I'm unsure currently as to whether or not the rechargable Crack Shot is too powerful. Maybe I need to increase the cost, like getting stress or Ion token on recharge or something like that.
I'm actually very happy with my A-Wing since the custom upgrades are all in. Not too powerful, but three actions per turn and access to a whole host of repositioning actions really helps out.
48 minutes ago, Stefan said:I'm unsure currently as to whether or not the rechargable Crack Shot is too powerful. Maybe I need to increase the cost, like getting stress or Ion token on recharge or something like that.
I'm actually very happy with my A-Wing since the custom upgrades are all in. Not too powerful, but three actions per turn and access to a whole host of repositioning actions really helps out.
Since recharging crackshot costs an action, I'm not always able to get it back quickly. I'd say that I get to use it between 2 to 5 times per mission. It's definitely powerful but not out of line for HotAC play style. It may shine disproportionately bright right now but once we start stacking multiple upgrades and EPTs/Pilot Abilities I think it will end up just blending into the mix.
Yeah, that's my main concern. My ships all have 2-3 actions per round after they reach level 5 or so, and then recharging it isn't really all that problematic. And it's basically +1 damage. What do you think of these two variants:
a) Additionally gain one stress token.
b) Require it to be announced before dice are rolled.
1 hour ago, Stefan said:Yeah, that's my main concern. My ships all have 2-3 actions per round after they reach level 5 or so, and then recharging it isn't really all that problematic. And it's basically +1 damage. What do you think of these two variants:
a) Additionally gain one stress token.
b) Require it to be announced before dice are rolled.
I don't know. It does take an EPT slot and it still costs an action to recharge. I'm tempted to just keep it as is for now and see how it plays out in season 2 when we all have access to PS5+ and 3+ point EPTs. At higher levels I could see possibly replacing it with PTL or Expertise or something. But we're not there yet so I can't really say.
True enough. Tell me how it works out for you in later stages. Unfortunately, I only really introduced the Recuperate Action to the rules when I already was in season 3
On 5/18/2017 at 1:24 AM, Stefan said:I do! What are your experiences with the YT1300 so far? I find the unrefitted version very weak, and the large base not much of an issue. How did you fare? And same goes for U-Wing.
Hi Stefan. We attempted Special Mission 5 (YT-1300 combat refit) last night. We failed. The Pallas was taking too much damage before we could destroy the satellites so we jumped out. We plan to try again at a future date.
I think we made a couple of mistakes but they led to a couple of questions. Most importantly, though, we had fun and the suggestions below are merely our thoughts and feedback and not criticism.
First, I think the Ion Storm templates we used were too small. We tried to match the shapes to your picture but I think we should have just picked the five largest cloud templates in the kit. In order to target the satellites, your ship’s entire base has to be inside the ion storm. We found this to be a bit tedious and even impossible for the YT-1300 and U-Wing large base ships for 3 of the ion clouds. Using larger templates would likely have helped a lot but this did get my group talking about other ways to target the satellites.
One thing we considered was if all we had to do was overlap the Ion Storm with the ship’s base and not necessarily fully enter it. To offset this easier requirement we were thinking that you would then need to have the satellite in arc to shoot it.
Our favored idea was to adapt an idea from the HotAC mission “Needle in a Haystack” and have the Rebel ships scan for the satellites. Something like - when your ship is at range 1 of an Ion Storm (or of the satellite token itself?) you may perform a scan action. Roll an attack die, on a hit or crit you succeed in acquiring a sensor lock on the satellite. Rebel ships can now target that satellite for attacks.
Second, we allowed the Pallas to move within range of the turbolasers. We probably should have just moved it in a lazy figure eight at the bottom half of the playing field the whole time. But this too got us talking about other ways to handle the turbolasers.
One thought we had was to allow the turbolasers to target the closest rebel ship so that players could run interference for the Pallas. We would have liked our A-Wing to run in-between the turbolasers and the Pallas to draw some of the fire. (Maybe just until the satellites are destroyed then it converts to Pallas only?)
An alternative thought was to allow the Pallas to shoot at the turbolasers. That way the Pallas could slug it out with the station while the rebel ships worked on destroying the satellites and fighters.
Oh, and one last question. The 25xp to unlock the combat refit; are those points spent after successfully completing mission 5 to unlock the refit or do you spend those points before-hand and now they are gone and we need to save up 25 more points to try again?
Thanks again for creating all this fun.
Hi man, even criticism would be totally ok. To be honest, I haven't playtested this mission yet at all, so some hickups are to be expected
I do the images in Vassal; might be that your print of the ion clouds and the vassal translation do not match up exactly. I find the clouds to be pretty distinct usually. I never gave this too much thought as I few the mission setups mostly as guideline and approximation. It's not necessary to make a science out of the exact placement (same goes for vectors for placing Imperial ships) because it seldom matters in the details. Just always act in good faith.
The unlock XP can be paid at any time. The mission just serves to allow you actually buying the ship. So you could in theory pay them first (although I don't know why you would), or do the mission and spend the XP only two missions down the road. I put that in the FAQ.
