No one could be more excited about the new Defender toys than me. The updates to the A-wings and Interceptors in the past was fantastic as well. But where, oh, where are the much needed S&V sets? (I propose calling them Infamous.)

The two ships that need the love are as straight forward as the broken on arrival TIE Advanced. It's time for new pilots, titles, and upgrades for the Starviper and the Scyk.

The Starviper needs a generic with an EPT. It would also be great if ALL Starvipers could equip a system. (Maybe a non-unique title or a Starviper only mod that allows this.)

The Scyk needs new (free and negative cost) titles to represent how diverse and up-gradable they are. They also need a "Autothrusters like" ability.

Am I off the mark here? What other love would you like to see for Scum and Villainy?

There are 3 scum ships that could use a bit of rebalancing, the StarViper, the Scyk and the Kihraxz. Many, many people are expecting an Aces pack with two of them, and an Epic ship with the third packed in with it. Though exactly what the fixes would be is up for debate.

So no, it's not just you.

(My personal preference for a StarViper fix would be a title that allows it to equip a second different title, and allows it to change a bank manoeuvre to a straight or turn in the same direction of the same speed on reveal, effectively giving it the green hard turn it so desperately wants.)

Based on a Scyk list finishing second in the Lothal Open and assuming the leaked info on Epic Scum is true, these 2 ships just got new life.

Based on a Scyk list finishing second in the Lothal Open and assuming the leaked info on Epic Scum is true, these 2 ships just got new life.

The "leak" has already been confirmed fake I believe.

I agree that the Scyk, Kihraxz, and StarViper could use some help. I'm especially excited about the Scyk, but I worry about how it will work. Scyks can fill so many different roles that the fix needs to be flexible or they'll have to apply multiple fixes (like having two different titles for the TIE Defender). I don't want to see them shoehorn the Scyk into a single role and I want naked Scyks to be viable as well as cannon and ordnance Scyks.

How about dual systems on starvipers? A free mod that gives it one, and then Guri and xizor can use the title for a second systems upgrade

Fcs/adv sensors combined with sensor jammer would be powerful as hell. Expensive, too.

Maybe too much.

Personally o tbink the starviper should get +1 shield and something like an additional 1/2 red die. Maybe convert a hit to a crit at r1-2 or something.

I'm up for a "Super Viper" title: +1 Attack, +1 Shield, -1 Agility. 5 points.

I love the M3A and the Starviper both, but yeah they need work.

For the M3A - maybe a Modification that grants TWO Illicit slots - then bundle that with a new illicit or two to grant a wealth of options, while at the same time bolstering other scum ships and also boosting Starvipers that have Virago equipped.

For the Starviper - One of the things I OFTEN want to do with this ship is evade. Kinda sucks sometimes to have an Authothruster-capable ship that can't evade. I'd like an alternate title that gives evade tokens whenever you receive a stress token. Maybe include a pilot that does something with evades as well, or can stress herself to gain a focus. Something along those lines.

Additionally for StarViper - I'd like an option to load it up as a torpedo platform with a catch. A modification (Starviper only) that allows you to NOT discard your torpedo when you fire it, even if you hit. Also give some torpedoes that synergize with both the Starviper and M3A, maybe getting a bonus for Agility?

And lastly we need new pilots for all of them!

So we have Imp Aces, Reb Aces, Most Wanted, Imp Vets, and Heroes of the Resistance. If trends hold up, scum is back up to bat.

How about dual systems on starvipers? A free mod that gives it one, and then Guri and xizor can use the title for a second systems upgrade

Fcs/adv sensors combined with sensor jammer would be powerful as hell. Expensive, too.

Maybe too much.

Personally o tbink the starviper should get +1 shield and something like an additional 1/2 red die. Maybe convert a hit to a crit at r1-2 or something.

A free System slot would be too unoriginal I think. The same fix as the TIE/Ad would seem unlikely.

personally if the viper were to be given evades i'd rather it be a title that allows an evade action for free after a boost or barrelroll than when stressed.

If its when stressed, then it can get one every time it gets a stress. Sloop over a debris, double evade. Get hit by tactician, get an evade.

If it was an action then it could be limited rather than be a flat buff. Im fine with the defenders getting an assign instead of an action because they have to move pretty fast to get it so its not ALWAYS there. If stress = evade, then PTL would be glues to him and nobody would give two craps about any other possible combo no matter how strong it is because it doesnt give a free evade. Sounds like Soontir to me lol.

Or worse yet, Rage. Rage on a ship that gets an evade when assigned a stress would be **** near impossible to out-joust without some insane luck on your end. Focus, 2x Evade, and reroll 3 die on attacks. Yeah double stress but the Viper has pretty decent greens and Guri would become a **** menace.

