6 hours ago, WAC47 said:

A sincere thank you to you guys for putting this together. As this is my first miniatures game, and I feel like I arrived rather late to the party (jumping in with the Force Awakens Core Set), all the doom and gloom in the community recently has me worried about my investment in this game. I love it, I'm still having fun, and I think my local meta is really healthy and growing. Something like this would put my mind at ease that there will still be people to play with after official FFG support begins to decline.

All the X-Wing "issues" are merely illusion. Game is just getting better when you play with your friends.

Just don't overthink and analyze it till it breaks in your head. I'm having a blast every single time I'm playing. I'm actually halfway through the thread and I can't stop laughing how we have come back to this point after some months being much more quiet.

Hooray!!!

37 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

They've taken a fun game, broken it down mathwise, and instead of just playing the game, turned it into an open discourse in game theory. IMHO, the worst thing FFG did to this game was to hold competitions.

AND then allow these hero-hammer-power-yarblers to affect the rules based on their power card gamer gripes.

HEL-NAH... NOT IN OUR GAME PARLORS... NOPES!!!

2 minutes ago, Zazaa said:

All the X-Wing "issues" are merely illusion. Game is just getting better when you play with your friends.

Just don't overthink and analyze it till it breaks in your head. I'm having a blast every single time I'm playing. I'm actually halfway through the thread and I can't stop laughing how we have come back to this point after some months being much more quiet.

Hooray!!!

Yah... DAT!!!

19 minutes ago, Zazaa said:

All the X-Wing "issues" are merely illusion. Game is just getting better when you play with your friends.

Just don't overthink and analyze it till it breaks in your head. I'm having a blast every single time I'm playing. I'm actually halfway through the thread and I can't stop laughing how we have come back to this point after some months being much more quiet.

Hooray!!!

Hahaha can't I have it both ways? I love this game and I've never stopped having fun! At the same time I'm glad members of the community are putting in the time and effort to build an infrastructure for continuing the game beyond FFG support (and potentially making it even better!)

It doesn't have to be doom and gloom OR sunshine and roses. It can be both!

@Icelom

Major Juggler isn't necessarily wrong in his approach. I disagree with it, but that doesn't mean that his methods are necessarily wrong. There are different ways of designing a game. Sort of the Euro game vs Ameritrash divide in boardgaming.

2 hours ago, MajorJuggler said:

My definition of balanced is that any given pilot can fulfill a reasonably competitive role in the 100/6 format. This requires that none of the pilots are utter garbage, and that none of the pilots are blatantly overpowered. Using math in the design process is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve this result. You seem to imply that math is useless though, so I'll just leave it at that.

Would just changing the point value for a competition from 100 to 150 points help fix the imbalance. I am talking more about leveling out unique pilots and not unbalanced generics, who need a stern talking to. Also, if you are not being a total dictator then get rid of PWT and make them all mobile arcs. And make bumping ships move to the far side of the bumped not stopping on the near side, trust me it will work better.

When your version is finished will you be releasing a booster deck with fixed cards and perhaps a template expansion? Will you also create a web site so we can post our rants about your game design just kidding but seriously... oh and the gunboat, don't forget the gunboat.

Let us know when its done!

48 minutes ago, Icelom said:

The fact you think chess would be balanced without a set amount if each piece as long as you gave the correct value is pretty telling. You would just end up with the "optimal" setup and most likely that would be 100% pawns as there value goes up in a curve based on total pawn count.

The fact that you constantly assume the worst is pretty telling, too. Of course such an analogy breaks down at some point. A thoroughly perfectly balanced game will both never exist and have no space left. But that's a strawman that only you are talking about.

Your argument is flawed. You seem to believe that all people only play the ideal list (which is demonstrably wrong). And a perfectly balanced game would eliminate all differences.

That demonstrates that your idea of balance is very onedimensional. But balance can also be achieved over different stages of a match, with intentional imbalances in certain stages. Because you didn't like chess, let's try Starcraft 2: back when I was palying the game, certain races had clear advantages at different timings. Those were known. A player either had to prepare for them to survive or to win before these timepoints. Those are designed imbalances, but they cancel each other out to create an overall balance - ideally of course. X-Wing could do something similar. It already does, e.g. Lockdown is much better in a later phase of the game. A cheap ordnance carrier is much better in the early game or rather during the alpha strike. Those are designed temporary imbalances, but they can still be balanced out if the whole game is considered.

