I think it'd suit a medium base quite nicely, to boot!

On 8/21/2017 at 10:36 AM, Wondergecko said:

. I wonder if maybe it's dual faction and the Imperial loadouts and Scum loadouts are different, so the ship fills a different role in each fleet. Or, it's just Imperial.

There's another niche. Having lost the Firespray, the imps need a new dual-faction ship.

It also would fill the role of a 3/1/(lots of hitpoints) statline generalist Fighter along the lines of the B-Wing, Scurrg, or Kimogila, which the Empire currently has none of. Since everyone gets TIE Fighters these days it seems, it would only be fair for the Empire to get a nice heavy fighter that doesn't have to take ordnance, pay for extra agility, or fill a support role.

The thing is this isnt a Heavy fighter though, it is specifically designed to be a heavy bomber // assault platform. Thats why the Empire has the Tie Defender, it should be the Empires nice, heavy fighter, and if it ISNT, that means FFG needs to go back and redefine its stats properly.

I'd much rather see this before the TIE Hunter or Avenger, but I don't doubt it will be a while before it ever shows up (if it does).

I'm pretty sure the concept behind the hunter was just "hey, the Interceptor is really cool, and X-Wings are cool, let's mix them together"! The end result looks like a TIE cockpit stuck to some scissors, with ridiculously thing struts holding it together.

The Avenger isn't too bad tbh, especially now that the Silencer is in another faction (since the silencer essentially is the avenger in many ways). The design space for the avenger is very crowded, though - there's not much room between the TIE/x1, TIE/v1 and defender, which is where it would sit. Even worse, it will undoubtedly be better than the x1, making Vader sad just like the v1 did.

The Blastboat is kinda ugly, but it has a unique profile and would indeed fill a unique role.

On 8/5/2018 at 11:54 PM, Zeoinx said:

The thing is this isnt a Heavy fighter though, it is specifically designed to be a heavy bomber // assault platform. Thats why the Empire has the Tie Defender, it should be the Empires nice, heavy fighter, and if it ISNT, that means FFG needs to go back and redefine its stats properly.

Kiiiiiiind of true, but it's a bit more nuanced. It's a patrol craft/picket ship, so its role (whether or not this can be reflected in-game) is that of a small independent craft, comparable to a Coast Guard cutter. Since space warfare borrows elements from both air forces and naval forces in its inspiration, I think it's fair to say that the blastboat, while only a bit above fighter sized, fills a more quintessentially naval niche.

And a coat guard cutter isnt exactly fast, fast for it's size maybe, but lets compare it to the "fighter class" of the navy, PT Boats, Fast Assault Craft like

The Blastboat is there to deliver its payload, and get out, it might not do it fast, but thats what the shields and armor are for, even the Name is well enough of its role as a larger slower vessel "Blast Boat" instead of "Star Fighter" I dont know why everyone thinks just cause it flys in space everything needs to act like a A-Wing or Tie Intercepter.

1 hour ago, Zeoinx said:

And a coat guard cutter isnt exactly fast, fast for it's size maybe, but lets compare it to the "fighter class" of the navy, PT Boats, Fast Assault Craft like

The Blastboat is there to deliver its payload, and get out, it might not do it fast, but thats what the shields and armor are for, even the Name is well enough of its role as a larger slower vessel "Blast Boat" instead of "Star Fighter" I dont know why everyone thinks just cause it flys in space everything needs to act like a A-Wing or Tie Intercepter.

Agreed on that. I actually really wanted it to have energy like an epic ship, given that it was supposed to have a massively powerful reactor.

I think rebels, imps, and scum won't be getting many new ships for awhile to let the other 4 factions catch up. With the exception of the occasional canon ship that comes out. So the heavy tie will likely come out at some point, but legends ships might never be touched again.

23 minutes ago, markcsoul said:

I think rebels, imps, and scum won't be getting many new ships for awhile to let the other 4 factions catch up. With the exception of the occasional canon ship that comes out. So the heavy tie will likely come out at some point, but legends ships might never be touched again.

The other 4 Factions? WHAT, How is it 4 factions now...last i knew, clone wars only had 2....

45 minutes ago, Zeoinx said:

The other 4 Factions? WHAT, How is it 4 factions now...last i knew, clone wars only had 2....

First Order and Resistance are woefully underserved.

Also, with the Resistance cartoon coming out, we are going to see more ST ships come along than OT. The only hope the Empire has is the Heavy TIE, and I have no idea about Rebels.

Honestly, after a few FO and Resistance ships, FFG is really going to have to do about 4 Waves of Prequel only just to make those factions viable for play.

Empire and Rebellion are back-burner for a loooooooong time. I bet we are lucky to get a ship a year for the "old" factions.

In truth, our best hope is ships like the Blastboat that could be multi-faction.

I feel that a few of the Clone War ships will be multi faction quite easily.

