In my recent comprehensive review of all pilot costs (which, alas, I still haven't published to the forum), I observed that in general, pilot costs within a single chassis scale upward from a generic baseline at a rate of 1 point per PS increase, plus 1 point for the presence of an EPT slot, plus 1 more point for being a unique pilot with ability (although this third scaling factor has many counter-examples).

As an example, if a PS4 pilot without the slot costs 20 points, a PS6 pilot on the same chassis with the addition of an EPT slot should cost 3 more (+2 PS, +1 for EPT slot), for a total of 23 points.

This formula holds true for Veteran Instincts...

(cost of card = 1) + (opportunity cost of EPT slot = 1) = (PS increase of +2)

...and the "increase your PS" side of Adaptability...

(cost of card = 0) + (opportunity cost of EPT slot = 1) = (PS increase of +1)

...so why not invert the formula and let a 0 point title or modification grant the EPT slot to your upgrade bar in exchange for a reduction in PS?

(cost of card = 0) + (credit for 1-PS reduction = 1) = (opportunity granted of EPT slot = 1)

Proposed wording:

Elite Ace

Title

Reduce your pilot skill value by 1

and add the <Elite> symbol to your

upgrade bar.

This card may not be equipped on

ships with a printed pilot skill value

of 1.

Cost: 0

Seems like a natural card for the existing design space. Any drawbacks to this idea?

Add 'must not already have the Elite symbol' and you're probably onto something decent for any ship that doesn't already need its title slot to not suck. But you can't add in the option to take a second title because /x7 exists.

Not a bad idea!

Maybe also add a minimum PS of 4 to be allowed to use this?

Otherwise it seems a very good trade-off otherwise to create a whole bunch of cheap pilots with deadeye, for instance;

Scum & Villainy

Black Sun Soldier (PS3, normally 13 pts)

Elite Ace (PS2)

Deadeye (1 pt)

Glitterstim (2 pts)

Cluster Missile (4 pts)

Guidance Chips (0 pts)

Total 20 points for a PS 2 ordnance carrying Black Sun Soldier

5 of these to have an alpha strike where they can choose their target last-minute.

And then battle what´s left.

Sounds like a great idea, would definitely add interesting prospects to list building and utilizing lower pilots that really need that Ept.

I have a slightly different idea for the same issue

"Personal Touch" (0pts)

modification. Unique Pilots only

You may equip this card only if you hae 5 or less printed hull value.

Reduce your hull value by 1.
Then, if you do not already have a [EPT] slot, gain a {EPT] slot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This prevents strong TIE pilots from getting too strong (eg. Dark Curse, Wampa) while still making the other neglected TIEs playable. Kwings, large ships (and sadly TIEpunisher) are excluded, which makes it less likely to be abused. If things get too out of hand, Proton Bombs + adv homing missiles would see a resurgence in play as an extremely hard counter. (we are talking about things like Awings, Z95s having only 1 hull per ship)

Kir Kanos and other TIEints get their EPT slot, but in exchange they may only have 1 autothrusters and nothing else

Ywings would probably "meh" this upgrade

that PS12 TIEfo gets to use decoy, but with 2h1s he would get OHKOed like a normal TIE, so use with caution.

Wampa can generate his own crits, but with only 2 hull you need to find ways to protect him while your palp is freed up to do other stuff.

Dark Curse can get even more annoying with PTL, but he gets more fragile too, making it not too broken for a 19pt ship.

Why is that card not available to PS 1 pilots?

Why is that card not available to PS 1 pilots?

if PS1 had EPT, nobody would play PS3 / PS4

Add 'must not already have the Elite symbol' and you're probably onto something decent for any ship that doesn't already need its title slot to not suck. But you can't add in the option to take a second title because /x7 exists.

You can't always get your cake and eat it too.

Why is that card not available to PS 1 pilots?

I just figured you don't want to introduce PS0 into the game, other than the special instances where it already occurs.

Huge drawback...

Some ships are balanced around not having an EPT. The Ghost is a good example. I can see that Hera Syndulla is incapable of being higher than PS7 (lack of VI option), thus allowing aces to escape her dreaded range one ring of death. I'm sure when designing they knew about its unique Accuracy Corrector + AutoBlaster Turret combo and designed the ship around it accordingly. If she's PS9, then it would be a little oppressive, especially to most low HP ships.

Huge drawback...