8 hours ago, sozin said:

Don't despair! Showing our cards a little, but: @MajorJuggler, myself, the S&V team, and other prominent community members are brainstorming now a Community Edition that should keep those little plastic spaceships in play for the next 20 years. There is still a lot of pre-planning to be done, but when we're ready to open things up it'll be with the following goals:

• ensure that these little plastic spaceships retain both casual and competitive fun value beyond FFG's license with Disney
• incorporate the community's opinion and perspective on what the game should be in a data-driven, participatory fashion
• have first class software support (builders, information browsers, community forums, etc)

Count me in. Do you need playtesters?

1 hour ago, BenDay said:

Would just changing the point value for a competition from 100 to 150 points help fix the imbalance. I am talking more about leveling out unique pilots and not unbalanced generics, who need a stern talking to. Also, if you are not being a total dictator then get rid of PWT and make them all mobile arcs. And make bumping ships move to the far side of the bumped not stopping on the near side, trust me it will work better.

When your version is finished will you be releasing a booster deck with fixed cards and perhaps a template expansion? Will you also create a web site so we can post our rants about your game design just kidding but seriously... oh and the gunboat, don't forget the gunboat.

Let us know when its done!

If his engine is transparent (plug stats in, get points cost out) then you could design your own gunboat - as I recall, a few years back someone used Battletech to model all of the Godzilla monsters for a funsies scenario, and it was pretty **** cool.

No, 150 points wouldn't fix the imbalance - particularly with Atanni Mindlink still in the game, the more ships in the mindlink the more value it exponentially has. I think he's planning to release a website and someone's helping him make a squadron designer where you'd plug in the ships and print out your list, including upgrades.

@Stoneface, @AllWingsStandyingBy, @Marinealver, @Icelom:

Is a naked Rookie Pilot REALLY the same value as Countdown with TIE Mk.II and title? A Bounty Hunter the same value as a Shadowport Hunter? Is Fel's Wrath worth 18 points, let alone 23? Does a Blackmoon Squadron Pilot have an even match against Quickdraw?

The core of X-Wing's point system doesn't make sense. The points values are completely meaningless and arbitrary, and grow only more so the further apart the waves become. In other games, this might not be a problem - simple power creep, you retire old pieces and buy the new ones! - but with an intellectual property like Star Wars the devs CAN'T think that way, because ALL the ships are important to SOMEONE. When they make guy who loves B-Wings pick K-Wings or ARC-170s because B-Wings are a chump choice, they've damaged that player's enjoyment of the game, and enjoyment is the whole purpose of the game.

If FFG had given more than a token, half-assed effort to address this problem, then @MajorJuggler would be doin' a lot of work for nothing. Alternate game modes similar to Kessel Kup or Heroes? Win conditions where Horton's ability, or Hef Tobber's ability, or any of the 80% of pilot cards that sit in the "Feh box" might be good as more than a "I'm going to challenge myself by using Jek Porkins!" moment? A 2.0 version?

But the lack of movement on any of these possibilities means that they are increasingly unlikely. That's kind of the point. FFG is doing the absolute bare minimum they can to keep X-Wing alive. It's all they ever do - minimum effort for maximum profit.

The really odd thing for me in X-Wing is how resistant some X-Wing players are to the notion of real, meaningful change. Yes, every game system has its grognards stuck in the past, but mention changing the system ("Hey, maybe you SHOULD be able to fly TIE/ADs that aren't named Darth Vader?") and you'll provoke a virulent reaction anywhere on the internet X-Wing players dwell. It'd be funny, if it weren't... wait, it IS funny!

I applaud the Scum and Villainy revamp. It sounds like the people involved are taking a thoughtful, analytic, systematic, fact-driven approach, are aware of the difficulties, have a clear plan, and are taking the time to do it right.

Further, I've observed a good history of success with community initiatives (hooray confirmation bias!).

-- The Realms Beyond forums, an online gaming community I'm a part of, still plays Sid Meier's Civilization IV ten years after its last expansion's release. One of its members spearheaded the creation of a Realms Beyond mod for multiplayer balance that is used in a significant proportion of games.

