Rather than speculate as to specific ships, I was thinking of speculating on upgrade cards.

A Support Team that has something to do with attacking - They are mostly tied to Nav and Engineering, with one affecting squadrons also - but I'd like to see some offensive support teams. I realize that this particular upgrade slot isn't really designated as an offensive slot - so I'd be willing for it to be creative. maybe something like "After you attack, if you dealt at least 1 damage card, then X happens" - maybe recover a shield or gain a command token. - or perhaps something that helps out obstructed shots?

A Defensive Retrofit that helps very fragile ships - In the spirit of Lando, perhaps something that lets you cancel dice before damage is dealt. Cheap and 1-time use, or expensive and reusable.

More officers that boost squadrons - I love guys like Adar Talon. Would like to see more stuff LIKE that, but with different flavors.

A modification that boost your anti squadron value - I know this is potentially risky - a Raider with a 3rd Black die could be insane - so perhaps it would actually need to be a Turbolaser slot for balance purposes... I think something that boosts anti squadron dice will eventually come, I just don't know how playtesting it might work out - Might have to be very expensive, or might just be straight up broken. Either way I'm interested to see what they come up with.

Some new strong Weapons team options - Need some competition for Gunnery Team / Ordnance Experts.

Share your thoughts!

I have no idea how they would do this, but maybe an upgrade to a ship's speed/turning. Would probably would have to be ship specific. But I would like to run victorys without being forced to use JJ (at least in our local meta)

32 minutes ago, sideshowgames1221 said:

I have no idea how they would do this, but maybe an upgrade to a ship's speed/turning. Would probably would have to be ship specific. But I would like to run victorys without being forced to use JJ (at least in our local meta)

Would be as simple as an officer granting you one extra Yaw when you do a nav command. Think of a single target Madine or something. The trade off would be if you want to run multiple victories, THEN you'll want JJ, but if only one, then maybe you run this new guy.

Maybe an Admiral who is Squadron specific? We have ones that manipulate ship dice, speed, yaw, survivability but not their ability to muck about with squadrons.

It could be cool to have a admiral that gives your generic squadrons a brace if you have no unique squadrons of something to that effect.

Boarding party would be amazing to have, maybe have to roll a certain number of dice and depends on result something happens on ship or if the result is very good take control of the ship

Dont think we every see boarding parties.

But would like to see a officer that grants extra speed to those slow rebels ships, he could boost a mc80 to speed 3 with no yaw allowed at speed three. So you dont need engine tech and a spam of nav commands.

What about squadron upgrades? 5 points to give a single squadron an extra black anti-squadron die? 8 points to give it an anti-ship die? Only 1 upgrade per squadron?

10 points to give it a scatter? Something like that could be insane. Would have to limit some of them to non-unique only, or vice versa.

I wanna see Ion Cannons do ion stuff. Right now it's most often a slot for manipulating accuracy. I can see the overlap between ion damage and loss of defensive systems, but most of the upgrades that try to play into that more fully don't seem to hit the sweet spot for balance. I wanna hit with ions and see some cool disabling utility.

23 minutes ago, Nostromoid said:

I wanna see Ion Cannons do ion stuff. Right now it's most often a slot for manipulating accuracy. I can see the overlap between ion damage and loss of defensive systems, but most of the upgrades that try to play into that more fully don't seem to hit the sweet spot for balance. I wanna hit with ions and see some cool disabling utility.

48 minutes ago, Crabbok said:

What about squadron upgrades? 5 points to give a single squadron an extra black anti-squadron die? 8 points to give it an anti-ship die? Only 1 upgrade per squadron?

10 points to give it a scatter? Something like that could be insane. Would have to limit some of them to non-unique only, or vice versa.

Combining those, maybe some Ion torpedoes for bombers!! In RO, they manage to completely disable an ISD with a bombing run, so could we get like shield loss or speed reduction? That would be awesome

An idea that I thought was interesting would be an ordinance upgrade around these lines

Seeker Torpedoes

When attacking a ship or squadron at close range add a blue die set the the accuracy icon.

