9 minutes ago, Erion_Fett said:

Harpoons: No no no no. The condition is the flavour, the special thing of the Harpoons, in terms of both fluff and mechanics. It just turn to be a redundant mechanic and that is a thing that FFG is trying to avoid (partially) Down the damage to 3 Reds and make the Target Lock to be discarded. To throw a lot of dices without additional effects, without discarding Target Lock and with a low cost, we already have Cruise Missiles.

I agree 100%. You can't take the condition away - that is what makes them Harpoons. Keeping the TL is the bonkers thing.

1 minute ago, Favoritism Flight Games said:

I have my moments.

^My Spirit Animal

You beat me to it.

8 minutes ago, Boba Rick said:

I agree 100%. You can't take the condition away - that is what makes them Harpoons. Keeping the TL is the bonkers thing.

You beat me to it.

Fair enough. My problem with taking the TL away is that makes them basically inferior to Conc Missiles, and they weren't terribly used before anyways. If you take the TL away, then they just go to the back of the binder. I know the condition is flavorful, but it create complexity creep and I feel this game needs 4 die, keep your TL, Range 2-3, Missiles and Torpedoes (should be the baseline for any ordnance). This makes them useful, but well costed. Regardless, if FFG addresses Harpoons, it'll be interesting to see if they can find a way to make them still useful.

• TLT: Unlikely
  • It's a lot more likely than in the past due to Ghost/Fenn
  • But it's been problematic since it was released and we've seen Miranda dominate with it for a while, all signs point to them thinking this card is OK
• Harpoons: Virtually Nil
  • They're being overshadowed by other issues and we've seen a fair amount of effective counterplay around them
• Bomblet Generator: Virtually Nil
  • It's actually not really all that great without Sabine
  • It's inconsistent damage (absent Sabine), other reveal bomb types are guaranteed and their secondary effects are often more important than their straight damage
  • Having said that the virtual lack of a meaningful decision on whether to use them is something they've explicitly called out when making other changes
• Sabine: Unlikely
  • Like TLT she's been around for long enough, and again problematic for that entire time, that I don't see much hope for them ever changing her
  • But she's the root of most problems related to bombs so maybe
• Fenn Rau: Virtually Nil
  • Until he starts showing up in other lists and dominating there as well thus marking him specifically as a problem then he's likely to remain the same
• Large Base Boost: Virtually Nil
  • Been a problem forever, likely to remain a problem forever
  • But they did change large base barrel roll so there's a sliver of hope
• PS 10+: Nope, not going to happen
  • Capping to PS 9 just means lists with 4+ point bids, it doesn't solve the problem it just shifts it from PS to initiative as we see with Thweek lists
  • VI is the actual problem and it will be stapled on PS 7 pilots, again just shifting the problem
• Miranda: Unlikely
  • Once again, been problematic for forever, no reason to expect them to reverse course now
• Ghost/Phantom: Maybe
  • It's visible and at the core of the hot button issue right now
  • It has a narrow scope in terms of what ships it effects
  • It completely ignores other glaringly obvious problems
  • Overall this seems the most likely given past changes
• Outside primary range bonuses: Nope, not going to happen
  • It just effects too many ships
• Secondary weapon range bonus: Nope, not going to happen
  • Granting the R1 bonus makes several weapons very unbalanced, like super broken, autoblaster, snapshot, and mauler all come to mind
  • Granting the R3 bonus doesn't make sense for ordnance as that's why the rule exists in the first place and is unlikely to happen for cannons since they don't need the nerf
  • Literally the only turret this applies to is TLT so if it's being done for that reason then why not use of of the 10 other possible TLT nerfs that don't hurt non OP cards

7 minutes ago, Makaze said:

• Large Base Boost: Virtually Nil
  • Been a problem forever, likely to remain a problem forever
  • But they did change large base barrel roll so there's a sliver of hope

I'd love to see this text added to Engine upgrade: "The squad points of this card is increased by 2 if equipped to a large base ship."