-- All of the old Decipher customizable card games I used to play have survived and even prospered on the back of fan initiatives. The Star Wars CCG Players' Committee blazed the trail and is the most famous; it's still producing sets. Star Wars was the one game of the set I wasn't around for, but from the Committee's level of organization and the prices of cards online, its player base must be relatively substantial. The Star Trek CCG Continuing Committee is also still producing sets for both editions of the game; its first lead designer was actually the lead designer of the published game. It is successful enough to have had to start publishing financial statements. The Lord of the Rings TCG has a dedicated community that still plays all the time at Gemp-LotR and is currently working on a set for the Hobbit movies. The (Wizards of the Coast) Star Wars TCG Independent Development Committee has also produced numerous sets that can be played on LackeyCCG. Player numbers for all these games are very small in absolute terms, but apparently a dedicated core of individuals who know the game are capable of keeping it in play over the long term and creating exciting new content for it.

-- Most prominently, Magic: The Gathering's fan-favourite Commander format was created by judges and became so successful that Wizards of the Coast began supporting it officially.

I am a little concerned that the timing may not be right for a fan revamp of X-Wing. All but one of the player initiatives named above began after the game went out of production. I wonder if this is a desirable precondition for the fan effort to take hold: the fan group has the advantage of becoming a/the authority players can look to once official support has ended. However -- the S&V people should by all means strike while the iron's hot in terms of their availability and enthusiasm for what is, of course, an unpaid project. I look forward to the fruits of their labour!

On a separate note, I'm a little disappointed in some of the content of this thread. Derogatory statements based on Attention Deficit Disorder, hyperbolic references to suicide, and demeaning and somewhat predatory jokes about other people's sexual organs all, well, shouldn't be made. Even if one inclines to disagree, I would hope that they would at least refrain from making them on a public forum. Sorry to be 'that guy,' but I thought it should be said.

2 hours ago, Icelom said:

I agree but it's not the competitions, it's just the type of people regardless of competitive play they would be doing the same thing.

I sort of agree with you. People wise. Without competitions though, there would not be all this talk of meta builds. You wouldn't have all the suggestions "to fix" whatever or "nerf" whatever. The OP lists that are considered "Meta Lists" would quickly fade from play, mostly from the meta player not being able to find opponents. Much like I dropped 4 x Y-Wing TLTs after four games: it became boring.

I'm not saying competitions are bad, only they can bring out the worst in people. Anybody old enough to remember the original slotcar craze should know what I mean. Advances in technology (aka new waves) moved from inline motors to sidewinders to angle winders. Stock motors were no longer "competitive" motors wound with silver wire were needed just to keep up. I skipped the required ball bearing sub wave.

Then, along with the above, came the cheating. Players with money and access to machine shops would have custom wheels made that were superior to off the rack rims because they were trued and balanced. Hollowed out and cross drilled, they provided a reservoir for tire treatment for the entire race. Pretty soon the "fun factor" was gone, the casual racer, the guy who kept the track open, was gone and the tracks closed.

I may be wrong but I bet there were some new or potentially new players that saw these threads, said screw it, and never came back. I'm glad that I found this site after I started playing.

@iamfanboy so your idea of a perfect game is to just fix the point system and it would be perfect. Thing is your idea of perfect point system will never work out for the exact same reason @MajorJuggler explained with the problem with Biggs damage sponge list (what ever you want to call it). and that is pilot/upgrade combos. When combos are paired in a certain order the value of the two cards exceeds that of the value. Thus you get a list with an X-wing in it that is valued at 120 points where now an X-wing that is worth 25 or 30 points is also valued an additional 10 20 points or so on. So if you get that point system right there will be another combo system that breaks your perfect point system.

You also got to remember what time each was designed. X-wing was at the start and the design was it should be 20 points but 5 was too much so the 21 point cost was given. You talk about meaningful change but you are complaining over what should really be a smaller part of X-wing and that is the competitive play. As for me I am looking at the whole hobby, how does the physical components interact with the game. It isn't some computer game where you could adjust damage values and mineral costs at a whim and use online patch to ensure everyone has the most up-to-date format. And even then those patches only affect the competitive multiplayer and does not touch the single player campaign. I'm aware that you like to think of yourself as the competitive player and us casuals should go away, but in reality it is you that should stay inside your competitive zone, except for the fact that you don't even qualify for the competitive zone. Forgive me if I assume but are you a regional champion, won nationals or such?

The point convention FFG has isn't perfect. Thankyou captain obvious, but it isn't exactly there for your balance. It is a balancing tool but it really is there to set a convention for other ships in future releases to follow. How many of said ships should be allowed in a match, what is the lowest a ship can cost and so on. Also any game designer will tell you there are supposed to be slight deviations from the cost/power curve.

