Too late for this edition of the game, but could this have solved some of the issues with abilities that were supposed to be restricted by stress?

'When attacking, after rolling the dice, immediately cancel one red dice for each stress token on the attacking ship.'

Feels reasonable to me, and would avoid the need to put 'unless stressed' on every decent upgrade. I imagine it would kill your personal favourite list though. You have my hypothetical apologies.

No. Standard swarm ships take the largest hit where they can't meaningfully control range and angle against a well flown arc dodger or fat pancake with Boost.
Stress could use a boost in how it can be applied, like flechette torps.

But this suggestion mostly recommends that you do not understand jousting value and the mathematics behind Xwing. See the pinned thread.

Also games get even longer with the significant drop in firepower.

IMHO Stress is not my most beloved part of the game. When X Wing was young this was a simple tool to restrict hard maneuvers an one critical effect. Now this is a vital element of Control. I enjoy more games with no Stressbot, X gives you one Stress if... K turn? Stress. And try to outmaneuver your rival

Although I agree that ships shouldn't be able to do much of anything while stressed and stacking it --save Tycho-- is Uber bad game mechanics that "me hatessesses", I don't think it needs buffing at all. Although, now that I read your OP, I get you're wanting it to be far worse to carry stacks of it. There, I agree.

To me, stress was a logical and fun part of the game back when it was your decisions to put stress on your ship's chassis to execute a tough maneuver to get you out of or into a fray or shot. But when FFG started making it not really about stress, but made it more of a mechanic of a kind of weapon, the logic of stress was lost. I don't agree to its use as a control weapon. That should be ion weapons, not stress.

I don't like it Sam I am, I don't like Red Stress and Ham.

OP PREACH. Since 2015 I've been saying anything with more than 3 stress/ion combined should be removed from the board. Thematically your ship and pilot are both done. Granted i was playing 2b2y at the time, so i could be biased. Make it happen ffg!

Stress is coming back in a huge way with the new FAQ and the recent System open's. Just wait till Worlds. I'm constantly trying to come up with some imperial build that can beat stress and bombs because of this.

44 minutes ago, catachanninja said:

OP PREACH. Since 2015 I've been saying anything with more than 3 stress/ion combined should be removed from the board. Thematically your ship and pilot are both done. Granted i was playing 2b2y at the time, so i could be biased. Make it happen ffg!

I like this on the premise that the stress was self-caused......not some stress weapon akin to your mother-in-law visiting. In that instance, beer will take the stress away even before she arrives.

7 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

No. Standard swarm ships take the largest hit where they can't meaningfully control range and angle against a well flown arc dodger or fat pancake with Boost.
Stress could use a boost in how it can be applied, like flechette torps.

But this suggestion mostly recommends that you do not understand jousting value and the mathematics behind Xwing. See the pinned thread.

Also games get even longer with the significant drop in firepower.

Could you expand on why a standard swarm would be more disadvantaged than an Arc dodger or pancake? Those are typically more likely to stress stack but have means to ignore, so this could have a greater effect on them than the swarm.

I fully accept that I have not looked into the detailed maths and jousting values, I do hope this doesn't invalidate the discussion.

Agree completely on the issue of time, though by this logic the red dice creep that is mentioned so often might mean we have more time to play with!

As I said, not a change for this edition, just a theoretical suggestion of how stress could have had a slightly stronger impact.

1 hour ago, clanofwolves said:

I like this on the premise that the stress was self-caused......not some stress weapon akin to your mother-in-law visiting. In that instance, beer will take the stress away even before she arrives.

Personally I find stress can be fun and thematic (providing it doesn't get silly, for example with pre-nerf Zuckuss)

Star Wars battles in the movies (and in fact real life combat) don't always come down to just shooting and flying, but battles are often won by innovative tactics. Stressbot, rebel captive, tactician, etc. represent tactics that make it harder for your opponent to fly and engage in battle.

