*snip*

I dont like Yahtzee and I like to win!!

But... Your pseudonym is RedHotDice...

WTF!!!! What is this suppose to mean?!!!!

It means your alias is about having good rolling dice and it's ironic that you don't like rolling random dice. If your dice were hot, then the random rolling would be extremely favorable to you. You stated that you don't like rolling a lot of dice...like Yahtzee. This seems contrary to your alias that you picked.

Oh I certainly got that instead of responding intelligently to the content of my post, "Arttemis" tried to make a bad joke on my expense, but now you “HeyChadwick” try to justify that? Bad form. Just bad form.

“Arttemis” and “HeyChadwick”, I came to this thread because this subject interested me, and I sat down and spend my time to write down my opinion on the matter to get an intelligent discussion, not to get my choice of pseudonym ridiculed.

Gotta agree with the RNG-for-casual-fun crowd, especially those saying that it enhances strategy through making decisions based on mitigating the risk and/or enhancing the reward of high variance. Of course, lots of dice is better with lots of mods; for this I highly recommend trying some version of "greasy Crow"...

Greasy Crows come in around 40 points, but they are infuriatingly hard to kill. The one time I took my "Gambler's delight" list to a tournament Kyle took two U-boat torpedoes(pre nerf no less!) without a scratch thanks to obstruction, plenty of focus, and a well timed evade token from Lando. That wouldn't have gone so well without a couple slightly above average rolls, but without some good maneuvers and strategic timing the dice wouldn't have even had the chance to save Kyle.

I firmly believe one of the most fun ships to fly is a kitted out Porkins. Going around yelling "I CAN HOLD IT" can really make the game fun, especially if you get lucky and pull off the combo

Granted I primarily play imperials, so I rely heavily on modification to keep my ships alive. It's frustrating when I make sure I have plenty of focus/evade tokens only for my guy to roll blanks, and I know my opponent gets upset when I roll 4 evades natural when I have no tokens. It sucks but is a necessary part of the game

Greasy Crows come in around 40 points, but they are infuriatingly hard to kill. The one time I took my "Gambler's delight" list to a tournament Kyle took two U-boat torpedoes(pre nerf no less!) without a scratch thanks to obstruction, plenty of focus, and a well timed evade token from Lando. That wouldn't have gone so well without a couple slightly above average rolls, but without some good maneuvers and strategic timing the dice wouldn't have even had the chance to save Kyle.

I'm usually pretty good keeping up with the terms... What's the greasy crow?

"Powell's advice is don't take action if you have only enough information to give you less than a 40 percent chance of being right, but don't wait until you have enough facts to be 100 percent sure, because by then it is almost always too late. His instinct is right: Today, excessive delays in the name of information-gathering needs analysis paralysis. Procrastination in the name of reducing risk actually increases risk."

Life is not turn based. Randomness is necessary to make decision making difficult. Interesting decisions make the game.

If you ever have to ask yourself whether or not you're the only one.

You will never be the only one.

If you ever have to ask yourself whether or not you're the only one.

You will never be the only one.

Disagrees.

Is a funny paradox though isn't it!?

I love this game, it's fun .. but to be more competitive I need to remove RNG.

vs.

Some of the most intense and exciting moments I have had in this game were when I/my opponent needed a certain dice roll. That's what makes it fun.

Is a funny paradox though isn't it!?

I love this game, it's fun .. but to be more competitive I need to remove RNG.

vs.

Some of the most intense and exciting moments I have had in this game were when I/my opponent needed a certain dice roll. That's what makes it fun.

That's a sentiment I just can never wrap my head around in gaming.

RNG is such a huge factor in gaming outside of sports (where physical conditioning and natural talent are king) and classic games like chess (where intellect and intuition rule the roost).

But our modern nerd pursuits plastic, paper, and digital are deeply entrenched in RNG mechanisms. The mechanisms that simulate those unforeseen factors that can befoul even the most talented athlete or decisive mind.

Random is the enemy of skill.

X-Wing is a game of risk management. It's entirely possible to make all the right calls and lose, sure. But most of the time that's not how it's going to work out.

While I totally understand that the statistical swings that come with RNG need to be minimized in a high level competitive environment, this is a dice game. I love rolling the bones and see what happens. It is these wild outcomes that often make some of the most enjoyable and memorable gaming sessons for me. Feel free to send me all your Lando, R3, R5-D8, R5-K6, illict cloak, etc. I promise to give them a good home.

I do to.

