Has anybody run a StarViper as a player ship in HotAC? Contrary to its usual reputation, it might be a good pick - compared to a basic XWing, for instance?

Here is a HotAC player card for the StarViper in case you need one. We haven't played one yet but I have a friend considering it. We haven't decided how to handle it yet but I see two possibilities. One way is to limit him to Scum "legal" upgrades and pilot abilities and the other is to treat it as if it were a rebel ship and limit him to Rebel "legal" upgrades and pilot abilities (probably with an exception to allow 'starviper only' upgrades/pilots).

Edit: Note that the Virago title is built into the card (it has slots for illicit and system upgrades).

Do you have a U Wing Player Card? I am having a hard time finding one.

I thought there weren't any large base ships (for players) in HotAC...

8 hours ago, Bullox said:

Here is a HotAC player card for the StarViper in case you need one. We haven't played one yet but I have a friend considering it. We haven't decided how to handle it yet but I see two possibilities. One way is to limit him to Scum "legal" upgrades and pilot abilities and the other is to treat it as if it were a rebel ship and limit him to Rebel "legal" upgrades and pilot abilities (probably with an exception to allow 'starviper only' upgrades/pilots).

Edit: Note that the Virago title is built into the card (it has slots for illicit and system upgrades).

A PS9 Star Viper with 4 EPTs and 4 mods would be freaking amazing.

Here is a player card for the U-Wing. I had to do a little bit of photo-shopping so please forgive the minor flaws.

1 hour ago, StriderZessei said:

I thought there weren't any large base ships (for players) in HotAC...

Folks are using them in HotAC inspired campaigns. I'm currently playing in the Battlestar Pallas campaign and we have a YT1300 and a U-Wing along side our A-Wing and ARC-170.

It's a lot stronger than everything bar the Y-wing, which has a turret for other purposes. I would advise playing on "Hard" difficulty if a player uses on of these. If more than one player uses them, upgrade TIEs to TIE/fos.

@Bullox Thanks, that's very useful to us. We would be adopting the Starviper as a rebel ship (anybody can serve the rebel army). I have the feeling that it might be a bit too strong in the original HotAC context, but we'll see.

The E-Wing was considered OP... and the Starviper has an illicit slot on top of everything.

3 hours ago, costi said:

The E-Wing was considered OP... and the Starviper has an illicit slot on top of everything.

... but no astromech.

My group is going to give the 'Viper a shot in our Mercenaries run. But...only available at PS6. We reckon that by that time the AI will be natively harsh enough to handle the stronger upgrade bar.

Considering I have seen a TIE-ugly (Y-wing with TIE-Fighter wings) yeah anything is possible as a player ship. Heck you can even use a stolen TIE interceptor for all everyone else cares, paint it yellow and call it good. I think the only restriction is it has to be in period so no T-70 X-wings.

Now for AI that is a different story. The AI algorithms for Scum hasn't been made yet. Sure making a movement template for those ships is one thing but to be honest if you really want Scum AI you have to change the target priority, rearrange the actions prioritizing survival over attack, also make an algorithm for their illicit that they use since most of those are consumable.

5 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Considering I have seen a TIE-ugly (Y-wing with TIE-Fighter wings) yeah anything is possible as a player ship. Heck you can even use a stolen TIE interceptor for all everyone else cares, paint it yellow and call it good. I think the only restriction is it has to be in period so no T-70 X-wing

If you're doing custom stuff and not strictly sticking to the original campaign manual, the only restriction is what the group allows. If the group wants to allow stuff from other eras, that's entirely up to them. It's not like a T70 is going to be more broken than a StarViper

2 minutes ago, VanderLegion said:

If you're doing custom stuff and not strictly sticking to the original campaign manual, the only restriction is what the group allows. If the group wants to allow stuff from other eras, that's entirely up to them. It's not like a T70 is going to be more broken than a StarViper

Sure, it would just be narrative breaking. And all things considered HotAC is a narrative campaign. I think someone posted the idea of a Return to the Autari Cluster which Pits Resistance star fighters against the 1st Order. However still the problem with that is the First Order AI and the lack of ships which would make the campaign get very stale. Although that should change pretty soon.

Still for Scum AI one of my side projects is Pirates of the Autari Cluster which has optional side missions for the Rebel campaign pitting them against Scum & Villainy who have a very different AI dogfighting style compared to the Imperials. The idea for a reward is a wingman ally with a bit of AI (mostly controlled by the player) and upgrades for your Ally. But again still need to make movement cards, ally cards, and missions so yeah it will be a while.

2 hours ago, Marinealver said:

Sure, it would just be narrative breaking. And all things considered HotAC is a narrative campaign. I think someone posted the idea of a Return to the Autari Cluster which Pits Resistance star fighters against the 1st Order. However still the problem with that is the First Order AI and the lack of ships which would make the campaign get very stale. Although that should change pretty soon.

