18 minutes ago, clanofwolves said:

Yeah, I think he just needs some encouragement, not really much more than that. I get your points, but his are a bit simpler and somewhat fairer from a game design perspective. His thought process was that he should be able to pick a faction that he enjoys (Imperial), pick a type of game format he enjoys (Bombs first, Secondary Weapons second), and have the tools to be just as competitive as any other squad from whatever faction using said tactics. He prefers and looked for non-faction matches all the time. His rub was not that he hated loosing, for he always admonished us that you only "learn from trials" and that you simply change tactics and "don't replicate mistakes." (trying my best to quote him) His rub was the fact he saw the divide between the tools of bombing the game was giving factions growing, not decreasing. He did fly "enemy squads" to understand their strengths, he determined Cad Bane on a Jumpmaster, paired with a Torpedo Jumpmaster and an Ace was just "fundamentally exasperating" and created even greater separation. We would all make jokes and throw salt about FFGs love of Scum and Miranda/Slam/Sabine, and he usually was the one that reigned us in...until the most recent announcement. He thinks it's not the ship (JK5) that's broken, it's now the game designers. Sure he focuses on Bombs, but he has a point there. I've never seen him negative before that. He's just frustrated with the direction of the game, not the games fluidity....it seems to be flowing but one way.

I don't think any of the above is because your friend is being a baby (as was unfortunately intimated above), but rather that he is acutely sensitive to the biggest flaw in this game. There is a huge gap between flying what you want to fly, and flying to win. They are nearly mutually exclusive, unless you are lucky enough that you actually love the JM5K, TLTs, et. al.

In truth, I have felt for a long time that the game designers have none of my interests in mind during the design process, and a I have come to accept that. What keeps my interest alive is that at its core, XWM is a solid game with interesting mechanics. And, much more importantly, no one at my table is bringing a killer list. . .we bring lists that intrigue us, not lists that are known to win. In fact, I dare say we try to actively avoid the meta, or dilute a meta idea with other squad elements.

The saddest part of all of this for me is that I am sure that your friend is not the only person to be rapidly disaffected by the balance issues. I would suspect that if FFG does not begin to put a different spin on how this game moves forward and/or broadens its outlook on what this game can be (as in, not 100/6), XWM will not last 20+ years like M:TG has. There are a lot of great ways to play this game, but FFG only designs for one of them, and IMHO they are really missing the boat on the possibilities for XWM.