(..) I think the main hurdles are-

a) Players who would want to play are simply unaware of it

b) vassal is seen as too much of a hurdle

c) more vocal contributors intimidate others

(...)

Timezone differences as well. Difficult to arrange that Australian, Asians, Europeans or Americans can play against each other.

How about this? While it does nothing for increasing Vassal participation I believe it handily solves a lot of the other problems and on top of that is a neatly organised process.

Before the tournament, create a panel of three judges. This consists of:

• The overall organiser of the tournament.
• A high level competitive player: ideally one who designs their own lists and therefore has a keen understanding of the game balance.
• Someone with a good understanding of thematic design and Star Wars lore.

The Custom Card League consists of two competitions: the Design Competition and the Custom Card Tournament. The judges cannot participate in the design contest. Ideally they should not participate in the Tournament either to ensure impartiality but if need be they may step down from the judge’s panel after the Design Competition to enter the Tournament.

In the design competition teams compete to design a full X-Wing expansion pack. There are four categories: Scum, Rebel, Imperial and Ace Pack. The winners of each comprise the custom card pool for the tournament.

Stage 1: Ship Nominations

Players nominate ships for each category. After a week* of nominations the ten most popular nominations in Scum, Rebel, Imperial and Ace Pack. are put to a vote.

The ten most nominated ships are voted on either by simple majority or a ranking system. If any category lacks enough nominations the judges select new ships such as to make ten. The judges also break any ties in the nominations.

The winners of each category become the selected ships for the Design Competition.

Stage 2: Design Competition

The judges then post the winning ships and the number of each component in each expansion.

• Small ships usually contain a new small ship, four pilots and five different upgrade cards or a new small ship, six pilots and two different upgrade cards.
• Large ships usually contain four pilot cards and ten different upgrade cards.
• Ace packs contain two new ships. They often have a new generic pilot and always have new named pilots for each ship. They contain ten different upgrade cards.

The judges will clearly specify how many generic pilots, named pilots and upgrade cards each expansion has: this is a contest of quality rather than quantity.

Upgrade cards must be useable and have a useful effect on the ship they come with as with an official expansion.

The community then has two weeks* to design and playtest their entries for each category. Entrants may form teams or design alone. While works in progress may be posted on the forums it is not recommended if entrants are worried about plagiarism. Cards must be made in and exported from Strange Eons or equivalent and sent to the organisers before the deadline.

Stage 3: Expansion Voting

The best three in each category based on design and balance are selected by the judges. If the judges believe they mix and match cards from these three entries without editing them to create a fourth entry. This is called the Combined Expansion. It is meant to embody the best of each entry in the eyes of the judges.

These entries are then put to community vote based on a ranking system: the highest ranked scores four points, the second three, the third two and the last one.

The highest scoring of the original three expansions wins. The Combined Expansion cannot win the contest but if it ranks highest it is used for the Tournament.

Stage 4: Custom Card Tournament

The four winning expansions (a Rebel ship, an Imperial ship, a Scum ship and an Ace Pack) then become legal for the custom card tournament.

Uh....

I don't really see a need for such a radical departure from our previous voting system when there's no reason for it. The voting worked fine, we just had no organization with regards to categories, so we got a lot of dumb cards that baba had to sort through. With the expansions, that problem is solved as-is. There's no reason to change that.

I absolutely abhor the idea that the only ships that get to be voted on and designed for are ones that 3 judges decided for the people.

It'll probably actually significantly decrease the amount of people who play. "Oh, my favorite ship that i wanted to do stuff for wasn't chosen? Welp, i don't care anymore."

Sorry, but this is just a very, very flawed system that will harm us more than help.

It should always be the other way around. The people design what they want first, then they vote and decide, and the committee only fixes balance problems if any arise.

I would limit the number of possible submissions per person really strict. This way one is forced to determine which of the own's ideas one likes best, and then thoroughly thinks that one through before submitting.

Reduces the total number of submissions as well, making reading, evaluating and voting easier. Less of the effect that ideas on page 7 get less votes, as people only manage to review and vote for about 3 pages before giving up.