Would that be enough to fix it? If I were to have my magic wand, I would change the cost of the card to 3/6. 3 if small base. 6 is large base. I think that would be fair.

1 hour ago, Vineheart01 said:

Somehow i doubt at this point they'll finally give in and nerf it.

Some said the same thing about Biggs.

4 minutes ago, SirCormac said:

I'd love to see this text added to Engine upgrade: "The squad points of this card is increased by 2 if equipped to a large base ship."

Would that be enough to fix it? If I were to have my magic wand, I would change the cost of the card to 3/6. 3 if small base. 6 is large base. I think that would be fair.

I wouldn't hate it, it's step in the right direction, but there are two problems. The first is that they seem weirdly adamant about never changing card cost for any reason ever, even when it would be the most expedient and efficient thing to do. The second is that I'm not sure it's enough. Large base boost is so good that even at 6 points there are times, like the PS11 coordinate in Ghost/Fenn, that it's still too good. To me the real solution is to change the movement profile on large base boosts as they did with barrel roll. Whether that's limiting them to straight boosts only or some of the other more complex suggestions that have been floated around the forums.

2 minutes ago, Makaze said:

I wouldn't hate it, it's step in the right direction, but there are two problems. The first is that they seem weirdly adamant about never changing card cost for any reason ever, even when it would be the most expedient and efficient thing to do. The second is that I'm not sure it's enough. Large base boost is so good that even at 6 points there are times, like the PS11 coordinate in Ghost/Fenn, that it's still too good. To me the real solution is to change the movement profile on large base boosts as they did with barrel roll. Whether that's limiting them to straight boosts only or some of the other more complex suggestions that have been floated around the forums.

One suggestion I saw was to replace the bank boosts with 2-banks that go from the rear pegs. So you put a 1-forward in the back pegs, then take the ship away, then place a two-bank in the direction you want to boost, then lay the ship at the end as normal. This keeps the same general idea but lessens the distance the boost covers. The way you could fix the forward boost, you could place a 4-forward flush with the side of the ship, and slide it all the way forward. This lessens the distance of the boost. These would be a nice rules change.

Harpoons- They're not getting nerfed. While the condition makes them cumbersome, broadly speaking, they're working as intended and driving the meta as a whole in a positive direction.

TLTs- Currently they're only really a problem with specific other things (Ghost title, Miranda) and in other instances they're merely useful. I know people are going to disagree, but I don't think the meta is worse off for the existence of TLTs in their current form and the problem ships are going to continue to be problems even if the TLT disappears.

Miranda- Eventually she'll get nuked from orbit. She has bombs, missiles, torpedoes, a turret and a crew. That is way to much to constantly balance around this one pilot. The question is "When does FFG get tired of her ****?" Maybe the Nymirandapocalypse was enough to convince them, we'll see. Most likely nerf will be to switch her pilot ability to only primary weapon.

Fenn Rau- Working as intended...what he is. Unless something really ridiculous happens, he probably stays as is.

Engine Upgrade- There's a good reason why Vectored Thrusters is small-based only. I'm not sure if they'll ever nerf it, but a lot of what we've seen is just symptomatic of how powerful this upgrade is on a large base and this isn't the first time it's become a problem.

The VCX- What do you even Nerf on this thing? It's not any one thing that makes it dumb, it's a composite problem born out of accretion and this is pretty apparent by how much variety we're seeing in the Ghost/Fenn lists. we've seen a good bit of variation in crews, systems and even pilots. The only consistent part of the winning builds is the TLT and the Engine upgrade...and honestly the latter is the bigger problem because it removes the principal counterplay of the TLT i.e. the doughnut hole.

PS nerfing- nope. If you cap at PS 9, it just makes 9 less relevant as PS 7 can now hit max PS with VI. It makes being an awesome pilot even less relevant than now.

