"Switch all power to front deflector screens..."

The Mobile Firing Arc mechanic seems like a perfect way to bring in directionally selectable shielding to ships in the game. Huge ships already have the Reinforce action, which is thematically similar, but it requires an action each time it is activated. Its advantage is that it functions to automatically cancel one hit against the Reinforced section for EVERY ATTACK during the round in which it is activated.

Of course, Small and Large base ships don't have sections. But with Mobile Firing Arc as a model, perhaps an upgrade could be brought in that selected a particular quadrant to be "Reinforced."

This would need some physical logistics to be worked out, because only a handful of ships have their base tokens marked out into quadrants. Some kind of clear overlay with additional quadrant/arc markings would have to be provided, probably.

What's the best game effect to implement here? A straight-up imitation of the Reinforce action, where every defense from the reinforced quadrant gets a bonus evade result? That would be a valuable (pricey) Modification card to a large ship. I'm thinking at least 5 or 6 points. Or maybe it just adds an evade die or two? This ought to be cheaper, say 3 points. Either way, the potency of this effect is considerable on a large-base 1- or 0-agility ship if implemented in Mobile Firing Arc style (rather than huge Reinforce style), where the selected arc retains its ability from one round to the next, until switched to a different arc via action.

Maybe it's too strong. Make it a one-use card? Thematically, it seems like the ability to reinforce a particular set of deflectors ought to be limited as energy is depleted. Or it takes time to recharge after deflecting a hit, so the function expires at the end of the combat round if any damage went through on the selected arc.

Or maybe the last thing the game needs is tankier large-base ships...

So Sabine?

Miniature wise, it's never going to happen.

But, as a game concept, it sounds really cool, as long as the cost for getting shot from the opposite direction was high enough. From playing the original X-wing fighter simulators, you had front and back shields that you could move. So when you needed, you could divert all your shield power to the front arc. This lends itself to a relatively simple game mechanic:

If you reinforce your forward shields, you get X bonus from that direction and all hits from the back go directly to hull points. That seems like an even trade off to me. But to be honest, X bonus would have to be pretty good if you A) have to use an action to do it, and B) open yourself up to hull damage and crits from the other direction.

I agree that the ships defenses should open up from other directions for thematic reasons as well as for a more interesting gameplay. That would be a really nice mechanic, inviting/forcing the opponent to split up and attack from multiple directions. Quadrants like the mobile arc would be the way to go. And probably full reinforce. From other directions, maybe -1 agility, ignore shields. Should only go on ships with at least 1 agility.

Love your idea.

?

goddamnit, zef

anyway yeah, drawing arcs on the base would make this difficult to implement except for mobile arcs, firesprays, SFs and ARCs (rear facing auxilaries already have the base effectively divided into four quadrants) and also the ghost

easier to do would just restrict it to the primary arc, and assign what is effectively a reinforce token at the cost of a red a die when attacking

Extra shields disappeared when they got shot too. I like this idea a lot. But just take it an additional shield once per round. It doesnt add a shield that stays. Just an extra shield to be removed. Better than an evade result (thinking of tlt) It takes an action to activate. This can then be a lot cheaper. Maybe 4 pts. Have to choose a quadrant to reinforce.

Modification "reinforced forward shield" (no idea of the cost).

After performing a manoeuver, you may activate this card.

During the combat phase, after defending, if the enemy is in your primary firing arc and dealt at least one shield damage, you may recover a shield­. If the enemy is not in your primary firing arc, any damage suffered is dealt direction against a ship's hull.

easier to do would just restrict it to the primary arc, and assign what is effectively a reinforce token at the cost of a red a die when attacking

A title that gave this to the Khiraxz as a start of combat effect would be pretty cool.

Graz and TBC just got cooler and Fearlessness might make sense on the PS5s.

Extra shields disappeared when they got shot too. I like this idea a lot. But just take it an additional shield once per round. It doesnt add a shield that stays. Just an extra shield to be removed. Better than an evade result (thinking of tlt) It takes an action to activate. This can then be a lot cheaper. Maybe 4 pts. Have to choose a quadrant to reinforce.

This is an elegant idea.

Action: Assign one shield token to

one of your quadrants. If not spent

during the Combat phase, remove

this token at the end of the

End phase.

It's only good for mitigating one point of damage per round, so it's not even as good as Huge Reinforce. But it's simple enough and bears the penalty of costing your action, so it shouldn't be terribly expensive in point cost.

Extra shields disappeared when they got shot too. I like this idea a lot. But just take it an additional shield once per round. It doesnt add a shield that stays. Just an extra shield to be removed. Better than an evade result (thinking of tlt) It takes an action to activate. This can then be a lot cheaper. Maybe 4 pts. Have to choose a quadrant to reinforce.

This is an elegant idea.

Action: Assign one shield token to

one of your quadrants. If not spent

during the Combat phase, remove

this token at the end of the

End phase.

It's only good for mitigating one point of damage per round, so it's not even as good as Huge Reinforce. But it's simple enough and bears the penalty of costing your action, so it shouldn't be terribly expensive in point cost.

...so an evade action (But worse?!?)

Extra shields disappeared when they got shot too. I like this idea a lot. But just take it an additional shield once per round. It doesnt add a shield that stays. Just an extra shield to be removed. Better than an evade result (thinking of tlt) It takes an action to activate. This can then be a lot cheaper. Maybe 4 pts. Have to choose a quadrant to reinforce.

This is an elegant idea.

Action: Assign one shield token to

one of your quadrants. If not spent

during the Combat phase, remove

this token at the end of the

End phase.