And maybe more participants, if with restricted number of submissions it is a much smaller chance that one really good idea is just drowned in a flood of submissions, and thus people no longer refrain from submitting, (seeing no point in it if there are droves of cards to go through)

EDIT took away last oassage nvm that one.

Uh....

I don't really see a need for such a radical departure from our previous voting system when there's no reason for it. The voting worked fine, we just had no organization with regards to categories, so we got a lot of dumb cards that baba had to sort through. With the expansions, that problem is solved as-is. There's no reason to change that.

I absolutely abhor the idea that the only ships that get to be voted on and designed for are ones that 3 judges decided for the people.

It'll probably actually significantly decrease the amount of people who play. "Oh, my favorite ship that i wanted to do stuff for wasn't chosen? Welp, i don't care anymore."

Sorry, but this is just a very, very flawed system that will harm us more than help.

I disagree.

Multiple people designing the same ship makes for a more interesting contest of design and leads to higher quality designs than everyone designing different ships. It also adds a built in submission cap which was an issue raised with the previous system.

I absolutely abhor the idea that the only ships that get to be voted on and designed for are ones that 3 judges decided for the people.

I didn't think it was ambigious but the four expansions are voted on by the community. I will edit the text to make it clearer.

Multiple people designing the same ship can happen anyway. Last season we had 3 StealthX, at least 2 vwings, im pretty sure multiple gunboats. Let people design the ships they want, dont limit it to certain ships. I have several ships I plan to submit myself for instance, but theyre not ones that would likely win the initial vote to get into the design competition. On the other hand, a well designed ship might win on its design and cards even if the ship type itself isnt one people would have voted for without seeing the submission itself.

Limiting what ships peole can design could also limit submissions in a bad way. I have ships I want to submit for every faction and at least one aces pack. I fully intend to submit up to whatever limit is implemented, but only because its the ships I want to design. I have no desire to design a tie avwnger or gunboat for imperial. And realiatically, what else would win unless the season 1 ships are blocked. I want to design the ships *I* want to see, not the ones the most people vote for

While I believe it'd be a more interesting contest with everyone in the same category designing the same ship I'd agree that if it'll reduce submissions too drastically then it's definitely something to reconsider.

Multiple people designing the same ship can happen anyway. Last season we had 3 StealthX, at least 2 vwings, im pretty sure multiple gunboats. Let people design the ships they want, dont limit it to certain ships. I have several ships I plan to submit myself for instance, but theyre not ones that would likely win the initial vote to get into the design competition. On the other hand, a well designed ship might win on its design and cards even if the ship type itself isnt one people would have voted for without seeing the submission itself.

3 Stealth-Xs, 2 V-Wings, 2 gunboats, probably a bunch of others.

But the problem is still that what happens when this 3 person committee picks ships that a whole bunch of people don't care about?

We had such a deliciously wide range of ships from people last time, why oh why would we RESTRICT that??????

That kind of arrogance, that 3 people think they know what's best for everyone, is really troubling. If this system is laid into place for season 2, expect me not to participate.

But the problem is still that what happens when this 3 person committee picks ships that a whole bunch of people don't care about?

I get the feeling you're not reading my posts fully.

EDIT: As for why restrict, my reasoning is that that way you're voting on different designs for the same ship rather than voting for the ship itself, leading to higher quality winners. Season 1 had this problem: the Gunboat was very popular but the design wasn't balanced: people voted for the Gunboat moreso than the Gunboat's design and we all saw the results.

A wise man once said restrictions breed creativity. If too many people are likely to simply not participate if they don't get their first choice of ship then that'd have to be rethought but if it's not going to negativity impact submissions too drastically then I believe the competition would be stronger for it and people would learn more from it.

I guess it's a question of identity: is this a tournament where the best designs the community can produce are pitted against each other or is it a tournament where every participant's custom cards can be used provided they pass a basic quality benchmark?

But the problem is still that what happens when this 3 person committee picks ships that a whole bunch of people don't care about?

I get the feeling you're not reading my posts fully.

One player could nominate a ship, and 30 players could nominate another, but the committee could still pick the ship nominated by 1 player and not the one nominated by 30. How is that fair?

Or we could do the simple thing and remove the committee entirely and let the people vote like normal, which is significantly more fair. Democracy > Oligarchy EVERY TIME.