My vote is Engine Upgrade. It has been a problem, is a problem, will continue to be a problem. It's the past, present and future tense of problems. Make it 2pts and Small Ship only. Miranda will get nuked at some point. She's on her third strike. I'm not 100% sure it will be now just because of how much of a background element she's become with all the Fenn/Ghosts running around.

I wonder if adding "You may not perform this action as a free action" popped on the end of Engine Upgrade would be enough? It would he a precise, targeted nerf to Fenn/Ghost builds (no PS11 boosting Ghosts) and ever so slightly tone down large base boost. Not a lot, of course - would mostly hurt PtL Dash (no barrel roll then boost, would have to be the other way around), RAClo (no Kylo and boost in the same turn unless there's a combo I'm not considering?). So no great losses there - both PtL Dash and PtL RAC are pretty rare, and neither are exactly hurting right now anyway.

For bomblet, what if they made it 1 die only? Considering it's only a point more than seismic for unlimited use, plus ability to crit, it would still be decent. Plus would encourage more bomb choices when building a list.

Or if that's too extreme, make it only hits count like the old version of proximity mines.

Or another version, if it hits, you take one 1 damage. No double damage or crit damage.

For VCX, make the Phantom's Attack Shuttle title card require the shuttle to be equipped with a turret for the end of round shots.

Harpoon Missles. Have them IMMEDIATELY change all critital results to hit results, so harpoons can't natively trigger other harpoons.

For TLT, only allow the second shot if the first shot hits. Keeps the danger vs low agility ships, lessens the effect on higher agility ships. Or Dice can only be modified by a focus token (like unguided rockets).

Make Miranda's ability only work with her primary weapon.

One suggestion for Large-base Boost that would be easy-ish to use whilst playing, but how about the boost is limited to being a 1 straight unless the ship did a green manoeuvre that turn? It would mean they could only change direction if moving at 'safe' speed, which would be somewhat thematic for a large ship.

4 hours ago, Kieransi said:

I was kinda just being the devil's advocate, so to speak. Fluff has gone out the window anyway, what with Scurrgs that are half the size of YT-2400s, Asaaj Ventress killing Kylo Ren, and Rey receiving Jedi training from Kanan.

The size for Scurrgs is correct. People are confusing the width vs length measurements.

8 hours ago, Kieransi said:

No errata this time. Just three straight-up rules changes.

1. Cannons and turrets can give the attackers and defenders range bonuses.

2. Attackers can't ever add range bonuses outside their primary arc

3. No ship may increase their Pilot Skill above 9. They may still treat their Pilot Skill as 12 due to card effects (Roark, for example), but they may not increase their PS to 10 or 11 with VI or Adaptability.

He said predictions, not wishlist.
You honestly predict those three changes? ;-)

8 hours ago, Makaze said:

PS 10+: Nope, not going to happen

• Capping to PS 9 just means lists with 4+ point bids, it doesn't solve the problem it just shifts it from PS to initiative as we see with Thweek lists
• VI is the actual problem and it will be stapled on PS 7 pilots, again just shifting the problem

I’d actually be fine with this, because then you’d see much greater variety of pilots competing for the top spot, rather than just Vader, Poe, and Fenn Rau.

#BringSoontirBack

4 hours ago, LoTech said:

For VCX, make the Phantom's Attack Shuttle title card require the shuttle to be equipped with a turret for the end of round shots.

Or even better, change it so that the Ghost can make an additional shot using a turret weapon equipped to the phantom . That way, if you want to sling around 4x TLT shots you are required to pay extra for it. That seems more thematic anyway.