This is another reason why Palpatine and C-3PO and Autothrusters* ruin the game. There is no randomness, they just feed you evade results automatically. If autothrusters and Palpatine added extra dice instead of just auto-converting dice into evade results or guesses of zero weren't allowed for C-3PO that would go a long way towards fixing them.

Against a Palp Aces or fat falcon, one side is dependant on dice, and the other can pull 3 evade results out if its ass when it blanks, or 2/3 total damage mitigations depending on if you have double droid falcon or not. So you end up in a situation where one side gets very favorable dice results pretty much always, and the other side can actually fail with their dice.

*Autothrusters is great because **** turrets, but I wish FFG didn't saturate the game with turrets so we would have kept the ability to damage things at range 3.

Winning because the other guy had poor dice is never as satisfying as winning because you out flew them.

Losing because of cold dice and only cold dice stings even more.

When Luck decides to turn your dice into salt blocks it is an awful time for everyone. The worst way to lose is to make every possible move and action right and get big old goose eggs for rolls.

I don't mind it if it's the upgrade that you choice. Sometime you want to try out something a little more dangerous.

Greasy Crows come in around 40 points, but they are infuriatingly hard to kill. The one time I took my "Gambler's delight" list to a tournament Kyle took two U-boat torpedoes(pre nerf no less!) without a scratch thanks to obstruction, plenty of focus, and a well timed evade token from Lando. That wouldn't have gone so well without a couple slightly above average rolls, but without some good maneuvers and strategic timing the dice wouldn't have even had the chance to save Kyle.

I'm usually pretty good keeping up with the terms... What's the greasy crow?

The simple base of it is any HWK with Moldy Crow title and a Stealth Device, the ability to store up focus puts it somewhere in the interceptor range of survivability. Add to that evade tokens (Lando, Jan, Stygium, etc.), more dice (Cloak, range, obstructions), and defensive mods (Lone Wolf, Elusiveness, Serissu) and you get something that's just as slippery as Soontir with stealth, AT, and Palp. That slippery crow just got downright greasy.

A couple of my favorite lists featuring a Greasy Crow along with some RNG wingmen:

"Extra Dicey"

Greasy Crows come in around 40 points, but they are infuriatingly hard to kill. The one time I took my "Gambler's delight" list to a tournament Kyle took two U-boat torpedoes(pre nerf no less!) without a scratch thanks to obstruction, plenty of focus, and a well timed evade token from Lando. That wouldn't have gone so well without a couple slightly above average rolls, but without some good maneuvers and strategic timing the dice wouldn't have even had the chance to save Kyle.

I'm usually pretty good keeping up with the terms... What's the greasy crow?

The simple base of it is any HWK with Moldy Crow title and a Stealth Device, the ability to store up focus puts it somewhere in the interceptor range of survivability. Add to that evade tokens (Lando, Jan, Stygium, etc.), more dice (Cloak, range, obstructions), and defensive mods (Lone Wolf, Elusiveness, Serissu) and you get something that's just as slippery as Soontir with stealth, AT, and Palp. That slippery crow just got downright greasy.

A couple of my favorite lists featuring a Greasy Crow along with some RNG wingmen:

"Extra Dicey"

Palob Godalhi (20), Lone Wolf (2), Twin Laser Turret (6), 4-LOM (1), Cloaking Device (2), Stealth Device (3), Moldy Crow (3)

Zuckuss (28), Opportunist (4), K4 Security Droid (3), Sensor Jammer (4), Tractor Beam (1), Mist Hunter (0)

Serissu (20), Adaptability (0), Tractor Beam (1), "Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Total: 100 View in Yet Another Squad Builde

"Gambler's Delight"

Kyle Katarn (21), Juke (2), Twin Laser Turret (6), Lando Calrissian (3), Stealth Device (3), Moldy Crow (3)

Jek Porkins (26), Expert Handling (2), R5-D8 (3), Experimental Interface (3)

Jake Farrell (24), Juke (2), Lone Wolf (2), Chardaan Refit (-2), Autothrusters (2), A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Total: 100 View in Yet Another Squad Builder

You want to know how you can tell that a squad is bad? It comes with a cutesy name.

You want to know how you can tell that a squad is bad? It comes with a cutesy name.

Like 'Wolf Pack'?

You want to know how you can tell that a squad is bad? It comes with a cutesy name.

Like 'Wolf Pack'?

If the person who came up with the squad named it, it's likely awful.

If the name was created (by the community) after it was proven to work, then it's fine.

