The Scyk was a problem because they basically included the cost of the extra upgrade slot in both the base ship and the title. But I totally like the option of running a naked Scyk if I want. At 0 points, it would basically say that if I'm not running a secondary weapon then I shouldn't use the Scyk. The current title system, with a 2-point title, allows me to run naked Scyks without feeling like I'm wasting my points. Or rather, it gives me a discount for leaving the cannon off, which is a nice option to have.

I do agree that the cost being added to the title AND the ship is where it went wrong. But the title being free doesn't mean you should feel obligated to run a secondary weapon. Plenty of ships have secondary weapon slots that do not get filled and it doesn't mean you're running them wrong. At 12 points, the Scyk would probably see play as a blocker ala the Binayre. Even at 13 maybe. 14? well...

That said, I was just thinking about the Fang title (1 pt) and how it wouldn't necessarily always be used. The Fang looks like it could easily act as a jouster or an arc dodger. Kad Solus gets 2 Focus tokens for a red maneuver, and the dial includes Tallon Rolls. Very easy to see how you would use him to arc dodge and thus make the title itself pointless (since it requires both ships in each others' firing arcs). But that's an aspect of the pilot, not the ship itself, I think. Well, a little bit of the title since it's defensive in nature.

Ya the Scyk title is a title gone horribly wrong. I much prefer this method instead of what they did with the Scyk. Honestly, they should have probably costed 14 points with no title and just had an ingrained slots for a cannon and missile/torpedo. Actually, that would be really cool. a slot that was an either/or option. Bet we see that sometime in the future.

I think that's essentially what they were trying to do. They didn't want the Scyk to take the Z-95 or TIE Fighter role, but they also didn't want it to take multiple secondary weapons. So they used the title to give it a secondary weapon slot that could be either a missile or a torpedo or a cannon.

Despite my position on being grateful for the option to use or not use the titles for some of these ships, I can see why it's useful for the design team. If they make one title and cost it so that you really only benefit from that ship if you use that title, they have less to worry about balancing (they expect you to take the title, so there's no need to balance the point cost of the ship without the title), and they can keep design space open for future products (by not granting us multiple options/titles for each new ship).

The titles are to add ship-specific abilities that are separate from the pilot ability. Which im fine with, but i really wish they would have made the ships cheaper and the titles cost something other than 0. That way we can not only play around with leaving the title off for a cheaper ship, but it leaves the future expansion possibilities wider.

I hate 0cost titles that come with the ships initial kit. For that very reason.

Ya the auto include titles are interesting to say the least. Not bad per se, but interesting. I agree with your idea of just reducing the cost of the ship and making the title cost a bit more, giving us an option outside of use with the title for flying the ship.

They did that for the Scyk, and we see how well that worked out. /s

The Scyk suffers from lack of math by FFG. It also suffers from being a small neglected ship. Like the Starviper and the Khiraxz, now that we have the super speshul Concord thing.

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Yeah. I'd like generic ARCs plz.

I'd like simpler, cleaner designs

Ships that have limited dials, as compared to the crazy power creep we've been having of dials.

Fixing older ships and not treading over them.

Let's hear it. Reasons to fly Talonbane Cobra? Reasons to fly Bwings?

Just because they created something doesn't mean its good.

Wave 1-3 were pretty limited and very much about the movie canon. - 1st design team

Wave 4 was really unbalanced. - 2nd design team

Wave 5 was also really unbalanced.

Wave 6 was cool, but only added IGs to the turret meta. (dunno which team)

Wave 7 added a huge amount of relevant upgrades to under used ships, such as the Y wing. As dreaded as TLT was. The meta at that point was more open than anything else before it.

TFA tie-in is released pre-wave8. It contains only TWO known pilots. (Poe and Ello), and otherwise uses utterly generic names for unique pilots. -> Hence requiring Heroes of the Resistance to "fix" that.

Wave 8 is massively unbalanced and again shifts lists to extremely favoring large ships in the meta, returning to Wave 5 levels of imbalance. (Yes, better than the 3 list wave4 meta.) It also introduces huge amounts of complexity, and a very large number of upgrade slots and special attack or damage methods, making it more difficult for the new or average player to even fully grasp what a list is before a game.

Wave 9 is heading into that direction. And as anyone who's played complex games before, sheer complexity isn't a good thing. Magic has numerous articles written about why this is a design flaw. Nor is a huge amount of options. Starcraft2 has oodles of information on the flaws that are created from too many choices.

Second of all, FFG is going in the direction of upgrades-within-a-ship synergy. Not ship to ship synergy, which requires good flying and formations. Self-synergy becomes ever harder to overcome with lists on the opposite of the spectrum, such as BBBBZ.

For the previous example, see Fat Han and Dash Corran during Wave 5. Not boogeymen now, but were utterly dominant during that era.

Normally I'm super excited about new stuff. But this wave is weird. First it's still got one small one large scum ships. Scum has like 6 large ships now. No ones affording that lol. (Kidding. But seriously I can't afford so many large ships). An FO but not empire. Arc for rebels.

The arc is my baby. But that thing. Is a monstrous albatross. Like the Kwing. Neither sleek looking. Nor sleek flying. More 1 dice agility? Whyyy.

Also what is up with all of these title cards? Every ship has title cards that add extra random crap. I don't want to read all of that all the time. I've already got trouble remembering what's on a ghost and which of its danger zones are no go.

I get the sense that we've officially swapped to a new design team with wave 8 and on. And they're a LOT more flashy and a lot more willing to add complexity and churn out products. Sadly I think the huge commercializations is affecting the quality and conservative artistry of the game.

Also I think we are finally getting a maxed glut on too many ships. I just want my old ships fixed. I want the starviper to be an awesome ace. I don't want to buy new ones.

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Anyway on the plus side:

Arcs get Astro and crew. Whee good regen. And 3 die primaries. And I think I hear they do get system slots. I'm probably gonna get one anyway, but fly them with the lovely generics. Cuz for some reason I'm just irked by the named pilots. Dunno why.

See the thing is that I can afford another and another and another big or small ship, and there is plenty of us who will get them anyway, so obviously ffg is not worry about the wallet at all as they shouldn't!

Secondly, after that Scum has similar amount of ships than Rebels or Imperial, so it was more than expected that last three waves had to bring scum rapidly on same level with other factions, and as Scum player I am very glad that finally after waiting so long to get Scum viable option to play with it is amazing feeling!

So wave X will bring the balance back in the ship numbers I think, Scum was just way behind of the others.