Still for Scum AI one of my side projects is Pirates of the Autari Cluster which has optional side missions for the Rebel campaign pitting them against Scum & Villainy who have a very different AI dogfighting style compared to the Imperials. The idea for a reward is a wingman ally with a bit of AI (mostly controlled by the player) and upgrades for your Ally. But again still need to make movement cards, ally cards, and missions so yeah it will be a while.

There is a Tie/FO AI card floating around somewhere. If I can find it, I'll post the link

1 minute ago, Scopes said:

There is a Tie/FO AI card floating around somewhere. If I can find it, I'll post the link

Well you also have the TIE/SF and Upsilon Shuttle, then you will need missions but yeah I think waiting until after Episode 8 or even 9 because by then you will now get more new era ships to design missions.

2 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Well you also have the TIE/SF and Upsilon Shuttle, then you will need missions but yeah I think waiting until after Episode 8 or even 9 because by then you will now get more new era ships to design missions.

Good point. Forgot about those two.

Making custom mission arcs isn't too hard if you use the original as a template, but the lack of sequel-era ships makes that a hard limit to work around for that time period.

1 minute ago, Scopes said:

Good point. Forgot about those two.

Making custom mission arcs isn't too hard if you use the original as a template, but the lack of sequel-era ships makes that a hard limit to work around for that time period.

Which is why I want to make a Scum side expansion first to open up into the Autri Cluster. But I don't want Scum ships using Imperial Dogfighting tactics. So a ragtag gang of Z-95 headhunters with randomized quirks for their illicit slot. Mercenary Y-wings and Bounty Hunters but still put more emphasis on surviving to collect credits than attacking enemies. Do well and you might get an inspired young pilot who will act as your wingman ally pilot(bandit squadron, Rookie, Iron (Y-wing) Squadron, test pilot, maybe even Dagger and black moon although those should be end campaign wingmen allied pilots.

2 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Which is why I want to make a Scum side expansion first to open up into the Autri Cluster. But I don't want Scum ships using Imperial Dogfighting tactics. So a ragtag gang of Z-95 headhunters with randomized quirks for their illicit slot. Mercenary Y-wings and Bounty Hunters but still put more emphasis on surviving to collect credits than attacking enemies. Do well and you might get an inspired young pilot who will act as your wingman ally pilot(bandit squadron, Rookie, Iron (Y-wing) Squadron, test pilot, maybe even Dagger and black moon although those should be end campaign wingmen allied pilots.

Interesting!

Just now, Scopes said:

Interesting!

Well you know looking at Imperial Assault, you had Imperials but you also had the scum bad guys and their own villain and side missions although those were more like plot fillers between breakout from Imperial guarded port, to seeking information at Catina to attacking Imperial bunker. But hey, if Imperial Assault makes a diffrence between Scum and Imperial why should the Atari Cluster be Imperial only?

1 hour ago, Scopes said:

There is a Tie/FO AI card floating around somewhere. If I can find it, I'll post the link

Here is the Tie/fo AI card from the "Unofficial HotAC Collaboration" thread.

And here are some AI cards for the Tie/fo and Tie/sf that I found somewhere else - I can't remember where.

4 hours ago, Bullox said:

Here is the Tie/fo AI card from the "Unofficial HotAC Collaboration" thread.

And here are some AI cards for the Tie/fo and Tie/sf that I found somewhere else - I can't remember where.

AI ships don't have stress do they? I think an update should give ships 2 sets of data cards, one for unstressed maneuver selection and one for stressed maneuver selection.

4 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

AI ships don't have stress do they? I think an update should give ships 2 sets of data cards, one for unstressed maneuver selection and one for stressed maneuver selection.

Yeah, the card is a little awkward. If they execute a red maneuver they don't gain a stress but skip step 3 (i.e, they don't get an action). They can get stressed in other ways though. The first choice in step 3 is to remove stress which, in effect, costs them their action for that round. But you're right, there are occasions when the AI ship can be stressed and roll a red maneuver. On those occasions we either just pick a different maneuver or re-roll.

46 minutes ago, Bullox said:

Yeah, the card is a little awkward. If they execute a red maneuver they don't gain a stress but skip step 3 (i.e, they don't get an action). They can get stressed in other ways though. The first choice in step 3 is to remove stress which, in effect, costs them their action for that round. But you're right, there are occasions when the AI ship can be stressed and roll a red maneuver. On those occasions we either just pick a different maneuver or re-roll.

more reasons why Pirates will take a little bit longer. Not only do I need movement cards for Scum faction but also the stress movement cards and make stress movement cards for existing Imperials.