Arc-170 already is prob going to be Rebel // Republic, the V-Wing can easily go Empire Republic, N1, again, Rebel Republic, the ship that Kenobi steals from the General G. can easily go into the Empire's fleet or even scum as a heavy fighter.

CIS ships, because they ARE droid based are hard to move into a actual fleet outside of CIS, that said, with droid ships coming out, we might be able to see new ship for Empire at least with a Tie Droid ship.

Rebellion might be a bit challenging to add on to, but then again, most the Republic Fleet of fighters can be incorperated in some way as generics for the rebel at least.

On 8/24/2017 at 10:13 AM, Kelvan said:

I can't wait 3 years from now for this to come out.

Mara Jade Pilot!

I'd wonder what her PS would be... 7 or 8?

On 8/24/2017 at 9:19 PM, SabineKey said:

Imps could use a big base ship like the Lancer. I think the Blastboat could fill that kind of slot.

That's one of the ships i am surprised didn't make it into the Epic lot, along with the Reb transport and the Corellian corvette.

As for how i'd see the skipray.

3 attack, 1 agility, 5 hull, 4 shields.

PS3 base pilot. 1 missile OR torp upgrade, 1 systems upgrade, 1 crew upgrade

PS 5 pilot, add 1 cannon and 1 tech upgrade, and an elite pilot upgrade

PS 7 pilot, add 1 ship mod upgrade

PS 8 pilot, add a 2nd crew option.

3 minutes ago, LTuser said:

I'd wonder what her PS would be... 7 or 8?

That's one of the ships i am surprised didn't make it into the Epic lot, along with the Reb transport and the Corellian corvette.

As for how i'd see the skipray.

3 attack, 1 agility, 5 hull, 4 shields.

PS3 base pilot. 1 missile OR torp upgrade, 1 systems upgrade, 1 crew upgrade

PS 5 pilot, add 1 cannon and 1 tech upgrade, and an elite pilot upgrade

PS 7 pilot, add 1 ship mod upgrade

PS 8 pilot, add a 2nd crew option.

I meant the Shadow Caster (being a Lancer-Class Pursuit Craft).

But yeah, the Lancer-Class Frigate could have made a good epic addition. Not the most exciting of designs, but serviceable.

Could you imagine how large something like a Carrack, or Lonar strike cruiser would be?

This thread doesn't yet have this image in its full glory, so I'm reposting it. One day, I hope the skipray blastboat will join the ranks of scum's medium-based ships alongside the scuurg, kimogila, firespray, g1-a, aggressor and soon the razorcrest.

Source:

(Ben was the artist for the Star Wing cards, among many others)

We need to stop with this blastboat nonsense and look at the real candidate for the imperial gunship niche:

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Got turrets, got chin guns, got a sweet cockpit. Might be a bit edgy but this would make for a gorgeous miniature and would look fantastic next to a lambda and a star wing

Though I'll admit...

I wouldn't mind seeing this on a pilot card

Old card I did 2 years ago.

I can't find the original concept art, though.

46 minutes ago, Prosk_019 said:

We need to stop with this blastboat nonsense and look at the real candidate for the imperial gunship niche:

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Got turrets, got chin guns, got a sweet cockpit. Might be a bit edgy but this would make for a gorgeous miniature and would look fantastic next to a lambda and a star wing

Though I'll admit...

I wouldn't mind seeing this on a pilot card

Why not both? : D

1 hour ago, Prosk_019 said:

We need to stop with this blastboat nonsense and look at the real candidate for the imperial gunship niche:

Go start your own thread! I like that whacky cockpit but I can live without that lambda-looking gunship in X-Wing. The skipray blastboat is an entirely different beast. The blastboat was also the ship being flown when the term "koiogran turn" was first described (in one of the Zahn novels as Luke and Mara Jade were in combat).

13 hours ago, Wondergecko said:

Why not both? : D

Intriguing concept...

13 hours ago, gadwag said:

Go start your own thread! I like that whacky cockpit but I can live without that lambda-looking gunship in X-Wing. The skipray blastboat is an entirely different beast. The blastboat was also the ship being flown when the term "koiogran turn" was first described (in one of the Zahn novels as Luke and Mara Jade were in combat).

Maybe I will (for a homebrew most likely). But yeah the empire could use some variety, and who knows? FFG might be able to pull a sleek miniature outta that thing.

In fairness, I doubt I'd be as big a fan of the star wing if it hadn't made it to the game and been given such an overhaul to the looks, both in the pilot art (oh my god the pilot art) and the model (why can't you look more like the pilot art)

22 hours ago, Prosk_019 said:

We need to stop with this blastboat nonsense and look at the real candidate for the imperial gunship niche:

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Got turrets, got chin guns, got a sweet cockpit. Might be a bit edgy but this would make for a gorgeous miniature and would look fantastic next to a lambda and a star wing

I'm just going to say from personal experience, these things belong on huge bases at least. They're absolute beasts. Never served on one, but I remember how it was to fly next to them. No way The Ghost is longer.