I think most of this is great ideas, (albeit some unnecessary,) the only thing I really don't like is the capping PS at 9. It is obviously (originally) intended to go all the way up to 11, and the bidding wars that would ensue if it could not would be Insane. Where at one point, taking just Soontir fel was considered crazy, with this change, it could become normal - he outbids the superior Kylo Ren by about 10 points, thus will move last and be out of arc. (not even considering the VI Whisper etc things that would be going on). Sure, there isn't only bad in this idea, it's quite good as nerf ideas go, bringing back the role of the generic, while encouraging tense 1 v all scenarios in tournaments, but I don't think the full implications of what this would do to the game are realised by the progenitors of this idea. instead of fixing a few small (ok, maybe not that small) difficulties in the current meta, it would create an utterly different landscape for the game, which, undoubtedly would be a lot less balanced than now.

(Also, completely separate thought: these nerfs are mostly based around the current meta, rather than underlying problems. Take the palp nerf - he wasn't showing up as an OP thing at the time, it was just that he was the only (imperial) thing)

9 hours ago, AT Leader said:

I can accept these as making the game better. I always assumed Miranda didn't have an EPT for the same reason that we don't like it on Scurrg. Turn's out she just not 'elite' enough.

Miranda (and Redline and Deathrain) didn't have EPTs because the upgrade bar wasn't big enough to include them.

‘Outmanoeuvre’ should become a standard rule.

1 hour ago, Infinite_Maelstrom said:

I think most of this is great ideas, (albeit some unnecessary,) the only thing I really don't like is the capping PS at 9. It is obviously (originally) intended to go all the way up to 11, and the bidding wars that would ensue if it could not would be Insane. Where at one point, taking just Soontir fel was considered crazy, with this change, it could become normal - he outbids the superior Kylo Ren by about 10 points, thus will move last and be out of arc. (not even considering the VI Whisper etc things that would be going on). Sure, there isn't only bad in this idea, it's quite good as nerf ideas go, bringing back the role of the generic, while encouraging tense 1 v all scenarios in tournaments, but I don't think the full implications of what this would do to the game are realised by the progenitors of this idea. instead of fixing a few small (ok, maybe not that small) difficulties in the current meta, it would create an utterly different landscape for the game, which, undoubtedly would be a lot less balanced than now.

(Also, completely separate thought: these nerfs are mostly based around the current meta, rather than underlying problems. Take the palp nerf - he wasn't showing up as an OP thing at the time, it was just that he was the only (imperial) thing)

Thing is, there are plenty of counters to Soontir these days, where there just weren't previously. A wide range of autodamage options exist, as well as tanks that he can just never kill that are worth more points.

Great, you can arc dodge Poe, but you can't frigging kill him. Great, you can roll all evades, but Vader/Gunner still murders you. Great, you can arc dodge, but a conner net can still be dropped on your head before you move. Great, you can dodge anything I can throw at you, but your buddy can't, I throw a Harpoon at him, you get splash damage. Ketsu blocks you then tractors you off and shoots you. Etc etc etc. There are so many more answers to Soontir today than there were way back when.

I don't like capping PS at 9 per se. I like taking VI and adaptability away from unique pilots and making them both generic only. I want to see a game where PS9 pilots who can't live without PTL aren't just completely excluded from the meta, andd PS9 pilots who CAN, aren't so heavily drawn to VI that they will pass up 3 or 4 point EPTs that provide WAY stronger benefits, because to take anything other than VI would get them alpha-ed off the board by the PS11 guys who did take it.

I want PS9s to be interesting, not to be PS11s which have no EPT.

11 hours ago, Kieransi said:

3. No ship may increase their Pilot Skill above 9. They may still treat their Pilot Skill as 12 due to card effects (Roark, for example), but they may not increase their PS to 10 or 11 with VI or Adaptability.

Ridiculous idea. Welcome to the TIE Phantom Miniatures Game!

This is the problem I have with those threads. Nerf herders just want to nerf everything that is popular, without giving second thought is it balanced or not.
As for myself I am very pleased with current game state - X-Wing is in healthy place, our local base of players grow rapidly, I would even say that game is at its best currently; only thing I hope for is a small change for Scum allowing Jumpmaster equipped with Punishing One title to take astromech and ordnance - otherwise we have expansion with ship that can't use cards it comes up with.

