of any ships that would actually need this.

That's an odd conclusion to come to without knowing what the Tractor Beam even does yet.

The Mist Hunter (title) allows a player to equip a tractor beam despite the lack of a cannon slot and you get an added action, for 0 points (well, 1 point for the tractor beam itself). So it seems that having a cannon is not a necessity, but that they want to control which ship has access to the upgrade.

I can't think of any ships that would actually need this.

That's an odd conclusion to come to without knowing what the Tractor Beam even does yet.

Let me clarify: I can't think of any ships that should get these upgrades.

Let me clarify: I can't think of any ships that should get these upgrades.

Fair enough.

Basically: X-Wing is not a video game. The TIE Advanced is not the TIE Avenger. Defenders are not the King Hell God Emperor of Starfighters. Two plus two is not Four. We were never at war with the Rebellion. Spinning is a bad trick.

Basically: X-Wing is not a video game. The TIE Advanced is not the TIE Avenger. Defenders are not the King Hell God Emperor of Starfighters. Two plus two is not Four. We were never at war with the Rebellion. Spinning is a bad trick.

Does triple back-to-back K-Turns with an HLC Defender count as spinning?

lore doesn't mean **** next to gameplay, as always

while it'd be hilarious to have a B-wing's ridiculous armament utterly savaging fat turrets, the game has to be balanced around its own rules and those rules require the purchasing of upgrades for additional upgrades

So far,

assuming (probably correctly) that high cost/PS pilots probably won't care too much for a cannon that does no damage, we have

Whateverthehellitsactualnameis (Misthunter title + generics)

IG-2000 (well, you got two cannons and it's one point? gonna have to have a real good effect to warrant wasting a shot, though)

Firespray-31 (Bounty Hunter)

Tie Defender (Delta)

YT-2400 (actually not excited at all; 2-dice PWT is terrible and even the generics like title-less HLCs for punch. Outrider with tractor beam is lol)

YV-666 (Slaver; possibly Lazz given her support nature--sadly doesn't work out of aux arcs, but it's 1 bloody point)

B-wing (blue squadron pilots, baby!)

Lambda (omnicron, yorr)

M3-A (almost inevitably overcosted, but it's the cheapest cannon platform there is)

quite a hefty selection as is, imo

ping-pong or maybe bungee-jumping?

Depending on what the tractor beam does. I do not believe every ship should have a tractor beam. This is a game trying to balance itself and no where near an exact fluff perspective. The tractor beam is likely a utility upgrade of some form and most ships are not designed to be a utility platform.

However saying that a likely nice upgrade for the defender would be a title card that gave it a free tractor beam and if the tractor beam is a none damage based canon hopefully the title allows the defender to use both the tractor beam and its primary. Giving the defender a movement manipulating canon and still keeping its primary offensive weapon.

Maybe we should wait until the tractor beam card is actually revealed/released before running around hysterically with our hands waving over our heads, demanding change.

Maybe we should wait until the tractor beam card is actually revealed/released before running around hysterically with our hands waving over our heads, demanding change.

I agree with you from the aspect of we need to wait and see what tractor beam does before we label it too weak or that it causes balancing issues in the game. However I think Darthender was coming more from what beams are equipped on in past lore that he likes and not a hysterical over reaction to speculation on what tractor beam actually does.

Tractor Token = The next time you defend you can't use any green dice, then discard the token (?)

Maybe a bit too harsh .. but this would represent the tractor beam of the computer games .. and think about it: you need to sacrifice an attack. So the effect should be tremendous.

Perhaps a TIE Defender title that gives it a second cannon slot will come out later. That's if there are ever any TIE defenders in the new movies.

Game Balance, brah.

I can't think of any ships that would actually need this.

That's an odd conclusion to come to without knowing what the Tractor Beam even does yet.

Uhhhh... I don't really take Tipperary's side on much but wouldn't the fact that your mod would give EVERY ship in the game a tractor beam maybe be kind of an odd suggestion without knowing what it does? Just saying that this may be a "pot and kettle" situation.

Uhhhh... I don't really take Tipperary's side on much but wouldn't the fact that your mod would give EVERY ship in the game a tractor beam maybe be kind of an odd suggestion without knowing what it does? Just saying that this may be a "pot and kettle" situation.

It would, IF I cared about gameplay. I don't. I care about replicating the lore. My opinion is always "do what the source material does, then figure how many points you have to charge to make it balanced".

Allowing every ship to have one is okay with me because(if I remember correctly) any ship could take one in XWxTF. I don't need to know what the mechanics of a tractor beam are to know that, according to the lore, every ship should have the option of having one.

Tipp's argument though was clearly talking about gameplay(as it generally does). To which, not knowing what the tractor beam actual DOES in gameplay yet, seems premature.

Unless of course I'm completely misremembering(which is entirely possible, as TIE Fighter is the only game in that series I've replayed recently), and only certain ships were allowed to take a Beam. In which case, it being a System slot instead is more fitting.

But in the films there were more than a pilot and 2 crew in the falcon.

Please fix this for the game.

Canonical B-wings carried ion cannons, heavy laser cannons, and autoblasters.

Clearly we need to give them three cannon slots... and an attack value of 1, to match the unarmed HWK.

Right?

Or perhaps we accept that this is a game; mechanical approximations and simplifications are inevitable.

A. You say that as if that would somehow make the B-Wing broken. The game only lets you shoot 1 cannon at a time. So it doesn't matter if you give a ship 10 cannon slots, it still wouldn't be OP. Especially since you have to pay extra points for each of those cannons, and you'd end up not using most of them.

B. I only care about the version in the X-Wing games. 3 Lasers, 3 Ions.

Or perhaps we accept that this is a game; mechanical approximations and simplifications are inevitable.

Eh. I'd rather they just be right.

Canonical B-wings carried ion cannons, heavy laser cannons, and autoblasters.

Clearly we need to give them three cannon slots... and an attack value of 1, to match the unarmed HWK.

Right?

Or perhaps we accept that this is a game; mechanical approximations and simplifications are inevitable.

You could go this way and give B-Wings an attack value of 0.

HWKs are not unarmed. They have 2 light laser cannons.

I know there's a pretty major priapism of nostalgia on these forums for the TIE Fighter computer game but, as X-Wing is a separate, turn-based game played with miniatures and dice, I'd hope we could agree that it's not necessary to replicate the PC game experience exactly.