I reiterate, THERE IS NO REASON TO ADOPT THIS FORMULA. NONE. 90% of the upgrades from last season were just random, senseless garbage thrown in because why not. Expansions ALREADY solve the problem of quantity. There is zero upside and a thousand downsides to your system.

One player could nominate a ship, and 30 players could nominate another, but the committee could still pick the ship nominated by 1 player and not the one nominated by 30. How is that fair?

Go back. Reread.

EDIT: For the benefit of anyone joining this thread late I did not suggest this. The tournament structure I suggested involved the community nominating ships and then voting on the ships that were nominated: the winning Scum ship, Imperial ship, Rebel ship and Ace Pack would then be the expansions people designed in that part of the competition. Razgriz appears to have got the wrong idea.

But the problem is still that what happens when this 3 person committee picks ships that a whole bunch of people don't care about?

I get the feeling you're not reading my posts fully.

One player could nominate a ship, and 30 players could nominate another, but the committee could still pick the ship nominated by 1 player and not the one nominated by 30. How is that fair?

Or we could do the simple thing and remove the committee entirely and let the people vote like normal, which is significantly more fair. Democracy > Oligarchy EVERY TIME.

I reiterate, THERE IS NO REASON TO ADOPT THIS FORMULA. NONE. 90% of the upgrades from last season were just random, senseless garbage thrown in because why not. Expansions ALREADY solve the problem of quantity. There is zero upside and a thousand downsides to your system.

I made an effort to make Blount crew useful, but the list performed better without using him. I had to shoehorn a 3 point droid in to make my list legal.

And still there was only 8 players in the tournament.

last time, imperials got 2 new ships, scum got 2 ships plus lots of fixes for the khilrazx. Rebels got droids.

I made an effort to make Blount crew useful, but the list performed better without using him. I had to shoehorn a 3 point droid in to make my list legal.

And still there was only 8 players in the tournament.

Do you think a tournament structure designed to maximise the quality of the winners would help improve this?

How about this? While it does nothing for increasing Vassal participation I believe it handily solves a lot of the other problems and on top of that is a neatly organised process.

Before the tournament, create a panel of three judges. This consists of:

• The overall organiser of the tournament.
• A high level competitive player: ideally one who designs their own lists and therefore has a keen understanding of the game balance.
• Someone with a good understanding of thematic design and Star Wars lore.

The Custom Card League consists of two competitions: the Design Competition and the Custom Card Tournament. The judges cannot participate in the design contest. Ideally they should not participate in the Tournament either to ensure impartiality but if need be they may step down from the judge’s panel after the Design Competition to enter the Tournament.

In the design competition teams compete to design a full X-Wing expansion pack. There are four categories: Scum, Rebel, Imperial and Ace Pack. The winners of each comprise the custom card pool for the tournament.

Stage 1: Ship Nominations

Players nominate ships for each category. After a week* of nominations the ten most popular nominations in Scum, Rebel, Imperial and Ace Pack. are put to a vote.

The ten most nominated ships are voted on by the community either by simple majority or a ranking system. If any category lacks enough nominations the judges select new ships such as to make ten. The judges also break any ties in the nominations.

The winners of each category become the selected ships for the Design Competition.

Stage 2: Design Competition

The judges then post the winning ships and the number of each component in each expansion.

• Small ships usually contain a new small ship, four pilots and five different upgrade cards or a new small ship, six pilots and two different upgrade cards.
• Large ships usually contain four pilot cards and ten different upgrade cards.
• Ace packs contain two new ships. They often have a new generic pilot and always have new named pilots for each ship. They contain ten different upgrade cards.

The judges will clearly specify how many generic pilots, named pilots and upgrade cards each expansion has: this is a contest of quality rather than quantity.

Upgrade cards must be useable and have a useful effect on the ship they come with as with an official expansion.

The community then has two weeks* to design and playtest their entries for each category. Entrants may form teams or design alone. While works in progress may be posted on the forums it is not recommended if entrants are worried about plagiarism. Cards must be made in and exported from Strange Eons or equivalent and sent to the organisers before the deadline.