A few friends and I iscussed the Star Viper few months back, all saying that they cold fire out of the front arc with their weapons in the books/games. And why didnt they get an aux arc in Xwing then?

Our consensus about fixng it was let it fire out of arc (either by a Starviper only modification or title), but it reduces its attack by 1Attack Die if it does so. That way FFg wouldnt have to do anything about adding updated fighter tokens to the box that released said title/modification to fix it.

I really hope the starviper fix isn't a new title. You need that system slot to make the starviper good losing it would be a huge blow. I would much rather it use up the torpedo slot.

An illicit upgrade could work too... with that new card coming with the ARC-170 that adds evade the action bar.

Maximum Thrust-age (non unique)

StarViper Only. Title.

You must equip the "Vector Thrusters" and "Auto Thrusters"modification upgrades.

-2 points

and....

"Dirty Syck" Interceptor (non unique)

M3-A Interceptor Only. Title.

Your upgrade bar gains the [illicit] icon. Increase your Hull value by 1.

1 point.

An illicit upgrade could work too... with that new card coming with the ARC-170 that adds evade the action bar.

Maximum Thrust-age (non unique)

StarViper Only. Title.

You must equip the "Vector Thrusters" and "Auto Thrusters"modification upgrades.

-2 points

and....

"Dirty Syck" Interceptor (non unique)

M3-A Interceptor Only. Title.

Your upgrade bar gains the [illicit] icon. Increase your Hull value by 1.

1 point.

With regards to scum aces, I think you need to consider the development cycle. Imperial Veterans was in development when Wave 6 hit. HOTR is newer, but probably got priority due to the movie hype. "Scum Aces" is almost certainly in the pipeline, but unless they started work on it the second wave 6 hit stores, we've still got a bit of a wait.

Regarding the Starviper: Xixor was fine on arrival, but his ability has worked against him in the Wave 7-8 meta (TLT ignores it and it's less effective against alpha strikes). Guri is also reasonably costed, but she's very tricky to use against aces since she's an expert site blocker with solid action economy even when she bumps, but blocking one ace while keeping arc on another is challenging. It's the generics who are the real stinkers.

The Scyk and the Starviper are lacking due to Pilot Skill.

They have a decent dials and action set but the pilot skill is low enough to not matter.

Guri and Xizor just can't Ace it up enough to be playable in top tier environments and the Starviper generics are too expensive to try and joust with.

Serissu has 8PS and an EPT slot but is so fragile against turrets (TLT and JM5K in particular) so never sees any play.

The Kihraxz on the other hand has Talonbane and Black Sun Ace but has non of the required actions like Boost or Barrel Roll or Evade.

This means they can't fight with ACEs and have no resilience effects to survive turrets (TLT and JM5K again)

They can joust just like an X-wing but then the game is just face to face luck and the Jumpmasters are just better at this atm.

They don't bring anything to the game you can't just get elsewhere.

Unless you want Missiles, the G-1A is a better jouster than the Kihraxz any day.

The Syck basic sits at 14 points and has TL and +1 PS on Academy Pilot. If TIE swarm is a thing why isn't Syck Swarm?

The Syck basic sits at 14 points and has TL and +1 PS on Academy Pilot. If TIE swarm is a thing why isn't Syck Swarm?

I can't tell if this was rhetorical or not, so if it was, I'm the fool.

My counter question is, why don't you see TIE swarms with Targeting Computer on all of them? It's an inefficient use of points. First off, you want focus to help you survive until you can fire, and secondly, many TIE swarms use Howlrunner for rerolls anyway. The max number of Scyks you can get is 7, but with TIEs, one of those 7 is Howlrunner.

What about a CrackSwarm variant? At 18 points per ship, you only get 5 Scyks with 10 points left over. I suppose you could add Serissu or put 3 Hull Upgrades on. For the TIEs, you can get 6 CrackTIEs and one of those can be Howlrunner or you can do 3 Hull again.

It seems that Scyks are often behind the TIE lists by a whole ship. Also, that +1 PS on the lowest PS ships can be a liability for Scyks since now they'll be blocked instead of being the blocker.

What about a set of S&V small-ship titles? Balance could be an issue with the sheer number of ships... just thinking out loud.

How about dual systems on starvipers? A free mod that gives it one, and then Guri and xizor can use the title for a second systems upgrade

Fcs/adv sensors combined with sensor jammer would be powerful as hell. Expensive, too.

Maybe too much.

Personally o tbink the starviper should get +1 shield and something like an additional 1/2 red die. Maybe convert a hit to a crit at r1-2 or something.

A free System slot would be too unoriginal I think. The same fix as the TIE/Ad would seem unlikely.

The Virago title provides a illicit and system slot for 1 point. I like the idea of a 0 cost system slot that replaces the torpedo slot. Or perhaps a 2 point FCS like ability for the Starviper that is either a mod or replaces the torpedo.

