I think the best way to get Expose to work well would be to take the action header off and have it read-

"Once per round, after you perform an action, you may increase your primary weapon value by 1 and decrease your agility value by 1 until the end of the round. You may only perform attacks inside your printed firing arc."

I'd drop the point value to 1 putting it in a competing spot with Crack Shot. I think keeping the trigger to the action phase means there is still some heavy risk in its use which I think is fitting and appropriately thematic. Also, to keep from it being abused on the Decimator, it restricts any ship equipped with it to only being capable of firing in its printed arc. If any future expansions have a 0 agility ship with an EPT and forward firing arc, a simple "You may not increase your primary weapon value if your printed agility value is 0" may work better, although that means it would be useless on the Decimator. I kind of like the idea of Exposed, fixed Arc Decimators, so that's why I worded it the way I did instead of that, although I doubt a fixed arc Deci would be any good, even with an extra dice haha.

Very interesting. So basically keep the card virtually as it is, down to even requiring that you perform an action... only the action you must perform is not Expose itself.

I was initially shocked to read that you'd lower the cost to 1, but thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. Crack shot is one-use-only, but you can choose when to use it, it's automatic, and there's no downside. The extra red die from Expose is a slave to RNG and still has a pretty heavy downside in some cases, but you can use it every turn if you want. That's an actual meaningful choice. The restriction to firing arc is good too, as it is still great on Decimators but changes the way they need to be flown.

I like it. It's pretty amazing that the card exists in its current form. It's so, so bad.

As an aside, Crack shot is so good I wonder if it should have been 2 points.

Very interesting. So basically keep the card virtually as it is, down to even requiring that you perform an action... only the action you must perform is not Expose itself.

I was initially shocked to read that you'd lower the cost to 1, but thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. Crack shot is one-use-only, but you can choose when to use it, it's automatic, and there's no downside. The extra red die from Expose is a slave to RNG and still has a pretty heavy downside in some cases, but you can use it every turn if you want. That's an actual meaningful choice. The restriction to firing arc is good too, as it is still great on Decimators but changes the way they need to be flown.

I like it. It's pretty amazing that the card exists in its current form. It's so, so bad.

Ya I would be really interested to go back in time and sit in on that discussion when they decided to settle on 4 points. In its current form, it could likely be 0 points and still see no use outside of the Decimator.

Making it semi-action dependent also means high PS ships, which would have an easier time abusing this, still have to worry about being blocked and losing out on the trigger.

As an aside, Crack shot is so good I wonder if it should have been 2 points.

I can see that as a possibility, but are we trying to cost it to match with most EPTs, or with the best EPTs? I think if we are doing the latter, 1 point is where it needs to be to compete with things like PTL and Predator. Which is unfortunate, because that invalidates so many other existing EPTs, but that pretty much happened the moment top level, action independent upgrades began popping up everywhere that were a huge bargain in comparison to 90% of the other options.

Without changing it's current cost, I think the easiest way to make it a good card without making it over powered and not give additional benefit to high PS pilots is to have it trigger at the start of the activation phase (same timing as Intel Agent).

Without changing it's current cost, I think the easiest way to make it a good card without making it over powered and not give additional benefit to high PS pilots is to have it trigger at the start of the activation phase (same timing as Intel Agent).

Eh, at 4 points, that would still be really tough to pay for imo.

It should simply be always on, and small ship only.

As an aside, Crack shot is so good I wonder if it should have been 2 points.

No, I think Crack Shot is pretty bang on where it is. There's plenty of EPTs which should be cheaper, but Crack Shot shouldn't be more expensive.

It's possible if they'd set the game up to start with with all the point costs doubled and 200 points being the standard size rather than one that it would have cost slightly more. I kinda wish they had done that, it would have made the point costings of cheap things a lot less granular and easier to balance I think.

You're probably right... Crack Shot is amazing, but perhaps it should be the standard to which other EPT's should be held if they want to compete. There are so many mediocre ones (either due to the ability or the price) that never see play simply because they'll never be as good as the top 5 or so best cards.

Agree wholeheartedly on the doubling of points. I normally like to see point systems reduced to the smallest number of as possible in games, for simplicity and easier squad building, since smaller numbers are easier to figure in your head!. However, in this game I definitely feel that there could be a little more wiggle room. That may be a moot point, though, considering how many cards have turned out to be badly costed (or just bad). Player collaboration and playtesting to get the costs closer would be a good first step. Then, if more finetuning is needed, they can change granularity to tweak things even further.

The designers weren't prescient, and had to learn. They still screw up too (R3 Astro anybody?), but not as often. When they create the cards, they don't have the benefit of thousands of games of hindsight played by thousands more players. If they do ever release an X-Wing 2nd edition, I hope they do their research on past cards and enlist the aid of the best players to price the new ships and upgrades better.