Stage 3: Expansion Voting

The best three in each category based on design and balance are selected by the judges. If the judges believe they mix and match cards from these three entries without editing them to create a fourth entry. This is called the Combined Expansion. It is meant to embody the best of each entry in the eyes of the judges.

These entries are then put to community vote based on a ranking system: the highest ranked scores four points, the second three, the third two and the last one.

The highest scoring of the original three expansions wins. The Combined Expansion cannot win the contest but if it ranks highest it is used for the Tournament.

Stage 4: Custom Card Tournament

The four winning expansions (a Rebel ship, an Imperial ship, a Scum ship and an Ace Pack) then become legal for the custom card tournament.

I think your organization is good, but I agree with Raz that we shouldn't be having judges pick winners at any point. I think we'll have a committee at the end of the design phase to try to nip any balance problems in the bud, as we did in season 1, but I want to keep this as democratic as possible. Also, I don't want to prevent our most dedicated contributors (the guys who would be judges) from making ship entries.

-I may be misunderstanding your process, though. When I read "The best three in each category based on design and balance are selected by the judges." , that sounds like the judges are picking ships that move on to a future round of voting. Could you try to clarify that if I have it wrong?

But the problem is still that what happens when this 3 person committee picks ships that a whole bunch of people don't care about?

I get the feeling you're not reading my posts fully.

One player could nominate a ship, and 30 players could nominate another, but the committee could still pick the ship nominated by 1 player and not the one nominated by 30. How is that fair?

Or we could do the simple thing and remove the committee entirely and let the people vote like normal, which is significantly more fair. Democracy > Oligarchy EVERY TIME.

I reiterate, THERE IS NO REASON TO ADOPT THIS FORMULA. NONE. 90% of the upgrades from last season were just random, senseless garbage thrown in because why not. Expansions ALREADY solve the problem of quantity. There is zero upside and a thousand downsides to your system.

last time, imperials got 2 new ships, scum got 2 ships plus lots of fixes for the khilrazx. Rebels got droids.

I made an effort to make Blount crew useful, but the list performed better without using him. I had to shoehorn a 3 point droid in to make my list legal.

And still there was only 8 players in the tournament.

If youre saying blue's suggestion would prevent that from happening again, guaranteeing one expansion per faction would do the same thing

Here's what I'm thinking of, going off of what I'm reading here:

New submission format: Expansions and ace packs for each faction

-Each expansion has one new custom ship, and 3-4 new upgrade cards

-Each ace pack has fixes for up to two ships in that faction, with 3-4 new upgrade cards in addition to the fixes, whatever form they come in

-That will give us a total of 3 new custom ships, 3-6 ship fixes, and 18-24 new upgrade cards (in addition to ship fixes). This is more cards than I'm actually comfortable with doing, but changes to the development process should help

-Each participant is limited to a total of two expansion entries. Additional entries may be accepted on a provisional basis (They'd have to be really good)

New design process and voting:

-We design and vote on expansions and ace packs one (or maybe two) at a time. This should make it easier for us to focus and ensure that cards are properly discussed and thought through before they go into the final product. It also makes things easier to handle in terms of the volume of work I need to do at any given moment.

-2(+1?) phases of development/voting per pack: The first vote is to select the pack we want to develop, and the second is to vote on any proposed changes to cards in the pack. I'm also thinking of having a final vote at the end to see how satisfied we are with the result, and if we're not happy, have another round of card development.

Season 1 cards:

(This is more tentative)

Have an in/out/tweak vote on each card, pilot, and ship:

In = we can use it in season 2.

Out = we remove the card entirely, and people may submit cards of the same name/ship type etc. in season 3.

Tweak = the card, pilot, or ship is treated like a submission that is up for its second round of voting. Suggested changes are voted on. If no changes are submitted, the card, pilot, or ship is treated as though it were voted down. The only exceptions to this would be cards that are card text copies of official FFG cards - those will be out automatically.

I think your organization is good, but I agree with Raz that we shouldn't be having judges pick winners at any point. I think we'll have a committee at the end of the design phase to try to nip any balance problems in the bud, as we did in season 1, but I want to keep this as democratic as possible. Also, I don't want to prevent our most dedicated contributors (the guys who would be judges) from making ship entries.