The Kirhaxz just needs a title to add an astromech and integrated. Then it won't be any worse them a T-65.

How about dual systems on starvipers? A free mod that gives it one, and then Guri and xizor can use the title for a second systems upgrade

Fcs/adv sensors combined with sensor jammer would be powerful as hell. Expensive, too.

Maybe too much.

Personally o tbink the starviper should get +1 shield and something like an additional 1/2 red die. Maybe convert a hit to a crit at r1-2 or something.

A free System slot would be too unoriginal I think. The same fix as the TIE/Ad would seem unlikely.

The Virago title provides a illicit and system slot for 1 point. I like the idea of a 0 cost system slot that replaces the torpedo slot. Or perhaps a 2 point FCS like ability for the Starviper that is either a mod or replaces the torpedo.

I think either a title or a StarViper specific torpedo upgrade is most likely personally. As noted, I thought initially that a 'make banks into straights or greens' thing would be cool to give it the knife fighting greens and let it be an interceptor, but now that the Fang's on the way I'm more dubious. I'm feeling like it will end up being in a slightly uncomfortable place where it's just a slightly worse version of the Aggressor even after the fix.

How about dual systems on starvipers? A free mod that gives it one, and then Guri and xizor can use the title for a second systems upgrade

Fcs/adv sensors combined with sensor jammer would be powerful as hell. Expensive, too.

Maybe too much.

Personally o tbink the starviper should get +1 shield and something like an additional 1/2 red die. Maybe convert a hit to a crit at r1-2 or something.

A free System slot would be too unoriginal I think. The same fix as the TIE/Ad would seem unlikely.

The Virago title provides a illicit and system slot for 1 point. I like the idea of a 0 cost system slot that replaces the torpedo slot. Or perhaps a 2 point FCS like ability for the Starviper that is either a mod or replaces the torpedo.

I think either a title or a StarViper specific torpedo upgrade is most likely personally. As noted, I thought initially that a 'make banks into straights or greens' thing would be cool to give it the knife fighting greens and let it be an interceptor, but now that the Fang's on the way I'm more dubious. I'm feeling like it will end up being in a slightly uncomfortable place where it's just a slightly worse version of the Aggressor even after the fix.

Make it a brawler.

I would not have thought a 3AGI brawler would work very well - and then they released the x7 Defender title. Let StarVipers do the same, and they'll be scary once again.

If they do go that route, rather than improving durability, I'd personally hope they improve offensive output - Guri and Xizor both already have abilities that emphasise their defensive talents, and in Xizor's case is meant to set up a "You don't want to shoot me, yet you really kinda do" vibe... so rather than making them unattractive targets I'd prefer they ended up a little like Phantoms - high priority, kill-me-first ships that are nonetheless tough to kill (in this case, via 5HP@3Agi rather than cloaking shenanigans) with their generics, while their ace is token-stacking it up in melee or laughing while scattering focus fire among more disposable wingmen.

How would you do it? Hard to say. But even 'when attacking enemy ships within your firing arc, you may reroll one die' would do it, and do it very nicely. Why a reroll? Because Guri already gets her Focus tokens, and it would mean that both the EPT and Systems slot have less pressure on one or the other being Predator or FCS. Which is when the real fun can begin.

So we have Imp Aces, Reb Aces, Most Wanted, Imp Vets, and Heroes of the Resistance. If trends hold up, scum is back up to bat.

Most Wanted was more of an incomplete core set then any kind of veterans pack.

For me, the best StarViper fix would be replacing the Torpedo slot with the Salvaged Astromech slot.

I know.

My first thought was that a ship with green S-loops and reds (via Unhinged) would be just q tad OP. But then I realized that a ship with PTL that maxs out at PS7 needs a whole lot of work to be arc dodge Soontir or Vader reliably.

But Guri + R4 Agromech, or any of them with over clocked R4 would be kind of amazing. Not to mention other 'Mechs FFG might come up with.

There are 3 scum ships that could use a bit of rebalancing, the StarViper, the Scyk and the Kihraxz. Many, many people are expecting an Aces pack with two of them, and an Epic ship with the third packed in with it. Though exactly what the fixes would be is up for debate.

So no, it's not just you.

(My personal preference for a StarViper fix would be a title that allows it to equip a second different title, and allows it to change a bank manoeuvre to a straight or turn in the same direction of the same speed on reveal, effectively giving it the green hard turn it so desperately wants.)

Keep in mind it is not just a rebalancing issue but also a repaint issue. I am sure there are some people who would love the Ndru Flaming Tiger paint scheme. But yeah we could have our repainted Z-95s after the Scyk, Starviper and "Klingon" get their fix.