I reworked it and killed the Turbolaser AI section completely:
Quote
Ion Storms
The Ion Storms block Line of Sight. If a ship template is completely overlapping the ion storm template, it’s inside the storm. It has clear LOS inside the storm, but not outside it. If a ship only partially overlaps the template, it cannot see anything also overlapping the storm. AI doesn’t swerve to avoid the storms.
Satellites
To attack the station, the players need to destroy all five satellites. The satellites are hid in the Ion storms, however (place them as central in the storms as you can), and can only be attacked once scanned (except by game effects that don’t need declaring a target, like bombs). Satellites can be scanned by performing a scan action in Range 1. Every satellite has two hull and no shields, and rolls one green die.
Station
The station can only be attacked once all satellites are disabled. Once all three turrets are destroyed, the station is also destroyed and the mission immediately ends.
Enemy spawn
Every time a satellite is destroyed, the next enemy squad is spawned (Alpha after the first satellite’s destruction, Beta after the second’s, and so on).
XP
No XP are awarded in this mission. However, players can still lose XP due to destroyed ships and the effects of Hostile Territory.
What do you generally think of the "no XP in unlock missions" rule? I'm a bit on the fence there.
1 hour ago, Stefan said:Hi man, even criticism would be totally ok. To be honest, I haven't playtested this mission yet at all, so some hickups are to be expected
I do the images in Vassal; might be that your print of the ion clouds and the vassal translation do not match up exactly. I find the clouds to be pretty distinct usually. I never gave this too much thought as I few the mission setups mostly as guideline and approximation. It's not necessary to make a science out of the exact placement (same goes for vectors for placing Imperial ships) because it seldom matters in the details. Just always act in good faith.
The unlock XP can be paid at any time. The mission just serves to allow you actually buying the ship. So you could in theory pay them first (although I don't know why you would), or do the mission and spend the XP only two missions down the road. I put that in the FAQ.
I reworked it and killed the Turbolaser AI section completely:
What do you generally think of the "no XP in unlock missions" rule? I'm a bit on the fence there.
Thanks for the updates, this is helpful. As for the XP, It's fine either way. I'm pretty sure our score keeper did count Tie kills but not mission objects (satellites, turbolasers). I might suggest to my group that we do a redo with this and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.
On 5/25/2017 at 6:46 AM, Stefan said:Hi man, even criticism would be totally ok. To be honest, I haven't playtested this mission yet at all, so some hickups are to be expected
I do the images in Vassal; might be that your print of the ion clouds and the vassal translation do not match up exactly. I find the clouds to be pretty distinct usually. I never gave this too much thought as I few the mission setups mostly as guideline and approximation. It's not necessary to make a science out of the exact placement (same goes for vectors for placing Imperial ships) because it seldom matters in the details. Just always act in good faith.
The unlock XP can be paid at any time. The mission just serves to allow you actually buying the ship. So you could in theory pay them first (although I don't know why you would), or do the mission and spend the XP only two missions down the road. I put that in the FAQ.
I reworked it and killed the Turbolaser AI section completely:
What do you generally think of the "no XP in unlock missions" rule? I'm a bit on the fence there.
Hi Stefan. Me again. My group replayed Special Mission 5 (YT-1300 combat refit) a few nights ago. We implemented some of the rules changes you and I talked about. Here are some follow-up observations and suggestions.
We’re thinking that having five waves of Imperial ships (one for each satellite) was a bit too much, mostly due to time. We played for about 3 hours and decided to call it successfully completed when we destroyed the last satellite without fighting the last wave of ships or destroying the turbolasers. We came up with an idea but haven’t play-tested it. What if alpha squad deploys at startup and then only 3 of the 5 satellites trigger deployment of Imperial squads. You place 3 trigger tokens and 2 blank tokens in a cup. When a satellite is destroyed, draw a token from the cup to see if an Imperial squad deploys.
Another thing we are thinking is that it might be better to go ahead and let the players shoot at the turbolasers. What we noticed is that, since you can’t shoot them, we just tried our best to stay away from them which basically meant we were only playing on half of the play area for most of the mission. Alpha squad deploying at setup would prevent the players from being able to attack the turbolasers with impunity. The conditions for winning would still be the destruction of all of the turbolasers and satellites.
I don’t know if we will get to play test these ideas. I think we plan to move on with the main missions.
Hope this helps.
Good suggestions. I'll include them both!
I have notice a rather large issue with the HotAC AI when the players Pilot level is lower then the AI ship. It effectively means the AI is "setting its dial" after it watches the players move. This will make things a LOT more deadly for the players, and does.
This isn't a problem as long as the Pilot level of the AI ship is lower, but when it's higher, its like the AI just got a huge boost in foreknowledge, and made it impossible to "outwit" it... cause it just waits for you to move and targets you when it rolls... (not that it always does the smartest thing, but hey... )
I was wondering if anyone considered:
When the sequence of play gets down to the the 1st Players Activation -- to Roll all Rolls for the remaining AI ships, and recording the result in some concealable way --- Then resolving all ships activations in their proper order? Lol, seems only fair that if WE have to set the dial and wait to see what happens, they should as well!
This would seem to resolve the issue... Allowing for higher AI skill levels yet not bust the bank so to speak? (or maybe this is an old issue?)