Serissu is a complete waste of points, and so is Jake in the second list. Those lists are trash.

RNG = random number generation?

Hey names for squads don't suck! People quake at the mention of purple froofroo ponies!!!

You want to know how you can tell that a squad is bad? It comes with a cutesy name.

Like 'Wolf Pack'?

If the person who came up with the squad named it, it's likely awful.

If the name was created (by the community) after it was proven to work, then it's fine.

Serissu is a complete waste of points, and so is Jake in the second list. Those lists are trash.

Also, you may want to double check the title of this thread. You may not have noticed that "competitive" is absent! Your definition of "fun" may vary, but you should really stick to the serious topics for your more serious version

To address a repeated point above, I can say I've never lost purely because of dice. At a critical moment, the dice may fail me, and cost me a battle, but there would have been numerous events before such a moment that I could have done things differently. Maybe if I'd made a different choice on the turn of the critical die failure, that one roll may not have been so critical after all.

Truly, the only games I've played where the outcome was decided by one critical roll, I KNEW I was putting my victory or defeat on the line as I set my dial, and I knew as the turn started that if the dice favored me, the game was mine. I've never been screwed out of a win by cold dice. I've made conscious, informed choices which allowed for the possibility of a single roll deciding the match. Hence, while RNG dependent, my win or loss was still a strategic decision. Do you put it all on the line for a potential win, or do you play more conservatively and hope for a better opportunity later?

The fewer RNG mechanics we have, the fewer such decisions we have to make. As the game grows more deterministic, the depth of strategic options reduces. Eventually, you could reach a state where the only "risk" becomes hoping that your opponents' maneuvers will fit your strategy, and given the limitations on maneuvering, that's a risk that becomes easy to manage.

I've seen people lose from dice on turn two the first time my mate tried empire he took two squints and two eyeballs, in the first turn I killed those two squints and one eyeball, nothing but blanks on his end.

I've personally lost ships in the same manner.

To address a repeated point above, I can say I've never lost purely because of dice. At a critical moment, the dice may fail me, and cost me a battle, but there would have been numerous events before such a moment that I could have done things differently. Maybe if I'd made a different choice on the turn of the critical die failure, that one roll may not have been so critical after all.

Truly, the only games I've played where the outcome was decided by one critical roll, I KNEW I was putting my victory or defeat on the line as I set my dial, and I knew as the turn started that if the dice favored me, the game was mine. I've never been screwed out of a win by cold dice. I've made conscious, informed choices which allowed for the possibility of a single roll deciding the match. Hence, while RNG dependent, my win or loss was still a strategic decision. Do you put it all on the line for a potential win, or do you play more conservatively and hope for a better opportunity later?

The fewer RNG mechanics we have, the fewer such decisions we have to make. As the game grows more deterministic, the depth of strategic options reduces. Eventually, you could reach a state where the only "risk" becomes hoping that your opponents' maneuvers will fit your strategy, and given the limitations on maneuvering, that's a risk that becomes easy to manage.

That last paragraph? We already have that with Palp Aces.

Also your maneuvers don't matter either since they can boost and barrel roll at a higher pilot skill.

As long as you're a non-idiot and don't make huge blunders like asteroiding your aces or some other easily avoided mistake, Palp Aces will carry you. If an obvious green hard 1/2 turn would be easily blocked, just 4 green straight and run away. And then if you know that your opponent knows you're going to run, just do the green hard turn anyways, it's not like he actually committed a ship to block it since it was so easily avoided.

Someone playing against Palp Aces actually has to think. The Palp Aces player can just lean back and casually force his opponent to commit to a coin flip like an *******.

IMO RNG in games makes them more accessible and fun from a casual standpoint.

In a purely skill based game (like chess) the hetter player almost always wins and in order to feel that you're doing cool stuff on the game board you need to be skilled enough to actualy pull off cool stuff.

A RNG game however gives you the real or perceived feeling (depending on how much RNG actually matters in game) that anything can happen, that you might pull it off against a superior opponent if you just roll well a couple of times and dice deliver your epic moments free of charge (rolling 4 natural hits feels epic, even though your actual merit in that is 0).

Meanwhile, for competitive play in RNG games, you almost always want to minimize RNG because it doesn't really help you achieve your goal as RNG is byfefinition unreliable (hoping you roll well has never really been a sound competitive strategy)

This is why I like R3 Astromech. You roll you dice. You get horrible hits, only a eye. You cancel 1 eye and get 1 evade. Preorder 3 Arc-170 just for that. XD