-I may be misunderstanding your process, though. When I read "The best three in each category based on design and balance are selected by the judges." , that sounds like the judges are picking ships that move on to a future round of voting. Could you try to clarify that if I have it wrong?

You wouldn't make the most dedicated contributors judges, you'd make the sort of people who'd use the designs the judges.

When I read "The best three in each category based on design and balance are selected by the judges." , that sounds like the judges are picking ships that move on to a future round of voting.

Indeed. Given the size of an expansion and the idea is to cut down the volume of entries so that voters can properly look through the finalists and compare them, eliminating the problem of the huge almost Tinder-esque google forms from last time where cards are judged at a glance.

It's not a vital inclusion and if the number of entries is manageably small it's not necessary.

Your provisional process at the moment sounds more like a design collaboration rather than competition which would render most of this unnecessary anyway.

Season 1 cards:

(This is more tentative)

Have an in/out/tweak vote on each card, pilot, and ship:

In = we can use it in season 2.

Out = we remove the card entirely, and people may submit cards of the same name/ship type etc. in season 3.

I'd go from a clean slate each season: learn from the past and improve. Keep the custom content high quality and low quantity.

As for the issue of too many cards: the solution I'd suggest here, if you intend on giving each faction an aces pack, is to consider making them half an ace pack each.

I seems like half the cards you're complaining about are mine. I know you're getting some of them wrong, like Death Mark which was changed to a unique title. I can't find what TC-4 is supposed to be similar to, but in any case that must have been some useless committee you had that was supposed to go through after the voting and fix problems. There should be no reason to drop or delete anything after appointing that committee; I know I offered a very different variant of all the cards that were quotes from existing cards. The solutions were offered but you're still bitching because you ignored those solutions. Did that committee actually do anything?

Not carrying cards over from season 1 is no solution to anything as people will just submit the same cards, you have to create a library to store past seasons, for reference and use.

Hutt Cartel might be worth more than 1 point but otherwise I see nothing wrong with it, other than it could have said you can equip 2 titles. A faction-wide title deserves its niche in scum as they have a lot of sub-groups like Hutt, Black Sun, Zann, etc.

Criticizing the stats Aeron Azzameen seems phony considering the difference with Outer Rim Smuggler. There are plenty of reason for ships to have variances in Hull stats, other than the Hull upgrade.

Creating expansion sets of cards in future season would make it easier to vote right here on the forums, using likes for posts with the sets, rather than having people tap their 400-1000 Facebook friends elsewhere.

Death Mark's problem was that it was a title that could go on ANY ship. Not that it could go on every ship at the same time. I got nothing wrong there. TC-4 is word-for-word Captain Yorr's ability. The ONLY thing the committee was there for this season (and it only happened last minute due to a couple things that were noticed) was to stop the worst of the overpowered cards.

Some of the cards from last season people CAN'T resubmit as-is if we put some rules in place. And personally I have no problem with resubmitting versions of existing cards if they're part of a full expansion they make sense in.

The problem with hutt cartel is it's a title that works on any ship. Every other title in the game is limited to a single ship.

Critisizing aeron is in no way phony. ORS is an outlier and a mistake. it was created by a different design team, and the designers who have made most of the ships int he game since then have said it was a mistake (I'm pretty sure) and have NEVER done the same thing. Note that the new generic falcon has the same stats as the unique pilots. If you want variance in ship stats, it can be reflected with titles, such as the Punishing One adding attack dice or the Virago adding upgrade slots. Or the mist hunter adding an upgrade in a slot you don't even have.

Pretty sure no one had 400 friends voting on anything. I also like that this is coming from the guy who I think had the most stuff get in

Yeah, also the guy who had the most anomalous voting records on his cards, who only pitched a fit when one of his many, many cards DIDN'T make it in, despite the very large amount of his cards that did. Almost as if he expected... no, knew, that his cards were guaranteed to make it past voting.

Despite a lot of those cards either being bad copies of official FFG cards or just otherwise dumb, like Aeron, or the universal titles.

Interesting.

I also like how he's directly insulting and degrading those of us who actually put in the time and effort to run this league, and putting us on blast for not doing something that we specifically said the committee was not going to do.