Thing is yeah there needs to be changes but there are some ideas that are just horrible for X-wing not just for competitive play (there is more formats out there) but horrible for X-wing and the hobby in itself. What you call meaningful I would call mean and full of mistakes. Sure the competitive scene might be "perfect" but there is no guarantee however the accessibility of the game to non competitive formats (missions, HotAC) will suffer and even the accessibility of competitive formats will take a hit. If you think that is just weeding out all the people that should be there you really are being a self centered fan-boy.

''Perfection may be an attribute only of the Divine, but that does not absolve us of the responsibility to strive for it."

The summary of your wall of text above is, "Nothing is ever going to be perfect, so why even try?" That's a copout if I've ever heard one. Of course nothing will be perfect. Nothing ever can be. But the current system is so bad that it has effectively abandoned players and driven a rift between casual players and competitive players that doesn't need to exist.

Frankly, the 'hobby' of X-Wing is minimal, as per FFG's official products. No kits to put together. Painting is completely optional. The scenarios handed out in the boxes usually have no replay value and almost always favor one side (intentionally so). There's no campaign system. The only alternate to 100/6 is 300/12, and is just an upsell tactic (Buy these big $100 ships! Use them! But they are actually pretty terrible in the game itself, so if you want to win buy 5 Jumpmasters and mindlink EVERYTHING!)

What you're ******* about is already the only thing keeping X-wing alive for non-competitive players: New game systems designed by fans completely outside the jurisdiction of FFG's design team. MJ just happens to be doing it for the competitive players, with an eye towards the day that FFG no longer has the license - it really does seem like they're not planning beyond 2019. I mean, what ships can they possibly produce for Wave 18? What other Epic ships could they possibly scale down to upsell future players?

I mean, I'm not sure how long you've been wargaming @Marinealver. But this isn't my first caprine copulation when it comes to gaming - more like my twentieth - and right now it feels like Games Workshop just before their LotR license collapsed, or FASA as it decided to just give up and coast on autopilot until its doors closed, or TSR in those last horrible years when their products were cannibalizing each other and THEN they released Spellfire, or any number of the CCGs during the CCG boom who released a set that was brutally overpowered just before shutting down to bring in a last few sales - goddamn DBZ expansion ruined Ani-Mayhem, not that it was that great to begin with, just silly fun... that was wrecked when Saiyans could come in and destroy everything and win fast.

So frankly, I think that MJ's system is well timed. It's being released while the game is technically still live, has no obvious competition, and will spread among players who actually care about balance - hopefully metastasizing before FFG loses the license, if they do.

5 hours ago, MajorJuggler said:

. Even if nobody else uses Community Edition, I still get to use it on my own kitchen table.

So, if you make the Community Edition (CE), does that make the current game Before the Community Edition (BCE)?

8 minutes ago, iamfanboy said:

...

I mean, I'm not sure how long you've been wargaming @Marinealver. But this isn't my first caprine copulation when it comes to gaming - more like my twentieth - and right now it feels like Games Workshop just before their LotR license collapsed, or FASA as it decided to just give up and coast on autopilot until its doors closed, or TSR in those last horrible years when their products were cannibalizing each other and THEN they released Spellfire, or any number of the CCGs during the CCG boom who released a set that was brutally overpowered just before shutting down to bring in a last few sales - goddamn DBZ expansion ruined Ani-Mayhem, not that it was that great to begin with, just silly fun... that was wrecked when Saiyans could come in and destroy everything and win fast.

So frankly, I think that MJ's system is well timed. It's being released while the game is technically still live, has no obvious competition, and will spread among players who actually care about balance - hopefully metastasizing before FFG loses the license, if they do.

Don't worry X-wing is no where near that. We don't have annual price increases yet. I can still pick up an X-wing for $15 and not >$20. Nor is it near the CCG boom that has come and gone. FFG and Disney happen to be doing fine and even after the GW breakup it is no where in as dire of a position as GW has been for the past decade. However you can trace those issues way back to 2010. There is no signs of FFG doing any of the dumb stuff GW did back then but boy could you imagine if this was a GW product? (shudders at the thought of an all YT-1300 ten ship meta). As for canalization not likely, Armada and Imperial Assault have more issues than X-wing in terms of meta balance. As for Runebound it is a different them and yes theme is just as important as game play mechanics.