9 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

Harpoons- They're not getting nerfed. While the condition makes them cumbersome, broadly speaking, they're working as intended and driving the meta as a whole in a positive direction.

TLTs- Currently they're only really a problem with specific other things (Ghost title, Miranda) and in other instances they're merely useful. I know people are going to disagree, but I don't think the meta is worse off for the existence of TLTs in their current form and the problem ships are going to continue to be problems even if the TLT disappears.

Ghosts with two Syn-turret shots can be just as terrifying as the TLT variant. So, yeah I kind of agree, but TLT feels bad regardless because of the nature of up to 8x3 attack dice rolls per turn against you. It lacks this "pew, saved by the dice" feeling, so from a game design perspective it would be still a good idea to make them unique AND change the title of the ghost into something which allows to fire an equipped turret on the phantom, instead of multiplying the ghosts turret via the title.
Though I would rate the chances for this approach actually making it rather low too. Not impossible, but low.

For miranda: Having her ability be either primary only or in arc only would both be enough, the issue with her is indeed her "bumb" and regen ability mainly and less so her ability to use a TLT. I think limiting to in arc would be the most likely approach for FFG to adjust her.

@Embir82 I certainly would welcome to see more Whisper again on the tables, even when I think the idea to limit pilot skill to PS9 is ridiculous in context that a lot of pilots seem to be based around the idea of being able to reach 10 with Vi (like Wes) … I do believe FFG intentionally allowed Nym to get to PS10 as well. The whole ship does not look like it could accidently drop those bombs at PS10 either, quite to opposite actually. What they most likely did overlook was how easy it is to bump into other ships intentionally with advanced sensors and then drop bomblets with genius.

12 hours ago, Danath said:

I'd love a R1 4 dice mangler canon. Yes please!

That’s crazy.

I predict that there won't be another FAQ for quite some time - FFG seem content with the state of the game and it feels unlikely they will deem it necessary to step in again after the Trajectory Simulator/Genius debacle.

That said, I think the game is deeply, fundamentally flawed right now, and further FAQ changes are going to achieve little more than paper over the cracks in a damaged system. We are beyond the point where fixing a few problem cards or interactions is going to be enough, given the level of power creep that has led to monstrosities like the entire Scurrg expansion, Harpoons, or the current crop of vicious VCX builds. Seeing FFG repeatedly make the same sort of mistakes without learning from them does not make me hopeful.

In short, I predict no FAQ for a while, and when it does land it will only be a superficial change. The idea of X-Wing 2.0 long since went from a needless, GW-style iteration increase to a neccesity - the design ethos of the game needs a major rethink.

Great ideas all, nicely penned. My ignorant 2 cents:

1. Both VI and Adaptability, add clause: “to a maximum of PS 8.” Let’s allow elite pilots in cannon to be elite, Wedge, Vader, do I hear a yes?

2. Rebel Phantoms, only 1 type (I or II) allowed per squad, logic.

3. Miranda, add clause to her pilot ability on shield regeneration: “only when using your primary weapon. You may regenerate a maximum of 4 shields per game.” Logic.

4. Scrugg, remove EPT slot. Let’s all play fair oh Bombers.

5. TLT, add clause: “when equipped, your ship loses (bombs) and (missiles) from your upgrade bar.” Now its a choice.

6. R2D2, add clause, “you may only regenerate the number of shield equal to your original shield value, unless equipped on Luke Skywalker.” Logic and fan-boy fluff.

7. Reinforce, add clause, “when you assign a Reinforce token to a ship, also assign that ship a Weapons Disabled token.”

I get that people don't like harpoons- They blow your XXYY list out of the water. However, everyone calling for a nerf of them without also adding an aserisk next to their statement saying (If Wookiee reinforce and other defensive stacking is hammered down as well)- Lists like 3BQD are the only real thing from stopping the meta from being flooded with Auzitucks, Asajj, and the like.