Two quick examples come to mind, but I'm sure there are others: buzz droids, harpoons & tow cables

Well what do you mean by buff stress? Now with all the new stress sinks (inspiring recruit) and mitigation (primed thrusters, pattern analyzer) yeah stress doesn't have the same level of control that it used to have. However with such a prevalence of Attani mind link stress control has received a serious boost in the meta. Because Scum is at the top if you want a tournament list, you best be putting in some way of giving your opponent stress.

So stress control is still at the top of the meta, it is used to control Scum mindlink lists, which is also at the very top of the meta, as well as hamper some Imperial and Rebel lists as well, especially those that use expertise.

5 minutes ago, radon86 said:

Two quick examples come to mind, but I'm sure there are others: buzz droids, harpoons & tow cables

....oooooooh, harpoons huh? Add that to a boarding party and we're talking new design space.

Sorry we bunny-trailed (OK, I really bunny-trailed) your "Buff Stress" thread FlipmodeSH. I started a new one on Radon86's thoughts, which I think are grand.

Its: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/246625-new-design-spacecould-it-be-fun/

Thanks!

37 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Well what do you mean by buff stress? Now with all the new stress sinks (inspiring recruit) and mitigation (primed thrusters, pattern analyzer) yeah stress doesn't have the same level of control that it used to have. However with such a prevalence of Attani mind link stress control has received a serious boost in the meta. Because Scum is at the top if you want a tournament list, you best be putting in some way of giving your opponent stress.

So stress control is still at the top of the meta, it is used to control Scum mindlink lists, which is also at the very top of the meta, as well as hamper some Imperial and Rebel lists as well, especially those that use expertise.

I just thought adding an additional effect from having stress could 'buff' it in a way that particularly would make it more effective against ships that stack stress or bypass its usual action restriction.

Attanni was in my mind as many say that it is strong against some stress control because ships can still focus with stress. An effect like the one suggested could have meant that didn't happen.

1 minute ago, FlipmodeSH said:

I just thought adding an additional effect from having stress could 'buff' it in a way that particularly would make it more effective against ships that stack stress or bypass its usual action restriction.

Attanni was in my mind as many say that it is strong against some stress control because ships can still focus with stress. An effect like the one suggested could have meant that didn't happen.

Well I don't see Tycho running around the Top 8, Zuckuss<crew> was also nerfed and he was known to stack stress. either way I think you are looking at the wrong aspect of the meta.

Nowif Attani Mindlink is your concern I already told you one of the best counters, take stress control. Shutting down their ability to do red maneuvers takes a lot out of the scum list. You can even predict where the Jumpmaster is going to be if they are going to be stacked with stress. But as you have noticed and I have already mentioned it is possible to still get actions/tokens while stressed. Although all the free actions will be gone, still that is just something you have to plan for in the meta.

Hadn't considered Tycho, mostly because it has been so long. Fair point.

Zuckuss wouldn't have needed a nerf if stress had scaled more with a stack.

Some say Attanni is not overcome by some stress control, because they can still get focus if one ship manages to focus by any means. It doesn’t seem to be as simple a counter as suggested.

because PTL soontir needs more nerfs?, also drops phantoms with rage down to tie fighter firepower

Yeah... This seems to have more collateral damage than carefully balanced improvement.

4 hours ago, FlipmodeSH said:

Could you expand on why a standard swarm would be more disadvantaged than an Arc dodger or pancake? Those are typically more likely to stress stack but have means to ignore, so this could have a greater effect on them than the swarm.

I fully accept that I have not looked into the detailed maths and jousting values, I do hope this doesn't invalidate the discussion.

Agree completely on the issue of time, though by this logic the red dice creep that is mentioned so often might mean we have more time to play with!

As I said, not a change for this edition, just a theoretical suggestion of how stress could have had a slightly stronger impact.

It kind of does. As a primary balancing of the game involves the balancing between highly upgraded, high action economy ships (esp with turrets) as opposed to naked pilot cards BBBBZ.

Read through the math wing section in the pinned thread and I'd recommend you try playing some uber-competitive, high-stakes, Tier1 meta games as test.

You have great intent, but this isn't the right option.