For the record I find this response, on top of being mostly false, overly "combative" and "disruptive."

For a fact Areon was not my creation, I simply submitted an alternate version.

There was one universal title, Hutt Cartel, and it's only your opinion that it was dumb.

There were no rules when the season 1 started about card abilities being use in other card types,

and when I consider pilot abilities passed on from ship to ship the ridiculousness of Sabine makes mine less odd.

I pitched no fit about any card, you're ignoring the context and the thorough explanation to perpetuate this lie.

I don't recall anyone mentioning until now that any of the votes for my cards were "anomalous," never mind "the most anomalous," this reads like jealously to me, and over what: so 5 of my original upgrades made the cut out of 20 upgrades.

And to the accusation that the ones that weren't use were useless, that's false reasoning, they can't all be auto-includes.

In the discussions as to how this committee that was put together on how some of the cards were to get "fixed" one of the cards that was discussed was my Underslug Blaster Cannon and I offered solutions, and yet somehow with all the complaining the fixes were ignored and it was the faulty original that was used? How was that possible? that some were changed and some were not; It seems to me that this committee failed, and that's not meant as "denigration or insult" but a very germane observation.

I seems like half the cards you're complaining about are mine. I know you're getting some of them wrong, like Death Mark which was changed to a unique title. I can't find what TC-4 is supposed to be similar to, but in any case that must have been some useless committee you had that was supposed to go through after the voting and fix problems. There should be no reason to drop or delete anything after appointing that committee; I know I offered a very different variant of all the cards that were quotes from existing cards. The solutions were offered but you're still bitching because you ignored those solutions. Did that committee actually do anything?

Not carrying cards over from season 1 is no solution to anything as people will just submit the same cards, you have to create a library to store past seasons, for reference and use.

Hutt Cartel might be worth more than 1 point but otherwise I see nothing wrong with it, other than it could have said you can equip 2 titles. A faction-wide title deserves its niche in scum as they have a lot of sub-groups like Hutt, Black Sun, Zann, etc.

Criticizing the stats Aeron Azzameen seems phony considering the difference with Outer Rim Smuggler. There are plenty of reason for ships to have variances in Hull stats, other than the Hull upgrade.

Creating expansion sets of cards in future season would make it easier to vote right here on the forums, using likes for posts with the sets, rather than having people tap their 400-1000 Facebook friends elsewhere.

Death Mark's problem was that it was a title that could go on ANY ship. Not that it could go on every ship at the same time. I got nothing wrong there. TC-4 is word-for-word Captain Yorr's ability. The ONLY thing the committee was there for this season (and it only happened last minute due to a couple things that were noticed) was to stop the worst of the overpowered cards.

Some of the cards from last season people CAN'T resubmit as-is if we put some rules in place. And personally I have no problem with resubmitting versions of existing cards if they're part of a full expansion they make sense in.

The problem with hutt cartel is it's a title that works on any ship. Every other title in the game is limited to a single ship.

Critisizing aeron is in no way phony. ORS is an outlier and a mistake. it was created by a different design team, and the designers who have made most of the ships int he game since then have said it was a mistake (I'm pretty sure) and have NEVER done the same thing. Note that the new generic falcon has the same stats as the unique pilots. If you want variance in ship stats, it can be reflected with titles, such as the Punishing One adding attack dice or the Virago adding upgrade slots. Or the mist hunter adding an upgrade in a slot you don't even have.

Pretty sure no one had 400 friends voting on anything. I also like that this is coming from the guy who I think had the most stuff get in

Yeah, also the guy who had the most anomalous voting records on his cards, who only pitched a fit when one of his many, many cards DIDN'T make it in, despite the very large amount of his cards that did. Almost as if he expected... no, knew, that his cards were guaranteed to make it past voting.

Despite a lot of those cards either being bad copies of official FFG cards or just otherwise dumb, like Aeron, or the universal titles.

Interesting.

I also like how he's directly insulting and degrading those of us who actually put in the time and effort to run this league, and putting us on blast for not doing something that we specifically said the committee was not going to do.

For the record I find this response, on top of being mostly false, overly "combative" and "disruptive."

For a fact Areon was not my creation, I simply submitted an alternate version.