... it would have made the point costings of cheap things a lot less granular and easier to balance I think.

Did you mean to type "more granular"?

If it stays at 4pts then it should be in the combat phase.

Even with the ACTION removed, its very pricy since it cuts your agi down. For most ships that spells doom. Technically the Falcon would be a good candidate for this as well as Punishing One and Decimators since theyre beefy enough to withstand the reduced agi, but the Falcon is rarely seen without either Lone Wolf or C3P0 to improve its defense so i doubt i'd ever see expose on that one. All 3 go to a 4Die primary which is pretty mean.

I ran expose on a decimator with a Howlie w/ Wingman tailing behind it all game once. Since i was using EI to activate Expose i kinda needed the wingman since the decimator is oddly fast with its greens for a large ship. The 1die reroll and Palp on board 1die mod + focus generally made all 5 die hit more often than not (range1) but i was sinking like 80pts to do this lol. Fun, not worth it though.

Thinking from a slightly different angle, what if it had to stay at 4 points? How could we make the ability fall in line with other similarly priced upgrades?

Currently used 4-point upgrades:

• R2D2
• Engine Upgrade
• Sensor Jammer

And it has to be more valuable than 3-point upgrades such as:

• Push the Limit
• Predator

The 4-point upgrades give you a way to regenerate shields (without action), boost out of arc (action) and modify your attacker's dice (no action).

The 3-point upgrades give you ways to modify your attacking dice (without action) and perform a second action (with stress).

So here are a few ideas that I think would be on par with the 4-point abilities.

1. "Once per round, after performing a maneuver, you may decrease your agility value by 1 (to a minimum of 0). If you do, when attacking you may add one (hit) result." This keeps the agility reduction cost present, and also the decision in line with where you would have performed the Action before.
2. "At the beginning of the activation phase, you may assign an 'expose token' to your ship. If you do, you may add two (hit) results to your attacks. Ships attacking a ship with an 'expose token' may add 1 (hit) result to their attack. Expose tokens are discarded in the end phase." This is an all-in ability, which gives your opponents enough time to react to have shots on you, but makes your attacks so much stronger. Youngster could make this unbalanced in a TIE Swarm, I will admit.
3. "Once per round, after performing a maneuver, you may assign an 'expose token' to your ship. Ships with expose tokens add one die to their attacks, and all damage cards they receive are dealt face-up. Expose tokens are discarded in the end phase." This is a less risk/reward ability than the previous, but you get to decide when you move, making it more powerful for higher PS. And if you have shields, it doesn't matter. So the offensive boost is more in line with other 4-point upgrades. That makes me think of another. One more!
4. "Once per round, after performing a maneuver, you may assign an 'expose token' to your ship. Ships with expose tokens may add one (crit) result to their attacks, and uncancelled (hit) and (crit) results against them ignore shields and are dealt as face-up damage cards. Expose tokens are discarded in the end phase." Another ability with high risk/reward. Allows you to deal out critical hits while every damage you take is a critical hit. Fun!

Thoughts?

You'd want a 3 point beginning of combat action independent trigger; 4 points is always too much

At four pints, it'd better just be adding a critical result to your roll

At beginning of activation phase action independent trigger (ie more risk involved esp at lower ps) 2 points

Expose exactly as is: 0 points

... it would have made the point costings of cheap things a lot less granular and easier to balance I think.

Did you mean to type "more granular"?

More finely grained.

You'd want a 3 point beginning of combat action independent trigger; 4 points is always too much

At four pints, it'd better just be adding a critical result to your roll

At beginning of activation phase action independent trigger (ie more risk involved esp at lower ps) 2 points

Expose exactly as is: 0 points

You may be right about the pricing. I'd worry that a 2 point Expose that doesn't require an action might be too good on a Decimator though.

The issue with Expose is the time at which it entered the game. There was no serious four dice attacks outside of range 1, Push the Limit wasn't out yet and it was the ONLY way to give the fabled five dice attack. Remember when five dice was GODLIKE? Now, it seems that every list has that potential. .

Personally I think that Expose should have been what Fearlessness is now, you are exposing yourself to enemy fire to gain an offensive advantage. However, that would have caused additional issues as there are a few pilots that would benefit from it WAY too much back then.

So I think the only hope for Expose now is if it had an additional effect such as denying your target the ability to modify their defence dice.

On another note, my feeling for Expose would be to make it a mod, and to make it Power Modulation or something - and it would basically say "Action: assign or remove a +1 / -1 or - 1 / +1 token."

The tokens would apply the noted calculation to primary weapon and agility values, to a minimum of one for each. Permanently, until you changed them using that modification.

