Any chance we'll see an Imperial campaign?

Any suggestions?

The hard part is ship AI- havig just worked up AI for the Tie FO, I'm not looking foreward to making HWK and Ywing AI.

I very much want the "character" from the imperial side to actually be an ace+squad. The ace behaves like the rebel version, while the squad is a uniform group, starting with 2x PS1 TFs. XP could be spent to improve the ace, or the squad (more members, higher PS, an EPT that applies to the entire squad, better ships, etc.).

The idea is that you'd start with three TFs, and eventually be able to grow it into HR+swarm, or Fel+181st, or maybe a few TIE/fos and the ace in a Defender or Phantom, etc.

The Raider comes with an Imperial Campaign.

But instead of Imperial Campaign I would like to see Rebel and Scum AI. You could have Rebel Z-95 Headhunters or a rookie pilot as an Ally, also the Scum could throw in some very confusing aspects. Prioritize defensive action and have them follow their target lock tokens instead of nearest enemy. Scum would try to get out of arc or if that is not possible take the evade action over focus making it harder to damage. Further more scum would "Bug out" if they lose all their shield tokens (with exception of some that have a quirk that gives them dead mans switch).

If this were to come to fruition, the campaign should be from an imperial peacekeeping viewpoint - similar to the Old game TIE Fighter. Fighting scum as well as rebels.

Remember the Empire IS, and seen as such, the lawful government and protect it's citizens.

TIE Fighter was great on many levels, depicting a righteous Empire, while dropping hints here and there about not everything said being the absolute truth. The Sepan Civil war campaign was a great example. But there were also the Arms Race and the Harkov defection that faced Empire versus Empire.

You could already make a campaign like the one against Harkov and Zaarin with the AI charts included in Heroes of the Aturi Cluster.

Any chance we'll see an Imperial campaign?

Eventually, perhaps. It would need to have a very different feel, which means my current understanding of how to balance the ships and missions doesn't apply anymore.

That means a lot of development and testing.

In the meantime, there are many easier things to develop that I am interested in. In my order of ease/priority:

-Rebels vs. Imperials that we don't have AI cards for yet

-Rebels vs. Scum in new mission arcs

-Scum campaign vs. Imperials

-Scum campaign vs. Rebels

-Imperial campaign vs. Rebels/Imperials

Imperial would be more structured I would think... Scum AI would be the first step towards it.

Change of scenery, I think. Let's make the boards REALLY hard to navigate. Villains of the Maw Cluster.

I think part of what makes the Imperial AI great is that the ships behave like Imperial ships should behave, aggressive. If a tie flies into an astroid because its' chasing you, that makes sense.

Rebel AI would need to have a very different feel, Looking to strike specific imperial targets and possibly trying to escape or jump to lightspeed after a certain amount of damage.

I totally think this is doable and would love to see this higher up the priority list.

New AI cards Scum/Rebel would be needed.

Mission cards would be more structured. so it'd be only strings. (can't switch between either you win or fail).

Wingmen. - possibly.

Honestly the way I'd do it is set missions/campaigns in order, and ships are assigned by mission, not by pilot. - at least until a certain point.

I'd agree that Scum would be way easier to do, and rebels easiest. simply based on narrative style.

Starting ps 3, and 20 point builds on TAP, Tie Bomber/tie shuttle, or tie FO. Ships deploy every mission deploying from a friendly Gozanti, and "docking" with the gozanti replaces hyperspace jumping from the regular game.

At PS4 you can upgrade to Tie intercepter, Shuttle, Tie Advance, the latter two gaining hyperspace actions.

In my testing i've used TIE/LN with hull upgrade as the starter.

Deployed against ground and atmospheric targets - hence the hull upgrade.

I think going against Scum and Villains at first would be a great way to start. Fight a bunch of Scyks, Y-wings, HWKs, and Z-95's to build up to something better.

Then again, maybe part of the fun of an Imperial Campaign can be re-starting your character! A Tie Fighter ace would really be something.

Exactly! I had it as a starter squadron assigned o an old acclamator sent to deal with pirates. Uparmoured TIEs was kind of the thing for the captain of that ship due to the many atmo combats. Z-95s also are relatively easy to deal with.

After a bit of this, then everyone gets re-assigned to a new shiny, using whatever pull they have to decide their squadron type. (may be a mixed squadron, but may of 2 ship types, may not mix-match hyper/non hyper). I had it in a sort of tiered system.

It's not gotten out of the "Andi effing around with it" stage yet.

If this were to come to fruition, the campaign should be from an imperial peacekeeping viewpoint - similar to the Old game TIE Fighter. Fighting scum as well as rebels.

Remember the Empire IS, and seen as such, the lawful government and protect it's citizens.

Unless those citizens have something the Empire wants, of course.