There was one universal title, Hutt Cartel, and it's only your opinion that it was dumb.

There were no rules when the season 1 started about card abilities being use in other card types,

and when I consider pilot abilities passed on from ship to ship the ridiculousness of Sabine makes mine less odd.

I pitched no fit about any card, you're ignoring the context and the thorough explanation to perpetuate this lie.

I don't recall anyone mentioning until now that any of the votes for my cards were "anomalous," never mind "the most anomalous," this reads like jealously to me, and over what: so 5 of my original upgrades made the cut out of 20 upgrades.

And to the accusation that the ones that weren't use were useless, that's false reasoning, they can't all be auto-includes.

In the discussions as to how this committee that was put together on how some of the cards were to get "fix" one of the cards that was discussed was my Underslug Blaster Cannon and I offered solutions, and yet somehow with all the complaining the fixes were ignored and it was the faulty original that was used? How was that possible? that some were changed and some were not; It seems to me that this committee failed, and that's not meant as "denigration or insult" but a very germane observation.

Gabe, you've been at the center of probably half a dozen nasty conflicts in season one; you especially are on thin ice. Be nice. Accusing other people of lying is not nice; continue doing that and being combative, as you are above, and you will be banned from season 2. Play nice, and we'll have no problems.

Regarding voting - yes, the voting patterns for your upgrades were very curious. If you really want to go into details, we can discuss it via PM.

With regards to the underslung blaster, the committee took a hard look at it and decided it was actually not a threat to balance. To my knowledge, no players used it in the tournament. If anything, that suggests that the committee was right, and the original was not a problem. If you want to take shots at the committee, I suggest trying to rake us over the coals for the assault gunboat - there might be good reason to do so in that case. As far as the underslung blaster goes, I think the committee functioned well.

But the problem is still that what happens when this 3 person committee picks ships that a whole bunch of people don't care about?

I get the feeling you're not reading my posts fully.

One player could nominate a ship, and 30 players could nominate another, but the committee could still pick the ship nominated by 1 player and not the one nominated by 30. How is that fair?

Or we could do the simple thing and remove the committee entirely and let the people vote like normal, which is significantly more fair. Democracy > Oligarchy EVERY TIME.

I reiterate, THERE IS NO REASON TO ADOPT THIS FORMULA. NONE. 90% of the upgrades from last season were just random, senseless garbage thrown in because why not. Expansions ALREADY solve the problem of quantity. There is zero upside and a thousand downsides to your system.

Babaganoosh, I'd like to point out that that post was made after you asked people to be polite, and I find it to be "combative" and also very belligerent. Not understanding Fluff or story or what the game SWXM is based on is no excuse for getting way with calling everyone else's creation garbage.

Gabe, you've been at the center of probably half a dozen nasty conflicts in season one; you especially are on thin ice. Be nice. Accusing other people of lying is not nice; continue doing that and being combative, as you are above, and you will be banned from season 2. Play nice, and we'll have no problems.

Regarding voting - yes, the voting patterns for your upgrades were very curious. If you really want to go into details, we can discuss it via PM.

With regards to the underslung blaster, the committee took a hard look at it and decided it was actually not a threat to balance. To my knowledge, no players used it in the tournament. If anything, that suggests that the committee was right, and the original was not a problem. If you want to take shots at the committee, I suggest trying to rake us over the coals for the assault gunboat - there might be good reason to do so in that case. As far as the underslung blaster goes, I think the committee functioned well.

The idea that there was anything irregular about "voting patterns" on my cards not being brought up before, but in this context (5 months later?) seems really convenient, no?

I also think that people complaining about any cards from season 1 still, after a committee was supposed to look at them, and as you say they looked at them, is rather odd.

By the way, saying someone is lying isn't as bad as the actual lying, I don't see how you can defend that.

PM me, Gabe. Your inbox is full.

After playing my 4 matches with the Assault Gunboats, I can say they are too cheap to carry cannons. Here is my revised version of it (and some new/revised upgraded cards).

I hope there is a way to submit this to approval so we can try again the ship in future CCL seasons.

I like the updated AG. That makes me want to have a carryover of at least some cards. One of the greatest potential strengths we have is the ability to adjust after release.