Think it adds an interesting choice for ordanace upgrades where right now atps are donating that department imo but I would be happy to put this on a raider/gladiator flotilla Hunter, heck mc-30s could take it and not use H-9s. I would just like to see more variety in the ordanace upgrade slot. A price point for them cheeper than H-9s because you have to be in short range to get use out of it, I would say about 6ish points.

Also would love to see upgrade that increase flack and I think it would be okay to let the raider have it. modifications are generally more pricey upgrades and so you're making a squishy ship worth more points. Plus with agent kallus you get 3 dice already only against named squadrons but still and then you can put the argument that you would get four dice against named guys but again that's a lot of points on a squishy raider that a flotilla Hunter could easily kill. Heck it might even be the chosen one to restore balance to the Squadron versus ship debate forcing heavy Squadron list to put in at least one heavy hitter other than squadrons they so they can take out this bad boy raider in one swift stroke!

Adding a blue die set to the accuracy side is a great idea but also exploitable - Toryn Far for example can turn that potentially into a hit. Warlord Title for VSD ensures it.

Tie upgrade:

On March 8, 2017 at 5:01 PM, Blail Blerg said:

Imperial only, medium or large ship only. 6 points, Offensive Retrofit - Imperial Naval Comms - Squadron activation icon: Tie fighters and Tie interceptors you activate may reroll 1 die when attacking with their anti-ship armament. Tie Advanced and Tie Bomber squadrons you activate may reroll 1 die when attacking with their anti-squadron armament.

All of a sudden 8 ties is actually a great buy for its price.

Requires a player to also command those squadrons, and gives more use for the Offensive Retro.

6 points cuz its quite good and buffs all of the ones activated form THAT ship very much, though imp squadrons could use a little buff.
Though, I am not confident on that point cost. Could be less, could be more, dunno

1 hour ago, Nostromoid said:

I wanna see Ion Cannons do ion stuff. Right now it's most often a slot for manipulating accuracy. I can see the overlap between ion damage and loss of defensive systems, but most of the upgrades that try to play into that more fully don't seem to hit the sweet spot for balance. I wanna hit with ions and see some cool disabling utility.

Manipulating accuracy shuts down defensive options for your opponent. That is ion stuff.

1 hour ago, xero989 said:

An idea that I thought was interesting would be an ordinance upgrade around these lines

Seeker Torpedoes

When attacking a ship or squadron at close range add a blue die set the the accuracy icon.

Think it adds an interesting choice for ordanace upgrades where right now atps are donating that department imo but I would be happy to put this on a raider/gladiator flotilla Hunter, heck mc-30s could take it and not use H-9s. I would just like to see more variety in the ordanace upgrade slot. A price point for them cheeper than H-9s because you have to be in short range to get use out of it, I would say about 6ish points.

Also would love to see upgrade that increase flack and I think it would be okay to let the raider have it. modifications are generally more pricey upgrades and so you're making a squishy ship worth more points. Plus with agent kallus you get 3 dice already only against named squadrons but still and then you can put the argument that you would get four dice against named guys but again that's a lot of points on a squishy raider that a flotilla Hunter could easily kill. Heck it might even be the chosen one to restore balance to the Squadron versus ship debate forcing heavy Squadron list to put in at least one heavy hitter other than squadrons they so they can take out this bad boy raider in one swift stroke!

6 pts is way low for a dice add effect that sets accuracy. Compare to sensor teams at 5 which requires you to spend a die and exhaust, or h9's at 8 that require you to swap out a hit. Close range being the restriction is more or less equivalent given the ships that can run it.

Or Quad Turbos that require an accuracy to trigger and still cost 10.

3 minutes ago, Madaghmire said:

Manipulating accuracy shuts down defensive options for your opponent. That is ion stuff.