Some ships are balanced around not having an EPT. The Ghost is a good example. I can see that Hera Syndulla is incapable of being higher than PS7 (lack of VI option), thus allowing aces to escape her dreaded range one ring of death. I'm sure when designing they knew about its unique Accuracy Corrector + AutoBlaster Turret combo and designed the ship around it accordingly. If she's PS9, then it would be a little oppressive, especially to most low HP ships.

Yea Ghosts and K-Wings kind of throw a wrench into this.

Huge drawback...

Some ships are balanced around not having an EPT.

I agree. What you've found is a trend, not a universally applicable design formula. Pilots are designed without EPTs for a reason. You would have to do significant play testing to make such a sweeping change.

I agree. What you've found is a trend, not a universally applicable design formula. Pilots are designed without EPTs for a reason. You would have to do significant play testing to make such a sweeping change.

Agreed. Aside from some ships not having it, some pilots would be oppressive with one as well. I don't remember which ones off the top of my head, but there are some pretty nasty combos out there.

I'm sure there's some shenanigans with Epsilon Ace at PS12.

Doesn't feel very fluffy.

"We're going to upgrade you to an Elite pilot by lowering your skill."

So first a couple of htings. YOu want it to be atleast a minimum pilot skill of 6 as to avoid Biggs from getting that title. Biggs is probably the only nont EPT pilot that does perfectly fine without an EPT. Giving him an EPT could be broken.

Hmmm Elusiveness, Agilitymech, intergrated astro. Stealth device. hmmm 4 agility and rerolls one of your attack die. No thank you.

I have a slightly different idea for the same issue

"Personal Touch" (0pts)

modification. Unique Pilots only

You may equip this card only if you hae 5 or less printed hull value.

Reduce your hull value by 1.

Then, if you do not already have a [EPT] slot, gain a {EPT] slot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This prevents strong TIE pilots from getting too strong (eg. Dark Curse, Wampa) while still making the other neglected TIEs playable. Kwings, large ships (and sadly TIEpunisher) are excluded, which makes it less likely to be abused. If things get too out of hand, Proton Bombs + adv homing missiles would see a resurgence in play as an extremely hard counter. (we are talking about things like Awings, Z95s having only 1 hull per ship)

Kir Kanos and other TIEints get their EPT slot, but in exchange they may only have 1 autothrusters and nothing else

Ywings would probably "meh" this upgrade

that PS12 TIEfo gets to use decoy, but with 2h1s he would get OHKOed like a normal TIE, so use with caution.

Wampa can generate his own crits, but with only 2 hull you need to find ways to protect him while your palp is freed up to do other stuff.

Dark Curse can get even more annoying with PTL, but he gets more fragile too, making it not too broken for a 19pt ship.

Kir Kanos (or any of the other Interceptors without EPTs) still wouldn't see play. Taking away a hull point is too big of a drawback.

A lot of the pilots that are missing EPTs don't even really need to be penalized a point of PS to make giving them an EPT slot for free balanced. Kir Kanos is two points more expensive than the Royal Guard. They've got the same PS.

The best solution is to just issue an errata for all of the pilots that should have EPTs but don't. That way you don't have to worry about how to exclude ships like the Ghost and ships that need their titles or mod slots don't get screwed.

As written:

Soontir

PS8

Push the Limit

Wired

Autothrusters

For instance.

Why is that card not available to PS 1 pilots?

if PS1 had EPT, nobody would play PS3 / PS4

Why?

Why is that card not available to PS 1 pilots?

I just figured you don't want to introduce PS0 into the game, other than the special instances where it already occurs.

Why not?

Why is that card not available to PS 1 pilots?

if PS1 had EPT, nobody would play PS3 / PS4

Why?

Why is that card not available to PS 1 pilots?

I just figured you don't want to introduce PS0 into the game, other than the special instances where it already occurs.

Why not?

Primarily I didn't want to run afoul of unanticipated issues with having pilots flying around at PS0, ruleswise. I also initially thought it should be restricted to some mid-level PS anyway, but I didn't have a solid rationale for any particular value (4,5,6?) so I just added the lowest possible restriction so the language was there for tweaking.

Others have posed overpowered examples above where, as written, you could end up with two Elite slots. I considered, but didn't include, the restriction that I couldn't be equipped to a pilot that already had the slot. Seems like a valid restriction there.

It's already possible to have Pilot Skill 0 ships on both sides, and the rules handle it without any issue.