All this reballancing stuff is a little premature. For one we have 6 SKUs coming out, three of them likely this year. Of course it is too early to say if they will or will not affect the meta balance but they will have an effect. As for FFG losing their license, well that's when the community can get together and reballance or errata of even add ships in. I already brought up this topic in the off topic forums taking a look at those broken CCG games you have brought up. So I am not worried about X-wing going the way of the dodo.

1 hour ago, Stoneface said:

I sort of agree with you. People wise. Without competitions though, there would not be all this talk of meta builds. You wouldn't have all the suggestions "to fix" whatever or "nerf" whatever. The OP lists that are considered "Meta Lists" would quickly fade from play, mostly from the meta player not being able to find opponents. Much like I dropped 4 x Y-Wing TLTs after four games: it became boring.

I'm not saying competitions are bad, only they can bring out the worst in people. Anybody old enough to remember the original slotcar craze should know what I mean. Advances in technology (aka new waves) moved from inline motors to sidewinders to angle winders. Stock motors were no longer "competitive" motors wound with silver wire were needed just to keep up. I skipped the required ball bearing sub wave.

Then, along with the above, came the cheating. Players with money and access to machine shops would have custom wheels made that were superior to off the rack rims because they were trued and balanced. Hollowed out and cross drilled, they provided a reservoir for tire treatment for the entire race. Pretty soon the "fun factor" was gone, the casual racer, the guy who kept the track open, was gone and the tracks closed.

I may be wrong but I bet there were some new or potentially new players that saw these threads, said screw it, and never came back. I'm glad that I found this site after I started playing.

What is bad is that this game is being designed exclusively around competition. The designers are watching competitions, and instead of designing for entertainment value, they are designing for sport-worthiness. And, like your slotcar analogy, the losers are the casual players who joined this game because it is Star Wars.

10 hours ago, TheColossal said:

We've lost several people from our local group because they "don't like the direction this game is going". The feeling seems to be shared across the Xwing community.

I've only been around for a few waves so can someone tell me what the 'right direction' is? Or even describe the 'peak' of Xwing, before we went down the wrong path?

Starfighter battles were fun when you had to be pointed at your target, and the Planning phase was where you made your most significant choices. Turrets and high Pilot Skill arc dodgers made it weird, shifting the most significant decisions into the Activation phase, and to squad-building.

1 hour ago, Stoneface said:

I sort of agree with you. People wise. Without competitions though, there would not be all this talk of meta builds. You wouldn't have all the suggestions "to fix" whatever or "nerf" whatever. The OP lists that are considered "Meta Lists" would quickly fade from play, mostly from the meta player not being able to find opponents. Much like I dropped 4 x Y-Wing TLTs after four games: it became boring.

But...I'm not sure they'd actually fade. Even without competitions, you still have people who like tinkering with things until they've put together the best list possible. And they'll share it with like minded individuals and it can grow from there. Likewise, some people might legitimately like how a meta list plays, so will carry on playing it or keeping it as a go-to list for when they go play. I'd even bet there is someone out there that enjoys flying quad Y-wing TLTs (not that I understand why).

11 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

The Trench Run is one of my favorite scenarios . . .

Que jokes about hitting the exhaust port...

35 minutes ago, SabineKey said:

But...I'm not sure they'd actually fade. Even without competitions, you still have people who like tinkering with things until they've put together the best list possible. And they'll share it with like minded individuals and it can grow from there. Likewise, some people might legitimately like how a meta list plays, so will carry on playing it or keeping it as a go-to list for when they go play. I'd even bet there is someone out there that enjoys flying quad Y-wing TLTs (not that I understand why).

I didn't mean to give the impression that the meta lists would disappear. Its just that you wouldn't see everybody and his brother playing them constantly. With only casual games there's no need to fly the same build for weeks or months prepping for a regional. Your opponents would either tire of facing it or come up with a hard counter for that specific OP build. It would get filed away and replaced with another strong build. And the cycle continues. You wouldn't hear all the complaints of OP abilities, rebel regen, ban Miranda, etc..

16 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

I didn't mean to give the impression that the meta lists would disappear. Its just that you wouldn't see everybody and his brother playing them constantly. With only casual games there's no need to fly the same build for weeks or months prepping for a regional. Your opponents would either tire of facing it or come up with a hard counter for that specific OP build. It would get filed away and replaced with another strong build. And the cycle continues. You wouldn't hear all the complaints of OP abilities, rebel regen, ban Miranda, etc..