Yeah, but since ion cannons generally seem to have the same effect on ships as 'droid poppers' or EMP grenades had on droids in the Clone Wars, at least for a little bit of time, perhaps there could perhaps be created an upgrade that on a blue crit caused:
1) the shields on all of the defender's hull zones to be reduced by one (to symbolize the electricity disrupting the projectors),
2) all the shields on the defending hull zone only to be lost (similar to a certain damage card, IIRC), or
3) the anti-ship armament of the defending hull zone to lose one die of the defender's choice (no idea how it would be implemented, but it's to represent the electricity blowing out the controls of some cannons)

Astromech Coordinator: Discard to have squadrons you activate gain 1 hull and ready 1 defense token.

Veteran flight instructor: Discard to give squadrons you activate strategic for this turn.

And for the love of god stop names like Fighter something something

1 hour ago, Crabbok said:

Adding a blue die set to the accuracy side is a great idea but also exploitable - Toryn Far for example can turn that potentially into a hit. Warlord Title for VSD ensures it.

I guess we could have it worded as when attacking a ship or squadron at close range treat your attack pool as if it had an accuracy icon in it. That way there's no dice to modify.

38 minutes ago, NobodyInParticular said:

Yeah, but since ion cannons generally seem to have the same effect on ships as 'droid poppers' or EMP grenades had on droids in the Clone Wars, at least for a little bit of time, perhaps there could perhaps be created an upgrade that on a blue crit caused:
1) the shields on all of the defender's hull zones to be reduced by one (to symbolize the electricity disrupting the projectors),
2) all the shields on the defending hull zone only to be lost (similar to a certain damage card, IIRC), or
3) the anti-ship armament of the defending hull zone to lose one die of the defender's choice (no idea how it would be implemented, but it's to represent the electricity blowing out the controls of some cannons)

You just want Ion cannons to be more expensive, then...

Because, y'know, 1)-2) are kinda representing the current Ion Cannon Batteries. Since they blow through the shields. The problem is, people don't take it now because its "too expensive" compared to leading shots. So a new Ion card which does what you want, is either going to be even more expensive to not invalidate Ion Cannon Batteries, or be so undercosted that its all that's ever taken - there's no real sweet spot, because Leading Shots is still going to be a best, cheaper choice in comparison...

And I mean, NK-7s removing tokens, MS-1s turning off Upgrades. These are representative of the temporary EMP-nature of Ion Cannons .

I'm cool with the Ion cannon upgrades we have .

I just wish more people would use them.

2 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

You just want Ion cannons to be more expensive, then...

Because, y'know, 1)-2) are kinda representing the current Ion Cannon Batteries. Since they blow through the shields. The problem is, people don't take it now because its "too expensive" compared to leading shots. So a new Ion card which does what you want, is either going to be even more expensive to not invalidate Ion Cannon Batteries, or be so undercosted that its all that's ever taken - there's no real sweet spot, because Leading Shots is still going to be a best, cheaper choice in comparison...

And I mean, NK-7s removing tokens, MS-1s turning off Upgrades. These are representative of the temporary EMP-nature of Ion Cannons .

I'm cool with the Ion cannon upgrades we have .

I just wish more people would use them.

I totally forgot about ICB, and must admit I myself have never used them, but then I have never used LS either. . . I tend to prefer SW-7 or nothing, generally. And, while Nk-7s and ICB remove tokens and/or shields, and MS-1s exhaust upgrades (which, I agree, fit the requirements of EMPs), the only one that removes shields does so on a condition that the defender has no command tokens.

I'd be perfectly happy spending 10 points if I could perform 1) or 2), especially since then a fleet could be created utilizing them, ACMs and Nora to really deal some damage. . . is that OP? (I dunno, I'm asking). It's basically another approach to dealing damage, like swarming APTs or whatnot. . .

I mean, the only reason I don't take ICB is the fact that most ships will have a token to discard and hence shields won't go down reliably. . . not the cost. . .