I really like this idea, I've suggested it in a bunch of contexts.

IMO, the problems with Expose are the following:

• Occupies the Elite slot (blocking many good EPTs, particularly dice mod ones)
• Requires an action (limiting dice modification)
• Expensive (4 pts)

I think that eliminating any one of those problems will do the trick. Potential solutions are:

• Change it to a modification or systems slot. Thematically this doesn't make sense. Being a systems would keep it from being paired with FCS and potentially being OP.
• Remove the requirement for an action and either make it a permanent change or make it a choice at the beginning of the combat phase.
• Make it 1 point.

The later two would be the easiest.

You may be right about the pricing. I'd worry that a 2 point Expose that doesn't require an action might be too good on a Decimator though.

See our previous idea about limiting a stronger version of expose to in-arc attacks. Still good on decimators due to no agility hit, but changes the way they need to play in order to maximize its effect.

This is an old thread, but we've been discussing Expose in another homebrew thread that is dedicated to Opportunist so I thought it might be good to resurrect this discussion.

I'm trying to think of some out-of-the-box ideas to make Expose shine as a good 4-point EPT. I haven't thought about Expose in a while, and probably not as much as I have about Opportunist in my other thread, so what I'm about to throw out here is extremely half-baked (almost raw dough, really), so treat it accordingly.
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So far we've been approaching the idea of Expose as something where you expose your ship to potentially more damage, in exchange for stronger offense of your own. What if "Expose" meant that you're exposing your enemy to more attacks? What about a card that functions best on a support-type ship?

Action: Choose one enemy ship at range X. Friendly ships that attack that ship this turn may roll 1 additional attack die. (Alternate, if +1 red is too much: When defending against attacks this turn, that ship rolls 1 less evade die.) Note that this wouldn't stack, so you couldn't "gang up" on a ship with multiple Exposes.

or

Action: Choose 1 enemy ship at Range X. That ship must discard all focus and evade tokens assigned to it, and may not perform focus or evade actions this turn."

Not necessarily the best card to take if you are an ace yourself looking to do damage (though an extra red is nothing to scoff at), but absolutely phenomenal on a support ship like a Hwk, U-Wing, or Shuttle. Highly, highly dependent on Pilot Skill if you don't have the alternate ability added though. Support ship pilots often have lower pilot skill (6-ish) so It needs to be if it's going to cost 4 points though. Pretty hefty nerf to ships that rely on tokens, though Soontir could still get one from stressing himself out, and other abilities that assign tokens would work too. I'd say make the ability prevent focus or evade actions from being assigned at all, but that would absolutely neuter Soontir. It would absolutely wreck Attani lists, which isn't a bad thing.

Expose is easy to fix:

Expose: Action: reduce your agility by 1 to increase your primary attack value by 1, OR re-set your agility and primary attack to their original values.

Done.

4 hours ago, thespaceinvader said:

Expose is easy to fix:

Expose: Action: reduce your agility by 1 to increase your primary attack value by 1, OR re-set your agility and primary attack to their original values.

Done.

Are you serious? An action is extremely precious in a game of X-Wing. Adding an action requirement to flip Expose back to normal makes this card even WORSE!

Judging by your thoughts on my homebrew EPT Jink, which you said is "insanely strong," and then thinking this would make expose worthy of being a 4 point card, I think you and I have very, very different ideas about power levels in this game.

2 minutes ago, mkevans80 said:

Are you serious? An action is extremely precious in a game of X-Wing. Adding an action requirement to flip Expose back to normal makes this card even WORSE!

Judging by your thoughts on my homebrew EPT Jink, which you said is "insanely strong," and then thinking this would make expose worthy of being a 4 point card, I think you and I have very, very different ideas about power levels in this game.

I believe the idea was to remove the duration from expose so you can transfer dice from agility to weapons until you decide you want to roll green dice. It also doesn't work because a slow rolling Decimator can have 5 attack and negative 2 agility before anyone can get into range.

Note that my proposal doesn't have a limit to how many times you can use it, and doesn't re-set at the end of the round...

The real issue with Expose is that it costs an action to use every time you use it, and that's an action that you're not using to get dice mods - and at that point, your average damage is the same if you take a focus or TL action, though your maximum damage is slightly greater.

This allows you to Expose before you engage, and go into the fight with mods and the extra die. The idea would be to use it once or maybe twice, then never reset it - essentially to alter the base stats of the ship to a different red/green balance. Consider it, for instance, on a Defender, TIE/sf, or ARC. Norra gets up to 5 dice at range one and non-trivially up to 6; Defenders become 4-attack x-wings, /sfs become brutal.

The intention of Expose as I read it is to glass-cannon-ify anything. This does that.

I almost didn't bother including the reset clause at all.