In the comics Vader is basically giving Jabba a monopoly on organized crime in that region on the condition that Jabba provide resources for Death Star II and not rock the boat too much.

Support the troops!

I think that an AI for non-Imperials would be a lot harder, given the lack of barrel rolls. Those are crucial to having them get shots.

Might make sense to just say that all AI small ships get barrel roll if they don't already have it or boost.

Expert handling could fix that for a lot.

I think that an AI for non-Imperials would be a lot harder, given the lack of barrel rolls. Those are crucial to having them get shots.

Might make sense to just say that all AI small ships get barrel roll if they don't already have it or boost.

I dunno....I think it shows the hallmark of Imperial Ships as being arc dodgers. Probably just set the ships to slow roll most likely and try to get some shots on someone. Have them do a Focus most of the time. That way you can have your fragile Tie Fighters actually dodge arcs and play smart.

As for not having Rebels be aggressive (as someone else said), I don't get that. Why wouldn't X-wings be aggressive to blast the heck out of some Tie Fighters? They have shields and hulls and stuff. They are better fit to go into an asteroid field. Those T-70's in the new movie sure looked aggressive to me.

Tie fighter pilots were cheap and expendable, nameless fodder, which works well as an AI. The Rebel Alliance couldn't afford to treat their ships and pilots like that. The rebel pilots all had names and faces and personalities. They communicated a lot, including things like Luke telling Wedge to pull out of the trench to save himself. If the roles had been reversed, (tie fighters attacking a rebel base) the tie pilot would have been expected to fight to the bitter end and die, not pull out.

I actually did a thought experiment a few weeks back on how I thought starfighter progression should go.

Everyone starts as a TIE Fighter at PS 1, fresh academy graduates. After every mission that you survive, go up one PS (to a max of 9.)

Upon reaching PS 3, you'll unlock a modification slot.

Upon reaching PS 5, you'll choose (or earn) an attribute to train in:

Speed - Upgrade to a TIE Interceptor (if you destroy 3 enemy ships)

Tech - Upgrade to a TIE Advanced (if you share 10 actions)

Health - Upgrade to a TIE Bomber (if you don't lose a craft)

Then unlock an EPT slot and drop your PS down to 3 to simulate learning your new craft.

Upon reaching PS 6, you'll once again choose (or earn) an attribute to train in. Combining that with the first attribute:

Speed + Tech - Upgrade to a TIE Phantom, then drop your PS down to 5 to simulate learning your new craft

Tech + Health - Upgrade to a TIE Punisher, then drop your PS down to 5 to simulate learning your new craft

Health + Speed - Upgrade to a TIE Defender, then drop your PS down to 5 to simulate learning your new craft

Speed x2 - Keep your TIE Interceptor, gain an extra Modification and EPT slot

Tech x2 - Keep your TIE Advanced, gain an extra Sensor and EPT slot

Health x2 - Keep your TIE Bomber, gain an extra EPT slot and you no longer discard ordnance after using them if you take Extra Munitions.

After reaching this final tier, you now have to spend experience to increase your PS like normal.

Scaling works not by checking PS, but by checking what tier the highest player is in.

Very rough thoughts, but this gives a very different feel than the rebel campaign does.

When switching to a new ship, an idea I had was reducing PS by 2.

Stops multi switching, keeps things balanced and a grind.

I still recommend the extra hull for the TIE as a starter, I made it thematic for a light ground attack squadron. It stops people being oneshotted.

Another suggestion: AI: When a Rebel or scum pilot is reduced to 50% of their starting hull rounding up OR have two face up damage cards (that are relevant) (or more) then they roll a red dice.

on a hit or crit they continue as normal. on a focus or blank then they attempt to reach their friendly board edge (avoiding asteroids as needed) in the most expedient manner.

If we keep the focus for squishy inperial pilots on arcdodging, then it follows that rebel ai should be farely predictaable, making them easy to outmaneuver.

Battles should be smaller, because arcdodging 2-die ships can only kill things so fast.

So, z95 target locks and moves, tie bomber moves and barrel rolls out of arc.

Disable the Freighter might be an early mission by itself, fighting a 2 die PWT until you get through its pile of health.

Ground turrets/targets/landed ships could be a thing.

Tier2 (Interceptors, maybe TAP, Bombers) would be much much better at killing things. That's when things get interesting.

Players could then choose squadron type. Dedicated fighter maybe gets Autothrusters free for their interceptors (immediately) mixed int/bomber allows both. Ded bomber gets free extra munitions/seismics. If they stayed fighter, maybe they got a swarm wingman? Bonus PS? Tier3 would be TIE Advanced, Punisher, Tier4 Defender, Phantom. (-2 PS each time). In later tiers, keeping previous ship may be allowed - therefore not losing PS. For PS 7-9 where it's quite costly this may make it worth it. Allowing for the "Experienced old cop with a revolver" in the squad.