And, to sum this all up, yes, I think that we should use everything we have before we ask for more. . . so the above is pretty pointless hypothesizing on a future when such a feat has been accomplished. . .

The thing is - generally speaking - even removing the enemy Token through Ion Cannon Batteries, can be enough to mess with your opponents plans... It feels like it cuts the regenerative power of an MC80 Tank in Half. it reduces the firepower of a rampant demolisher-with-wulff, because it has to renav. It drops a Squadron activation, which often removes the power of the alpha strike somewhat...

Its good, and shield busting is just icing on that cake....

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

The thing is - generally speaking - even removing the enemy Token through Ion Cannon Batteries, can be enough to mess with your opponents plans... It feels like it cuts the regenerative power of an MC80 Tank in Half. it reduces the firepower of a rampant demolisher-with-wulff, because it has to renav. It drops a Squadron activation, which often removes the power of the alpha strike somewhat...

Its good, and shield busting is just icing on that cake....

Good points. . . I may make a fleet with it now. . . You've inspired me!

15 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

You just want Ion cannons to be more expensive, then...

Because, y'know, 1)-2) are kinda representing the current Ion Cannon Batteries. Since they blow through the shields. The problem is, people don't take it now because its "too expensive" compared to leading shots. So a new Ion card which does what you want, is either going to be even more expensive to not invalidate Ion Cannon Batteries, or be so undercosted that its all that's ever taken - there's no real sweet spot, because Leading Shots is still going to be a best, cheaper choice in comparison...

And I mean, NK-7s removing tokens, MS-1s turning off Upgrades. These are representative of the temporary EMP-nature of Ion Cannons .

I'm cool with the Ion cannon upgrades we have .

I just wish more people would use them.

Exactly. I'm sitting here reading through all of these thinking "yup, you guys are pretty much just describing ICB, MS-1, and NK-7."

There are lots of good ion cannons out there guys. Try using those ones! Not that I'd say no to more ion options, but we already have an awful lot of really good stuff that works really well...

Looking specifically at Ion Slot potential there are other things it could have an effect on that would represent messing up the flow of power on a ship.

1) Makes the next command dial revealed to no effect.

2) Removes the top most yaw from the ship on the next round.

3) Target ship may not adjust speed on the next round.

4) Target ship will count all targets as obstructed.

For each of these I would have them be Crit effects, quite possibly with spending the crit die. There is the problem that some of these are not that strong, depending on the meta. 2 is mitigated by people spamming nav commands which means it is more effective against carrier fleets. 3 is mitigated by ships with Engine Techs.

The problem with these is they require more record keeping as these are effects that are not immediate. As for pricing on such I have no idea.

2 minutes ago, Grujav said:

Looking specifically at Ion Slot potential there are other things it could have an effect on that would represent messing up the flow of power on a ship.

1) Makes the next command dial revealed to no effect.

2) Removes the top most yaw from the ship on the next round.

3) Target ship may not adjust speed on the next round.

4) Target ship will count all targets as obstructed.

For each of these I would have them be Crit effects, quite possibly with spending the crit die. There is the problem that some of these are not that strong, depending on the meta. 2 is mitigated by people spamming nav commands which means it is more effective against carrier fleets. 3 is mitigated by ships with Engine Techs.

The problem with these is they require more record keeping as these are effects that are not immediate. As for pricing on such I have no idea.

1 would be very similar in effect to Slicer Tools, with the downside of having to roll the crit instead of having to give the target a different command. You also are limited in that you have to get a shot instead of end your turn in range, which has downsides (takes effect later) and upsides (can shoot and scoot, so don't have to land in the target's danger zone). The other difference is ST's exclusivity to a very fragile ship vs ion slots' ubiquity.

So, I'd price it somewhere between 8 and 10, on that basis. Would you pay 8-10 on, say, a CR90B for that effect? What about an Interdictor? I probably would on a control-build Interdictor.