I'm not so sure. Even without a structured and supported competition, it's still a competitive game where there are clearly better choices than others. There is always going to be that guy who complains that his slapped together triple X-Wing lost to a list that was better thought out and constructed. Always gonna be a-holes who just gotta win. Always gonna be trolls. And even without official prize support, someone is gonna want to play for something.

I'll admit, I don't have a terribly high regard for humanity in general. But it seems to me (especially after hanging around this forum), people will find things to complain about. Maybe not the same things, but it'll still happen.

37 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

I didn't mean to give the impression that the meta lists would disappear. Its just that you wouldn't see everybody and his brother playing them constantly. With only casual games there's no need to fly the same build for weeks or months prepping for a regional. Your opponents would either tire of facing it or come up with a hard counter for that specific OP build. It would get filed away and replaced with another strong build. And the cycle continues. You wouldn't hear all the complaints of OP abilities, rebel regen, ban Miranda, etc..

Something always rises to the top. And whatever is at the top is complained about. I have been playing these types of games since 95. It never changes.

1 hour ago, Sithborg said:

Something always rises to the top. And whatever is at the top is complained about. I have been playing these types of games since 95. It never changes.

War. War never changes.

13 hours ago, Franch said:

On our latest episode of SoT, we did, in fact, talk about NPE'S, but we did not talk about all the different lists and archetypes that make the game/player experience an NPE. Instead, we break it down into the psychological aspect of how is something an NPE.

If new a player really enjoys the idea of combo-wing as opposed to a veteran player who is used to playing with minimal upgrades with all the flying being in the dials, who has right to say that combo-wing, in itself, is an NPE?

If someone enjoys a particular aspect of x wing, whether it is, heavy jousting (FSR 2.0), arc dodgers, fat turrets, or TLT spam, or the tactical side of it in manuevering and dials, then they might not see it as an NPE. What is enjoyable to one person may not be enjoyable for another, and that goes for all games. The point being, we all have our experiences and we bring those experiences with us into each wave and have a certain expectation of how our experience will pan out for the future wave (right now, it's wave 11 of course). You have to change that expectation coming in and being willing to do so.

Indeed. Negative Play Experience is a phrase that's thrown around a lot by people, and each of them tends to assign different meanings to it.

For some players, it tends to be a synonym for a conversation like:

"I don't know how to beat this squad"

"well, take XYZ"

"I don't want to"

Alternatively some variation on the phrase

"There was literally nothing I could do"

Which is invariably not true - there might be very little you could do effectively but you could have done something (I'm sure in some specific cases there is a combination of stress and ion effects that might mean you could do nothing, but since people don't complain about those much I'm not sure they really come up...

Ultimately, a Negative Play Experience, is an experience that wasn't fun. I accept that losing is, to a lot of competitive players, not fun, but (hopefully) it didn't outdo the enjoyment from the game itself.

Quote

PS. I really really want to read Mathwing 3.0

Indeed. Anything that people have put effort into is worth reading; otherwise it's just being arrogantly dismissive.

You and I may not agree, in the end, with @MajorJuggler's conclusions - I'm sure (because I know how much time he's put into gathering and understanding the stats of the game over its life) that it will be balanced from his perspective, but whilst a game can be objectively balanced for XYZ conditions (e.g. these two ships have a 50/50 chance of winning in a head-on pass) whether those conditions feel like a fun and fair game is a much more subjective one.

Still, as noted, if there is a moderately thriving community, and reasonably regular monitored events, then as long as points costs are dynamic you have a reasonably adaptive organism, which should rapidly settle into an acceptable level of balance if it's not entirely correct on release, and as long as it's not less balanced than 'normal' X-wing, it's definitely worth a try.

Thank you for your efforts, and I look forward to reading the results.

Just because a game is community-developed, does not make it bad - Battlefleet Gothic and Blood Bowl both did well - the former to the point that when Battlefleet Gothic: Leviathan (an official, licensed computer game version of the tabletop) was produced, it included classes of ship from the 'unofficial' supplements that had become so 'normal' people would have been surprised they'd been missed out. Magic The Gathering Commander is another good example.

Quote

Magic is a game of rotating sets, settings, and characters and doesn't have to maintain an environment where all the beloved things from a huge IP are on par

I honestly think this is a big part of it; maintaining a balance within a restricted set whilst giving every card/unit a distinct 'role' is easy.

Maintaining a balance across everything that's ever been released is not easy, but is doable

Maintaining a balance across everything that's ever been released and giving every card/unit a distinct 'role' is quite hard without falling back on things that feel increasingly gimmicky.