It's only good for mitigating one point of damage per round, so it's not even as good as Huge Reinforce. But it's simple enough and bears the penalty of costing your action, so it shouldn't be terribly expensive in point cost.

...so an evade action (But worse?!?)

Yeah my logic there is poor. Oops! :-/

This idea breaks down if it gets away from the Mobile Firing Arc model. It really needs to persist until some condition is met. I'll just go back to my thinking in the OP now.

I would like quadrant based shielding, but there's armada for that

i suggested a title to add something like this to the Punisher's front arc, vastly improving frontal defenses but still being pretty easy to pop once you get behind it.

I think a mobile variant of this would be rather broken if the ship wasnt balanced for it.

Well, you don't need the whole moveable arc thing if it's only for defense; just designate one of the sides of the ship base.

If the closest point to closest point goes through that edge of your ship base then it's in that arc.

The whole moveable firing arc thing is only necessary if you're using that arc to attack.

I'd run the directional deflector a bit like gonk:

Modification (or maybe systems upgrade): Not sure how many points.

Action: Place a deflector token next to one of the 4 sides of your ship base.

If an attack against this ship removes at least one shield and strikes the ship on the edge of the base with the token assigned to it, place one shield token on this upgrade card.

At the start of the end phase remove any deflector tokens and move all shield tokens from the upgrade card onto the ship.

That's a bit different from how other people have envisioned it. But even if the mechanics aren't to your liking, the relatively simple method of placing a relevant token next to a particular edge of the base should enable directionally based defensive abilities of any kind.

in my alternate rules a ship with shields can recover shields or reinforce shields. A ship cannot do both in the same turn.

Recover Shield

Action: Restore 1 shield. Receive 1 Stress or Weapons Disabled Token.

Reinforce Shields:

Action: Choose a facing. While you have shields, you have Armour 1 against attacks on that facing.

Armour: When you receive damage, roll 1 green Die. Prevent 1 damage on a 'Evade' result.

Love it.

"Angle the deflector shields, watch for enemy fighters..."

When I hear "defensive mobile firing arc" I'm picturing some kind of upgrade that would allow you to freely turn that mobile arc to face the direction of an incoming attack once per round.

As for the shields I look up at Sabine and say that sure looks like how a defensive version would work.

What we keep find over and over again in this game is Offense wins games. There are so many unused (in tournament settings) defensive minded upgrade cards and pilots. The only defense cards we see used are ones that don't take away from a spot that could be used for offense and provide a near guaranteed evade result.

The two upgrade cards that come to mind are both mods; Autothrusters and Stealth Device. What these cards have in common is they do not take up a slot that could be used to generate more offense.

I do LOVE the idea of an X-wing only mod that provides plus 1 evade results to attackers who are outside of your firing arc! (The perfect title would be Angle Your Rear Deflector Shields.)

When I hear "defensive mobile firing arc" I'm picturing some kind of upgrade that would allow you to freely turn that mobile arc to face the direction of an incoming attack once per round.

As for the shields I look up at Sabine and say that sure looks like how a defensive version would work.

I'm on the fence about whether it should eat an action or not; maybe it would be better if it didn't, but the defensive arc definitely wants to be set in the activation phase so that it at least requires some pre-planning and predictive ability against higher pilot skills.

Perhaps take an action to nominate an arc for the defensive bonus, then take a free action.

Also good to make it action dependent because then it suffers from stress.

I do LOVE the idea of an X-wing only mod that provides plus 1 evade results to attackers who are outside of your firing arc! (The perfect title would be Angle Your Rear Deflector Shields.)

I like the concept, but not the extent of the execution... I'd personally be looking at keeping such an upgrade cheap, so no guaranteed blocks...

...something like "when defending, re-roll blank results" on a 0pt Title (maybe 'eyes' as well, but not sure if that would keep it to 0pt).

At the risk of derailing my own thread with "fix the X-wing"...

I played three games Saturday with either all Xwings or 2 T70s with Jan support. I lost all three games. I hadn't played with an Xwing in months, so I was rusty, sure. But facing off against the likes of PTL x7 Ryad and titled PTL Valen Rudor, it was glaringly obvious how token-poor the Xwing is, even with PTL or Comm Relay Red Ace with regen. It's almost comical that these ships are in the same game at this point. And the 2 agility, combined with painfully limited options for shedding stress, meant that I was frequently either without a shot or without modifiers, and dying quick (hence the rare privilege of getting 3 full games in).

Maybe this arc-based defensive boost is the key to overcoming those limitations. I like the idea of gaining a Reinforce effect vs ships not in your firing arc. It doesn't make the ship a more bold jouster, but it helps it survive those rounds of clearing stress and making the slow turn back into the fight.

This point based shield is inspired by SDF-1's defenses, right?

http://robotechvisions.wikia.com/wiki/Pin-point_Barrier_Defense_System

Extra shields disappeared when they got shot too. I like this idea a lot. But just take it an additional shield once per round. It doesnt add a shield that stays. Just an extra shield to be removed. Better than an evade result (thinking of tlt) It takes an action to activate. This can then be a lot cheaper. Maybe 4 pts. Have to choose a quadrant to reinforce.

This is an elegant idea.

Action: Assign one shield token to

one of your quadrants. If not spent

during the Combat phase, remove

this token at the end of the

End phase.

It's only good for mitigating one point of damage per round, so it's not even as good as Huge Reinforce. But it's simple enough and bears the penalty of costing your action, so it shouldn't be terribly expensive in point cost.

how about a decently priced FLight INstructor?